Topic: Guitar Hero Thread

[PyroMenace]

I know some of you have it but I've only seen a few scant conversations here or there about it. I figured we can discuss it more in detail because I'm interested. I required it not too long ago from K-Man, I traded with him and got both Guitar Hero games and 2 guitar controllers for the PS2. Anyway I wanted to know how good have you guys gotten. I'm working my way slowly into it. I managed to get pretty decent at medium difficulty, actually I can play through all songs pretty easily on medium, theres like 1 or 2 I can't five star yet on the last tier. Now I'm finally stepping up to hard. Man the learning curve on this difficulty is much more steep. On GH2, I can't even finish but one song on the first tier, however on GH1 I managed to beat it. Its just shifting down to that last fret button fucks my bearings up on my fingers. Sometimes I can nail some more complex stuff, but then it'll get simple again and I'll start fucking up because I'll think my first finger is on the green fret button. Gah, is mind twisting!

[Quemaqua]

Pretty sure I've sort of talked about my experiences before, but they're brief, so I'll reiterate.

I don't own them, but they're lots of good quality fun.  Played them a good bit at my friend's house.  He and I are both guitarists, so the only thing we ever play on is expert.  I haven't actually tried any of the other settings.  Usually I get like halfway through a song and lose, but a few of the ones I know a little better that don't have outrageous solos I can get through nearly all the way.  I managed to complete like one or two, but I can't remember which ones.

I'd love to get it and play more, but... money.  Plus I have a real guitar that calls to me and kicks my ass for not playing enough.

[TheOtherBelmont]

I own both for the PS2 and love them.  I've gotten the first game 100% 5 starred on all difficulties except for the last 6 or 7 songs.  The second one I'm still having difficulty on Expert, I'm just stuck on Psychobilly Freakout, but I've only tried like 4 or 5 times, I should go back to it soon.  It really pisses me off because I know I can do YYZ, Hangar 18, and Misirlou on Expert.  I think its just because I don't know the song well enough or something.  I'll probably go back to it after I finish Prey unless I get Odin Sphere later this week.  Also, Pyro on the 2nd game, hammer ons and pull offs are your friends.

[PyroMenace]

Yea, I'm cruising through GH1 on hard. When it started to get tough, I retried the first tier on GH2... and its fucking hard as hell. Damnit, it's like GH2 tier 1 is equal to GH1 tier 5. 

[TheOtherBelmont]

Apparently Activision announced some songs for GHIII, here they are:

"Barracuda" - Heart
"Cherub Rock" - Smashing Pumpkins
"Cult of Personality" - Living Colour
"Knights of Cydonia" - Muse
"My Name is Jonas" - Weezer
"Paint It, Black" - The Rolling Stones
"Rock and Roll All Nite" - Kiss
"Sabotage" - Beastie Boys
"School's Out" - Alice Cooper
"Slow Ride" - Foghat
"The Metal" - Tenacious D

Some of those songs are cool, but god damn do I hate Tenacious D.  That Beastie Boys song will be interesting to play though.  They could have picked a better Smashing Pumpkins song too.  Here's the whole article for anyone interested

[Quemaqua]

Yeah, I gotta' say that list would make me pretty unhappy.  The Heart tune and the Stones tune are all right, and it's hard to hate Foghat even if that song is overplayed, but... I'll be damned if I'm ever going to support KISS being involved in anything.  Fucking worst band to ever walk the face of the earth.  The other stuff I don't like that much, don't think is appropriate, or in the case of the Muse tune, I don't know.

[TheOtherBelmont]

I keep hoping, that they will make a strictly metal version of Guitar Hero, since they are making a strictly 80's version for the PS2.  I don't see that happening though since Activision and MTV own the franchise now, the 80's version is probably just being made because of all the retarded 80's nostalgia going on right now.

[Quemaqua]

Yeah.  I'd give anything for a straight death metal GH.  I'd find the money for that if it happened... but it won't.  It just won't.

[scottws]

What the heck are hammer-ons and pull-offs?

[Quemaqua]

To hammer-on you're basically playing a string without picking it.  You're just coming down hard on it with your finger so that the note rings out.  To pull off, it's the opposite.  You're just pulling your finger off the string in such a way that the string plays without you picking it.

