This Saturday its packed with events even though there is a storm thats expected to hit. So like last week make sure the events are still on by checking the various instagram accounts before heading to them. Check out the full list of events for this weekend below:
For those of you who don’t know, I was in charge of posting video game related posts in the now defunct Entertainment section of the blog. Since Mark merged that section with the rest of the blog, I’ll now be writing about video games in the B-Sides section while posting reviews of major game releases here on the main page. Last week Mark was able to hook me up with his contact at X-Cite who will now be sending me games to review on the blog every now and then, first up is Guitar Hero Live.
Guitar Hero became a massive phenomenon when it was first introduced back in 2005. Six games were released, 12 if you include the specialized versions of the series like Guitar Hero: Aerosmith and Guitar Hero Smash Hits. All those games were released within the span of seven years between 2005 to 2011. That’s nearly two games a year, which is a crazy number for such a short period of time. So when Activision announced Guitar Hero Live, it wasn’t a surprise that most people felt skeptical about it.
My only real experience with Guitar Hero prior to this was Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock at a friends house. And all I remember of that game was playing Muse’s Knights of Cydonia over and over again, trying to get a perfect score. It was a lot of fun and I could see why people obsessed over it and why Activision milked it for all its worth.
Guitar Hero Live is meant to be a fresh new take on the whole franchise. A reinvention. There are two main aspects to the game. Guitar Hero Live and Guitar Hero TV. Guitar Hero Live is the single player “campaign” mode where you play as a guitarist for different bands that Activision created for this mode. Each band plays a specific genre of rock, so the folk-indie band for example plays songs from real bands like The Lumineers and Of Monsters and Men.
Like the name suggests, you’ll be playing live shows with these bands. Activision filmed a lot of footage to flesh out this part of the game. If you’re doing well in the song crowds will cheer, bop their heads to the song and your bandmates will be rocking out. If you start screwing up, crowds will start booing and yelling things at you while your band mates look on at you in disappointment or just insult you in some way.
I enjoyed this mode, it’s fun, it’s silly. The presentation is great, it feels fantastic when you’re playing a really challenging part of a song and the crowd erupts in joyful glee when you nail it. I just wish there were more songs and that it lasted longer. I’m also confused to why Rihanna and Skrillex would be in this guitar focused game, but they are.
After you’re done with Guitar Hero Live, you’ll be spending a chunk of your time in Guitar Hero TV. Guitar Hero TV is an online only mode and is equivalent to old school MTV. You’ll find two channels that play music videos non-stop throughout the day. Each channel has their own set of programs. So there’s a program that just plays heavy metal songs while another just plays indie hits. These channels play music videos all day and you can jump in and play whenever you feel like it. Since this mode is online you’ll be competing simultaneously with other players who are playing that same song. At the end of each song you gain experience points and coins. Every time you level up you unlock various things like special abilities and player card designs. You’ll be able to spend coins in various ways, for example you can spend coins to increase specific stats like how often your special ability recharges. You can also spend coins to buy more play tokens (which I’ll discuss in a little bit).
Guitar Hero TV also includes the song catalogue which includes over 100 tracks. To play any of these songs you need to use a play token. The biggest point of focus in this mode are the play tokens. Every time you play a song, you use a play token. They’re limited. There are three ways to get play tokens. Every time you level up, the game gives you a bunch of tokens. If you save up enough coins you can buy them. Or you can use real money and buy tokens. The game also offers 24 hour unlimited play for the entire song catalogue for $6. One word to describe play tokens would be “controversial”. Some people hate it, some people get it. I’m in the latter. The reasoning behind Activisions micro-transactions in Guitar Hero Live is that they want to avoid what they did in the last generation. They don’t want to keep releasing Guitar Hero games or release a ton of paid DLC like Rock Band. Instead they want to build Guitar Hero Live as a platform. New songs that will be added to the game will be added for free. This direction doesn’t seem so bad compared to Rock Band where each song costs $2. We’ll see how it works out in the long-term but so far I’m optimistic.
Putting all that aside, the game is fun. If you weren’t a fan before, I doubt this will change your opinion of it. But if you did enjoy the previous games, this game feels like a step up and a step in the right direction. I had a blast playing on my own and I also had fun playing the game in a group (Mark really sucks at it btw). If you attach a mic to the console, lyrics will pop up on screen and the game will keep score on vocals. You don’t actually have to own a proper mic either. A Playstation Camera or headphones/earphones (like the iPhone ones) with mics work. There’s also an official Guitar Hero Live iPhone app you can download on your phone that will connect to the game and turn your phone into a mic. You can also get a second guitar to add a second player and compete against one another. The game also does well for people who don’t normally play video games. I had guests over on the weekend and one of my guests doesn’t normally play any video games, but they were hooked on Guitar Hero the moment they grabbed the guitar.
