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Who Are You?

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Well, my name is Matt, and I'm a recovering GHaholic. I'm currently in my Junior year of High School. I've been playing rhythm games since about October of 2007. I've been playing since I learned that to play the notes, you actually have to strum. Since then, I've progressed through all four difficulties, FC'd a bunch of songs, and passed some crazy stuff I'd never even dreamed of. I also moved on to GH3 in December '07 when I received it as a Christmas gift, and Rock Band 2 pretty close to release day in September '08. ¯\(°_o)/¯

So what do I like to do?

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I've got a lot of interests and hobbies and other things I do in my spare time.

Gaming

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I love video games (other than Guitar Hero). I'm currently in possession of four major systems. I still remember my first system; a teal Game Boy Color, complete with Pokemon Blue game, as a late Christmas gift on 1/1/00. Since then, my collection has grown tons. My latest and favorite system is my Xbox 360. I think it's amazing and I love everything about it, from XBL, to Gamerscore, to the awesome game library and graphics, to the superior version of GH3. And it's just damn sexy to look at. After that, I've got my PS2, which is a very close second, and I still play games on it every now and then. I also still have GH2 on my PS2. Last, but not least, is my Wii. I only own three games for it; Brawl, TP, and Wii Sports. I also have a DS, and a bunch of games for it, some of which I really haven't touched since I got them due to GH. In the past, I had a fat DS, a GBA original, and a Gamecube, but these all broke or got traded in. I also have an N64 but it lacks cables.

As for the games I like to play, I'll really play anything. Shooting, puzzle, platforming, adventure, RPG, rhythm (of course), you name it I'll probably give it a shot. My favorite series are Roller Coaster Tycoon, Guitar Hero, Pokemon, Zelda, Mario, and Ratchet & Clank. I also liked Portal and Chip's Challenge, because I'm a sucker for challenging and fun puzzle games. Apparently, I'm also a huge sucker for rhythm games played with fake, plastic guitar controllers, but that's another story.

I own way too many games for my own damn good and you can see all 80+ games, as well as what I'm playing, on Gamespot.

Coasters

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I'm a huge coaster enthusiast. Anything to do with them, I'm in on. Name a coaster somewhere in the New England area or New Jersey/Florida and I've probably done it. To date, I've been on over 30 coasters, which isn't really that much, but I don't have a lot of means of transportation, not having a license or a car or anything. For years now, I've wanted to visit Cedar Point, for instance. Sadly, Sandusky, Ohio is about a 12 hour drive non-stop from my driveway to the front gate, so yeah, it's pretty damn impossible to get there.

That said, I've managed to go on on some pretty awesome rides. El Toro and Superman: Ride of Steel are amazing rides. Everything about them is fantastic. They're smooth, fast, loaded with airtime, and never let up before the end. Then there are the coasters like Medusa and Batman: The Ride which are pretty awesome but fall short of amazing. And then there are things like...Rolling Thunder. Dear God, I hate Rolling Thunder with a burning passion. The wood from that crapfest could easily warm me for four or five cold Alaskan winters, and I don't even live in Alaska.

Oh, and my top five coasters right now are: Superman: Ride of Steel, El Toro, Kingda Ka, Medusa, and Superman: Ultimate Flight. If you actually recognize the names of any of those, well, you get a cookie.

Music

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I'll generally give anything a listen to that isn't some form of pop, rap/hip-hop, country, or by some band I really hate with a passion. I don't tend to listen to a ton of music, and I only have around 100 songs on my iPod. But what little I have keeps me happy. I'm mainly into hard rock, speed metal, heavy metal, and a bit of thrash metal here and there (things like Ride the Lightning or All Nightmare Long, by Metallica). I don't generally stay away from things because of what people think of them, how overplayed they are, or how mainstream they are, but at the same time, mainstream songs definitely have a trend of sounding like crap. Crank Dat got a Grammy Award, nuff said. Also, I don't really care a lot for music with roaring or barking vocals. I can stand a bit of screaming here and there (and even sometimes like it), and falsettos/gutterals, but I really think barking and roaring/growling just sound like crap. Clean vocals are better and sound nicer in every way (and in my opinion, it takes a lot more talent).

You can see a few of my favorite bands and a song or three by them that I really like. It's subject to change at any given moment (and it often does), although it really hasn't lately because I haven't listened to a lot of new songs. Guns N' Roses will always stay at number one, though. I love Slash's guitar, Axl Rose's vocals (even though he's a giant douche bag), and everything about most of their songs I've heard. My favorite album of all time is definitely Appetite for Destruction, and because of how lethargic I am about my music listening, it's really the only album I've listened to more than two or three songs off of. I even bought a hard copy of the CD, something I never do, because I love digital music so much. So yeah, this album = <3.

My Guitar Hero Stuffs

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How the hell did I get started? Well, for one thing, I NEVER imagined being where I am today. I started playing this game in October 2007, and, as I mentioned, I was pretty awful at it. I couldn't play an Easy song without missing several times. Over time, I gradually got better, progressing to Medium, which wasn't a huge jump in itself. Then, I hit the giant wall known as Hard. God that orange fret was awful. And the faster fretboard? Hell no. I sucked royally at first. Didn't really fail anything, but I was horrible. Some time around the end of the Hard career, I started Expert. The minute I pushed that green button and started my Expert career was the day my life changed forever.

Fast forward roughly a year. It's 2008. I'm still playing. I've joined ScoreHero since about December of 2007. I've completely 5 starred the Expert career and passed every song on Guitar Hero 2. I've almost done the same to Guitar Hero 3. I've got multiple GH3 FCs under my belt. Hell, I've passed and 5 starred Jordan, which is quite possibly one of the hardest songs in the series, and I'm even thinking of FCing it. Talk about a long way to come from not even being able to strum and fret at the same time.

My Instruments

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• 360 Gibson Les Paul
• PS2 Gibson SG
• 360 Gibson X-Plorer

Used to be a HUGE LP fan. That is, until I started playing with the X-P. My, is this God's greatest gift, EVER!

My Characters

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• Guitar Hero 2: Axel Steel
• Guitar Hero 3: Casey Lynch
• Rock Band 2: Matt

Favorite Songs to Play

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• Green Grass and High Tides
• Wanted Dead or Alive
• The Devil Went Down to Georgia
• We Three Kings
• Alive
• Thrasher
• Won't Get Fooled Again
• Slash Guitar Battle

How Do I Play?

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• Primarily Expert, normal (righty) flip.
• Hyperspeed 4, Hyperspeed 2 in PFO, Breakneck Speed in RB2.
• I use four fingers.
• No default position. I spend a lot of time in second, but it's certainly not default. I also slide a lot, and don't generally stick to one position or the other.
• No tapping, whenever possible. The only thing I tap right now is They're Hammer Ons in TTFAF (and badly at that).

Achievements and FCs and all that good stuff

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I moved all my achievements and things to a thread on SH you can find here.