Best of the Decade: Guitar Hero

As 2010 draws to a close, I figure it’s a convenient excuse to look over the rather stunning number of awsome games I have been fortunate enough to play over the last decade and choose my favorites. This isn’t definitive and it isn’t comprehensive. It’s simply the games that mean the most to me when looking back over the last decade of my personal gaming experience, presented one a day for all of December with commentary and personal anecdotes and in no particular order. It’s been a great decade for gaming. Please chime in with your own thoughts in the comments. 

Guitar Hero 

Platform: Playstation 2

Release Date: November 8, 2005

Publisher: RedOctane; MTV Games

Developer: Harmonix Music Systems

It’s easy to forget while you read recent news stories such as “Viacom Planning to Sell Harmonix” and “Warriors of Rock Sales Disappoint” that the plastic instrument genre was once a new and magical thing. 

In fact, the whole idea spawned just five years ago, which is pretty incredible when you think about it. It sure feels like they’ve been around longer than that.

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The 2009 List of Shame

The games below are not necessarily the outright worst games of the year. In fact, two of the three certainly are not. Frankly, I don't have the time, money, or incentive as a lone blogger to play what are actually the worst games put on shelves. Instead, these are the games that, for various reasons, made me very sad. And being a sad gamer isn't a fun thing to be.

Grand Theft Auto IV: The Lost and Damned (DLC)

The Lost and Damned wasn’t a bad game. From all accounts it was a well-constructed addition to the GTA IV universe, with an interesting storyline, new gameplay, and all that other jazz.

None of that is why the add-on made the List of Shame.

It was through playing The Lost and Damned that I realized I don’t have any desire whatsoever to play GTA IV anymore, and this made me sad.

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Flautist Hero

This is so fantastically awesome.  It makes me long to play a musical instrument so I can do something as cool as this.  

Is it weird that I want this video to be the actual version of the song?  I need to get this in mp3 form or something. 

Truly cool.

Fixing a Past Mistake

When first launching Zestfulcontemplation.com, I made a video that I was relatively proud of  - a concise video review of Guitar Hero Smash Hits.

Subsequently, not even one person watched the video.

I was sad.

Until I realized that I had made the video private by mistake, never discovered it, and was never told.

Then I was mad at myself for being an idiot.

I would greatly appreciate it if some of you might have a look at that video now and tell me what you think of it and whether I should bother doing more of them.  I know it's probably far from perfect, but I was still decently happy with the results and I want to know what other people think of my little video experiment. 

Thanks, and sorry for screwing it up earlier.  Hopefully someone actually watches it this time.

Guitar Hero Smash Hits - Just the Essentials Review

In this Zestful Contemplation Just the Essentials video review, I let you know exactly what you need to know about Guitar Hero Smash Hits in order to make an informed purchase and get to the heart of the game without wasting too much of your valuable time.  It's the first in what I hope to be a series of short, to the point reviews, giving me an exercise in both conciseness and basic video editing.  

As always, if you have any feedback or suggestions, please let me know.  I'm always looking to improve.

Update on Fri, August 14, 2009 at 6:17 PM by Brendan T. Smith

It would appear that I made a slight mistake when posting this for the first time and made the video private when I hadn't meant to.  That would explain why not one other person ever watched it.  I've now fixed the issue and would greatly appreciate it if some of you could finally take a look at it and tell me what you think of it and whether it's worth it for me to do more of them.