New.Year's.Gig

I got myself Guitar Hero III during the last Christmas eve. I didn't thought I would get it since I had never paid attention to its previous releases. But it was on my company's family day that I tried it out and found that it was quite interesting.

For most games, I can just pop the disc in and play it for a few days before I can be good at it but for Guitar Hero III, it is truly a beast for me. On my first attempt, I skipped the tutorial and went straight into playing a song. When those large 'smarties' (colored notes - but they look like chocolates to me) came at me at 100 Km/h, I can't even play a single verse correctly.

That's when I told myself to go back to the basics - better yet, RTFM first! After studying the mechanics of the guitar and knowing what is "Star Power" and the "Whammy Bar", I went through the tutorial to understand what am I up against. After a few practice sessions, I could finally play a song. *Yippeee*

I started with the easiest mode, playing with 3 fingers and slowly completing each section of the songs list and then carefully 5-staring them. After completing easy, I went on to medium which now requires me to play with 4 fingers. That's when I discovered that my pinky finger is dead, retarded, whatchamacallit!

I can never get it to hit the blue button (4th fret). I was so frustrated, I even had regretful thoughts of getting the game. Thanks to my gamer friend, DreamyGhost, he has been very supportive in encouraging me to continue practising. On New's Year eve, I'm able to "Rock'n Roll All Nite" with him. Now that my pinky is 80-90% responsive, I'm starting to move into the harder difficulties to get used to the orange button (5th fret).

This game had thought me a few lessons. It has shown me how a presumably simple game like this can be so challenging. If not for this game, I wouldn't have discovered that my pinky finger was so weak (now it has better purpose than Liu-Pei-Si). The most important part is that it is teaching me to have patience in learning something and that somethings in life, no amount of reading or you-tubing would help in getting better at it other than practice, practice, practice!

I'm also seeing a greater 'enlightenment' from the game but I can only confirm it if I'm able to play the harder difficulties in the days to come.

So here I am now, "Rocking Like a Hurricane" (on medium of course!)