Toronto Thumbs

Three MCs And One DJ
A Review of DJ Hero

DJ Hero was released October 27, 2009. But before that date, the Toronto Thumbs staff already loved it and talked about it a great deal. We claimed our love for it in our coverage of Microsoft’s X’09 event and Sony’s Holiday Preview Event. When it came time to choose our top games of 2009, DJ Hero found its way on both Shaun’s and Jorge’s lists. It’s not surprising – the two love both music and amazing games.

We decided it would be fun to review the game as a group, which in turn has caused some delay in getting it all together. We’ve also included Toronto Thumbs newcomer Eleanor D.’s thoughts on the game.

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Posted in Awesome, PlayStation 3, Reviews, Wii, Xbox 360 | 2 Comments »

Raj Patel Has Lips, is Not Afraid to Use Them

Media events are dangerous to attend if you’re constantly worried about looking your best. With the plethora of cameras at every turn, chances are some unflattering photos of you will find their way online or on television.

Raj Patel, however, doesn’t have to worry about this. The technology and culture writer who contributes to both GeneralGames.ca and his own Ohmpage was caught singing “Lovefool” by The Cardigans by Xbox Canada’s camera crew. You can see and hear him flex his vocal prowess in this video for Lips Number One Hits that Xbox Canada released on YouTube earlier today.

Even though he doesn’t hit a lot of the notes, at least he looks like he’s having a good time. This, dear friends, is what it’s all about.

Posted in Awesome, Awful, News Bytes, Xbox 360 | 2 Comments »

DJ HERO CONTEST
You Could Win A DJ Hero Demo Kit

Ever since we first laid eyes on DJ Hero in-person at X’09 this year, we were in love. The game brings a much-needed fresh new play style to the music genre and is full of amazing mixes. A week after first playing it, we got to spend even more time with it at Sony’s PlayStation Holiday Preview Event, and we started loving it more.

But let’s cut to the chase: We have three DJ Hero Demo Kits (Xbox 360 version only), courtesy of Activision. They include a demo disc for the game, a wired turntable controller, and a few leaflets including an overview on how the game is played.

Want to win one? Here’s what you have to do:

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Posted in Awesome, Contests | 4 Comments »

X’09 PREVIEW
Modern Warfare 2

At X’09 I snuck into the Modern Warfare 2 room that was hidden behind a thick curtain. There were some other folks there who had made appointments to talk to the Infinity Ward team and to play the game. I hadn’t booked a meeting, but Infinity Ward also allowed a few observers into the room. When I sat down to watch, one of the demonstrators began his spiel about the work that went into the game while the other was taking us through one of the snowmobile levels.

On the big screens set up in this exclusive area, the game looked amazing. Smooth motion and crisp graphics in the demo made for some wonderful eye candy – and as much as I love play over looks, it’s hard to not acknowledge how great the visual of Modern Warfare 2 look. They are miles ahead of Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare, which I already thought was amazing.

Modern Warfare 2 has a single player campaign, and from what I understand it’ll be fairly long. There is also the online multiplayer mode (which promises to be as awesome as ever), and a new co-op mode called “Special Ops”, with small, independent missions that are separate from the main storyline.

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Posted in Awesome, Events, Previews, Xbox 360 | No Comments »

X’09 PREVIEW
Forza Motorsport 3

Shaun tries out Forza Motorsport 3. He didn’t do too well.

Out of all of the games available to play at X’09, I probably clocked more time on Forza Motorsport 3 than any other. There were two different types of Forza stations available to play on; one had a very large screen, a mounted steering wheel and an awesome force-feedback racing seat (complete with 5.1 speakers), while the other had three cross-linked Xbox 360s each connected to a large LCD screen. These three screens were side by side in panoramic view mode, effectively emulating one windshield and two side windows of a car.

I tried each of the two stations, but definitely favoured the panoramic mode. Forza Motorsport 3’s graphics are stellar, and the track and car details are unbelievable. The damage modeling is not bad, but I’m also not sure if it affected the performance of my car by much (my first race was horrible anyway). That fact was more than made up for by the coolness of looking out my side windows at the cars next to me.

While I really enjoyed the premise of the cross-linking, I was somewhat baffled that one of the folks working the event stated matter-of-factly that if you had two friends each with XB360s and TVs, you could bring them all to one house and set it up the same way. Um… sure. I don’t think any of my friends have the same size TVs as each other.

Forza Motorsport 3 has a North American release date of October 27, 2009.

