TeenZone Blog

• Dance Dance Revolution
• Guitar Hero
• Rock Band
• The Idolmaster

Guitar Hero III - Legends of Rock (Release Date – Ships 10/28/07):

Features: The most striking feature in Guitar Hero III, aside from a whole new playlist of songs and various changes in game play, is the online capability to play against others on Xbox Live.

Other features include personalizing your own profile, creating an online band similar to a clan, collecting groupies to meet specific goals, challenging other bands, and competing in online tournaments.

Rock Band (Release Date – Ships 11/23/07):

Features: Following in the shoes of Guitar Hero, Rock Band takes music and gaming to another level. Choose between mastering the bass/lead guitar, drums or vocals. The music featured in Rock Band comes from all genres of rock and includes many recordings from legendary artists.

Vocals: For the vocals, if you’re familiar with other singing games like Karaoke Revolution, then you'll be familiar with the microphone for Rock Band. Lyrics run across the top of the screen in different pitches. It doesn’t matter if you’re a good singer or not, you simply need to match your voice to the pitch. You may not have to say the actual words, but some accuracy is required and this won’t be as easy with some fast-paced lyrics.

Thoughts: With the upcoming release of two super-heavy-weight music/gaming titles (specifically rock, metal, etc), I’m pretty excited with which one to choose. I know that these titles have a high possibly of being used at the library during gaming nights, but which one would you prefer? Would you stay true to the Guitar Hero franchise? Or would you rather prefer to rock out using drums or a microphone? Either way, both games probably won’t disappoint.

As always, any comments, questions, feelings, thoughts are appreciated.

Now to find some members and try to start my own band…

-Entry by James Ngo

Posted by Dymphna Harrigan at 03:41 PM | Permalink | Comments (4)

This is Teen Read Week and time to vote for the Teens Top Ten Award. Teens Top Ten is the award that is nominated by teens and voted for by teens. This year the Danbury Library Galley Book Discussion Group was one of 5 groups around the country who nominated and seconded nominations for this list. There are 25 books on the list, so it should only take a minute to check off your top ten favorites. Is this list is too short? Are there any books that missed the list? Let me know by your comments below. Once you registration is accepted, you will be able to see your comments immediately.

Posted by Dymphna Harrigan at 03:39 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

Or maybe not; however, for the cinematic industry, it just may be.

Summary:
Tomorrow will be the release of Two-Disc Special Edition of Transformers on DVD.
Here are some details and features on the DVD:

Rating: PG-13
Runtime: 143 Minutes


• The Story Sparks - Steven Spielberg discusses his love for the franchise and early concept art for the film. Explores how the writers adapted the cartoon into a live-action movie and why Michael Bay is the perfect director for the film.


• Autobots Roll Out - Michael Bay discusses working with Chevy and its designers and the modifications that were made to the cars seen in the film.


• Decepticons Strike - The film’s military advisors discuss the "toys" they allowed the production to borrow: F-22 Raptors, Ospreys and A-10 Warthogs.


• The Skorponok Desert Attack - An in-depth look at the making of this particularly epic and challenging scene from initial storyboarding through production and visual effects.

But as always, what are your thoughts, comments, opinions, etc.

Now if only I could find a dealership that sold cars that could transform…

-Entry by James Ngo

Thoughts:
I’m not sure about everyone else, but when I was a little younger, I just loved huge robots from space fighting each other to conquer or save the universe all while being able to transform into different vehicles and stuff. When I originally saw the preview for the Transformers movie, I was so excited since it looked just so… COOL. What this leads into is how the movie industry has improved so much within the years. Being able to see vehicles “transforming” in real-time into huge CG-like robots is something amazing. You have to wonder how far technology will take us in terms of movies, television and pretty much in entertainment. How realistic will movies be within the next 5 years? 10 years? 50 years? Only time will tell.

Posted by Dymphna Harrigan at 05:44 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Summary:
Its been roughly three weeks since the release of Halo 3 and the hype probably won’t die down for a long, and I mean long time. After reading an interesting article on Xbox.com [Halo 3 Statistics], I found some facts which probably won't surprise most of you, but just may tickle your brains. Here's how Halo 3 has been doing so far:

• More than $300 million in sales in the first week alone!
• Halo 3 is becoming the most popular Xbox Live game in history (more than 2.7 million gamers playing Halo 3 on Xbox Live in the first week. This is one-third of the 7 million Xbox Live members worldwide).
• More than 3.6 million hours of online game-play in the first week. That’s equal to 4,500 years of continuous game play
• Since the launch, over 30 million achievements have been unlocked by gamers.
• About $170 million in sales on Halo 3 were within the first 24 hours of its release. (This was the biggest entertainment launch in history, beating the previous records set by the release of Spider-Man 3 and Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows).

-Entry by James Ngo

Thoughts:
Wow. Just wow. I know the hype for Halo 3 was enormous since most of my friends (and I’m sure a lot of your friends too) were so excited for the release of Halo 3. I expected Halo 3 to do very well, but to do THIS (read the summary above) well is pretty amazing. The release of Halo 3 even beat the previous releases of Spider-Man 3 and Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows (which I thought were very popular since I saw and read them both). In the end, I’m not sure what to expect of Halo 3 in the future since I’m sure so many people will continue to play it. What will the future hold for Halo 3 and for any of the other games coming out in the future? How are the PS3 and the Wii going to compete against Xbox now?

As always, any thoughts, questions, and concerns are all welcome.

Maybe I should go out and actually get a copy myself…

Posted by Dymphna Harrigan at 05:11 PM | Permalink | Comments (5)

I am surprised that Seeing Redd is not going out. I ordered it because Looking Glass Wars was so popular. This is a tale based on the Alice In Wonderland fantasy. The main character is Alyss Heart, daughter of the king and queen of Wonderland. The king and queen have been killed by Aunt Redd so Alyss excapes by jumping into the Pool of Tears. Her jump takes her to Victorian Oxford, where she emerges from a puddle, lives as a street urchin, and is eventually adopted by Reverend and Mrs. Liddell. Well you get the idea. Although the tale is clever, it seems to unfold like an animated film where action is more important than character development. This is not a retelling of Lewis Carroll’s original story. As a matter of fact, it bears little resemblance to the original story.

Posted by Dymphna Harrigan at 12:41 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

<

Do you want to come to the library some Friday night after we close to watch a movie? Even if you have already seen the movie, you can enjoy seeing a movie with your friends. And we provide the snacks. Unfortunately, I am not sure what movie to show. So far, the most common movie suggestion from the Teen Council was License to Wed and Transformers. Also, you need to let me know if Friday nights are good for you. I am thinking of doing this on Friday, November 9th. Make your comments here or email the teen librarian

Posted by Dymphna Harrigan at 02:31 PM | Permalink | Comments (3)