Posts Tagged ‘Guitar Hero’

Welcome to the second segment of Pass the Mic. In this segment we’re passing the microphone to the readers. Relax; it’s not a Rock Band microphone so there’s no reason to be shy. During this segment we’ll post a topic for discussion and let you guys have at it in the comments. Before posting the next segment we’ll pick out our favorite responses and feature them in the next segment along with a new topic.

Last week we asked what your fondest Rock Band related memories were. Here are our picks:

Eric1974:

One of my strongest memories is of my Dad. I had a Beatles RB party shortly after it came out, we played all night and my dad (as I am) is a huge Beatles fan so he had a blast watching us. My dad passed away in March 2012, but I’ll never forget the smile on his face as we played that night.

TojoReeves:

The one that really sticks out though, is the Rock Band Stage Kit. I had just graduated high school and had a few bucks to blow. My friend was on a week from going away to join the US Navy so we spent a few days together. I wanted new cymbals so we went to a GameStop out of our home town to shake things up a little. There it was, sitting in a beaten up box with a $20 price tag. It was a new stage kit. I had only heard of these and they were selling for more than their retail value online. I spent what I saved for dinner on that thing and we rushed back to my house to try it out. I filled up the reserve tank with fog fluid and let it warm up before choosing ‘Painkiller’. It was a day to test two things, the stage kit, the new cymbals, and my friend’s singing voice.

The strobe light was throwing a fit, we were blinded by the rays of blue and green, and the smoke detector was going crazy. We failed out laughing out of sheer joy, taking in deep breaths of the maple syrup-scented fog filling my room. We didn’t sleep that night.

LolMunnchy:

One of my favourite memories was taking part in my college’s annual games tournament. We were playing rebel yell, and I decided to slide across the floor during the solo, only to capture the audiences eyes. We got the biggest cheers from the crowd that day, but we didn’t win.

Karaokefreak:

For not quite four years I have been throwing rock band karaoke parties in one of Berlin’s most famous karaoke bars, and it never got boring. However, some nights were really special. Like one of the two shows in december last year, when one of our regulars came up to sing “Painkiller” by Judas Priest.
Our best plastic guitarrists got ready to back him up and everybody was anticipating this epic piece of metal, sung by someone who is known as a really good karaoke singer.

But the whole room cracked up laughing when he started, because he didn’t sing the original lyrics. Instead he sang a slightly changed version of “jingle bells”, using a glass cracking high voice. It was a perfect match: Rock Band awesomeness combined with Holiday-Action.

This Week’s Topic:

It has been roughly two years since the last Guitar Hero game came out. While the franchise didn’t exactly innovate with each iteration, the large budget supplied by Activision allowed them to afford exclusive deals with artists. Do you think this influenced the direction of the Rock Band franchise? Was the weekly downloadable content better or more diverse as a result? Did it force Harmonix to innovate more? Leave your thoughts in the comments and feel free to debate with others. We’ll be looking through arguments and counter arguments alike.

 Scientifically proven. Apparently

There’s an issue with top 100 lists in general. While they always try to cover as many games as they can, they can’t cover them all. Some games are missed off. Blame can be placed on the writer, but it would be foolhardy to blame one person. One writer can’t please everyone, which a few people seem to forget very easily. Comment areas on these lists are never a safe place.

The folks at warpzoned.com, however, have compiled a list, with the help of “science”, of the top 100 games of all time. They’ve taken 6 lists, spanning 6 years, and data from GameRankings, and made a list based on the games average place in those lists. The final list has a great selection, with games spanning 4 different decades, showing all different genres. There are one’s here you’d expect to see and others you may have forgotten about.

Here’s the top ten:

1.   Tetris (1986)

Average Ranking: 4.7

2.  Resident Evil 4 (2005)

Average Ranking: 12.

3.  Super Mario 64 (1996)

Average Ranking: 14.9

4.  Super Metroid (1994)

Average Ranking: 16.8

5.  The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past (1991)

Average Ranking: 17.6

6.  BioShock (2007)

Average Ranking: 19.2

7.  The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time (1998)

Average Ranking: 19.9

8.  Half-Life 2 (2004)

Average Ranking: 20

9.  Uncharted 2: Among Thieves (2009)

Average Ranking: 21.8

10. Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare (2007)

Average Ranking: 22.2

So where’s Rock Band 2 and 3? Rock Band 3 charted at 45 on the list, while Rock Band 2 charted at 87. Both of these scores are still very respectable considering the vast sea of games that exist. But where does the franchise sit on the list as a whole? Unfortunately, no more Rock Band games are mentioned, but there are more Harmonix games in the full list, but as they had a total of 333 games to use, not all made the top 100. Here are all the Harmonix games and their places:

• Rock Band 3 – 45^th
• Rock Band 2 – 87^th
• Guitar Hero – 129^th
• Guitar Hero 2 – 188^th
• Frequency – 261^st

[WarpZoned via Austin]

Unbeknownst to music game fans at the time, Guitar Hero: Warriors of Rock, released in September of 2010 by developers Neversoft (360, PS3), and Vicarious Visions (Wii), would be the final yearly release for the Guitar Hero series, as Activison chose to put the franchise on hold in early 2011.

