Brian

Let's see...

3 drum sets (2 RB, 1 GH), 4 guitars (2 RB, 2 GH), and 5 microphones (2 RB, 1 GH, 2 Singstar), for a total of 12.

The filing date is August 2000, but it was a continuation application claiming the priority of an earlier patent filed on November 12, 1996. In order to solidly beat the patent, you need prior art from at least a year before that, November 12, 1995. (If less than a year before, the patent will still be valid if the inventors can prove that they came up with the idea before the date of the prior art.)

I've had 3 "wow" moments so far in the game (only played for about a half hour):

1: First carjacking: I got in the car, and didn't start driving that fast. The guy gets up and starts moving back to the car; I see him opening the door, and go, "Crap, I need to move!" So I start driving, and he holds on for dear life with the car door open as he's dragged down the street. The door's swinging wildly, and he's still hanging on. I accelerate and he finally falls off, rolling away.

2: The radio: During the first mission (driving to the card joint so Roman can pick up his money), the Weazel news is playing in the background, and they report that a Bohan councilwoman is railing against the import of firearms into Liberty City, and cuts to her screaming, "We need to stop those rednecks from sending guns to our city!! You hear me, rednecks!!??" This is such a perfect parody of NYC politics (I live in Brooklyn) that I had to pause the game to laugh hysterically for a minute.

3: Driving on the BDE--looks exactly like driving on the BQE, at least in the style of the area. The translation of New York to Liberty City is so perfect down to little details.

Yay for free songs, not so much for the overpriced songs that are more expensive than any of their competition ($5.50/3 pack in Rock band, $1.50/song on KR:AI, $1/song on DDR.) Watch Harmonix put out the Nevermind album in March to compete (we just saw our first 6 pack this week)

The thing left out of this article is that very few people want to gamble on events of pure skill, outside of a "sports betting" type model (in this case, have a GH tournament and have people bet on the outcome, with HellAshes a prohibitive favorite in GH and AzuriteReaction a prohibitive favorite on RB drums). The reason should be obvious--in most cases, the win ratio in a game of pure skill will tend to be at least as lopsided as 90-10 odds, and what's the point of that? If you had a "GH for money" type website, there'd end up only being about 200 players using it, as everyone else would be driven off by their inability to break 500k on Freebird or to complete Jordan or TtFaF.

Poker works because sucky players can pull out a big win once in a while, which gives them a false belief that they know what they're doing and a willingness to keep throwing money on the table. Based on the GH tournaments I've played in, at most there were only 3 players in a given tournament that, from the first round, had even some non-zero chance of winning. If you charge money and don't have an event out of it, what's going to get the other players to join in more than a few times, rather than just playing for free on XBox Live?

I didn't mind the EA logos in The Simpsons Game, because they were there as parodies more than ads (your character goes into the internet and gets attacked by Madden NFL players.)

On the other hand, the Axe Deodorant ads in GH3 made the Burger King placement in Fight Night Round 3 look tasteful.

Good product placement: Fender, Vic Firth, and Guitar Center in Rock Band (and Gibson and Guitar Center in GH2)
Bad product placement: Axe Deodorant in GH3

Note on Best Studio--Harmonix also produced, in addition to Rock Band, the XBox 360 GH2 port, GH Encore: Rocks the 80's, and Phase. 3 of those games were good, and the 4th was...as much a phone it in sequel as Halo 3 single player (GH Encore, that is). That was the right call.

I bought it, I finished it, and now I'm going to trade it back to Gamestop for the 30% bonus for Rock Band. Definitely a rental title; fun, but short with no real replay value.

1. DLC prices aren't set in stone yet, but GH3/RB competition should help a little.

2. No cowbell accessory, but the way the game registers microphone taps, you can buy your own cowbell for about $15 and play it into the mic. It's more fun that way.

Hm. No RPGs, no rhythm games, no strategy games. Silly reviewers.

The list is incoherent without at least one of the big rhythm games (GH3 or Rock Band), Mass Effect, and possibly Orange Box.