Rock Band

[Stephen Zepp]

I can pretty much guarantee that many people here will have problems with their Fender Strat "downstrum" at some point in time.  There are fixes posted on the forums that a few of us adventurous people tried and so far my Strat has performed flawlessly ever since.

Here's a fix:
http://www.quartertothree.com/game-talk/showthread.php?t=40188

Another fix is to simply file down the "nubs" on the contactors so that they cant roll off eachother when strumming hard.  I dont advise this though, as it seems a bit extreme mod-wise... and it's not something you can back out of unless you feel like soldering.

The simplest fix (the one I used) is to simply put tape between the outer contactor and the plastic post with the rubber stopper.  About 4 layers (fold tape twice) should do it.  I then tightened the screws on the microswitch to make sure it didnt move.


rock on...

Yet another report of the Strat out of the box not working in strum down mode.

Also, the bottom set of frets actually has a game play reason--in many songs, the guitar solo will come up with a bluish gowing background--you get mucho extra points if you drop down and play the solo on the bottom set of frets.

Is playing through solo confirmed the best route to get the most songs unlocked? We've got a bunch of folks from GG playing, and are trying to get some of the cooler songs we all know unlocked for tonight's session, but not quite sure the best strategy.

[Ghambit]

Yet another report of the Strat out of the box not working in strum down mode.

Also, the bottom set of frets actually has a game play reason--in many songs, the guitar solo will come up with a bluish gowing background--you get mucho extra points if you drop down and play the solo on the bottom set of frets.

Is playing through solo confirmed the best route to get the most songs unlocked? We've got a bunch of folks from GG playing, and are trying to get some of the cooler songs we all know unlocked for tonight's session, but not quite sure the best strategy.

Play through Solo on Medium and play the entire Rio De Janeiro Bonus Tour (this unlocks like 10 songs by itself).
As for the lower frets, I use em only for the ending solo portions when all the keys are lit up... since they're much quicker.  Havent tried that normal solo use yet with any kind of bonus - interesting.

Ya know... anyone else think the manual is a little lacking?  Perhaps there's an intentional air of mystery or something.

[Jerrith]

So, I've been playing this like crazy since it came out...  I've finished the entire solo tour on expert guitar (including all DLC), gotten the score duel and tug of war achievements, done some medium drum (fixed) solo tour, played a bunch of random multiplayer games on live, and gone through a fair amount of the band world tour(got the jet) by myself (playing guitar + vocals at the same time). 

I'm not playing at the moment because *sigh* my guitar down strum broke.  Totally.  As in, one of the little metal strips broke into two pieces and down strums do not register at all.  So I've now been to EA's support site, and have a replacement on the way (fully automated, including tracking number is a nice way to handle it!). 

Someone mentioned they're getting the same songs over and over on the mystery set lists...  I've heard that this works by picking songs that the leader has completed in single player...  So if they haven't done the single player tour yet, well, there's only a few songs it will choose from.  I finished everything on expert, before starting the tour, and it's been really random for me.  (First one I got on my guitar + mic tour was DLC - Joker and the Thief).

Speaking of DLC, I'm really impressed with how well it gets integrated into the game, showing up as random songs, etc...  The only thing I find mildly annoying with respect to that is that it also makes the endless setlist longer...  I haven't done it yet, but ran into someone who had the achievement...  Their icon actually changes color (from the black background to the appropriate metallic color (platinum, for the one person I've seen who had done it)).   

Guitar + Vocals at the same time can be a real challenge.  Thankfully there's a couple songs I'm good enough to do expert/expert on (songs like Black Hole Sun, and Dani California).  I'm mixed on the fan cap in the BWT if anyone is playing on a lower difficulty...  Oh, and I found that if you do guitar + mic on Live, you can no longer use the headset to chat with people while playing...  Why?!?

The overdrive / star power applying to the whole band in multiplayer is really neat...  Getting 8x going in random matches is fairly rare, but I've had it happen...  8x while playing bass with 6x (48x) really adds points up quickly. :)

So, while there are some minor issues, I agree with OcellotJenkins:  Game of the decade. :)

(Fixed: replaced medium guitar, with medium drum)

[schild]

Game of the decade. :)

I lolled hard.

[Jerrith]

Game of the decade. :)

I lolled hard.

