Posts Tagged ‘Guitar Hero’

With several years now under our belt since the release of the first few Guitar Hero titles, we now know that everything since Guitar Hero III was unfortunately a downhill slide, starting with this title. Don’t be confused, though, as any game compared to Guitar Hero III’s sales will look paltry in comparison. Guitar Hero World Tour still generated massive sales, handily eclipsing Rock Band 2′s sales, which was only released domestically and on a staggered scale across the consoles, in 2008.

Released in fall of 2008, Guitar Hero World Tour expanded upon the previous title, with Neversoft continuing their development of the franchise. The game was released on the Xbox 360, PS3, PS2, Wii and PC & Mac, with the porting of each handled by Activision-owned studios Budcat Creations, Vicarious Visions and independent studio Aspyr Media. The formula of this title borrowed liberally from Rock Band by adding in vocals and drums, and cemented bass as a standard chart in each song. Despite mostly positive critic reviews, many pointed out that Rock Band’s latest iteration included a layer of polish that provided a more engaging and fun experience.

The title retained the core gameplay established in previous titles, as well as inclusion of famous musicians such as Hayley Williams, Jimi Hendrix, Ozzy Osbourne, Zakk Wylde, Billy Corgan, Sting, Ted Nugent, and Travis Barker. However, the game wasn’t content with simply adding a few new instruments charts.

A Beginner difficulty was added to supplement the Easy, Medium, Hard, and Expert levels, which allowed players to strum any note, hit any drum pad, and sing any note for successful completion on the songs’ simplified charts. Also new was the Create-A-Rocker module, that allowed players to customize both their players and their instruments, instead of just using the stock characters from previous games in the franchise. Wii players were also given the option of importing their Mii character for use in the game. The most significant addition was the inclusion of “GHTunes,” a “music studio” interface which let players create and share their own music in the game.

The peripherals for the game also had some features different from their competitor franchise. The new guitar included a “touchpad” across the neck for sliding during fast solos on “Slider Gems.” The drums literally one-upped Rock Band by including five pads and a kick pedal, improving on Rock Band’s four drum pads. The World Tour drumkit also had a MIDI input port on the back, allowing users to connect a MIDI-capable drum kit for use.

Guitar Hero World Tour came with a massive setlist of 86 songs, with no cover songs, unlike previous titles. Two of the songs (Motorhead – Overkill and The Sex Pistols – Pretty Vacant) were re-records of previous studio versions. Similar to Guitar Hero III, songs were specifically written and recorded for the game’s boss battles by Zakk Wylde and Ted Nugent.

The game was released just over a month after the Xbox 360 release of the second Rock Band game, and as such the two titles shared FOURTEEN songs, not including previously released Rock Band DLC:

• The Allman Brothers Band – Ramblin’ Man
• Blondie – One Way or Another
• Bon Jovi – Livin’ on a Prayer
• Dinosaur Jr. – Feel the Pain
• Fleetwood Mac – Go Your Own Way
• Foo Fighters – Everlong
• The Guess Who – American Woman
• Jane’s Addiction – Mountain Song
• Jimmy Eat World – The Middle
• Lacuna Coil – Our Truth
• Modest Mouse – Float On
• Silversun Pickups – Lazy Eye
• Smashing Pumpkins – Today
• Survivor – Eye of the Tiger

As noted in previous Setlist Checklist posts (and all future posts, as well), Rock Band 3′s setlist creation tool allows us to create, save, and share setlists, so we have included a Rock Band 3 setlist below that you can save to your profile if you would like to check out any or all of the songs! And as the holes are continually filled in by Rock Band’s weekly DLC releases, we will update this post, and keep it linked in the FAQ page above, for future reference.

The setlist for Guitar Hero World Tour contained a wider range of music than in previous titles, particularly to emphasize the new instruments added to the franchise, however critics found that the setlist contained very few standout hits, and that the inclusion of a number of foreign-language and difficult-to-recognize songs weakened the overall list.  There was no segregation between main setlist songs and “bonus songs” as seen in previous titles.

