Guitar Hero

[Berzerker]

Carry on my wayward son

Okay, so tonite's South Park had the kids playing the new fad Guitar Hero. Didn't the relief pitcher (Joel Zumaya) for the Detroit Tigers injure his hand playing that too much? So, does anyone have it? Can you describe it, ands is it a blast? What is the song list? Input...INPUT

[Asher]

http://www.apolyton.net/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=171490

Even includes song lists.

[Berzerker]

cool, thx

[Asher]

For what it's worth, I think it's great.

[Darius871]

Guitar Hero =

[Asher]

http://www.tomsgames.com/us/2007/10/26/guitar_hero_bar/

When B.B. King Beat Me at Guitar Hero

While in Los Angeles recently for the E for All convention, I was taken to a bar for Guitar Hero night. I'm no stranger to Guitar Hero but playing in a bar was something I had to experience. I was accompanied by my friend Mike and our own video producer Ben.

The Hyperion is probably the smallest bar I've ever been in and on any normal night it enjoys a fair amount of local traffic, but it remains a small bar with no sign on the outside. On Wednesdays, however, the bar becomes host to Guitar Hero II and the patrons channel their inner-Hendrix to play on stage. It's an absolute blast, and I encourage everyone to take the opportunity should it present itself. This was my first night at the Hyperion and what follows is a story about a man humbled. That man was me.

The set up at the Hyperion is quite simple. There's a Playstation 2 with Guitar Hero II and Guitar Hero Encore: Rocks the 80s available. It's hooked to two projectors: one projecting a big image against the back of the stage and one projecting a smaller image seen by people on the stage. You take a number from the bartender - there's no additional fee - and when your number gets called you head to the stage, grab your axe, pick your song, face the crowd and rock. There's a smoke machine, flashing lights and the people will cheer whether you play well or not. It looks a tad intimidating but there's always one brave soul who goes up first. After everyone sees that the guy or girl isn't drawn-and-quartered for not acing their song on Expert, the flow of players is constant.

The first thing I noticed was that the atmosphere was very safe and supportive. There was almost no air of competition. Most people play in the Face-Off multiplayer mode so there is no chance of failure but even failing a song would not conjure booing or thrown bottles. Now I'm good at Guitar Hero, but I'd say that I'm "casual good." I play at the Hard level on most songs because Expert is too much work. For our first song, my friend Mike and I chose "Hangar 18" on Hard. We wanted to put the word out there that we came to play and knew our way around a fake guitar. A few beers later, the trash talking started.

As I said before the audience didn't care about competition. They applauded everyone enthusiastically. They would notice if you hit a particularly hard string of notes and it might yield you an "oh yeah!" from the crowd but it wouldn't get you any free drinks. However, gamers look for competition. It's in our nature. An abundance of beer only makes things worse.

"No one in here can touch me," I said. My friend Mike - who had been here before - smiled and remarked: "Yeah, it looks like the heavies aren't in tonight," he said. "Usually there are some really good guys playing and I've seen plenty who can take you." As the night drew on and the drinking continued we returned to the stage several times to knock out the harder songs but I was on watch for these regulars Mike mentioned. I saw a few guys who were pretty good but I felt safe that I was probably the best Guitar Hero II player in the room - which in retrospect was a dangerous assumption.

Here's something you probably already know: the correlation between sobriety and Guitar Hero skill is very closely linked. The game is, after all, largely based on rhythm, timing, dexterity and coordination - all things that suffer when alcohol is introduced. Unfortunately, confidence shares an inverse relationship with sobriety so with no one in sight to take my crown (there was no crown), I decided to try "Sweet Child 'O Mine" on Expert.

I'm pretty familiar with "Sweet Child 'O Mine" and it is one of the few songs I'll play for fun on Expert, but the problem is that it opens with a guitar only. You're on your own up there for a good portion of the opening. Normally, the music is loud and flubbed notes can get missed in the cacophony, but what's even louder is the silence after you miss a long note on a song like this. I finished the song but my playing was beginning to suffer. I was glad I had not challenged anyone to a Pro Face-Off.

The night wore on and the drinking continued. Still the regulars were nowhere to be seen. It was getting late and this was a Wednesday so we thought it'd be best to play one last song and head home. Mike and I headed up and did a better-than-average job on "Who Was in My Room Last Night," then took our bow. We decided to go out on a high note and were on our way to the door. That's when it happened.

A guy who had not played yet approached me and said, "Hey, man. I don't have anyone to play with and I'm next. Will you go up with me?" I said, "Sure," but something was amiss.

We were headed up to the stage when he said, "Can we do Pro Face-Off on Expert?" I replied, "Uhh...sure," and I knew the ambush was at hand. Pro Face-Off pits the two players against each other playing the same set of notes. As you're playing a needle between the two players points to the one who is winning. I knew I was in trouble, but it was already too late. This guy had been watching everyone play to see who was good and singled me out. My comeuppance was imminent.

We got on stage and the first thing the guy did was grab a stool from the bar and sit down. All night everyone else played while standing, but this guy needed to sit. There's a slight but noticeable difference between playing while sitting and playing while standing. Usually, when someone sits it means they are about to bring the thunder. We call it "the B.B. King" because the King likes to sit while he plays Lucille. I looked at my adversary and said, "Oh what, now you're going to B.B. King me?" The guy just smiled and said, "What song do you want to run?" I think we both knew the battle was over before it began but since it was his turn I said, "Whichever you want, B.B."

He scrolled down to the unlocked songs and we settled on "Arterial Black" by Drist. I've played it quite a bit but it didn't matter. The guy had serious skills and he put a complete beat down on me. Within seconds he had buried the needle his way and I never moved it. I felt like the biggest, baddest guy in the prison yard who just got knocked on his ass by the new fish. It was the perfect way to end the night and we walked out laughing hysterically at how badly I was owned. The beautiful thing was that no one even knew we were competing and no one cared who won. Well no one except me, Mike, our video producer Ben and, of course, B.B. King.

Guitar Hero is a fantastic game for parties, get-togethers or in a bar with random strangers. It unites people in a common experience: that of standing in front of your stereo as a kid and playing air guitar. You know you're not really playing guitar but it doesn't matter. As more games move into online multiplayer, it's refreshing to see a game that can still get people together in meatspace.

I expect more bars to start hosting Guitar Hero nights and as Rock Band permeates the social consciousness, you can bet it'll be available as well. Just remember that there's always someone better out there and beware of the guys who sit.

[Berzerker]

I like the song list for GH 2 and I have a SP 2, maybe I'll check it out.

[-Jrabbit]

You gotta be kidding me.

Worse than karaoke. Now you only have to pretend to perform.

[Berzerker]

I'm not familiar with the game but it doesn't sound that different from playing an instrument.

[Snotty]

Its fun, takes practice to be good, and feels awesome when you manage to nail a particularly tricky section. Easy and medium should be pretty easy to pick up if youre a gamer, but for hard and expert you will need to know your way around the plastic guitar

[b etor]

Originally posted by -Jrabbit
You gotta be kidding me.

Worse than karaoke. Now you only have to pretend to perform.

pshhh. karaoke is so much fun. not the old ones tho, the newish ones where you get graded.

[Spec]

Guitar Hero 2 Expert Mode No Look - Watch more free videos

SPec.

[Nikolai]

Wrong forum. Come to the dark side and join OG.

[LordShiva]

Guitar Queer-o

[Wiglaf]

That episode is amazing.