Posts Tagged ‘Guitar Hero’

“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

Guitar Hero II was the first in a line of many successful sequels and spin-offs to the original Guitar Hero title. Released initially for the Playstation 2 in November 2006, Guitar Hero II landed a few months later on the Xbox 360 in April 2007, along with additional songs and downloadable content availability not included in the PS2 version.

In terms of gameplay, not much changed from the original title, but the sequel did bring with it 40 songs (48 on the Xbox 360 version) for the main setlist, 24 bonus songs (26 on the Xbox 360 version), and for the Xbox 360 version only, an additional 12 songs of downloadable content not featured in the previous title (24 total DLC songs, half of which were songs from the original title).

While the main setlist included mostly cover tracks of popular songs, a few of the tracks did use master recordings, unlike the original game which used all covers for the main setlist. The Playstation 2 version used masters of “John the Fisherman” by Primus and “Stop!” by Jane’s Addiction, and the Xbox 360 version added master recordings of “Possum Kingdom” by the Toadies and “Dead!” by My Chemical Romance.

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

Guitar Hero II features 48 popular rock songs spanning five decades of rock, from the 1960s through the 2000s, in addition to 26 bonus tracks. Not including the bonus songs, Rock Band has 16 of the 48 songs currently in game, or about 33%. If you factor in the bonus songs, the percentage drops down to 24%. The songs included in the main setlist are included directly below.

* Denotes a cover song in the original title.
** Denotes a song exclusive to the Xbox 360 version of Guitar Hero II.
*** Denotes a live version of the track. 

Guitar Hero II Main Setlist for Rock Band 3

Bonus Songs

** Denotes a song exclusive to the Xbox 360 version of Guitar Hero II.

Guitar Hero II Bonus Songs for Rock Band 3

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Originally released in November 2005, no one can deny that the original Guitar Hero title started a major cultural phenomenon. Over the course of two short years, the Guitar Hero franchise went from a fledgling game experiment to the highest grossing video game title EVER. But sadly, with each successive title release, more and more fans lost interest. And as nearly everyone knows, Activision announced earlier this year that they would be putting the game on indefinite hiatus, until the game can introduce innovative new features while simultaneously drawing a profit for the oft-maligned game developer behemoth.

It’s no mystery that we here at the site are bigger fans of Rock Band, but the franchise wouldn’t be possible without the rival Guitar Hero titles originally paving the way in establishing a new genre of gaming. That is why we thought we would go back and look at all the Guitar Hero titles (and possibly a few other lesser known rhythm games) in a recurring segment we call Setlist Checklist. We will talk a little about the game itself, the music featured on it, and anything else we found interesting about the game.

The original Guitar Hero title was created when peripheral maker Red Octane (best known for making the Dance Dance Revolution game pads) approached music game developer Harmonix about a peripheral based guitar simulation game. Red Octane made the hardware (and retained the rights to the IP), and Harmonix made the software. This is an important distinction to establish now, as it becomes important (and somewhat confusing) later on in the franchise’s history. The game was produced for just under $2 million, and was nearly an instantaneous breakout hit, garnering critical acclaim among reviewers and peers, and earning $45 million in the last two months of 2005 alone.

All of the main setlist songs used in the game were covers faithfully reproduced by the musicians at WaveGroup Sound. Nearly all of the bonus songs were from bands featuring Harmonix employees or close friends of Harmonix. Graveyard BBQ was featured in the game through a “Be a Guitar Hero contest,” and former Ozzy Osbourne guitarist Zakk Wylde contacted Harmonix directly late in development to see if Black Label Society could also have a song included in the game.

With Rock Band 3′s setlist creation tool, we can 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 original Guitar Hero game featured covers of 30 popular rock songs spanning five decades of rock, from the 1960s through 2005, in addition to 19 bonus tracks. Not including the bonus songs, Rock Band has 18 of the 30 songs currently in game, or 60%. If you factor in the bonus songs, the percentage drops down to 49%. Some of the bonus tracks are making their way through the Rock Band Network now. The songs included in the main setlist are included directly below.

* Denotes a cover song in the original title.

NOTE: Ozzy Osbourne’s “Bark at the Moon” is only available as part of the Ozzy Osbourne 8-pack.

