Dyson Posted June 16, 2008 Posted June 16, 2008 Why oh why do they still make these things for the PS2?
Ramar Posted June 16, 2008 Posted June 16, 2008 However tempting 'laying down my own tracks' sounds, I've heard 4 people freestyle on Rock Band and its not pretty. Unless you've got some musical background knowledge, and keen desire to figure out how to make fake instruments sound awesome then I can see it being a feature highly unused or unsuccessful for most. The guitar sounds nice, but I'd like to hear more on how it works. Drums, quiet pads...oh lordy someones been playing Rock band and found the drums flaw. They've not mentioned the DLC, which really pulled me to Rock Band. The sheer effort after release is amazing. I might pick it up for Wii or 360 if my existing instruments work. Otherwise I don't think I'll have the money or space to invest in another set of plastic toy instruments. (Already hiding the drums for RB under the stairs!)
Dyson Posted June 16, 2008 Posted June 16, 2008 Yeah that's the big problem. It all depends on compatibility from here out.
Dante Posted June 20, 2008 Author Posted June 20, 2008 Guitar Hero: World Tour IGN's First Look Guitar Hero proved the market for music rhythm games is broader than previously thought. Rock Band took the genre to the next step and made it a more social experience by going beyond the six-string domain. Now Guitar Hero: World Tour is answering back. It's not just about guitars now that the full band is brought in. It's not just about playing classic songs either. World Tour lets you become the rock star in every way possible -- from playing the tunes to making the music itself. I got my first look at the next game in the hit franchise and there's no doubt about it: I'm impressed. Neversoft and Activision didn't sit on their laurels and pump out a cash-in sequel. There's so much new here that it's tough to decide where to begin. The Instruments It's tough to rock out without the proper equipment. Guitar Hero: World Tour adds drums and vocals to the formula to go along with the already present guitar and bass. It doesn't just add two new peripherals and call it a day, though. This next Guitar Hero game will add new features to the trusty guitar, as well. The Guitar World Tour introduces a new guitar controller that is even more feature-laden than past designs. Before you get in a huff about just buying the Les Paul or X-plorer models from past Guitar Hero games, know that Activision has told us these will still work in World Tour. They just won't have access to all of the new stuff the added features bring to the table. That being said, you're going to want the new axe. The biggest addition to the new guitar is the touch pad located on the neck. While playing a song, this touch sensitive strip allows you to alter notes during sustains by sliding up and down the strip (giving more freedom and options than what you had before with just a whammy bar). It can also be used for tapping to play notes, particularly awesome if you want to mimic a slap bass. The real power of the touch pad comes in the music creator. We'll get to that soon. Other changes have been made to the design as well. The back/select button has been made to look like the bridge of the guitar. It's easier to hit for activating star power and gives a more realistic look to the body. The entire body is bigger, as well, approaching something closer to a real guitar. The d-pad has been given a bit of style as well by reshaping it to look more like a knob. All of the previous great features are still there on this guitar, too. It's wireless and sleek, has an accelerometer for activating star power (and more) and will make use of new custom faceplates. In short, it's the best guitar controller we've seen yet. The Mic The microphone peripheral is fairly standard. It's wired and comes without buttons. For menus and the like you'll need to use a controller. To activate star power in the game, you won't have to wait for a special section like you do in Rock Band. Tapping it or making a making a quick similar sound at any time does the trick. The Drums Three pads, two raised cymbals, and one bass pedal make up the action elements of this new drum peripheral. That equates to the basic setup of a snare, two toms, two cymbals and a bass drum. The two cymbals are raised above the three primary pads and, on the prototype set we got a look at, had hinges and swivels on them so that you could position them how you wanted. To activate star power with the kit you simply hit both cymbals at the same time. The first thing you'll notice when you see the kit in action is that it's quieter than the Rock Band drums, which is great news for neighbors everywhere. Each drum head is eight inches in diameter, slightly larger than Rock Band's kit, so you'll be less likely to miss when things get heated. Like the guitar, this puppy is wireless. That won't really aid you in your posturing, but it will keep your room less cluttered. The big news with the pads, though, is that they're now sensitive to the speed you hit them. Slam it and you get a louder note. Tap it and, well, you get the picture. Like the touch pad on the guitar, this feature really comes into its own in the music creator. The Customizations Guitar Hero: World Tour brings back all of the Guitar Hero 3 characters, adds in those from Guitar Hero 2 that didn't make the cut last go around and slaps in some real-life rock stars that are being kept a secret for now. But isn't rocking out in videogame form about the illusion of being a rock star yourself, and wouldn't it be much cooler to see a rock star you created on screen? We'll answer those as "yes" for you