guitar-hero-iii posts

The bad news of game publisher layoffs may be continuing today as Kotaku is reporting via unnamed sources that Austin-based Aspyr has let go of over 12 part-time employees as well some unspecified regular full time team members. The article also states that more layoffs at the company may be in the works. When reached an Aspyr spokesperson would not comment on the rumors.

Aspyr has been in business for quite some time and is best known for porting a number of PC games to run natively on Mac platforms. They have also published a number of PC games including ports of Turok and Guitar Hero III as well as the US release of 1701 AD.

At the young, impressionable, and stupid age of 13, I remember being influenced by Nintendo's horrid Play it Loud television commercials. The sight of gamers like myself rocking out while playing Mortal Kombat II, Super Mario World, Star Fox, Super Street Fighter II and other popular titles at full volume looked totally fun, a guaranteed way to increase the immersion factor of my favorite Super NES games and rebel against the serious, studious parents who, according to Nintendo, wanted to limit my precious gaming time.

Those of you who, like me, attempted to play "it" as loudly as possible most likely recall that the commercials were all hype -- loud, painful, and unrewarding. While pleasant at lower volumes, the sound on the SNES, while not as grating as the underwater gurgling emitted by the Sega Genesis, were muffled, crackly, and distorted at medium to high levels. Even worse, playing it loud didn't exactly sit well with parents. Sure, the commercials showed authority figures staring in disbelief at their wild teenage gamer children, but they forgot to show the part where those crazy kids got grounded for playing games at ridiculous volumes.

Quality sound systems have come into their own since then, with many snazzy setups readily affordable and worth every penny due to the theater-like atmosphere they provide. Couple that with the fact that this generation of games is actually meant to be played at a higher volume than five or six, and it's easy to understand why many gamers value their sound systems above pricey graphics cards.

The Phillips amBX system is more than just a quality audio experience. Equipped with speakers, lights, fans, and a wrist pad offering a more dynamic level of force feedback, amBX is deservedly being billed as a total immersion system, one that won't just bring pleasure to your ears, but to every part of your being involved in the gaming experience.

The final full day of QuakeCon 2008 ended on Saturday night with a marathon six hour event-party for the attendees. The results were that free food and beer (courtesy of id Software's John Carmack) were given to QuakeCon attendees and they got to see great Quake Live and Enemy Territory:Quake Wars matches along with some Guitar Hero playing, some prizes and t-shirts thrown out and a brand new Chevrolet Corvette given out to one very lucky QuakeCon participant.

In terms of the matches, The four member The Green Team won the Xbox 360 Enemy Territory: Quake Wars tournament over Cwell Fellas and won $5,000. The PC Enemy Territory: Quake Wars tournament was won by the six member Mamut.Si over second place Kompaniet and won $8,000. The Guitar Hero III 1v1 tournament was won by JW2 over Oni_link while Jimmy Crack Corn won against Pointless Thread in the 2v2 tournament.