posted 01-11-2007 04:25 PM         

Since I got it for the Little Nut as a nineth birthday present in mid-Summer, Guitar Hero (and since November Guitar Hero II) has absolutely dominated the PS2's time for us both. Nothing else has come close.

Since the games have sold something like half a million copies, and its pretty much impossible to walk through an electronics store without seeing it demo-ed, I suppose there's not much point in describing the game or how it works. The coolest aspect, by far, for us Nuts, is the two player mode. Whether head to head or in co-op mode, the Little Nut and I can, literally, jam for hours at a time together.

The kicker is that this is a game that the Little Nut has well supassed me in proficiency. His high scores are consistently higher, and he's succeeded in completing every song in the original game on expert level (a very similar achievement to beating Mission 34), while he has only two songs left to beat on expert level in GHII. His old man is considerably less proficient at working his way through expert level song charts.

On a whole level beyond the game, the experience has awakened the Little Nut's appreciation for music in ways that his previously frustrated musician parents could not. This enthusiasm has culminated in the purchase a real electric guitar for the Little Nut as a Christmas present. It's an enthusiasm that has been blunted somewhat at the realization of how much harder the real instrument is, but he's working on his chords. He'll get there.

posted 02-05-2007 08:40 PM         

A younger friend of mine has it and likes it alot, he also does play the real thing.

My wife has Dance Dance Revolution and makes me play with her. Also wants to get guitar Hero. She has also played the Karaoke game and liked that one.
She is turning into quite the gamer.

posted 02-07-2007 05:08 AM         

Speaking of which, kids getting an interest in music early on is a great thing. My Mum insisted on me learning the piano at school, even though I just wanted to play the drums. Her reasoning was that 'there's always pianos around' so you could play songs at parties etc. Those piano lessons taught me a few things - I'm rubbish at reading music and music theory, I have no sense of pitch whatsoever and apparently my mother grew up in an Oscar Wilde play as I've never been to anyone's house that has a piano in it. Instead, I wish I'd taken up the guitar, which if you want to take to someone's house to play and they don't have one, you can just sling yours over your shoulder and go.

posted 04-25-2007 06:50 AM         

That game is alot of fun. So much fun that after playing for 30 minutes my wife and i have decided that we are getting the game ourselves.
I chose to order it online and hopefully it gets here before the weekend.
There are some really great songs in GH2, and playing 2 player is great. You can really "rock" out with the other player.

posted 05-05-2007 07:08 AM         

We have played the past 2 nights and i'm working my way through medium level trying to unlock songs.

posted 05-28-2007 08:41 PM         

quote:

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Originally posted by Lugnut:
Yesterday's announcement that Guitar Hero 3 would be on the shelves in the fall contained an especially welcome bit of news for me: it will be available for PS2, as well as PS3 and XB360. One more reason I won't feel pressured into buying a new platform.

How's the shredding going N8?

---

A gamestop that I stopped at before I ordered GH2 told me that GH3 would most likely be the last game that will be made for PS2. Although they said they wouldn't be startled to hear that it was canceled. So Lugnut for you I hope they will make the game for PS2 as they've announced.

Myself I have completed the game at the Medium level and now I've gone back to try and get 5 stars on all of the songs on Easy level. I only have 3 left on that so I will be able to unlock the guitar you get for accomplishing that.
Then depending on how my hands feel I may try to get somewhere on the Hard level. My left hand pinkie has been sore form trying to get certain buttons pressed so I actually needed to take some time off. It feels sprained. How sad is that?

posted 05-28-2007 09:06 PM         

quote:

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Originally posted by N8:
My left hand pinkie has been sore form trying to get certain buttons pressed so I actually needed to take some time off. It feels sprained. How sad is that?

---

During last year's playoffs, the Tigers' closer was unavailable for the ALCS due to a mysterious strain in his right wrist. After a careful evaluation, the doctor admitted he was perplexed, as it was a repetitive motion injury inconsistent with pitching, but commonly found in guitarists. At which point, the guy fessed up that he'd become a Guitar Hero junkie.

The Little Nut had the same problem with overdoing it, so we had to adopt a 45 minute rule in the house.

posted 08-30-2007 04:35 PM         

I will probably wait another month or so but from what I've seen there are some really great songs on it.
I was originally confused as I thought that GH3 was the 80's edition. When I was told how stupid I was I was happy because that meant that if GH3 is available for the PS2 then there would be 2 more GH games released for the PS2 before they stopped making games for it. This way I can wait a couple of years before I need guitars for the PS3.

posted 08-30-2007 06:34 PM         

As software, it is one of the most slapdash pieces of junk ever marketed since "Zero Wing". All they did was port GH2 with new songs and a new color pallette. They didn't even bother to port over all the features, e.g. fewer venues, and fewer characters. At the venue where the encore was "War Pigs" in GH2, the siren from WP inappropriately sounds off at the beginning of the new song ported in for '80s edition. They were too lazy and slapdash to notice/remove the siren effect in that song slot. It is just smack-you-in-the-face insultingly lazy programming, being sold at full, new game price. It's outrageous.

