Decked by The Donnas
I'm glad you guys enjoyed my little pre-enactment of my Guitar Hero adventure yesterday. After dinner, I setup on my PS2 and went to work. I did the tutorials, noodled around with the basic tracks for about 15 minutes, and got a feel for the controls and the responsiveness.
There were several tendencies I'd have on a normal axe that cost me points in the game. For instance, wanting to add some funk, like coming in a tad early or late for dissonance...I'd have to stay rigid and play the notes in time, as laid out. This bit me a couple of times. I also had a habit of palm-muting notes, like I normally would. And I caught myself several times trying to apply vibrato that never rang out or pinch harmonics that fell silent instead of screaming.
But the one technique that I found advantageous was to hold my strumming hand as if I actually had a pick, with my index finger and thumb closed, gripping a non-existent plectrum. I riffed a lot faster, more accurately and with less stress. Alternate and economy picking came a lot easier, which helped with the faster solos.
After about 90 minutes, I made it through the first three levels, all on the first take. I had to take a breather halfway through - I was literally panting after barely surviving "Stellar" by Incubus. To my surprise, the thrash stuff came the easiest. I got my highest score covering Megadeth.
When I attained Shredder status it was about 10:30pm and I was getting tired. I gave one last shot at the next batch of songs, cuing up The Donnas' "Take it Off". Got completely creamed....I never even made it to the second verse. Booed completely off the stage and totally got my posterior handed to me.
This is one song that's a helluva lot easier to play in real life than on a game. But it's really a lot of fun.
(And my neck is slightly sore from sporadic headbanging.)
There were several tendencies I'd have on a normal axe that cost me points in the game. For instance, wanting to add some funk, like coming in a tad early or late for dissonance...I'd have to stay rigid and play the notes in time, as laid out. This bit me a couple of times. I also had a habit of palm-muting notes, like I normally would. And I caught myself several times trying to apply vibrato that never rang out or pinch harmonics that fell silent instead of screaming.
But the one technique that I found advantageous was to hold my strumming hand as if I actually had a pick, with my index finger and thumb closed, gripping a non-existent plectrum. I riffed a lot faster, more accurately and with less stress. Alternate and economy picking came a lot easier, which helped with the faster solos.
After about 90 minutes, I made it through the first three levels, all on the first take. I had to take a breather halfway through - I was literally panting after barely surviving "Stellar" by Incubus. To my surprise, the thrash stuff came the easiest. I got my highest score covering Megadeth.
When I attained Shredder status it was about 10:30pm and I was getting tired. I gave one last shot at the next batch of songs, cuing up The Donnas' "Take it Off". Got completely creamed....I never even made it to the second verse. Booed completely off the stage and totally got my posterior handed to me.
This is one song that's a helluva lot easier to play in real life than on a game. But it's really a lot of fun.
(And my neck is slightly sore from sporadic headbanging.)
posted by Jason Salas @ 9:38 AM
1 Comments:
At July 14, 2007 9:08 AM,
concrete-and-water said…
I have Guitar Hero 2 for the 360. I've become skilled at it. It was really tough at first, and my friend kept beating my ass!
I prefer my real guitar though. It's an excellent party game (for geeks).
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