I'm finally level 10! Now I can post videos! So for all those who have not seen it for any reason, please find my take (on real guitar) to the fast solo from One. I'll probably work on the GH3 solo over the weekend and post a comparative video during the week.

[video=KiFiwzWo5bwMujbe]

I played most of the GH3 DLC last night, including the stuff from the compilation pack. For anyone who doesn't know, the code you get can be "redeemed" in the Live Marketplace by going to "Redeem Code." For some reason I thought it was only for MS point cards or something.

Putting Holes in Happiness: puts holes in my happiness. I was really tired but I just couldn't seem to really pass the first 7% of the song. That Nick Zinner stuff is crazy on the fingers.

Carcinogen Crush: Fun to play, I guess. I think it's a cool song too. Mostly really crazy 3-note chords and rhythms.

Tina: Something you'd find in the 1st 5 tiers. Really run of the mill easy stuff.

Slither: Will be a little tough to 5-star for me due to the 2-note chords that fill the verses but it's really repetitive. The solo is the usual "all over the place" Slash soloing and is fun to play. If you liked the song (or the GH3 TV commercial), I think you would like playing this.

She Builds Quick Machines: I can't really remember at this time. I'm pretty sure I had a good time playing it but i'll have to get a 2nd look at it.

I didn't get to play Messages as I had another appointment to attend to at 2:30am.

I'm trying to 5-star Raining Blood, but hitting those SP phrases and keeping my multiplier up are my roadblocks. Off to practice mode!

I saw that Cult of Personality was on the GH3 Companion Pack last night and wanted to own the 2007 version of one of my favorite songs of all time. I also noticed that Best Buy was selling the CD for $9.99. I hustled on down to the Best Buy near my job and to my chagrin, saw the price of the CD at $13.99. I rang it up at the register just to be sure, then argued that the price last night was $9.99. They matched the price and I walked away with a great deal!

Upon listening to the CD, I enjoy hearing the complete versions of some of the songs I don't normally get to hear due to messing up or playing at low volumes. Songs like Kool Thing, 3's and 7's and Prayer of the Refugee increased the general worth of the disc. Cult of Personality sounds great, and hearing the whole solo sounds much less like a grating sound (refer to Trigames.NET podcast 69).

I was surprised by Putting Holes in Happiness (Nick Zimmer remix). I'm a little anxious to play this in GH3 when I get home, as there are just crazy solos mixed in with what seems to be complete silence from the guitar end. I think it would be fun to play. Tina (by Flyleaf) is a standard alt rock chord fest that probably will be marginally fun to play. The Devil Went Down to Georgia seems like it would be an insane song to play solo and I'm now really looking forward to beating Raining Blood so that I can challenge Lou at this song. Judging by Miss Murder, I would guess that AFI's Carcinogen Crush is just your standard Rock stuff. Since the song isn't out yet, it's anybody's guess.

If you can find this disc for $10 or less, I'd say get it. Pay any more and you'd be wishing you hadn't.

Don't play it at 3AM.

First try this afternoon was a 5-star, excellent performance. Time to tackle Raining Blood and friends.

Went to Nintendo World today. Snagged Manaphy using Mystery Gift. Bred it with Ditto to make Phione. End of story.

The real meat of this post is that I played a bit of Super Mario Galaxy at Nintendo World. The game feels pretty darn good! Running around spherical objects while watching from a static camera angle is just as disorienting as you would think but the camera can be repositioned to make things a bit easier. I ran around and caught some stars dressed as little bunny creatures with ease and followed them to their "Mama." She gave me the ability to spin (waggle the remote) and sent me on a quest to get stars and stuff. I think. I then got a Grand Star from inside a hollow sphere by stepping on a bunch of switches.

I like the premise of the game. You run around the outsides and insides of spheres to accomplish goals (so far). You can spin into enemies to stun them then literally kick them off the planets, into Oblivion. The controls feel great and natural. I just picked it up and played. The game was on a flat panel TV but it looked grainy - probably because it was running in 480i. I hope 480p doesn't look the way it did.

Speaking of controls, this Wii Remote Jacket thing is a complete part of Nintendo's M.O. They're on every remote in the store, they're on every ad showing a remote, and now they're in every official Nintendo game (I bet it's a standard for third party developers, too). What I mean by this is, every graphic that shows a Wii Remote in Mario Galaxy tutorials includes the jacket. It's a bit unsettling, but I'm sure not many will really complain about it.

As a final note, the jacket doesn't feel too bad. It's certainly not intrusive on gameplay. I might actually cash in on the two for my remotes if it's not too late.

I can't get through this song! The first time I played it I almost got through the solo without using star power. Now, I can't manage to pass the middle of the 2nd portion of the solo.

I honestly think it's because I have had a busy week so far. I got my cats "fixed" today after a long co-op frenzy with Slunks that resulted in 2hrs of sleep. I played through from the start to Cult of Personality on Sunday night. Tonight, I think I may rest, but I will be heading to Nintendo World tomorrow to snag Manaphy.

Basically, I've been trying to pass Cult at obscene times of the night and I'm just not focused enough. I think. What's crazy about this is that once I finish this song, Raining Blood and Cliffs of Dover would be my next main challenges, as Number of the Beast and One are songs that I know and can play well. Could Cult of Personality be the toughest song for me, after TTFAF (which is ridonkulous, I might add)?

