Bytica

This week’s Rock Band DLC isn’t that exciting: it’s a Bonnaroo pack with Ben Harper, Coheed and Cambria, TV on the Radio, etc. Not bad, but hardly stop-the-presses stuff. No, that’s coming June 9th with the release of a mega Iron Maiden pack tied in with the upcoming “Flight 666″ documentary on VH1 (debuting June 6).  Here’s the track list:

Aces High (live)
2 Minutes to Midnight
The Trooper
Wasted Years
The Number of the Beast
Run To The Hills
Can I Play With Madness
The Clarivoyant
Powerslave
Fear of the Dark (live)
Hallowed Be Thy Name (live)
Iron Maiden (live)

For the most part, this is over-the-top AWESOME. It’s arguably better than an album release, because it cherry-picks great tracks from several albums instead of just one. And not only does it include 8 master studio tracks, it also gets rid of several bad Maiden covers we’ve had in previous games (Run to the Hills, the Trooper, Number of the Beast). It’s arguably the best pack we’ve seen for Rock Band to date.

But I do have one small gripe (or disappointment or concern or whatever you want to call it) with the pack: Live versions of “Aces High” and, in particular, “Hallowed Be Thy Name.”  I’ve long believed that HBTN could be an all-time classic Rock Band track, with fun, challenging parts across all four instruments. But if you look on YouTube or listen to Live After Death, you’ll notice that Bruce Dickinson has never been that great at singing the song live (and really, who wouldn’t?), and live tracks are always subject to some degree of wankery.  

Maybe this is all premature and the live version will be spot-on, and I hope that’s the case: posting a sloppy version of “Hallowed Be Thy Name” would be like releasing a live version of “Stairway to Heaven” with a different, subpar arrangement. It’s a metal classic, a song that I’ve listened to in my car and imagined what it would be like playing in Rock Band, and I hope this live track lives up to the song’s lineage.

It’s now been about a week since Valve rolled out the combo Sniper / Spy update for Team Fortress 2. Team balance is still off — you’ll still see teams where 50% or more are snipers and spies — but it’s certainly enough time to get a feel for the new stuff. 5 thoughts:

1)      The new Payload race map — “Pipeline” — is the best thing in the update. It’s nice to have the Payload mechanic without one team dedicated to offense or defense; instead, the game naturally ebbs and flows back and forth. The first stage is probably the weakest, but the middle stage is a marvelous example of simple and effective level design, and while the final stage (the hill) is more gimmicky, it’s a brand of all-out chaos not found anywhere else in TF2. Big thumbs up.

2)      The community Payload map — “Hoodoo” — is also a nice addition and probably underrated. All three stages have alternate routes to the end point that I don’t think teams have properly caught on to yet; many players don’t even seem to notice the huge arrow pointing to the shortcut on the left of stage 3. I think the map will get a lot of play as teams get a feel for the various choke points.

3)      It feels like Valve is on the way to abandoning Achievements as a failed experiment. Maybe it was, with all the Achievement servers popping up so players could get the related unlocks. But with players getting unlockables at random, and Spy and Sniper Achievements being so much easier to get, I’m sad to see the Achievement system marginalized, at least for the time being. Maybe Valve will bring it back at some point and put an emphasis on career achievements instead of gimmicky ones that don’t normally happen in the course of regular play.

4)      I’d expect a nerf to the Sniper crossbow soon. Every Sniper is using it and one-shot kills are way too easy to get.

5)      While Valve is seemingly sinking time into developing TF2 as a persistent game with loot and such, I hope they’re also developing a more robust stats system, both in-game and on Steam. The in-game scoreboard needs more data on who’s doing better: who’s got the best points-per-minute? Who’s moved the cart the furthest? Who does the most damage per life? Who’s the best sentry killer? The final scoreboard screen should have 10-20 awards for players to look over, instead of a measly 3 MVPs. And I’m shocked that Steam doesn’t have a stats page for each player with pages and pages of stats, whether it’s lifetime or the last two weeks, as well as rankings. Get on it, Valve!

A few weeks ago, I whined that Valve was prepping a Sniper update for Team Fortress 2, which I feared would lead to even more useless Snipers — who often hide in corners, never change classes and do little to actually accomplish objectives — flooding TF servers. But Valve, as always, has a trick up its sleeve: rolling out the Spy update at the same time.

Over at the official TF2 site, Valve is up to Day 4 unveiling bits of the update, which includes back armor for the Sniper (protecting from one backstab), a crossbow, and several Spy updates, including a feign death on hit and permanent invisibility while standing still. It’ll still be a week or two of Spies and Snipers running amok, but at least it won’t be just Snipers.

Oh, and I almost forgot the coolest part: a new Payload “race” map where teams push two carts side-by-side. SWEET.

I enjoy playing in Guitar Hero and Rock Band competitions. Not because I think I’ll win, especially when it’s some kind of nationwide tourney, although I do generally expect to win a few matches along the way. It’s rare you’re able to do something on a level that puts you in the top, say, 100 people on the planet, and so merely the act of competing against similar competition is something I really enjoy. Even in tourneys where I’ve gotten to the final four or two and lost, it’s been exciting and memorable.

But the World Cyber Games continues to give me the finger.

This week I was scheduled to play in a West qualifier tourney in Guitar Hero World Tour, and the fun started Monday when my scheduled opponent was a no-show. I sent him an XBL mail and he finally showed up completely confused, so we played our match and I beat him handily. But when I went to record the results, the WCG brackets had been shuffled, and it turned out I had a bye. My next match was scheduled for Tuesday night.

I make myself available Tuesday night, send my opponent an email, and he’s a no show. I wait out Wednesday, and still nothing. And then Thursday, and find *I’VE* been disqualified. Why? No idea. I immediately sent in a support mail asking what happened, but 12 hours later, not only has it gone unanswered, but the next match in the bracket has taken place, so it looks like I’m screwed. 

What this ultimately means is that I set aside my Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday nights to participate in this tourney, tried to chase down my opponents, and for my trouble, I was eliminated without playing a single match or getting any notification whatsoever. WTF indeed.

This, sadly, is EXACTLY what I’ve come to expect from the World Cyber Games. Its website is an impenetrable mess. Tourneys are disorganized and advancing through brackets is less about actually winning matches and just trying to survive the silly process of trying to set up matches.

So what can be done about it? Hard to say. It often seems that these various e-sports organizations are managed by volunteers and are complete chaos. It would be nice to see someone step up and get their act together, but the World Cyber Games still have a long way to go.

After enjoying the Jane’s Addiction “Nothing’s Shocking” pack this week (“Had a Dad” FTW!), Harmonix has a nice array of DLC lined up for next week:

Franz Ferdinand “Take Me Out”
Franz Ferdinand “Do You Want To”
Franz Ferdinand “Lucid Dreams”
Alien Ant Farm “Smooth Criminal”
The Allman Brothers Band “Blue Sky”
The Allman Brothers Band “Midnight Rider”
The Distillers “Drain the Blood”
Luscious Jackson “Naked Eye”
Prong “Idealistic Types”
Prong “The Banishment”

“Take Me Out” was a favorite from the first Guitar Hero, so it’s nice to see it return in band format. “Naked Eye” and “Smooth Criminal” should also be nice party favorites, so good job Harmonix.