Sure, it's not going to be everyone's GOTD, but nothing is.  Rather than go into reasons, I'll just mention that since I like playing music (when not programming or playing MMOs) that probably helps bump it up a few notches for me. :)

In some of the interviews, Harmonix staff have talked about this being the game they've wanted to create since they founded the company.  I'm glad that circumstances (technology and finances, most significantly) have allowed them to do so. 

There are a few people who it won't be a good game for:  I know someone who just isn't musical at all...  Tried to pass the easiest Karaoke Revolution song on easy, and simply couldn't do it.  For him, it's not a fun game.  Everyone else?  Well, I think you should at least give it a try. :)

 

[schild]

If this is the game they wanted to make since they founded the company, they really should've started with "Let's not make the guitar a big pile of shit."

[Samwise]

It's too bad that arcades have mostly fallen by the wayside.  This is a game that seems like it could really benefit from a large, durable, and stationary setup that you could pay a dollar to play instead of paying a couple hundred to buy.

[Stephen Zepp]

If this is the game they wanted to make since they founded the company, they really should've started with "Let's not make the guitar a big pile of shit."

Come on man--you've really gotten unusually bitter about a lot of shit over the last several months.

Game Developers have little to no input on how the supporting hardware is manufactured. Sure, the team lead probably had input, but I can just about guarantee that given the quote, they were talking about the game interaction and capabilities, not the fact that you and a few other very vocal people don't like the guitar that comes with the game. For the record, in our set of more than 15 people at various stages of GH experience (from 4 star every song produced for all 4 GH releases on multiple platforms, to brand new people, to real musicians), most really like the new guitar's feel. Sure, the microswitch failure is an issue, but the guitar in and of itself they love.

I gotta be honest here, you've been so over the top the last several months on so many things that the feedback F13 used to be valuable for has kind of dropped by the wayside :(

[schild]

Stephen, there've been a lot of GOOD GAMES that I've loved over the past couple months. And a lot of games that should've rocked my socks off that failed horribly at what they were trying to do. Assassin's Creed and Rock Band just to name two. Yes, I get unusually bitter when there's core failure among things that should have been guaranteed awesome.

It's not a microswitch problem on my guitar either. It's simply a piece of shit guitar. The strum bar goes further up than down and gives too much pressure no the downstrum. The original PS2 guitar is still, by far, the best one they've made. Nothing incenses me more though, when people who do not play GH on an expert level talk about the Rock Band Guitar being good. It's not. It is a bad guitar and heavy passages can only be described as an epic failure when using it. It is not a good guitar, it is not even a passable guitar. It is a complete failure. In an effort to make something incredibly pleasing aesthetically, they forgot to make it feel good.

Before I even got to play on the Rock Band guitar, friends were warning ME that it was a massive piece of shit. I, of course, responded with the same thing anyone would "Can't be that bad, those guys made the original Guitar Hero SG." To which they responded "You'll see." And they were right. That thing is an aborted piece of equipment. The strummer design was a throwaway at best and a known fuckup at worst. The buttons don't have enough feedback and hitting two at once is way too easy. The solo buttons are a total throwaway and the solo "freestyle" sections are such a dismal musical failure that I don't even know how they made it into the final design.

I'd love to go back to it once they get these design issues worked out as they are EASILY FIXED, But with EA and MTV lurking behind the scenes, I should've known better. They've been about aesthetic before design for years now and I don't think that's changing.

You wanna talk about COD4, Team Fortress, Revenant Wings, Portal, Uncharted, or any other number of amazing games that came out? You'll see me unusually happy. The pendulum swings both ways. And despite me expecting just plain "Meh" like the original guitar hero technical mechanicals from Rock Band, they somehow delivered an experience worse on all fronts.

Except for the drums. Despite not liking the drums, they seem awesome. (I mean, I don't like drums in real life, at all). The only complaint I've heard about them is that we should've been able to weight down the feet somehow (fill them with sand or water for example because they move on carpeting) and the pads should have been padded a bit more to not be so loud (they're louder than the Taiko Drum Master drum).

So you can say I'm unusually bitter, but I think people are giving these companies too much leeway and I need to make up for it. Because the people who don't like fuckups like this aren't bitter enough. And most of the people (not just here) are complimenting design features that break down completely at a high level. And that's just retarded. No offense, but it falls in line with Hammer Frenzy's commentary on fighting games. How can you know something is mechanically bad if you never get to the part where it becomes mechanically useful.

