The Bus

The first thread.

I finally beat my first few songs on Hard difficulty today. I have to say at this point I hate "Surrender" with a passion, not only singing it, but playing it as well.

I also slogged through all the bonus unlockable songs. Man, most of those were absolute tripe.

My only complaint with the game so far is the price of the DLC. If songs by certain artists would appear, I would definitely pay the current price. I don't mind paying $2 for a Beck song. But I won't do it for songs I don't even really like.

rocketsauce

there's a beck song?

LivingINClip

I have to agree that all the bonus songs are crap. I think I have like three more to unlock and I have yet to hear one that I even remotely enjoy and the fact you don't get money for completing them gives me no desire what so ever to go play them and finish them. Any tips for getting money? At this point I am five-starring medium, but not quite good enough for hard. I still have a bunch of stuff to unlock, before I can get the rest of the achievements.

Decker

I don't really want to post in the Encore thread.

Do I get an acheivement now?

NatrlBornThrllr

Get better at the game, and you'll gain a deeper appreciation for some of the bonus songs. Once you reach a certain level of ability, a handful of them become the most entertaining songs the game has to offer.

Liver&Onions

tried my first hard song last night. At first I was thinking it would be OK - just medium but faster. WRONG, stupid orange button

mzupeman2

Yeah, the orange button is tough. Not sure if I'm going to get used to it. Mastered medium though.

Green Smurf

Just got this game and I totally suck at it. Keep losing my finger placement.

I guess practice makes perfect.

Also is it better to use the guitar controller or the actually xbox controller?

Shagrath

What kind of question is this? How do you expect to rock out with a regular game controller? I would feel like a total fool tilting a 360 gamepad up to activate star power!

There's a reason that the guitar controller ships with the game, and that is that by far, it is the best way to experience the awesome power that is Guitar Hero!

Flay

FYI, Major Nelson briefly talks about the GH II downloadable content in his podcast this week. He starts talking about it around the 4 minute mark. Not much really there, but he is working on getting the publisher on his show.

Also, there is an interesting thread over at the Xbox.com forums keeping track of the amount of people actually downloading the content through the leaderboards: Link

Right now, the attach rate is a little under 8%.

lordzeppelin

I did download the first pack because I absolutely need Ace of Spades...and I had 1600 free points from Circuit city...so i blew 500 on that pack. Bark at the Moon was just a bonus to Motorhead though.

Decker

Are all the downloadable songs from GH1?

Green Smurf

I was just asking a question.

If anyone had tried it with just the normal controller?

MasterofDVD

My one friend who is amazing at the game tried it with the controller. He said he had a hell of a time playing the songs.

devilshalo

32 of 40 songs on HARD. I can't get past Carry Me Home or Psychobilly Freakout. I get thru 15% of CMH before failing.

Maxflier

Even Jordan? That's an AWESOME song, although I may be a bit biased since I love Buckethead.

For those of you like myself that are still working to 5* all the medium songs, you might find this strategy that I discovered tonight helpful. When I first start playing, I play a song on Hard difficulty (I use Possum Kingdom) to get warmed up. Then when you jump back down to Medium after that it seems like the notes are almost coming in slow motion, which makes it much easier.

And on a side note: I tried Woman on hard last night and could only laugh at how f'ing hard it was. I lasted about 6 seconds .

PopcornTreeCt

Anyone know the best deal on this game? I'm thinking about picking it up.

Decker

The best deals have left the building, unfortunately. If you're a member of Sam's Club or Costco, both warehouse stores have it for $10-$12 off MSRP.

edit: Oops, turns out it's $10 off ($79.99) at CompUSA this week in their weekly ad, so if you have a Sunday ad, it's probably price match-able at any of the stores that do that.

Canis Firebrand

Woman took me so many tries in Hard before I got it. I was doing pretty decent due to a star power. My meter was in the green until I got to the very end with the tons of notes in repeating patterns. I managed to get through that section, but only thanks to Star power. My meter was in the red, flashing and very close to failing. If there had been a few more notes, I'd have failed.

edstein

I've 5*d everything up to tier 6 on medium except Message in a Bottle. I just need to practice that one some more. I've made it through 8 or 9 songs on Hard. And I mean just made it through. The combination of the orange button and the increased speed is kicking my ass.

NatrlBornThrllr

I've been playing the game for a while, but I'd never started my own individual career (my roomie and I started a shared one to unlock everything when we first bought the game, and it's been QuickPlay high score battles ever since). I finally started a separate career, though, and here's how it stands as of last night:

Easy:
Completed - 00/28
Five-Star - 00/28
100% - 00/28

Meduim:
Completed - 40/40
Five-Star - 40/40
100% - 38/40 (Institutionalized, Freebird)

Hard:
Completed - 40/40
Five-Star - 40/40
100% - 02/40

Expert:
Completed - 40/40
Five-Star - 36/40 (Freebird, Misirlou, Psychobilly Freakout, Hangar 18)
100% - 00/40

Goals:
1. 100% Institutionalized and Freebird on Medium.
2. Five-Star the four remaining songs on Expert.
4. 100% the other 15-20 possible songs on Hard.
5. 100% the five or so possible songs on Expert.
6. 100% all available songs on Easy.
7. 100% all of the bonus songs on Medium.

I should have that last one done within the next few days -- I started the task a few days ago and am already up to 17/24. The other seven will take a bit of practice but shouldn't be any major problem. The "Easy" career will take little effort, but way too much time.

Canis Firebrand

That is some serious skill.

I've only 100% a few songs on Easy and none on Medium. Definetly won't be doing it on Hard and I am not sure if I'll attempt Expert at this point.

mdc3000

I spent like a solid 45 minutes practicing Woman on hard last night and after 3 failed attempts, finally beat that damn song...like 65% and was almost flashing red by the end, but did it...I hate hard.

NatrlBornThrllr

You'd be surprised. I first encountered Guitar Hero at a party late last summer. I gave it a shot, and sucked so badly that I swore it off. Then I started dating the host of the party, and it was the one video game that she enjoyed the hell out of...and she was better than me. So, I gave it another shot. Started on medium, and played that exclusively for months. I hated the orange button. Once we bought the game, my roommate started playing a song or two on hard and picked it up relatively quickly. So I decided, orange button be damned, I'm too competitive to not give it a go. I was atrocious at first, but slowly and surely...

It doesn't take a lot of hours dedicated to practicing. Just play the game with some frequency, and in no time expert will seem like a fun challenge instead of an impossible chore. That's the beauty of this game, for me at least. A mere 60 songs or so, and I'm nowhere near getting sick of it. And there will always be a bigger challenge to follow a success...just look at Jordan on expert.

NatrlBornThrllr

Got 100% on "Less Talk More Rokk" and "One for the Road." That bumps me up to just five medium bonus songs left, seven total. Which give me an idea:

Would anybody make use of a thread intended to keep updated tabs on your Guitar Hero career(s)?

You know, like the "DVD spending tab" thread, or the "Rank 'em as you see 'em" thread. One post per person, a layout similar to what I posted above, that the person can edit with any updates. I think it'd be fun to see peoples' progress, and it might motivate me to pick up that controller more often...

Just a thought.