VideogameVagabond.com

Like many folks, I like to go to stores like GameStop and trade in games I’m tired of in order to get credit toward new games. And for many years, GameStop has also dealt in and accepted DVDs and Blu-Ray DVDs.

That came to a halt this weekend as I brought in a couple copies of Mamma Mia! to get rid of, and was confronted by a raw recruit of an employee who looked at me blankly and said, “What are these for?”

“Trade ins,” I told him.

He turned to a more experienced co-worker. “Do we do trade-ins on movies?” he asked. His co-worker turned to me and told me they’d finally discontinued the movie trade-ins.

Why stores hire new people so close to the holidays rather than shipping them off to Las Vegas Nevada until after the Christmas rush is beyond me.

Call it a Karaoke Revolution ripoff, a crass money-machine or a very expensive karaoke machine, but Sony’s SingStar karaoke game series is nothing if not persistent. Made available for both the PS2 and PS3, SingStar takes music videos, pops the words on the screen and encourages gamers to sing along. There are both strengths and weaknesses to the series, and since they are as few in number as the number of diet pills in Oprah’s dressing room, let us concentrate on the strengths of SingStar Abba first.

First, a word about the microphones; they are hefty, sturdy and substantial. Considering my wife has pursued musical aspirations most of her life, I’m a karaoke junkie, and we’ve both sang in churches over the years as well, I’ve had ample opportunities to be around audio equipment and distinguish junk from items.

While I don’t know ultimately who made the SingStar microphones – perhaps Sony themselves – I can say they have a very similar weight, feel and sensitivity to a high-quality Shure mic. Considering the cost is lower than most Shure mics, that’s a complimentary comparison.

Yet there is a downside to the SingStar microphones: they are only compatible with SingStar games, and no other audio input devices work with SingStar. That means even if you laid out a cool $50 for a Sony Bluetooth headset, it’s useless when it comes to SingStar; if you already have mics from Karaoke Revolution, they will have new storage space buddies because KR mics don’t work with SingStar, and vice-versa. Oh well.

Mics aside, I also have to say that I was impressed with the vocal performance analysis technology underlying the SingStar system. Whenever I would sing intentionally tone-deaf to test the system, my score in the game suffered; the higher the skill level I played at, the worse my score became. So, good news: you can’t sing like a tone-deaf Black Angus steer and do well in SingStar. Unless you’re a tone-deaf Black Angus steer who was hoping to do well in the game, that is; then it’s probably not-so-great that you have to know how to sing to do well in the game.

Still, the system isn’t perfect. While you must stay in-tune to do well in the game, it doesn’t necessarily measure the quality of the in-tune note you’re holding. So, your voice could be ragged and breathy and you could still score decently in the game, as long as you hold the note in tune. Still some room to grow here.

Now let’s consider song variety; while all other SingStar releases thus far have included a mix of artists, SingStar Abba is one of the first releases to feature a library of work by the same artist. Abba was selected, quite likely, due to the well-timed Blu-Ray release of the cinematic adaptation of Mamma Mia!, the musical based on the song catalog of Abba. For a 1970s band best known for the hit Dancing Queen, Abba’s done pretty well of late garnering post-career attention.
I never knew before exploring SingStar Abba that the Swedish supergroup had even made 30 music videos for their songs, considering they were largely out of the spotlight by the advent of MTV and music videos. Yet this game includes 30 of Abba’s biggest hits and I’d be hard-pressed to even remember a single the group ever released that’s not included in this collection. It really is an ideal companion to the Mamma Mia! Blu-Ray.

That said, there are several drawbacks to SingStar Abba, and most of them have to do with the general SingStar system, rather than being peculiar to SingStar Abba, and the biggest drawback is the karaoke system itself. In most karaoke systems, the real artists’ vocals are removed to make way for the karaoke performer; at worst, one is offered a learning track where they can sing along with the real vocals, as well as a performance track with the lead vocals removed.

Not in the SingStar system; instead, the original artists vocals remain in the song and at full volume at all times. The problem with this should be obvious; even an accomplished vocalist can come off sounding second-rate next to the original artist, especially if one needs to sing an octave lower or higher than the original artist. At best, the player’s overlaid vocals sound like a poor attempt and a duet; at worst, well, it’s best not to listen at all.

Another black mark against the series so far is that the SingStar series, including SingStar Abba, does not possess a real online play element. Sure, each player can create an online profile, have their best scores posted competitively against players worldwide and even upload their favorite performances for the world to listen to; but that’s as far as it goes.

