whats going on?

[Varsps]

being in the UK I cant enjoy this game for a while yet, i was expecting a lot of "wow this game is amazing" today and lots of comments on great features etc, but all im seeing is complaint threads........

Does anyone have something good to say? haha

[Qweets]

everyone who isn't having problems are playing and having fun, it only seems like alot of ppl are having problems because thats the only people posting on here. My mic and guitar work fine, haven't played drums yet.

[admanimal]

Yeah. If you love the game and have no problems, you're playing it not posting on the forums. If you're having issues then you are here. Or in my case I'm both loving it and having a guitar issue...but I'm sure it will get straightened out.

[Qweets]

what guitar issue?

[BodhiWolff]

It isn't all doom and gloom! Some of it is sunshine and roses!

My wife and I are taking a quick break. No problems here. Got it home, put it all together, hooked it up. Had some issues with learning how to have different instruments register different people, and for one brief moment had difficulty registering the new guitar (a reboot and swap positions in the USB hub changed that).

We elected to first go through all the tutorials (just to see how they work, what is different, how things officially changed, to show her how to make Overdrive work with drums and vocals, etc.) It isn't like I learned anything new, but the tutorials are *extremely* good at moving you comfortably into the new instruments, and even showing you stuff you weren't a hundred percent positive on (I admit, I don't do Hammer-on's and Pull-offs nearly as often as I should). My wife appreciated the tutorals so much that, even if I did a tutorial and she watched, she'd go through it herself just to get the "feel" of it. They really are quite good! Well done Harmonix!

Both of us *really* like the new guitar. I'm a musician, and there are enough guitars around the place that my wife knows what a guitar should look/feel like, and after she played with the new guitar it became apparent that when all the dust has settled (and any production issues are fixed) we're getting a second guitar as a bass. They are *really* good! I just can't believe how good they are! Yes, they feel a little flimsy, and *indeed*, if I wanted to I could snap it in two with my bare hands -- but then again, it plays and feels just *so* much better than the other controllers I've felt. The effects switch is way too much fun, but the inlayed frets and new strum bar are an absolute joy! If you've trained yourself on the old-style controllers, I hope you take the time to re-train yourself, 'cause if you don't you're missing out on a world of fun! In the future I hope there is a stronger-made version, sure (dare I hope for a real wood one?!) but the design is spot-on!

So we did some Quickplay tunes. I went with Guitar, and she went with the new Drums (although she'd had some trouble in the tutorial, admittedly, but she thought that if she set the song to easy she'd be okay ... but "easy" on drums isn't the same as "easy" on guitar!)
She immediately failed out on an easy song on drums, and decided that some time alone to get comfortable with the drums on solo easy mode is in her future. She is letting the drums sit for awhile, until she can have some alone-time with them.

We switched to a guitar/bass combo (using our GH2 X-plorer as the bass), and did a test-song of multiplayer. That was her first time playing with another person, and her nervousness shows (she isn't playing up to her normal level, and it is frustrating her, but it is quickly getting better). We then spent some time making 3 characters apiece (drums,vocals, guitar) and learned the ins-and-outs of swapping characters. Each time you swap characters you must also log out from the one position and log in as the new position, which isn't a big deal but is just an extra step that must be learned.

So we formed a new Band (my guitarist is the "leader") and did the first cafe' sets in San Francisco. Lots of 4-star songs. Got the "Battle of the Van" to open up the other towns' gigs. We got ourselves a van, and then did a "fan favourite" setlist of 2 songs (you don't get to know what the two songs are ahead of time) and while taking it were also offered a "4xmoney if you 5-star the song, or *no* money if you get lower than that" challenge. Since we hadn't 5-starred a song as a duo yet, we turned it down, and then immediately got 5 stars on the song, so we laughed.

We then spent some time in the "shoppes" with our pitiful amount of cash, and picked up some new torso stuff for our two main characters. I have to say, while there aren't that many "face" choices in the game, that is the *only* thing that there are too few choices on. The character customization is incredibly cool! My wife is going to spend all of our band's money making her characters into super-hot musical-fashion goddesses!

We finished a few more gigs in San Francisco, and got a manager. When you "phone the manager" for hints, he tells you that you need more stars in L.A. in order to get record deals, so she wants to go to L.A. next. That's when we decided to take a break for a bit ... which meant the band went on break, while we each experimented with solo stuff.

I did a few solo songs for my vocal career, she did one or two, then I did the first tier of drums on medium, and one song on hard.

While I was drumming, she caught up on some e-mails and work, and I decided to check the forums.

Which brings us to this point.

Total elapsed time - 6 hours.

She is doing some quick work, and I'm done writing this up. I'm going to grab a snack, and then we're going to see about putting the band on the road again, and hitting the clubs in L.A. before some friends come over in a few hours to see how the game works.

So there is our little story to date. I took the time to write it all down, but that's all the time you get -- 'cause I'm off to have fun again!