Guitar Hero Main Setlist for Rock Band 3

Bonus Songs

** Denotes hidden songs only playable via the use of a PS2 cheat device.

Guitar Hero Bonus Songs for Rock Band 3

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Whoa. Activision has decided that it has now squeezed all of the blood out of this turnip, and decided to put Guitar Hero out to pasture… at least for this year. Eurogamer reported earlier this morning that Activision will be ending the Guitar Hero franchise, and Joystiq appears to be corroborating this to some extent. Activision is addressing this and other items in their fourth quarter investor earnings call, which is currently underway. They are confirming that “no new music or skateboarding games in 2011.” Activision has taken a significant charge against their financial statements related to music games, as well as retained a significant inventory of music peripherals. In the earnings call, they announced that due to licensing and hardware costs, it is no longer possible to make the franchise profitable. While they only confirmed that no new games are coming out in 2011, the announcement today is the de facto ending of the Guitar Hero franchise.

A couple things come to mind when hearing this:

First is that it is now undeniable that the rhythm gaming genre has experienced significant “cooling” over the past 12-18 months. While Viacom admittedly did not know how to properly capitalize on Harmonix’s core strength and eventually sold Harmonix, Activision has now decided to exit the genre entirely, which should come as no surprise based on their track record with previous gaming genres and franchises.

Not counting  PowerGig (and seriously, no one ever did), the genre is now apparently too small to adequately support two competing franchises who instill fierce brand loyalty based on the volume of franchise-specific DLC. While I wouldn’t call this a “win” for Rock Band and Harmonix, hopefully the genre will now hopefully benefit from a single player.

It’s obvious that I am a Rock Band fanboy at heart, but as many of the most loyal among us would agree, the original Guitar Hero game gave us our first fix on rhythm gaming, and seeing its demise is very sad, indeed.

[Activision.com]

When I first started @RockBandAide and RockBandAide.com, I had no real plans, strategic or otherwise (hell, I still don’t). I’ve always trusted my gut and made decisions based on the thinking “Would that be something I would be interested in?” And in the course of a little over the year, I think I’ve gained some pretty decent momentum and would dare say call it successful. I’ve been places I never thought I would go, meet people I never thought I would meet, and do things I never thought I would do. And this is one of them…

Officially launching today, I’m proud to help announce a fan-centric sister news site to RockBandAide, catering exclusively to the “other guy.” Ladies and gentlemen, please welcome TheHeroFeed.com, your go-to source for all things Guitar Hero, DJ Hero, and Band Hero.

Now I know what a number of you are thinking… “TRAITOR!” Let me first say that this impacts this site, the content, and myself in no way. Nothing is going to change here. I’m staying put, and only contributing content to RockBandAide, same as I always have been. In fact, I think this is only going to help this site. There’s nothing wrong with a little friendly “competition,” and that’s what you’re going to see here.

TheHeroFeed is operated by people you are probably already familiar with. Brian Shea, founder of UltimateRockGods.com and most recently with Examiner.com, and Elliott Rudner, from the Starpower Podcast among other things and more commonly known as Toymachine. Also along for the ride is FrankieB, likewise from the Starpower Podcast.

If Guitar Hero and DJ Hero is your thing, DEFINITELY check ‘em out! They’re on Twitter and Facebook too, so follow/like ‘em (or whatever you crazy kids are doing nowadays).

OK, I’ll go back to resuming my Rock Band fanboy status.

In light of recent comments made by official mouthpieces for gaming franchises and the subsequent Twitter sh*tstorm that ensued, I thought it best to assuage those whose personal feelings were hurt (seriously, there was a lot of crying). Crap, that didn’t help. OK, maybe I’ll just be exacerbating the situation, but regardless fanboys of both side will find this funny…

@Toymachinesh pointed me to a nearly two-year old video put together by EuroGamerTV that talks about the differences between Rock Band 2 and Guitar Hero: World Tour PRIOR to their release. In one corner we have Brian Bright, Project Director at Guitar Hero developer Neversoft. Don’t let his cool guy “I know Tony Hawk” demeanor fool you, this kid knows how to fight. And in the other corner we have a scruffy looking nerf-herder in the shape of one John Drake, PR at Harmonix. His wise cracking and pugnacious demeanor is equal parts Han Solo and Rocky Balboa. Check out the fight in this great video piece clocking in at over 10 minutes. Stick around afterwards for my attempted unbiased play-by-play of the fight.

