All things Guitar Hero Megathread - Warriors of Rock OUT NOW!

[BlueCali]

The Guitar Hero series is a series of music video games first published in 2005 by RedOctane and Mitchell Concanen, and distributed by Activision in which players use a guitar-shaped peripheral to simulate the playing of lead, bass guitar and rhythm guitar across numerous rock music songs.

Players match notes that scroll on-screen to colored fret buttons on the controller, strumming the controller in time to the music in order to score points, and keep the virtual audience excited. The games attempt to mimic many features of playing a real guitar, including the use of fast-fingering hammer-ons and pull-offs and the use of the whammy bar to alter the pitch of notes.

Most games support single player modes, typically a Career mode to play through all the songs in the game, and both competitive and cooperative multiplayer modes. With the introduction of Guitar Hero World Tour in 2008, the game includes support for a four-player band including vocals and drums. The series initially used mostly cover version of songs created by WaveGroup Sound, but most recent titles feature soundtracks that are fully master recordings, and in some cases, special re-recordings, of the songs. Later titles in the series feature support for downloadable content in the form of new songs.

 

[jefXfree]

Get your Satisfaction with Stones live pack for Guitar Hero 5

The first downloadable content for Guitar Hero 5 will be The Rolling Stones Live Track Pack, which includes five live songs from Jagger and company. The pack is set to coincide with ABKCO’s 40th Anniversary Deluxe Box Set release of “Get Yer Ya-Ya’s Out!”

The songs in the downloadable pack will include live takes of “Prodigal Son,” “You Gotta Move,” “Under My Thumb,” “I’m Free,” and “(I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction.” You can pick up the track pack on the PlayStation Store for $8.99 USD, or $1.99 per track. The tracks will be available on September 3, two days after the release of Guitar Hero 5.

 

[jefXfree]

Muse's Matt Bellamy featured in Guitar Hero 5

English band Muse is huge everywhere else but the States. The band is so big that eccentric frontman Matt Bellamy will lend his likeness to Guitar Hero 5. At launch, the track Plug in Baby from Muse’s 2001 Origin of Symmetry will be playable.

Bellamy has a heck of a voice, especially when he goes falsetto. His guitar work is also very recognizable, and you can expect quite a challenge with any Muse tracks.

Here’s a video of in-game footage featuring Bellamy. It’s interesting to see how they adapted his wild on-stage flailing to the game. The game is scheduled to come out in September.

Gameplay Footage: psu.com/Muses-Matt-Bellamy-featured-in-Guitar-Hero-5-News--a008011-p0.php

 

[BlueCali]

So I'm getting GH5, not because I like GH, but because I need a new guitar, and its cheaper to just wait and get GH5 with the controller and Van Halen, then getting GHWT with guitar since I'll never play GHWT...

 

[jefXfree]

So I'm getting GH5, not because I like GH, but because I need a new guitar, and its cheaper to just wait and get GH5 with the controller and Van Halen, then getting GHWT with guitar since I'll never play GHWT...

I think i'm going to do the same thing. I've been looking for a used guitar but they're all so expensive that it's not worth it...

 

[jefXfree]

Nirvana members also upset about Cobain's use in GH5

Nirvana’s surviving former band mates do not approve of Kurt Cobain’s avatar in Guitar Hero 5. Neither Krist Novoselic nor Dave Grohl have any legal say in the matter, but they were two people who knew Cobain very well. What the pair appear to be most upset about is that players can use Cobain’s avatar to perform in songs other than Nirvana tracks.

In a joint statement, the pair said, “While we were aware of Kurt’s image being used with two Nirvana songs, we didn’t know players have the ability to unlock the character.” Adding, “This feature allows the character to be used with any kind of song the player wants. We urge Activision to do the right thing in ‘re-locking’ Kurt’s character so that this won’t continue in the future.”

Meanwhile, Cobain’s widow Courtney Love has responded to a statement yesterday from Activision. Love, like Grohl and Novoselic, was upset when she learned Cobain would be featured in GH5. Through Twitter she claimed she was going to sue Activision, and called the company bullies.