What the series truly needs is an online competition mode, as well as an online duet mode. While such things can be done in your living room, the inability to do the same thing with other players online really cripples the game from reaching its full potential and appeal. If there were a genuine competitive aspect to such on online mode, in the vein of Karaoke Revolution’s recent American Idol license, would help tremendously. Instead, SingStar feels like a PS3 title stuck in a PS2 era of limited online features.

The pricing structure for adding new songs to one’s holster is also problematic; SingStar games always carry only 30 songs per title. While that size is perfect to encapsulate the greatest hits of a band like Abba, it’s actually quite limited when you calculate in the fact that in most SingStar collections, there is likely to be only 2-5 “favorites” that appeal to any one player, and it’s not like one can select a custom play-list at the time of purchase.

That’s where the Sony Store comes in, of course; right within the SingStar game, you can access a library of songs that you can purchase, download and play within any SingStar game, via the Sony Store. The problem here is the pricing model Sony is following; each song is $1.49, and while that may seem low and Sony apologists will protest that SingStar tracks have a video and game programming included in that download, the fact of the matter is that SingStar is in competition with general MP3 music services like iTunes, which charges fifty percent less at 99 cents per tune.

Also, the pricing structure has to be compared to other music games like Guitar Hero and Rock Back, which often include far deeper libraries in each game, and make expansion music packs available at a far lower cost-per-track when bought in packages. To compete over the long haul, SingStar will need to price itself more competitively. Song some individual songs on Guitar Hero and Rock Band exceed $1.49 per track, the average cost is usually lower.

Cost aside, the additional tracks available in the Sony Store are not very deep at this point; a mere 500-plus tracks in all, with the bulk of the catalog coming from the 1980s. While a gamer like myself may find 1980s music appealing, it’s a bit limiting when it comes to younger gamers and music fans.

For example, it is possible to find plenty six tracks of Billy Joel songs, four or so tracks of David Bowie, and even some Blondie; however, there is no Hannah Montana/Miley Cyrus, only two Britney Spears tracks, no Kelly Clarkson and very little rap/hip-hop. The most accessible pop tracks I could find post 1990s were a handful of Avril LaVigne and one or two tracks by Pink, yet no Evenescence, no Gwen Stefani, no… well, you get the idea.

Another disappointment is the severe lack of musical variety at this point; there is virtually no country music selection, no Elvis, no Beatles, no R&B, and very little in the way of metal. Most of the selections are highly commercial pop artists or little-known underground bands willing to license their music inexpensively for exposure through the game.

Compare that to iTunes, which boasts a library of nearly every kind of music consisting over millions of singles, and one can begin to see the deficit at which the 80s-pop-music-dominated SingStar is operating.

On the whole, SingStar Abba is decent for what it is: a narrowly focused release specializing in one band, with only 30 songs included, whose appeal will ride on whether the songs of Abba are of interest or not. The lack of online duets or online competitive play is severely disappointing, and the relatively narrow, expensive library of additional songs available is also a barrier. While Sony seems committed to making SingStar work, there is a long journey between SingStar Abba and anything approaching an intriguing and viable karaoke franchise.

The latest offering from Wolverine Studios is not a sports game.

OK, now after you’ve allowed that stunner to settle on you for a while, consider what their latest offering actually is, rather than what it is not: Music Wars: Rebirth is a music industry sim that allows the gamer to take on the role of heading up a major music label, managing the careers of established stars, signing acts away from rival labels, and seeking out new, undiscovered talent. It’s a deceptively deep game that seems simple on the surface, but possesses a great deal of hidden depth – even if it is a downloadable title and not some hidden classic that can still only be played on tape drives.

Now, this particular type of simulation game is not without its predecessors. Rob Cooper has, for a long time, offered up a similar game experience with his independent series, Chart Wars. Though built from a decidedly UK perspective, the Chart Wars series saw three main versions released on the freeware marketplace, as well as a final version that never went the full step to a version four.

Also, Music Wars: Rebirth developer Antuan Johnson released three versions of Music Wars to the freeware market before deciding to take the franchise commercial. Do to the game’s freeware background, the most natural question is this: What in Music Wars: Rebirth makes it different enough from Johnson’s previous freeware iterations, to merit a purchase price?

As it turns out, quite a bit. First of all, all three freeware versions of Music Wars were far more limited in scope; at the start of the game, you could choose which artist or band you wanted to control, and then one would play through the game as that band. By contrast, Music Wars: Rebirth shifts the focus of the game from being a recording artist sim to being a record label sim.

