Frets On Fire

Frets On Fire takes the fun of the console-bases music games to a rockin’ piece of PC freeware. Playing the tutorial is recommended to get a hackle on the controls; once you’re in, you’re greeted by the game’s sarcastic-but-amusing narrator/guitar god, Jurgen. You will use keys F1 through F5 to hold down your guitar’s strings, and the Enter key to strum. If you want to use the actual Guitar Hero controller, the Xbox 360 version of the Guitar Hero II “instrument” can be plugged into your computer’s USB port. The Rock Band drum kit is also compatible with Frets On Fire. Some of the most interesting features lie within the Song Editor menu. You can edit existing songs and even import your own. The best feature on the memo is the ability to import Guitar Hero songs into the game. Instructions to do so can be found on the Frets O Fire website, and Guitar Hero discs are required for the process. So not only do PC users have their own free Guitar Hero/Rock Band-stylr game to play, but they can compare notes with their console brethren and gush about the time they hit 90 percent of the notes while playing Dragonforce’s “Through the Fire and Flames” on Expert Difficulty.