Free Bird is my favorite song in Guitar Hero II. It’s the last song in the playlist, the one with that ultimate five minute solo that nearly has your fingers bleeding and convulsing at the end. I play Free Bird at least once whenever I play Guitar Hero II. A few days ago the loading screen actually said, “Man, you must really like Free Bird.”
Awesome. The game actually tracks how many times you play a song. It felt like the developers had winked at me and said ‘look, we know what you’re doing, but it’s okay. We’re glad you’re having fun.’
It’s stupid little details like this elevate a game from great to excellent.
I gotta get this for my hubby. He loves the first one, and I would enjoy hearing a different set of songs.
Angella
May 31st, 2007
You should play the fourth You Don’t Know Jack game. Well, any of them really, but the fourth one was the one that was smart enough to see that it was 10:30 pm on a Friday evening and you selected a single player game, and then have the pre-game narrator say “What? All alone on a Friday night with nowhere to go? How sad” before the credits rolled. I was laughing and feeling demeaned at the same time… and that’s the tip of the iceburg for that game and its crazy good job of feeling alive and attentive despite really just being a humongous branched dialog tree built in Director.
Jake
June 1st, 2007
Yeah having heard about all the fun things they put into it I really want to play You Don’t Know Jack sometime.
Also: is an “iceburg” literally a castle made of ice? I want to live in an iceburg.
Marek
June 1st, 2007
An iceburg is a glacier
Steve
June 1st, 2007
Well I mean it’s like a glacier. It’s a big piece of ice floating around in the ocean. It’s what killed the Titanic, okay
Steve
June 1st, 2007
Dude you are totally confused, you’re describing icebergs not iceburgs. Everyone knows they’re two totally different things. GOSH.
Marek
June 1st, 2007
lol.
Angella
June 1st, 2007
(games)lol.
Marek
June 4th, 2007
Those stupid little details are why I’m going to follow Harmonix to Rock Band rather than sticking with the Guitar Hero series.
mister slim
June 4th, 2007
Kinda like Metal Gear Solid 3 - every action has a reaction (e.g: steal their food, soldiers go hungry; throw rotten food around, they eat it and get sick). It’s what makes a game feel more alive.
Hans
June 5th, 2007
Ummm… Free Bird is actually the only song that gets personalized loading messages. (apart from the bonus songs, which each have one loading message and that’s it)
When it’s loading up for its first go of the song, it asks you if you want to play the encore. Then it asks if you’re sure. Then one more time. Confirming all three times prompts the game to say “Man, you must really like Free Bird…” After that, it’ll throw that message in sometime when you’re playing Free Bird in Quick Play or again in carreer mode. Other specialized intros are “FREE BIIIIIRD!!!!” and “You’re looking for “Solo A” in practice mode…”
Gotta agree about Rock Band though. Today’s big reveal that there are an extra 5 buttons near the base of the neck specifially for crazy solos makes the game completely irresistable to me.
Miffy495
June 15th, 2007
Damn you Miffy! You just had to ruin everything!
I agree with you on the Rock Band guitar. I’m intrigued by the extra buttons, but it also looks AMAZING.
Marek
June 21st, 2007
Well, I’d been hoping for extra buttons like that since I saw someone’s modded controller for the first GH, so I’m glad that someone finally decided to just go ahead and make a legitimate one.
Also, did you ever manage to nail that one passage of the solo? I was playing earlier today and actually failed the bloody thing right there. I guess I’m out of practice on four-note decents or something. Particularly embarassing because my last attempt netted me 5 stars. That passage really is the difference between stunning success and utter failure for me, depending on the run.
Miffy495
June 21st, 2007
Yeah your tips really helped. I still haven’t been able to complete that passage perfectly, but at least I’m sort of hitting the majority of notes.
Now getting my ass kicked by hard mode…
Marek
June 22nd, 2007