We’ve all had a grand time with Guitar Hero and it’s groovy sequel, but when I had heard that the third Guitar Hero was being produced by a different company, I had to know what the original creators were up to. Rock Band then became an obsession of mine for several weeks leading up to its release (as many in Iowa City will attest). Why? While Guitar Hero was fun, the music just wasn’t really me. Sure I loved playing Franz Ferdinand on the first one, and Iggy Pop on the second, but I really only enjoyed 3-6 songs per game. The rest of the time, I simply made do, rocking out to bands I would NEVER really rock out to at all. Rock Band on the other hand, offered me a SLOUGH of bands of I not only quasi-liked, but flat out LOVE (The Hives, Yeah Yeah Yeahs, New Pornographers, Bowie, Beastie Boys, etc, etc.). So I did the reasonable thing, put down the deposit at the Gamestop, and waited ever so patiently. Then it game, and all was grand, all was great! There hasn’t been a week where at least on one night a few people have enjoyed a proper rocking. It’s already lived up to the investment, and I’m still making my way through the single player. I even started downloading more content! MO BOWIE, MORE MONEYS!

But then the guitar broke. Lame. I was scared too, until I saw that 30% of all people who bought the game at launch are dealing with the same issues. Hoorah. Thankfully, EA got me a new one in fast order (I still have to send the other one back!). I thought all was finally cool, and I could enjoy long lasting rock until last night, ever so randomly the drum pedal broke. Double Lame. Another e-mail off to EA, and another 125 dollar deposit held on my credit card. I’m just now concerned that in a year, they won’t be supporting the hardware anymore, and stuff like this will actually cost me dollars, and make me a sad panda. I realize that this stuff is going to suffer a bit from all the play it’s getting, but even still. I haven’t had the game for a month, and I’ve broken two of the components through COMPLETELY NORMAL use. It’s hard not to feel a bit fussy.