Activision responded later in the same day explaining that the company did secure the necessary licensing right from the Cobain estate. That written agreement was signed by Courtney Love, allowing Cobain’s likeness to be used as a fully playable character in GH5.

Love’s attorney, Keith Fink, Esquire, provided a statement about the situation to VG247.

“You are correct in stating that Ms. Cobain is extremely upset at Activision’s use of Mr. Cobain’s image in a video game allowing him to sing songs of others. Kurt’s songs have a unique and special meaning to his fans and his image and legacy is extremely important to Ms. Cobain.

“Activision’s statement is not accurate in suggesting that they were given an unfettered use of Kurt’s name and likeness. The agreement Activision has with the trust doesn’t grant them the right to use his name and likeness in ways that denigrate his image.

Many Nirvana fans were upset to learn that Cobain would be featured in GH5, mostly for the same reason his former band members and Love were upset - Cobain could sing songs other than his own. What started as a couple quick comments on Twitter has blown up into a mainstream media dispute. At the very least, it’ll be interesting to see if Activision agrees to Love’s demands and lock’s Cobain to only Nirvana songs. This could set precedence for the use of future rockers avatars.

 

[thunda123]

Wow, some people are retarded. Who cares if he's on guitar hero 5. I really don't understand how this is degrading his "image" if you're able to play with him as a character singing other songs. I'm from Seattle area and I never really liked Nirvana. I'm sorry but Kurt Cobain has been placed up on too high of a pedestal for what he accomplished. He's not the king of rock or the king of pop. In fact, I think way too much credit is given to Nirvana and not enough credit has been given to Pearl Jam. I actually believe Pearl Jam's first mainstream cd "ten" was much better and more influential during the grunge era than Nirvana. I think the Kurt Cobain suicide has added, unjustifiably, to their perceived importance in the grunge era. Just my opinion though.

 

[BlueCali]

Guitar Hero Ponders A Subscription Model For DLC

Video-games sales are down 13 percent through October, and analysts are suggesting music-rhythm games have run their course, but "Guitar Hero" founder Kai Huang is looking on the bright side.

Huang and his brother, Charles, launched the $1 billion franchise in 2005, then sold their Mountain View, Calif., company to game giant Activision in 2006.

They've since released more than a dozen versions of the game, including the new "DJ Hero," which comes with a mock turntable for scratching, mixing and sampling hip-hop, R&B and dance music.

"DJ Hero" failed to make the top 10 best-selling games when it debuted last month, according to NPD data, but Huang has been happy with the sales.

"We'll see how the rest of the year goes, but so far the launch has been great," he said during a recent visit to Seattle.

I'm way out of the demographic and found the game trickier than "Guitar Hero," but I like how it can be used as an interactive party jukebox. It can be set to play a list of songs that run uninterrupted while various people try the turntable.

But the main goal is to extend the franchise to fans of music other than the rock.

"This is targeting a group of people who, when they played 'Guitar Hero,' said, 'Where's the music I love and listen to every day?' " Huang explained.

He's also planning to extend the franchise with new technologies such as Microsoft's Project Natal motion-sensing input system.

In my interview, Huang also addressed controversy over the late Nirvana singer Kurt Cobain's avatar in "Guitar Hero 5" and the possibility of a "Guitar Hero" music service.

Here are edited excerpts of our conversation:

Q: Are you competing with social-music services such as iLike?

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A: They generally recommend things you'll like in similar genres — you don't venture too far out there. The great things about these games are that they get you out there through a fun experience.

Q: People end up buying more music then, right?

A: Significantly. We've seen half the people that play "Guitar Hero" — our longest running franchise — actually prefer this as their No. 1 method of getting music vs. just passively listening to it.

Q: Will "DJ Hero" outsell "The Beatles: Rock Band"?

A: We're planning for it to be the No. 1 new [intellectual property] of the year. So, yeah, we're excited about it.

