Wii-Tar Hero III Doesn't Play in Stereo

[Dr.Finger]

From the 'What the hell were they thinking department' comes word that the Wii version of Guitar Hero III plays in mono (http://www.joystiq.com/2007/11/11/wii-guitar-hero-iii-outputs-only-mono-sound/).Audiophilic owners of Guitar Hero III for the Wii have noticed that not only does the game not support Dolby Pro Logic II surround sound systems (despite that feature being advertised), but it doesn't even output sound in stereo.I know that the Wii isn't designed for hardcore audio- and video-philes, but no stereo sound? Come on Vicarious Visions (developer of the Wii version), do you think it's still 1992?

[Orphiuchus]

Wow, thats goddamn poor.

[protocol_image]

yet another thing to add that to the list of things i tease my friend about for buying the wii version :)

[Dirty Harry]

Wow thats pretty lame i gottta say.

[Sandman]

Mono? Freakin mono? I'd want my money back if I bought the Wii version and found this out.

[Esquilax1138]

For any game, let alone one completly based on music to be in mono... thats Sony-style quality stuff there!

[AbeLincoln]

Yeah I'd have to say neglecting the sound output on a music game is pretty high on list of stupid things you could do.

[axion]

Another reason I'm contemplating getting the PC version. This, and my local Futureshop hasn't seen a copy since Day 1.

[rein]

Surely they didn't do this on purpose. I hoping it was a glitch and that they will get the patch out soon. Can you patch the Wii version?

[Sandman]

Surely they didn't do this on purpose. I hoping it was a glitch and that they will get the patch out soon. Can you patch the Wii version?

That question popped in my mind as I was reading your post; can you patch a Wii game?

[ezzkmo]

Wow, that's pretty damn weak.

[UnderHero5]

Wow, that's pretty damn weak.

You mean Wii'k?

.....

I'll see myself out. :( *leaves*

[Heretic Machine]

Any Wii game coming out without Pro Logic II support, at this point, is fucking pathetic. But mono? That is unacceptable.

[Doctor Setebos]

Yikes. I'm no audiophile, but I can tell the difference between stereo and freaking MONO. Yet another reason I'm glad I didn't spend the cash on this game. The first being an entirely uninteresting tracklist. :rolleyes: That question popped in my mind as I was reading your post; can you patch a Wii game?Yes, Wii games can be patched.

[Dr.Finger]

They say that a patch is "in the works" but no timeframe for a release. It sounds more like an oversight/bug than a feature, especially since they say "Dolby Pro Logic II" on the box.

[bean19]

Wiimpy (TM)

Oh yeah, I coined a derogatory Wii-term.

[Furtive]

How exactly does a Wii game get patched?

While this does sound more like a bug than anything else, how does a bug like this slip through testing?

[divinechaos]

Wow. No downloadable content AND Mono sound? Welcome to the next generation!

[Doctor Setebos]

How exactly does a Wii game get patched?Same as any other game for any other system. The Wii does have on-board memory, you know. Not much (512MB), but it's there. While this does sound more like a bug than anything else, how does a bug like this slip through testing?This, I can't answer. :(

[Zander]

Wow, I have no words.

[Ph00p]

Wow this kinda reminds me of the interview MTV did with the Nintendo rep about the quality of the NOA seal of approval. HOW THE FUCK did this get out with fake credentials on the box? Seal of Quality? HAH seal of BS more like it!

[Headcase]

Uh Mono?? Doesn't affect me much (just TV speakers here, and even when I do use stereo I never seem to notice, guess I'm an audiophobe), but it's pretty piss-poor for a game of this day and age to not have stereo.

What's next? The Wii version of THPS10 will be in B&W?

I guess now it's obligatory to joke that not only is the Wii two GC's duct taped together, but Wii stereo is two speakers duct taped together. Or something. I fail :(

[LiquidRain]

Another reason I'm contemplating getting the PC version. This, and my local Futureshop hasn't seen a copy since Day 1.
Sound the alarm, we've found another Canadian! (or two, since Headcase is from Brampton :p ) That makes... 4 or 5 of us in the GTA? Should have a Rock Band get-together or something one day. :)

[Talanvor]

So, can we start using Wii-tarded? Ahem.

I'm really surprised that they would let this one through, yeesh. Doesn't Nintendo test the damn games too? I thought they had some QA themselves as well.

[Sandman]

Wiidiculous.

[Aero Leviathan]

Why do people keep stating Wii games can be patched as though it's fact? Where are you getting this from? AFAIK, no Wii game has been patched thus far, and Nintendo hasn't said a word that might lead one to believe it's possible.

Sure, YOU THINK it's possible with the HARDWARE. But that doesn't mean it's actually ever going to happen, ESPECIALLY when we're talking about Nintendo. (And I say this as a Nintendo fan who's turning up my nose at the other two for the duration of this generation.)

[anakin876]

Wow - WTF. Bizzaro too - what an odd thing to do. Even some of the Super Nintendo games were in stereo. This has to be a mistake of some kind - they would have to have done something very odd to the programming to get this. Perhaps in the programming suite there is a check box labeled "stereo audio" that someone forgot to check?

