Guitar Hero World Tour

[Nonentity]

 

The new guitar is INCREDIBLE. EA/Harmonix can eat a dick when it comes to peripherals - this guitar is totally awesome. My only complaint is the strum bar can be a little squeaky, but nothing a little WD40 can't fix.

The drumset is massive! I like it, and it'll take a little mental re-arranging to get used to the new layout. It also seems to sometimes think I'm playing a not when I'm not, but we'll see if that's just because I had it on a somewhat unstable surface.

Songlist so far is amazing.

MORE TO COME~

[Jeff Kelly]

Well us european folk will have to wait for another whole month (November 20th) until we get Guitar Hero World Tour. Seriously why can't they just release it everywhere at the same time?

[Jain Zar]

Here were my thoughts in IRC (in a Goon run Warhammer 40K channel):


Holy crap I am glad I dont play hard expert.  Extended sustains..
You have to hold multiple long notes.
Hold down a long note, then hold down and strum another one and hold and so on.
Way better tutorial sections.  Even covers battle and new stuff and so on. Not as funny though.
You get to even make you own band emblem that is behind you on stage.  I just took a random one.
Cool.. Band vs Band play.
OOh... nice pause setting,  Go out of pause and it counts down from 4, giving you time to get set up!
It now informs of gamerpoints after a song and you can charge SP while using it now.
My practice setlist: Eye of the Tiger, Livin on a Prayer, Stillborn, What Ive Done.
You can do practice setlists of all the songs it seems.
Picking letters sucks ass though.  Yellow fret.  Tres annoying.
Somehow I am even getting money in pickup play and there is a rock rank too.  Hmm.
Cool.  Cartoons for the Guitar solo campaign.  Bet there is one for every instrument.
Now I dunno if I should make a character or just use Midori...
They whored her up a little though.  Now its a slit miniskirt and a midriff bearing shirt.  
Pandora looks DUMB now.  Nowhere near as awesome as her GH2 White Leather outfit.
Its some purple gothic lolita with wierd pulled back hair and some stupid red tattoo over her eye.
Ok.. I guess Ill create my own.  Mainly since I don't feel like editing Midori or Pandora to be better.
They got rid of Midori's freaky ass face, but then slutted her up.  Not cool Neversoft.  Not cool.
You can pretty much modifiy everything.  I could give someone Elf Ears just about.  Tolkien.  Not giant anime elf ears.
Oh god.  Letting people do a full character customize could take HOURS.  Facial detail of friggin Oblivion almost.
ooh.. bonus cash for doing various stuff in a set.  Percentage complete, no red, perfect perfomance, strong starts or finishes, solo streaks, new high score, 5 star perfomances..

And a rather amusing exchange as I fail my way through singing:
Cpt_Rufus
  I get to sing What Ive Done and Mr Crowley in one set!
 And my band and both solo tours combine money and rank.  RAD.
:  Fuck,  I failed a song.  Its rough and I have never heard it before.
41% of it.  UGH.
 Ill go to babby difficulty if need be.
 I have to go babby.

Shavnir
:  How is babby guitar hero formed
 How guitar get paregnant


Cpt_Rufus: Well its easy to beat on babby mode.
And it gets pregnant the same way everyone else does.  No condom and a six pack.
 

[Bungee]

One can still use the old guitar, yes?

[Nonentity]

Apparently I am not alone with drum issues. It seems to be cross-recognizing drum hits on other pads, hence the missed notes. It's double-playing notes on every other hit or so.

[Ookii]

The guitar is so fantastic it has the ill side effect of making the game too easy. I  World Tour.

[schild]

Haven't even bothered to pick it up yet since I can't afford it really.

[Morfiend]

Apparently I am not alone with drum issues. It seems to be cross-recognizing drum hits on other pads, hence the missed notes. It's double-playing notes on every other hit or so.

Seems to be a possible big issue.

http://kotaku.com/5068898/guitar-hero-world-tour-facing-drum-issues

[OcellotJenkins]

EA/Harmonix can eat a dick when it comes to peripherals

Apparently I am not alone with drum issues. It seems to be cross-recognizing drum hits on other pads, hence the missed notes. It's double-playing notes on every other hit or so.