Q: What's next — what genre is left?

A: We're really just at the beginning of music games. What we love and what we're constantly looking at is, how do you expose people to new music and new instruments? In the U.S., country music is obviously very popular. Globally, classical music has always been very interesting. Latin music — there are just so many different genres of music and instruments that haven't been tapped into yet.

Q: Your games keep some distance from realism?

A: Just pull out the fun part, pull out the part that makes you feel like, "Wow, I'm really a DJ, this is me and I'm doing it." When you give people that fun, you can attract the most people to play these games.

Q: When you get too realistic, you get into issues like the complaints about the late Kurt Cobain's avatar in "Guitar Hero 5." It's so realistic, people like his widow and bandmates are uncomfortable with it. Will the trend toward realistic avatars end because of the Cobain spat?

A: We can't comment specifically because there's litigation going on, but at a general level we've been working with artists for the last four years with "Guitar Hero." As long as we can continue to work with artists to do that and put them into the game, that's what we'd love to do. It puts a level of realism and reality into the game we'd like to see.

Q: With "The Beatles" and "Guitar Hero 5" it seemed like these games were moving toward more realism.

A: That's what we hope. There are a lot of people who really enjoy that, and we'd certainly like to see it continue to happen.

Q: How about more personalization, using camera technology and Microsoft's Project Natal to pull players into the game?

A: We haven't made any specific announcements of what we're doing with new technologies in "Guitar Hero 6" and beyond, but one of the areas we're exploring certainly is camera technology and what you can do — track your movements and maybe have your characters on the screen do certain things you're doing, or personalize it more so it can look more like you on stage rather than just be an avatar.

There are a lot of possibilities that technologies like Natal will bring, and we're definitely exploring those possibilities.

Q: Wasn't the inspiration for "Guitar Hero," "Dance Dance Revolution" and other rhythm games that had people moving and jumping around in front of the screen? Natal may bring you back in that direction.

A: Definitely. DDR was one of the first music games that widened the audience. We started originally by making dance mats for that game, and we came out with a dance game ourselves. There's certainly a lot of opportunities in looking at other input devices and other game experiences that are beyond "Guitar Hero" and "DJ Hero."

Q: Will people ever be able to combine the music they buy for "Guitar Hero" with their music collection, and vice versa?

A: Today there are licensing issues with just being able to pull in your own music library and play games. But we know people love that idea and they want that to happen. We have been exploring and continue to explore how we can put those features in and make something like that happen.

Q: I wonder if the reason you haven't made PC versions is because studios are worried it would be too easy to pull songs from the games.

A: Licensing is certainly the biggest issue we have as far as being able to open up our platforms and let people access their own music, whether it's on the console or putting it on the PC and letting people access all of their own music. The technology is mostly there for us to do that today. We know that's what the consumers want and we're trying to work to see how we could do that.

Q: Will you ever offer a music service — maybe a monthly subscription to a "Guitar Hero" catalog?

A: That's definitely one of the things we would love to do. There are a lot of issues around music licensing. Consumers want it; I know I want it. We're trying to make that happen.

As Guitar Hero's catalogue of downloadable content grows larger, it gets harder and harder to make a buck selling the older stuff individually. So...what about a subscription to the whole service instead?

It's something Red Octane and Activision are thinking about, RO's founder Kai Huang telling the Seattle Times "[a monthly subscription is] definitely one of the things we would love to do. There are a lot of issues around music licensing. Consumers want it; I know I want it. We're trying to make that happen."

Keep trying! And then let Rock Band copy it. Then make it $10 a month to access the whole catalogue, albums and all. Then come get me.

 

[jefXfree]

Have a Very Merry Guitar Hero Christmas!

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[jefXfree]

This Month's Guitar Hero Tracks Are a Motley Crue

Another month, another array of Guitar and Band Hero tracks to purchase and whack onto your heaving hard drive.

March sees the arrival of American rockers blink-182 and Motley Crue, Swedish rockers OK Go and the Irish-infused stylings of Flogging Molly especially for St. Patrick's Day. Nice.

