Gamasutra - Consumers Claim Peripheral Problems With Guitar Hero: World Tour

Just a day after Guitar Hero: World Tour's long-awaited launch, Activision's official support boards for the game are lighting up with posts from many consumers claiming problems with their instrument peripherals.

Most issues appear to hinge on the game's drum kit, with complaints ranging from poor sensitivity of the drum pads to issues with the accompanying kick pedal. Users are also reporting problems with the wireless guitar -- consumer site Shacknews reports, for example, that some of its users say the downward strum stops responding after a few hours of play.

As the complaints seem to be evenly distributed across all of the platforms on which Guitar Hero: World Tour appears, Activision has set up dedicated threads offering customer support for problems by platform. The posts advise users to check batteries and connections, and redirects them to RedOctane's warranty site or Activision's customer support homepage if those solutions don't work.

Notably, although cross-compatibility was promised between Guitar Hero peripherals and Rock Band 2 software, many forum users are reporting that Guitar Hero's drum kit does not work with the PlayStation 3 version of Rock Band 2. The Xbox 360 version appears to have no such compatibility issues.

It remains unclear, however, from the forum usage just how widespread these issues are -- after all, a fervent poster of a petition demanding that RedOctane "take free returns, take an extra month or two to fix this crap, and send it back to us so we can enjoy the game we've all been waiting for" goes on to admit that he hasn't yet actually purchased the game.

Comments

Stephen Panagiotis

27 Oct 2008 at 2:10 pm PST

Oh I how I love the new wireless guitar (I never thought the GH3 one could be topped). Very responsive and worked flawlessly out of the box -- I was surprised as how little force the star power tilt needed. But the touch pad is over sensitive, you can hold a finger about a milimeter or two off the pad and it still registers a hit. Annoying when multiple fingers are trying to tap.

The drum kit also worked remotely good, my friend seemed to have 'a lot' of trouble with the red pad as it seemed to never register when he hit it but that never happened for me. (Strange since hes better at it then me) but after a few hours of playing the problem seemed to disappear.

Not saying there arn't any problems but the drum kit seems to needs a good few hours break in period if the pads dont respond correctly right out of the box.

...But I would love them to do an update and change the way they display the song lists. The original way and rock bands way (solo and world tour) are so much more friendly to the eyes.

Drew Sikora

28 Oct 2008 at 9:21 am PST

I had the same problem with the drum kit as well - the red pad would not register unless you smacked the hell out of it. I thought it was just cause I'm not a lefty and so wasn't striking it with enough force using my non-dominant hand/arm. But then I tried a soft roll on it and it didn't respond but the others did. So I exchanged the kit (a key on my guitar was sticky too) and now the red pad is fine, but I think the green pad is starting to become a bit insensitive. I guess that tuning program is really needed.

Other than that - awesome. I love tapping out the bass on the touch pad, entire songs, no less.