This is no small shift; it opens the game up in significant ways, adding an entirely new challenge to succeed in the game. Whereas before you only had to worry about and manage one career, now one is managing the careers of many artists and acts, and miscalculations can be costly.

As the game opens, you can choose either to take over an established label, or start one of your own; the challenge of taking over established labels is that many of them are mismanaged and your task is to bring order to the chaos and turn the companies around. This could mean cutting acts with fat contracts who aren’t performing well, signing the right new acts to small deals so that you can create some cost-effectiveness while hopefully uncovering the next big multinational superstars, or even scaling back some of the extravagant show tours that are flushing money down the toilet at venues that don’t sell out.

Alternatively, at a new label, the challenge is to scout out the cream of the unsigned artists crop – some of whom may not want to sign with you because you’re too small a label – and stay in budget until you can get some singles and albums released and get some money coming in, as well as floating out. Investing heavily in a well-established artist isn’t always the best path for a small label, even if they are willing to sign with you, because they can eat up your limited starting resources quickly before they begin to turn a profit for you.

Either method provides some deep strategic and thrilling game play, and while it may not be quite as interactive as, say, Rock Band 2 or Guitar Hero: World Tour, it is nevertheless a fun simulation game for music fans. And the game gets many aspects to the music business just right.

For example, through subtle code-work (rather than over-the-top extremism), Music Wars: Rebirth accurately portrays aspects of the business such as the effects of age on artists. (Hint: after the age of 25 or so, female acts begin to decline in sales, while the career Bell Curve for male artists is less youth-obsessed.)

The game also portrays well the dynamics of how singles sell, versus how albums sell. Other innovations in Music Wars: Rebirth include complete control over your artists’ recording, writing, practicing, and releasing schedule, a detailed economic model, and an evolving industry, meaning the popularity of styles changes as time goes by. All of these are features no previous version of Music Wars offered, and which Chart Wars didn’t even do well at.

Music Wars: Rebirth also features a universe of specific fictional personalities; this is a feature that may remind some PC simulation fans of Total Extreme Wrestling’s “Cornell-verse,” at least in its infancy. While Music Wars: Rebirth lacks the extended backstories for each artist that TEW has developed over the years, it is still a strong core to build upon.

Already, I have developed personal favorites among some of the acts in the game; for me, it wouldn’t be a fun session of Music Wars: Rebirth if there were no Britney Mathis to sign; and growing one’s label large enough to sign a higher-prestige act like Ego Riot makes the achievement of reaching that level of success in the game more memorable.

The game also features an editor mode that is mighty powerful, allowing those interested in futzing with the game before playing it plenty of power to customize the game; these tools ought to make the work of Wolverine’s loyal mod community that much more effective. Already, many from the mod community have rallied around this game to contribute artist portraits as well as work on real-world mod packs and other major undertakings.

Heck, one industrious modder has even rejiggered the game’s purple-themed graphics to a blander silver-gray look that may not be quite as eye-catching, but is certainly highly functional and will be more friendly to users of Microsoft Office, or at least versions of office prior to Office 2007, which introduces a default blue theme, tossing aside its old gunmetal gray design.

Finally, compared to the freeware version of the game, the whole user interface is much more solid and well-designed. Wolverine Studios graphics designer Ivan Carrillo helped Johnson out with this aspect of the game, and the game is the better for it. Certainly MW:R is more pleasant to look at than the splashy, hard-to-read-text-against-it Britney Spears concert photo that served as the backdrop of one of Johnson’s freeware version releases of Music Wars.

All of these aspects are strengths of Music Wars: Rebirth and provide a solid core game experience for fans of the series. However, that is not the whole picture. Like any game, Music Wars: Rebirth has weaknesses and areas where improvement is needed. The drawbacks are these:

One of the first things gamers will notice is that only a handful of the game’s acts have proper portrait art in place. This is due, in part, to the limited team working on the game, since much of Music Wars: Rebirth was completed by Johnson himself, with little outside help. Though the game has been officially released, only about 20 percent of the artists and acts in the game have portraits included in the initial install.

Johnson’s plan is to add more artwork to the game as he releases updates, but in the initial install, don’t expect more than about 20 percent of the acts to have portraits. This will improve, of course, as time goes on, and the portraits included in the game so far are fine, high-quality, high-detail works of art that are certainly worth the wait.