I'm fucking good at the guitar and the guitar itself is getting in the way of me being that good. If they'd simply used the same button and strummer design or a SLIGHT VARIANT instead of going whole hog and fucking up the whole thing, I'm sure I would've loved it. But they didn't. They fucked up the whole thing. So, you can call it whatever you want but all I know is that design failure made me worse at a game that I should've owned fucking face left and right on.

[Phildo]

Not to mention the nearly unintelligible hammer-on notation.  I'm pretty sure that's not the hardware department's fault.

[Jerrith]

Not to mention the nearly unintelligible hammer-on notation.  I'm pretty sure that's not the hardware department's fault.

For what it's worth, I like RB's notation better than any previous game's.  I have no trouble noticing the narrow vs wide notes.  GH3's system was decent, but of course, it needed to be, due to some of the crazy "let's put a random note in that you'd think you could HO/PO, but you can't, Ha!" that some (mainly DLC) songs have had...

As for the guitar, there's one other piece of info that's worth bringing up.  Supposedly there are 4 different revisions of the RB guitar out there in the initial retail packaging...  So while I like (well, except for the breaking part) the RB guitar I got, yours might be a totally different revision of the hardware.  They've also mentioned that all returns get the latest version of the hardware, so I'll see once my new one arrives if the newest is good or not.  If it's bad, I may join your bitter club, schild. :)

Beyond the RB guitar, I agree that the original SG controller was the best.  If you consider that the last guitar they made before this one was the 360 explorer (which I absolutely hate), I think it's a big step forward.

[schild]

1 step forward from zero.
9 steps back from 1.
1 step forward from -8 is still -7.

For reals. The guitar is just crap. Because it's not just the strum bar.

Four different revisions just makes things worse. It's like someone didn't think the failure rate of the 360 was enough for the consumers to be angry.

For what it's worth, I like RB's notation better than any previous game's.

All this really tells me is that you like it easy. Which is fine. Ironically, since you're like 15 miles from me, we could have a rock off. Or a rock on. Or whatever. If they ever fix the guitar issue and our boy Phil is back in town, I may very well be up for that. ^_^

[Margalis]

So you can say I'm unusually bitter, but I think people are giving these companies too much leeway and I need to make up for it. Because the people who don't like fuckups like this aren't bitter enough. And most of the people (not just here) are complimenting design features that break down completely at a high level. And that's just retarded. No offense, but it falls in line with Hammer Frenzy's commentary on fighting games. How can you know something is mechanically bad if you never get to the part where it becomes mechanically useful.

The issue here is that your dial only has a 1 and an 11 on it; both your critique and your praise have become increasingly shrill and charicatured. You seem to pick games and issues almost at random then go crazy in one direction or the other. ZOMG THE WII SUCKS!!! ZOMG HELLGATE RULES!!!

Everything has become politics-style advocacy, like we're back in 1993 having a Mac vs. PC flamewar on a BBS. Blindered advocacy is a major turnoff. Not everything is the Most Important Issue Ever (tm) that you have to have some insanely extreme position on.

[schild]

The entire games industry was like that this fall.

Games that were getting 2 and 3 from sites that don't give that away were getting 8, 9s, and 10s.

I've always admitted to being fanatical and crazy about games.

Of course, it's amplified when expectations are let down. But yea, I've always been crazy.

[bhodi]

OK. I played this for the first time tonight. Here's my review.

First, the guitar kicks so much fucking ass compared to the GH3 guitar. Yes, the strum is a bit rubbery. So fucking what. Some guitars break within the first day. Yeah, that sucks, but so far the one I played hasn't. You can get a new one overnighted to you. The important thing is the design itself -- it's the buttons that made me get down on my knees. Oh fucking yes. The buttons that are so perfect in every way that the GH3 buttons are not.

They are actually made so wherever you press them, and listen up hardware designers, they don't stick when pressed on the edge. That's right. They do what you intend them to do. Apparently, this tiny bit of functionality has been left out of the GH3 guitar, making the game nearly unplayable by me. Also, since they require a lot less force to push, it makes it easier to get faster passages and my hand doesn't seize up after 30 minutes like on GH3. I played it for about 5 hours straight with no problems at all. I had a little bit of trouble telling the buttons apart at first, but you easily learn there are boundary raised bumps before the first and after the last that bracket the buttons nicely, so you can always bump against them to re-acquire your position. Some other guitar design decisions are puzzling. For example, the whammy adjustment selector seems worthless and should have been left out, and the 'on' button is both a playstation button similar to the GH3 guitar along with a push button in an area that simulates the jack line out. They appear to do the same thing. The select and start buttons are exactly underneath your strum hand -- another poor choice.

