Smug Duckling - 5-starred TWIE!

**SmugDuckling** · Joined: 20 Oct 2007 Posts: 576

May 14th

5-starred TWIE!!!

Holy shit guys.

So, the last three days, I've decided I wanted to not be total shit at The Way It Ends.

I put myself through a regimen of all the toughest strumming songs across all the games. My arm screamed in agony many times.

*Insert sports montage*

But I did it. 379281 on The Way It Ends and 5 fucking stars. YES.

Another plus is my arm is feeling really strong right now.

Now only TTFAF stands in my way of a full on-disc 5-star for GH3... Only 150k to go.

(I did it with a broken guitar too. About once every 50 strums or so my Xplorer decides to randomly double-strum.)

August 16th

Wheeee!

Hitting that blue note of freedom was so sweet.

I'm now a GH2 Guitar God!

August 14th

Okay, so technically not Guitar Hero, but just played Green Grass & High Tides (on guitar) for fun today, and got 396k. I thought, hey, that's actually not that far from gold stars (413k).

So I practiced some sections, and then go do a real run.

After a couple of false starts (missing in some of the relatively easy stuff at the beginning), I go through. Holy shit 97% in the first solo, my highest ever, and then I full combo, under overdrive, the second freaking zig-zag in the 2nd solo.

Nearing the end of the second solo, I'm thinking, shit, I only have like 400k, I'm not going to make the cutoff. But I had forgotten about the boatload of solo points that you get from the second solo. As soon as it ends, BAM, 430k + gold stars.

So happy right now.

Only Train Kept a'Rollin and Creep (yeah, I know) left on the main setlist...

August 10th

This thing has been taunting me for months, marring my otherwise perfect first four tiers, but it has finally fallen!

FC #39: Kool Thing

Looking at Down 'N Dirty for my 40th. Pretty consistent at most of it except Solo 2A, but getting better at that.

July 12th

Got a bunch of Aerosmith FCs. None worth writing home about though.

More importantly, got three more FCs in GH3, including Rock and Roll All Nite as my 37th! Finally got that stupid solo down. Almost have 40 FCs. Any ideas on what I should go for next?

I FCed through the solo twice. The first time I choked on like the 3rd to last note or something stupid like that. Then a couple of runs later I finally got it.

Rock and Roll All Nite FC

Before that, I got Welcome to the Jungle:

Welcome to the Jungle FC

After Rock and Roll All Nite, I finally got the strumming speed down and got The Seeker!

The Seeker FC

July 1st

5-starred Guitar Hero: Aerosmith today, didn't ever 4-star or worse any song.

Also got the TKAR achievement on the first play-through.

Not much else to say really.

June 26th

Got ScoreHero's (and the world's?) first co-op FC of I Am Murloc with my brother on guitar and me on bass. Probably bad SP, but whatever, it's 1st place for now.

http://www.scorehero.com/rankings.php?group=4&game=6&diff=5&song=3746&page=1

I Am Murloc Co-op FC

June 22nd

I've been trying to get Pride and Joy for a couple of weeks, and finally got it. My heart was beating out of my chest for the last half of the song. I'm really surprised I didn't choke.

Avalancha I probably should have gotten a while ago, and Cities On Flame with Rock & Roll kind of came out of nowhere. I ended up FCing it around 4 times before I got the starpower path I wanted.

Avalancha FC

Pride and Joy FC

Cities On Flame with Rock & Roll FC

June 21st

Holy shit! I just FCed Freebird Solo C in practice mode! Just a few months ago I thought that it was impossible. That paves the way for a full-song FC, since other than that I can hit everything else fairly well, though probably not for a long time.

Other than that, been playing a lot of GH3 and been getting lots of reFCs, including a HUGE increase on Story Of My Life.

June 8th

Meh. Was going for a few FCs today but didn't manage to get any. Got consistent at the hard parts of Pride and Joy but then kept screwing up elsewhere, and got a -3 run (FCed the solo) on Monsters.

Still, managed to get a nice 430k 4-star of TTFAF. Only a matter of time and practice to get a 5-star.

June 7th

Wow, got a lot of FCs recently. Today I converted three 100%s into FCs by completing Even Flow, then La Grange, and finally In Love.

God, In Love is such a god damn horrible song.

Even Flow FC

La Grange FC

In Love FC

June 6th

4 new FCs since last update! Barracuda, The Metal, Hier Kommt Alex and Minus Celsius, in that order. Screwed up the path for Hier Kommt Alex so I'll have to redo that one.

