I just picked up the latest OPM to check it out. Of course, I'm stuck at work, so it'll be another three long hours before I actually play the damn game. Either way, I'm pumped, and I figured that you other Guitar Heroes might be interested in knowing that the demo hit the streets.

Got out of work early and fired the demo up. Played each song once on Expert (no use backtracking). Got 5-stars on Shout at the Devil, and 4-stars on all the others. YYZ is the best GH song yet, IMO. Amazing tune.

Gonna have to pick up the demo tomorrow.  What songs are available for play?  And, it's great that you can play the Expert versions!

By the way, have you tried out TAC's Freedom V?  I'd love to get a second guitar, and while the V's wireless function sounds awesome, I've had my eye on that sexy cherry-red SG for the longest.

Songs are Shout at the Devil, You Really Got Me, Strutter, and YYZ. Amazing selection... keeping things nice and 80's on the demo.

I haven't tried the wireless guitar, but a friend of mine is considering a purchase. I'm perfectly content with my black one that game with GH. I'll probably still use it when GHII comes out... I figure I rocked the whole game on this guitar, so why switch now?

Picked up the demo today, and gave the songs a once-over on both Hard and Expert.  Snagged five-stars on "Shout At The Devil" and "I Really Got You" Expert, and four on Strutter.   YYZ *is* freaken awesome, but is it really going to be an Opening Licks track?  It beat me down pretty hard.   o_O 

Pull-offs and hammer-ons are definitely easier, but I think I'm going to need a LOT of practice on those three note chords.

"Accordion Hero" Confirmed for Summer 2008!!

I don't think it will be. Check this list that I found... it shows YYZ being in the game, but there are already 5 Opening Licks tracks listed, so I highly doubt it's going to be in the first section of the game (or the first several sections, even). Mild spoilers, of course:

http://www.videogamesblogger.com/2006/1 … by-mtv.htm

I can't tell you how much I love the three finger chords. I've been playing guitar for almost 11 years now, so seeing these and giving the game a little more authenticity makes me purr like a drunk kitten. A really excited, drunk kitten. I fully realized how awesome this game was going to be when I hit the chord changes in Strutter that go from (I think) R/B/O to G/R/B. Hoo, boy.

Dude, we'll be getting "Rock This Town" in both this AND Elite Beat Agents?  We really are gonna rock till we pop and drop this fall, eh? ^_^

To bring up the "V" again, perhaps I'll hold off on it, as word is that RedOctane is purposely making it so that it won't be compatible with GH2.  I guess this comes in the wake of all the infringement suits flying now.

1. Opening Licks
Motley Crue - Shout at the Devil
Danzig - Mother
Cheap Trick - Surrender
Wolfmother - Woman
Spinal Tap - Tonight I'm Gonna Rock You Tonight

2. Amp-Warmers
Kiss - Strutter
Nirvana - Heart-Shaped Box
Police - Message in a Bottle
Van Halen - You Really Got Me
Kansas - Carry on Wayward Son

3. String-Snappers
Foo Fighters - Monkey Wrench
Alice in Chains - Them Bones
Iggy Pop and the Stooges - Search and Destroy
Pretenders - Tattooed Love Boys
Black Sabbath - War Pigs

4. Thrash and Burn
Warrant - Cherry Pie
Butthole Surfers - Who Was in My Room Last Night
Mathew Sweet - Girlfriend
Rolling Stones - Can't You Hear Me Knockin'
Guns N' Roses - Sweet Child O' Mine

5. Return of the Shred
Rage Against the Machine - Killing in the Name Of
Primus - John the Fisherman
Sword - Freya
Thin Lizzy - Bad Reputation
Aerosmtih - Last Child

6. Relentless Riffs
Heart - Crazy on You
Stone Temple Pilots - Tripping on a Hole in a Paper Heart
Stray Cats - Rock This Town
Allman Brothers - Jessica
Jane's Addiction - Stop

7. Furious Fretwork
Anthrax - Madhouse
Living End - Carry Me Home
Lamb of God - Laid to Rest
Reverend Horton Heat - Psychobilly Freakout
Rush - YYZ

8. Face-Melters
Avenged Sevenfold - Beast and the Harlot
Suicidal Tendencies - Institutionalized
Dick Dale - Misirlou
Megadeth - Hangar 18
Lynyrd Skynyrd - Free Bird

http://ps2.ign.com/articles/737/737921p1.html

While from what I've seen YYZ isn't cake, but 7th tier seems a bit high.

