Ways to fine-tune guitar - 2nd impession at Best Buy

[Keebler]

I'd put this in one of the Best Buy threads, but I think it will just get lost on the 10th page of posts at this point.

I went back to Best Buy today to play Rock Band, and today I tried to take a more objective approach to trying it out (now that the initial excitement of playing it for the first time has worn off).

There were a few things that popped out at me from having played the guitar bits on Expert. I had a lot of note streaks break and a lot of playable notes not get hit, and I came up with a list of things that could possibly be causing these problems for me.

1.) Scroll speed - on faster songs where there are more notes, I would think the fret board should scroll quicker. However, there were a few songs where it seemed to go too slow and it made reading the notes harder. Take for example, Dani California. I found it really difficult to read the note chart because a lot of the notes are bunched together, especially in the verses. Same thing with Vasoline - the guitar solo seemed like it was just scrolling too slow and made it even harder to play. Is it possible to adjust the scroll speed in-game?

2.) HOPO window - yikes, the window for HOPO notes seems to have been drastically shrunk. Unless of course the lag calibration on the Best Buy monitor completely screwed me up, I found that most of the HOPOs were incredibly hard to do. My one friend tried guitar once and refused to play it again because he said the guitar sucks. I disagree completely and I'd be more inclined to blame his frustration trying HOPO's on the software instead.

Also, in the intro of Paranoid, I couldn't hit any of the 3 Y/B HOPO notes sequences. What I usually do for something like that is hold down yellow the entire time and tap the blue notes. However, the demo didn't seem to recognize this as a valid way of playing the notes. Again, maybe it was just potential lag issues I wasn't noticing, but I just thought this was unusual. I couldn't get past 10% on this song.

3.) Band Meter falling - it seems to me like the guitar falls down the Band Meter way too fast. Hitting a good percentage of notes in Dani California or Vasoline's solo, I still found myself falling down the meter at a very rapid speed, more so than I'm used to, since I can play on Expert pretty well in Guitar Hero. Does the Band Meter behave differently in band mode than it does in solo (i.e. does it fall slower in solo mode and quicker in band?).

Otherwise, I thought everything was well done. My friend doesn't seem to like the guitar, but again, from playing it myself, I would blame the software (or Best Buy's monitors) for problems with playing certain notes. Although the guitar fret buttons seem to return to their depressed position slower and take some adjustment, I think they will be fine and I would hardly blame that as a reason for playing poorly.

I dunno if I sounds like I'm complaining too much. I just wanted to see if anyone else shared my concerns and if they are even issues that I should be concerned about.

[MartyMcFly]

1) I did notice it scrolls much slower than that other game, or previous games. But it didn't bother me too much. Just some adjusting and it should be fine.

2) The HO's and PO window is smaller, and I had a hard time differentiating the notes because of the look. I found myself usually strumming every note, unless it was completely obvious it was HO or PO, and I did miss those a bit. But again, some adjustment to the game, and we'll have it down.

3) I didn't have a problem with playing guitar and the meter falling, but I definitely noticed that the game is very strict overall. The singer and drummer went through a little trouble then I look over and seem them almost at the bottom of the bar. It does seem to drop pretty quickly. But I guess that's just motivation to get better.

Overall, I think it's all because it's still new, and just needs time and experience to adjust to. I wouldn't consider any of these as actual problems with the game, just some things we're not used to yet.

[Xzyliac]

These seem nitpicky to me. Especially since I have yet to se a guitar chart that really required HO/POs. Band meter seems small too.

Now scroll speed has been a ***** to me since GH.

[LavatoryLoveMachine]

Can anyone tell me if its a little easier to strum down the strum button? I read its supposed to be more sensitive, and Im hoping for that (I dont know why, I barely got 60 bucks to buy Mass Effect, I dont have 150 for this game)

[Xzyliac]

Can anyone tell me if its a little easier to strum down the strum button? I read its supposed to be more sensitive, and Im hoping for that (I dont know why, I barely got 60 bucks to buy Mass Effect, I dont have 150 for this game)

I hear it's less like a button 'click' feel and smoother. More consistent.

Take that how you will.

[bumbousdude25]

Can anyone tell me if its a little easier to strum down the strum button? I read its supposed to be more sensitive, and Im hoping for that (I dont know why, I barely got 60 bucks to buy Mass Effect, I dont have 150 for this game)

MASS EFFECT! YES!

Too bad you can't get RB, too, though. :(

[MartyMcFly]

Can anyone tell me if its a little easier to strum down the strum button?

I guess you'd say it's easier. I played it on the Rock Band Tour in Boston the other day. It doesn't click like the SG guitar, but it's not too sensitive like the Xplorer.

It's strong and thick, with great response. You don't have to slam on it, nor do you have to be too careful of double strumming by accident.

It works beautifully.

[Bakkster]

1) Scroll speed hit me at first, but I got used to it. Also, you see fewer notes ahead, so it seemed to balance out.

2) I had no problems at all with the HOPOs. I'm guessing it was A/V lag. The calibration tool is available in the demo. Try that out and see if it fixes the problem.

3) Yes, it does fall quite fast. I like it. Since most of the songs are "simpler", it forces you to be accurate. Also, in band play, it's fine because only one person can fail at a time.

I'll probably do something similar later this week to see if I notice anything else about the demo.

