It may not come as a surprise to anyone, but in an effort to not be outdone by Rock Band, the next edition of Guitar Hero will be pumping up its features big time. Among these additions (as described in the latest issue of Game Informer and on IGN) are the inclusion of drums and vocals in the mix, a "new input mechanic" for the guitar, and a "Studio Mode" for creating new songs or jamming over old ones.
The drums features three regular pads and two raised wedge-shaped cymbal pads. All of them (as well as the pedal) are pressure sensitive, so the game knows exactly how hard you're hitting them. Activision claims the drums are built to be less noisy and more sturdy than the Rock Band drums, and I'm inclined to believe them 'cause those RB drums are rickety crickety. (UPDATE: There's a picture of the drums after the jump!) No word on what the guitar's "new input mechanic" that will "impact the way you play GH in the future" might be. If it's anything like the solo buttons or effects switch on the Rock Band guitar, color me unimpressed.
Hit the jump for info about the Studio Mode, where you'll get to make music and share it with the world!
Details are still scant in regards to the Studio Mode, but what we know is this:
You can jam over existing songs with any instrument.
You can use the instruments to create a new song by laying down rhythm, lead, melody, bass, and drum tracks. No vocals.
You will be able to share the songs you've created online. Only five at first, but if they're rated well you might get permission to upload more.
Call me cynical, but are people really going to be able to create music worth listening to with a five-button guitar? The inclusion of vocals would make it an awesome YouTube-y experience, but without it you'll just be listening to a string of guitar and drum samples. Much cooler would be the ability to import your own pre-recorded songs and assign Guitar Hero tablature to them, but I guess it would be tough to regulate copyrighted content.
UPDATE: Someone at Destructoid has posted a scan of the drums! These look pretty great and all, but can anyone really justify having two fake drumsets in their house?
So you've got Rock Band, and you're saying to yourself "Man, this is fun and all, but I really feel like if I spent some more money I would be having an even better time." And you're right! There's a bevy of fun Rock Band doodads to blow money on. The first and most exciting is what is simulated in the picture above... A Rock Band Light and Smoke Stage Show Kit! No joke, read all about it over at Destructoid. It won't be out until July, but you can bet with a price tag of 100 smax it'll be worth the wait!
Hit the jump for more fun Rock Band accessories...
Sound-Dampening Drum Pads One of the big complaints with Rock Band out of the box is how much of a racket those little plastic drum pads make. It's not so bad when you have the luxury of cranking the music so high it drowns out the noise, but some people have neighbors. Enter the sound-dampening drum pad mod, available in DIY ($27 for supplies) and BIY (Buy-It-Yourself, $27.99) varieties. Do they work? Well, check out this video of them in action:
So yeah, they work. Be warned, however, they begin to show damage pretty quick. Mine aren't falling apart or anything, but they definitely aren't as pretty as the ones in the picture.
Drum Bag If you're planning on taking your show on the road, or (ha) storing your drums away, you may want to get your hands on this official Rock Band Drum Bag. It's going for $50 at the Rock Band Store.
Mic Stand Anyone who has tried to sing and play guitar or drums at the same time using the Xbox 360 headset knows how crappy the sounds quality is with that thing. Dropping $13 (at Guitar Center, among other places) on an actual mic stand for your USB microphone is a solid investment. It'll also open up a bunch of new "stage business" possibilities. Which in turn will open up a bunch of new "property destruction" possibilities.
Have I missed anything crucial? Let me know in the comments.
The Official XBox Magazine has a great interview with Alex Rigopulos which you should read in its entirety if you care at all about the game. It's full of gems:
Alex dishes on merch opportunities:
You’ll be able to take your band avatars, pose them, create album covers with your band logo and different scenes with your avatars. And then you’ll be able to turn that into real world stuff. For example, figurines based upon your Rock Band avatars, t-shirts with your fake band’s album art and your tour dates on the back from your accomplishments within the game, bumper stickers, old records, things like that. Really cool real-world merchandise based on this fictitious band that you’ve created in the game.
Alex on the future of the Rock Band platform:
In 3 to 5 years people are going to expect to be able to play with music as the normal way that they experience music that they love. If you have a favorite band that releases a new album, sure you’ll buy the CD but you’ll also want to go onto the Rock Band server and download the game levels based on those 15 new songs to experience them as an active participant in the music-making.
Alex tackles the "why not just play the guitar?" question:
The guitar controller is very abstracted from a real guitar, but even in the case of the guitar controller there are some foundation skills that you learn. Rhythmic impulse with your right hand and independent pitch control with your left hand — those are foundation dexterity skills that if you build them up playing the game, they will translate to being able to lock in and play in rhythm.
He goes on to say that it provides a window into the joy that comes with really playing guitar, that the singing portion will make you a better singer via its pitch feedback, and that playing the drums WILL TEACH YOU DRUMS, period.
