Anyone else returning the game?

**Warhiem** · Joined: 22 Sep 2009 Posts: 1331

Got it off, thanks for the help

just exchanged for a new set that works much better. Having more fun now that I can actually 5 star things
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**Kubuh** · Joined: 17 Feb 2007 Posts: 1765 Location: Stockholm, Sweden

If all you care about is getting FCs then it's pretty obvious this isn't a game designed for you. I do kinda wish there was some sort of practice mode for the Live stuff but the TV stuff would never work like that.
Either way I'm actually really enjoying just playing the game without worrying about if I miss shit or not for the first time in forever.
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**yakityyakblah** · Joined: 08 Oct 2007 Posts: 3985

**Bradmasta** · Joined: 17 May 2008 Posts: 2276 Location: Virginia

**Midnight-Rider** · Posted: Sun Oct 25, 2015 2:09 am Post subject:

I haven't gotten the game yet but it seems like a decent, enjoyable change from the previous GHs (because lawd knows the series could use one). I also tried a GameStop demo on Expert and suuuuuuuuucked.

(also pls calm, luv u bbs <3)

**MSH-Hitman** · Joined: 27 Aug 2007 Posts: 4481 Location: Florida

**yakityyakblah** · Joined: 08 Oct 2007 Posts: 3985

**iamchris4life** · Joined: 08 Jan 2007 Posts: 670

Let me start out by saying that I believe the actual gameplay engine in this game is FANTASTIC. I love the way the frets and the strum bar feel, as well as how the game handles my strumming and HOPO inputs as I hit the notes. I really don't think I've experienced this good of an engine since GH3. I also really enjoy the live concert experience in Live mode and the music videos that play in the background of GHTV. I'm having a lot of fun learning the new 6-button layout and challenging my mind to properly interpret all of the new patterns. That being said, I agree there are a lot of shortcomings regarding pretty much everything else.

GH Live:

No Overall Leaderboards: There's no way to quantify who's the best overall besides getting 1st place on every song (which is actually impossible, and I'll explain in my next point)
Star Power is grossly oversimplified: There's no whammying for extra SP and there's no squeezing. I found and executed the upper bound SP path for My Songs Know What You Did In The Dark within 30 minutes of going for the 1st place score, but lo and behold someone else had already done the same, leaving me stuck in 2nd place purgatory for all eternity.

GHTV (This is where all the good/challenging songs are):

Limited Number of Plays: You get 3 On-Demand plays worth of in-game currency by playing about 10-15 GHTV Channel plays. While I've been bestowed with plenty of the in-game currency (Hero Cash and Coins) between what came with the game, my pre-order bonus, and just aimlessly playing through the GHTV channels, there will still come a time when I start caring about grinding songs for high scores, and that currency will quickly burn out. That time won't be coming any time soon because the state of my game doesn't even allow me to achieve high scores yet; consequently, I'll be spending all of my Coins trying to get there, which I'll explain in my following points.
Guitar Upgrades: You literally have to earn your ability to achieve high scores. You can spend your in-game Coins to buy "guitar upgrades" which do various things like making notes each worth more or increasing your maximum multiplier above 4x.
Variable Star Power Effects: One thing you unlock as you level up is the ability to do something more useful with your SP activation than blowing up the notes off the track (which is what the default Star Power effect does in GHTV...it's kinda dumb). I haven't unlocked all of them yet, so I can't entirely speak to this point yet.
Limited Star Power Activations: I had finally unlocked the ability to do something useful with Star Power like the normal Double Multiplier behavior, only to find out I can only use it a certain number of times before I had to buy more activations using Coins.

But let me clarify what the real issue with this game is: NO PRACTICE MODE. I've already resisted countless knee-jerk reactions to instantly pause the song I'm playing and enter practice mode when I'd encounter some pattern I didn't understand. I'm not going to get into great detail with every reason why this is the most heartbreaking lack of feature in any GH game to-date because you can refer to BucketBlue's post on the previous page for that (I 100% agree with all of his points). In the meantime, I'll be resorting to the Stone Age GH1 method of recording the charts on video and playing along to them on my computer at 0.5x speed playback.

The lack of hyperspeed also really sucks, but that is something I'd much sooner be able to adjust to (and much rather adjust to) than a lack of practice mode.

In conclusion, I think the game's gameplay engine is great, but there are several glaring issues that stifle any possibility of this being a highly competitive game. I can only hope they'll be patching a few things to make this game more conducive to a competitive atmosphere.

EDIT: I also forgot to mention that the design of SP phrase notes completely eclipses any indication of HOPO notes, so you have to know which of them are HOPOs from memory. Same with the singleton yellow notes that define a 50/100/200/etc. note streak; it overwrites any indication of whether or not it's a HOPO note
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**SlasherManEXE** · Joined: 04 Jan 2008 Posts: 2634 Location: NY

there is squeezing ty. it just lights up what it thinks will be possible, but that can be adjusted on the front end and back end. you can trick the colors and hit notes at the end early, likewise you can get closer with a good front end. don't have the time to record proof, but I can tell you that I've done it while looking at the score.
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**iamchris4life** · Joined: 08 Jan 2007 Posts: 670

**GesterX** · Joined: 24 Dec 2007 Posts: 1242 Location: Birmingham, UK

I agree with your points on GHTV Chris. It's a shame because the system has been ruined by poor game design cavouring grinding for powers. With a few tweaks it could be great. I would like to see them add a channel without any of the special powers and regualr hero power.

**TerminX13** · Joined: 12 Mar 2009 Posts: 991

**Thrice** · Joined: 04 Sep 2006 Posts: 1458 Location: Rocklin, CA

**Chrisssss** · Posted: Sun Oct 25, 2015 10:26 pm Post subject:

I agree with no hyperspeed being annoying because I think it will take me a lot longer to FC stuff, even on "regular" difficulty. However; that is no real issue in the grand scheme of things. No practice mode is something I'm indifferent to. I can see why people feel it's necessary and why it helps them master a difficult bit in a song, but this is what I think:

Because of how amazing some players are on expert mode, the last several games have all been FGFC'd in the first day or first couple of days. In all honesty, where is the fun in that?

Think about the above. This new three button thing both top and below with weird chords has made this game challenging for some of the best players for the first time in ages. Granted, most, if not all, songs have probably already been FC'd. However; I can tell you now that it will take a lot longer for people to FGFC this because a lot of people will probably take a while to get used to the way things are charted.

For me, personally, I like this game as it's a challenge. Hyperspeed would probably be useful, not gonna lie, but fuck practice mode because that makes it easier for people to learn stuff and just FGFC something like it's not even an achievement.

P.S - I know practicing and FC'ing a really difficult song will still be an achievement (like TTFAF, One, etc.), but I was just trying to make a point.
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**inv4der** · Joined: 16 Sep 2007 Posts: 9656 Location: Meridian, ID