 

[Nonentity]

Okay, fine, EA/Harmonix can eat a dick when it comes to guitar peripherals.

If this shit gets sorted out with the drums, then I'll fix that statement.

[Samwise]

Any stats on how common the drum issues are?  I may hold off on my purchase for the next round of the hardware if the failure rate is statistically significant.

[Ookii]

Not sure about stats, but this might scare ya:

http://community.guitarhero.com/forum/14

[Stephen Zepp]

Man. I'll come back with more later, but my impression after playing 2 sets on QuickPlay (favorite tracks, only reason I bought the CD).

Worst. Game. Experience. Ever. ET on the Atari was better--and I mean it.

--amazingly ugly interface. I'm talking 1980's level UI design, with artwork my 8 year old niece could do better with only 3 crayon colors to choose from.

--amazingly ugly chart display backgrounds. WTF is with these two floating heads and an eye in the middle darting about?

--whomever approved the entire fret board shaking when you miss a single note should be shot--no, death by firing squad is too good for them. Should have their entrails roasted over an open fire while they are pulled from their eviscerated torso, opened by a rusty sharpened spoon. It's that bad.

--I'll admit, the charting is solid. Was able to play through a couple of songs I'd never tried before on expert simply because I knew them so well. Hammers (on and off) are harder to see than RB 2, but I think that's user preference more than anything else.

--open notes are interesting, but hard to add in to the mix. My opinion is still out on them, although even the RB 2 guitar is too light for these to be played without very special placement of your fret hand.

--pause countdown is the one single improvement over the RB/RB 2 experience. Everything else (and I mean --everything--) is completely dismal when in comparison to the user experience in RB.

Post-Edit: I'll give it one more positive: calibration, even manual, was quick, and more importantly accurate. DLP TV and very nice home theatre system, and first calibration run was very solid. I didn't personally see a single missed note that wasn't my fault. RB2, even with automatic calibration, took 4 or 5 runs over a couple of days and some manual tweaking before I felt it was solid.


Anyone want to buy a slightly used GH:WT XB360 disc? I certainly don't want this, regardless of song list exclusives.

[Jain Zar]

Man. I'll come back with more later, but my impression after playing 2 sets on QuickPlay (favorite tracks, only reason I bought the CD).

Worst. Game. Experience. Ever. ET on the Atari was better--and I mean it.

--amazingly ugly interface. I'm talking 1980's level UI design, with artwork my 8 year old niece could do better with only 3 crayon colors to choose from.

--amazingly ugly chart display backgrounds. WTF is with these two floating heads and an eye in the middle darting about?

--whomever approved the entire fret board shaking when you miss a single note should be shot--no, death by firing squad is too good for them. Should have their entrails roasted over an open fire while they are pulled from their eviscerated torso, opened by a rusty sharpened spoon. It's that bad.

--I'll admit, the charting is solid. Was able to play through a couple of songs I'd never tried before on expert simply because I knew them so well. Hammers (on and off) are harder to see than RB 2, but I think that's user preference more than anything else.

--open notes are interesting, but hard to add in to the mix. My opinion is still out on them, although even the RB 2 guitar is too light for these to be played without very special placement of your fret hand.

--pause countdown is the one single improvement over the RB/RB 2 experience. Everything else (and I mean --everything--) is completely dismal when in comparison to the user experience in RB.

Post-Edit: I'll give it one more positive: calibration, even manual, was quick, and more importantly accurate. DLP TV and very nice home theatre system, and first calibration run was very solid. I didn't personally see a single missed note that wasn't my fault. RB2, even with automatic calibration, took 4 or 5 runs over a couple of days and some manual tweaking before I felt it was solid.


Anyone want to buy a slightly used GH:WT XB360 disc? I certainly don't want this, regardless of song list exclusives.

Please stay away from designing any games I love if you really think the interface is bad.  Please.  Rock Band's interface and feel and everything are butt.
People can like what they want, but I don't agree with almost anything you said!

Course it seems some folks are Rock Band fanatics and others are GH fans.  I am in the latter category.  The RB fans are louder on the Internet.

And the old GH2-3 Gibson guitar works fine on World Tour.  Its what I am using.  I miss out on slide note action, but I saves cash.  Bought a 30 dollar duet set generic mic today for the game as I aint buying a single 60 dollar Rock Band 2 mic just because it has a control pad built into it.  Seriously, is EA high or something?