Alex on smaller bands getting in on the action:
[Something else] we’re actually considering is releasing our own authoring tools out freely into the world, such that if you’re a band and you and your three friends are in your bedroom or garage making music, and no major label will even give you the time of day but you believe in your music, you can actually produce a game level yourself and send it to us for publishing on the game servers or distributing to your friends.
“The Band World Tour is open-ended so you can go around and play any cities or venues you want, but we do have a lot of special events at the end that you can play. Like we have the big one which is the endless set list where you can play all the songs back to back. It’s like a six-hour marathon of playing everything in the game. Because it’s a marathon, we do give you something really cool at the end of it… But I can’t tell you what it is yet.”
Woah. Six hour Rock Band party, my apartment, ASAP. Anyone else suspect that the big payoff is along the lines of the "You are a FAG" message that South Park's Stan and Kyle got when they finally broke a million points on Guitar Hero?
Since Rock Band was announced, AHR and I have been (mildly) debating if the in-game drumming experience would mimic real-life drumming enough to give real drummers a significant advantage or even teach n00bs some skills that could translate to a real drum kit. MTV Multiplayer has decided to test that exact hypothesis by inviting pop rockers Cartel in to take a stab at the game. The drummer, Kevin Sanders (pictured above...yes that's a man), sat down to play "Dead or Alive" on Medium difficulty... And failed. But when he tried again on Expert, he did much better. Sanders explains the paradox:
The easier [the song is in the game], it takes away what’s actually in the song. But if you actually know how the drums go in your head and you’re reading the notes [on the screen], it doesn’t really make sense in the tune. I guess the harder [the difficulty] is, the more real the song is [to actually playing it].
So the verdict is... Vague. As a bonus, if you're interested in how the drums break-down/assemble, hit the jump for a Stephen Totilo guided tour!
As if we don't keep you posted on all the hot Rock Band news, they've launched their official site and it's full of goodies. Among them is the current song list, which I'm gonna give you right after the jump. The Who "Won't Get Fooled Again" Mountain "Mississippi Queen"* David Bowie "Suffragette City" Black Sabbath "Paranoid" * Blue Oyster Cult "Don't Fear the Reaper" The Ramones "Rockaway Beach" Rush "Tom Sawyer" * Bon Jovi "Wanted Dead or Alive" Nirvana "In Bloom" Stone Temple Pilots "Vasoline" Weezer "Say It Ain't So" Foo Fighters "Learn to Fly" Metallica "Enter Sandman" The Hives "Main Offender" The Strokes "Reptilia" Queens of the Stone Age "Go With the Flow"
* Indicates a cover song, all other songs are original masters!
So there's a buncha new deets on the next Guitar Hero game. First off we have the official trailer, which reveals some songs we can expect and also (unless I'm the only one that didn't know this) that the third Guitar Hero will have the subtitle "Legends of Rock." I suppose this makes sense because you can play as Slash, but I have to wonder if more real life guitarists are in the wings waiting to be revealed. It does say "LegendS", after all. I call Clapton. I can assume AHR has dibs on Santana.
Hit the jump for some pics of the new guitar and a video of the updated multiplayer face-off. Gaming Age has pics of all the guitars, but I'm just gonna post the Wii one because a) I'm a Nintendo slut, and 2) It's the only one that has any sort of newsworthy modification.
That's right, like many suspected, the Wiimote will fit snugly into the body of the guitar. Hopefully they'll use this for some cool Wii features, like 1:1 guitar mapping ala the pre-swing baseball bat in Wii Sports. It doesn't seem to me like that would be too tough to implement, and it would definitely encourage some righteous shredding action.
Now the real question is... In the face of Rock Band, is anyone really pumped about this game? Harmonix is off the franchise, and it's already clear Activision has made some dubious decisions in their absence, like the addition of annoying power-ups to an already solid multiplayer mode:
I'm sure you will be able to turn some of this off, but doesn't its mere existence speak to a disconnect between Activision's vision (...) and what gamers want? Or is it just me that would prefer to play the damn song without worrying about my board shaking and my buttons not working and all that other jazz? Regardless, the game is coming. And I'll play it. Because I love me some GH.
This video comes with the disclaimer that it's a very early build and the game has come a long way since this was shot, but still... It's hard not to get excited by watching four virtual musicians doing their parts to make some beautiful virtual music.
Get your hands on the first piece of Will Wright's new masterpiece, and make some creatures that'll put Jim Henson to shame. Well, not really. But you can dream.
It may not come as a surprise to anyone, but in an effort to not be outdone by Rock Band, the next edition of Guitar Hero will be pumping up its features big time. Among these additions (as described in the latest issue of Game Informer and on IGN) are the inclusion of drums and vocals in the mix, a "new input mechanic" for the guitar, and a "Studio Mode" for creating new songs or jamming over old ones.
These look pretty great and all, but can anyone really justify having two fake drumsets in their house?