Another drawback to the game is the somewhat sales-centric model used in the game. For this first version of Music Wars: Rebirth, Johnson’s goal was to reflect the actual behavior of Billboard-style singles and albums sales charts. This approach generally reflects retails sales figures of traditional record shops as its economic model, with media exposure playing a minor role of influence.

Of course, this is a “stuck-in-the-’90’s-at-best” economic model. The game does not include or take into account the influence of music videos (an industry reality since the early 1980s), nor the production time or expenses involved. The game also makes no effort to reflect non-retail-store sales that are part-and-parcel of the music industry in the 21st century. That means iTunes and other forms of MP3 sales, as well as the negative stat of illegal music downloads, is not included in the current version of Music Wars: Rebirth, which makes the game – fun as it is – feel a bit dated.

Another disappointment is the lack of any sort of multiplayer mode around which online “leagues” could be formed, similar to Wolverine’s sports titles. Imagine playing competitively against other human label owners to sign a top unsigned act like Britney Mathis, the sort of bidding wars that could be built around online play. The possibilities for having charts that rate record labels against each other in profitability, sales and such might provide a whole new competitive play aspect to the title. However, any form of multiplayer option was ruled out for Music Wars: Rebirth, although Johnson did admit in an interview with DigNews.com that it remains a possibility for future versions if sufficient demand develops for a multiplayer mode.

At this point, interactions with artists are relatively limited within Music Wars: Rebirth. One interacts with their artist when signing them or negotiating a new contract, and one also interacts with the talent if you work them too hard and they get too pissed at you to ever re-sign with your label. (Once this error is achieved, by the way, you can never win back the artists’ affections, so play carefully!)

Music Wars: Rebirth also has the ability to add in things like relationships between artists, which allows them to collaborate but also can take them out of action for several months, if that “collaboration” leads to a pregnancy. Some of this is in the game by default, but far more random events can be added in via the editor interface. By offering such powerful customization tools, Johnson has given gamers the ability to improve the game themselves to quite a significant degree, and the value of this should not be underestimated.

Finally, the game could stand for a lot more data to be added into the database; for example, if one’s record label is based in the US, there are many concert venues of every size in which your acts can perform, ranging from tiny to huge. However, in most other territories (the game features six major media markets) there are only Tiny and Small venues to be found; while this works early on in the game, it can be a limiting factor once you hit International status; it just seems weird to have Ego Riot (for example) play to crowds of 60,000 in the US, and be even more popular in, say, Japan, but limited to played in ventues under 10,000 people.

Despite its shortcomings, however, Music Wars: Rebirth is certainly more than a fresh coat of paint on an old piece of freeware. It is a complete, from the ground up reimagining of the franchise into a form that is deeper, more comprehensive, and more engaging than any previous freeware version. In fact, most of the shortcomings of the game simply demonstrate the “being rebuilt from the ground up” nature of the title. Wolverine has a sterling history of responding to customer feedback and incorporating suggestions from their loyal customer base, and Johnson has proven to be no different than the rest of the company.

Johnson has promised to work to continually improve on MW:R in successive updates, adding more bands, more portrait art, and more data as time goes on. The FirstAccess stage of the game’s development ferreted out quite a few problems and, as a result, the game is relatively light on the bug reports and need for bug fixes following the official commercial release of the game. If this low occurrence of game bugs continues as a trend, that will enable Johnson to continue to build the game out as time goes on, updating not so much to fix broken code, but to add new content to the game.

Some items and features often wished for in this game may never see the light of day in this version of Music Wars: Rebirth. For example, Johnson has stated that to be the case with music videos on Wolverine’s forum boards and in interviews. Like all developers from Madden on down, some ideas had to be back-burnered until the next major release of Music Wars.

While the game still has room to grow to its full potential, it is off to a solid start and is a significant enough upgrade from previous freeware versions to merit a purchase price, if for no other reason than the game will be constantly improved for the life of the product, just like all of Wolverine Studios’ sports titles.

In the end, Music Wars: Rebirth may feel a bit less than finished due to the portrait art deficit, but given the promise of future updates and the titles’ core improvements and re-visioning of the franchise from the ground up, it is certainly worthy of consideration by industry simulation fans with a passion for the music business.

Much like its Hoyle Casino Games companion piece, Hoyle Card Games offers up a nicely comprehensive collection of card games to while away your time, either online or offline, with free online play, including no monthly fees. A clear and eye-catching upgrade to the boring game of Klondike Solitaire included in every version of Windows since Bill Gates first crawled out of his dinosaur egg shell, Hoyle Card Games has a little of everything.