Of the 84-song setlist (though ignoring the two boss battles), 44 are currently available in Rock Band, which is roughly 52%, higher than Guitar Hero III’s record previous record of 45%, making Guitar Hero World Tour have more songs featured than any Guitar Hero game covered thus far in the Setlist Checklist feature.

We’ve included the full list after the jump (it’s a LONG list)…

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Outside of Rock Band, I still play a lot of video games. I don’t have the time I used to have to play, so I’m constantly sitting on a queue of deals that I randomly pick up. And in my aversion to clutter, when I finish a game I know I’m not going to play again or for a long while, I try to get rid of them via Amazon Trade-In or Glyde while they still have some value. If I ever get nostalgic for a game I’ve played in the past, I can always head over to Gamestop to pick it up again on the cheap. So to happen upon a deal like this, I’m probably going to pick up several titles I haven’t played for awhile.

For members of Gamestop’s “PowerUp Rewards” program, on Friday December 16th ONLY, they are featuring a promo titled “Buy Any 1 Pre-Owned Guitar Hero, DJ Hero, Band Hero, or Rock Band game, and Get 2 FREE!” (Offer valid in the US, Puerto Rico, and Guam only.)

This is a KILLER deal for achievement whores, fanboys, and basically anyone else that wants to get in on some CHEAP rhythm gaming fun. The titles subject to the promotion, along with prices (Xbox 360, specifically), are listed below:

• Rock Band – $2.99
• Rock Band 2 – $7.99
• Rock Band 3 – $17.99
• Rock Band: AC/DC – $5.99
• The Beatles: Rock Band – $4.99
• Green Day: Rock Band – $8.99
• LEGO Rock Band – $12.99
• Rock Band: Country Track Pack – $14.99
• Rock Band: Country Track Pack 2 – $8.99
• Rock Band: Track Pack Volume 2 – $4.99
• Rock Band: Metal Track Pack – $4.99
• Rock Band: Classic Rock Track Pack – $4.99

• Guitar Hero 2 – $2.99
• Guitar Hero 2 / Guitar Hero: Aerosmith – $7.99
• Guitar Hero: Aerosmith – $5.99
• Guitar Hero 3 – $2.99
• Guitar Hero: World Tour – $7.99
• Guitar Hero: Metallica – $19.99
• Guitar Hero: Smash Hits – $8.99
• Guitar Hero 5 – $16.99
• Guitar Hero: Van Halen – $12.99
• Guitar Hero: Warriors of Rock – $12.99
• Band Hero – $14.99

• DJ Hero – $4.99
• DJ Hero 2 – $12.99

[Found via @MattDusza]

As big of a rival there is (or was?) between Guitar Hero and Rock Band, in reality, they’re very similar, especially to outsiders looking in. The relationship to me is like Irish brothers. They will fight with each other nonstop, but if an outsider starts messing with one, the other brother sticks up for him. Such is the case in this instance where country music artist Brad Paisley appeared last night on The Daily Show.

Brad had this to say about his *snicker* “book” that is coming out…

“This is about guitar. It’s meant to really inspire. And I figure we’ve done such a great job of teaching kids how NOT to play the guitar with Guitar Hero…”

Two can play that game, Brad. I figure we’ve also done such a great job of teaching country music stars how NOT to learn what the term “mutually exclusive” means…

Brad has one song available as DLC for Rock Band, Mud on the Tires. On a completely unrelated note, to delete songs for Rock Band, on the Xbox 360 Dashboard, go to Console Settings, Memory, Hard Drive, Rock Band, and delete Mud on the Tires whatever song you desire.

Also, don’t forget to buy next week’s Country DLC!