Also got a crapload of re-FCs to up my ranking by quite a bit. Some FCs like Paint It Black seem way easier now than they did when I FCed them a couple of months ago.

Barracuda FC

The Metal FC

Hier Kommt Alex FC

Minus Celsius FC

April 5th

Wow, lots of awesomeness going on today. Got my ranking way up, from > 1000th on XBox 360 to better than 750th.

In addition, grabbed a few awesome accomplishments, the greatest of which is that I have now beaten every song that GH3 has thrown at me. DWDTG has fallen!

My playing has gotten so much better in the last week or so that I can't even comprehend it. It's as if something has just switched on in my brain.

DWDTG pass

I also got a few other awesome achievements today like these. I can finally actually play We Three Kings (mostly) properly. I never thought it would be possible, but hyperspeed makes it so that I can actually read the notes. A couple of nice FCs too. I was trying for Barracuda but choked after the solo a couple of times.

Just got a Take This Life 5* a few minutes ago (no pic) as well, which is nice.

We Three Kings 5-star

Paranoid FC

This Is A Call FC

April 4th

Holy crap, I just had an amazing day. I've never used hyperspeed before, but today I decided to turn it on to try it out for fun. It makes the game so much easier, it's great!

Finally passed TTFAF, got the achievement for 200k on Cult of Personality without SP, beat Slash Battle, 5-starred Tom Morello battle, 4-starred We Three Kings, NEARLY beat DWDTG (failed in the last of the victory solos

).

I am definitely playing with hyperspeed from now on. (I'm using HS2)

TTFAF Pass

March 30th

Was just going for School's Out today, but tried two others and managed to get them!

Unfortunately I overlapped a star-power in PiB so I'll need to do it again later when I redux my FCs, but otherwise these are reasonably good scores.

School's Out FC

She Bangs the Drums FC

Paint It Black FC

March 29th

Haven't played for FCs for a while, but I got this. Just for you, TheRiff. ;) (See his comment on the 3rd page)

Seriously, thanks for the inspiration. I hadn't even thought of this one as a possible FC.

For the quick, weird little chord change in this song I used 1 and 3 for all three positions, just hopping my fingers all over the place. I had been using 2 and 4 for the YO chord before and I had been messing up occasionally. Using 1 and 3 got me a lot more consistent (though I had to look at my hand during the whole chorus to make sure that my hand jumped far enough to reach the top buttons - hurray for an easily memorizable part!)

Prayer of the Refugee FC

March 20th

YES! Now have the entire GH3 career 5-starred, with this beast out of the way:

Raining Blood 5*

For those still working on this 5*, here are my stats so you can see what kind of numbers are required for it. I got a pretty bare 5*, so this is pretty much the minimum:

Raining Blood Stats 1

Raining Blood Stats 2

March 16th

Wow, got a whole bunch of nice 5 stars in the last couple of days. First was The Light That Blinds (just had to master the strumming speed in the fast sections), then THIS (going from a 3 star to a 5 star in only about 5 runs):

Six 5*

With Misirlou under my belt, this leaves only Jordan (which I haven't even beaten) left in GH2 to 5-star. I'll be working and Jordan and will get it soon. (Maybe after some more GH3 FCs or Raining Blood 5*)

And went back to 80s to try to grab the Play With Me 5*, and finally got it:

Play With Me 5*

March 11th

Yes! Haven't seriously tried Misirlou for months, but worked on it for a couple of hours and finally got it! It was a bit of a fluke run. I was averaging around 180k for a bunch of runs before, but I happened to do really well on the bridge and ended up with about 175k going into the end stuff. Then with starpower I nailed the triple chords at the end, taking me way over the cut-off. Really glad to have this out of the way and have my log.

Misirlou 5*

Last night I got some easy Expert GH2 FCs too. I finally spent the time to learn the one hard bit in Surrender and managed to get it quite quickly after that.

Surrender FC

Mr. Fix It FC

Soy Bomb FC

March 9th

Got a few FCs this weekend, including one of the new DLCs (really easy). Really glad that I managed to get Hit Me With Your Best Shot. The uneven fast strum notes in the solo were tricky. It leaves just Rock and Roll All Nite left in the first tier (but I don't think I'm getting that too soon

).

Unfortunately my Les Paul's frets are quickly becoming so unresponsive as to be unuseable, so I had to switch to my Xplorer for most of these. It's too bad because I much, much prefer the feel of the Les Paul.

The Arsonist FC

Can't Be Saved FC

Anarchy in the U.K. FC

Story Of My Life FC

Hit Me With Your Best Shot FC

March 1st

UPDATE

Was just playing for fun and happened to get:

Sharp Dressed Man FC

It's probably my most difficult GH1 FC to date.

