I still don't know if I would call Amplitude easier overall, though....

As far as the note patterns themselves go, I found that Amplitude had way more complicated ones than Frequency. The only really super-hard one in Frequency was that nasty Synth line on End Of Your World. Otherwise, Amplitude's note patterns were a lot more complicated than Frequency's, especially in the harder songs.

Other things that made Amplitude harder:

- On the hardest difficulty, you had to be constantly playing the song and jumping around on the tracks. In Frequency, if you did well enough on a song you could spend a good chunk of the later part of the song just racking up the free points on the freestyle tracks. In Amplitude, you had to be good enough at the song to actually do all the parts instead of just using Autocatchers to get the tough stuff out of the way.

- The change from a round track to a flat one. If you were trying to keep your multiplier up and you needed to go from one side to the other quickly, you not only had to move pretty quickly, but since the track you needed to get to was on the other side of the screen, you couldn't actually see what you needed to play before you got there. In Frequency, you could just glance to any of the tracks to see what was coming up, they'd just be on the "ceiling".

- Those stupid arrows that showed you where you could continue your multiplier frequently obscured the track you were coming up on until you were right on top of it, making it impossible to see what you were supposed to be playing.

That said, there were some changes that made Amplitude a bit easier...

- The Slomo powerup made learning the tougher passages a whole lot easier. Once you did them a few times at a slower speed, it was easier to do them regularly. I imagine that the practice mode in GH2 will help similarly.

- The note timing was a lot more forgiving.

- Since you could get credit for single-measure sections, you didn't have to worry about being screwed out of your multiplier if you messed up and came to a section change, as you did with Frequency.

- There were more powerups that helped you get through tougher tracks. The Freestyler let you pass everything for a while, the Autocatcher was helpful as always, and the Slomo just made them super-easy.

- The Freestyler actually did too much to make scoring easy. If you were lucky enough to get a Score Doubler and a Freestyler in order, you could get WAY more points than you ever could by just playing the song without them.

That said, I'm just hoping that the note patterns in GH2 are crazy enough so that they offset the help offered by the practice mode and the easier HOPOs.

yeah, but we've seen videos of the game, and seen the guitar, so I get the feeling the game might be ready to go. I guess a few more months won't be too bad, but it would be a perfect Christmas gift.

Misirlou on Expert. This is from the last game tier. I'm thinking this might be one of the few I don't 5 star :

http://www.gamerevolution.com/manifesto/view.php?id=194

Thank you all for the info, my local Newsbreak store had the Playstation magazine with the Guitar Hero 2 demo disk. The mag was a bit steep at $10 but with the demo disk and the PSP demo disk it was worth it! Oh well, here goes the feeling in my arm again! At least I can rock to KISS now!

If any of you STILL don't own it:

http://shop3.outpost.com/product/4645998

$40? What a steal!

Damn! It won't let me add this to my cart.

Yeah, it went OOS (essentially) earlier this morning, phone orders only now.

Yeah, I wanted in on this deal, though the $10 shipping made it less of a steal. I keep waiting for a price drop on this game, but maybe I'll just wait for GH2 since I like that red guitar better.

Funny story : Last night I went to a private party and they had hired a live band. Over the course of one set, they played "I Love Rock & Roll", "I Wanna Be Sedated" and "Take Me Out". I turned to my wife and said, "I guess they learned how to play by playing Guitar Hero".

The (apparently final) bonus track listing:

Nice!

That one shocked me too....

Guys at GAF are reporting that this game is already in some WalMart stores. They even posted pictures and everything.

I know everybody is hyped over Guitar Hero II (as am I), but what about part III? Yes, obviously there will be one, but on what systems? Do you think we'll see a PS2 GH III, or is Sony dropping support of the PS2 as soon as the PS3 launches? In other words, are we going to have to switch systems for part III, if it comes out at roughly the same time next year? Yes, I know we'll eventually have to upgrade systems anyway if we want to keep playing new games, but I wasn't planning on getting a PS3 for a looooong while.

I would expect a PS2, PS3, and 360 version. Maybe even a Wii version as well. Sony still has God of War 2 coming out next year, so I would expect a PS2 version to help RedOctane get back a profit faster.

Also, RedOctane is releasing a WIRELESS controller on November 7 as well. It's $60, so I'm not sure I'll be getting it. Rocking out without being limited to a wire is sure tempting though.

Personally, I hope that they keep releasing them for the PS2. They've got a LOT of controllers out there, and since the game came out so late in the system's life, it'd be a bit of a cruddy move to not keep supporting the system.

Does the PS3 use the same kind of controller ports as the PS2, though? I really haven't followed the PS3 at all, honestly (all I know is that it's way too overpriced and there isn't a single game that's been announced that looks all that interesting to me), so I'm well aware that this may be an extremely silly question, based on what's public knowledge about the system.

Either way, aside from the dev time needed for porting, there really isn't a reason that any future releases couldn't be put out on the PS2. It's not like having the more advanced graphics of the PS3 will do much for gameplay or anything. You'll just be seeing the same scrolling gems in HD, and there will most likely be more detail in the backgrounds.

I imagine that the big boost that the next-gen systems will offer will be from the new, higher-capacity formats, though. More space = more songs, presumably.

Nope, the PS3 controllers are USB.

I got the demo yesterday. Its fun but pretty...easy. I was suprised I could get through yyz on expert first try. I doubt this will have as much replay value as the first, but I'm still going to get it. Being able to play 3 or 4 of the bonus tracks alone makes it worth it for me, and I hope the multiplayer is as amazing as it sounds like it's going to be.

Part of the appeal of the original Guitar Hero was learning how to play the game itself.

I was worried about that, but playing the demo I realized it's just flat out fun regardless. Gotta try for high scores now .

Exactly. I get the feeling that a lot of people are going to really blow through the game, especially with the easier HOPOs and practice mode. Hopefully 5-starring everything will be sufficiently tough enough to give the game some legs.

On the other hand, I still find myself playing songs on GH1 that I 5-starred long ago, just for fun, so as long as the songs are fun and the note charts are interesting, I'm sure I'll be more than happy.

I'm still playing GH1 alot. After losing my saved game I was pretty burned out, but I picked it up again in August and started playing again really heavily due to the competition on www.scorehero.com. Matching top scores against other people and trying to improve your own scores and overall rankings provides a lot of incentive, at least for me.

I'll be picking up GH2 next tuesday for sure.

RedOctane charged my card today.

dumb question, but when will this actually be in stores? On hte 7th?

GH2: Um...no, I will not be beating this song on Expert.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=adi-YnpFroI

Most likely, yes.

It seems like RedOctane sent out the games over a week ago, so most stores should have them sitting out on the seventh.

4 MORE DAYS! Work will be such a bitch to get through Tuesday.