My biggest concern isn’t with the actual game but with the plastic guitar. The guitar itself looks good and it feels good to hold. But after playing the game over the weekend, one of the buttons was already giving me problems. Thankfully it was an easy fix. I had to open up the fret board (11 screws) and I found that there was some dirt on the inside of the button. Once I put it back together, the guitar was working like new.
Overall the game is a ton of fun and it’s something I’ll be playing for quite some time, especially when I have guests over. Hopefully they’ll add some Queens of the Stone Age or Foo Fighters, because this game could definitely use more of that. There’s a bit of an imbalance when it comes to the song selection in the game, there are too many recent hits and not enough grunge and alternative songs.
You can find Guitar Hero Live at X-Cite for KD31.9 which is a pretty great deal since it’s being sold for $99 in the U.S. My review copy of Guitar Hero Live was also provided by X-Cite.
A few events got canceled this weekend because of the storm but below is what’s still on as of this post. Battle of the East is taking place on Friday and Saturday so if you’re into competitive sports thats something to check out. Shakshooka is also back for the first time this season, they’re going to be at The Secret Garden this Saturday night. Make sure you double check the actual events instagram pages before you head out just to make sure they’re still on. Below is the full list of events taking place this weekend:
A bunch of interesting events are taking place this weekend. Tonight I’m heading to the Staged in Kuwait Improv Comedy night, I went to it last year and it was hilarious so looking forward to it again. Tomorrow there is an interesting event hosted by the Korean embassy, if you’re looking for a unique cultural experience then it should be worth going to. Finally there is the Fit4Life Expo taking place at Murouj on Friday and Saturday which should also be worth visiting. Check out the full list of events below:
Over the holidays I worked a bit on the blog layout and I’ve done some more changes. First thing I did was update the Classifieds and Community sections to match the new look of the blog. The second thing I did was reduce the amount of main sections on the blog by removing the Fashion and Entertainment section. I will continue to post music videos, gaming and movie reviews and fashion related topics but, depending on how interesting the post is it will either end up on the main page here or in the B-Sides section. So if there is a great music video I want everyone to watch I’ll post it here, if not it will go in the B-Sides. Easy-peasy.
Over the weekend I found out that Sheikh Nasser Al-Sabah (the owner of Cinemagics), had purchased a Tesla electric car from the States Netherlands and had it shipped to Kuwait. So right away I gave him a call and asked him if he’d let me take it out for a spin and he agreed so I took it out yesterday morning.
Before anyone comments about how useless a Tesla is in Kuwait because gas is so cheap, you need to understand that the Tesla is more than just an electric car, it’s not just about saving on fuel prices. The easiest way for me to explain it might be comparing it to the iPhone, what the iPhone did to the phone market the Tesla is trying to do for the car market. They’re reinventing what a car should be and thats what makes Tesla so great a company and Elon Musk a great innovator. One easy example is with the Tesla’s control panel. If you look at the picture above you’ll see a huge ass screen in the dashboard, that screen is the size of around two iPads stuck together. It’s a gorgeous high resolution display with a very clean very Apple like interface that allows you to control every aspect of the car as well as display a variety of information all at once. In the photo above for example I had my blog opened up in the web browser and taking up the whole screen but you could have it take up half the screen if you want with the other half displaying your radio or maybe the map. My point is if you read my car reviews from just this year alone you’ll notice one of my biggest complaints is how I felt the user interface in most of the cars I drove were so outdated and ugly. The Tesla on the other hand is doing it right.
The first question I asked Nasser and the first question everyone asks him is how does the car get charged in Kuwait? Basically there are two ways, the first is using a regular power plug like the ones found inside your apartments. You just plug the car to a power outlet and it charges at a speed of 7KM an hour. The second way is to have an electrician install a multiphase power plug which will increase the speed of charging to 55KM an hour. On a full charge the car can last over 400KM which is more than four trips from Kuwait City down to the chalets in Bnaider and back. So for regular day to day use you probably only need to charge the car just once a week. That’s better mileage than what I can get out of a full tank of gas on my car. In any case Nasser installed a charging point outside his office building so he could charge it there if he wants to as well.
I only had the car for like an hour but all I really wanted to experience was what it was like driving an electric car and also better understand how the regenerative braking worked. The Tesla as you can imagine doesn’t make any sounds. Only when accelerating really hard can you hear a gentle electric whine like something from Star Trek but other than that it’s a completely silent car. The Tesla I drove is the P85D which is all wheel drive and has two motors with a combined power equivalent to 762HP. It’s really fast and it can hit 0-100KM/h in 3.1 seconds which is insane considering how understated the car looks and the fact it’s a 4-door family sedan. Regenerative braking was also very interesting to experience, it’s an energy recovering mechanism that allows the Tesla to recharge the batteries using the energy recovered while braking. Usually when you want to slow down with regular cars you take your foot off the gas pedal and then press the brakes. With the Tesla when you lift your foot off the gas the regenerative braking kicks in and starts slowing you down without you having to press the brakes. It feels like engine braking, like slowing down by downshifting in a regular car. If you want to use the brakes you can of course but using regenerative braking allows you to recover the energy and make your brake pads last longer. The interior of the car felt premium, lots of leather and suede. According to Nasser he didn’t have any issues with the AC during the summer which is another concern I had with the car.
