Gaming: Guitar Hero II

As my PHP gig is winding to an end, with tons of notes and topics to write about, I've taken a few minutes here and there to unwind with the recent release of Guitar Hero II for the XBox 360. I'm not going to review it, since that has been done in about a million other game sites. So what I offer is an unbiased view of what is the current hot topic in gaming at the moment.

Guitar Hero is a fun game, bottom line. If you have a partner, its even more fun. I only have 2 real complaints.

1: Price, which is my biggest complaint. 80 something dollars for the guitar and game bundle, then another 50 bucks for an additional guitar.

2: No online play. But since this is a music game, and there would be too big of a latency issue I would think between onscreen timing, music, and network. But then again, the wizards in the gaming industry have pulled some rabits out of their hats before, so maybe network play is still in the pipeline.

A few things. If your a guitarist already (or former in my case), this can be a hinderance in the game as you tend to go with the rhythm of the music instead of the onscreen queues. But you adapt quickly.

Outside of those few things, this game, much like the Wii, is a badly needed breath of fresh air. Hopefully the gaming industry will clue in that first person shooters aren't nearly as exciting as they used to be and make more games like this.