The drums were better than I expected, but they are still badly designed pieces of plastic. I don't know why they bothered with a design that allowed height adjustment, since it added complexity along with a whole 5 inches of difference between minimum and maximum height. One of our height adjuster clamps didn't work, so we were forced to play on minimum height. It was fine while sitting on a couch. I also don't know why they added a hard plastic rim on the drums, the material should have wrapped around and been fastened on the underside leaving the entire face of the pad available for pickup. The difference in sound is kind of annoying. I'm nitpicking on this, but seriously -- fix your stand adjustment. Either make it adjustable by at least a foot and a half (so you can play standing or sitting) or don't bother. I guess there was no way to dampen the sound? That would have been nice, the 'click click click' is kind of immersion-ruining and you have to turn the sound way up on the game to drown it out.

The local multiplayer is unparalleled, assuming you have 3 friends and one of them can sing. It turns out I'm not terrible at the drums, and my guitar skills transfered over fine. I was confident (97%+) on hard and can drag through expert (~75%) on guitar, and on drums I was about one difficulty lower. This difficulty setting is perfect for me. I'm aware that my skill level is different from Schilds' and have taken this into account by completely disregarding his opinion -- I'm not Schild and neither were any of my friends. I was also the most skilled person of about 7 there tonight -- most everyone was pegged at easy, except for two girls who were our singers. Between them, they destroyed (read: 99%-100%, every song) on hard mode. A grand time was had by all.

The remote multiplayer stuff seems kludged together but that's par for the course -- so far I haven't seen a good implementation on any console, ever. Sorry guys, you're about 10 years behind PCs and it shows. When it's easier to simply call my friend on the phone to set up a game, your multiplayer needs to be scrapped.

We didn't touch the downloadable content, but GH3 can kiss my ass with their overpriced song packs. I know I can download individual songs, admittedly still too expensive for my liking, but at least it's not a slap in the face.

In summary, It kicks the ever-loving shit out of GH3 in every way -- guitar, local multiplayer, and downloadable content. All in all, an extremely worthy purchase -- especially since I didn't buy it, my friend did.

I wish I could return GH3 and buy this instead.

[schild]

First, the guitar kicks so much fucking ass compared to the GH3 guitar.

You had me at 'hello.'

I know I can download individual songs, admittedly still too expensive for my liking, but at least it's not a slap in the face.

They're $1.99 a piece right now afaik. Same price as the GH ones in a 3 pack. Or their own 3 packs for that matter.

most everyone was pegged at easy,

This is exactly what I've said. Easy doesn't reveal a single one of the problems I've complained about. In any game, really. And as for your friends, I'm glad they have fun with it - so do mine. Doesn't mean there isn't a million things that need fixing. Most everyone here plays hard and expert on whatever instrument, and they all have valid complaints. And valid reasons that only one person is buying the set even though some have to drive further than others to get here. I'm also pretty sure everyone has or is canceling their preorder of it almost solely due to the shit guitar implementation. It's simply one of those "wait for a revision" situations.

[bhodi]

Yeah, but I'm not forced to buy 2 additional shitty songs along with the one I want. Instead, I can buy 3 good songs.

Also, I think the guitar is better than the GH1 guitar, but not by a whole lot -- I think the extra length in the neck reduces strain on my wrist somehow. In my imagined redesign, I'd take the rock band buttons, add the GH1 strummer (is there a difference? I don't recall one), then move all the 'extra buttons' to be far away from my strum hand to avoid the pause screen come up along with the dismaying "ahhhhh jeez" from the 3 other people I have just messed up.

Oh, after playing a bit, the tabbing/whatever you want to call it on GH3 was better, but I like the tighter timing on rock band and I actually prefer the visuals. It seems to have the same annoying "Random note that you can't HO/PO that you should be able to" that GH3 does. I can tell the notes apart, even with full 4 screened multiplayer going on.