[The Daily Show via @st4t1cv01d]

Video games have established themselves as one of several dominant forms of entertainment, and while rhythm gaming existed prior to Guitar Hero, one can’t deny that it was the catalyst that brought rhythm gaming to the masses, and made Guitar Hero a household name. With the meteoric rise of popularity brought on since 2005, there has been a fairly steep drop-off not long after. While it may be easy for outsiders to write off the rhythm games phenomena as a “fad,” no one can deny the significant impact rhythm gaming had on the greater gaming industry.

Scott Steinberg, a technology and video games consultant, recently put together the book “Music Games Rock: Rhythm Gaming’s Greatest Hits of All Time,” which chronicles the history of rhythm gaming, including, but definitely not limited to, the Guitar Hero and Rock Band franchises. Featuring a foreword by Harmonix co-creator and CEO Alex Rigopulos, Scott’s book addresses the high-marks, and the low-lights, of the rhythm gaming genre.

I have yet to read through this, but I have downloaded a FREE copy via the site for the book, Musicgamesrock.com. You too can download a free PDF version there, or find links to purchase copies via iBooks, Amazon, and Lulu.

[via Destructoid]

Here we go… Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock. The behemoth title that saw the commercial and pop culture peak of the music game genre, exceeding $1 billion in gross revenue across all platforms, helping the franchise become the cultural phenomenon we’ve all come to know.

Released in Fall 2007, Guitar Hero III was the first Neversoft-developed iteration in the series, who handled the lead development on the Xbox 360/PlayStation 3 version. The game was also released on PS2, Wii and PC & Mac, with the porting of each handled by Activision-owned studios Budcat Creations, Vicarious Visions and independent studio Aspyr Media, respectively. Guitar Hero III marked the first release of a Guitar Hero title on the PS3, Wii, PC and Mac, which soon became the norm for all future Guitar Hero releases.

The title stays true to the formula established by the previous games in the series and the core gameplay is identical, but it did introduce a handle of new features, most notably online multiplayer, the co-op career, competitive Battles (featured both in the career and as a multiplayer game mode) and the inclusion of famous musicians, namely Slash, Tom Morello and Bret Michaels.

A testament to the music game genre’s ever-increasing mainstream presence and prevalence, the game’s soundtrack included 73 songs, a whopping 54 of which were master recordings. As another first for the series, two songs – Sex Pistols’ Anarchy in the U.K. and Living Colour’s Cult of Personality - were specifically re-recorded for the game as the master recordings could not be found. In addition to this, three songs were specifically written and recorded for the game: Slash and Tom Morello’s Guitar Battles and Steve Ouimette’s metal version of The Devil Went Down to Georgia. All three of those songs feature as boss battles during the career mode.

The game was released a month before the North American release of the first Rock Band game, and as such the two titles shared six songs:

• Beastie Boys – Sabotage
• Black Sabbath – Paranoid
• The Killers – When You Were Young
• Mountain – Mississippi Queen
• The Smashing Pumpkins – Cherub Rock
• The Strokes – Reptilia

Interestingly, a seventh song – Queens of the Stone Age’s 3′s & 7′s - was one of the fifteen songs released as DLC for Rock Band on the day of game’s release, while Die Toten Hosen’s Hier Kommt Alex was as one of the nine European exclusive tracks included on the disc of the European version of the game when it released in May 2008.

Five songs from Guitar Hero III have been released as DLC since Rock Band 3′s release, four of which have featured pro guitar/bass upgrades. In chronological order of their Rock Band release, these songs are:

• Santana – Black Magic Woman
• DragonForce – Through the Fire and Flames
• Kiss – Rock and Roll All Nite
• Heart – Barracuda

Two more songs from Guitar Hero III – Pearl Jam’s Even Flow and Stevie Ray Vaughan’s Pride and Joy - are legacy DLC that have had pro guitar/bass upgrades released for them. Rock Band 3 itself included Slipknot’s Before I Forget, meaning that seven songs from Guitar Hero III have pro guitar/bass functionality in Rock Band.

