Guitar Hero? --- Heck NO!!! --- Rock Band FTW!

[versapak]

I have been a huge fan of Guitar Hero since the first second I played the original one standing in Best Buy 2 years ago.

It is now nothing to me.

Rock Band is THAT much better.


I can't really speak for any of the solo play yet, but the co-op play is some of the most fun I have ever had in local multiplayer, and even in Guitar Hero III single player isn't really all that great.

These games are definitely best played with company, and on this site, there is no doubt many of us that remember when multiplayer was all about several of us sitting around the same console.

All those great times...

Rock Band brings it all back in a very amazing way.


My son is only 8, and it is pretty tough to find games that we can both play together where we are each getting a full experience (Too complicated for him, not complicated enough for me, etc...). This was never even remotely an issue in Rock Band, because each player picks their own difficulty to play at, but there is never a feeling that they aren't able to contribute their all.

Even my 9 year old daughter, who usually hates video gaming, is able to get in on all the fun, because she happens to love Karaoke.

[ChadTower]

Heh... sounds great.  We just got to multiplayer gaming in our house (kids are 8 and 6), so the group around a console is new for us.  Because of their ages we're playing mostly on the N64, games like Mario Party and Mario Kart.  Good times now that the younger one actually finishes races rather than just driving around randomly.

[shmokes]

I hope it comes out for Wii.  I'm dying to play it, and I don't see a PS3 or 360 in my immediate future.  I've actually still never played Guitar Hero.

[ChadTower]

I hope it comes out for Wii.  I'm dying to play it, and I don't see a PS3 or 360 in my immediate future.  I've actually still never played Guitar Hero.

I've only played the arcade version of Guitar Hero (can't remember the name).  One of these days I'm going to get off my wallet and pick up a copy of GH and the guitar.

[AtomSmasher]

I hope it comes out for Wii.  I'm dying to play it, and I don't see a PS3 or 360 in my immediate future.  I've actually still never played Guitar Hero.

I love Guitar Hero, but I'm in the same boat as you hoping it comes out for the Wii.  I keep thinking I'll eventually get a PS3 or 360, but I never do and probably won't for some time.

[ChadTower]

I seem to remember both of you saying in the past you had PS2s... I know shmokes has one.

[versapak]

I seem to remember both of you saying in the past you had PS2s... I know shmokes has one.

...and Rock Band is available for the PS2.


Though I doubt that one supports any of the downloadable content, which is one thing that is going to keep this game going for quite some time in my house.

[AtomSmasher]

I seem to remember both of you saying in the past you had PS2s... I know shmokes has one.

I do have a PS2 and I have every copy of Guitar Hero there is (1, 2, 80's encore, and 3).  When I said I was in the same boat as shmokes, I was refering to him saying he hopes it comes out for the Wii.  

Wait, you could be saying that Rock Band is coming out for the PS2.  I didn't think they would release it on the last gen console, which is why I assumed the Wii was my best chance to play it.  Is it coming out for the PS2?

*addition: since versapak responded while I was typing this*  Awesome, I had no idea it was coming out for the ps2.

[versapak]

It comes out a little later (next month), but it is $10 cheaper.


http://www.ebgames.com/product.asp?product%5Fid=281841



[EDIT]

Actually... Release date isn't announced yet, so...

It is coming though.

[shmokes]

I know shmokes has one.

Nope . . . I've never owned a PS2.  I only had an Xbox and Gamecube in the last generation.  That's one of the main draws of the PS3 for me, cos I missed out on a few crazy good games like Shadow of the Colossus and Ico and God of War (of course, it looks like backwards compatibility is on the chopping block so it may become a non-issue).  Wii is my only hope.

[ChadTower]

So all this time you've been arguing the mass of quality games on the PS2 without ever having owned one?   

[RTSDaddy2]

Having just seen the drum set in use on Sunday, I thought "Cool!" and my next thought was "Where's the Wii version?"  I didn't learn until later that the drums were only a part of the whole picture.

I've not played it yet, but I am estatic as a musician and educator that efforts like Rock Band and Guitar Hero are successes.  Kudos to those of you who share this with  your kids. 

[Wiibound]

I was really disappointed that GH3 had basically NO innovation or evolution other than those guitar battle thingies..

I mean good lord they need to get the ball rolling on some new features with GH3

[ChadTower]

Question... are there modes where you can play with only a couple, or even one, of the instruments?  If you only have two people present, can you choose which instruments to use and play with just those two? 

