One of the gifts I received this Christmas was Guitar Hero – Aerosmith edition. I must say it is quite entertaining to play and I just finished beating the game on easy level, so now it’s time for medium and bring on the blue notes.

Continuing the ongoing discussion that’s already been started here is whether or not it’s appropriate for younger audiences like my 9 yr old son and 6 yr old daughter.

It was about a year ago this time that I wrote that post so my kids were a year younger as well. I don’t want to say that one year makes that big of a difference, but it may also be the fact that this is the Aerosmith version and maybe not so "extreme" as the full-blown Guitar Hero III version. My brother-in-law got the standard Guitar Hero III version, so I’ll have to check it out a little closer to see about the differences across the board. He also mentioned that there were some "censoring" options in the settings which I haven’t seen on my version.

What’s everyone else’s experience with the differences in these two versions?

On a side note, we also got Rockband for our Nintendo Wii. The quality of the guitar between the two games is big in my opinion. Compared to the Guitar Hero Gibson guitar, the Rockband Fender really feels like a toy in your hands.

Image: Guitar Hero Aerosmith product image on Amazon.com

Post from: EveryJoe

The Gift of Guitar Hero – Aerosmith

Image: Xbox.com Website Product Review

Microsoft and Xbox have finally taken advantage of what a game console in the living room can mean to a family that enjoys spending time together and using technology.

A few months ago I was thinking about how gaming consoles could really be taking advantage of an area that to me seems obvious. You’ve got the ability to have four controllers, why not make more games that let 4 people play games together, specifically families?

Screenlife Games has finally released a version of their addictively fun game Scene It? for the Xbox 360. I don’t know if you’ve ever played the normal DVD versions of these games, but they’re perfect for families, or perhaps even more so for group games when you’ve got a lot of friends over and everyone’s ready for some good competition and rivalry.

The challenge for these types of games is for the content to get stale. Although this version of has almost 2,000 different questions, if you played it enough you’re eventually going to get repeats or the movies and questions themselves just get old. This is where having it integrated with a console like the Xbox 360 is genius, especially with the added infrastructure of the Xbox LIVE Marketplace. Hopefully they’re already thinking about allowing the ability for owners to purchase and increase the game question base by grabbing expansion packs off of LIVE.

The common concern for replay value among trivia gamers is the depth of available questions and categories, but with nearly two thousand questions and over twenty distinct categories, Scene It? is brimming with content right out of the box. The game tracks every question as it is asked, ensuring that repeat questions are few and far between. There’s also some obvious potential for downloadable expansion packs courtesy of Xbox LIVE® Marketplace, so there’s no need to concern yourself over replayability.

Similar to how you can download new maps for Halo or new song packs for Rock Band 2 and Guitar Hero III, being able to download expansion packs like "Blockbusters of 2008", "AFI Classics" and "Disney Favorites" makes the purchase of this game almost a guarantee for me this holiday season for my family.

Scene It? from Screenlife Games

Post from: EveryJoe

Xbox Finally Takes Advantage of Need for Family Fun

This is another game I’ve heard a lot about but have yet to play myself. My son is learning to play the guitar at 7 years, would this help or hurt him in that endeavor? I’ve got to think it would at least teach him to hear and repeat rhythms.

The fact that there’s a pentagram as the background for the chord keys is pretty annoying to me though. If I couldn’t switch that background, it would keep me from purchasing the game for my son.

Post from: EveryJoe

Guitar Hero III Videos