As noted in the previous Setlist Checklist post (and all future posts, as well), Rock Band 3′s setlist creation tool allows us to create, save, and share setlists, so we have included a Rock Band 3 setlist below that you can save to your profile if you would like to check out any or all of the songs! And as the holes are continually filled in by Rock Band’s weekly DLC releases, we will update this post, and keep it linked in the FAQ page above, for future reference.

Main Setlist

The setlist for Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock contained a wide range of music, but with a focus on metal and classic rock. The single-player career featured 39 songs and the co-op career had six exclusive Encore songs, while the the other 25 tracks were bonus songs.

Of the core 39-song single-player setlist (though ignoring the three boss battles), 24 are currently available in Rock Band, which is roughly 62%. Three of the six (50%) co-op-exclusive songs and six of the 25 (24%) bonus songs are available in Rock Band, which means that 45% of the entire 73 songs in Guitar Hero III are currently in the Rock Band library – the highest percentage for any Guitar Hero game covered thus far in the Setlist Checklist feature.

* Denotes a cover song in the original title.
** Denotes a live version of the track.

Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock Main Setlist for Rock Band 3

Bonus Setlist

* Denotes a cover song in the original title.
*** Song is unplayable in Rock Band 3.

Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock Bonus Setlist for Rock Band 3

Check out an embedded playlist of ALL the on-disc songs after the break…

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“Guitar Hero Encore: Rocks the 80s” (released as “Guitar Hero: Rocks the 80s” in Europe) was the third and final Harmonix-developed Guitar Hero game, released in July 2007. Despite the previous title, Guitar Hero II, being released on the Xbox 360, “Rocks the 80s” was solely released on the PS2.

As the name suggests, “Rocks the 80s” was an expansion as opposed to a full-fledged sequel, and as such saw no new gameplay changes from Guitar Hero II (the Xbox 360 version of which was released a mere three months prior), featured a much smaller number of songs and was released at a slightly lower price point. Harmonix had already been acquired by Viacom before the release of the game, and this third title fulfilled their contractual requirements with Red Octane and Activision, allowing them to move on and create the Rock Band franchise, while a new Activision-owned developer, Neversoft, took the reigns of the Guitar Hero series.

“Rocks the 80s’” setlist only included thirty songs, with no additional bonus songs – which makes the game only the third Harmonix-developed project not to include any music from Harmonix employees (alongside Karaoke Revolution Vol. 2 and 3). Again, as the game’s name suggests, the setlist comprised exclusively of 80′s songs, excluding one parody by fictional glam metal band Limozeen – created by internet cartoon Homestar Runner, the same group behind Strong Bad Guitar Hero II track Trogdor. Like the two previous games, the majority of the songs are covers created by WaveGroup, although five of them are the master recordings.

Interestingly, two of the songs – Krokus’ Ballroom Blitz and White Lion’s Radar Love – are actually covers of 70′s songs. While neither version has appeared in Rock Band, both of the original versions – by Sweet and Golden Earring, respectively – are available in the Rock Band library. Though to be precise, the Sweet version of Ballroom Blitz featured in the original Rock Band is in fact a cover version.

As noted in the previous Setlist Checklist post (and all future posts, as well), Rock Band 3′s setlist creation tool allows us to create, save, and share setlists, so we have included a Rock Band 3 setlist below that you can save to your profile if you would like to check out any or all of the songs! And as the holes are continually filled in by Rock Band’s weekly DLC releases, we will update this post, and keep it linked in the FAQ page above, for future reference.

Main Setlist

Spanning just one decade, the majority of the songs are either glam or metal, but also include punk, rock and new wave tracks. Of the game’s 30-song setlist, 11 are currently available in Rock Band, or 37%. If you were to to include the two original versions of the covers mentioned above, that percentage would be 43%. The songs included in the main setlist are included directly below.

* Denotes a cover song in the original title.

Guitar Hero Encore: Rocks the 80s Main Setlist for Rock Band 3