Lllllllllllets get ready to rumblllllllllllle!

John Drake opens with a right jab to Guitar Hero: World Tour talking about how “my drumset has three cymbals on it, not sure how many drumsets you see with two cymbals on it… that’s a question I guess for other people.” Brian Bright blocks by claiming to be able to plug in ANY drumkit (and apparently keyboard) into GH:WT. Brian counters with ”They were probably thinking ‘Oh shit, there’s cymbals.’” While Rock Band 2 did have cymbals, they were mostly cosmetic for Rock Band 2 and you had to pay extra for them. Trade off is that if you DID get them, you’re already set for Rock Band 3 Pro drums. Interesting to see that even at this point they were anticipating Pro drums with the three cymbal expansion pack and Pro drums charted DLC.

John answers with this: “Most important feature is ‘Battle of the Bands’ mode which really is an industry standard for what we think music gaming should be in the future.” Um, what? Unless there’s something else coming in Rock Band 3, I completely miss this point. But he recovers and follows up with ”Instead of saying we’re going to make something artificially difficult and add notes where there aren’t notes…” John’s uppercut dazes Brian with an overcharting dig! Later in the video, Brian’s comeback is strong: “You can easily run a double bass on our game.” True, it’s still not officially supported by Rock Band! He continues with this: “We have future expandability for a hi-hat control pedal.” His one-two punch connects on the first, but misses on the second. “With the midi jack, we can expand it to as many cymbals and pads as humanly possible.” 30-pad drum kit on Guitar Hero 7!

Brian continues his onslaught: “We’re actually working with artists to release albums day and date with our DLC. Metallica will be our first one…” There was a second DLC/album pack for a new Oasis album (in January 2009), but nothing since then. John laughs at Brian’s attempt and seems to be asking for more!

The round ends with EuroGamer stepping in to point out that in an interview with the FinancialTimes.com, Activision CEO Bobby Kotick said creating a Guitar Hero online music platform was “the natural evolution” of a franchise: “I don’t think there have been a lot of credible alternatives to iTunes but Guitar Hero certainly has that potential.” John Drake capitalizes on the opportunity to tease something bigger: “I think we have some very cool plans to do it in a bigger way that works for all of our consumers.” All consumers on the Xbox 360 and certain countries, that is. And a keyboard is mentioned for Rock Band?! That would be weird! John panders to the crowd with this: “That would be really cool! How would you notate it?” Something tells me this kid has something up his sleeve.

Brian takes advantage of John’s bravado with this: “We have huge names, you know Hendrix, Ozzy Osbourne, Van Halen, Eagles, Doors. You’re not going to see those bands anytime soon in our competitor’s products.” John sees the move coming and swiftly dodges.

John finishes up the video with the comment: “I don’t see any other games with 500 songs by year end, do you?” Oh John, why the cheap shot?
OK, so what was the point of all of this? You can spin things all you want, but each franchise has its advantages and its weaknesses. I’m clearly a bigger fan of Rock Band, but that doesn’t mean that I think Guitar Hero is garbage. I’ve been around since the beginning. I really liked GH1, loved GH2, indifferent on GH3, and HATED Guitar Hero: World Tour. I just picked up Guitar Hero 5 relatively recently, and despite the negative comments from some sources, including Neversoft themselves (“A few articles said Guitar Hero 5 was a bit soulless. We wanted to put more into this game and give it its life back.“), I REALLY like it.

Consider what this blog is focused on, take this next thought with a grain of salt, but I don’t know why players feel the need to declare “sides.” Committing because of DLC isn’t as strong a point as it used to be. Yes, more songs are released on Rock Band as DLC than Guitar Hero, but “the other guy” currently has features that aren’t present in Rock Band (Expert + with double bass, open notes, etc.), so based on personal opinion, you may find a DLC track is actually better on Guitar Hero than DLC. Shocking yes, but it may be true. Harmonix is good, but charting songs is an art form, not an exact science.

Think about it this way. It’s a down economy still, and often times I hear people say they don’t have enough money to purchase as many games and and DLC as they would like. Well, you’ve already sunk money into somewhat pricey peripherals to play the game, why limit your music gaming experience to only one franchise?

OK, I’ll go back to “hating” Guitar Hero now.

Feel free to comment as well, but let’s keep it civilized, shall we?