Music Man

So after finishing up the new Zelda game I was looking around for something new to play and I had a few ideas, but didn't know for sure what I wanted to get. I had been looking at a game called Guitar Hero (PS2) for a while, but was put off by the price. Not only do you have to get the game, but you have to buy a controller that's shaped like a guitar. Let me explain.

Guitar Hero is a guitar simulator game. You have a guitar controller that is just like a mini guitar. It has 5 buttons on the neck that act as notes and a bar in the center that you press to strum. You start the game, create a band, give them a name and then start playing shows. While playing the songs, the notes come scrolling down the screen towards you. When they get to the bottom of the screen, you press the appropriate button and hit the strum bar to play the note. As long as you're hitting the majority of the notes, you'll be "Rockin'", miss enough of them and the crowd will boo you off stage.

As you can imagine, this game appeals to me for obvious reasons. The cheapest I've ever found it though was $80 for a combo game+guitar pack. That's where work comes in. My company is very focused on maintaing a good safety record. As such, we get a small safety award each year. After getting this years safety check, I knew what I wanted. I found a place online that was running a 10% off sale on it and ordered it. Needless to say, the game is awsome. It has four difficulty levels ranging from easy to expert. Once you get to the third level, the game gets really hard. I'm not sure if I'll ever be able to play it on expert, but it doesn't matter, it's great just playing it on medium. I should probably note that all the songs are actual songs that have been covered. They're very true to the original song, but it's someone else playing it. Songs include everything from old 70's rock like the Allman Brother's "Jessica" to Guns N' Roses' "Sweet Child of Mine" on up to a recent song by metal band Avenged Sevenfold.

This is actually the second game in the series. As soon as I can, I fully intend on getting the first one. I've checked out the track listing on the internet and it seems like it has a better song list than the new one. I can hardly contain myself.

--Paul