Reader DarthMetalHope was scanning boards in advance of picking up Guitar Hero: World Tour today, and notices that for those who already have it, some are seeing sensitivity/operability problems with the drum kit. Enough that it's raising a big stink, and Activision has noticed.One PS3 gamer on IGN's boards says:
I went and started the drum trainer just to get a feel for the drums. I noticed right off the bat that the red pad only registered that I was hitting it softly even when I hit it hard. So when I got to the trainer about hitting certain accent notes harder I failed out every time, even if I hit the pad with all my might.
And a 360 player:
"Just picked up the full band version for 360, at first there was a problem with the pads registering, and the red pad just completely died a minute ago... Out of the box less than 3 hours..."
Activision has noticed the chatter and put up a sticky on its Guitar Hero boards directing perturbed gamers to customer support, and step-by-step advises them to make sure the instruments have batteries, are powered on and bound, that cables are completely attached and that the drum pedal is on a flat surface. It also suggests swapping your cymbals, if one doesn't register, to see if it's the cymbal pad or the kit overall. It ends with information on how to get a warranty replacement from Red Octane, and that's not a good sign. Haven't seen much complaint with the other peripherals although one left-handed reader wrote to say that downstrum on the guitar seems to be an issue with his and a friend's set. Instrument interchangeability has me strongly leaning toward buying this kit. Let's hope this is either overblown or there's a good explanation for all this in the works. Update: Reader Steven C. relates similar problems with the Wii version. He says his drumpads wouldn't register hits in freestyle mode, which shows you how hard you strike them. He has returned three sets in all. On the last one, one of the pads would set off other pads, sometimes turning on star power (which is supposed to come on when you crash both cymbals.) "Compressed version. Game is very fun, drums are buggy enough to negatively affect gameplay," says Steven. Update II: Seems there are compatibility problems when using World Tour instruments on the PS3 version of Rock Band 2. See thread started here Drum Topic on Guitar Hero Official Forums Guitar Hero Customer Support Drum Topic on IGN Boards (also here)