• Nine Inch Nails – March of the Pigs (160 points/$2)
• Nine Inch Nails – The Collector (160 points/$2)
• Nine Inch Nails – Perfect Drug (160 points/$2)

I don’t own any NiN cd’ or anything, but when they’re on the radio or a friend plays them, I dig it. It seems like most people are this way, so hopefully this pack will receive a decent response from the Rockband crowd. If not, there’s always next week…..

So many games have come out that haven’t even been worth the cost of the disc it was printed on. Most of them even offer 10-20 hours of play. These games wind up on some back shelf, never sold, and never discussed but they’re still considered in a category many are reluctant to allow Portal into.

Recently, we’ve seen games like Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare provide an playing experience in just 8 hours of total game play. They’ve completely cut out all of the useless filler, providing you with only the best of what they have to offer. COD4 wasn’t overlooked because of this detail, in fact, many reviews praised them for their courage.

So what exactly is the issue with Portal? Most see it as one game out of a compilation, even though you can purchase it separately through Steam on the PC. But is the Orange Box really a compilation or is it the chance to provide the maximum amount of content for the price you pay? Either way, it’s not a game itself so it shouldn’t be judged as a package. But seperating it from the Orange Box allows people to put it up for comparison against XBLA and PSN games, as many of them can be around that length. We haven’t yet seen that category show it’s face in the GOTY debates.

What it all comes down to is how much fun you have playing the game. If it’s worth your time and money, it can be GOTY. I have played more Portal than Halo 3, even though I own both of them. I found Bioshock to be excellent, but it dragged on at the end when I felt it could have ended earlier and saved its dignity. Quality in video games has gone down hill big-time, just ask the Wii. I would much rather spend $60 on an amazing $3 hour game with replay value than spend the same on an RPG that I’ll give up on somewhere around my 3rd hour trying to cross some useless desert.

I say Portal has what it takes. What do you think?

• Garbage – Why Do You Love Me (160 points/$2)
• Weezer – El Scorcho (160 points/$2)
• Stone Temple Pilots – Sex Type Thing (160 points/$2)

This will be the second song by Garbage, and third by Weezer and Stone Temple Pilots in Rockband, with one being the original game track. El Scorcho follows the path of My Name Is Jonas and Buddy Holly with the simplistic drum beats, allowing most people to beat it on Expert with little difficulty. Sex Type Thing is another STP song that I didn’t know the name of but could sing every word when I loaded it up. It really has a good 90′s feel to it.”Why Do You Love Me” is probably the least well known on this list, but is still a really fun song to get your female singer involved a bit more.

I’m going to start rating each week from now on.

Rating: 3.5/5

Scorehero member laconic posted on their forums a sizeable list of songs that he found within a .bin file from “(Arguable) Punk Pack 02″. The list does include all the songs that have been released so far, but unfortunately without Harmonix confirming this information, there’s no guarantee. While the original list didn’t include any artist names, Scott from Joystiq put together a nice neat list assuming the original artist of each band would be the version they released.

I find the list disappointing considering that most of these bands have existing songs already on the game. However, the possibility that “Still Alive” is actually the Portal song and the two The Who songs are exciting to see. Harmonix did promise full albums from bands when they were launching the game. Having felt the greedy swipe from XBLA Arcade before, I wholeheartedly expect to see the Nirvana songs on that list being sold individually and then finally as a complete cd for a cheaper price after everyone has bought the packs.

Take a look at the list after the break

Blur:

• Beetlebum

Def Leppard:

• Hysteria (could possibly be by Muse)

Foo Fighters:

• D.O.A.

Garbage:

• Why Do You Love Me?

Grateful Dead:

• Alabama Getaway
• Casey Jones
• China Cat Sunflower
• Franklin’s Tower
• I Need a Miracle
• Sugar Magnolia
• Truckin’

Iron Maiden:

• Wrathchild

Jonathan Coulton (?):

• Still Alive

Nirvana:

• Breed
• Come As you Are
• Lithium
• Lounge Act
• On a Plain
• Polly
• Smells Like Teen Spirit
• Stay Away
• Territorial Pissings
• Something in the Way

Oasis:

• Rock n’ Roll Star

The Rolling Stones:

• Brown Sugar
• (I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction

The Smashing Pumpkins:

• Zero

Stone Temple Pilots:

• Sex Type Thing

Tokio Hotel:

• Through the Monsoon

Weezer:

• El Scorcho

The Who:

• Behind Blue Eyes
• Pinball Wizard

Source: Joystiq, Score Hero

• The Clash – Complete Control (160 points/$2)
• The Police - Truth Hits Everybody (160 points/$2)
• The Ramones – Teenage Labotomy (160 points/$2)

Apparently the theme they decided on this weak was based around “The” being in the band name. At least they picked the good ones. You can’t really go wrong with any of these songs but I find it funny that they decided to add another song by The Police when we already have a three pack by them. there are plenty of other bands out there who haven’t had a song up for download on Rockband, so why should they now have four? I’m a big fan of both The Clash and The Ramones so they are definitely a welcomed addition. I feel that adding bands like these will make Rockband a game that will span more generations then most games do. Although you might not be a fan of your dads belting out “Guess I’ll have to break the news, that I’ve got no mind to lose”, atleast he won’t be kicking you off the TV anytime soon.

I’m calling your bluff Scott Miller. Your status as President of 3D Realms (which I’m sure by now is a volunteer position) does not mean that what you say holds weight. Over 10 years ago I held a yard sale to sell all my old junk just to buy  Duke Nukem 3D. I would spend hours on my dial-up modem through Prodigy trying to get death match running or reading up on their BBS site. In the time since then, you’ve shoveled the offspring of Duke Nukem and Lara Croft down our throats and promised us the most amazing FPS our Bruce Campbell quoting minds could think of. 

So this time we’re suppose to believe that you’re serious? Or is this just a ploy to push Duke Nukem 3D back on us through Xbox Live Arcade? I figure that for this game to even remotely live up to it’s hype, it would need to have around 500 different levels. If you need more time, just let us know! 

Source: Bizjournals

• Smashing Pumpkins – Siva (160 points / $2)
• Rush – Working Man* (160 points / $2)
• Coheed and Cambria – Ten Speed (Of God’s Blood and Burial)* (160 points / $2)

What’s truly unfortunate is that I didn’t put those asterisk their just to look cool. Every time you see that never positive symbol, you’ll unfortunately be spending your hard earned gig money on a cover song. While you learn to live with some of the cover songs they offer, what is baffling is the asterisk next to the Coheed and Cambria song. How could they possibly offer up a downloadable cover song from a band that has one of their actual songs already on the initial game disc. Hopefully the truth is that there was not a usable master copy and it’s not that Harmonix got cheap.

While each person is entitled to their own opinion in music, it’s pretty safe to say that this is a week offering.