END UPDATE

Got a bunch of new GH1 FCs. Got stuck on More Than a Feeling. Ugh, that song, seriously. It's insanely easy except those annoying turns in the "solo". I always seem to manage to mess one of them up.

Anyway, this brings my total number of GH1 FCs to 15. I'll probably go back to GH3 after this. The lame HOPO system in GH1 is just pissing me off too much.

Sail Your Ship By FC

Eureka, I've Found Love FC

Story of My Love FC

Fat Lip FC

Hey You FC

Even Rats FC

Unsung FC

Callout FC

February 29th (Leap day, woohoo!)

Went back to GH1 and got some FCs. I've gotten most of these before, but I wanted a newspaper picture for each for posterity.

Later went and got my 20th GH3 FC for Enlightened Guitarist with Sunday Morning (the No Doubt DLC). It was much easier than I thought it would be on first play.

I Love Rock & Roll FC

Hey FC

Stellar FC

Behind the Mask FC

I Wanna Be Sedated FC

Killer Queen FC

Sunday Morning FC

February 28th

Nice, 4 new FCs to report. 3 of them are DLC, including one of the brand new ones (Don't Speak). That one was actually the hardest of the three DLCs to FC.

Sunshine of Your Love was by far the hardest of the 4 though. I kept screwing up in various places in the solo (not even the hard part) and had to repeat the long boring beginning part. To top that off, I screwed up my SP path on my actual FC run because I was too excited. Meh, at least I have the FC.

I decided to switch to Tom Morello as my character since I found his fretboard much easier to read than that of Lou. I was having problems missing oranges occasionally before I switched.

Messages FC

Dream On FC

Don't Speak FC

Sunshine of Your Love FC

February 27th (Afternoon)

UPDATE: After practicing the Darkness Riff for a bit, I finally got One 5-starred. This leaves just Raining Blood on the main setlist... that will probably take some time. I still have problems even passing The Way it Ends and Take This Life. END UPDATE

Wow, so last night wasn't just an anomaly. Got another 9 (yes, 9!) FCs in a couple of hours this afternoon to bring my total FC count for the last 24 hours to 14, and to bring my total GH3 FC count to 15.

A lot of them have supremely crappy scores since I didn't bother with finding a good star power path. The only one I looked up a starpower path for was My Name is Jonas, and I ended up screwing it up in my FC run anyway.

My Name is Jonas FC

Sabotage FC

Slow Ride FC

Reptilia FC

Bulls on Parade FC

Ruby FC

Lay Down FC

Miss Murder FC

Talk Dirty to Me FC

February 27th (Early Morning)

Wow, got a bunch of FCs tonight. Was trying to get My Name is Jonas too, but my fingers decided to quit on me and it's late.

Mississippi Queen FC

When You Were Young FC

Metal Heavy Lady FC

Generation Rock FC

Radio Song FC

February 16th

Got an FC of Closer on co-op with my brother:

Closer Co-op FC

Didn't look at a path, so we missed a star-power. Still neat to get a co-op FC though!

February 3rd

Got a couple of things out of the way. A 5* of Number of the Beast, and my first FC of GH3 Expert:

Closer FC

Not exactly difficult, and my starpower path was obviously far from optimal, but it's nice to get the first one out of the way.

February 1st

Beat Lou on expert! Woohoo!

Also, taught myself to tap the intro to TTFAF with elbow-strumming. Passed it a few times, though I've only gotten to 68% in the song so far.

January 26th
Sorry for the lack of updates, here's a list of my favourite accomplishments since my last edit:

- Beat GH3 on Expert (except Lou

)
- 5-starred everything in GH3 up to and including the second-last set. Also 5-starred Cliffs of Dover
- 5-starred Hangar 18!

December 14th
Guitar God in GH1 by 5-starring Cowboys from Hell! Woohoo!

Also, less exciting, but I got the FC of Killer Queen.

December 8th
Finally beat Play With Me with 4-stars, and 5-starred the remainder of the 80s set list.

December 2nd
5-starred all of Expert GH1 except Breaking Wheel and Cowboys From Hell

November 23
WOOOHOOO!

5-star Carry Me Home and Rock This Town.

Update:

Freebird has fallen! 5-star! Woot!

November 10
YES!

5-star Psychobilly Freakout!

October 27
5-starred Institutionalized and YYZ. Only 7 to Log!

October 24
5-starred Laid to Rest.
4-starred PBFO! (This is a big deal for me :P)

October 22
5-starred Stop!

