My off days

• 12Jul 09

  I beat Guitar Hero World Tour with a stick and now its not moving... Good!

  So the other night I came home from work, but something was amiss. I stepped into my room and heard a loud crunch only to look down and saw my Guitar Hero World Tour now split where my foot had been. Realizing that my brother had been in my room again leaving games like little land mines. I was startled at first but after a brief shrug I picked up the pieces and threw it away without any real though. Similar to the way one shrugs off breaking a Nickleback CD. (You find yourself slightly happier)

  I wasn't really sad, because its not any loss, sure it had bits of fun, but certain things just really pissed me off about the game and I'd pretty much written it off months ago. I started with Rock Band almost 2 years ago and to this day I still play at least once a week. Guitar Hero World Tour was extremely meh in my opinion and extremely forgettable. My complaints aren't the usual ones like overcharting and instrument trouble, but before I get to what I hated, I'm gonna explain what I missed.

  Possitives!

  • A few bands I really wish were in Rock Band or I want more of in Rock Band. Mars Volta, Muse, Van Halen, Jimmy Hendrix, Ozzy Osbourne, 311, and Sublime.
  • I loved the instrument customization features for guitar and bass, it was a genius idea to allow users to create instruments (albeit choosing type of stings did absolutley nothing, it was a nice touch)
  • Making your own songs is slightly frustrating but very fullfilling when you actually figure it out, great sense of accomplishment.

  Negatives... Now you're in for it

  • Atrocious art style! Having the ability to create your own band members with more of a customization feature than Rock Band sounded like a great thing. Every time I created a male character, they always looked like Frankenstein's monster, seriously. Tiny eyes, large foreheads, weird smirks... What have I created! I thought the problem was just me until I played the first song list and the singer walks on stage with his tiny eyes and terrible hair style that completly didn't match the shape of his head. Its an improvement from the singer in Guitar Hero 3, but seriously who the hell aproves these people!
  • Lesser Sound Quality - I was playing through songs I'd played in Rock Band 2 and was finding I wasn't enjoying the song as much as I had in the peviously mentioned game. So I did a comparison with my friends Xbox. I had RB2 playing Fleetwood Mac's Go Your Own Way and GHWT as well. There is considerabley better sound quality in the RB2 version, like it actually sounds like a concert with all the parts matched more accordiningly like the vocals are louder, guitar solos ring louder and it feels like more clarity. I figured it was just the song, but after finding the same results with "One Way or Another" "The Kill" "Give it Away" and every other song they share!
  • Touch Sensative Guitar Strip - This was seriously a horrible idea, it comes as very little use in general and when it does come up its so impresise that you normally choose to use the regular buttons which unlike the touch keys you can actually tell what color you're on without missing a note just trying to figure that out.
  • Open note strums - For the bass part, these seriously had potential except these are used to the point of extreme irritation. One thing that really baffles me is the open note strum hammer on. You litterally have to take your hand off all the guitar buttons and not strum so it can play anote... What!? Logic tells me that when you take your hands off a guitar its not going to make a damn sound let alone make a hammer on or pull off!?
  • BoringDated Interface - Sure GHWT took a hing from Rock Band and included multisong setlists, but only in the form of sheets of paper on a wall... This bothers me because instead of actually feeling like you're traveling the world, it just simply feels like you're looking at a wall of posters without really seeing any of the cities or much of anything.
  • Lack of Difficulty Relevance - Sure World Tour has 84 songs, problem is if you just want to play quickplay with friends, theres no real way to tell how difficult a song is. Would it have hurt them to put a difficulty sorting, you know like every other freaking guitar hero? Granted it was just a list in the other versions, but at least in those versions you could tell that Smoke on the Water was easier than Bark at the Moon.
  • No 2nd Chances - In combination with GHWT flaws of not having a difficulty sorting and habit of overcharting to the point of unrecognizable parts, this is the ultimate screw up for GHWT. You're playing with a group of friends and they choose Stranglehold not realizing how difficult it can be and long! You're in the last couple bits and a friend can't take it anymore and fails. Instead of trying to get your friend back in the game, you all fail!!! No glimmer of hope like in Rock Band where you have a bleedout timer, you seriously have to start over. Since this is a party game, who the hell is seriously going to play all 8 minutes of Stranglehold on "begginer"? The game is fun by yourself, but isn't the point of it to try and at least have fun with your friends instead of getting pissed at them because they can't beat Minutes to Midnight?

  These are my absolute pet peeves with GHWT, it can be fun, but it prefers to be frustrating. I don't think that I'm ever going to get another Guitar Hero game especially now that you have features like all songs availible at the beggining (Whats the point of playing their sucktagular list tour now that you have all songs when you first start out?) And not to mention you don't even have to play as a band, you can all play as drums if you want... Then why the hell do they still can it Guitar Hero if none of the band has to play an actual fake Guitar, maybe they're afraid people will figure out how much it really does suck?

  • Posted Jul 12, 2009 10:12 am PT
  • Category: Games
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• 26Mar 09

  Getting Kinda High Here

  I've been a member for like almost 5 years now, I generally don't go on forums, and just visit the page probably once a day, but somehow I've seemed to move pretty highly in level over these past years. Like it amazes me how I've reached 33 Goombella. Not sure if thats a high honor,but its just kinda cool.

  Looking back at the years, I have seen this sight go through some major major changes, some for better and some not so much like would it kill you to make an easier system to ad friends, I mean come on! But I still come here, and do like the place.Here's to another five years and another 33 levels!

  • Posted Mar 26, 2009 9:36 am PT
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• 25Jun 07

  Forgoten anniversery!

  I completly forgot that June 7 was my third year anniversery of joining gamespot! It's been a rollercoaster of a time here and I'm looking foward to a few more good year here. I've also gotten to a new level on the site, I'm now in the Defias Brotherhood, which is like level 27 or something.

  Lets hope that new review system they start today isn't completly stupid!

  • Posted Jun 25, 2007 2:18 pm PT
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