[Stephen Zepp]

--Random, "edgy" icons taking up 3/4th of the screen while the game affecting options are in a small corner is what you call a good UI?

--I never thought you could have a death penalty in a rhythm game until I saw that screen shake when you miss a note. There is a huge, huge difference between providing visual negative feedback, and disrupting game play by making one error (missed note) compound into multiple, additional missed notes (screen shake disrupting visual timing feedback).

--when perusing a list (song list), using both scrolling text based display and using size enlargement to highlight the current selection instead of backlighting or font change causes huge multiple micro-focus events. Every time a new item scrolls onto the screen, your eye is drawn to it, but every time a test display changes size your eye is drawn to it as well, causing repeated eye strain by forcing the viewer to rapidly change eye position while trying to assimilate the options.

Highlighting, backlighting, and minor font adjustments do not cause this micro-focus flickering nearly as badly as the size change does. It's why you only see size highlighting on fixed length lists, and not on scrolling lists in most current games.

--Explain how I can grab downloads again? According to the message I got in game, I should be able to download 2 more packs--yet there is no Music Store, and the obvious section ("Downloads") has nothing to do whatsoever with DLC. Go figure.

--Again while scrolling through songs, how do I tell how hard a song is for, say, vocals and base?

These are all just after 2 sets. If this were an MMO, or any other game, it fails the "30 minute rule", and would be considered a terrible game...why does this one have any special acceptance?

I'm absolutely a fan boy--a fan boy of being able to get together with friends while half drunk and have a blast playing songs together.

In my band, the guitarist (a HUGE GH fan--1, 2, 3, and controllers), the singer, and the bassist (myself) all dread putting in the GH:WT disc even though we want to play several of the songs that are only available on that disc. The drummer hasn't had a chance to play it yet, but even if he's 100% for it, a 25% favorability rate is terrible.

It sucks, because we really wanted to enjoy it...but there are just too many unchangeable interface issues, and unfortunate UI decisions to make it enjoyable.

[schild]

I had a big long post here, but I really couldn't be bothered. It sounds more to me like you're playing Guitar Asshole instead of Guitar Hero.

Also, since you mentioned worrying about difficulty, it sounds more like you suck than the game sucks  Oh god, I went there. Epeen++. Start complaining when the interface covers up the 4 dots and notes coming at them, because honestly, that's all that matters. Everything else could be Multicolored DreamShit and penises and I probably wouldn't notice.

[Stephen Zepp]

I had a big long post here, but I really couldn't be bothered. It sounds more to me like you're playing Guitar Asshole instead of Guitar Hero.

Also, since you mentioned worrying about difficulty, it sounds more like you suck than the game sucks  Oh god, I went there. Epeen++. Start complaining when the interface covers up the 4 dots and notes coming at them, because honestly, that's all that matters. Everything else could be Multicolored DreamShit and penises and I probably wouldn't notice.

I think you replied to multiple posts here, because I didn't complain about the difficulty at all. All I complained about was presentation and idiotic, poorly thought out, gimmicky interfaces.

For someone that gives other games such shit for poor design, I think you're the one acting like a fanboi. Just look at what you said--you don't care how the game presents, as long as you can see the notes? That's like saying you don't care how the fights happen, as long as the loot is teh shiney.

[schild]

Just look at what you said--you don't care how the game presents, as long as you can see the notes? That's like saying you don't care how the fights happen, as long as the loot is teh shiney.

I'm sorry, what?

[Stephen Zepp]

Just look at what you said--you don't care how the game presents, as long as you can see the notes? That's like saying you don't care how the fights happen, as long as the loot is teh shiney.

I'm sorry, what?

Everything else could be Multicolored DreamShit and penises and I probably wouldn't notice.

That was you...I'm saying that everything else -is- Multicolored DreamShit, and it's distracting my band so much we don't want to play the damned thing...which sucks royally.

[Jain Zar]

Dude, even people who love Rock Band admit GH has the better interface and controllers.  (If the Drums are flawed I am sure itll get fixed soon enough.  And then be awesome.)