[Disgustipated]

Wow, fucking pathetic.

[Headcase]

Why do people keep stating Wii games can be patched as though it's fact?

And especially for the first patch to be for a third party game?

Don't hold your breath guys, or you might pass out.

Nintendo PR would argue that making patches available will encourage developers to be lazy and not provide top quality out of the box. Unless they do get patches working, in which case they'll be the best thing since sliced bread.

Come to think of it, patches are possible, if the game is developed with patching in mind. The game has internet access, and the game can make save files. Even if Nintendo does nothing it's still possible. I wouldn't count on Activision (or most companies) being so proactive about it though.

[Uniqueusername]

FYI: Many games released in 1992 had stereo sound. The Sound Blaster Pro (1991) was a popular mass market sound card that had stereo support...

[jBusy]

Come to think of it, patches are possible, if the game is developed with patching in mind. The game has internet access, and the game can make save files. Even if Nintendo does nothing it's still possible.

It's not. There are specific rules about how save files work. If you don't follow them, then you won't pass Nintendo's lot check. The only way a patch can be run on the Wii is if Nintendo allows it.

[ElfShotTheFood]

Second page and a Nintendo apologist hasn't spun this into a positive yet?

[DaXIthR]

Wiimpy (TM)

Oh yeah, I coined a derogatory Wii-term.

I'll gladly pay you Tuesday for a hamburger today. Shame on you, Vicarious Vision. Inexcusable.

[Phanto]

What about suing can someone sue Activision or the group/person that put the advertise about using Dolby Pro Logic II?

[Atepsflame]

Christ. I've only been gaming on consoles since the late 90s so I can't even remember a single game that only had mono. TEN YEARS AGO. SNAFU of the YEAR.

[ZeroOmegaZX]

Wow - WTF. Bizzaro too - what an odd thing to do. Even some of the Super Nintendo games were in stereo. This has to be a mistake of some kind - they would have to have done something very odd to the programming to get this. Perhaps in the programming suite there is a check box labeled "stereo audio" that someone forgot to check?

MANY ( actually most) Super Nintendo games were in stereo..... and had great sound/music for their day

[Headcase]

Second page and a Nintendo apologist hasn't spun this into a positive yet?

Developers should focus on actual gameplay and not on fancy shit like "volumetric effects", "high dynamic range rendering", and "stereo" to enjoy a game.

Activision realizes that Nintendo fans want better gameplay, so they focused on remote integration, guitar rumble, and a plethora of other Wii-exclusive features instead of focusing on something that only a small percentage of the public has use for anyway.

It's not. There are specific rules about how save files work. If you don't follow them, then you won't pass Nintendo's lot check. The only way a patch can be run on the Wii is if Nintendo allows it.

Wow, good to know, and kinda BS for Nintendo to care how the save files are designed, and not check for Stereo on a "Dolby" game.

What about suing can someone sue Activision or the group/person that put the advertise about using Dolby Pro Logic II?

IANAL but this seems to have "Class Action Lawsuit" written all over it.

[Sandman]

Guitar.....rumble? That's the dumbest thing I've ever heard of.

[SynapseLapse]

Wow this kinda reminds me of the interview MTV did with the Nintendo rep about the quality of the NOA seal of approval. HOW THE FUCK did this get out with fake credentials on the box? Seal of Quality? HAH seal of BS more like it!

It hasn't been the Nintendo Seal of *Quality* in years.

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/2/2a/Nintendo_Seal_of_Quality.png

Even when it was the:
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/e/ee/Official_Nintendo_Seal_of_Quality_(Original).jpg

That meant very little in terms of the quality of the gameplay. Although, back in the NES/SNES days Nintendo did a lot to try and restrict the crapware that came out on their systems by placing quotas on various publishers. Neverthless it it didn't stop Nintendo from ignoring this and letting the occasional (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shaq_Fu) garbage (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Captain_Planet_(video_game)) title (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/M.C._Kids) through.

The Nintendo seal was borne more out of assuring people that the games were guaranteed to work on their NESs as the prior generation of 2600 games had a lot hit or miss titles in terms of system compatibility.


With all that said, mono sound on a MUSIC game is ludicrous.

[Xijar]

1992 had stereo gaming. You're thinking of 1986.

Also, yet another thing to add to the "Wii is a Joke" pile. Who buys a Wii for anything made for people over 12 anyway. 360 version where it at.

[bickle]

At least they didn't pump all the music out through the wiimote speaker.

[infinati]

I'm not quite sure why people are trying to turn this into a Wii-hating thing when the dev is obviously at fault for being morons. It's not a surprise though, seeing how Guitar Hero III got messed up on the other versions as well.. No Co-op quickplay out of the box and needs a patch? What kind of moron does that? And why did they mess around with hw the player chooses songs? In GH1 and 2, you would choose the song, THEN choose the difficulty, unless you were in Career mode. GHIII, you choose difficulty and then songs. Seems to be a minor difference, but when you play with friends and pass it around the guitar and you have to do this all the time, you will understand that it is freaking annoying as it is slower overall. They seem to have just been lazy and just copied the menu flow from career mode...

