Wednesday, August 01, 2007

Guitar Hero 2


I got Guitar Hero 2 for my birthday, and I love it.

We have Dance Dance Revolution, which we all think is great, and I still really like Parappa the Rapper. Guitar Hero's basis is still the tried and true rhythm game, but the controller sets it off. It is a lot of fun.

I was going back and forth on wireless versus wired controllers. There was a guitar controller that I liked, but it was wired. I eventually decided on the wireless guitar, and it was the right choice. With kids, cords are a no-no, and with the wireless you can move around more and even sit back on the couch and play.



We had some friends over and at the end of the night we fired up Guitar Hero, and it was even more fun. I borrowed another wireless guitar from work (for, uh, testing), and we had some guitar/bass faceoffs. What's funny is if the TV volume is down far enough, all you hear is the clicking and clacking of the keys and the picks.

I have the actual Red Octane Guitar Hero branded semi-Stratocaster-style guitar, but you can pick up a generic guitar (in semi-Explorer-style) for about half the price, and I'll be picking up a second guitar pretty quickly.

I've heard a lot of jibber-jabber of how playing Guitar Hero can help your ability playing real guitar. As someone that's taking lessons playing real guitar, I don't see it. The closest I think one could get to Guitar Hero/real guitar synergy is maybe practicing with a metronome. Or light pattern recognition, but translating buttons to notes and chords? I don't think so.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

You are such a poser!!

John

Trey said...

Don't be scared. I'm even tapping on this thing.

Anonymous said...

I'm also a fan of Guitar Hero (and DDR and PaRappa).

Have you heard about what those guys are coming out with next? ROCK BAND!

You can have up to 4 people playing together (in person or over the internet) in the roles of lead guitar, bass, lead singer, and drummer! Sounds even more awesomer!

Trey said...

Yeah, Rock Band sounds cool. I haven't played Karaoke Revolution, but it looks like the microphone-play will be the same, and you can use it as a cowbell!

I was going to make a mockup of an idea I had - a Guitar Hero controller with a second button set at the bottom of the fretboard for solos, but it looks like the Rock Band guitar controller already does that. I've been scooped!