The biggest addition to the series with Warriors of Rock, was the new Quest Mode, which took a cue from Harmonix’s original pitch for Guitar Hero 3, introducing a fantastical story to the standard tour/career mode from previous games. In the story, narrated by KISS bassist Gene Simmons, players must play through the songs on the disc to recruit characters, each of which has their own unique power that effects gameplay, for a final battle against the Beast, in an effort to save the Demigod of Rock.

While the story mode was generally looked at by most fans as a gimmick, one related announcement that garnered much interest was that mid-way through the Quest Mode, players get to play through the entirety of Rush’s 2112, featuring narration by members of the band, and special venues inspired by the song.

Additions from Guitar Hero 5, including the Party Mode, and the competitive modes all return, plus the addition of a Quickplay+ mode, which allows users to pick from any song in their library, and be presented with a number of different challenges, including those that use the characters from the Quest mode, with their special powers. Completing challenges unlocks more content such as venues, and additional outfits.

The soundtrack for Warriors of Rock is the largest of any game in the franchise, featuring 93 songs on the disc. However, despite the visual asthetic of the game leaning towards the metal genre, the songs were mostly chosen to fit in the Punk, Alternative, and Classic Rock genres. While retaining the band format introduced two years earlier, the songs were also chosen to lean back towards the roots of the series, with a larger focus on lead guitar.

Launching in September of 2010, Warriors of Rock was in direct competition with the third main game in Harmonix’s Rock Band series, and as such, the two games do have a few songs in common. However, because of Guitar Hero’s decision to shift focus back to the guitar as a main instrument, the overlap is only for four songs:

• Jane’s Addiction – Been Caught Stealing
• Phoenix – Lasso
• Queen – Bohemian Rhapsody
• The Vines – Get Free

In addition, Warriors of Rock shares the most songs of any Guitar Hero disc with the releases on the Rock Band Network, also coming in at four:

• Arch Enemy – Nemesis
• Band Of Skulls – I Know What I Am
• Drowning Pool – Bodies
• Five Finger Death Punch – Hard To See

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.

With 42 of the 93 on disc songs currently being available in Rock Band, Guitar Hero: Warriors of Rock ties Guitar Hero III’s 45% of songs being available, second only to World Tour in the highest percentage of songs available.

The incredibly lengthy full list is available after the jump…

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In an attempt to bring a new audience to a genre that was seeing a sales slide, Activision took their music game in a new direction, at least from a soundtrack perspective, with the late 2009 release Band Hero, for the Xbox 360, Playstation 3, Nintendo Wii, and Playstation 2, from Neversoft, Vicarious Visions, and Budcat Creations.

Given its release was a mere two months following the launch of Guitar Hero 5, there was no real change from a core gameplay perspective compared to that year’s main entry in the series. It retained the party mode, and band moments features that were new to the series, as well as the standard features for the four instrument gameplay that Guitar Hero had become at that point.

In addition, Band Hero featured the same support for previous games in the series that was found in Guitar Hero 5, allowing for the importing of select songs from Guitar Hero: World Tour, Guitar Hero: Smash Hits, and Guitar Hero: Metallica, as well as support for most of World Tour’s downloadable content, and 69 of the 85 songs from Guitar Hero 5.  Also, all downloadable songs released for Guitar Hero 5 are fully compatible with Band Hero.

The biggest change in Band Hero is the soundtrack, moving away from the Classic Rock focus of previous games in the series, and bringing in a selection of current, and past pop hits, including a focus on popular artist Taylor Swift, who had three songs in the game, in addition to being a playable character in the game (along side Adam Levine, and the members of No Doubt), being in the game’s commercial, and even getting a title billing on Amazon.

Releasing the same day in North America, with a similar more casual focus, Band Hero does share four songs with the Lego Rock Band soundtrack:

• Carl Douglas – Kung Fu Fighting
• David Bowie – Let’s Dance
• Katrina And The Waves – Walking On Sunshine
• The Kooks – Naïve

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.

Down in numbers from previous Guitar Hero games, Band Hero features only 65 songs, from 62 artists. The smaller number of songs was cited as a negative by some reviewers, given that the game was priced the same as previous games in the series, with a smaller setlist.

27 of the 65 songs from Band Hero are currently available in Rock Band, which equals out to 42%, down a few percent from recent games in the series that we’ve looked at.