[shardian]

Question... are there modes where you can play with only a couple, or even one, of the instruments?  If you only have two people present, can you choose which instruments to use and play with just those two? 

Yes.

[ChadTower]

Cool.  I could see playing with the kids, but they're young, so they wouldn't do so well... but no one would want to sing, pretty much ever. 

Plotting it out a bit, just in case, maybe Santa brings a 360.

[versapak]

Cool.  I could see playing with the kids, but they're young, so they wouldn't do so well... but no one would want to sing, pretty much ever. 

Plotting it out a bit, just in case, maybe Santa brings a 360.

Yeah, you can choose between guitar, drums, vocals, or bass, and you can have anywhere from 1 to 4 people playing.

The drums are the hardest thing to play. My son can manage to stay in the songs on easy with them, but my daughter pretty much...

Well, my daughter sings.


The bass guitar is no doubt the easiest instrument part in most cases.

The vocals can actually be pretty darn easy on easy. My 4 year old is actually able to finish "Blitzkrieg Bop" on easy vocals.

[shmokes]

Chad, difficulty level is per instrument, too.  So, unlike most games that you play with your small kids where it's either way too easy for you, or way too hard for them, you can play together and the whole gang has a ball.

Also . . . yeah.  I've played PS2, you know a couple dozen times.  But most of my arguments against PS2 bashers was based on objective data and common sense.  PS1 is another story, though, and I'm thinking that you might be combining separate PS1 and PS2 arguments.  I'm pretty sure I remember a PS2 one after you mentioned that you got one and ditched it like a week later, but I've had to defend PS1 against the Nintendo fanboys loads of times (and I am a Nintendo fanboy).  I did own a PS1.

[shardian]

Just curious, how does the microphone thing work?

[ChadTower]

Chad, difficulty level is per instrument, too.  So, unlike most games that you play with your small kids where it's either way too easy for you, or way too hard for them, you can play together and the whole gang has a ball.

That is a key thing to know.  Cool.

[versapak]

Just curious, how does the microphone thing work?

Have you ever played Karaoke Revolution?


It is pretty much ripped straight from those games. You have a pitch line that scrolls with the words, and you need to time your words and pitch accordingly.

On easy it is not very strict and you can fake your way through a lot of it by just throwing anything out trying to match the pitch. On Expert you better know what your singing, and how to do it.

[Dartful Dodger]

I was planning on buying a Wii after Christmas. Until I played Rock Band.

A friend of mine bought it for his PS3 last weekend.  We were up until 3am Saturday, and until 2am New Years eve.  It was 12:30 when we realized we missed the New Year countdown.

He downloaded a few Metallica songs on Sunday, and when we were playing the Tour Bus competition it made us play 2 of them.  My eyes were tearing like faucets. I thought those songs would never end.  We assumed the harder songs get unlocked as you go, but since he bought the more difficult songs they ended up in our playlist.  He’s promised not to buy any new songs until we’re better at the game.

My current system is a PS1. The sound is going in it so I figured it’s time to upgrade.  The Wii was my first choice because it’s a great group gamming system that's easy to play and it’s a one size fits all console.  Now that I’ve seen the light I’m going to get a PS3.  I haven’t spent any time looking into the PS3 so I don’t know what I need.  I’m only going to be playing Rock band and first person shooters on it.  Is the 80 gig necessary, or can I get the smaller/cheaper PS3? 

Friday is payday and the voices in my head are screaming for Rock Band.  Thanks for any advice.

[ahofle]

So what's the word on it coming to the Wii?  The only articles I can find are 6+ months old and most of them saying it's definitely coming for Wii.

On a side note, I attended a similar new years eve party as Dartful but we all played GH3 on the Wii (first time I've ever played one of those games).  It was a blast.  I am totally loving this trend of games that normal women like to play.

We also played a little of that Mario and Sonic Olympics game.  Man that game is a total wank fest.  Most events have you jerking the wimote up and down and in some cases forward and backwards.  Needless to say the women all went into the other room at that point.  I won most of the events, probably because I have been married the longest of the group. 

[ChadTower]

I need more playtime on GH, I think... the only person I know that has it is my brother in law, and every time we try to play, his father starts yelling to put the Sox' 2004 World Series DVDs back in.

[shardian]

I got GHIII and two guitars for Christmas. The wife bugged me all week to play it with her. She absolutely loves it. It is really neat that each person can pick their difficulty, and can pick from  guitar or bass parts.

The guitar battle thing is kinda silly though. It took me a while to get the battle down pat to beat the first solo player battle. I also played the wife in a few, and she was able to beat me while I was on medium and her on easy. I thought that was kind of screwy that she had already earned an attack before my harder part had even offered me a chance to get one.