[schild]

I didn't like the GH2 guitar either if you remember. In fact, I went out of my way to set up a USB->PS2 converter to use the original GH1 SG. Nothing touches that guitar. And those buttons would never ever stick unless you played with it after eating sausage gravy...







... with your hands.

[bhodi]

I didn't remember, but I believe you. I thought I have one guitar that's GH1 and one that's GH2 but I can't really tell the difference between them. I think maybe I have 2 GH2 guitars. Not sure. I like those strums. Here's a pic I just took:



So yeah. Those buttons never stick. The GH3 ones are just too tight and whatever trigger they press against the circuit board is tiny and round, and the stupid button sides push and wedge against the casing. Hate. I'm going to try WD40 this weekend and, if that doesn't work, it's dremel time.

[schild]

oh hello new picture. Cherry guitar. I bought GH2 without a guitar. I don't even know what that top one is, I'm not kidding. The bottom one is the only interest I have in playing ever. Though I imagine the cherry is exactly the same as the black.

Edit: Top one is GH3 PS3? Lulz. I couldn't even tell. I honestly didn't play it that much with that controller. Maybe 2-3 times at most.

My order goes like this GH1->GH3->GH2---------------------------------------------------------------------------> Rock Band. I'm sorry but the strummer is the most important part and hey flubbed it so fucking hard they should be issuing a recall.

[bhodi]

Top one is GH3 for PS3 model that I'm hating on so much. The bottom two I bought from a friend along with GH1 and GH2 for the PS2 and they kick ass. Yeah, pic was too big, I resized it.

[schild]

My GH3 buttons never stuck. Ever.

If you've ever played the GH2 360 guitar, you'll learn to love the PS3 one. It's a step forward from the GH2 axe.

[bhodi]

Maybe I got a defective one? It wouldn't shock me. The green button is especially bad, but generally because I push it down on the bottom edge more than any other button.

As far as I can tell, the bottom two guitars are completely interchangeable. I guess they are GH1 models and he bought them for GH1 and didn't buy a guitar with GH2.

[schild]

Ok. Yours sounds defective. I just puttered with mine pushing real real hard. No dice. Thing is rock solid and nowhere near sticky. I even pushed it under the surface and it popped right back up.

Like I said, don't really care about it since it's out for the PC and I can use the original GH1 model.

[bhodi]

This is what happens:



It sticks like that and doesn't actually register a press if I hit it on a side. Especially the 'bottom' (as it is when you are holding the guitar). If I don't hit the button pretty much on the middle, no dice. I can eventually push it in but it takes way more force than it should which basically ruins whatever I'm trying to play.

How do you use the GH1 model? What's the adapter?

[schild]

I use an adapter that says HVG2 on it. It's completely no name. Picked it up at Fry's Electronics for $14.99. Next time I'm there I'll see if they still carry it if you don't have a Fry's around you. There's a million ps2/1 to USB adapters out there. They should all work. Why?

Because of Joy to Key. Basically, I match the guitar hero keystrokes using J2K to the proper keyboard key presses. And it just works perfectly.

DEPRESSING AS FUCK SPOILER INFORMATION:
The PS2 adapter will allow controllers to be recognized on the PS3. But Rock Band only recognizes the SG as a regular controller. Epic failure made worse by the fact that Harmonix is trying to blame Red Octane and Activision for it not working with their code. HILARIOUS. If I could use my GH1 guitar with Rock Band, my opinion would change RADICALLY.

It sticks like that and doesn't actually register a press if I hit it on a side. Especially the 'bottom' (as it is when you are holding the guitar). If I don't hit the button pretty much on the middle, no dice. I can eventually push it in but it takes way more force than it should which basically ruins whatever I'm trying to play.

Bad guitar. Never had this problem. Not once. No one here has. We all use the same two guitars (Jigglypuffs and my own).

[Nija]

Someone should make a game that comes with a 24 button guitar (4 x 6) and secretly trick people into learning real guitar while they play.

I'm still waiting for some enterprising hacker to write the driver that makes a real electric guitar function as a Guitar Hero controller (analyze the pitch of the audio output to figure out what fret you're on, and convert that into the appropriate button press).  Once someone did that a version of Guitar Hero that used real guitar tab would be very doable.

