…since my last entry here, so thought I’d pop something in here. Not too much has gone on since my last blog entry. Guitar Hero 2 Hard career has been mastered, and I’m now a good way through the Expert career, currently on tier 6 (of 8). The songs now have shown a marked increase in difficulty compared to earlier songs, so much so that I don’t know whether I’ll actually be able to finish the Expert career. I’ll certainly be spending a fair bit of time in the practise mode I think, as some songs just come at you so fast you need to slow things down just to let your brain understand where the hand needs to be, as most songs now require some very quick handwork jumping from single notes on one side to chords on the other side. Still, despite the frustrations that come with failing a song 20 times in a row (I god damn hate Crazy On You, that intro nearly drove me insane before I finally got it), I’m still enjoying it. Nailing a difficult solo still gives a hell of a buzz, something very few games manage.
On the subject of Guitar Hero, I managed to get 2 of the hardest achievements since my last post, 400k in a song, and a 1000 note streak, both on Freebird on Medium difficulty. It took a little bit of reading on Scorehero.com to find out the best times to use Star Power, but armed with that knowledge, and the ability to play the song nearly perfectly (I missed 1 bloody note!), it was easy to get the achievements. Only the 500k one to go for single player scores, which means mastering one of several possible songs on either Hard or Expert. I’m more likely to try to master Freebird on Hard then any of the Expert songs, as I know I can already play most of it fine, I just need to master the solos. It won’t be easy, but hopefully I’ll get there.
In other gaming news, the Forza Motorsport 2 demo was released yesterday. It’s one of the most anticipated games of the year, and people have been eagerly awaiting the demo for months, so it was no surprise to me just how many people said they were disappointed with it. If you build a game up that much in your head then it will never reach those expecations. I myself am really looking forward to the game, but I’ve been concentrating myself on the features of the game and not the looks. A large amount of people (especially a whiny bunch of bitches over on OcUK forums) seem to have a major problem with the graphics. To me, having played the first Forza only recently, I was very impressed with how it looks on my 32″ LCD. The car models are great, you get a real sense of speed on the track, and the damage model is excellent. Sure, there are minor jaggies here and there, but I do mean minor, it’s certainly not something that instantly jumped out at me. I was too busy concerning myself with the car’s handling, which is excellent, and trying to get the most out of whatever car I was in.
So what if it’s doesn’t have 4xAA on it? So what if it doesn’t have an in-car view (which, let’s face it, only ends up obscuring half the screen anyway)? The cars handle beautifully and realistically (the AWD prone to understeer, RWD prone to oversteer if you step on the gas around corners too much), the AI is supposed to be very aggressive on the higher difficulty levels (the demo AI seems to be set pretty low), you can set up and tune your car in god knows how many ways, and you can get very creative in the livery editor. Sure it’s not a true sim like you’d get on a pc, but here’s a point a lot of people are missing – the game isn’t on the sodding pc! Get over yourselves and start enjoying the damn game!
Phew, I feel better for that. Roll on the 8th June when the full game is released. I’ve already got plans in my head to start in Japan (possibly with a Supra) and work up towards my favourite car – the Nissan Skyline. The ability to mod it in so many ways means that I should be able to take that class B car and tune it for pretty much every class above it. Now I just need to develop some artistic skills as I have a few ideas in my head for some custom graphics on it, but my limited creative skills probably won’t be able to recreate those ideas very easily. At least I know what kind of shapes etc will be available (thanks to those good folks over at http://www.msxbox-world.com/), so I can try and get something sorted before the game comes out. Yes I am that sad. Shush 
More to come later maybe, I feel in a random enough mood to come up with another entry later today 
