# I just got Guitar Hero... **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [August 16, 2006, 4:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-just-got-guitar-hero/368972 "2006-08-16T16:57:16Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 8\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Talon\_Karrde](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/c5a1d2/32.png) [@Talon\_Karrde](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Talon_Karrde)\ **Post date:** [August 16, 2006, 4:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-just-got-guitar-hero/368972/1 "2006-08-16T16:57:16Z")
Last week that is. Great game. I’m kind of a punk/alternative/etc fan, so I have to say that when I first heard about it it didn’t really appeal to me. I’m not a fan of metal. And yet, I’m finding that the game is still fun, even though the type of cool that it presents itself as doesn’t square with my version of cool. I don’t actually like any of the playable guitarists. The punk guy is all wrong. He’s just another killer shredder here, which punks really aren’t. Plus they gave him a goatee, which I can’t think of any 70’s punks having had. But I can get past my inner snob and really enjoy the game and to a certain extent its attitude. I see the appeal to a lot of the music. Right now I’m working on getting five stars on all the songs on medium. I’ve got the first three or four groups and I’m getting better. I really don’t like parts where I play the same note over and over rapidly. It’s hard to keep the rhythm. I like all the songs in the first group, except **Infected**. They’re not a whole lot of fun to play on medium anymore because they’re really easy. But back to **Infected** : that song totally pings my suckometer. The worst part about it is the key change on the chorus. Some of the other songs do the same thing, but for some reason they aren’t as bad. **Iron Man** ’s a great song. Not something I’d really want to listen to because it gets tiresome, but the guitar playing is fun. I love **More Than A Feeling**. I don’t see why the song is hated so much. It’s fun to play too. **Take Me Out** is also a lot of fun to play, at least until you get really good at it. It’s a nice challenge while you’re building your skill. **Sharp Dressed Man** is another one I definitely don’t like. It’s an example of terrible guitar wankery, IMO. I like **Symphony of Destruction** a lot. I can see the appeal to that kind of music now. **Ziggy Stardust** is the one I was looking forward to the most, and it’s great to play here too. The lead guitar playing is great. My respect for Mick Ronson has definitely gone up. As has my respect for Jimi Hendrix. **Spanish Castle Magic** is an utterly fantastic song. It’s fun to play, and it’s an example of how this kind of music should be played. It’s like a good jazz song. **Fat Lip** is another song I hate. I have to say though, the chorus really challenged me for a while, with the combination between fast notes and slides. **Bark at the Moon** is a real bitch to play. I’m hoping I can tackle it once I get five stars on everything else. As it is, I was barely able to get past it. I haven’t heard all of the bonus songs, but here’s what I think of the ones I have: **Caveman Rejoice**. The suckometer just exploded. Maybe it’s supposed to be parody, but even then it still sucks. Plus it’s dull to play. I love **Even Rats** and **Hey**. **Farewell Myth** is pretty good too. Here’s some stuff I’d like to see in the sequel: A Django Reinhardt song or two. A Television song. I’d choose **Venus** because it’s my favorite of theirs. A Pixies song. There’s a lot that would work well. A Lou Reed or VU song. Maybe **Vicious** because you could play both rhythm and lead. A Beatles song. I dunno what. I don’t want it to be something like **Taxman** because I want one that George plays. **Heroes** by David Bowie. An REM song. I don’t care which as long as it has nice jangly guitars. **Johnny B Goode** by Chuck Berry. A Smiths song would be interesting. ---
**Author:** ![c\_goat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f4b2a3/32.png) [@c\_goat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/c_goat)\ **Post date:** [August 16, 2006, 5:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-just-got-guitar-hero/368972/2 "2006-08-16T17:15:26Z")
Have you done Hard mode yet? I find the notes match the song a lot better, so songs like Infected become better. On hard mode it has a lot of chords and jumping around the fret buttons, which makes it a good song to practice with. For those that don’t have PS2, there’s now a freeware game that’s just like it, but you use your keyboard (hold it upside down), or if you have a PS2 to USB adapter, the actual Guitar Hero controller. [Frets on Fire.](http://louhi.kempele.fi/~skyostil/uv/fretsonfire/) Hopefully some talented folks will make some more songs to play on it. ---
**Author:** ![Talon\_Karrde](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/c5a1d2/32.png) [@Talon\_Karrde](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Talon_Karrde)\ **Post date:** [August 16, 2006, 5:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-just-got-guitar-hero/368972/3 "2006-08-16T17:39:00Z")
I figured I wouldn’t try hard until I got five stars for everything on Medium. Jumping from Easy to Medium definitely made the game more fun though. ---
