I guess my thing is that, at least the first time through on Medium, I could play horribly and get 3 stars, so I HAD to go back and do better.

Now that I'm doing Hard, I'm probably going to be more accepting of 3

On Hard I was able to get 5s on most of the early stuff, 4s on almost all the later stuff and but I played Texas Flood twice, Cowboys from Hell 3x and Bark at the Moon twice and never scored better than a 3 which was frustrating as those are my favorites songs in the game.

On expert I've gotten 2 fives, 8 fours and I tried Symphony of Destruction and experienced my first failure... twice. Frustrating missing only 2 notes until you get to the solo and then failing. I need to save my hero power until later in the solo and then it's probably not that hard. Would be nice if you could slow the songs down and practice the hard passages.

To do the HOPO stuff requires you to be a lot more exacting than when you pick everything which is kind of frustrating. I'm starting to get the hang of it a little bit though.

played this from 8pm till 4am on new years eve. favorite song in 2 player mode is cowboy's from hell on expert level. damn fun.

I never knew of the hammer ons and pull offs. That's what I get for not looking at the manual or doing the tutorials. This may help tremendously, I'm still stuck on the last two songs on expert mode.

Whew! Been bringing this game over to my family's houses a lot over break (since I've been there like 75 times!) and it's been a big hit. FINALLY made it through Crossroads and that other stupid level 5 song that I can't ever remember the name of on hard. I made it through Godzilla on level 6 and everything else is kicking my ass. Damn Stevie Ray Vaughn.

Ugh.. anytime I hear any of these songs on the radio.. my fingers are searching for the right combo on the frets.

has there been any word on expansion packs in the future?

No official word yet.

From what I've read on the official boards, any future games are going to be more along the lines of a full-fledged sequel, instead of just the same game with more songs.

Any more word on an XBOX version?

I was at Best Buy and when I picked up Guitar Hero a guy wearing an Xbox shirt came up to me and said even though I work for Xbox, Guitar Hero is the best game out there. I asked if there was going to be an Xbox version he said no, not at this time.

This may sound weird but I have the most fun playing this game when I am in my underwear. I spend hours on easy mode and really get into the whole guitar god stance and whale away. I even do that little step that guy from ACDC does(hops on one leg hunched over).

No game has ever brought me this much fun. Well, maybe Samba De Amigo but thats it

If you don't own this game I highly suggest you go sell some blood or internal organs and buy it asap

For those having problems with Hammer-ons and Pull-offs, let me reassure you that it IS possible to complete the last 2 Expert songs without them. I can do Hammer-ons MAYBE 25% of the time, and I've never even bothered with Pull-offs....and yet I made it through Cowboys From Hell and Bark At The Moon on Expert after an hour or so of constant replaying. And the funny thing is, even though I was thrilled to make it through Cowboys From Hell and vowed never to bother with that stress again....a week later, out of the blue, a friend wanted me to show him the song so I tried it again on a lark and I made it through MY FIRST TRY. So the hour of non-stop attempts obviously conditioned my fingers to get through some of the difficult sections. I will say that when I then tried to do Bark at The Moon again, I didn't make it through heh. But don't give up! It's possible!

One other tip...it's better to let a note go by then to try it and fail...meaning, you lose more of your crowd meter if you fail a note. There are a few sections in Cowboys From Hell in particular where I would literally concentrate on one or two notes in a cluster and let the rest slide through. Combine this with effective use of Star Power, and the song is yours.

Good luck!

So some of you must be finished up with this by now. Hook a brother up and sell yours to me at some sort of deep discount.

Well I finished the game on expert Saturday. I didn't play it for almost five days before and came back pretty rusty. I had 10 songs left and was able to do pass 8 of them the first try. Cowboys from Hell caught me off guard but I passed my 2nd go around. I think it'd be tough to do beat 3 stars though. Bark at the Moon was a bitch. I failed at 10%, then 24% which really depressed me. I then made it to 90% only because I forgot there was an extra final solo. It basically came down to figuring out when to use the Star Power (I saved my full power until the middle and the outro). So I called my wife in and I was kicking ass. I confidently announced I was going to pass, kicked in the full star power at the right time, was just barely making it and then i biffed the VERY LAST NOTE and failed. Three more tries and I passed although still very deep in the red. So I completed the Med, Hard & Expert in about two weeks, only failing 4 songs (1 hard, 3 expert).

I decided I wanted to unlock everything on Expert but I don't have near the cash for that so I started replaying some of the earlier songs I got 3s and 4s on. It's amazing how much easier even a third tier song is compared to the final tier. I think I can at least do 4s through everything except the final tier, cause I just don't see how it's possible on Bark at the Moon. It would be nice if there was a way to practice the solo section, or even just slow it down a little bit. I still don't have great control of the HO/POs either which makes those passages really rough (especially if you miss a note so none of the others get hit until you repluck.

I've also started on the 17 bonus songs on expert as well. "The Breaking Wheel" by Artillery is easily my favorite as I play a lot of thrash metal stuff myself.

I can almost guarantee that it would be easier for me to play Bark at the Moon's solo section on a real guitar than it is to play it on the controller. Those solo passages are fast, but there's nothing particularly difficult about them. A real guitar and amp are much more forgiving

I dont think i will ever sell it , has great replay value. My personal opition.

Just saying that I was going to sell my ps2 to my friend... 3 months ago...

"The Breaking Wheel" tears me up on Hard. I can only get 10% on Expert!

That opening bit is definitely the hardest part of the song (although it repeats again later). I'm lucky to get past it in the yellow and then make it up in the rest of the song. I haven't scored higher than 3 stars on it yet.

Oh the agony of getting 99% on Bark at the Moon on expert. I spent a few hours today and was finally able to pass Cowboys from Hell, but 99% is the best I did for Bark at the Moon.

Totally understand how that is. Talk about agonizing.

As of last night, I've got 5 stars on 17 Expert songs (+2 of the bonus songs), and 4 stars on 7 songs. I've got 3 stars on the last four songs, plus Crossroads and one other that I can't remember right now. I know I can get 4 stars on Crossroads but for some reason I can't pass it now even though I made it my first try. I'm failing at around 85% with a score 35k higher than my 3 star score, but I just can't survive the final solo section, even with full star power. For some reason I can't do better than 4 stars on Sharp Dressed Man either. It's my only 4 star song in the first 15.

I have been trying to get a copy of this game for 2 weeks. Around here (Indianapolis) It's harder to find than an Xbox 360. I find this very frustrating because this game looks AMAZING. I wanna play it SOOOO bad. Anyone have any advice where to get one? I'd like to avoid online because I have a few games to put towards store credit, plus I'm all about instant gratification and hate waiting.

My Best Buy had 8 of them this morning.....

Check on gamestop.com and bestbuy.com to see if they are in stock at the location closest to you.

Jesus! My eyes can't even follow the colors on expert! I dream of 99% on medium.

I don't know, maybe it just takes practice. I've gotten 5 stars on every song up to Fat Lip on Medium. Then Fat Lip kicks my ass and I get back on track a few songs later.

WHAT?!?!? They got Artillery on there?!??! Wow!

Sadly not the old thrash Artillery. One of the guys from Red Octane is in the band.

Their website: http://www.artilleryrock.com/

The demo version of The Breaking Wheel they have there is much more stoner rock than the thrashy version on the game.