McWilliams’ World

I’ll post some pictures shortly….

I was third in line at Wal-Mart; probably about 6 or 7 guys showed up and as soon as 12:01am rolled around, we shuffled through and picked up our game packs (I also had to pick up cereal for the munchkins). Quite exciting.

Once I got home, I carefully opened the package and took some pictures and then began setting it up.

There’s been some complaints about the Xplorer guitar as some seasoned vets of the PS2 version complained that the guitar was smaller than it’s PS2 counterpart, the whammy bar was not as responsive and that the guide buttons (start, back, d-pad) are in an awkward place causing one to accidentally hit them during play.

I’ve played the PS2 version on occasion and I can’t tell a difference between the size of the two guitars. I think the Xplorer feels just right. The whammy bar was fine and responsive. I will say, however that the guide buttons are in a peculiar spot and could get in the way depending on how you’re holding the guitar. I like to let the guitar hang low (like all cool rockers do) so the guide buttons don’t get in my way.

I managed to play for about an hour and unlock three achievements:

• 100K Club: Got 100,000 points in a song
• Scoremonger Award: Got an 8x multiplier
• Dimebag Darrell Award: Got a 100 note streak

 I really wanted to crank the volume but at 12:30am, I didn’t think Tracy would like me too much.

So far, I’m extremely pleased with it and can’t wait to get a second controller. I contemplated buying two game packs and then offloading the game on eBay or trade it in. I’d actually come out ahead if I could dump the game for $50 as the second controller alone is $60, but I don’t want to deal with the hassle. Plus, with the game being so new, who’s going to buy just the game but no controller and there’s no point in having and extra copy of the game. Maybe I’ll get lucky and a wireless controller will come out in a few weeks time. We’ll see.

Well it’s late and I need to hit the sack. I’ll post pictures soon.

[UPDATE: Second Controller]

I just scored a second controller for about $48 (shipped) from Buy.com (regular price is $60). Buy.com’s price is $49.99, but they were out of stock so a 3rd party was selling it for $54 with about $3 shipping. I used Google Checkout to shave $10 off so I still come out ahead. Now it’s just a matter of waiting a week or so (I hope).

[UPDATE: Second Controller - 4.6.07]

I had a sinking suspicion that the Buy.com order was going to be canceled and last night proved me right. But, hope springs eternal as I just secured one for $49.99 at Target in Appleton. I’ll be rushing up there on my lunch break to pick it up (they thankfully hold the item for you). I just hope that it’s not susceptible to all the issues others have been reporting (whammy bar issues).

This entry was posted on Tuesday, April 3rd, 2007 at 1:30 am and is filed under Guitar Hero 2. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.