Lips - 360 review

I can't sing - my voice is so heroically bad, I would fail an audition for Jedward. Small children run, screaming, from the sound of my singing voice.  Cats actually cry  in my singing presence. You would think, then, that I'd try to avoid a karaoke game if at all possible.  You'd be wrong, I have no problem in making others suffer and I find the 360-exclusive sing-a-long-a-game Lips fantastic family-based fun. 


The game entails singing along, at the right time and pitch, to onscreen lyrics, thereby building your score (and/or receiving medals, the collection of which upgrades the overall rank conferred upon the player). Combos (continually hitting the right notes) build your score further (or not, in my case), as do motion-sensing actions with the mics (and 360 controller). At the end of each song, you are awarded a grade (from 'biscuit' to 'infinity' - quite a span) and can then view online scoreboards  to show how you're doing against the world  - I have somehow managed the 151st best version in the world of Mirror in the Bathroom by The Beat (maybe only 151 people had sung it).

You can sing solo, against another player, or in duet and there are a few singing minigames (stopping a bomb exploding; kissing; vocal duelling)  available, which I'm not a fan of, certainly compared to the main singing game (yes, I'm not that good at them).


Strictly speaking, it is my daughter's game rather than mine, bought for her for Christmas 2008, at the end of a lengthy carpet-bombing advertising campaign for it on children's TV. The initial 40 songs with the first  Lips weren't that great, I think as a result of having to cover too many genres in order to appeal to the widest market possible (as a new franchise). I don't think there is much crossover between fans of The Cure and Lupe Fiasco, for example (I didn't even know what a Lupe Fiasco was when I got the game). That being said, there were some gems on that first disk - I certainly brought tears to my family's eyes with my rendition (almost in the CIA sense) of Depeche Mode's Personal Jesus and I'm sure Robert Smith was spinning in his woolly pully at my version of Just Like Heaven.

Songs have been available for download from Xbox Live since the game was released, in order to boost the game's longevity (and Microsoft's bulging coffers). Just like the evil Nick O'Teen (readers under the age of 35 - google it), the first hit was free (Take on Me by a-Ha) but  additional songs have been 160 MS points each, with new songs added to Xbox Live every week. It seems to me that the types of songs released, unsurprisingly, have an American slant - there have often been acts I've never heard of. And that's not just because I'm old (probably).  There have been some decent ones among the dross, though - I've probably downloaded about ten songs since my daughter was given the game.  You can also add songs from external sources.

Late last year, a first 'proper' expansion pack was issued, Lips Number Ones, which I steered clear of as there was little on there that I was interested in among the Lips-standard 40 tracks.  Two further disks have been released this year, both of which I have, Party Classics and I Love the 80s. As you can tell from the titles, both games are nostalgia-fests for 30-somethings (result!) and there are plenty of both disks that my family and I am more than happy to sing/wail along to. 


Essentially, that is what Lips comes down to - having a good time singing along with family and friends.  This is not a hardcore game, nor is it a game that lends itself to solo play - wanting to pretend to be Tony Hadley, in a front of a TV, on your own, would be quite an interesting character trait, to say the least.  However, if you're after a fun, party game and aren't too bothered about making yourself look daft, Lips is a worthy choice.

How old is too old?

I'm 30-something.  It says so there, at the top of the page.  30-something.  39 to be precise - it was my birthday last week (quite possibly the last that I will publicly own up to). 

So, aren't I a little too old to be playing games? To paraphrase top Disney Channel TV show Phineas & Ferb, 'no - no I'm not'.

I've always scoffed at this question and stated that gaming is not something bound by age.  I've often quoted statistics about the average age of gamers being higher than the uninformed observer (i.e. non-gamer) would expect (though now I think that I am pulling that average upwards).  When I've felt pompous, I've said  'you don't stop playing games because you get old, you get old because you stop playing games'.

However, last year this belief was shaken when my brother came to stay at my house for a weekend, for his 50th birthday.  Twelve-thirteen years ago - i.e. when he was about the age I am now - I lived with my brother for a couple of years, when I first started working in London and didn't earn enough to afford a place of my own.  At that time, he was an avid gamer - PC FPSs mainly but he also had a PlayStation and played the big games of the time (Resident Evil, Tomb Raider and the like).