The full setlist is after the jump…

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Released in a busy year for the music genre, Guitar Hero 5 hit the Xbox 360, Playstation 3, Nintendo Wii, and believe it or not, still the Playstation 2, in September of 2009, from Neversoft (360, PS3), Vicarious Visions (Wii), and Budcat Creations (PS2). It was the third of five different games in the ‘Hero’ series released by Activision in 2009.

The core gameplay saw few changes from the previous year’s World Tour entry in the series, with vocals, and drums still present alongside Guitar, and Bass. The most prominent change to the gameplay was the addition of the party play that allows for multiple players to play the same instrument, instead of the traditional requirement of each player selecting a separate instrument. Additional game modes, and modifiers were also added, such as bonus points for streaks, and perfecting sections, or dynamic difficulties depending on how well you’re doing in a song.

For longtime fans of the series, the biggest addition was the ability to bring forward songs from previous games, a feature the Rock Band series had implemented the previous year, with its first sequel. All but six of the downloadable songs for Guitar Hero: World Tour were playable in Guitar Hero 5, as were many of the on disc songs from  World Tour, Metallica, Smash Hits, and Band Hero, which released a couple of months later.

Guitar Hero 5 once again featured a massive setlist, this time containing 85 songs, from 83 different artists, including over 30 of which who were making their debut in music games. Continuing the tradition of previous games in the series, a number of artists were made available as playable characters in the game, including, Johnny Cash, Carlos Santana, Shirley Manson, Matthew Bellamy, and, most notably, Kurt Cobain, who was the subject of a controversy, as many fans felt it was disrespectful to his memory that his character could be used to perform any song in the game, not just those from his band Nirvana.

The game launched up against two releases in the Rock Band franchise during the fall of 2009, with The Beatles: Rock Band hitting store shelves just days later, and Lego Rock Band being available in November of that year.

Due to Harmonix’s exclusive license with The Beatles, there was no soundtrack crossover with Beatles: Rock Band, but there were three songs that could be found on both the Guitar Hero 5, and Lego Rock Band discs:

• Blur – “Song 2″
• Bon Jovi – “You Give Love A Bad Name”
• Vampire Weekend – “A-Punk”

In addition, two of the songs in the Guitar Hero 5 soundtrack hold the distinction of being among the few that received the rare ‘RB3 version’ upgrade, which added support for vocal harmonies, along with both standard, and pro Keys:

• Bon Jovi – “You Give Love A Bad Name”
• Queen & David Bowie – “Under Pressure”

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.

Guitar Hero 5 featured one of the most diverse soundtracks in the history of the genre, with 21 different genres, and every decade since the ‘60s being represented. However, that diversity was seen by many reviewers as both a positive, and a negative, with the incredible diversity meaning that almost everybody would find songs they like, but few would find themselves enjoying the majority of the soundtrack.

The record set by Guitar Hero: World Tour continues to stand, as 37 of the 85 songs in Guitar Hero 5 are currently available in Rock Band 3, or approximately 44%, which is just shy of World Tour’s 52%, and Guitar Hero III’s 45%.

The lengthy full list is available after the jump…

Read the rest of this entry »

I’ll be the first to admit that I am not the world’s greatest Rock Band/Guitar Hero guitar player. Sure, I play on expert, and even won a local Guitar Hero night several years ago, but when I compare myself to most of the people that visit the site here, RockBand.com, and ScoreHero, they could probably crush me with their eyes closed. It’s all relative, I guess. And even though I got in on the ground floor of the plastic peripheral games with the original Guitar Hero, I still can’t beat one or two songs on Expert in most of the Rock Band and Guitar Hero games. And with a new Kickstarter campaign, it looks like I may finally be able to get past some of the nightmare songs.

Enter “Guitar Zero,” a programmable circuit created with the explicit purpose of recording, saving, sharing, and replaying Rock Band and Guitar Hero song tracks, or as they describe, “a self-playing Xbox 360 game controller.” A working prototype already exists, but a recent Kickstarter campaign has been initiated to help fund this technology into a “DIY Hobbyist Kit” for the masses (or at least, the masses on the Xbox 360).

Supporters of the campaign can, if fully funded, get a DIY kit or (what appears to be) a fully functional Guitar Hero 3 Les Paul with the module installed. The chipset currently supports the GH2 Xplorer and GH3 Les Paul, with RB Stratocaster functionality expected to be supported “immediately.” The Kickstarter campaign appears to support all of the Xbox 360 Guitar Hero titles (including Band Her), as well as all of the Rock Band titles (although Rock Band 3 is missing, despite mentioning that RB3′s Pro mode is not supported…), and should support all on-disc songs. It is also capable of supporting additional songs from future games (no mention of DLC, but I’m assuming the TTL Serial to USB connection would enable that, as well).

Here are additional videos of the prototype in action, along with more supplementary technical discussion.

Prototype Song Track Replay Operation Demo

Through the Fire and Flames – Expert 100% FC

[Guitar Zero on Kickstarter]