October 20
Woohoo! 5-starred Bad Reputation, Trippin' on a Hole in a Paper Heart and Jessica.

Original Post:

I can't believe it. I haven't even *touched* GH2 for about a month, but with my excitement for GH3 boiling over, I went back and played what I thought would be a casual session, my skills having atrophied from disuse.

How is it possible that I am better than ever?

In one session, I:
- 5-starred Madhouse first try
- Finally 5-starred Freya on Expert, second try
- Proceeded to grab some nagging 5-stars on Expert TIGRYT and Tattooed Love Boys.
- Took a few tries to FC Radium Eyes
- FCed Heart-Shaped Box in my first try
- FCed Parasite in two tries
- Thought, "Wow, I'm better than I used to be," then proceeded to FINALLY complete Freebird to beat GH2 Expert.
- Went back and 5-starred Institutionalized on Hard to get the Eyeball, succeeding in getting the Battleaxe and Eyeball within a few songs of each other.

Wow, this has really breathed new life into GH2 for me. I had pretty much stopped playing because I had hit a plateau and it was frustrating me that I couldn't get through Freebird. Definitely going to try for a few more 5-stars before GH3 comes out!

EDIT: For those of you wondering, I've been a long-time lurker here. But this session inspired me to finally sign up and submit my scores (even if they are terrible).

**SmugDuckling** · Joined: 20 Oct 2007 Posts: 576

Popped in the GH2 for another go this morning and 5-starred Bad Reputation, Trippin' on a Hole in a Paper Heart and Jessica.

Almost got a Shout at the Devil FC too, but gah.

**FinalAeon** · Posted: Sat Oct 20, 2007 9:07 pm Post subject:

Congrats on the major improvements. People go through them all the time and it each and every one of them feels great.
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**nonsummer** · Joined: 22 Sep 2007 Posts: 40

its weird, but every time i take a break from GH i come back better than i left. i don't get it either.

congrats on your scores!
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Goals:

5 Star Jordan [X]
5 Star Six [X]
Pass Through the fire and the Flames[X]
FiveStar Through the Fire and the Flames[]
be top 50 in 10 songs expert[ ]
FiveStar Expert Setlist [] -Raining Blood is all thats left

**reikonkeiri** · Posted: Sun Oct 21, 2007 12:12 am Post subject:

heh everytime I don't play GH and come back to it I'm terrible lol
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Blazblue: Continuum Shift 2, League of Legends, Dungeon Defenders, Dark Souls

**stephit** · Joined: 29 Apr 2007 Posts: 849 Location: England, Somerset

i usually play gh1 or rocks the 80's if i feel i'm starting to hit a plateau on gh2 i think, if you have those games next time u hit a plateau do that, i think it helps
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www.youtube.com/stephit1

http://ustream.tv/channel/stephit-playing-guitar-hero

**RAAAPEDOMDOMDOM** · Joined: 21 Oct 2007 Posts: 8

Good.

Now go have a session with your fist.

**ZackFair** · Joined: 18 Jun 2007 Posts: 15

That happens with me too...
I stop playing GH for a mouth, star playing again and I'm better then ever x]

**TopGearFTW** · Posted: Sun Oct 21, 2007 12:43 am Post subject:

**SmugDuckling** · Joined: 20 Oct 2007 Posts: 576

Actually, the improvement also probably has something to do with taking up real guitar over the break. That undoubtedly improved my finger dexterity.

**SmugDuckling** · Joined: 20 Oct 2007 Posts: 576

Wow, my Crazy on You score is 226k. I just played Pro face-off against some stranger and got more than 270k. Too bad I didn't write down my score or I would submit it. The adrenaline of competition got me going I guess.

**SmugDuckling** · Joined: 20 Oct 2007 Posts: 576

Woohoo! 15 minutes of practice brought me from 89% to 96% and a very respectable 5.6 stars on Stop.

Sweet, I'm nearly at the point where I can start counting down the main set-list songs that I *haven't* 5-starred.

**SmugDuckling** · Joined: 20 Oct 2007 Posts: 576

5-starred Laid to Rest.

Then did a mammoth PBFO session.

Holy god, this song is something. I'm finally getting it though, and got a 4.3 star run! It's just a matter of time until I can nail it. When I first beat this song I never thought I'd see a day where I could consistently pass PBFO.
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Saxophone Hero

Rock Band Guitar/Bass OD Optimizer (no longer being updated)

**40757** · Joined: 03 Mar 2007 Posts: 1131 Location: Orlando, Florida

**SmugDuckling** · Joined: 20 Oct 2007 Posts: 576