If you’ve been a follower of my posts since my time at Girls Don’t Game, then you probably know by now that rhythm and music games hold a very special place in my heart. With that said, I’ve been a fan of Guitar Hero since I was following the success of Guitar Freaks in Japan. I’d always wished we could have something similar Stateside. And one magical day, I got my wish: Guitar Hero was born.

Mixing some classic rock favorites with more modern hits, Guitar Hero opened up a whole new world of rhythm gaming to American audiences who may have never touched this kind of game before. However, since its inception and the torch passed to Activision, the franchise has gone just a bit downhill. What do I think is wrong with the whole thing, and why? Read on and find out.

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We’ve all been there. We’ve all sat in the lobby listening to some wannabe rapper spouting lines about popping caps in people’s (fill in the blank), or that kid who isn’t even old enough to be in the game to start with. And some of us have even endured hounding from members of the opposite sex hoping to get some pictures or voice chat for their trouble.

Some of them aren’t even interested in getting much gaming done at all. They just want to complain or mess things up for others.

If you haven’t seen them, now you will. They’ve been conveniently collected in one place. For your entertainment: the top ten most annoying online gamers.

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I bought Saints Row and I found it to be as entertaining as Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas or Vice City. I also have gotten many hours of enjoyment out of Sega Superstars Tennis. Taking along Pokemon Mystery Dungeon: Red Rescue Team on predictably long and boring outings has proved to be quite fulfilling.

Contrary to popular belief, games that do not receive amazing (or even mediocre) reviews can be enjoyable and fun. True, buying them is not going to push developers to strive for greatness, but playing them does not make one less of a gamer.

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Plot advancement, receiving a new weapon, even unlocking skimpy female costumes… whatever it is, when we play a video game, we need an objective. Without anything to look forward to, a game simply becomes an exercise in futility. And what better way to push us forward toward objectives than to threaten us with the hulking beast that spells out our virtual doom, the ominous Game Over? I don’t know about you, but I’m quivering in the corner over here.

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Looming over your head within the menacing dark clouds of marketing, the decision of which console to purchase taunts you. “Playstation 3!” the sky roars. “Xbox 360!” “Wiiiiiiii!” You look up, hoping maybe some light will shine through the gloomy amassment of advertisements and point you in the right direction. Instead, lightning strikes, singeing you as well as that money already burning a hole in your pocket. Well, at least that made your decision a little bit easier.

All right, all right, it’s a little morbid to believe that death is your only escape from the console wars that the gaming industry wages daily. It’s nothing new. There’s been competition in the market for video game consoles since we first picked up our controllers, and these current generation consoles have been out for years now. But every piece of gaming equipment is more expensive than ever, and I’m trying to look at prospective purchases a lot more cautiously than I used to. The most glaring reason to buy a system these days is simple: exclusives.

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Many gamers have their preferred method of getting their digital entertainment fix. Quite a few are blessed to have the means to be quite eclectic in their collections.

Myself? I just can’t do consoles.

Personally, I’d rather spend a good portion of my paycheck on a new, decked-out PC gaming and graphics design rig. At least I can multitask its usage into both entertainment as well as marketable products for my clients.

Fuck that $500 Xbox. And its extra controllers for more multiplayer fun. And the hard drive for downloadable content. And the downloadable content that costs extra. And the XBL fee.

It’s not paying me back.

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