On my PS2 version (moldy but still works) it saves the fact i chose widescreen for video...yet it doesn't save the progressive scan option, so each and EVERY time I want to play GHIII, I have to re-enable Progressive scan. This is beyond annoying. And I have to recalibrate the controller every single time as well... Maybe their testing department should have checked on this before they sent it off for pressing!

Overall I would say that the QA for this game is just outright poor. It seems to me once Harmonix left, they figured they could just hire whatever studio to replace them and it would be easy mode to crank out a new game. However, all these "little" problems and screw ups is proving that is not the case.

The GH franchise makes a ton of money, and yet they can't take the time to properly test it out? And having to rely on patching a game the day it launches in order to enable features that should have been there in the first place? Even in the PC world of gaming, that's a serious screw up right there, let alone the Wii, Xbox360, or the completely unpatchable PS2 world...

[DylonCorp]

I can't tell you how much this proves for me that the Wii version just didn't get shit for attention. They got the gameplay right (thank god), but the graphics are just garbage. Jaggy city.

I honestly haven't noticed the mono only issue; I'm just rocking the TV speaker right now. I was hoping to get a 2.1 or 5.1 system after Xmas, and I'm sure I would've noticed then.

As for needing a Nintendo apologist quote: I wouldn't say this is a console issue, but a publisher error. The Wii can easily output stereo sound.

Though I have to admit, a patch might be much harder to do for the Wii. Where's Zanzibar?

[Syl]

This would actually explain a fair bit about the sound...

bummer, shame i didn't realize all this stuff before i bought it.

[Sandman]

Seriously.....do Wii guitars really rumble? That might mess me up on the song more than that "x notes streak" notice that pops up.

[Norse]

Stop whining. Stereo is such a last gen feature.

[DylonCorp]

Seriously.....do Wii guitars really rumble? That might mess me up on the song more than that "x notes streak" notice that pops up.

Honestly, I haven't noticed the rumble either. If it's going on, it's faint.

My girl says it rumbles on star power. I dunno.

[Yellowman]

I'm not quite sure why people are trying to turn this into a Wii-hating thing when the dev is obviously at fault for being a moron here.

Oh just try and ignore that, its just the usual xbot reaction to negative news about the Wii. It would seem that they are so scared of their favourite company losing the console war that they have to take every opportunity they can to tell us how lame the wii is and how much better life is in Microsoft land.

[pomeroy]

IANAL but this seems to have "Class Action Lawsuit" written all over it.

He said anal.

[Tabasco]

I like how it's a bug, yet everyone is trying to rip on the Wii for it. In all seriousness though, Nintendo does lose some points for somehow overlooking this.

[Blog]

Were the songs encoded onto the DVD in mono or does the game downsample them during playback? The former would make a patch nigh impossible, the latter would just make one improbable...

[StANTo]

I thought you only got dolby with tape recorders (http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=dSINO6MKtco)?

[infinati]

Oh just try and ignore that, its just the usual xbot reaction to negative news about the Wii. It would seem that they are so scared of their favourite company losing the console war that they have to take every opportunity they can to tell us how lame the wii is and how much better life is in Microsoft land.

Heh, too right

[Mr.Green]

Oh just try and ignore that, its just the usual xbot reaction to negative news about the Wii. It would seem that they are so scared of their favourite company losing the console war that they have to take every opportunity they can to tell us how lame the wii is and how much better life is in Microsoft land.

Easy there tiger! I've also spotted a few SDF members in there!

[LostToys]

Well, assuming that the developers designed the game with the typical Wii user in mind, Mono output would not be that far fetched. Most people can't tell the difference between Mono and Stereo on a television set.

Sucks for people who have dedicated audio systems, however, especially since every other Wii game fully supports Dolby Prologic II.

[Ancalagon]

The people who made this game must be such Wii-Tards. Really, Mono is Wii-ly, Wii-ly crap.

[StANTo]

Well, assuming that the developers designed the game with the typical Wii user in mind, Mono output would not be that far fetched. Most people can't tell the difference between Mono and Stereo on a television set.

I'd hazard a guess that most that own a wii have at least a stereo crt television in their home and/or would notice that the audio in their favourite music tracks aren't playing in the tasty stereo.

[bickle]

On my PS2 version (moldy but still works) it saves the fact i chose widescreen for video...yet it doesn't save the progressive scan option, so each and EVERY time I want to play GHIII, I have to re-enable Progressive scan. This is beyond annoying. And I have to recalibrate the controller every single time as well... Maybe their testing department should have checked on this before they sent it off for pressing!

Actually that is probably intentional. A lot 480p games have to be set each time. Manufacturers were paranoid that someone would set something to 480p on a tv that couldn't handle it, and would then be unable to switch back to 480i (since the signal would look all garbled). By resetting to 480i each time, they avoid the problem.

[rahvii]

Yeah, it's not like the wii is worse thing ever now just beacuse GHIII doesnt support mono, but is a fact that this version didn't get the attetion it deserved. Ok, PS2 version we have to re-enable progresive scan and widescreen everytime, but the overall quality of the game is pretty cool. Mono in Wii version just can't be turned on or off like progressive scan, it's mono or mono, die with it.