That being said, you don't play this game for the fancy programming. You play it for the songs. I'm definately more of a fan of the new song list than in either of the previous two editions. Of course, I'd be even happier with a '70s edition. The best part, though, is that they've tweaked the gameplay just a tiny bit, and now it's actually possible to execute hammer-ons and pull-offs on a consistent basis without being a GH obsessive. It might actually be just a bit too easy, as in just a few weeks, I had more songs five-starred on expert in 80s edition than in did in GH1 and GH2 combined. But at the bottom of the list, where the evil songs lurk, there are still impossible charts that I can't even finish on expert level. Not that I've tried so hard, because they still default to speed-metal and punk material to force the impossible button mashing on you. I don't have a lot of interest in listening to that material, so it goes mostly unplayed, much less unmastered.

posted 09-11-2007 03:47 PM         

You'll have to turn up the volume since my recording equipment consists of a $5 camera that happens to have a microphone.

posted 09-11-2007 08:30 PM         

Nice to see you after all these years, mate :tup:.

I forget the film from which I get this off-hand complimentary phrase but "Been practising, huh?" (I have the mental image of Harrison Ford saying it, dont know why).

Dangsteen indeed :tup:

posted 09-12-2007 05:56 PM         

My 'electric blues' blade is a hand made, Gordon Smith Custom Les Paul SG (the ones that Gibson reckon he makes better than them ).

I did have a Eko Rio Grande acoustic that was my first guitar but my missus killed that a couple of years ago by knocking it flying off it's stand and splitting the soundboard - she's tried to make amends by buing me a couple of Eko's since but they've either had something wrong with them or just not been right for me. She still lives so I must love her .

I recently bought a pair of electro acoustics by Crafter, one in green for me and one in purple for her, with the intent of teaching her to play. That's not going so good (I suspect it to be in the same category of teaching your lady to drive !).

posted 09-13-2007 01:11 PM         

Nice fretwork there Dango! With you and Sukie, I'd do the drumming, maybe we can make a GTBN band. Who wants to do bass or vocals?

posted 09-19-2007 06:40 AM         

quote:

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Originally posted by Dango:

And who is P. Diddy??

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The rap artist formerly known as Puff Daddy.

posted 09-20-2007 08:06 AM         

------------------
Asphalt Kannibals
Did somebody mention TVR's?

posted 09-20-2007 01:31 PM         

quote:

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Originally posted by Sukerkin:
I think you missed a 'c' out of one of those words there [b]N8 :lol:.

[/B]

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It took me 3 hours to figure this one out. And then I laughed so hard I pee'd my pants. Thanks Sukie!

Man, am I slow.

posted 11-05-2007 12:06 PM         

I think I may have finally found a reason to embrace the next generation of game systems.

First a backgrounder. The folks who made the first two Guitar Hero games did not make the third one. Due to a bunch of corporate buyouts not worth detailing here, the GHIII game was made by a software company best known for the Tony Hawk skateboard games. Meanwhile, Harmonix, the folks that made GH and GHII, have brought a new game to market, "Rock Band".

RB has a much greater ambition than to be 'the other guitar game'. Every song has four tracks, one each for guitar, bass, drums and singer. There will be drum pad peripherals as well as microphone peripherals (which will probably work similar to the Singstar games). The game looks good. The Little Nut blew away the teenagers at Best Buy when he grabbed the guitar and selected 'expert' level to play "Tom Sawyer", then realed off a 92% performance sight reading--while singing all the lyrics. That's my boy!

Anyway, if you get the nextgen version, you'll be able to hook up with people online and jam, as well as access downloadable content. And not just the old crap they already licensed or obscure, unknown stuff. Among the first things that will be offered as a download will be the entire "Who's Next" album, and a collection of the best of Greatful Dead. Now that's *my* kind of downloadable content.

posted 11-13-2007 02:18 PM         

First, with the hefty boodle netted from the first two games, comes an expanded budget for development, and that is reflected in game content. They licensed the images of Tom Morello, Slash and Brett Michaels for the game, licensed original recorded versions (instead of the usual covers) for several of the songs, and even paid to get the original Sex Pistols /1/ to re-record a new version of "Arnarchy in the UK" as a game-exclusive recording. These are all welcome upgrades, but as I work my way through another roster of 50% marginal song content, I can't help but think that the development money would have been better spent on licensing a Led Zepplin tune.

