As a big fan of Guitar Hero II, the opportunity to play this fantastic music rhythm game on Microsoft’s Xbox 360 is finally here. Ever since it first appeared on Sony’s PlayStation 2, I always wanted to see how it would look and feel in high definition form, with downloadable content to expand the game play.
Well, now I have it thanks to my sister buying an imported copy and am I happy with it? Difficult to say as the visuals do look amazing in HD but the same cannot be said with the new and exclusive X-plorer guitar controller…
I have read many stories online regarding an unresponsive whammy bar (it has something to do with the build quality) and initially I thought I was lucky to have a working guitar controller. Alas, this wasn’t the case and the first time I’ve play this on my Xbox 360, the whammy bar refused to work…
So instead of getting a replacement – which proved tricky as it was brought in Germany – I’ve decided to find a solution with some help from Google. And after typing some key words like ‘Guitar Hero II controller problem’ and ‘Xbox 360 guitar’ into the search engine, found this useful site.
I followed the instructions carefully and made the necessary small changes to make the whammy bar work properly. After taking it apart, unloosing the two important screws and rotating the device even so slightly, it now works! Good news you would think but unfortunately the whammy bar is so loose, it now ‘flops’ around…
Despite that, I can still enjoy the game. Just completed the Medium Career mode without any difficulty and my next step is to play through Hard to unlock more new bonuses. As for the game play, there is a hint of delay when strumming compared to the PlayStation 2 version. It seems to have a tiny lagging issue and even though I calibrated my Samsung HDTV to stop this, I have to strum the notes a fraction more early to play it.
Nevertheless, the new songs exclusively for the Xbox 360 are not that bad to play to (apart from My Chemical Romance) and the high definition visuals are spectacular. It just a shame that the X-plorer guitar controller doesn’t match the feel and quality to the SG controller available on the PlayStation 2…
Sad they tried to skimp on quality of the controller to save cost. All in all it helps promote the game specially when it plays so well. And its not as if people would not have tried better specially with peeps playing it on the PS2 as well.
One thing I don’t like about guitar hero II is the guitar player tends to have the same sort of animation at the beginning and ending of the songs. Tis a little annoying.