Guitar Hero 3 ... hmmm

So I got the full version of GH3, and have played through about 36 or so of the 42 song career mode .. the demo was good but the actual game itself is a bit lacking...

I don't know if it's just high expectations, but this time round, things seem more "boring". Sure, the song lineup has more well known artists, but the songs themselves aren't as good in my opinion as the 2nd one, where there was more variety.

And on Expert, the way the tabs are layed out leave a little to be desired. With GH2, I could recognise how they transcribed real tabs to the 5 buttons on the GH guitar. Some button combinations actually resemble chords and some of the riffs and leads are scaled nicely on the 5 button layout. However, this time around, some of the chords are just weird, only to bump up difficulty, but do not resemble any chords that I've ever played on a real guitar.

I don't have the same drive to try and get 5 stars on all songs, simply cos the songs are more boring to play than their GH2 equivalents. Oh and the difficulty gets BS hard on Export towards the end, there doesn't seem to be any linearity in it ...

All in all, the whole experience for me has just been 'OK'... a bit different from the rave reviews I've been reading. I'm hoping Rock Band (made by Harmonix, who made the last 2 Guitar Heros but not GH3) will be better tabbed out....

Nightwish coming Down Under

I saw on a few websites earlier on that Nightwish were rumoured to come to Australia, as part of their Dark Passion Play tour. I thought to myself that if they came down to SE Asia or over on the east coast that I'd take some time off and go see them (they are high on my list but not my most favourite band).

Well I don't need to, cos they are coming to Perth! Well, Fremantle actually but still closer than the east coast. I've got my ticket, so they better not cancel!

Unfortunately it is the new Nightwish lineup without Tarja (and the operatic vocals), who I would've loved to have seen, but at least West Australians haven't been forgotten this time around! woot woot!

48Mj of heat ... all the heat you will ever need..

I received my burner (see below) early last week and have been itching to try it out. So over last weekend, I hooked it up and gave it a go. I am very impressed!

This thing is so hot that the tea towel I was using to hold the wok caught fire from combustion. I had it on about half and the wok was smoking after less than 10 seconds, put in the oil and it was smoking after 5. Stir-frying is actually stir-frying .. not boiling .. and the oil smell and frying food brings me back to hawker centres in Singapore.

If only I could have 48Mj indoors .. cooking outside is a bit of a pain. It would be a bit smokey inside though so I guess that's a plus.....

Guitar Hero 3 demo rocked

Yesterday, I recently got hold of the 5 song Guitar Hero 3 demo.. needless to say, I cranked the difficulty to Expert and went for broke.

I have a feeling GH3 will be easier than GH2 on Expert (although I watched a youtube vid of 'Through the Fire and Flames' and I think my fingers will bleed after that song), but with supposedly over 70 tracks and more available to download (and pay for), it should last a while ... definitely looking forward to some new tracks!

And coming out next year (in Australia anyway) is Rock Band, which also adds drums, bass and vox! So rhythm goodness for the next few months! oooooh yeh.

I need a holiday...

I think my body/mind is telling me I need a holiday .. I keep looking at Singapore pics and wanting to go back .... yum. Going to Sydney in a month and a half but I'm not sure if it's a big enough of a change (or long enough) to feel like a holiday.

Which brings me to my next question .. go somewhere familiar or somewhere new? I would treat Singapore as other Perth families treat Mandurah/Lancelin etc. A familiar place to go and escape the everyday grind. Unfortunately, I don't have the luxury of weekend holidays to Sing. It's a place where I don't really have to look up what to do or where to go, but keep going back and doing the same things over and over and enjoy it everytime doing so.

But whilst I love Singapore for everything that it is and what it offers, I still want to see other sites. I want to see Japan (for the cars and the food), go to the States, go to London and eat at Royal Hospital Road, go through Europe and see many of the bands that I frequently listen to... the only real places which don't really interest me are: South America, Africa, Middle East, Russia and China. Should I go on one big uber holiday? Or break it up into bits and pieces?

I know why international artists don't come back to Perth

Why? Cos they take a look at the shitty venues that we offer them to play at, and they simply go WTF and never come back.

Josh Groban and Challenge Stadium... got there a little before 6:30 to find a long queue of cars trying to get into the venue. Parking was already full (we ended up parking in a park near the venue and legging it in), with more people trying to get in.

And the seats? Fuck .. $130 for plastic seats which made my ass sore after sitting for a few hours. I also had to sit on an angle and my back was a bit hammered after the show. Sydney gets to sit in the lovely Opera House, with brilliant acoustics and we get shithouse Challenge Stadium......

And what was Josh Groban like? Well, he was on the 'Awake' tour, and he certainly let us know that, playing just about every song on the album. Good if you love the album, not so good if you prefer his older stuff.

Give me POWER....

I bought myself a birthday present... In my quest to get wok hei at home, I've bought this bad boy. It puts out a max of 48 megajoules of energy (our household stove is about 30 megajoules from 4 burners), so it should be plenty hot to cook (burn) food with.

I'd love to mount this into an old barbeque or weber shell, make it a bit more safer to use. I'll cross that bridge when I come across it .. I'm just impatiently waiting for this bad boy to arrive....

Whats the point of an online presence?

Something that's really hit me these past few weeks are the number of companies who have an online presence (a website or email address), but do nothing with it. A number of companies I've emailed asking for distributors in WA and gotten no response.

The icing on the cake was today, when I wanted to buy tickets for the Spicks and Specks live show. BOCS allow you to buy online... all I experienced were slow load times and when I actually got allocated tickets, put in my credit card details and went to pay, it timed out. Not once, not twice, but 4 or 5 times. It then said my reservation had been cancelled cos I took too long to pay.

So I tried again. More slow load times. I eventually got allocated shitter tickets, went to pay again and same thing. I wasn't the only one trying to get tickets. What the fuck is the point of having an online buying system if nobody can buy tickets? So you can only buy tickets when nobody else wants to .. which means shit seats? That is bullshit.