But my current two characters.  Aron Stewart my Guitarist, and my Singer, his wife Mindaria.  They are from some stories mostly residing in my head since I was 13 or so:



I like em, even though I wouldnt mind some ponytail options for males.  Unless I missed it.  That and I would like arm and hand accessories to show up even on longsleeve shirts like these, at least bits that would be visible.

And that 30 dollar duet mic from this company called Block Head works pretty well.  Outside of not being able to activate SP with it (I just hit a controller button), it works great.  Might even see if itll be a proper mic for my computer.
I haven't tried the second mic but being able to have 2 people singing to the same song is kinda neat.  Even hand off song parts and such!  Compatible officially with every version of Rock Band and PS3 Singstar.

Update: Mics work wonderfully with Garage Band.  Compared to the internal mics better sound and no hissing.  So 30 bucks netted me multi use mics as opposed to just a game bit.  Now I just need a little mic stand for my computer desk.

[Stephen Zepp]

Dude, even people who love Rock Band admit GH has the better interface and controllers.  (If the Drums are flawed I am sure itll get fixed soon enough.  And then be awesome.)
e to have 2 people singing to the same song is kinda neat.  Even hand off song parts and such!  Compatible officially with every version of Rock Band and PS3 Singstar.

You might want to go check both the RB and GH:WT forums. Fanboys on both sides, but from what I saw, those that actually provided facts about their experience mostly felt the interfaces were weak.

Honestly go through the QuickPlay song selection in RB, then the one in GH:WT, and say GH:WT is even close in ease of use, flexibility, and information provided. Then go play the songs that are common (with the same instruments), and then form your own opinions regarding which is better game play (important note: I never said anything negative about the actual song game play in GH:WT--it's acceptable, and in some cases possibly better), and then which is a better overall experience.

Meanwhile, my band is playing RB 2, and wishing the damn interface and game experience was better in GH:WT, and praying for Tool DLC in RB.

[MisterNoisy]

Just an aside, but how much do you want for that disc?

[HAMMER FRENZY]

It looks like the characters that you make look much cooler than the rockband counterparts. It seems like all you can make in rockband is models and characters from dawson's creak/one tree hill. I will go as far to say as I hate the way the characters look in RB. I DO have to agree with the way the interface is handled in RB though. I never have trouble finding songs, setting up song lists etc. but seriously, let's quit bullshitting each other, the interface mid song on both games is trash and getting into a spitting contest about it is just lame.  It is all about playability and I am sure GH is just as playable. The note charts are close enough in my opinion, with both being different than guitar IRL but GHWT being slightly harder than RB2.

To be completely honest though, I really wish we weren't having this conversation. There should only be one game and it should be fucking great. Instead we have 2 really good games that are competing for our money and most of us are unfortunately putting out to both Activision and EA and that is a shame. I got RB2 but I am hesitant to buy GHWT only cause of price. To be honest I am starting to care less about which is better and looking at which is played more widely and is most accessible, cause I don't want to be a dick about it, but I can trash the shit out of both of these games on pretty much all the instruments. There is an occasional drum line that kicks my ass, but I shred the piss out of the axe on all these games and it isn't fun. I want to play with my friends, I want to just enjoy being a band, and at this point RB2 does it better mostly cause of ease of use.

On another note, Harmonix seems much more capable and consistent with the updates and track releases. If GHWT is anything like GH3, I wouldn't be buying many songs for it.

 

[Geki]

Haven't really followed GHWT much, but are the covers as shitholetastic as they were in II and III? 

[Nonentity]

Haven't really followed GHWT much, but are the covers as shitholetastic as they were in II and III? 

All master tracks - no covers.

[Geki]

All master tracks - no covers.

Excellent news, told you I haven't been paying attention!  Thanks

[NiX]

I'm glad that consumers put up with having to do this kind of shit just to get what should have been working out of the box.

[Nonentity]

I'm glad that consumers put up with having to do this kind of shit just to get what should have been working out of the box.

Wow, that's hilarious. I'm totally trying that, or the "cardboard method".

[Jerrith]

Have to say I agree with Stephen Zepp.  Except for the improvement with returning from pause, I really dislike a bunch of the interface functionality points he brought up.  One more favorite that wasn't mentioned...