 

[bhodi]

The PS2 adapter will allow controllers to be recognized on the PS3. But Rock Band only recognizes the SG as a regular controller. Epic failure made worse by the fact that Harmonix is trying to blame Red Octane and Activision for it not working with their code. HILARIOUS. If I could use my GH1 guitar with Rock Band, my opinion would change RADICALLY.

Soooo... does that mean that I can buy a $15 adapter and use my GH1 guitars with GH3 on the PS3? Can anyone confirm this works? If not, I suppose I could... "acquire" the PC version, since frankly I don't lie awake at nights if I, ahem, "format shift" a game I already own.

[schild]

Doesn't work.

[Big Gulp]

That would have been nice, the 'click click click' is kind of immersion-ruining and you have to turn the sound way up on the game to drown it out.

Yeah, that annoyed me to no end.  I solved it by rounding up my old mousepads, cutting drum pad sized circles out of them, and duct taping them to the surface.  It doesn't kill the sound entirely, but it does help a lot.

But yeah, I agree.  They should have rubberized those pads more from the beginning.

[schild]

It's really strange. Everyone who has played the drums says that exact same thing. And then they say they hate the strummer on the guitar not clicking.

Which I fully agree with. But it's just amazing where it seems the engineers behind these instruments failed during core "fun" tests. Like, did focus groups just not give real opinions during prototype tests?

[Lantien]

Yeah, count me in on the list of people with some weird strumming issues. But thankfully I have an XBox360, so I have a working guitar from GH3, and I've borrowed a friend's guitar for GH2.  So as far as we're concerned, full band no problems a-okay. Dunno if we're going to fix the Strat ourselves, or turn it in.  It's a real shame too.  I was starting to really get the handle of the Stratocaster before it started messing up. I would daresay that a fixed Stratocaster is a step above an Explorer (Yeah yeah, IF it was fixed).

I'm feeling really bummed for PS3 players, they got screwed up the yingyang by this. Is it true that the PS3 guitar can't be used with Rock Band? Honestly a flaw like that is amazingly weak sauce, and I don't know who to blame. I vaguely remember Harmonix has made noises that it's up to Sony to make sure these things happen, but I have a hard time believing this. I would definitely imagine that having only one guitar (and a broken one at that) to play Rock Band would seriously negatively color your experience of Rock Band. That has to be one hell of a gamebreaker, and should be shouted at everyone who wants to pick this up for the PS3 to warn them off until the peripherals get straightened out.

And as someone who had the PS2 version of Guitar Hero 1/2, let me third my echo of the SG love. Comfortable and a non-shitty guitar = win. Out of the 2 offbrand wireless PS2 guitars, the SG, the Explorer, the XBox GH3 Les Paul, and the Stratocaster as guitars I've used extensively, the SG is #2 on that list in terms of comfort.  It's easily the #1 wired guitar I've ever used. I have to imagine that having to incorporate all the junk for XBox led to the Explorer being.. less than awesome.

On the flip side, I'm baffled by the lack of GH3 Les Paul love. The only knock on it that I can think of is that it isn't as comfy as the SG, I notice my strum arm bumping against the guitar from time to time. On the flip side, due to slightly cramped spaces, I can use the Les Paul to play wirelessly and unimpeded behind the singer, the drummer, and the bassist, which is a huge thumbs up. It is the best wireless guitar I've ever used, hands down.

Yeah, the Cherry red guitar is the PS2 version of the SG for Guitar Hero 2. It has no discernable difference from the Guitar Hero 1 SG. It held up better than the GH1 Black SG, but I think that's because we wailed on the original guitars so hard during GH1.

As for unlocking songs, there's an unlock code floating around in the wild.  http://www.gamefaqs.com/console/xbox360/code/938870.html Dunno if you have to punch it in every time you play though, and I don't know if it's for the PS3. What I did was play solo when no one else was around, on a difficulty that I knew I could clear through (hard).  It's sensationally easy to 5 star the game, so this isn't bad.  In addition, you get a free guitar as a guitar player for clearing the "regular" tour as well as the "bonus" tour (the non-DLC tour). Not to mention you get paid money for playing songs in Solo tour.  But with the exception of the chinzy explosive pots ending to completing the regular solo tour, there's not a lot of attractive draw to completing solo tour from a gameplay perspective. On the flip side, I'm pretty much able to buy whatever I want in the rock store now, with the exception of the fantasy guitars.