and move on. World Tour gives you that option. Things kick off with a character creator that includes all of the depth of games like Tony Hawk or Tiger Woods. The simple things like sex, genre of rock star (goth, rock, punk, etc.) and build are in, of course, but you can get much more technical if you want. Age, shapes and sizes of the jaw, chin, cheek, ear, mouth, eyes, and eyebrows can all be adjusted. You can add makeup, alter the skin color to any you like -- even purple or green if you want to get crazy -- and choose your hair style and color. There are tons of clothing options that you can buy in the game with money earned from touring. There are even choices for the intro, win and loss character animations that your custom avatar will perform on stage. If you still aren't happy that this character is "yours," you can create a decal using primitives, shapes, and icons pieced together and stacked in roughly 20 layers to apply as a tattoo anywhere on the body. Then, if you like, you can take these decals and use them to customize your equipment in the new instrument creator. That's right; you can now make your own custom guitar, bass, microphone and drum kit to use on stage. The guitar and bass creators have the same options: Start with the shape of the body and then add a finish and colors. Slap on one of your decals you've saved and you've got something approaching your own. Then you can get fancy and adjust the fret board inlay, the headstock shape and finish, the pick guard, knob design, pickups, bridge and even the string type. That last one doesn't change the look but it does win points with people who play guitar in real life. Last, but not least, you can pick from a variety of in-game highways (the background behind the notes that scroll down while playing). The drum and mic creators are simpler. For the drums you can choose from a variety of shapes, shell finishes, skins and sticks. You're also free to slap a decal on the front of the bass drum to let everyone know the name of your band, or whatever else you want to put there. The singer can only choose from a range of microphone and stand types and colors. It's not much, but the front man already gets the glory anyway. The Game A music rhythm game isn't much without a good track list and some solid gameplay. We only know a small portion of what tracks and artists you'll find on the disc. Here's what we've got so far: Linkin Park Van Halen Sublime - "Santeria" Billy Idol - "Rebel Yell" Foo Fighters - "Everlong" Of these we saw "Rebel Yell," "Santeria," and "Everlong" played by the Neversoft team. The standard vertical scrolling notes for instruments and horizontal bar for words delivers the same base gameplay that's been such a big success, though we did notice a couple tweaks. The bass has an added sixth note that is played by not pushing a button for an open strum. Also, cash is awarded at the end of each song, divvied up amongst the band members based on their individual performances. Guitar Hero: World Tour brings five careers with it. There's one each for the four instruments (guitar, bass, drums, and vocals) as well as an online or off band career. If the name "World Tour" puts visions of Rock Band in your head then you'll be in familiar territory here. We didn't get a look at the new and improved career mode, but we're told it will involve touring around the world to various locations to play setlists. It's nonlinear in both progression and difficulty. If you start on hard and find you can't cut it at one venue you're free to drop it down to a lower setting and try again. You just won't unlock all of the achievements or rewards from the harder setting by doing so. Or, you can just skip off to another venue and play in another part of the world to practice. Boss battles are back, though they've been restructured as more of a call and response duel rather than using the battle mode first featured in Guitar Hero 3. Battle mode will still exist as a multiplayer mode, as will all of the others we've seen in the past, but its role in the main game has been minimized. If things are too difficult for you at every angle, fear not. World Tour features a new beginner difficulty that is even easier than easy. As for the impossible leaps some found between difficulties, Neversoft assures us they took a lot of pains to address that. Even if you're not up for playing a career and just want to hop in for some quick play action, you'll still wind up unlocking things. How? Everything you do while signed in on your primary character will earn you cash and guitarhero.com bonuses. These quick play sessions have been smoothed out as well for easy rocking. You can create a "gig" with your band that can feature up to seven songs to be played in succession with no loading in between. The Music Creator Normally I'd say that the over 85 songs (all of which are master tracks and are promised to be a "step above GH3") on the disc for Guitar Hero: World Tour is impressive. Then I'd follow it up by saying I'm bummed that none of the downloadable content from Guitar Hero 3 will work with World Tour, but that the renewed commitment to DLC with an in-game music store (that may arrive shortly after launch), full album downloads and regular releases makes up for it to some extent. While all of that is true, it pales in comparison to the limitless options the music creator offers. When I say the tools in World Tour for creating your own music are impressive, you'd do well to believe it. I was only given a brief demo of what this game packs and came away with a longing to try it myself and see what I could pump out. You don't just create songs by laying out a note track. You