[Insignificant_Other]

Well, it's very likely that the demo version in a retail store is not calibrated properly. If there is any lag it will screw you up. This was definitely the case with the GHIII demo in one of the Gamestops in my area. It was so bad that my 8-year-old son was practically in tears, and he was telling me not to get "that stupid game" and only get Rock Band. Once we got GHIII home and calibrated properly (it was horrible out of the box, BTW) everything was good and he is now happily rocking out.

[Xzyliac]

It was so bad that my 8-year-old son was practically in tears, and he was telling me not to get "that stupid game" and only get Rock Band.

Your son rules.

[LavatoryLoveMachine]

MASS EFFECT! YES!

Too bad you can't get RB, too, though. :(

Nah, dont feel sad. My fault for not having a job lol

Marty McFly, was the Xplorer too sensitive? Cuz thats the only one Ive played with ^^ But yes, I guess the sensitivity I refer to would make one double strum often....

Whatever, its still easier than playing real guitar :)

[Bakkster]

Your son rules.

Agreed, he knows what's up.

[MartyMcFly]

Marty McFly, was the Xplorer too sensitive? Cuz thats the only one Ive played with ^^ But yes, I guess the sensitivity I refer to would make one double strum often....


Well I don't know how the Xplorer is for Rock Band. But just in comparison of the guitars themselves it seems on a sensitivity scale the Xplorer is most sensitive.

I was just trying to say that for the Strat it's safe to strum down, or upstrum and not have to worry about it registering twice. It has great resilience, but not too much.

The Strat should fit all players' styles, but probably not those who actually use picks. The strum bar bows in in the middle, then back out on the edge, it's to grip it better, therefore won't be kind to picks.

[holyground]

Keebler, I went to homestead today and I think it was just the lag/setup. I noticed the drums were a little more difficult, too. I was missing notes I always hit but I wasn't about to wasted valuable drumming time setting it up.

But I kept missing the ho/po on Dani california, too.

[Keebler]

When I go home this weekend, I might try and stop at a Best Buy in NJ and play again. I'll try out the lag calibration and see if that helps me at all.

[Nfsjunkie91]

Your son rules.

Way to take it out of context for the sole purpose of bashing GHIII.

[DrAndonuts]

Yeah, the guitars seemed pretty spot on to me. I like the new strummer, how it's contoured so your finger can just rest on it. And I love that there is no clicking, anymore. In the quieter songs, the clicking would always distract me, but I think the new strum works well.

[DrBeau]

After playing it tonight, there seems to be one thing I would change with the physical guitar (which I plan on doing when I get it in my hands):

Better designation of the middle (yellow) button (s). Because the Green, Yellow, and Orange buttons all had braile (for lack of a better word) on them, my fingers got confused and I would sometimes be two fingers off. I plan on making some sort of horrible gouge in the middle fret in both the main and solo sections. Then I think I'll be able to play a little better.

Other than that, the guitar was amazing. I was a little too busy rockin' out to do anything with the effects switch, but that's not that big a deal. The size and feel of the guitar is great. I've seen others say that it felt too light, but I didn't think it was that big of a deal. Even so, I may add a little bit of weight to it myself. I also liked the new strum bar. Very smooth and I got used to it real quick. It's nice not having all that clicking noise polution. The only problem is that the clicking has been replaced with the beating of the drums! Haha. I can't wait to get this into my house.

[Rook_x51]

Were you on expert difficulty? I'm assuming that the higher you go up in difficulty the harder it is to keep the meter high...

Maybe that's the game's way of telling you that you are not ready for it yet :P

[LavatoryLoveMachine]

People use picks for playing GH? lol

DrBeau, you mean like, the GH guitar yellow button had a little bulge in it, so you'd know which was the middle button instinctively? You say the RB guitar's frets are all marked like that?

[Mushroom]

People use picks for playing GH? lol

DrBeau, you mean like, the GH guitar yellow button had a little bulge in it, so you'd know which was the middle button instinctively? You say the RB guitar's frets are all marked like that?

Not all of them, but it has been added to the Green and Orange so you know there the boundrys of each fret set is.

Actually... I didn't notice this when I played it, and I was playing it for ages... hmm... why didn't I notice?

[Bakkster]

There are small (very small) bumps on the 3rd fret of both sets. Each set of frets has a high ridge that is higher than the buttons on each side so you know where the ridge starts and stops.

[DrBeau]

Yes, there are very tiny bumps on three buttons now. Not on largers line like the GH controllers. The size is not necessarily a bad thing for me; it's the fact that it's on multiple buttons.

As far as button separation goes, I had no problems with telling where the edges of teh larger buttons were (the solo buttons are a different story...I hand big hands and they're little buttons). My problem is hand placement being off by a button or two. this happens because I don't have my pinky touching the buttons unless it's needed. This means my hand doesn't realize that the pinky is above the solid fret board.

Even after all this, I'd say it's minor. I was still able to pull 90%+ our of songs on Expert pretty consistently.

[Bakkster]

As far as button separation goes, I had no problems with telling where the edges of teh larger buttons were (the solo buttons are a different story...I hand big hands and they're little buttons). My problem is hand placement being off by a button or two. this happens because I don't have my pinky touching the buttons unless it's needed. This means my hand doesn't realize that the pinky is above the solid fret board.

I had the same problem. Just like regular guitar, your fingers learn the spacing after enough time.

[DrBeau]

I'm not too worried. I mean, all my experience is after playing for and hour in a Best Buy. Once I get this puppy home I'm sure I'll find it's groove.