I finally succumbed to the media blitz around Guitar Hero World Tour by Activision, what with Heidi Klum , Michael Phelps and Kobe Bryan promoting the game Tom Cruise style!! At home, for my kids, I have all the three reigning game consoles- XBox 360, Sony PlayStation 3 and of course the Nintendo Wii! I prefer a game title on PS3 if it happens to be available on multiple platforms. The reason being PS 3′s superior graphics capability and the free online gaming experience to boot (compared to monthly subscription fee for XBox live). Although my kids are pre-teens, I did buy them game titles ahead of their age- Gear of War 2, Halo 3, Call of Duty, Grand Theft Auto IV, Metal Gear Solid 4..why..I blame the massive ad campaigns for me caving in

I try to supervise the kids when they are playing the games with mature ratings, and they have strict do’s and dont’s around it. The other thing I have done is having them play games which can tap into their creative talent. Both my kids play Guitar, Piano and bunch of other instruments, on and off school bands so picking Guitar Hero game for them was a no brainer! Our tryst with Guitar hero series begin, in all its humbleness, with Guitar Hero Aerosmith, which came out this summer. It had one vritual Guitar- nothing to complain about, but it did felt inadequate compared to competing title Rock Band which had a complete set- its own virtual Guitar, Drum set and Karaoke. Not to be outdone, finally this winter, Activision came out with Guitar Hero World Tour, in the package you get a better drum set, a guitar and a karaoke with all the Tom Crusie ( Risky Business) style singing/dancing by current youth icons- Heidi Klum, Michael Phelp and Kobe Bryan. The promos were good and the demands from kids were persistent, I knew I was going to get it, sooner or later. Then came the chase of electronic retailers and to my surprise, after going through the sales pitch of why it is worth the $200 tab, the sales guy ( Best Buy) tells me they have been sold out for quite some time…go figure….what a horrible disappointment! We gave it couple of days while the kids followed up with the retailers over phone for new stocks and finally..our luck turned and we brought the new game home!

Now that the game has been couple of days old, you may ask , was it worth the chase? My answer- depends, what phase of life you are in. This thing is going to find ardent fan as well as the indifferent types, the skeptical type who don’t get pleased no matter what! For me, I love technology, I am passionate about it and it has been my bread and butter for a long time, my answer would be an emphatic yes! This new type of game is innovative, it exercises the brains, soothes the mood and brings the family together and is so worth it!! I liked it and we had good quality time playing it together. My eldest picked up the Karaoke, I picked up the guitar, the youngest picked up the drum set and their mom picked up the bass guitar. The band was complete and we had a blast!!

>
I finally succumbed to the media blitz around Guitar Hero World Tour by Activision, what with Heidi Klum , Michael Phelps and Kobe Bryan promoting the game Tom Cruise style!! At home, for my kids, I have all the three reigning game consoles- XBox 360, Sony PlayStation 3 and of course the Nintendo Wii! I prefer a game title on PS3 if it happens to be available on multiple platforms. The reason being PS 3′s superior graphics capability and the free online gaming experience to boot (compared to monthly subscription fee for XBox live). Although my kids are pre-teens, I did buy them game titles ahead of their age- Gear of War 2, Halo 3, Call of Duty, Grand Theft Auto IV, Metal Gear Solid 4..why..I blame the massive ad campaigns for me caving in

I try to supervise the kids when they are playing the games with mature ratings, and they have strict do’s and dont’s around it. The other thing I have done is having them play games which can tap into their creative talent. Both my kids play Guitar, Piano and bunch of other instruments, on and off school bands so picking Guitar Hero game for them was a no brainer! Our tryst with Guitar hero series begin, in all its humbleness, with Guitar Hero Aerosmith, which came out this summer. It had one vritual Guitar- nothing to complain about, but it did felt inadequate compared to competing title Rock Band which had a complete set- its own virtual Guitar, Drum set and Karaoke. Not to be outdone, finally this winter, Activision came out with Guitar Hero World Tour, in the package you get a better drum set, a guitar and a karaoke with all the Tom Crusie ( Risky Business) style singing/dancing by current youth icons- Heidi Klum, Michael Phelp and Kobe Bryan. The promos were good and the demands from kids were persistent, I knew I was going to get it, sooner or later. Then came the chase of electronic retailers and to my surprise, after going through the sales pitch of why it is worth the $200 tab, the sales guy ( Best Buy) tells me they have been sold out for quite some time…go figure….what a horrible disappointment! We gave it couple of days while the kids followed up with the retailers over phone for new stocks and finally..our luck turned and we brought the new game home!

Now that the game has been couple of days old, you may ask , was it worth the chase? My answer- depends, what phase of life you are in. This thing is going to find ardent fan as well as the indifferent types, the skeptical type who don’t get pleased no matter what! For me, I love technology, I am passionate about it and it has been my bread and butter for a long time, my answer would be an emphatic yes! This new type of game is innovative, it exercises the brains, soothes the mood and brings the family together and is so worth it!! I liked it and we had good quality time playing it together. My eldest picked up the Karaoke, I picked up the guitar, the youngest picked up the drum set and their mom picked up the bass guitar. The band was complete and we had a blast!!