In GHTunes, there's a search by name.  Let's say you want to look for songs that start with "J"...  Enter that in, and you get the first page of J songs.  "J, Ja, Jan, Jay..." and then hit next page.  You'd expect to go to things like "Jer", right?  Ha, very funny. :)  Sorry, you're being sent back up to the A's...  And with there being an achievement for creating a song, guess how many pages of songs named "Achievement Song" you have to go through? :)

There's one song on the disc (Hotel California) that I've always wanted to play in a guitar game, but sadly, it seems like that's going to be the only reason I end up keeping GH:WT around. 

Parting note:  The game not working with the Ion drum kit (yes, I know, patch promised) is also rather lame.

[Ookii]

I have to say that everyone naysaying Guitar Hero is absolutely fucking crazy,  there is no comparison in the charts between the two games. If alt strumming is your bag then I'd say go with Rock Band, but if you want to actually play varied solo riffs you have to go with GH.  Even songs that both games have like Today have much better charts on GH than they do on RB, though I'm not sure what the comparison is if you guys don't play expert.

Anyway thank god GH is out, I was tired of playing the only GH-like song RB2 had which was Alabama Getaway.  Though I suspect most haters here are PDA (the RB2 Interpol song) fans.

[Stephen Zepp]

I have to say that everyone naysaying Guitar Hero is absolutely fucking crazy,  there is no comparison in the charts between the two games. If alt strumming is your bag then I'd say go with Rock Band, but if you want to actually play varied solo riffs you have to go with GH.  Even songs that both games have like Today have much better charts on GH than they do on RB, though I'm not sure what the comparison is if you guys don't play expert.

Anyway thank god GH is out, I was tired of playing the only GH-like song RB2 had which was Alabama Getaway.  Though I suspect most haters here are PDA (the RB2 Interpol song) fans.

I know I haven't commented negatively on charting, and I don't think anyone else has either--our issues are with interfacing with the game itself, not the play mechanic.

I'm not sure what you meant regarding "alt strumming", but are you saying that you don't need to strum both up and down on GH:WT charts?

I honestly think the core difference for my band at least is this:

We don't give a shit about "whoo, we beat a super-hard song!!one!!cos(0)". We care about getting together weekly and jamming together, making good music. The GH:WT interface simply does not allow us to enjoy playing in this manner for multiple hours, while the RB2 interface not only doesn't get in our way, but it assists us in several areas.

[Samwise]

If alt strumming is your bag then I'd say go with Rock Band

wat

[Valmorian]

We care about getting together weekly and jamming together, making good music. The GH:WT interface simply does not allow us to enjoy playing in this manner for multiple hours, while the RB2 interface not only doesn't get in our way, but it assists us in several areas.

Um, doesn't GH:WT have an option or method by which you actually CAN "make music", though?  I mean, as opposed to playing simon says on the controllers.  (Which I'm all for, I love Rock Band)

[Ookii]

We care about getting together weekly and jamming together, making good music. The GH:WT interface simply does not allow us to enjoy playing in this manner for multiple hours, while the RB2 interface not only doesn't get in our way, but it assists us in several areas.

Um, doesn't GH:WT have an option or method by which you actually CAN "make music", though?  I mean, as opposed to playing simon says on the controllers.  (Which I'm all for, I love Rock Band)

It does but the music comes out sounding just a little better than a midi.

Q: What is alt strumming?
A: Alt strumming(or double strumming) is when you grab the strum bar with two fingers and jiggle it up and down. You can increase your speed at alt strumming by holding only the end of the bar and making small movements rather than large ones.

Most non-guitar players only strum downwards, but when they reach long sections of chords or notes at an even rhythm it's only natural to go into alt strumming.  Interpol's PDA is a pretty extreme example of this since the whole is basically at the same rhythm, while Alabama Getaway's rhythm varies so it makes it harder to alt strum (for the non-guitar inclined).  GH contains more songs of the latter while RB contains more songs of the former.

[jlwilli5]

    We will be picking up a few GH:WT everything packs, just wondered how the online play was.
   We play RB online with my family and friends online, except for holidays/etc when we all get together.
    Looking forward to it since we all love the GH series.

   Hows that ION trap set ? So tempting...