The Go-Go's and Night Ranger see out the month with great chart hit and an iconic power ballad, apparently. They both join big-haired rock rebels Motley Crue in the 80's Track Pack.

Each track pack will be available for £4.39/€5.49/$5.49/ (or £1.59/€1.99/$1.99 per song).

blink-182 Track Pack, available March 4th
"First Date"
"All The Small Things"
"Adam's Song"

OK Go Track Pack, available March 11th
"Here It Goes Again"
"Do What you Want"
"Get Over It"

Flogging Molly Track Pack, available March 18th
"Requiem For A Dying Song"
"(No More) Paddy's Lament"
"The Seven Deadly Sins"

80's Track Pack, available March 25th
Motley Crue - "Girls, Girls, Girls"
The Go-Go's - "We Got The Beat"
Night Ranger - "Sister Christian"

 

[jefXfree]

Guitar Hero 6 featuring KISS?

ITN Productions' latest episode of their Game On show includes not only a wild Gary Busey at the end, but also a rather odd interview with Kiss' Gene Simmons and Catman in which he declares that he is "the voice of Guitar Hero 6".

By no means an official confirmation of another Guitar Hero, it does sound more than plausible and the almighty power of the make-up sporting super group would certainly be a coup for the sixth installment.

Fast becoming as regular as FIFA updates (if not more so), it would be about time for the announcement of yet another Guitar Hero game, as GH: Van Halen only came out a couple of weeks ago.

Watch the show for the bizarre, rambling interview with the rockers and some sort of blather about an "axe controller" or some such.

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[jefXfree]

Guitar Hero: Warriors of Rock's 'quest mode' revealed

In the most recent issue of Nintendo Power, several details were released regarding a new gameplay mode found in Guitar Hero: Warriors of Rock. Not long ago, Amazon leaked the upcoming iteration of the classic rhythm franchise, but had failed to provide any sufficient details.

As it turns out, the game features a new quest mode that takes the Guitar Hero franchise in a different direction by introducing a story-driven campaign. Don't worry, though, the game is still centered on rocking out. Band features - including party play - will be present, and there will be a stronger emphasis on including music that is fun to play with a guitar.

Brian Bright, a developer from Neversoft, gave a few peeks at the new mode by stating that it begins with "An epic opening movie about a battle between the Beast and the demigod of Rock." Basically, the demigod loses and his legendary guitar is lost. For the remainder of the story, "You are going through and assembling an army of warriors to be able to defeat the Beast."

 

[jefXfree]

Guitar Hero: Warriors of Rock Officially Revealed

Guitar Hero: Warriors of Rock has been officially unveiled by Activision today with a debut trailer showing the game's new story mode feature - being able to literally unleash the monster of rock inside each character to help the 'Demi-God of Rock and Roll' and vanquish 'The Beast' to save rock and roll.

Quest Mode will be fully-voiced by rock legend Gene Simmons of KISS fame, and you'll be able to use any combination of intruments on your journey from CBGB's punk rock club in New York to "the molten lava fields of rock treachery" where you'll encounter The Beast.

"The world is a boring place. Come with me, and enter a world populated of Demi-Gods and Beasts. Transform from an everyday person and become the saviour of rock and roll," said Sir Gene Simmons of KISS. "It was an honour and privilege to narrate Guitar Hero: Warriors of Rock, even more so, to voice the Demi God. From the God of Thunder to the Demi-God, how cool is that..."

Pretty cool. Even cooler is Warriors of Rock's Quickplay+, which will extend the life of your 500+ track GH music library with 13 unique gameplay challenges including Band Streak, High Score and Power Challenge. And there'll be leaderboard support for all 13 challenges too.

In addition, Guitar Hero: Warriors of Rock will have more than 90 tracks on the game disc, featuring artists like Black Sabbath, Queen, Megadeth, Slipknot, Muse and KISS, obviously.