can simply play and the game will do the rest for you. Or you can get technical and go deep into the editor. The only downside is that you can't record a vocal track. Legal quashed that one and, when you think about what ugly doors vocal recordings could open, it makes sense. Before I overwhelm you with the depth, I'll go over a few of the options included here to keep things simple for those of us less musically inclined. The music creator includes a wizard to help newbies hop into the process quickly and painlessly. Select a premade bassline and a drum loop, adjust the tempo between fast, medium or slow and you've got the basics laid out for you. Even if you don't have a good sense of rhythm, you can make a song by telling the game to lock your notes to the beat. Our demo of the music creator was fast -- a testament to how easy it is to make a song, but only scratching the surface of what the tool can do. It was just a few minutes from starting concept to end product. The demo began with choosing a generic bass loop before moving on to creating a drum track. If you want, you can simply rock out on the drum kit and lay down a beat. But this wouldn't be a Guitar Hero game if you didn't have some options for using the guitar controller and its new touch sensitive strip. There's a drum machine in the game and you can manipulate it in real-time with the guitar. You begin by choosing a kit from an list of options. This defines your basic set of sounds that can be made. From there, loops can be assigned to each of the five buttons. Starting and stopping each loop is done with the neck buttons, then tweaks are added with the rest of the guitar. Using the touch pad you can do things like kill some parts of the loop or add 16th notes or snare hits. The strum bar changes the pitch of the loop. Tilting the guitar changes the speed of the sample. The kit I saw had a crash assigned to the whammy for easy access. The proof is in the setup. After that you can add and subtract sounds as you please. Once our demoer had the drum and bass tracks down, he rewound the song to add a guitar track over the bass and drums that set the rhythm. Before you begin to solo on the guitar, you'll have to choose from a list of options to get the sound you want. Activision has licensed the technology from Line 6, the guys who make Pods, to include in the game. This adds full amp and cab modeling to the mix, bringing a wide range of possible guitar sounds to the game. Check here to read up on what Pods do if you're not familiar with them. With the sound right, the next step is to choose a root note and scale to solo on. With the setup done, you're ready to start soloing. The new touch strip can be used to add sustains or staccato notes. Tilting the guitar controls the pitch, raising or lowering it, enabling you to play much more than five notes. Even the back button gets some love -- hitting it while strumming adds palm muting. At any point you can pause, rewind and listen to what you've done so far and re-record what you want. Oh, and the game has an arpeggiator in it in case you want to really get into things. s you're creating the song, World Tour lays down the note chart that everyone will play when the song is final in real-time. If you manage to create a nearly impossible song, you won't have to worry about that limiting your audience. The exact notes you played will be set to the hardest difficulty and the game will auto-generate note patterns for the easier settings so that everyone can enjoy (or hate) your work. Want to get even more hardcore? Head over to GH Mix, Neversoft's mixing editor where you can loop sections, edit out pieces or copy and paste a chorus. I only got a very brief look at this and Neversoft didn't say much about it other than that they didn't expect many casual gamers to ever venture into this territory. Once you're done creating your song, you can publish it to GH Tunes. When you do you'll be asked to pick which tracks should be played by each instrument, assign your own cover art (which can be custom created using the decal editor), select a genre, and a few other key bits of data to mark the track properly as yours. From there, anybody is free to download it and play it. As soon as they finish their first try at it they'll be asked to rate your masterpiece. That data is then sent back up to the server so that Activision can track which songs are the hottest with rankings for highest rated, fastest chart movers, most played and more. Get ready to find out how creative the Guitar Hero community can be. You'll be able to save up to 100 songs of your own creation locally, upload five at a time (you're free to swap your favorites in and out of GH Tunes), and download up to 200 tracks others have created. Activision was quick to point out that the Wii version will have the same features as the PS3 and 360. You can create songs, upload them, download them, and purchase famous downloadable tracks on Wii. And with all of that, you're probably wondering what the price of this rig is. It's like a miniature studio in a box, for Pete's sake. At this point Activision isn't ready to talk dollars and cents but it did say the pricing for Guitar Hero: World Tour would be "competitive" with what's out there already. Start setting some money aside now. IGN
Roostophe Posted June 20, 2008 Posted June 20, 2008 The guitar looks mint, like the new features. The GH drum kit looks better than the RB one. The character creation looks cool. And I jumped when I saw that "Everlong" was going to be on it. My brother did tell me that we were definitely going to get this. Everlong is an extra selling point, even if it isn't the original version.