(and on a side note with the unlockable guitars, I think playing GH1 and GH2 has made me rather snobbish with respect to guitar types. While I got excited about seeing Stratocasters and Telecasters, the Gretsch & Jackson guitars I'm almost inclined to not bother to unlock.  Can a guitar nerd please properly pimp the guitars to get us unwashed masses pumped up?)

However, unlocking too many songs can be a mixed bag.  With one band, we were "lucky" enough in some random setlists to get songs like "Don't fear the Reaper" and "The Electric Version" unusually early on, the latter which was just obliterating my wrists.

On the other hand, me and two other friends were trying to get the Tour Bus challenge.  I had expert Guitar, another roommate took Medium drums, and the other roommate took Bass+Vocals on medium. The Tour Bus challenge is a 3 random song playlist, and we started out rocky with Okay Go "Here it goes again", barely eking out 3 stars. As it turns out, sight singing and sight playing a bass is difficult. Then we got Jet's "Do you want to be my girl", which we 4 starred.  When we saw that the last song was "Wanted Dead or Alive", the Bassist/Lead Singer declared "It's over, we got this".  We proceeded to easily 5 star the song, and in so, win the Tour Bus. Moments like that is where I think why people can easily love this game.

As for the game on the higher tiers of difficulty, I'm really interested to see where this goes.  From my unskilled eyes, I can see Drummers in particular getting the brunt of the pain, due to the sheer volume of notes they have to hit perfectly.

[Bokonon]

So far I just have a latch on the drum kit that doesn't strongly hold the pads to the poles. I may send it in since I have the opportunity, or not. I thought the guitar might be messing up yesterday while I was running through hard, but it "fixed" itself. Which means I'll be watching it closely the next several days.

I love the button spacing on the strat, I can do G<->O stuff without shifting, which makes that stuff easier, and I like the feel of them (the fact that they are recessed is nice). I am one of the few in the world that apparently loves the strumbar. No clicking is awesome (especially as it doesn't annoy my wife anymore) and after getting used to it, I enjoy the feel of it. I am an unreformed down-strummer, and at first I had problems getting through fast strum parts. I was beginning to believe the anti-hype, but I messed around with my down-strum style, and now it feels (to me, a non-guitarist) much more like playing a real guitar. In the GH games I used to always keep my thumb on the bar, now I "tap" the bar and can hit the fast parts as long as I am not screwing up.

[OcellotJenkins]

I can pretty much guarantee that many people here will have problems with their Fender Strat "downstrum" at some point in time.  There are fixes posted on the forums that a few of us adventurous people tried and so far my Strat has performed flawlessly ever since.

Here's a fix:
http://www.quartertothree.com/game-talk/showthread.php?t=40188

This fix works great, thanks for posting it.

[Jerrith]

Ironically, since you're like 15 miles from me, we could have a rock off. Or a rock on. Or whatever. If they ever fix the guitar issue and our boy Phil is back in town, I may very well be up for that. ^_^

Sure I'd be up for it.  I'll follow this up with a PM.

Finished the solo drum tour on medium earlier today.  Had to take a few breaks along the way, maybe I'm hitting too hard, or just not a drummer, but my wrists would get tired/sore after awhile.  Still was fun and much more of a challenge than guitar for me.

My solo band world tour (guitar + vocals) is up to trying to get enough stars for the hall of fame (got the PR Firm).  I really just want to see the endless setlist for myself...  Someone posted on scorehero that it didn't actually add in DLC, and if that's the case, then one of my few Rock Band complaints will have gone away.  I've given up on trying to get fans at this point...  I'm over the hard cap (600,000) and at ~10k fans per song, hitting 1 million for the achievement doesn't seem worth spending time on (since there's only a few songs I can do expert/expert on).

Also started playing around with the solo buttons...  It seems like big rock endings are significantly easier if you use them there (it's trivial to keep all 5 bars lit up) but adjusting back to the regular frets for the final note(s) can be tricky.  Not that this justifies them (or this mechanic making them important)...  Just an observation.

Had a couple good matches online, one my favorites was when I got matched up with a really good expert drummer...  I mean, 99% on a difficult song good.  Guitar + Bass + Drums all on expert ended up with over 800k points, the highest I've seen so far.  (If only we had a vocalist!)

As soon as my new guitar shows up, I'll comment on how it is.  I'm hoping the newest revision will have fixed most, if not all of the problems.