October 9th, 2008

I am a gamer. Plain and simple.

I play too much sometimes, and I take some games too seriously. Of course, not to the point of being a pathetic nerd.... I hope.

I play Rock Band. I am an expert. I put many hours into this game simply because I feel I keep getting better and better. But alas, a bump in the road has emerged.... and by "bump" I mean obstacle I can't freaking get around.

The obstacle I am referring to is my wireless "Les Paul" guitar.

Some back story:

I originally received "Guitar Hero III" last Christmas. It was a gift from my ex GF. She also got it for the PS3. Sounds awesome, except I didn't own a PS3..... We were vacationing in Minnesota at the time with my parents (they live there) and it just so happened my dad owned a PS3. My dad offered me a deal; he would keep the game and give me money to buy a new one for the Xbox 360 when I returned home to California. I accepted and that was that. I played a little while I was there, it was difficult.

When I returned home, I was torn. I now had some money to purchase Guitar Hero III, but, "Rock Band" was also out as well. Rock Band is another rhythm based video game like Guitar Hero but Rock Band allows 4 people to play 4 different instruments all at the same time. After a few days of thinking about it, I decided to purchase Rock Band.

I am an expert now, been for a while. I originally swore by the Rock Band brand guitars. They were very comfortable, and the strum bar didn't make a loud clicking noise like the Guitar Hero "Les Paul" guitar. But upon my second visit to MN for the summer, I realized the Les Paul guitar was far far more accurate than the Rock Band guitars. It did however click very loud when strummed but that didn't bother me when considering that I will play a hellava lot better.

So when I got back home, I went straight to Gamestop and purchased a Les Paul guitar for use with Rock Band. I've had the Les Paul for about a month and a half and it has already began to malfunction. I did a quick "fix it" but the malfunctioning kept getting worse.

Yesterday I went back to Gamestop, and with the help of my friend who works there; I was able to return the guitar for a replacement even though it had been more than a month since I bought it. As soon as I get home, the up strum of the strum bar did not work. The buttons worked fine, but the up strum was jacked. So today, in between classes, I decided to go back a 2nd time to return the 2nd Les Paul guitar. My friend warned me that these guitars were very glitchy but I thought I just had a string of bad luck. Low and behold, I go home, start the game and the buttons on the guitar won't work. The strum bar works just fine, but the red and blue buttons will not activate.

What was I supposed to do? I couldn't go back to the Rock Band 1 guitars?!?! They were less accurate.... that means it would be a downgrade!

I was pissed. But a light of shinning hope was still at the end of the tunnel. Gamestop had "Rock Band 2" guitars in stock. Here is the break down, Rock Band 1 guitars are inferior to the Guitar Hero Les Paul guitars. I exchanged the Les Paul guitar for the Rock band 2 guitar and decided to try it out.

I have returned to the fold.

Rock Band 2 guitars are FAR superior to the Les Paul guitars. The Rock Band 1 guitars are still the least favorite of the three but Harmonix did a damn fine job in upgrading the old Rock Band guitars. The strum isn't "smushy" anymore. The frets are quiet now. The whole frame is built more sturdier and feels great. A side bonus: the guitar will auto calibrate your TV audio/video to the game, which is very very handy.

My point.... I have no point. I just need something to write down. But then again, I would like to say.... stick true to a franchise and their instruments. I always swore by the Rock Band guitars.... and I strayed away for a bit, enticed by the "fruit of another" for lack of a better term. But I learned my lesson.

ROCK BAND 2 > GUITAR HERO ANYTHING