September 10, 2009

Open letter to Harmonix


Dear Harmonix:

Well, well, well, the vaunted, Lennon-friendly 9/9/09 has come and passed. Despite being a Beatles fanatic since 1981 (learning to play the guitar at 14 in order to "be" a Beatle, buying all the albums and then later the CDs), I don't believe I'll be purchasing the remastered box sets just so I can hear "crisper cymbals" and "warmer bass lines." I guess I'm just not that much of an audiophile. And what's this I hear about no "I've got blisters on my fingers!!" on the mono version of The Beatles?? Sacrilege, I say. A pox on your house, whoever made that decision. May you rot in Hell, sir or madam. The thought of a generation of kids not experiencing "the White Album" for the first time without that on it? For shame....FOR SHAME!!!! Don't get me started on how the pitch is shifted up intentionally on the mono mix of "She's Leaving Home."

But I digress, Harmonix. As one who loves The Beatles and videogames, I've been anticipating for months your "Beatles Rock Band," which you released yesterday. Having never purchased any of your previous "Rock Band" games, I have no controller/guitar with which to play the game. SO, despite the tepid reviews, I spent about an hour yesterday in Naconowhere searching, earnestly, for one. And by "one," I mean one of these, damnit:

Now, maybe I'm just being picky, but the stores (Hastings and GameStop) which had them at all (our "super" Wal-Mart had not a one of them...wtf?), offered only this "model":



Understand, I love George Harrison and I admire Chet Atkins and all, but the guitar I dreamed about as a kid and drew during math classes, over and over and over again, was this one:


This one:


This one:


This one:


This one:


Yes, this one:

So, Harmonix, until I can walk into a store, locally, and purchase one of those, I'm not buying or playing your freaking game!

Sincerely yours,

Exquisitely Bored in Nacogdoches

P.S. I love you.

2 comments:

  1. You're really missing out, waiting around for that one guitar. I beat the game on guitar earlier today and was absolutely blown away all the way through. It's a fantastic game.

    By the way, this was the first result in Google for "rock band nacogdoches." I was foolishly looking for someone to play this game with, my roommate doesn't seem terribly interested in Rock Band.

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  2. I relented on my "principle" of buying the Rickenbacker 325 locally, and went ahead and ordered it online. I can't wait to play the game. As a Beatlemaniac, I feel sort of obligated, but I do think it'll be a blast. I read that the New York Times feel it may be "the most important video game yet made." I'll be playing soon!

    There's "Hooligan Youth Reviews" and a "Naconowhere Blog," but other than those folks, that's about it right now (other than SFASU, the Chamber, and the Convention Center Bureau) for local bloggers, so searches for anything related to Nac often send people to my little slice of Internet.

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