Austin is a strange city – a slogan and imperative proudly displayed on the back of many t-shirts there. The burg seems hell-bent on quirky and cultural exhibition, explicitly featuring that which should be implicit with human existence. This is mostly appreciated; my yearly trips to the Austin Game Developer’s Conference accompany stops in odd diners and arcades, though at times the city’s broadcasted oddities can reach the annoying timbre of a fiercely non-conformist, rebellious teenager. 

 

Dallas, my perennial roosting ground, features a different tone. Here, culture is entirely incidental to business. Tall buildings line the city’s popular highways, while art districts are constantly sacrificed to the growth of urban sprawl. Established cultural centers like the Dallas Museum of Art or the Meyerson Symphony Orchestra fight uphill battles to stay alive (as their constant harassment for donation can attest), while more underground musical venues and street murals stand forever on the precipice of destruction, all for the sake of a new DART station.

                      

These different takes on city culture are analogous to Neversoft’s and Harmonix’s annual music game entries, Guitar Hero 5 and The Beatles: Rock Band respectively. Neversoft takes the Dallas approach regards game design, prioritizing sound mechanics and traditional challenge over other concerns. Their focus is to make a video game and the rest is merely overhead. Conversely, Harmonix produces work intensely respectful of music culture. Their games are mechanically solid, but at the same time feature the compulsions of those that love music so intensely that they can’t help but go the extra mile to show it.