Well I suck at GH ( all of them ) but my GF is pretty good at it, and she loved the third one the best of all as well ( hasn't played rock band yet since its so fucking expensive in Europe )

I'm with you, Madness. I picked up the game at my firend's house. 3 songs into it, I was struggling my way through medium. I play and I played and I improved. I bought a PS2 so I could buy GH. The satisfaction of passing a song that had previously been kicking your ass is pretty damn strong.

Also, ONE by Metallica is my ultimate best favorite song ever. When it showed up in GH3, I about pissed myself. When I played it for the first time, I started tearing up. Crying only blurred my vision and made it harder... :)

All the games I buy (usually used) go through the same process of elimination by asking myself "will I really play this"?
I'm completely curious about your thoughts on the DLC for these music games.

I purchased a track-pack for GH2 (because of Killer Queen by Queen) and the Classic Rock pack for GH3 (because of Boston and Foreigner)... and I still felt like I was overcharged.

So many people eat these things up as if they have an unlimited budget it shocks me. I see the appeal for new tracks in these games for reasons to 'keep coming back', but I find the games to do that job well enough on their own. Only my absolute favorite tracks would incite me to buy DLC for these games. What about you?

I didn't touch a plastic guitar until last November at my cousin's house, after a couple of songs I went straight to medium and my skill sky rocketed after that. Now I can play just about everything save for Slayer, TTFAF, Blackened and Ride the God Damn Lightning. I actually just legitimately finished Green Grass and High Tides for the first time the other night, I was so stoked!

I still haven't played GH 1 or 2, and I don't really mind; I have the same complaints with them as I have had with GH3 and RB: they need more of the music that I constantly complain they don't have, but I can see why, there are only a handful of people that even know the bands or even care about music they don't hear on the radio. This popular appeal shit has got to go, the populous is musically retarded and need these music games to show them the light: wicked fast drum tracks coupled with screaming guitar licks, man! The shit that evolved from Iron Maiden, Metallica, Megadeth, Judas Priest, and all that older metal (which we could use more of, not those bands but shit like Testament or maybe Anthrax).

I know I say this same shit every time I get the opportunity, but I figure if I keep shouting the same thing over and over maybe someone will listen because there is a lot of good music out there that isn't 20 years old, and all the mainstream crap is just that for the most part.

To me, it seems that the GH series is taking the same turn DDR took. When DDR was still leaking it's way into arcades across America, the concept of competitions was the actual show you put on while still doing a song. This is where custom routines that you could load off a memory card helped sales (although the routines were likely saved from an imported game). By the time I actually got a machine near me that I could go to play (DDR 3rd Mix Plus, Spring '03) the popularity of DDR started to take off and it was starting to be common to see them in all kinds of arcades. Eventually the fun factor seemed to be taken out of the game. Now it's all about who can throw their feet around the fastest to hit the most perfect notes and do a full combo.

Before when it was still fun
The crap it turned into

GH seems to be following suit and be all about just who can do the most impossible songs on expert and get 100%. GH3 made this apparent by having nonexistent notes just added in to make it more challenging.

Personally, I've played some GH but always preferred Rock Band over it because I didn't wanna play a single player game...

I've personally never gotten into the GH games, (the most I've ever done is plunk along on Medium Bass in Rock Band) but it amazes me how phenomenally big its gotten in just 5 years. If there's as much replay value as you say though, that makes it a lot easier to understand. Congratulations on the promotion!

@Syn

I agree with you music wise, but honestly, when coming up with a set list they have to try to cater to everyone's taste all at once. I think they've done that quite well (although not so much in Rock Band in my opinion).

This is primarily why GH3 is my favorite: Iron Maiden, Black Sabbath, Metallica, Slayer. GH3 also has several classic rock greats as well such as: Rolling Stones, ZZ Top, Aerosmith, The Who, Alice Cooper. There are many other examples as well that I'm not listing. Personally, I hate nu metal and mainstream rock, but I recognize that without that, you'll have even more people complaining about the game not featuring their favorite songs. I think GH3 has the best balance in the set list, while Rock Band has the worst (although it is awesome that they got the Black Sabbath, Metallica, and Judas Priest pack, as I stated above).

GH2 has some great stuff too, importantly: Megadeth and Anthrax. In other words, with GH2 and GH3 you have the big four of Thrash, as well as others. Even GH1 has some classic stuff too, such as Ozzy with Randy Rhoads as well as Pantera and Blue Oyster Cult.

As much as I'd love to see bands like Mercyful Fate, Death, Morbid Angel, Cannibal Corpse, Venom, Sepultura, Cryptic Slaughter, Carcass, S.O.D., Obituary, Napalm Death, Bathory, Emperor, Nuclear Assault, D.R.I., Black Flag, The Misfits, and a hell of a lot of other bands in line for a Guitar Hero game, I'll settle for some well known greats like Iron Maiden and Metallica. If I want to play some obscure stuff and what not, I can also just play Frets on Fire for the PC.

@Matlox

There is nothing that seperates the 2-player aspect apart from the single player. Playing online it's still the exact same thing you do when you play by yourself, see who can get the higher score, unless you do the Battle mode which I rarely see people do on expert. As for co-op, it's pretty much just another side of the song you're playing.... There's not much difference. This is why a majority of people prefer Rock Band over GH.