Other changes are not so welcome. They tinkered with the look of the fretboard and the colored dots that scroll at you. Why? I dunno. It does not improve, IMO, and only serves to distract as its initial impact of differentness interferes with concentration.

They've interposed boss battles at some of the career levels, which are much harder than the normal material (as boss battle are supposed to be in video games). I don't like that at all. Music is about being in harmony with your band mates, not trying to destroy them. It grinds against the previous character of the game, as well as the enterprise of making music in general, to hold your 'career' hostage to completing these boss battles.

The whole game is, in general, harder. I could always complete the hard level, and most of the expert level in prior editions. After the three day weekend, I'm stuck on tier 2 (of 8) on the hard level--at the first boss battle. The Little Nut is stuck at the final boss battle of the hard level. I watched him play the charts near the end of the hard level. Even if I make it past the bosses to there, I don't have a lot of faith I'll be able to get past the last couple of groups of songs on the hard level. They look ridiculously harder than 'hard' was before. Harder than most of 'expert was before.

The tradeoff for this is that the 'easy' level now allows you to unlock all songs in the game, including paying enough cash to buy the bonus songs, so access to the song content is no longer so restricted as it once was. Thank Neversoft for small favors, I guess.

I'll get plenty of entertainment out of this, warts and all, but I'm still more favorably impressed by the "Rock Band" demo than I am by the newest incarnation of Guitar Hero.

posted 01-08-2008 09:01 AM         

GHIII:

I made it all the way to the final level at Hard difficulty, but I can only beat one of the songs on that final level, Eric Johnson's "Cliffs of Dover". It also so happens that that's the only tune on the final level I like, the others being heavy metal ear-bleeders. I think my inability to bring myself to practice the metal garbage has something to do with my inability to complete these songs. I made it about 2/3 of the way through expert level before things just got too hard for me. I really do think they made GHIII too hard this time.

Meanwhile, Little Nut is a great deal less daunted by difficulty levels, and doesn't feel compelled to work his way through his own career. Once I did the grunt work of unlocking all the songs, he changed over to just picking his favorite songs to play. His top two are Tenacious D's "The Metal" and Dragonforce's "Through the Fire and Flames".

Rock Band:

Santa brought this for Christmas, but just the game-only version. Old GH guitars work with it. I'll have to pick up a drum pad controller later, when they start having stock to sell.

It was a big initial disappointment with the Little Nut that the PS2 version of the Rock Band game has all the window dressing stripped out. You're just down to working your way through a songlist of 58 songs, unlocking them. All the unlockable goodies, career advancement videos, etc., that are in the next-gen versions of the game are missing. Plus, as I mentioned before, the next-gen versions of the game will have lots of cool downloads of song packages. One step closer to the day I break down and get the next gen game system, I guess.

I hurt my back before Christmas, and haven't been able to play much, because I can't sit up without pain. Still, I've managed to work my way through the songlist to the final level at hard difficulty. It's a lot easier than GHIII--about at the same level of difficulty as the earlier GH games. Songlist is the usual hit-n-miss. Some of them pin my 'Awesome Meter' ("Tom Sawyer", "Won't Get Fooled Again"). Some of them make me scratch my head and wonder what the definition of music is.

posted 01-09-2008 08:34 PM         

I haven't picked up any new GH games yet as I'm still plugging away at GHII. I've almost gotten 5 stars on all the songs on medium and I've finished only 1 song on hard.
The fret board on hard moves so much quicker than on medium that I can't keep up. I've only just tried it so I hope to at least get part way through hard.

posted 01-10-2008 09:24 AM         

quote:

---

Originally posted by N8:
Wow that sure souds alot like a Boss battle.

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Yep, which is why I don't like it. The attraction of a game like GH lies strongly in it's not being like other video games. In a lifetime of musicianship, I've never had a boss battle on stage. Cramming that idea into this game is beyond stupid. It is antithetical to the fundamental character of the game that is the basis for its appeal.

quote:

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Lugnut, I still don't know if i want 80's or GHIII yet.

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I'd give first consideration to the songlists. Other than that, I'd say that you'll probably be happier with '80s, based on where you say you're at, skill-wise.

posted 04-28-2008 10:27 AM         

As I revealed in the “Console Conundrum” thread, I bought the PS3, and bought Rockband to go with it.

Rockband for PS3 is about as different from Rockband for PS2 as a “Prologue” GT game is to the full version. It’s the same songlist in each game, but in the PS2 version, the fun pretty much begins and ends with playing the songs. There’s almost nothing in the way of features, and this makes the career mode kind of pointless for anything other than doing once to unlock all the songs.