**Author:** ![Sam\_Stone](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ecccb3/32.png) [@Sam\_Stone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sam_Stone)\ **Post date:** [August 17, 2006, 12:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-just-got-guitar-hero/368972/4 "2006-08-17T00:15:08Z")
I’ve been playing it for a couple of months now. I’ve beaten it on Expert, and five-starred everything on hard except for Cowboys from Hell, Bark at the Moon, and Texas Flood. Texas Flood is my favorite song to play, but it’s by far the hardest song for me to get a good score in. It’s just sprinkled with too many difficult flourishes to keep the multiplier up to really build a score. My favorite songs to play are Godzilla, Ziggy Stardust (on hard - on expert there’s some annoyingly tough bits), Crossroads, Frankenstein, and a few others. Like you, I hate the songs that just have repeated groups of fast notes - my strumming hand gets tired after a while and I start missing them. The most frustrating thing for me is that as I’ve gotten faster, I’m starting to screw up passages that I used to have nailed. My fingers aren’t liifting up as high off the buttons or something, so I’m occasionally slurring them together. That works fine in many of the harder passages where they have hammer-ons and pull-offs, but now I’m screwing up the other ones. It might also be a subtle timing thing. The game is definitely challenging. I’d have to say it’s the best game I’ve ever played, based solely on the fact that I’m enjoying it as much now as when I got it. And I can see myself playing it for a long time - even after I’ve 5-starred everything. I take my real guitar out and play songs I already know, so why wouldn’t I do the same with Guitar Hero? I’m eagerly awaiting Guitar Hero II. I hope it’s not all thrash metal, though. We need less Ozzy/Pantera/Black Sabbath, and more Clapton, Van Halen, Jimi Hendrix, Pink Floyd, Led Zeppelin, etc. Here’s a killer playlist I’d like to see: _Layla_ - Derek and the Dominoes _Little Wing_ - Jimi Hendix (or SRV’s version) _Siltans of Swing_ - Dire Straits _Guns N’ Roses_ - Sweet Child O’ Mine (or maybe “Paradise City”) _Comfortably Numb_ - Pink Floyd _Purple Haze_ - Jimi Hendrix _Won’t Get Fooled Again_ - The Who (Or ‘Baba O’Reilly’) _Eruption_ - Van Halen (or “Panama”, or “Hot for Teacher”) _That Smell_ - Lynyrd Skynyrd (Or “I know a little”) _Led Zeppelin_ - Whole Lotta Love _Honky Tonk Woman_ - The Rolling Stones _Pride and Joy_ - Stevie Ray Vaughan _Jessica_ - The Allman Brothers (or ‘Whipping Post’) ---
**Author:** ![Sam\_Stone](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ecccb3/32.png) [@Sam\_Stone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sam_Stone)\ **Post date:** [August 17, 2006, 12:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-just-got-guitar-hero/368972/5 "2006-08-17T00:17:12Z")
> [@Talon Karrde](#): > > I figured I wouldn’t try hard until I got five stars for everything on Medium. Jumping from Easy to Medium definitely made the game more fun though. The way I did it was I beat medium, then I tried to beat hard. When I got stuck, I went back and tried to 5-star everything on medium. When I got stuck doing that, I went back to hard and tried to finish, etc. I think it’s a good way to go, because attempting the hard songs will give you the speed and dexterity you need to 5-star the medium songs. Just like a real instrument, it’s always good to keep stretching your abilities. You learn faster that way. ---
**Author:** ![control-z](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/eada6e/32.png) [@control-z](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/control-z)\ **Post date:** [August 17, 2006, 1:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-just-got-guitar-hero/368972/6 "2006-08-17T01:20:31Z")
So is playing this game anything like playing a real guitar? ---
**Author:** ![bouv](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/bc8723/32.png) [@bouv](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bouv)\ **Post date:** [August 17, 2006, 1:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-just-got-guitar-hero/368972/7 "2006-08-17T01:25:14Z")
> [@control-z](#): > > So is playing this game anything like playing a real guitar? No, not really. There aren’t strings or anything, just five ‘fret buttons’ that you hit either one or two of at a time and a ‘strum bar’ that you then have to…umm…strum at the right time while hitting the right fret button(s). Though I’m told you can hammer-on and pull-off, whatever that Hell that means. ---
**Author:** ![Sam\_Stone](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ecccb3/32.png) [@Sam\_Stone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sam_Stone)\ **Post date:** [August 17, 2006, 2:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-just-got-guitar-hero/368972/8 "2006-08-17T02:15:58Z")
Well, it is and it isn’t. It’s not like playing a real guitar in the sense that there is only one ‘string’ and five buttons. On the other hand, it really captures the essence of what it feels like to play a guitar. You have to strum or pick with your right hand while moving your left hand fingers around to make chords or single notes. It ‘feels’ very much like playing a real guitar. This is what computer simulation is supposed to be all about - to make the inaccessible accessible. Just like playing flight sim is not ‘really’ like flying a real airplane because you lack a lot of the visual, auditory, and other sensory inputs, playing guitar hero is not like playing a real guitar. But it immerses you in the experience of doing it anyway. In fact, it may be the best simulation I’ve ever played in terms of letting you really feel what it must be like to do the real thing. I play real guitar (not very well - intermediate at best), and it can be frustrating because it’s easy to make strings buzz, miss chords, or just plain be unable to get the kind of tone you hear great players getting. Guitar Hero takes away all those frustrations and strips it down to the essence - playing notes by selecting them with one hand and making them happen with the other. When you’re playing a fast solo on ‘Crossroads’ and just nailing the notes, it feels fantastic. And you can learn to do it with about 1/10 the effort it would take to learn it on a real guitar, and without having to buy thousands of dollars worth of guitars, amps, distortion pedals, equalizers, and other equipment it takes to get the ‘authentic’ sound. Plus, you’re playing with a band instead of by yourself. Big difference.