[DrSbaitso]

I'm slowly working my way through Expert...
right now I suck though. My strategy is pretty much to save up star power until the inevitable fast solo, at which point I activate it and hope it lasts long enough to get me through, all while blindly stabbing at some of the notes and hoping to get out of the red.

[scottws]

To hammer-on you're basically playing a string without picking it.  You're just coming down hard on it with your finger so that the note rings out.  To pull off, it's the opposite.  You're just pulling your finger off the string in such a way that the string plays without you picking it.

Since there are no strings on the GH2 controller, how does one perform this as TheOtherBelmont suggests?  This is a serious question.  I suck at hard mode.  I can't beat "Mother" for the life of me.  I get 95% of the way through and then the end toasts me.

[TheOtherBelmont]

Since there are no strings on the GH2 controller, how does one perform this as TheOtherBelmont suggests?  This is a serious question.  I suck at hard mode.  I can't beat "Mother" for the life of me.  I get 95% of the way through and then the end toasts me.

On the 2nd game there is a tutorial on both hammer ons and pull offs.  Its a weird thing to get used to but it helps out a lot on the later songs on Hard and Expert difficulty and just solos in general.

I'm slowly working my way through Expert...
right now I suck though. My strategy is pretty much to save up star power until the inevitable fast solo, at which point I activate it and hope it lasts long enough to get me through, all while blindly stabbing at some of the notes and hoping to get out of the red.

This is how most people first get through some of the songs on Expert, I know I sure as hell did.  Like I said earlier, do the hammer ons and pull offs tutorial (on the 2nd game) and get used to doing it and it makes the crazy solos a little more bearable.

[Quemaqua]

It's basically just pressing or letting off of the button at the right moment without flicking the switch.

[DrSbaitso]

Pretty much what Que said.
If you look carefully you'll see that some of the notes have a black outline, whereas some of them don't.
The ones that don't have the black outline you don't have to strum for, you can just press the fret (coloured) button at the right time.

[scottws]

Oh yeah I never did the tutorial.  But I've never noticed the black outline before.

[ren]

Mother is such an out of place song. It shouldn't be a first tier song at all.

Also, I challenge any of you at this game.

[iPPi]

I am trying to get a hold of the 360 version but have had no luck finding it yet.

[PyroMenace]

You know the most hardest thing about Guitar Hero is? If you get really frustrated at a song, you pretty much have to give up, because the game is practically impossible when you play pissed off. At least I can't do it. If a song starts to really get to me, I have to stop playing it move on to a different song. I found out when I'm relaxed is when I'm at my best. I've even discovered that not playing for a little while and coming back to the game, I'm like twice as good. I stopped playing the game for a couple weeks and found the medium difficulty mostly a cakewalk, so I stepped up to hard and I'm actually doing really well on GH1.

Also, playing the game while drunk is super awesome.

[wizall]

Also, playing the game while drunk is super awesome.

Hah, yup, no doubt.  I'm a lot mellower and less likely to get frustrated, which is no good. 

I'm still pretty crappy at this game, but it's a hell of a lot of fun.  I beat it on medium, but I'm working towards five stars on easy and medium before I start on hard.  I'm sort of dreading that fifth fret.

[PyroMenace]

Yes!!! I beat the first tier on GH2!! The song that was killing me was Woman, its insane. But with a little luck at randomly pressing buttons in a sloppy skillful manner I did it.

[TheOtherBelmont]

You know the most hardest thing about Guitar Hero is? If you get really frustrated at a song, you pretty much have to give up, because the game is practically impossible when you play pissed off. At least I can't do it. If a song starts to really get to me, I have to stop playing it move on to a different song. I found out when I'm relaxed is when I'm at my best. I've even discovered that not playing for a little while and coming back to the game, I'm like twice as good. I stopped playing the game for a couple weeks and found the medium difficulty mostly a cakewalk, so I stepped up to hard and I'm actually doing really well on GH1.

Yeah, I'm the same way.  I'll probably get through Psychobilly Freakout on Expert if I go back to it and try a few more times.

[scottws]

I don't think "Woman" is that bad.  It's so repetitive.