Man, what an awesome list.  And with twenty five secret tracks planned, that bumps the total number to 65 SONGS.  Damn yeah.

... Hey, weren't they discouraging "Free Bird" in the first game?  And now it's the finale track.  Go fig.

GHII 10 Song Demo Report:

Well, yesterday at Best Buy I tried out the new demo extensively. Great fun since it came with a guitar so you can play co-op or face off now. For those who don't know the songs on it are:

You Really Got Me
Strutter
Pscyhobilly Freakout
Madhouse
YYZ
Shout At The Devil
War Pigs
Who Was in My Room Last Night
John the Fisherman
Trippin' On a Hole in a Paper Heart

I didn't play all of them that evening, but combined with the night before yesterday I did play every song. PF is as others have greatly emphasized, CRAZY. The farthest I got was the BatH type solo, then failed two seconds in. I wasn't consistent with it either, sometimes I would fail at 10%, but I would say every other time I atleast got to 22%. It might just be me but it is going to be hard to get used to its bass line, very weird rhythm. War pigs is great either way. I think I played the bass more since I absolutely love the bass in almost every Sabbath song and because most wanted to play lead. Bass isn't really easy, but it isn't hard, nothing like YYZ. The lead guitar in War Pigs is great and the length of the solo can catch you off guard, since it is like a shorter Freebird(I failed the first time -_-).

YYZ's bass is brutal, because the main riff repeats so many times and the solos are scale-filled. The lead guitar while still hard because of the main riff, is easeir to me becasue I'd rather have a You Really Got Me solo and fast rhythm then the bass's constant melody and solos. Who Was In My Room's main riff killed my wrsits, even though the main riff isn't hard and songs like Psycho and YYZ didn't do anything to my hands. YRGM is a good song, like a watered down BatM, and the solo is great to fiddle with on Practice. Strutter is nice since it is so fun to try out the new HOs/POs on its trills. Also, Madhouse's main riff is kind of meh but the solo is FREAKING AMAZING, I wsh it wasn't so short.

Practice mode is great, since you can use it to play bass if you're the only one playing. You can also for example, if you want to play all the first parts of the first solo on YRGM, you just select the beginning, and drag it down to the last one, so you don't have to play just one section. I don't remember muhc of the STP song, since I never payed the lead and only played it two days ago. One last thing, John the Fisherman is a disappointment if you're looking for solos, as it only has about 2 second solos for guitar and bass. Excuse my spelling errors, since there are bound to be some in a post of this size.

Some Good GHII Vids:
Strutter 100%:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TfyjlbEF2h0
Shout At the Devil 100%:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yoe1Ro3n8wY
Psychobilly Freakout Computer Hack 100%:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6gV7fdHUIlI

Hmph.  The Best Buy nearest me didn't have the GH2 demo up, but they did have the full version of GH1 available for play -- with all the songs unlocked.  Thought I might've tried some crowd-dazzling today by giving the onlookers my best performance of Crossroads Expert, but..... the lousy guitar they had on display was freaken busted.  The strum bar felt sticky and stuck, and the timing was completely off.  Needless to say, I failed the song in seven seconds flat. 

I was so charged and rearin' to go that when it happened, I accidentally shouted a rather unsavory expletive out loud.   Which really wasn't cool, because there were some young children with their parents present.  I stopped short of hurling the guitar on the ground, and just walked off, steaming. 

By then, I had gotten to the HDTVs, which was the real purpose of my visit.  I cooled off at that point.

XD, I hear the lag on LCD screens is bad. Though, you shouldn't be surprised if the guitar is beaten to hell since there almost is in every area someone who like me, mooches off Best Buy and plays GH for 2+ hours almost everyday.