Whether your interest is Texas Hold’Em, Cribbage, Memory Match, Whist, Minnesota Whist, Tarot, Hearts, Pinochle, Skat, Crazy Eights, Gin, Blackjack, Old Maid, Plum Trees, or one of dozens of variations on solitare, Hoyle Card Games is a vast collection of various ways to pass the time with a deck of 52 cards. About the only thing missing is that middle-school classic, 52-Pickup.

Now, while the graphics are a clear upgrade from the Windows version of Solitaire, there’s nothing here that most people will need to worry about in terms of pushing their graphics card to its limits. The system requirements are appropriately modest while still delivering a sharp-looking game. And the Hoyle Face Creator offers enough variety to create an avatar to the tastes of most gamers.

Granted, Hoyle Card Games isn’t innovative or ground-breaking, but it isn’t trying to be. The selling point here is the wide amount of variety and comprehensive nature of this collection, and in that goal, it succeeds. Worth a look, if this sort of game is your sort of thing.

If you have ever wanted to experience Vegas without putting your wealth at risk, Hoyle Casino Games is the game for you. Offering a large variety of slot machines, video poker, roulette, blackjack and even horse racing, Hoyle Casino Games is relatively comprehensive, with over 600 casino games to choose from.

The graphics are sharp but won’t push most graphic cards, and there are both online and offline play options available. Fortunately, online play is free, with no monthly fees and no real money at stake, just like the offline version; the only difference is competitive play against live opponents.

Plus, the official Hoyle Rule Book is included that explains the rules for every game included in this comprehensive package. While casino gaming isn’t everyone’s cup of tea, the nice aspect of this collection is – for those who do enjoy this sort of pastime – the comprehensive nature of the collection; everything’s here except the discount furniture.

In the final analysis, Hoyle Casino Games isn’t groundbreaking and won’t win people over with its innovative game play; but if one is looking for the thrills of Vegas without the risk, there are few packages available that deliver as wide a variety of Vegas games in one compact package.

The only thing missing is a Donny Osmund concert.

Star Ocean is one of the slower-moving RPG series around; the first installment appeared on the SNES system, and never made it to US shores. Star Ocean: Second Story made it to the US, but by the time it appeared, the platform of choice was the original PlayStation. Star Ocean: Till the End of Time, the third chapter in the series, didn’t make its debut until the PlayStation 2 era, and sometime later this winter, we are expecting the Xbox 360 debut of the series, in the form of Star Ocean: The Last Hope, the fourth installment in the epic series; at this point, no PlayStation 3 version of Star Ocean: The Last Hope is planned, though it has not been completely ruled out.

In the run-up to the first new Star Ocean since 2005, SquareEnix is releasing the first two Star Oceans on PlayStation Portable Slim (PSP Slim), and Star Ocean: First Departure is the first of these two PSP remakes. It marks the first time the first Star Ocean has ever appeared on North American shores, outside of import shops.

While the game definitely possesses a retro feel, the story is engaging and the various systems from battle to skills to item creation possess enough depth to keep most gamers happy and playing through the entire length of the journey. Although mildly updated, the game’s graphics do not stray too much from their SNES roots. The characters are sprite-based, though more detailed than in the original; and the battles are real-time affairs that will keep action RPG fans mildly satisfied, despite the overall retro feel even of the battle system.

The story centers on Roddick Farrence, a boy determined to save his village from a petrification problem when, in a very Star Trek-style moment, he meets visitors from another planet who tell him the only hope for his world won’t be found on his own. In the update, SquareEnix’s team used Star Ocean: Second Story’s game engine to bring the game’s systems up-to-speed with the rest of the series. That includes an item creation system that allows you to manufacture just about anything with the right ingredients and a recipe, even tire chains. Also, the game was given a fresh, American voice cast and offers up hours and hours of voice acting that were never present – for technological reasons – when it was first released on the SNES.

In the end, Star Ocean: First Departure is not ground-breaking or innovative, but it is an essential key to the origins of the series, and the first appearance of the title on US shores makes it noteworthy in and of itself. Fans of the series will see it as a must-have; it also provides a fine jumping-on point for those who played Star Ocean: Till the End of Time on PS2, or are looking forward to Star Ocean: The Last Hope on Xbox 360, and are wondering about the origins of the series.