Lips Comments by Tom Bramwell

Community features really is that what you want - I own Singstar the community features are shit, to me the biggest draw is the fact the microphones are a higher quality than most.

Only buy this if you can't get Singstar? A five I would never buy. And how about only buy this if you can't get SingStar, Rockband or Guitar Hero World Tour? ;)

what? and they needed 2 pages to come up with this score?

I wish the reviewer had spent more time actually playing the game properly, as opposed to trying to confound it. It's fair enough if he said we tried it with good singers and bad singers and they all scored the same, and to illustrate this I shoved it up my ass repeatedly to the tune of God Save the Queen by the Sex Pistols and got a perfect score, but no, we get this somewhat puerile attack instead. I just say this as I imagine most people would actually sing into the mic, and not drag it across the floor during parties.

That being said, maybe this just isn't that good. Although I note the initial Metacritic scores are much better than a 5.

edit: Clarity

Shame. This looked like a really good game, and not just a lame rushed out fecking shit rip off that should be scored with a Stanley knife and then kicked in the road.

You're right, Aspic, RB doesn't feature any recording. (Not sure about GHWT, now they've got that whole "studio" concept going on.) But yikes, does anybody really want that?? :)

"Which is why we don't trust most websites with reviews :P "

Fair point.

Not really a surprise, though I still hope it puts pressure on Sony to release wireless mics soon. Don't think I can go much longer without SingStar and I just hate wires... :(

The problem I see with this review was that it was less about Lips and any thing positive that could be found in the game and more about "How dare Microsoft try and challenge our precious Singstar." I currently own Singstar, and the features I use the least are the record video/Audio for posting online. My friends and I use it for good old fashion Karaoke and fun. The online features are good and nice to have, but mean nothing to me.

The problem I do have with Singstar is that their Song selection is TERRIBLE, I mean absolutely abysmal. From what I have read, the songs released on the initial lips disk are better that what I have seen to date on Singstar, and that my friend is just sad. Also, you can hum along in singstar also instead of singing the song also, don't believe me, give it a try. It's really a question of how you want to play the game.

The wireless microphones and the interactiveness they bring should have been a plus, additionally the fact that friends can use the other controllers to add to the fun should have also been given kudos.

I am disapointed with your review Tom Bramwell, because I didn't get to learn much about Lips, because you were too busy protecting Singstar and Sony London instead of giving a PROFESSIONAL review.

Thanks for nothing.

I was hoping this would provide some much needed competition to Sony so that they would pull their fingers out regarding wireless mics, stop padding their updates out with [European country] Idol [2nd / 3rd / 4th place finishers] and acts only the record label has heard of.

Alas, given the flaws described in the review maybe not. Could be OK for offline play if everyone agrees not to, erm, rub the mic up and down their leg or across the carpet, I suppose. Like the comment before me, I've never really used the community feature of Singstar (apart from to watch OTHER people embarass themselves :D )

I dunno. 5/10 is pretty, well, average. I can't afford to spend £40 on average right now. What to do, what to do?

no adjustable difficulty level? that is very surprising. Wait for the next version.

@ trebell -

I was trying to see how they got from their glowing preview to this.. then i realised they were written by different people.

Yeah, although having spoken to Tom about this earlier in the week, I think we're at the same conclusion. The stuff Lips tries to do is great - wireless mics, acknowledging singing features like vibrato and drop-off... Hell, even the motion sensitive stuff is a step up. That's all stuff we've wanted Singstar to do for ages.

On the other hand, an empty DLC store, no community features and a distinctly buggy game... Well, that's stuff I didn't see for the preview (which was carried out at a "party" preview event Microsoft arranged, so it was a fairly controlled environment), but it certainly came through clearly when Tom played final code on his own machine.

It's a huge shame. iNIS are a great company, and Lips does some things really well - but Singstar is still way out in front here. More than anything else, I'd hoped that this would set a fire under Sony's backside to improve Singstar. It doesn't look like it'll cause them to lose any sleep, though :(

I just don' understand - Eurogamer's preview made this game sound so promising. Why would they be so misleadsing?

@Shinji: Don't you think Microsoft will put up a patch online quite soon. I mean, the bugs should be quite fixable...
Add to that, there's more than 4 weeks to go until christmas so they might press a button and bring some DLC up.
But again, it is only valid as an argument if Lips gets re-reviewed.

Masarin: Both of those things are possible, but I certainly wouldn't buy the game until such time as one or both of them actually happen. I actually had an Amazon pre-order for Lips, on the strength of what I'd seen at Microsoft's preview event - after talking to Tom about it, I cancelled the pre-order (swapped it for Rock Band 2, actually).

If they patch it and get some decent DLC up, then I'll happily pick the game up later, but I'm not paying full price, day one, for the game in this state.

@Shinji no community features

Could you please elaborate on that? The review didn't go into much detail. Is it just the lack of recording features or is there more to it? I couldn't care less about video recording, although audio recording would indeed be a very welcome feature.

The bugs and the broken scoring system are really unfortunate, I hope they attempt to fix it soon, but the lack of DLC doesn't surprise me as the game just launched.

@Shinji: thanks for that response, much appreciated.

So can you turn of the original voice and do actual Karaoke or is this Singstar style where you have to sing over the original singer?

Shame, I don't give a fig about singing games and don't own a 360, but the preview on this sounded good on paper and like it might give old singstar a kick up the arse.