I was disappointed by how short the game appears to be. We "beat" the game, and there was only like 5 cut scenes total.

[SirPoonga]

Here's a review I did for someone

I picked up Rock Band this last weekend, just the game.  I love it.  Over Christmas I played Guitar Hero with my sister.  She liked it and she came up with the same conclusion I did, GH2 is better than GH3 yet the songs in GH3 are better.  GH2 is not so difficult that you have fun playing it.  GH3 is more difficult and requires much more concentration.  I do not find that as much fun.  I can't relax and groove with the songs like in GH2.

I  heard Rock Band was similar to GH2 in difficulty.  I picked it up last weekend and now I don't know if I will touch Guitar Hero again.  Rock Band is almost perfect.  The note mapping and song selection is awesome.  The downloadable songs are great.  The only thing I wish Rock Band had was a play comparison at the end of the song like GH2.

I like the game mechanics of Rock Band.  Having an obvious solo section is cool.  The rock ending is neat, wish I had the les paul for that.  The hammer on and pull offs are a little harder to recognize though.  I also like hte presentation of Rock Band.  The globe to navigate cities.  During the song it feels like you are at a concert more than Guitar Hero.

Chad, to expand on some of your questions.  From what I can tell if you use the 360 version you can have guests.  This means if you have a guitar and drums setup you can have a friend or family member join you with online play.

You don't need all of the instruments to play.  I use my wireless GH3 controller.  From the sounds of it many people prefer that controller anyway.  But there are also people who love the les paul.  The unanimous complaint about the les paul is the strum bar doesn't feel the same as previous guitar controllers.

You can use a 360 headset or any usb mic for the mic.  For the 360 headset it needs to be on it's own controller, you can't plug it into the guitar and use it as a game mic.

The DLC for Rock Band is cheaper than GH3, and I think it is better.

One reason I think Rock Band's songs are better is because they had to pick song people would have fun singing.  So this means songs that many people know or songs that are catchy and easy to learn.  I can put the game on random and like what I get.  There are only a couple of songs I will skip.

I wish there was a bass solo tour.  So, since I play bass in real life I would like to play bass in the game.  The only way to play bass is either world tour or online.  That means if I want to customize a bass player profile I need to play solo tour as something else.  Stupid.

NSFW - This video review of GH3 sums up my feelings as compared to previous GHs.
http://www.escapistmagazine.com/articles/view/editorials/zeropunctuation/2716-Zero-Punctuation-Guitar-Hero-III

[SirPoonga]

shardian - there are 63 songs in solo tour for Rock Band.  I am not sure if that counts the bonus tracks or not.  Also there is currently about 20+ songs to download.

I forgot to add another thing.  You can sort the song list in Rock Band.  You can sort it by difficulty, alphabetically by song name, alphabetically by group name, and by genre.

[versapak]

shardian - there are 63 songs in solo tour for Rock Band.  I am not sure if that counts the bonus tracks or not.  Also there is currently about 20+ songs to download.

I forgot to add another thing.  You can sort the song list in Rock Band.  You can sort it by difficulty, alphabetically by song name, alphabetically by group name, and by genre.

and by decade.

[pointdablame]

Just a note in case it confuses anyone (and because I have OCD)

SirPoonga talks about the "les paul" from Rock Band having a different strum bar.  The Les Paul is actually the Guitar Hero 3 guitar and is (for most purposes) identical to the first bunch of GH guitars.  The rock band guitar is a Fender Stratocaster and is larger than any GH guitar, has the different strum bar, and has the set of solo buttons.

And yes, it seems like most people have a very strong feeling about the new strat.  People seem to love it or hate it with no in between.  I personally love it and thnk its the best way to play either GH or Rock Band and I think the new softer strum bar is fantastic.  Once the wireless version comes out, I'll probably consider it the perfect guitar for these games.

[versapak]

Just a note in case it confuses anyone (and because I have OCD)

SirPoonga talks about the "les paul" from Rock Band having a different strum bar.  The Les Paul is actually the Guitar Hero 3 guitar and is (for most purposes) identical to the first bunch of GH guitars.  The rock band guitar is a Fender Stratocaster and is larger than any GH guitar, has the different strum bar, and has the set of solo buttons.

And yes, it seems like most people have a very strong feeling about the new strat.  People seem to love it or hate it with no in between.  I personally love it and thnk its the best way to play either GH or Rock Band and I think the new softer strum bar is fantastic.  Once the wireless version comes out, I'll probably consider it the perfect guitar for these games.

