[UPDATE] 2.11.11: I’ve taken the Vaults offline to conserve bandwidth. I’d be happy to sell them to the highest bidder…. [/update]

OK, not really over, but I couldn’t resist the callout to this week’s Rock Band DLC.

Here’s the deal. For Christmas this year, I’m giving myself a special gift: I’m putting Plastic Axe on hiatus. For how long? Not sure. Possibly forever.

Yes, I’m serious. I know that’s going to upset some of you fine people, and I’m genuinely sorry about that. But this is something that I’ve come to realize I need to do.

When I started Plastic Axe in August of 2009, I did it for a lot of reasons. One was that, due to the economy, I wasn’t getting as much freelance work as I had been, and I needed to stay busy. One was that none of the big games sites seemed to be giving music games the respect they deserved. And of course, one reason was that I have this unreasonable love for music games and I wanted to share it with you all.

But things have changed since then.  Continue reading →

Now, you will probably want to keep an eye on The Twitters, because I’ll be retweeting stuff like mad, most likely, and posting commentary on anything significant. Beyond that, I’m sure RockBandAide would be happy to take care of all your Rock Band-related needs; and The Hero Feed and One of Swords can indulge your lust for Guitar Hero news.

I’ll be back on Thursday, November 4. Don’t break anything while I’m away, OK?

Now, now, don’t despair: I’ll only be gone a week, and posting should resume at its normal frequency on Monday, August 23 (just in time for a very special day — can you guess what?). And here, I’ll leave you in good hands: Tommy at RockBandAide will take good care of you in my absence if Rock Band news is what you crave, while Dan at One of Swords will keep you up to speed with any major Hero-style developments.

For everything else, you can consider this an open thread to share any music-game news you’ve come across on these great internets of ours. But remember: Any comment with two or more links in it will go into a moderation queue…and it’ll sit there until I get back, because I ain’t checking e-mail once while I’m away. (Yeah, I’m old-school like that.) So if you want to share more than one link, you’ll want to do it in separate posts, dig?

Be kind to each other while I’m away…and nobody announce anything important, OK? See you soon.

I’m not there yet.

But I wanted to drop a quick line and let you know I’m back, really, and in the process of putting together posts covering my experiences, as well as some of the things that slipped through the cracks while I was away. At the moment, here’s my plan for the next few days:

Today:

1. A massive RBN update — 20 new songs since last Tuesday’s post!
2. Hands-on with Rock Band 3.
3. Hands-on with Guitar Hero: Warriors of Rock.

Tuesday:

1. Details on the new tracks hitting the Rock Band music store (Miley Cyrus!).
2. Details on the new RBN tracks hitting PS3.
3. Details on the new Guitar Hero 5/Band Hero DLC.

Wednesday:

1. A look at the other new music games shown at E3. [In retrospect, there wasn't a lot to talk about in terms of games, so I lumped a bit of Power Gig talk in with #2.]
2. Some discussion of peripherals.
3. Perhaps some additional discussion of peripherals.

Thursday and Friday:

1. Whatever I don’t get to the previous three days.
2. And, presumably, an announcement of next week’s Rock Band DLC.

Sound good? Good. Look for this stuff to start rolling out in an hour or so. Got anything specific you’d like to know about the show? Drop me a line in comments!

Anyway, I wanted to let you know that tomorrow may be a bit light on posting around here. I’m hoping to be able to update the site regularly as I come across interesting stuff at PAX, but I don’t know how realistic that hope is. They do have a media room, but my E3 experiences have taught me that you can’t always count on such things.

However, if I can get reliable access, then look for me to be posting clear through the weekend, because there’s bound to be lots to talk about.

Either way, I should at the very least be able to update the Plastic Axe Twitter page regularly, so stay tuned to that for snippets of PAX-related goings-on.

And of course, if you’re going to PAX East yourself, and you happen to run into me in the halls, make sure to say hello! (I look sort of like this. Well, a lot like that, actually.) Look for the nearest music game or music-game peripheral. You will probably find me there.

True story: I’ve been trying to finish up this review since January, but kept getting handed new freelance projects I simply couldn’t turn down. So I’ve had my drum set sitting in my office, right behind my chair, for nearly two months now.

Yesterday I finally moved it back down into the basement, and now my office feels frighteningly large and echoey. I may have developed agoraphobia in the past few weeks. I don’t recommend it.

Anyway: I made you a review. I hope you like it.