You know, the more I read this, the more I want to have seen it in person. LOL.

That just sounds like the exact same reason no one wants to go to arcades anymore...I've almost seen people come to blows with the operators when a button goes out or (especially) one of the directional panels in DDR.

One thing I wonder about GH: Why are they doing covers of the songs, instead of the originals? Licensing? Save money? I just thought it was strange that games like DDR use the artist originals and GH doesn't, even with the big to-do about licensing.

Cherry Pie, Bad Reputation, and Sweet Child 'O Mine.

Name three of your current kickass favorite songs from GH2.

Hangar 18 - Megadeth
The Light that Blinds - Shadows Fall
Jordan - Buckethead

A lot of the normal songs that you have to play through bore the hell out of me. I'm pretty disappointed in how many of these tunes I don't enjoy.

I wrote a GF review based on my career mode experience, and I gave it a 7/10. Potential blasphemy, I know, especially considering how hyped I was for this game earlier this year, but there are just too many songs in here that drag on and suck the fun out of going through career mode.

http://www.gamefaqs.com/console/ps2/review/R107099.html

Actually, I agree with your review.  I think a lot of it has to do with chord structure and, yes, song length.  Chords don't feel nearly as fresh or well put together as the last game's, with sections that are largely uninspired which tends to repeat over and over.  (I too was craving for more complex fret-burner tracks like Bark At The Moon and Texas Flood.)  Add to that the exhaustingly LONG lengths of the songs themselves, and that's where the boring element kicks in.  It wasn't a good sign when I found myself literally nodding off during "Killing In The Name." As such, I can now only muster two or three songs in one sitting.

Still, there's a decent handful of awesome tracks that makes it worthwhile.  I found myself enjoying the shop-unlockable songs as well, like Jordan, Six, Gemini, and Soy Bomb.  I've yet to get up to Hangar 18, though.  Can't wait!

Angela: completely agreed, which means I agree with myself.

But, "Six"! OMG! That song kicked my ass on Hard, and I only made if 4% through on Expert... and I consider myself to be an above-average GH player. I love it.

Fall of Pangea
Fall of Pangea
Fall of Pangea

I guess both of you hated Freya. I absolutely love the game and the long songs keep you on your toes when you're having trouble with them(Laid To Rest got me dancing because I was trying to keep up). There are a lot of complex songs like Institutionalized, Carry Me Home, Psychobilly Freakout, and Crazy On You. There is a heckuva lot more variety in genres and some even get extreme treatment(rockability and heavy metal for example). Also, something we all know, the bonus songs are in a league of their own. Zane, have you played Elephant Bones? I strongly suggest you do if you haven't.

The variety in guitar style gets me thinking back to Guitar Freaks, especially with the likes of Jordan and The Light That Blinds.  (Hypnotica and Classic Party, anyone?)  I sure wish Freaks made it out over here; I'm itching to have a go at those minute-thirty pick-up-and-play songs again.

Hero's new Training mode is invaluable, but seriously...... why can't we play single player bass outside of Training?  Or, at least have a volume adjuster to tweak that loud output?

Whoever programmed the Jordan solos on Expert needs to get bent.

Damn, can you record a video of that and upload it to YouTube or something for me?  I have two friends who are absolutely enraptured by Clapton (he was in concert here three weeks ago) and they beat themselves up trying to do Crossroads on expert.  They would die to see a video of you do this. 

I think you did just answer your own question.  To license all the originals of those song would cost a heck of alot of money.  Far too much for Red Octane to afford, I think.

I think this might be the reason the there are no Metallica songs present for the second time in a row now.  I don't know what you guys think, but I think that some classic Metallica tunes would fit nicely, even if they aren't the most complex compositions around.

If you just want a video with a good score then this should satisfy you:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b6gp45d19H0

If you want it without any screwups(it's on Hard though):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I_SF-CLfNdU

Also, something that shows the person playing it:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dCJnSQ4o60U

Sometimes they can't get songs because the bands just don't want them in the game(*coughZeppelincough*).