So, we went to Best Buy earlier today to nab a replacement headset -- Fancast recording sessions can get a little ... rough -- and then we saw it. Sitting next to the demure Wii kiosk and the somewhat more imposing PS3 kiosk was, naturally, the 360 kiosk. But what was this attached to it? A ... a guitar? We strapped on the white X-plorer guitar, hit up the tutorials, and began to learn about rocking. It wasn't long before we were champing at the bit to play the real thing. Picking Nirvana's "Heart-shaped Box," we began our first foray into Guitar Hero II (die-hard Xbox fanboys that we are, we hadn't experienced the game on PS2). We were ready to rock, or at least that's what we thought. The song, in a twisted reversal of the natural order, proceeded to own us, and on medium (medium!) difficulty, no less. After a quick switch to easy difficulty (oh the shame), we slowly came to grips with the controls and managed to recreate a reasonable facsimile of Nirvana.But that was on easy and our fingers were already cramped. Still, we want more, a lot more. It took some willpower to walk out of that Best Buy and continue blogging, knowing that Guitar Hero II was only 2 miles away. We take considerable comfort knowing that $90 will be ripped from our wallet next week when Guitar Hero II finally arrives. We take comfort because that transaction is no longer a choice. It's a necessity.
1. Before two weeks ago, I had zero interest in this game. Never had a PS2, and since I play the guitar in "real life," I was under the impression that Guitar Hero was a weak excuse for the real thing.
Then it happened. I went to a party where the game was a main attraction. I played once and was hooked. This game freaking rocks. I now have the dual guitar bundle preordered.
Even better, my wife (who has zero interest in video games) just played it for the first time over the weekend and said it was "really fun." Forget the Wii, this is all I need to get her hooked.
Posted at 3:53PM on Mar 27th 2007 by Les Doodis