ZOMGH3

Yes, ZOMG Guitar Hero 3. I've started playing it again after not having really stopped playing it... But I've tried to go a bit further in the game now; more so than before.

You see I read a long time ago about star paths, and how better made ones utilise the star power better, thus ending up with a better score. Since I had played many of the songs so many times, and failed to beat a lot of my scores which I considered very up there I thought "why not," and so I tried some...

So I did the first song in the game. I played on hard because I didn't feel like the laziness of easy, even if it was just a test. So, the first song, Slow Ride (hard), and I beat my record. I beat it by a good amount of points, and with *only* one try. Blasphemy? I thought so. Maybe it was just that my skill had improved, and I wasn't making sloppy mistakes. Or maybe it was just because I hadn't played this particular song enough times to get what I thought for myself would be an uber score. So I tried some more.

So then a Talk Dirty To Me, Hit Me With Your Best Shot, and Story Of My Life later all my records were beat. Story Of My Life especially, because I know I've done that song dozens of times to beat my score, and then I beat it with ease. With ease. This made me think of why this was happening, why I was so easily beating my scores just by counting some numbers in my head. What was different here than elsewhere?

Strategy. Tactics. No other rhythm/music game I can recall utilises strategy. DDR, Donkey Konga, Ouendan, Taiko no Tatsujin, they all simply rely on the combo for better scores. If you can 100% a song then you can get the highest score possible, and each note gives a certain amount of points based on the timing with which you hit it. So 100%'ing a song, and hitting each note/beat with perfect accuracy results in the best score. The game rewards you for skill. The Guitar Hero series changes that.

For starters, the multiplier only goes up to 4. There is no variation in the points given by a note, it is either a hit or miss and nothing in between. Then there is star power, fancy energy that doubles your score gained for a small amount of time after being used. So in addition to playing the notes skillfully, you need to use this start power at the times when it will result in the highest point gain. This is what people spend a lot of their time doing (maybe not so much anymore, but in the 'earlier' days of GH3).

I guess I like the way it's done, but then I don't. I'd actually like to see something like the aforementioned combo points system, alongside the 4x/starpower. And why not? Let people compete in 2 fields. The strategist, and the pure guitarist. Like using the standard score system, and another separate system like a more fleshed out precision mode.

I think it'd be cool =D and HERE is my profile on GuitarHero.com if you wanna see. Later all.