No I did not compare dancing to playing a guitar.... I compared DDR to playing a plastic guitar-like controller. It's the mindset around the game itself. What started out as something that you want to do for fun, turns into this repetitive drone-like playing where you just spam buttons in the same sequence over and over.

Don't get started on comparison to real life guitar playing. Being able to play things on GH makes you no better at touching a real guitar. Both angles work on that too, I've been playing guitar for awhile now, and playing GH made no use of my skills.

@sora 1 word Cockband. That's a burn.

I have no idea why that comment came out like that nor why it cut out part of my post but the first part was about how saying that multiplayer and singleplayer in guitar hero are the same is pretty much like saying playing the computer in Starcraft or Counter-Strike is the same experience as playing real humans online, and that I don't understand what distinction you were trying to make since that's essentially what you have in Rock Band as well. If anything GH3 has more multiplayer modes because of the battlemode, while all Rock Band has, strictly speaking, is face off, pro face off, and co-op.

Here's the first post hopefully without the weird spacing:

Second thing: Bass and Rhythm are definitely different parts of the song than lead guitar. Obviously just like in real life playing rhythm guitar and bass should not be too different than lead. If you've ever played a bass in your life, you'd easily say that it's generally the same feel as playing guitar. So how and why would the notecharts be different? It's not a competition either, it's literally co-op, if one person is amazing and the other sucks, they will lose. Both players also have to agree on when to use the star power. Again, this isn't just the same old face off. So what's the difference with Rock Band? If you're saying that co-op career and real career are the same, you could honestly do the same for Rock Band.

The core gameplay mechanics are essentially the same as co-op in Guitar Hero, the main differences are simple ones like making your own set list and so on. When you get right down to it though, what's the difference with Guitar Hero's multiplayer and Rock Band's besides the fact that Rock Band has drums and vocals?

"No I did not compare dancing to playing a guitar.... I compared DDR to playing a plastic guitar-like controller. It's the mindset around the game itself. What started out as something that you want to do for fun, turns into this repetitive drone-like playing where you just spam buttons in the same sequence over and over.

Don't get started on comparison to real life guitar playing. Being able to play things on GH makes you no better at touching a real guitar. Both angles work on that too, I've been playing guitar for awhile now, and playing GH made no use of my skills."

What are you talking about?

"Repetitive drone like playing?" "Spamming buttons?"

It's one thing to compare players having style and completing songs in DDR, but how can you make that comparison with Guitar Hero? Apparently you missed that distinction when I was talking about dancing and guitar playing. I was talking about how if you're playing guitar in real life, you'd celebrate skill over circus like showboating, and given that GUITAR Hero is based around the idea of playing the real guitar, it would be asinine to have it be anything different.

I never claimed that dancing in DDR makes you a good dancer or that playing guitar in Guitar Hero makes you a better guitarist in real life, I'd like to know where you read that, since when I went over my post I couldn't find it. What I did say, however, was that if you're playing guitar in real life, you don't focus on "flash." While Guitar Hero
is obviously not the same as guitar playing, it's also obviously based around the idea of playing an actual guitar, just as DDR is with dancing (albeit in a much smaller way). Just like in real life, some of the same principles apply (the way you hold the controller, the shape of the controller itself modeled after a guitar, the movement and positions
of the fingers, the strum patterns, etc.). I also play guitar in real life, starting many years before Guitar Hero came out, and saying that guitar skills don't do anything for you is flat out false. Most people start Guitar Hero on medium, I started on expert. I thought well, I'm good at guitar, so I should be good at this game. This was way back when
the first one came out. Honestly, I was half-right, I wasn't amazing, but I passed the songs nonetheless, something most newcomers to the game cannot do. Hell, I even tried to make it more like the guitar by using a pick to strum. I realized a bit later that it was easier to use my fingers, but position my hand and fingers around the bar the way I would with a pick.

One thing I really don't understand though is your distinction of "when things were fun" in Guitar Hero. I honestly have no clue as to what you're even talking about here. You talk about it as if it were once something different, despite the fact that it hasn't changed. Since when WASN'T Guitar Hero about trying to achieve the best scores? Rock Band is the exact same idea. If Guitar Hero isn't about playing the song as best as you can, what the hell could it possibly be about? And how is it not fun to do your best on a song? How is it not fun to get better at the game? How is it not fun to shoot for perfection? I'd really like to know what your concept of fun is in guitar hero. If you want to strum like a madman, running around the room headbanging and moshing, while playing the game, be my guest. I don't recall guitar players
ever saying that if you want to get good at guitar you should practice by running around your room like an idiot while trying to play a song. And yes, since the idea of guitar hero and playing guitar are related, I can easily make that distinction, because if the game were about acting like a glam metal guitarist as opposed to a real one, I fail to see why they would market it as guitar hero. Unless you're playing some first game that I've never heard of before, one in which you focus more on imitating a band's guitarist signature moves on stage as opposed to actually playing his songs.

@Sora

Really? are you that freaking lazy/stupid that you couldn't even read something that took me less than five minutes!?

Pathetic...

lol...

@Sora

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mEJRwIf1FF0

2:27 - 3:24

A video representation of how our conversation started and ended up, with me playing the part of Dick Masterson.

That's a burn.

Is it time to go back to 4chan yet? ;)

I enjoyed reading that.