Here's the confirmed list of tracks thus far:

AFI – “Dancing Through Sunday”
Anthrax – “Indians”
Avenged Sevenfold – “Bat Country”
Black Sabbath – “Children Of The Grave”
Buzzcocks – “What Do I Get?”
Children Of Bodom – “If You Want Peace... Prepare For War”
The Cure – “Fascination Street”
Def Leppard – “Pour Some Sugar On Me (Live)”
Dethklok – “Bloodlines”
Dire Straits – “Money For Nothing”
DragonForce – “Fury of the Storm”
Drowning Pool – “Bodies”
Fall Out Boy – “Dance, Dance”
Foo Fighters – “No Way Back”
Foreigner – “Feels Like The First Time”
The Hives – “Tick Tick Boom”
Jane’s Addiction – “Been Caught Stealing”
Jethro Tull – “Aqualung”
KISS – “Love Gun”
Linkin Park – “Bleed It Out”
Megadeth – “Sudden Death”
Metallica & Ozzy Osbourne – “Paranoid (Live)”
Muse – “Uprising”
My Chemical Romance – “I'm Not Okay (I Promise)”
Night Ranger – “ (You Can Still) Rock In America”
Nine Inch Nails – “Wish”
The Offspring – “Self Esteem”
Queen – “Bohemian Rhapsody”
Rammstein – “Waidmanns Heil”
The Rolling Stones – “Stray Cat Blues”
Silversun Pickups – “There’s No Secrets This Year”
Slayer – “Chemical Warfare”
Slipknot – “Psychosocial”
Stone Temple Pilots – “Interstate Love Song”
ZZ Top – “Sharp Dressed Man (Live)”

Oh, and there's this reveal trailer too. Guitar Hero: Warriors of Rock is slated for September 2010. Rock and/or roll!

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[thunda123]

Seems like there's a few bands out of place on this guitar hero 6 track list. One of them being Fall out boy. And, if you're gonna put fall out boy in with these real rockers, why would they choose the song "dance,dance?" Are they serious?

 

[BlueCali]

Seems like there's a few bands out of place on this guitar hero 6 track list. One of them being Fall out boy. And, if you're gonna put fall out boy in with these real rockers, why would they choose the song "dance,dance?" Are they serious?

The funny part about this tracklist is most of it is already on Rock Band.

 

[thunda123]

The funny part about this tracklist is most of it is already on Rock Band.

guitar hero big wigs seem like they're having a difficult time figuring out what songs people want to play.

 

[bravesfan102531]

Guitar hero is really starting to Reach with their set lists. However, Look out for Rock Band: The Who dropping later this year.

 

[BlueCali]

Guitar hero is really starting to Reach with their set lists. However, Look out for Rock Band: The Who dropping later this year.

They wouldn't do that, because all of the Who's good songs were released as RB DLC.

 

[bravesfan102531]

It's already been confirmed by Roger Daltry of The Who, who said it would be released later this year. And if you think all The Who's good songs have been released then you're nuts. They have soooooo many epic songs.

 

[BlueCali]

Buried in the recent announcement of Rock Band 2 was a note about the July 15th release of a 12-song compilation from The Who. Originally they were to release the Who's Next album but were unable to locate all the masters. Instead, they will put together a collection called The Best of The Who Rock Band Edition. The pricing will be $20 for all 12 songs while individual songs will be $2. Of course, every track will be presented in their master recordings. Tracklist is as follows:
"Amazing Journey"
"Baba O'Riley"
"Behind Blue Eyes"
"Eminence Front"
"Going Mobile"
"Leaving Here"
"My Generation" (Live at Leeds)
"Real Good Looking Boy"
"Sea & Sand"
"Summertime Blues" (Live at Leeds)
"Who Are You"
"Young Man Blues" (Live at Leeds)

 

[jefXfree]

Guitar Hero: Warriors Of Rock brings with it more than just 90 new tracks and some additional game modes; it'll include the biggest controller redesign since the original title in the franchise. And it's axelicious.