Sad, but true (bit like that pun, actually) - this is now officially my most anticipated game of 2009. \m/

Now, talk of Guitar Hero: Metallica is no longer a case of wishful thinking or idle speculation–it’s fact. When sifting through an SEC filing of Activision’s over the weekend, Wedbush Morgan Securities analyst Edward Woo–associate of the highly visible Michael Pachter–uncovered a gem in the section where the Santa Monica, California-based publisher discussed its upcoming game slate.

“In fiscal 2009, we plan to publish Guitar Hero: On Tour for the NDS; Guitar Hero: Aerosmith, Guitar Hero: Metallica, and Guitar Hero IV across multiple platforms,” the company said in its report. Activision’s fiscal year ends on March 31, 2009, which means that the game will likely follow the holiday release of Guitar Hero: World Tour (nee Guitar Hero 4).

Thanks, GameSpot.

Disclaimer: Wow. I can’t remember the last time I wrote anything this long about a game… and this isn’t even long. Or good.

I spent a good few hours (too many, perhaps) this past weekend playing the new Xbox Live Arcade* game Penny Arcade Adventures: On the Rain-Slick Precipice of Darkness, and have just wrapped up the story this evening.

The game is being released in episode form (think Sam & Max) so the first edition is short, clocking in at probably six hours or so. The environments are limited, but the game does pack a fair bit of action into its two major settings. The questing is fairly standard adventure/RPG stuff; you’ll trek around gathering clues, smashing open crates for items, fighting baddies and gaining experience and levels and such. Nothing too exciting or revolutionary here but for this type of game it gets the job done.

What does make PAA: OTRSPOD (cripes) worth playing though is the trademark Penny Arcade humour and, most impressively, the battle system.

The battles are probably best described as Final Fantasy with action timers. Essentially, once an action is performed there is a cool down period before you can use another action, and each character in your party has their own set of timers. The timer for item use fills up more quickly than the attack function, and the special attack fills up more slowly again. Additionally, you are able to block incoming attacks by timing a button when the enemy strikes; so you’re required to think about several things at once and the system really does work very, very well.

The enemies are limited but each has its own humourous charm: you’ll fight drunken hobos, fruit… err… fornicators, clowns, mimes and even barbershop quartets. Each enemy has its own strengths and weaknesses which add a bit of planning strategy.

Graphically, it’s exactly what you’d expect. Pre-rendered scenes and cartoon characters. The cut scenes are in the style of the comic strip and there’s speech bubbles all over the place. It works.

The humour translates pretty well from the strip too. Thankfully the creators didn’t try to do voiceovers for Gabe and Tycho, so everything funny is in text form and that’s exactly how it should be. It’s a little hit and miss at times but nothing is cringeworthy and there’s a lot of cleverness overall.

So then, it’s certainly worth a look if you’re a fan of the comic - and even if you’re not you’ll probably enjoy the battle system. Good stuff and an impressive first offering.

On the Rain-Slick Precipice of Darkness can be purchased online for PC platforms from Greenhouse, whilst the Xbox version can be found in the Xbox Live Marketplace. No word on a retail version as yet.

* The game has also released for Windows, Linux and Mac; I chose Xbox over Windows for the achievement factor.

Interesting - just a few days after I mentioned the apparently poor sound quality at Vector Arena, there’s an article about how the venue plans to improve things this year.

I doubt they’re reading my blog.

Up until this point I had managed to completely avoid the buzz surrounding English rock band Muse, but this week I decided to purchase the new H.A.A.R.P. CD/DVD combo; mostly because at under $30 for a CD and a two hour concert DVD it’s a very sweet deal and I knew I’d like some of it.

I wasn’t actually expecting the band to be as impressive as they are, however. The live show is truly something to behold and it reminds me again just how small New Zealand is. The concert was filmed live at Wembley Stadium in London, a venue that holds around 90,000 people, and Muse sold out two nights in a row. The atmosphere and sheer scale must be something that people living in NZ simply cannot comprehend because we have nothing quite like it.

It is however pleasing that more of the big acts are visiting Aotearoa lately. I caught the sold out Chili Peppers concert at the 12,000 capacity Vector Arena last year and despite claims that the sound quality isn’t up to standard, it was certainly a kickass show and the fact that more bands are now including Auckland in their tour schedule is encouraging.