The PS3 version makes a true gaming experience out of career mode, and especially out of a multi-person band tour. To begin with, you can personalize an avatar musician. Don’t underestimate the amusement value in this (after all, it’s just about 90% of the amusement value of “The Sims”, which people seem to like). Let’s give it up for that hot new band: “Glass Axis”! My guitar-wielding avatar, “Daddio” looks like a long-haired Elvis Costello; the Little Nut went with a Mohawk punker look for his drummer, whom he named, with more than a bit of ironic smirking, “Billfold”; and Mrs. Nut’s front-woman singer for our band is a leggy blond Amazon named “Enchantress”. We also created a fourth, generic avatar (name of “Fred”) for the Little Nut’s stream of friends who will sit in with Glass Axis on guitar or bass (depending on their inclination or talent level—Daddio is flexible about which axe he’ll wield).

In just a couple sessions, Glass Axis opened up a wide variety of venues and gigs to play, ranging from single songs, to multi-song sets, some customize-able, some “by request”—frequently, the songs to be played in a set are a mystery, or random—and some song sets consist of as many as five songs (so far!). You can focus on unlocking individual songs, go charging up the ladder through all the goals, e.g. earn a van, earn a tour jet, earn roadies, earn a record contract, etc., or you can meander through the fairly wide variety of gigs and venues. It’s the first one of these games with real options about doing career mode. Sure beats the un-customize-able linear slog through the songlist that defines career mode in all the PS2 GH/Rockband games.

And everything is just better. Graphics are better, not just eye-candy wise, but function wise. Mrs. Nut complained of being unable to read the scrolling lyrics in the PS2 version. Not a problem any more. Bigger, brighter visual cues for guitarists and drummers to follow, too, are also helpful for success. The sound is awesomely better. The guitar controller allows you to customize (however limited) some effects for solos and star power sections. If the band really gets rockin’, the crowd starts to sing along. Serious fun! And, of course, with all the bread Glass Axis earns, new customizing clothes, axes, etc. can be purchased.

posted 04-28-2008 07:29 PM         

It seems that you didn't have much to do this afternoon with all of the typing.

I believe I'm using my portion of our economic stimulus to buy Rock Band for the PS3.

posted 05-08-2008 11:05 AM         

The downloaded song *package* (of Police tunes) self-installed, but the downloaded *individual* songs don't self-install. Not that installation is tough. Just click on the file icon under the data management menu, but hey, I didn't know that. Had me scratching my head for a couple minutes when half the songs I'd just downloaded didn't show up in the song menu.

Downloaded songs may be used in the band career mode, when gigs of mystery/random setlists are selected. Glass Axis did such a gig last night, a three song setlist randomly selected by the game, and the first song to pop up was the freshly downloaded "Working Man", by Rush. I thought the Little Nut was going to have an infarction, he was so excited.

posted 05-08-2008 03:48 PM         

quote:

---

Originally posted by Lugnut:
... I can't imagine a new version being offered unless/until a major overhaul of the game can be offered to the market as an improvement.

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Try for example here: http://www.fender.com
and here: http://www.mesaboogie.com/

posted 09-30-2008 02:04 PM         

The career mode for Rockband has turned out to have incredible depth to it, in terms of holding our interest. In additional to the family band, Glass Axis, the Little Nut and I created our own two man band, Flaming Idiots, to pursue a career between us. We recently achieved "Legendary" status after completing the "Endless Setlist", a challenge to play all 56 songs in the original song package straight through in one set. Even after that, we continue to play as Flaming Idiots, and there are a lot of gigs and setlists we haven't even done yet.

We also now have over 90 songs in our song catalog for Rockband, a fair margin above the 56 we started with. We recently downloaded the entire "Moving Pictures" album, by Rush. Previous group downloads include packs of songs by The Who, Grateful Dead, Jimmy Buffet and the Police, plus a number of odds and ends ranging from The Monkeys to Blondie to Nirvana. I understand that there are over 200 downloadable songs available now.

Best news of all: when Rockband II comes out for the PS3 later this month, every song I downloaded for Rockband will port to Rockband II *and* 53 of 56 of the original Rockband songs will port as well (I assume licensing issues are preventing the three that won't). My 90 song library will remain intact as I had the 80 or so new songs that will come with the new game. I also understand that the old instrument controllers will work with Rockband II, and that the game maker has contracted with third parties to produce whole lines of new peripherals. Including, apparently, an insane new drum kit that, at full bells and whistles level, includes 4 hanging cymbals and a double bass pedal setup--all for a mere $300.