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jp's Guitar Hero (PS2)
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| [January 2, 2007 09:02:25 PM]
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I've been working on improving some of my scores in Guitar Hero and I started thinking about perfection. Actually, I was thinking about the role of perfect achievement in games.
When I practice a particular song in guitar hero it's not about being able to "get to the end" as happens in so many other games. It's about getting everything right, with no mistakes, and with the highest possible score. I'm sure I could go online and find out what it takes to get a perfect score on each song, in each difficulty. You can work it out. It's a decidable problem.
Does that mean it's less fun or less intersting?
In this case, obviously not...in fact there are many other games (most of them non-video) where perfection is attainable. Bowling, darts, snooker are but a few examples. However, there is a difference between the existence of an obvious perfect score and a fuzzily definable score.
Sure, in any racing game there has to be an absolute minimum time in which the race can be won. Right? A lot of people spend hours shaving milliseconds off their lap-times, right? But the truth is, you never REALLY know if you've run a perfect race... You can converge on that minimum...but you'll never know if you really got it.
Guitar Hero is different. It's such an unforgiving, unrelenting linear experience. No wiggle room...no barely made it. It's an all or nothing thing.
I guess the reason for this is that every single action you take in this game is score and measured. (ok, you can press the fret buttons and if you don't strum, nothing happens...but you get the idea). Doesn't that seem terribly harsh?
Finally, and it may be just my impression, but the idea of the perfect game is pretty rare in videogames. On the one hand I think it's because the possibilities of what games could be literally exploded, but I also think that it's an interface issue. Videogames can quantify a LOT more player actions per second than anything else. The computer has the capacity to rate and score each and everytime you press a button...but it's so many button presses that each individual press becomes meaningless, so videogames tend to "score" other things.
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| [December 27, 2006 11:39:13 PM]
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I had played this a few times in the GameLab, but thanks to Xmas I now have a copy of my own. (Guitar included!) Good fun!
I've been playing on medium and have almost finished the game. I just need to complete a few more songs and I should be done...but that's not the way it works with this game, right?
I've noticed a few things:
(1) I find it much easier to play sitting down than standing up (like I did in the lab). My wrist seems to suffer less and I'm able to use all four fingers with greater ease. I guess this explains how I've been able to almost clear the game on medium?
(2) Playing this game makes me appreciate songs that I would otherwise not care about. I guess you could say that rock music is all about energy...and hearing an awesome electric guitar riff and solo by nailing a particularly hard sequence is a great reward. You really do feel that you are playing the music, especially on the harder songs.
I guess what I love about this game is that you feel great WHEN you are playing it (and playing well...of course).
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jp's Guitar Hero (PS2)
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Current Status: Stopped playing - Got Bored
GameLog started on: Sunday 24 December, 2006
GameLog closed on: Saturday 28 January, 2017 |
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