Fierce_LiNk Posted June 20, 2008 Posted June 20, 2008 Ok, somehow this managed to slip past me...What the fuck is all this. One of the main plus points for the Guitar Hero series is that it allows people who aren't all that musically minded to attempt songs like Welcome to the Jungle, or One. I was looking forward to seeing what the next in the series would offer in terms of content, but I'm not all that pleased with what I'm seeing to be honest. So, tell me, will I HAVE to buy the entire band stuff, including the drums? What if I just want to play the regular game with just using the guitar? Importantly, I already shelled out 60 odd quite for a guitar with GH3. Will I be able to use that for the new game? Also, will I be pretty much abandoning the whole concept of GH4/OT if I just play using the guitar? Pretty fucked off.
Roostophe Posted June 20, 2008 Posted June 20, 2008 So, tell me, will I HAVE to buy the entire band stuff, including the drums? What if I just want to play the regular game with just using the guitar? Depends on if you'll want to play the drums or sing, or if you know some people who might be willing to play multiplayer with you. Importantly, I already shelled out 60 odd quite for a guitar with GH3. Will I be able to use that for the new game? You will be able to use the previous series' guitars, but the new guitar has new features that you can't use if you use the older guitars, and play the game fully. (I mean that the new features add some new elements to the gameplay.) Also, will I be pretty much abandoning the whole concept of GH4/OT if I just play using the guitar? Perhaps. The series was all about just playing guitar. But, as we all know. they're having to include the full band in order to compete against Rock Band.
McPhee Posted June 20, 2008 Posted June 20, 2008 Ok, somehow this managed to slip past me...What the fuck is all this. One of the main plus points for the Guitar Hero series is that it allows people who aren't all that musically minded to attempt songs like Welcome to the Jungle, or One. I was looking forward to seeing what the next in the series would offer in terms of content, but I'm not all that pleased with what I'm seeing to be honest. So, tell me, will I HAVE to buy the entire band stuff, including the drums? What if I just want to play the regular game with just using the guitar? Importantly, I already shelled out 60 odd quite for a guitar with GH3. Will I be able to use that for the new game? Also, will I be pretty much abandoning the whole concept of GH4/OT if I just play using the guitar? Pretty fucked off. You can buy World Tour and essentially play it as if it was Guitar Hero IV. That's what i'm doing with Rock Band, playing it as if it was a GH game. I've not got the money for the new instruments and although im not getting to access the full game, what i am playing is substantially more than was in GHIII. I'd expect GH:WT will be the same. If you only own the GHIII guitar you'll essentially be getting an expanded GHIII, with new tracks, a character editor, the ability to make your own songs, select your own set-lists and play online with people who own other instruments.
Dyson Posted June 22, 2008 Posted June 22, 2008 ffs, I'm going to uni and thus won't have the space nor money for this. But fuck me I want it. I just hope that RB2 is announced and somehow manages to trump GHWT's features with currently existing hardware..if that's possible.
S.C.G Posted June 30, 2008 Posted June 30, 2008 I just hope that RB2 is announced and somehow manages to trump GHWT's features with currently existing hardware..if that's possible. QFT! I hope they stick with the original instruments or expand them somehow by adding optional attachments, I sure as hell don't want to buy the instruments all over again just for an extra pad. :/ I think if they wanted to they could make two pads like cymbals that attack to the existing drum kit, then it would be exactly like GH WT's set except with more pads and with or w/e the pedal (the extra pads would plug in where the pedal goes) also look on the back of the middle drums, theres two grooves in the plastic which look like something could be attached to, intruiging?
Dyson Posted June 30, 2008 Posted June 30, 2008 Actually you might be interested to know that those two grooves pull out to form...drum stick holders! I wasn't aware until my friend told me either Anyway - They've announced RB2 but it doesn't look like there are any spectacular new features that they have announced yet, we'll have to wait for E3 for that.