The Tesla P85D starts at around KD31,000 without shipping to Kuwait which is actually not that expensive when you consider the technology and performance involved with the car. Getting it registered might be a bit of headache although it should be a bit easier now since there’s already a Tesla in Kuwait. When Nasser went to register the car they had the Tesla on the computer as a gasoline powered car so that caused delays. Overall it’s a pretty cool car and nobody should be worried about getting one in Kuwait.
Kuwait Baseball Softball & Challenger League (KBSCL) previously known as Kuwait Little Leagues (KLL) won the Best Leisure Activity in Kuwait for children a few months back on the blog. They’re a non-profit organization that provides their players with 6 months of physical activity and competition twice a week for a minimal fee which includes season fees, jersey, hat and year end award.
Registration for 2015-2016 season is now open for boys and girls ages 4 to 17. They have their regular baseball divisions, girls’ softball and our challenger division for players with physical and/or developmental disabilities.
Their baseball fields are located off the 6th Ring Road and legit. If you’re interested to find out more or to register for their 2015-2016 season then click [Here]
As you’ll notice I’ve updated the look of the blog slightly. There are two reasons for this, the first being I needed to clearly define the blog’s logo so I’ve removed the sub-headline “The A-Sides” from the header. The second reason I changed things is because I think the previous header was eating up too much screen space.
Another change I’ve done to the blog is that I’ve now unified all the sections looks wise. Not sure why I had every section a different color before but that’s no longer the case. Overall I’m nearly done with the facelift except for the “Community” section which I still need to do and I also messed up the “Classifieds” section and now it’s looking a bit wonky (Andy I’m gonna need your help!). Other than that if you spot anything looking weird just let me know.
Not a very big list of things to do this weekend but there is a decent variety. The biggest thing taking place is the Startup Weekend but the mariachi concert seems interesting as well. Check out the full list below.
Last week after posting about how the new Iftah Ya Simsim was now being filmed in Abu Dhabi instead of Kuwait, two readers commented that even though Iftah Ya Simsim was being shot in Abu Dhabi, some of the editing was still being done in Kuwait. One of the readers even invited me to pass by the GCCJPI facilities to check it out which I did.
GCCJPPI stands for Gulf Cooperation Council Joint Program Production Institution. A super long name but if you grew up in Kuwait during the 80s, all it takes is one look at their logo to recognize who they are. GCCJPPI are behind some of the most memorable shows on television back in the 80s. They were behind most of the popular Arabized cartoons and they also created shows like Salamatak (سلامتك), Quff (قف) and of course the Middle East version of Sesame Street, Iftah Ya Simsim.
The GCCJPPI facilities are located in Salmiya across the street from Souq Salmiya. It’s a building I’ve driven by on numerous occasions but never really paid any attention to. The ground floor of the building has one of the largest theaters in Kuwait containing 850 seats while the rest of the floors are offices, recording and editing studios and my favorite, the GCCJPPI archives.
I had assumed all their archive was lost during the 1990 invasion but turns out they still have copies of everything, their archive is stacked old tapes. According to Nawaf Alshallal, the technical advisor who was showing me around, the Kuwait GCCJPPI office is currently digitizing their whole archive which I got to take a peek at. Not only are they digitizing all their videos but they’re also scanning all their old photos as well. Since I recently watched the documentary “I Am Big Bird” I was curious to see if they had behind the scene photos taken on set of Iftah Ya Simsim. Turns out they did and I flipped through them and there’s some really great never before seen stuff. I’ve already submitted a request to get a copy of these photos so I could share them on the blog. Hopefully I get the approval.
From what I felt during my visit, the GCCJPPI are finally coming back to life. I was even told they’re planning on bringing back Salamatak and Quff which is something I think we really need. I just hope whatever they create ends up on YouTube because theres no way I’d go back to watching KTV again.
It’s been awhile since I’ve put a things to do list but thats because there wasn’t much taking place over the summer. Now it looks like things are starting to pick up again, it’s still not a big list but it’s a start.
It looks like Instagram ads have started popping up in our region. I spotted the ad above in my feed while another user spotted a Kraft ad. As I mentioned in my previous post, they’re soft launching at first with some preset partners, two of which seem to be Kraft Foods and Unilever. If you run into any ads let me know in the comments, I’m trying to figure out who all their partners for this soft launch are. On the other hand according to a blog post by Instagram, they’ve opened Instagram advertising to all businesses in the US market so Kuwait will most likely follow before the end of the year.
I just want to bring to focus the blogs classifieds section just in case you didn’t know about it. It’s free to use and there’s hundreds of items for sale so check it out [Link]
