For a while now, I had been anticipating the release of Guitar Hero III for the Wii.  I had played demos of the prior versions in the store on the PS2, but my PS2 has done little more than gather dust the last few years, so I decided to hold off on buying the special controllers and everything.

However, last week the waiting ended, and I'm very happy to say that I wasn't disappointed at all.  Guitar Hero III has a great set list, is easy enough to pick up and play on beginner difficulty, but ramps up difficulty enough to push players to their limits.  I'll admit that I'm not great so far, but after coasting through most of the songs on easy, I found the medium difficulty to be quite a step up.  In some ways it's aggravating, but what fun would it be to breeze through all the songs?

Just like I thoroughly enjoyed Frequency and Amplitude, the titles that made music-based gaming popular in the first place, I am very enthralled with Guitar Hero III.  I've found myself losing hours at a time playing the game as I continue to tell myself "just one more song".  And I haven't even tried the online gaming yet!

If you're up for playing some, feel free to drop your friend code below and maybe we can thrash together!

I read a really interesting article about video game viloence from a guy over at PlanetXbox360. It's a very honest and open article, that clearly makes a number of very good points about the ongoing social debate about the influence of video games. I highly recommend that any video gamer take the time to read it.

With all the money that goes into video games and their next-generation hardware, it's nice to see that PS3 owners will be able to volunteer their gaming units to help process complex calculations over the internet.

PlayStation's serious side: Fighting disease

And it's not only an independent venture, but Sony is helping to make the processing program available to any PS3 owner who wants it. That's really nice to see.

Well, the ratings for this year's Madden game have come out, and again I'm puzzled by them. Theoretically, the top ten ratings should go to the top ten guys you'd take in a fantasy football draft, but they always seem to favor flash over a "total package" player. For example, I don't know anyone who would classify LaMont Jordan as a top ten running back and I'd take Tedy Bruchi over most of their top ten LBs (some of them make some big plays, but they don't always contain plays well).

Well, at least they didn't put Michael Vick in the top ten QBs. Heck, he's barely the number one on his own team!

I can still remember the first time I played through Super Metroid. I never did get a chance to play the original Metroid, but Super Metroid was a consuming experience. You could easily get lost in the giant maze, and the limited direction of the game made exploring a great amount of fun.

However, it was primarily a side-scrolling type game, and I didn't expect much when it translated into 3D on the next-generation systems in Metroid Prime. However, I did hear good things about the newer versions, but had never gotten around to playing them. So I decided to pick up a used copy for $5, and boy, has it been worth it!

While it took a little bit to get used to the first-person-shooter type display (or DOOM appearance, as my wife noted); once I got into the game it felt like the same indulging experience. While I have yet to finish the game, I have to admit that it's about as much fun as I've had playing a single-player game in a while. So if you've got a GameCube, $5, and some time to kill, I strongly recommend grabbing a copy of this game if you haven't already.

Heck, I'm already looking forward to getting my hands on the sequel, Metroid Prime 2: Echoes. But I guess I've got to get through the one I've got first.