I received the shipment of Guitar Hero 2 yesterday roughly at Noon. I didn't disconnect the controller until 9:00PM (give or take 30 minutes). I took maybe a 1-2 hour break if you combined the couple of minutes in between songs. In total I'd say I spent a good 6-7 hours playing and I'm greatly feeling the effects of it.
Here's a basic injury rundown:
- Left forearm is tight. Muscles got a workout but the tendons received a beating. This was the most agonizing injury as it made sleep impossible until the waves of pain subsided.
- Left hand tendon tension focused at the second knuckle from the base (forgive not giving the technical term). This is a direct result of pressing and releasing the keys. A good indicator of the problem is that it hurts to make an O.K. symbol with my hand.
- Right hand thumb blister. The strum key caused the worst blister so far and there's no easy way to prevent it. I tried just flicking the key, using my whole hand, or gripping it in different ways. If I could only somehow use a guitar pick, it wouldn't be so bad on my fleshy digits.
- Various calluses on my left hand. These are due to the keys and me holding the controller in various positions.
- Super callous on my left middle finger. I've had calluses from straight guitar playing and this beats all of them combined. After cutting into my thumb blister to reveal the inner damage (and to pop what was basically dead skin), I can only imagine what a beating it took.
Needless to say, I'll be taking a major breather from the game for a while. I could say it's fun and addicting but I think my injuries speak for me there. I knew I had minor pains while playing but it wasn't until I could actually quit for a while that everything caught up to me. If I could only devote a fraction of that eagerness to my guitar, I might not be so mediocre. I will say one thing though, regardless of whether or not the game improves my actual playing ability it has given me an appreciation for playing that wasn't always there.
As of now, I've started one song on the hard difficulty level and I'll probably be there for a while. The game does a good job of progressing in difficulty and speed so that once you've mastered the easy level; medium isn't that much of a stretch. I made the mistake of putting a song on medium the very first time I played on my friends PS2 and I couldn't come close to finishing it. Now? I feel like a demi-god when I can thrash "Killing in the Name" or "Dead" on medium and I've yet to even touch Expert mode.
Anyway the game is great and possibly one of my best purchases for the 360. Even though it seems short and you're essentially playing the same songs all the time, it'll be very hard for me to put it down. I'm thinking about taking a limited play session when I get home, hopefully my injuries won't mind a slight discomfort. Here's hoping I'm not going to be stupid and spend another 6+ hours on it.