Guitar Hero II - official.

[Cheebs]

Have I mentioned this four times yet?

THE HAMMER ONS AND PULLOFFS ARE A LOT EASIER NOW.

Please tell me what you think of this. Happy? Sad? Angry? I know Cheebs was calling for stricter timing and they went in the opposite direction.

Oh well. Yes, I would have preferred stricter timing. Or at least some sort of score reward for hitting the notes dead-on perfect while still "allowing" sloppy timing. It would also be nice if the guitar playing you hear through the speakers followed the tightness/sloppiness of your actual playing, but I know the way the game is put together doesn't allow for that...

Not a deal breaker by any means. The game is a blast no matter what. It's just my Beatmania roots make me yearn for that insanely small timing window.

[Cowutopia]

Running this game through my stereo = the best thing I ever did, but when Star Power is on I get a weird ringing in them. Guess it doesn't like the fake reverb.

[Dipstick]

Oh well. Yes, I would have preferred stricter timing. Or at least some sort of score reward for hitting the notes dead-on perfect while still "allowing" sloppy timing.

This will never happen. Two reasons why: the first is that this is an intentional design decision by Harmonix. They think that the tighter windows of a game like Guitar Freaks or Beatmania is offputting to more casual players (which GH has a lot of) and did it this way to make the game easier to play.

The other reason is that the game has issues with the song synch. Nothing major mind you (not as bad as some of the songs in the first build of DDR Supernova, good God), but it would really aggrivating if you were trying to hit everything in a 8ms window (like Beatmania). That and given the live and human-produced nature of the tracks in this game, getting a steady synch is nearly impossible as the tracks have slight fluxations in the BPM due to human error (this is rarely an issue for other music games as most of the tracks are electronically composed).

[Xenobia_Omega]

Running this game through my stereo = the best thing I ever did, but when Star Power is on I get a weird ringing in them. Guess it doesn't like the fake reverb.

This certainly makes all the difference in the world. When I first started playing Guitar Hero, it was on my friends TV, with no stereo. But when I moved to my own place, I hooked my stereo back up with its huge speakers and just let it rip. Helps the playing experience totally.

[Yoshi]

Wait, people actually play video games without having them run through their stereo? Do you use a 13" B&W TV too?

[Cowutopia]

Well Yoshi, I'm still living in my house (For a while still..out by December,) and my stereo is in my bedroom. The TV I usually use is in the Den, a nice big one. The screen in my bedroom is an LCD monitor that doubles as a TV.

My parents don't go for spending any kind of money on TV soundsystem setups, but once we are out my buddy has a nice surround-sound setup I will be using for all my games.

The last game I ran cables into my stereo for was Ocarina of Time...no, wait, RE4, where I took apart my stereo and brought it downstairs.

[James]

I've had my systems jacked through my stereo since the SNES days. The audio cables don't go anywhere near the tv, there's just no point. I can't imagine seriously playing Guitar Hero without decent audio.

James

[Tain]

I've been playing everything with headphones lately, for better or for worse.

[Xenobia_Omega]

I've been playing everything with headphones lately, for better or for worse.

I've been doing this lately too, especially with the Beatmania stuff.

As for stereo sounds, if I'm using my TV and setup, I'll always use the stereo, and have been doing so since '98.

[Chux]

I've been doing stereo since SNES, and Surround since Dreamcast.