Fellow virtual guitar enthusiasts, can I get an Amen? I can't be alone on this one.
The Outlaws' "Green Grass and High Tides" track in "Rock Band" is My Enemy This Week, an enemy that I don't ever expect to defeat. It's not worth the effort to try.
I've never cared for Xbox 360 Achievements before "Rock Band." But "Rock Band" was going to present the first case of my gamerscore showing 1,000/1,000 points unlocked. Or so I thought. I tried drums and that dream quickly died. Still, I thought, I can blow through guitar on expert and feel like a champ.
Unfortunately, I'm not good enough for The Outlaws. "Green Grass and High Tides" is nearly 10 minutes long -- nine minutes and 49 seconds, to be exact -- and features two monstrous guitar solos in that time.
Unlike multiplayer, there are no "retries" if you fail playing solo. "Green Grass and High Tides" has made me fail -- a lot. One person can only take getting six or seven minutes into a song before completely blowing it on a solo so many times.
What's frustrating is that no other song has given me nearly as much of a problem. Everything in the final tier has been bested except for this last hurdle. There are no strategies to the song. It comes down to nothing but sheer practice. Maybe that explains why I've tried to pick up real guitar twice and failed miserably.
I've feared Green Grass and High Tides before it became merely an achievement obstacle, too. At 1UP.com, I was lead guitarist for our in-house band "Beard Rock." Harmonix sponsored a publication vs. publication contest and we were destroying the competition. We made it to the finals. Then, came "Green Grass and High Tides." I was forced to bump down to medium, just to ensure I didn't fail.
We ended up losing by a few thousand points. The memory still haunts me.
But I digress. Anyone else out there going to be forever denied the "Lord of the Strings" achievement?
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