Yeah, looks like a rip off and you wouldn't expect this kind of stuff to have glitches, I wouldn't at least...

Ooooh, someone's a bit touchy. Try asking Santa for a sense of humour this Xmas.

Anyhow, I was kinda hoping that this would get rave reviews. It would hopefully force the Singstar team to put a bit more effort into Sony's cashcow.

Mediocre review/sales for lips will only let them off the hook.

Rubbing the game against your leg and you win... Well probably sounds better than beyonce anyway.

Couldnt care less about this anyway, only play singstar when i'm really drunk with my girlfriend.

"Fair point, but the one thing GHWT lacks (and I assume RB/RB2 is the same although I don't know for sure) is the ability to play back your attempts at singing"

What RB2 and GHWT are also lacking is 2 player singing. SingStar and Lips both provide that, and for karaoke parties I consier that a pretty big deal.

I think RB and GH are great games, but they are not suitable for more general parties. The entry barrier is pretty steep, and watching people play GH is hardly entertaining for the audience. Lips and SS on the other hand could be dug out at pretty much any party and you could trust a fair number of people to get involved (or just enjoy watching others play).

So comparing the two sets of games side by side is nothing more than a personal decision (i.e. what do you want to spend your money on). You can't really say "X is better than Y" in a more general sense, as it all depends on the context of their use.

And can someone explain the appeal of this whole "singing along to your own music" business?

If they can remove vocals and add lyrics then I am totally sold, but if that isn't there.... well, I can already sing along to my own music. I've been doing it for as long as I can remember, for free.

kangarootoo : well if this actually worked then there would be competition in it trying to get the tones and timing right like in singstar, just like guitar hero... I admit that singstar is fun to play when you are drunk and lots of casual gamers likes it (girls who would never buy for example a ps2 if it wasnt for singstar).

@clean515

Oh I agree that comparisons can be made regarding the basic gameplay and technology, but I mean that if you look at the bigger package and the situations in which the game would be suitable for use, I don't see GH and Lips as quite being in the same ballpark (not in the way that GH and RB are, or that Lips and SingStar are).

"your singing is rated according to pitch and timing rather than exact notes."

You do realise an exact note is basically only pitch and timing (with the optional addition of dynamics).

What you mean, Eurogamer, is "your singing is rated according to pitch and timing rather than exact words and lyrics." Because the game picks up the pitch and timing bat doesn't have the Endwar engine to understand the words.

"I wish the reviewer had spent more time actually playing the game properly, as opposed to trying to confound it."

Agreed. Playing the game like it's supposed to be played, I haven't noticed any problems.

Being a fan of singing to my telly with friends, I have several iterations of SingStar, Rock Band and now Lips. Lips is easily our singing favorite, if it wasn't for Sony's now considerable tracklist.

The vibrato and movement add a lot to the game. I actually like not having to select a difficulty level - it's scoring your performance (I always lose to my wife, as in every other singing game), but you never fail, which isn't good for a party atmosphere in the first place. The SingStar & Rock Band way of forcing you to copy the original singer pitch-perfect is just torture for your voice on the higher difficulties - not a good approach. I always sing "medium" on Rock Band despite being perfectly capable of upping it. It's about performing, not scoring.

Regarding the online thing, yeah, probably a missed opportunity. Then again, I have never and will never play these games online or alone - they're meant for party use anyway.

DLC being a way off is a given, this being a new title. I'm willing to give Microsoft a chance to back it up. That said, we've found Lips on-disc selection a lot better than any of the recent SingStar outings.

"I am disapointed with your review Tom Bramwell, because I didn't get to learn much about Lips, because you were too busy protecting Singstar and Sony London instead of giving a PROFESSIONAL review.

Thanks for nothing."

Who is arbitrator, the creator of this game?

Just one thing, I have already played it and it crashes when I plug in my iPod! This is the main thing they sell as innovative and it just doesn't work.
Anyone wants some cheap buggy Lips?

I would be interested in a 2nd hand copy.

By the evidence of these comments I would say Tom's review wasn't informative enough to let people decide weather they want this game. All I could tell was it wasn't as good a SS, GH or RB, but I didn't want those games any way. I want a respectible but cheap Xbox Karoake machine for Xmas.

I'm sold on the track list, though.

Well after I cancelled my Amazon pre-order my girlfriend went and bought it today anyway! £36.99 from Woolies...... the woman behind the counter used some sort of 10% off code.

Hmmm... Microsoft, stick to your hyped-up testosterone fuelled FPSs and leave the casual stuff to Sony and Nintendo!!!

I dont like this review it seems like the normally brilliant Tom was having a bad day.

Maybe the guy that did the preview should have reviewed this, Sorry Tom but it seems you were just bashing this for daring to improve on singstar.

Eurogamer should vet these reviews if the preview & review are way off the mark.

I think it's a bit unfair to bash a new game for lack of DLC when SingStar's been around for ages... they're not going to have that level of content available on launch day after all.

Bugs, on the other hand... bugs are very irritating, and a lack of difficulty levels is a little worrying. I'm a trained singer - does that mean I'm going to be able to get perfect scores most of the time because it's not fussy enough and I have no trouble singing in tune or in time on songs I know?

I don't know if it's worth the risk to get... or maybe I should just stick to real singing and go play some more Fable 2.