[ren]

It's just all those runs that make it hard. I can only 3 star it since it's hard to play them all on a single streak. But pretty much every song in the next few tiers is easy to 4 or 5 star.

[PyroMenace]

Have you ever came up to a hard ass solo, and somehow, you magically hit a good portion of it right? Almost like you let your fingers take control and they somehow hit the buttons accordingly for a few seconds? Then you get the most badass feeling ever. Yea... that just happened.

[scottws]

Yeah, definitely.  I don't even realize how I'm doing it.

[K-man]

Jordan on Expert can kiss my ass

[TheOtherBelmont]

Jordan on Expert can kiss my ass

Hahaha yeah, that song is brutal, probably one of the hardest if not the hardest song on the whole damn game.

[ren]

It's so much fun to play though! (until 51%)

[Pugnate]

Wow...Makers of Guitar Hero donate $2000 to help fansite.

edit: Post #3,200 for me

[MysterD]

Sweet news -- for the fansite, of course...

...Oh, And for Pug's post count.

[DrSbaitso]

Just beat Psychobilly Freakout on Expert... and surprisingly, it wasn't as hard as I thought it'd be. There are a lot of easier segments in the middle where you can get the rock meter back in the green, and Star Power helps you get through many of the crazy bits.

I can't seem to beat any of the songs in the final tier, though. Beast and the Harlot is pretty easy until around 75%, where it all goes to hell, every time. Even with Star Power. The annoying thing is that I always die one note away from the long slow notes. It's happened like four times in a row now.

[NatchDan]

So I traded in that faulty MP3 player I mentioned in the podcast (Some reviews of the stuff on it still coming) and, for only £20 more, managed to get a PS2 with GH2. I played through medium in one sitting, but damn am I not ready to go up to hard yet. I'm a wuss compared to you guys.

I must say that the little dialogues before the final encore amused me greatly.

[Quemaqua]

You're gonna' love that thing, Dan.  It really won't help with your guitar playing, but it does help with timing to some extent.  Also, now you have a PS2, so the next podcast will be relevant to you!

[NatchDan]

True! Though I can't afford any more games. XD

HAving said that, if I see KAtamari...

[iPPi]

I finally picked this game up today for the 360.  Pretty damn fun.  I'm currently playing on easy though since I'm just trying to get used to the controls.

[NatchDan]

While I do feel retarded next to you guys playing on hard and expert, I'm currently sitting at 29 5-stars (Including YYZ and Psychobilly Freakout) and 3 bonus 5-stars (Including Jordan, whoo!) on medium. I have 2 100%s, too.

And man, I hate that Avenged Sevenfold song so hard. The start sounds like a Spinal Tap outtake and the choruses sound like a boyband.  The drums sound worse that Que's machine, too, though for all I know it's a soundalike and not AS themselves, so that's by the by.

EDIT:
Make that 34 with 3 100s.

[TheOtherBelmont]

While I do feel retarded next to you guys playing on hard and expert, I'm currently sitting at 29 5-stars (Including YYZ and Psychobilly Freakout) and 3 bonus 5-stars (Including Jordan, whoo!) on medium. I have 2 100%s, too.

And man, I hate that Avenged Sevenfold song so hard. The start sounds like a Spinal Tap outtake and the choruses sound like a boyband.  The drums sound worse that Que's machine, too, though for all I know it's a soundalike and not AS themselves, so that's by the by.

EDIT:
Make that 34 with 3 100s.

I think you are ready for Hard.  Also make sure to unlock the bonus songs Thunderhorse, Trogdor, and The Light That Blinds, those are fun and awesome songs.

[NatchDan]

Man, I did start hard, but that extra fret gives me trouble like you would not believe. I bought all the bonus songs, also - I was more interested in those than a new finish for a guitar, you know?

[TheOtherBelmont]

Man, I did start hard, but that extra fret gives me trouble like you would not believe. I bought all the bonus songs, also - I was more interested in those than a new finish for a guitar, you know?

Yeah I did the same thing, I bought all the songs first.  I remember the jump from Medium to Hard giving me some trouble too on the first game.  You could always try the song that's giving you problems at a slower speed in Practice mode until you get used to using the orange fret.