At the start of 2010, I got into an argument with my mother. She started threatening me, so I basically got all my stuff together and got my dad to pick me up the next morning. I moved back to Melbourne right before the start of the school year (I think literally two days before it started, so I enrolled as quickly as I could, but I didn't have anything like all of my schoolbooks and stuff). It felt like home again, being back in Melbourne. I quickly made quite a few friends, but unlike my old school in Kaniva, there were as many obnoxious and narcissistic students as there were funny and entertaining people. You just couldn't win.

But I started hanging out with this kid named Josh. I noticed that he was in all of my classes except one, and I believe it was my English class. He wasn't a nerd by anyone's standards, but I don't think I've seen anyone be more dedicated to their grades. He basically knew what marks he was after and he kept trying to achieve them. And when we worked together to do stuff (which we often did) my marks improved as well. Some of the assignments that were for two people, we'd do them together, and we'd absolutely ace them. Half of the time, we'd get 100% on them. We'd put so much effort into them, far more than was expected of Year 10 students, according to my teachers.

We were like two peas in a pod, Josh and I were. It wouldn't be long before I started going to his house. I met his parents (well, actually, his father and stepmother) who were just awesome. She was from Michigan, I think, so she had that quirky Midwestern accent. Great cook, as well. The first time I stayed the night, she made these tiny little pancakes, but she didn't bother to taste them, and by the time she was done, there was a whole plate of bland-tasting pancakes. In their opinion. I wolfed those bad boys down. I thought, if this is bland, I can't wait to try some of her good stuff. And his old man was just one of the most down-to-earth people I've ever met. Geniunely funny, pretty wise, knew a lot of little things. Just the three of them were just genuinely good people.

I think it was the second time I went to his place, straight after school, I found him in his room playing a bit of Guitar Hero 5, which I'd never played before. I still had all of my PS2 Guitar Hero games. I didn't have my Xbox 360 at this time, so the only games I had played in the series were Guitar Hero 1, 2, 3 and Aerosmith. So he's there, playing on Medium, and he asks me if I want a go. Sure, I tell him. So I pick the song One Big Holiday, and I jump it up to the Expert difficulty. "Ooh, big boy," he taunts. Whatever, mate.

Then he sees me play. Now, it's not an easy thing to pick up, Guitar Hero. But if you can know how to read the chart and have relatively quick fingers, Hard shouldn't be a problem. But he's almost blown away for what really was not that difficult of a song. That green-red-orange hammer on section is quite hard, but other than that, the song was just average. Mind you, I knew the song beforehand, so I knew what to expect. But I'm missing a couple of notes here and there, and he's just about speechless. So after a 99% sightread, "Play the hardest song." And of course, I want to see what that is.

Wait, what? What did I just get myself into? Oh, just a little thing called The Spirit of Radio. To put it simply, the song starts with a wall of notes. Failed. 2% complete. Yeah. Okay. Just accept that, and move on. While I don't fail that song anymore, it remains one of the funniest things that's happened to me while I've played a Guitar Hero game. I'm just like, "Oh, this'll be a breeze" when the song was loading, and then I failed, practically straight away. I probably only managed to hit half a dozen notes before I failed the song.

It didn't take long for me to be known as the best Guitar Hero player in the school. There'd be a few guys who were all just trying to stir me up, you know. Guys who claimed they could get 100% of the notes on Through the Fire and Flames on Expert. Yeah, okay mate. You don't even play the game, you spend all your time playing Modern Warfare 2. But there was this one kid who, I think he was in Year 8. He heard about me and he said he's nearly as good as me, but he hasn't been playing for long. I saw a clip of him playing, not bad. So I went over to his house and gave him a bit of help, and he threw on the Greatest Hits game (the only time I've played that game). It was actually pretty close for the most part, except for when we played Caught in a Mosh, which I nearly doubled his score. Almost got an FC on a sightread.

In June 2010, I finally upgraded. I bought an Xbox 360. I got it for $450. The crappy thing was, the X360 S came out just  three weeks later, so I've got one of the Elite models. But for $450, I got the console, Forza Motorsport 3, Halo 3: ODST, a Guitar Hero 5 bundle, Need for Speed: Carbon, Mirror's Edge and F.E.A.R. Not bad, I think. But yeah, straight on to Guitar Hero 5. The guitar I got with it has been one of the most reliable controllers I've ever had. I've got close to (or possibly over) 1000 hours out of it. Just about everything that can go wrong has gone wrong. The Guide button sometimes doesn't work (which means the controller sometimes won't turn on). The sync button is stuck, so I can't take it with me. The design on the faceplate is a complete mess.

We've been through so much together. All the effort it's taken to complete all the hard songs like Through the Fire and Flames, Raining Blood, Fury of the Storm, Black Widow of La Porte and Sudden Death. The hours upon hours I've put into playing against people online, striving to be better than anyone I took on. The frustration of failure, the pleasure of success. I just love that controller to bits. It's my favourite controller of all time. So many memories of playing the game. It's almost a part of me, that one controller. Even the controller I got with my Warriors of Rock band bundle (basically the Guitar Hero 5 band bundle with a copy of Warriors of Rock) gets no love, that's how much I love my Guitar Hero 5 controller.

What's your favourite controller of all time and why? Let me know in the comments section below.

Contents:
Part 01 | Part 02 | Part 03 | Part 04 | Part 05 | Part 06 | Part 07 | Part 08 
Part 09 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15