Check out our Forza Motorsport 3 gallery »

Posted in Previews, Xbox 360 | No Comments »

X’09 PREVIEW
Left 4 Dead 2

At X’09, four big screens were set up to show off Left 4 Dead 2, each with a controller in front of them. Zombies groaned and shuffled along in the background as the game waited for players to dive into it. Michelle from EA was very excited about this Valve title and was incidentally pretty damned good at kicking zombie ass. Four of us each took a controller and assumed the role of one of the four survivors in the aftermath of a pandemic that left people as zombies.

As expected, the game looks pretty good if not a little dated. We’ve played Left 4 Dead on the PC when it first came out and weren’t expecting a drastic change in visual style anyway, plus its familiarity is kind of comforting. The most interesting feature of L4D2, however, is “The Director.” This is the artificial intelligence engine powering the game, which has been improved greatly since the first one, altering not only the difficulty of the enemies and the variety of weapons you pick up, but the environment (wall placement, weather, lighting). Consider us impressed!

The action was intense throughout the demo save for some short moments where the team regrouped, picked up supplies such as adrenaline shots and Molotov cocktails, and just waited for the next wave of attackers. Enemies were, for the most part, fast on their feet. As far as zombies go, they were more like the ones from the film 28 Days Later than the classic Romero undead. For a game, this makes perfect sense, as the aim (no pun intended) is to keep things exciting. If this causes anxiety on the player’s behalf, well, that’s just how it goes.

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Posted in Awesome, Previews, Xbox 360 | No Comments »

X’09 PREVIEW
Splinter Cell: Conviction

At X’09 I was fortunate enough to sit down with Steven Masters, the lead designer of Splinter Cell: Conviction, to watch a demonstration of the game and talk to him about it. It’s really something special to be able to talk to people about a project they were so invested in for such a long time, as their level of enthusiasm is unmatched and they bring a lot of experience to the discussion. He was obviously very proud of the game that had helped create, and rightfully so.

Even though I played a lot of Forza 3 at the event, Splinter Cell: Conviction really stole my heart – and this was just from watching someone else play it! One of the issues the design team at Ubisoft was tackling with the game was how to make Splinter Cell, a stealth game, more accessible to everyone without removing the fun for the seasoned players.

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Posted in Awesome, Previews, Xbox 360 | 1 Comment »

X’09 PREVIEW
DJ Hero

When I first saw the peripheral for DJ Hero in a press release, I had no idea how it would even work from a mechanical perspective. On Tuesday at X’09, I got to find out, first hand. After watching a few other demonstrations of it, I stepped up to the deck and found I was actually in the middle of a bigger demonstration for a larger group.

Jordan Dodge, the Activision publicist who was showing off DJ Hero, explained the basics. This was going to be quite different from what I’d been accustomed to from Guitar Hero. Like in that game, visual cues onscreen correspond to audio notes (in this case beats, samples, and such). As the markers scroll to current spot in the song, it’s up to players to tap, tweak, and scratch along.

The overall feeling, then, is that you’re effectively mixing two songs together. From the few songs that I played, and from the ones I watched other play, the mash-ups are extremely well done. I put my DJ Hero skills to the test first with a mash-up of Queen’s “Another One Bites The Dust” with Daft Punk’s “Da Funk” and it was way more fun than I had otherwise imagined.

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Posted in PlayStation 3, Previews, Wii, Xbox 360 | 7 Comments »

X’09 PREVIEW
The Ballad of Gay Tony

Rockstar Games was at X’09 this week to give show-goers hands-on time with their upcoming disc release, Grand Theft Auto: Episodes from Liberty City. The game includes the previous DLC content of Grand Theft Auto: The Lost and Damned and adds in Grand Theft Auto: The Ballad of Gay Tony. The upside to the disc release is that it doesn’t require a copy of Grand Theft Auto IV to play, however The Ballad of Gay Tony will still be available as DLC for those that do have GTAIV.

The demo I was walked through had the protagonist, Luis Lopez, starting out on a helipad. The object of this particular level was to jump into the copter, take it as high as it can go (and the vertical limit of the map is pretty damn high), then jump out of it to land on a building below. What happens to the helicopter once you plunge out of it, seeing that you’re the only person in it? Who fucking cares!

On the way down, there’s some time to enjoy the free fall but the parachute should be manually deployed at some point soon or else Lopez, the bodyguard, confidant, friend, and business partner of Tony Prince AKA Gay Tony, ends up being a splatter on the sidewalk or wherever else he lands.

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Posted in Awesome, Previews, Xbox 360 | No Comments »