S.C.G Posted June 30, 2008 Posted June 30, 2008 Actually you might be interested to know that those two grooves pull out to form...drum stick holders! I wasn't aware until my friend told me either OMG! thats fucking awesome! I wondered what the hell they were for lol now I have a proper place to put them. ^^
Dante Posted September 17, 2008 Author Posted September 17, 2008 Seems Activision are looking at introducing subscriptions for Guitar Hero DLC, to cater for the game's heavier users. One possible setup mentioned yesterday during their analyst conference call was to implement an annual subscription, whereby users could pay a flat fee and then download a certain number of songs every month. Provided that gives you a bulk discount, can't see this as anything but a good idea. kotaku.com
Tellyn Posted September 17, 2008 Posted September 17, 2008 Very good idea, especially since lots of people bought most of Rock Band's DLC.
Ramar Posted September 17, 2008 Posted September 17, 2008 Only problem with that is limiting how much you can download a month. That then depends how much DLC is out when you buy the game, and how many tracks you would want to install. Be a bit crap to wait a whole month just to download another 5 tracks (for example).
Cookyman Posted September 17, 2008 Posted September 17, 2008 PS3 Guitar Hero World Tour has a slight edge over the 360 version - if your a musical genius! Linkage During the past couple of days, whispers of a new instrument were said to be introduced for Guitar Hero: World Tour - for its PS3 and Xbox 360 versions, at least. Since the beginning, it's been announced that this fourth installment in the franchise would finally introduce two new peripherals other than the guitar controller: the drums and the microphone. But is there a fourth controller? It turns out that Neversoft project director Brian Bright was actually misquoted and there's never really been this "new instrument" - to clarify, it's actually a feature that integrates the use of a PC. The feature is the MIDI Sequencer - that'd be the same mode in which you get to create your own music for Guitar Hero: World Tour. In that feature, you get to hook your PC to your PS3 or Xbox 360 and record whatever's playing into the in-game studio. Here's the reason behind the new feature, as Bright explained: If you're a musician or you do any sequencing, it really just makes the pathway to getting your songs in the game that much easier--once you get it down. We just really want to give people enough tools to be able to make good music. This feature will be incorporated as a patch to be released sometime during the launch week of the game. The MIDI sequencer functionality will be limited to just the drums tracks for the Xbox 360 (due to unspecified "hardware issues") but the PlayStation 3 version would be able to incorporate drum tracks as well as those for rhythm guitar, lead guitar, bass, and keyboards. For those who want to pursue the whole in-depth MIDI sequencing and song creation functionality (as Bright admits, "it's not something that your average user is gonna do"), a full FAQ will be released at the official Guitar Hero website in the near future.
Diageo Posted September 17, 2008 Posted September 17, 2008 Does the wii version have that MIDI thing?
Cookyman Posted September 17, 2008 Posted September 17, 2008 Does the wii version have that MIDI thing? Nope! just 360 & PS3
tapedeck Posted September 17, 2008 Posted September 17, 2008 As a grade 8 keyboard player I HAVE to see this in motion before I start thinking about a purchase. Will the RB1 instruments work with GH4 on PS3 or does no-one have a clue yet? Oh and I promise when this hits I will write an N-E superhit for all to rock out to!
gmac Posted September 18, 2008 Posted September 18, 2008 yes all instruments are cross compatible now
Tellyn Posted September 18, 2008 Posted September 18, 2008 Yeah, RB1, 2 and World Tour instruments are all compatible with each other on the 360 and PS3, not the Wii though.
MadDog Posted September 18, 2008 Posted September 18, 2008 The Wii always gets screwed out of everything
Cookyman Posted September 18, 2008 Posted September 18, 2008 As a grade 8 keyboard player I HAVE to see this in motion before I start thinking about a purchase. Watch this then make that purchase!
tapedeck Posted September 19, 2008 Posted September 19, 2008 Yeah, RB1, 2 and World Tour instruments are all compatible with each other on the 360 and PS3, not the Wii though. Doesn't the GH4 drum kit have 5 places to hit compared to RB's 4? If anyone can link me giving 100% confirmation that RB1 stuff will work with GH4 I'll get it asap and just buy GH4 solo. EDIT: After mucho searching seems that GH4 drums will work with RB1 by switching to 4 pads in-game. (as there's not the extra place to hit.) However, seems like a bunch of opinion and nay say from both companies and nothing solid?!
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