I failed "Before I Forget" at 97%. Got an achievement for it... (Fail a song past 90% completion - 5G)

That song is serious.

EDIT: OMG This is a secret achievement!

So, I stood on line for about 40 mins last night at the Best Buy in Westbury to purchase my Guitar Hero 3 for 360 (a la guitar). My co-worker was trashed and made small talk to everybody on the line, making everyone laugh with his fits of drunken stupidity. He claims that he made our line experience much better, and I will concur. It was pretty cold out and the employees were only letting 10 people in at a time, so the alcoholic antics helped pass the time away.

There was a rumor going around that there were only 24 Xbox 360 versions in the store, which made me antsy for about .001 second. I knew that Best Buy, of all places, would have massive stock. This isn't Gamestop, you know.

Upon entering the store, I witnessed the massive amounts of retail copies for each console and rejoiced as I snagged my huge box from the display. Store reps were bugging me about buying faceplates and other useless stuff; I kindly declined. After a speedy checkout and dragging my drunk co-worker out of the store (he was chatting with the cashier who wasn't happy to be working at this midnight launch), I sped along to play the highly-anticipated sequel to the rhythm game we all know and love.

I played some co-op and battle mode with my co-worker and his friends from about 1AM to 3:30AM. I got home around 4AM and did not lay in my bed until 7AM. I was up to the Euro Tour setlist (Black Sabbath, Sex Pistols, Sonic Youth, Weezer).

I woke up at 10:30AM, tossed and turned until about 11:30AM then washed my hair (very necessary...). At 12:50PM, I continued playing. I finished playing before going to work, ending after the Slash boss battle and rocking out to Welcome to the Jungle.

I'm greatly enjoying this game, although I am breezing through most of it. It's not overly difficult yet (on Expert) and I had the most trouble battling Tom Morello and Slash.

Word to the wise 1: DO NOT MISS BATTLE POWER!

I played Tom Morello until the very end of the song and I watched in surprise as he owned me through Death Drain.

Word to the wise 2: YOU MUST EMPTY THE ROCK METER!

Yeah. In other news. I really like this new wireless guitar. The buttons feel great. The strum bar is quieter and lacks the recoil that the original guitar had, resulting in fewer interrupted held notes. I don't like how sensitive the tilt function is, though. I have to hold the neck pretty much at a horizontal lest I activate star and battle power too early. Other than that, it's all gravy.

All that I see, absolute horror!

If you don't know what these lyrics refer to, they are to the Metallica epic, "One." As any Guitar Hero fan should know by now, it is playable in the soon-to-be-released Guitar Hero 3 in the final set. Yesterday, MrCHUP0N told me that there was a youTube of the game's version of the song in action. I refused to see it, as this is one of my most favorite songs EVAR. I wanted to experience the mania that is the end of the song for the first time, first hand. I then hearkened back to my earlier days as a guitar neophyte, studying the ways of the Cobain and the Hammett, remembering that I used to play this entire song (along with the entire album "...And Justice For All" in one sitting) pretty well. It was a long 10 years ago, and I could still remember the notes on the guitar. I said to Sir Chuparito, "I will play the thrash solo to show the (Gamespot) world how it looks on a real guitar!"

And alas on this day, the 26th of October, I awakened to shower, brush up and record the thrash solo to Metallica's "One." I didn't have much time to spend on it, so it's not perfect. But...

Enjoy!

If you would like to hear how good (i.e. crappy) I sound directly compared to Master Hammett, you may find a stereo version of the solo here. Yes, I am on the left.

My new personal best: 60% complete (failed).

Spent a lot of time on it Friday night alternating with MrCHUP0N (he finished it once). I feel like it's a completely random chance that I will hit the notes necessary to keep alive through solos B and C. I'm still working on trying to learn how it works.

Purchased Oblivion on Friday night, too. I said to myself that I wouldn't buy it because I have way too many games to play, but I couldn't resist when I found a co-worker's status as online and playing it. I played for about 2 hours and made egress through the prison and sewers, then found the Priory. I made a Breton Battlemage and I'm thinking about just trying to complete the main story before fooling around and really getting into the nooks and crannies of Oblivion. I played Morrowind by just fooling around all the time and I didn't get anywhere in it, so I felt that I needed a change.

To Edubuccaneer: apologies for not being available last night! We (MrC and I) went to Six Flags Great Adventure and following that, my girlfriend wanted to go out. You know how that goes...

is my new inspiration. Although I'll NEVER be able to play like him (I can't devote that much time to practice) I will gladly absorb myself in his robotic phrases and wacky cross-string, multiple finger tapping guitar acrobatics, which I will now dub guitaristics.

Buckethead's guitaristics (and the acquisition of Jordan on my Zune) have caused me to want to do what all Guitar Hero junkies aspire to do: finish Jordan. I'm going to "hopefully" put in enough practice on the supercaliguitaristicexpealidocius solo portion of the song such that I can get a screenshot up by the time GH3 releases. I'm currently up against Zaps in the Guitar Hero League Union for the Rocks the 80s semi-final so you know I have already lost. I will put up a valiant effort, but I'm not expecting any miracles.