I agree.

A lot of the problem with the strum bar was that there was an actual design flaw with the initial batch of Strat controllers, and the strum bar is now an entirely different mechanism (went from leaf switches to magnetic ones).


I prefer the flush fret buttons in a big way, and really like the solo buttons and effect toggling.

I can't wait for the wireless.

[Zero_Hour]

I haven’t spent any time looking into the PS3 so I don’t know what I need.  I’m only going to be playing Rock band and first person shooters on it.  Is the 80 gig necessary, or can I get the smaller/cheaper PS3? 

Friday is payday and the voices in my head are screaming for Rock Band.  Thanks for any advice.

The 80 Gig is really only necessary if you plan on picking up PS2 games for it, as the 40 Gig version does not support any backwards compatibility. The 40 Gig also has fewer USB ports - don't know if that impacts Rock Band or not.

I Just Picked up GHIII and am loving it (never played any of the others), if I had anyone who actually came over to game, Rock Band would be on my must list for sure.

[shardian]

Anyone else happen to watch Conan Obrien last night? He had a segment where he passed the time during the break carrying around a portable amp and annoying the hell out of staffers by playing right next to them the same riff over and over.
He then walked in on a group playing rock band and joined in playing for real. I thought that scene was hilarious. To tell the truth, I found the show to actually be funnier without the writers. I supposed that won't last though.

[ChadTower]

Is he allowed to write his own stuff during the strike?  He's probably a better writer than anyone on his staff.  Nevermind his SNL stuff - dude wrote the Simpsons episode about the Monorail.  That right there makes him a legend in my eyes.

[shardian]

That's the thing I don't get about the NBC guys. They "claim" they aren't writing anything. Leno did a monologue with "jokes he had written beforehand".
Technically, Conan did a monologue discussing his beard (which is so wrong it is right BTW). However, someone had to "write" the idea to do the camera action that they did to make it funny. I think the writers guild is witholding judgement on Leno and Conan, but they could decide to blacklist them if they deem they crossed the writing line.

[ChadTower]

What exactly is the "writing line"?  I mean, dude is out there on live TV - he has to do something.  If he's not one of the "writers" then he should be able to "write" his own content just fine.  He is one of the best there is - and he should be able to step in to keep his show going when his employees are on strike.  That's what happens in any other business. 

[shardian]

What exactly is the "writing line"?  I mean, dude is out there on live TV - he has to do something.  If he's not one of the "writers" then he should be able to "write" his own content just fine.  He is one of the best there is - and he should be able to step in to keep his show going when his employees are on strike.  That's what happens in any other business. 

He's a member of the writers guild. If he so much as lifts a pen, he can be kicked out and that qualifies him as being blacklisted. You could say " who cares, he is locked down for the Leno gig". The studio could rethink that one considering the show would be boycotted by most big name celebrity guests.

[ChadTower]

I wasn't talking about Leno, just to be clear.  Leno is a big pile of suck with runny camel ---steaming pile of meadow muffin--- on top.  I was talking about Conan.

Of course, I haven't watched Conan more than twice in the past 18 months, so it really doesn't impact me at all.  The primary written TV I watch still has all of its writers in full swing and is unaffected by the strike.

[shardian]

I wasn't talking about Leno, just to be clear.  Leno is a big pile of suck with runny camel ---Cleveland steamer--- on top.  I was talking about Conan.

Of course, I haven't watched Conan more than twice in the past 18 months, so it really doesn't impact me at all.  The primary written TV I watch still has all of its writers in full swing and is unaffected by the strike.

I wasn't talking about Leno either. NBC made a deal that they are kicking Leno out by the end of 2009 and that Conan will immediately take over the "Tonight Show". They had to make the deal because Conan was going to jump ship.

Oh, and I haven't watched Conan regularly since Andy Richter was his co-host if that tells you anything. I still do the "in the year 2000" schitck with the wife and she has no clue what I am talking about.

[ChadTower]

Ah.  I'm still trying to figure out why pro wrestling writers aren't in the union.  Just the WWE writers alone produce 2 live hours and 3 pretaped hours of content every week.

[Cakemeister]

I have the red guitar for the PS2 and the white guitar for the 360. I like the red guitar's strum bar much better. GH3 for the two platforms plays pretty much the same. If you are a Bret Michaels or Poison fan he is on the 360 version but not the PS2 version, although he did the singer's motion capture. Haven't played Rock Band yet.