Arts & Entertainment Guitar Hero 3 Will Eat Your Evenings By Marri Knadle, The Martlet (University of Victoria) VICTORIA (CUP) — Guitar Hero is back, and more addictive than ever. The interactive music game that first took the world by storm in 2005 has just come out with its second sequel in two years, with Guitar Hero III appearing on a Playstation, Xbox, or Wii near you. The wireless Gibson Les Paul guitar controller in the Guitar Hero III XBox 360 bundle boasts pre-release features, including increased sensitivity and a_ customizable goodies—promises more opportunities for XBox Live “Gold” subscribers. There’s a world of achievements to unlock in the 360 for all skill levels, with varying gamer- point rewards. Botch a song over 90 per cent of the way through? There’s an achievement for that. Complete Career Mode on “Expert” difficulty and you become the Right Hand of God. Though, completing all Career difficulties may be more look with changeable “The list of songs stating than it was faceplates. It does look nice, but mine was defective right out of the box (the strum bar and a few fret buttons refused to cooperate). Needless to say, I was sorely disappointed. Factory defect aside, the Les Paul is fairly heavy, and the detachable neckpiece, while convenient for storage, made for some wobbly moments. The Les Paul, it seems, is ultimately something of a stylish impediment to comfortably rocking out. The game itself, however, is pretty darn swell. Guitar Hero III has a few new features to set it apart from earlier versions, such as boss battles and a new kind of two-player dueling. But the fact remains that the pull of the game is still simply playing guitar and enjoying your favourite songs. The new menu design and extra characters are just icing on the delicious cake of the comprehensive track list itself. The list of songs is impressive, with fewer covers and more original songs than the Guitar Hero prequels. Downloadable content— primarily songs and a few as-yet undisclosed 12 is impressive, with fewer covers and more original songs.” in Guitar Hero II, as the gap between skill levels and even the song sets within each skill ranking is more pronounced. The online features give the game essentially unlimited play, even beyond what it may take to finish all Career Mode difficulties and unlock every character, outfit, guitar and song. The co-op online play is available for good times with far- away friends who don’t have a vicious competitive streak, and duels for those who do. The Guitar Hero website goes further in supporting the community potential of the game, with lists of player achievementsandupcoming tournaments. The anticipation building up to the release of Guitar Hero III has been keeping the XBox 360 bundle off most retailer shelves, with no firm re-supply date in sight. The Guitar Hero II controller and the disc itself seem to be widely available, as are PS2 bundles. Whatever combo of software and hardware you choose to go for, it’s well worth getting your hands on it. Make sure your essays are out of the way first, though. This game is an addictive time-killer. Song of the Week “New Year's Day” by U2 By Pat MacKenzie U,.. the turning of the year, besides looking back—sometimes with nostalgia, sometimes with regret—at the year that has just passed, people are usually inclined to look towards the new year with a renewed sense of optimism. But as the world blindly staggers into 2008 burdened by seemingly intractable conflicts and the ever-lingering awareness that humanity is on the brink of ecological Armageddon, it is hard to be optimistic. And yet life without hope or optimism would be unbearable. Right? Although it is a predictable choice for this time of year, “New Year’s Day” by U2, found on 1983’s War, seems to be performing a high wire act. Balancing between hope and despair, “New Year’s Day,” in the words of St. Bono, is about “the struggle for love.” The song was originally penned as a love song for Bono’s wife, but world events of the early 80s, particularly the Polish solidarity movement, infiltrate “New Year’s Day” and turn it into a serendipitous protest song. Driven by Adam Clayton’s now distinctive bass line and the Edge’s piano, the sound of “New Year’s Day” is both urgent and stirring. As if amplifying the already compelling nature of the song, Larry Mullen’s drums add a martial beat, while Bono’s vocals soar over the music, which is laid down like an army on parade. Perhaps reflecting the destruction wrought by war, the theme of love in “New Year’s Day,” as is usually the case with Bono’s writing, is attended by darkness and loss: “Under a blood red sky/A crowd has gathered in black and white/Arms entwined, the chosen few/ The newspapers says/Say it’s true it’s true/And we can break through/Though torn in two/We can be one.” Certainly the music and lyrics of the song convey a sense of foreboding, and it seems that most people would be hard-pressed to call “New Year’s Day” optimistic. Indeed, the song juxtaposes the abyss of violence with the image of two lovers being torn apart. However, the alternating arrangement of the words “I will be with you again,” and “I will begin again” can only be understood as an attempt to cling to the little bit of hope that still remains. In spite of the horrors implied by “New Year’s Day,” the song is more of an acknowledgement of suffering than a polemic laced with a lack of faith in humanity. Rather than be mired in darkness “New Year’s Day” looks toward the light, however dim it may be. Happy New Year everybody.