Friday, February 15, 2008

More Guitar Hero?

My friends and readers know I love Guitar Hero (even though I don't play it enough, as the figurative ass-kicking I received from one of my guests after the Super Bowl party proved) and I can't get enough of the game. Sometimes I wish every song was a GH song. Last night at dinner the restaurant had an '80s rock station on the sound system, and when "Paradise City" came on I said I could play it on GH when I got home, then I remembered that it's not in any of the games (yet). My friends also know that I have a bit of a thing for Aerosmith. I've seen them live three times, and while they're approaching Rolling Stones-like longevity, I still listen to their older music, mostly material from the '80s and '90s.

So it is with excitement and trepidation that I greet the news that the next GH title will be dedicated to Aerosmith. I've never thought of Aerosmith as a great guitar band, though there are a few songs with excellent solos from Joe Perry, "Sweet Emotion" and "Dream On" among them. The latter song is going to be a free download this weekend so I will have to find some time to work on my Joe Perry impression on Saturday or Sunday. But I'm not sure that an entire game devoted to Aerosmith is the best next step for the GH franchise. There are so many great rock bands and songs out there that are crying out for the GH treatment that I wonder if this move is just a way to throw a bone to the GH owners who haven't upgraded to the group- and party-friendly Rock Band game. Or maybe there's a huge Aerosmith fan among the GH hero design staff. I'll buy the game in June, there's no question about that. I mean, it's not like I'm the best manager of my own cash flow (see here and here for two recent examples).

Follow-up on the previous post: I bought a WD MyBook external drive on Wednesday evening and I've been using that for Time Machine backups. I'm leaving the drive at work so I have an offsite backup. If you're not backing up your data, you should do it immediately. One hard drive failure can cost you years of photos, music, and documents. Do it! Do it now!!

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