Guitar Hero II

[Parm]

When you guys play on medium, how do you play the blue notes? Do you use your little finger or do you move your hand down the fret buttons? I can't seem to do it either way but I wondered what the best option was.

As for the achievements on this game, yowzers! Some are really asking a lot!

[Larkspeed]

I hit the blue button with my pinky finger.

It's good to get in the habit of that early otherwise you will find you need to move your hand around too much at the higher skill levels when the orange comes in to play.

Another play hint I can give is some people (my wife included) move their hand to hit the red - blue chord with their first and third fingers the same as they would on a green - yellow chord.

Again this will mean a lot of hand movement on the higher levels.

I used to do this but now I have pretty well broken the habit and hit red - blue chords with my second and pinky fingers. This is hard to get used to at first but again it's better to get used to it at the lower levels when there are not as many notes to contend with

[Steven W]

I've just finished medium on all 5 stars. Got 5 stars on Free Bird first time too, which I'm pretty chuffed about. I've just started Hard, got two songs on 5 stars so far.

I'm really trying hard to do this, I've got two songs left, one of them being Free Bird and it's driving me up the wall.

Well done!!

[YorkieBen]

lol Ive had to stop playing for a while i've got a knackered wrist because of it

[dancingmatt]

I've got into GH2 on the PS2 really quickly (we actually bought a couple of guitars for a team gaming challenge here at work). I've finished it comfortably on medium (although I didn't have a memory card so I had to play it for 5 hours non-stop, a good post-hangover Saturday afternoon though!)

Red and Blue chords are killing me... my pinky just doesn't move as fast as the other fingers... From Medium to Hard is a CHASM of difficulty, it's not just more difficult because of the hand movement to the 5th fret, but the songs seem to also be more complicated. Feels like they should've added the 5th fret and not made the songs more difficult as well for Hard, then upped everything for Expert.

If you want another guitar, go on eBay! I just bought GH1 and GH2 and 1 guitar for £48 :O) Haven't played GH1 yet but am excited to see the opinions that it has even better songs!

BTW I heard that another GH will be released later this year - 80's edition...! Gonna get that and a 2nd guitar...

DM

[EvilWeevil]

I always stick to Green - index, Red - middle, Yellow - ring, Blue - Pinky on medium. Actually it's been really good for me to build up my pinky dexterity again - I broke it, it healed funny and I lost some movement, but it's getting better!

I basically have been sticking to the same finger pattern on Hard, just moving up and down 1 fret, but obviously it depends on the song. Surrender on Hard for me means the dreaded 1st and ring slide for some red/blue and even yellow/orange moments. Mostly I try and stick to the pattern though

[Parm]

What is everybodys favourite song to play? Mine so far is Trooper by Iron Maiden, it's just relentless and my fingers feel like they're on fire by the end of it. I totally love rocking out to this song, it's ace!

[neonplanet40]

so this is a game to buy then? just need to get the money for it first lol. does this mean if you can paly them on this game that you can paly them on a real guitar?

neon

[Blademrk]

Favourite song so far is either Heart Shapped Box (Nirvana), Shout at the Devil (Motley Crue) or the one from Top Gear (cannot remember the track name).

As to being able to play them on a real guitar - I wish!!! (I can just about play Metallica - Nothing Else Matters which is quite easy)

[Larkspeed]

My favorite (keep in mind this is the PS2 version) is Sweet Child O' Mine.

Oh and Blademark the one from top gear is called Jessica which is my second fav

[Parm]

Do you guys strum up or down? I seem to own strum downward and wonder if it'd be beneficial to my playing skills if I started to strum both ways. I find it tricky trying to do so though.

[Veles]

Do you guys strum up or down? I seem to own strum downward and wonder if it'd be beneficial to my playing skills if I started to strum both ways. I find it tricky trying to do so though.

Same here, I always strum downwards, used to play the acoustic so I'm not really used to playing with a plectrum and I find strumming up and down really weird. It does help when it gets to stupidly fast bits though.

does this mean if you can paly them on this game that you can paly them on a real guitar?

neon

Not at all Very simple compared to playing a real guitar, it's still not an easy game however, it can be very difficult. I'd say if you can complete songs on expert near-perfect then you've probably got enough finger dexterity to play the real song, the only thing is you need to actually learn how to play the song

[Steven W]

I found it's helped my rhythm on the real guitar.

I can now play a half decent version of Message in a Bottle and it's in time, thanks to Guitar Hero!

[Larkspeed]

I strum mainly down but go to strumming both ways on faster sections in the higher levels

[Steven W]

I strum mainly down but go to strumming both ways on faster sections in the higher levels

I know what you mean. I've always strummed down, but there's a couple of songs which I couldn't beat unless I strummed it both ways.

[Parm]

When you guys say strum both ways on higher levels, how high are you talking?

I'm playing through medium at the moment and find I'm getting on ok by just strumming downward.

I hate to keep repeating myself but what a cracking game this is! I get such a buzz when I string together a set of tough notes.