I had planned, on his 50th weekend, to get some co-op gaming in with him but he said hadn't really played games  since his mid-forties.  We started playing Left 4 Dead on split-screen co-op - an FPS, so nothing he would have been unfamiliar with, gameplay-wise -   and he was hopeless, barely able to aim. Or walk in a straight line. Or pathfind at all, actually. Dying though, he was an expert at.  We gave it up as a bad lot before even reaching the first safe house.

That led me to think that if he could turn from being a keen gamer to being completely out of the gaming loop, could that happen to me?  I'd like to think not, that gaming has been a large part of my life for nearly thirty years (with a brief gap in the late eighties/early nineties, when I was priced out of the market by the Amiga and the ST) and that I wouldn't just stop.  Apart from anything else, I'd need to find something else to spend my money on.

But this isn't something that anyone can be sure of. I'm certainly enjoying my gaming now as much as I ever have - as I've said before, I think we are now in what will be looked back at in years to come as a golden age for gaming.  I'd like to think that I will  keep plugging on with gaming, as long as it is enjoyable to me (something that I hope will continue for many years to come).  If game developers maintain the level of quality and innovation as they have in recent years, my worries should be foundless.  Hopefully.  But what of my blog and, more pertinently, its title?

When I used to read the 2000AD comic in the eighties and nineties, the subject of what would the comic be called when the millenium passed was raised sporadically in the letters page.  When the year 2000 came, the publishers kept the name - at the end of the day, you don't shoot your brand.  2000AD launched in 1977, when the year 2000 was a long way off (certainly longer than the expected life-span of a sci-fi comic).  I started this blog when I only had 18 months left of being a 30-something anything, let alone gamer.  Maybe that was because, subconsciously (or pretentiously - you choose), I was fearing not being a 30-something any more and wanted to plant my flag in that decade, rather than move on into my forties (though I haven't completely ruled out being hunted down in a Logan's Run -esque fashion - the Tories are back in now, after all).  Or maybe I just didn't think that far ahead - I'm not one for forethought (just ask my wife).

I think, when I'm forty, I'll just go the way of 2000AD and keep with the same name  - just don't tell your local trading standards officer.  Maybe I'll stick a disclaimer banner at the top of the site...

Split/Second Velocity Demo

Split/Second Velocity is a Burnout-style racer, wherein the player  can destroy the track-side scenery, thereby taking out fellow racers and remodelling the race circuit while it's being raced on.  Imagine Lewis Hamilton being able to explode the Fairmont Hotel during the Monaco Grand Prix, while Sebastian Vettel was driving through the tunnel underneath and you have a fair idea of what the game is about.

A one-track demo has recently been released on Xbox Live and (even more recently) on PSN and I've spent quite a bit of time on it.  I'm not a great fan of 'proper' racing titles, like the Forza series, as they require more gaming time for the player to get to a decent level than I have at my disposal.  I prefer arcade racers, such as Burnout, where there is more emphasis on fun than simulation.  Split/Second Velocity is very much in the latter camp - there aren't many simulations where you can bring about the crash landing of an airplane onto the racetrack (fair enough, it is set in an airport) while the race is still going on.

I've played the single race  available (three laps) and each time the race was different, due to the destruction of the track.  Although these can only be actioned at certain pre-defined points on the track (having first powered up a drift & draft powered gauge), I was still seeing fresh changes on my eighth or ninth play through of the same track.  I do wonder if this level of invention can be kept up for the whole game - it is one thing to be bowled over by half an hour on a free demo and another thing entirely to be content with  hours of what has become repetitious gameplay having spent £30 on a new game.  However, I saw enough in the demo to make it  very likely that I will buy the game when released.  Unfortunately for the publisher, it is out (in the UK) on 21 May - the same day as my most anticipated game of the year, Red Dead Redemption, so Split/Second Velocity will have to wait until my Wild West adventures are over.