Accidental Guitar Hero

[[image:jd_110408_guitarhero01.jpg::right:0]]So, apparently, I now own Guitar Hero World Tour. Well, not own so much as have it in my room. My roommate got back from Las Vegas with it, and whatever your thoughts on the Activision/Harmonix issue, you’d have to admit there are worse things to come back with after being in Vegas.

I never really had any concept of owning it, and my girlfriend already had Rock Band 2, so wasn’t necessarily keeping up with it. I sort of aligned myself on the Rock Band side of things, not least of all because I was able to create a 1:1 version of myself using the character creator. We got the Wii version, which perhaps isn’t the ideal platform for these sorts of games, but whatever.

First impressions: the yellow cymbal doesn’t work. More to come later, I suppose.

5 thoughts on “Accidental Guitar Hero”

  1. If your cymbals (or any other drum pad) doesn’t work or is not sensitive enough follow these instructions:

    Go to this link on Activision’s website to download the tuning kit software:

    http://tinyurl.com/Tuning-Kit

    The link to download the program is at the bottom of the page The user instructions are in a PDF file at the bottom of the same page.

    You will need a “MIDI USB cable” to connect your drum kit to your computer. The following are directions on how to obtain that cable from Activision free of charge.

    Contact Activision in one of two ways to open a request.

    You can send them a message via their support site (it’s the same link as the one provided above for the software). They will reply with an e-mail (within 24 hours) with the info you need to provide them (general info like name, address, place of purchase and the serial number of the drum set). You need to click the link in the e-mail and provide the requested information within 96 hours. They will then send the request to Red Octane who will send the cable free of charge.

    You can also contact them via phone to request the cable.

    Here’s how to get through Activision’s convoluted phone tree and speak to a real human:

    1. Call 310-255-2050 (this is a long distance call…ask your parents) between 9am – 5pm PST.

    2. Press “4.”

    3. Say “Guitar Hero.” It may or may not ask you if you are calling about “World Tour.” Say “Yes.”

    4. Say “Wii.”

    5. Press “2” or whatever the option is for “Something Else.”

    6. Say “Operator.”

    You will then be on hold for 10-20 minutes (again, this is a long distance toll call). There will be no hold music. You’ll hear the “all representatives are busy” message every 2 minutes or so.

    After you get a person, the representative will ask you to describe the problem. They will then send you the e-mail requesting the information (same e-mail as the one described above). Provide the information requested in the e-mail as described above.

    FYI – it took 6 days from my initial phone request to the actual FedEx delivery of the cable.

    Hope this helps.

  2. Reports of issues with the World Tour drum kit help to ease the envy that I feel over the fact that I have no fake cymbals for my fake drums.

  4. Regardless of my opinion on the games themselves, I will admit that the Guitar Hero drums (am I the only one that thinks there’s something wrong with that statement?) are very nice…y’know, if they work, which right now seems as likely as a launch 360 working.

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