One thing I have found is that Guitar Hero for a real guitar player is fun and challenging on the hard and expert. After playing "rock band" drums again today, I was able to play all the drum parts on expert all the way through (I have played real drums before, but not in about 8 years). The expert drum parts were actually pretty boring for me, but I am nowhere near completing any song on GH2 in expert (except "Surrender").

Other people who were playing the RB demo drums were having fun, so for non-drummers, I am sure they will have a blast.

My pinky is very weak, in comparison to all of the other fingers. So hard is pretty darn hard for me. Although I have only played it 4 times.

Here is a live stream of those guys playing the game once again:

mms://stream.vg/waffle

Haha, that's pretty funny. Playing "Orange Crush" now.

Now they're playing some online multiplayer.

Some of these songs on expert seem totally insane to me. I don't think the difficulty is going to be a problem for people, since some seem incredibly hard.

One thing that I do, that most guitar/string players do is to "shift position." So if I see a passage coming up that doesn't have a lot of first (or second )finger, I shift my hand up so that my first finger is normally where the 2 or 3rd finger goes, then I reach back to play 1st, rather than reaching up to play fourth.

On hard I am constantly doing this.

Doug

IGN Review:

From the IGN review:

:thumbsup: :thumbsup: :thumbsup:

Is there any sort of warranty on the instruments? Sounds like the kick pedal could be quite fragile.

From the IGN review:

This just sounds so awesome indeed.

"On expert you're basically playing the real drum parts, so if you can do that, start a real band. You can also use Rock Band as a workout regimen, as you'll work up quite a sweat playing on hard or expert. "

Now, granted the demo version in Best buy doesn't have the pedal - but from what I saw, the expert mode is far from the actual drum parts of the songs I played - only time will tell - I hope it is the actual drum part as the reviewer said - but since he admittedly is not a drummer.....

On that stream, two guys are rocking on Enter Sandman right now. Pretty, pretty, awesome.

So my question is...how does the singing "sound?" As in, when you sing, is it your voice coming through the game? Or is it, say, Jon Bon Jovi's voice, and you're just trying to match the lyrics (like singing along in the car)?

I think it's neither...just you singing, and it not coming through the game. Don't quote me on that, though.

I'm almost sure that there is a volume bar, and you can turn your voice up or down and you can turn the original vocalist voice up or down, either way you like, and your voice does indeed come through your TV speakers.

I am so pumped for this game and so furious that it's been delayed in Canada until Dec. 17... not cool!

Yeah I think that's what I read...I'm just going to turn my voice (or whoever's voice is singing in my "band") all the way down, and crank the speakers so it drowns out the local singer (me in most cases) as much as possible.

I know we have a number of posters in my area (Greenville, Anderson, Clemson SC), so if any of you care, the GameStop in Anderson next to the Sam's Club and WalMart have one pre-order left, since someone canceled the other day. They already have the games in the store, and they'll sell them first thing Tuesday morning.

So any locals, there's you're shot if interested. :)

So when is the release? I thought I saw saomewhere it was changed to Black Friday?

it was changed FROM Friday to Tuesday.

Ahh, thanks for clearing that up.

Tried out the demo tonight at BB and wow. That's not a holy shit "wow" either. That's a stupified "wow, what's the fuss all about," wow.

It looks to me like you are paying $160 for Drum Hero. I can see the attraction to drums. I didn't try them, but watched someone. It seems a bit pricey just for "Drum Hero" though. I did however try the guitar. The good: it looks way cooler than the GHIII guitar, and the strum bar feels a whole lot more responsive than the "clicky" Les Paul. The whammy bar felt tighter and more substantial as well.

The bad: that's about where the superiority ends. First it was super light, paper thin and the fret buttons didn't seem all that tight/responsive. The back/select button is an awkward place for someone who uses that over the guitar flip for star power. Lastly, it just feels cheap. Looks like a cheap knock off you'd find at Radio Shack, not the real deal in a $160 package. Felt like it would break fairly easily. Overall, I couldn't see why anyone would choose this guitar over the LP if they have one sitting at home.

Finally the songs. I tried three, Epic, Tom Sawyer, and Wanted, Dead or Alive. Tried the first two on Medium and it was easier than GHIII's easy mode, in other words, a joke. Flipped it to Hard and it seems like a good middle ground between GHIII's Medium and Hard. It's nice you can select to play bass if you want instead of requiring a second player.

The game only is still on my want list just to have some more songs to play with the Les Paul, but other than the drums I'm not seeing/buying the hype. Of course this is only based on three songs, but, there you go.

I think the game looks cool, but there is no way I'm spending that kinda money for everything.. actually there is no way that would fit in my apt.

My Amazon order for the PS3 version just flipped into Shipping Soon status.

Looking forward to drumming!

got my shipping notice from amazon last night!! :D