Gaming Guitar Hero IV: Rock Band's Future Nemesis

[Aberinkula]

[COLOR="DarkSlateGray"][SIZE="1"]Well, it's official, Guitar Hero IV (Guitar Hero World Tour?) will be coming out late fall... YEAH! And the best part is, it's a reflection of Rock Band, but imo, far cooler! It's said to have the biggest collection of songs, and even songs by bands that haven't been released yet. So that means, you get to hear a certain song before the band releases the album, which rocks hard.

There are drum peripherals and bass, much cooler and durrable drums than Rock Band drums btw. There are 3 snares and 2 crash cymbols as well as a bass petal. (See picture below)
[IMG]http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/c/cd/Ghwt_drums.jpg[/IMG]

And there will also be, and thank god it's arrived, a song customization mode where you can make your own songs (no vocals sadly) and you can put them on the net for people to download, which is even cooler, but that's only available on the PS3, Wii and 360 versions, but as for the PS2, the mode is available, but you can't put songs on the net.

As for the song list, not available yet, but Linkin Park, 3 Days Grace, Van Halen, and Sublime might be on it. And possibly a boss fight with Ted Nugent.

But possibly the best part of it is, Rock Band might have some competition. Also, there will be a create-a-character on this game as well.

Also, I know theres a Guitar Hero thread, but who cares this is looking to be AWESOME. If you want to know more, go out and buy Game Informer, or look it up on the net.[/SIZE][/COLOR]

[Neptune]

[FONT="Palatino Linotype"][COLOR="RoyalBlue"]O.O!!!

I think my jaw just broke when it hit the floor, I need a doctor. In all seriousness though, this news is so unexpected. I figured GHIV would just be another rinse and repeat of the other Guitar Hero's, add some new characters, new venues, new songs, polish, and rinse. But ... wow. Those drums look amazing!! People are going to cry because now they have to buy another drum kit they have no room for, I being one of them, but I can compromise some space in the corner I suppose.

Create a character is definitely a welcome feature that I think should have been implemented in GHIII, but beggars can't be choosers. I don't have much hope for the create a song mode just yet until I see how it will function ... I just have a feeling it will be one of those systems that's alright but will need to be improved in the next version of the game. Of course, that's just my early opinion, I'm sure I'll just drool all over the game by the time it's actually out.[/COLOR][/FONT]

[Morpheus]

Fake cymbals will never work. This is why harmonix didn't do them in the first place. Just tapping a drum stick against a thin piece of plastic or metal should've clued neversoft in to this fact.

And creating your own note charts is not nearly as fun as it sounds.

[Ellerby]

[FONT="Tahoma"][COLOR="DimGray"]So basically it's everything Guitar Hero already was, plus Rock Band. For the second time in a row, Neversoft proves they aren't at all creative. Just a bunch of thieves. Apparently buying the Guitar Hero franchise from Harmonix wasn't good enough for them. They also need everything that made Rock Band 10x better than Guitar Hero III.

Needless to say I'm still going to buy the game. But I'll be using my Rock Band guitar, mic and drum kit, thanks.

And I don't need god damn cymbal pads. I want a frakking hi-hat pad!

[b]EDIT:[/b] And notice how their drum kit is clearly not collapsable. Fail.[/COLOR][/FONT]

[Desbreko]

[quote name='8bit'][FONT="Tahoma"][COLOR="DimGray"]Needless to say I'm still going to buy the game. But I'll be using my Rock Band guitar, mic and drum kit, thanks.[/COLOR][/FONT][/QUOTE][color=#4B0082]From [url=http://blog.wired.com/games/2008/05/music-game-wars.html][u]what I've been reading[/u][/url], Rock Band instruments won't be compatible with GH World Tour. You'll probably have to shell out for a whole new set if you want the game, which I'm betting a lot of people who bought Rock Band won't be willing to do. (I sure wouldn't.) It seems like Activision are shooting themselves in the foot with that.[/color]

[Korey]

[FONT="Franklin Gothic Medium"]I think it's overall better just to play a REAL instrument, but I may be wrong. I played Rock Band for a little while and I still would rather go back to real instruments any day of the week. [/FONT]

[Nerdsy]

[quote name='Aberinkula'][COLOR="DarkSlateGray"][SIZE="1"] Linkin Park[/SIZE][/COLOR][/QUOTE]

[color=deeppink]Epic fail.

I may boycott the game just because of that.[/color]

[Morpheus]

[quote name='Korey'][FONT="Franklin Gothic Medium"]I think it's overall better just to play a REAL instrument, but I may be wrong. I played Rock Band for a little while and I still would rather go back to real instruments any day of the week. [/FONT][/QUOTE]

Not everyone has the time or talent for that sort of thing but they still like to play music. That's pretty much the reason rhythm games exist.

[The Spectacular Professor]

After a couple rounds of Rock Band, I'm pretty much not on board for any GH after number 3 unless they pull another one-band wonder and give me a B-52's edition.

[Neptune]

Wow ... there's so much hate for this game ... oh well. I'll still enjoy it.

[Korey]

[quote name='Morpheus']Not everyone has the time or talent for that sort of thing but they still like to play music. That's pretty much the reason rhythm games exist.[/QUOTE]

[FONT="Franklin Gothic Medium"]Time, maybe. Talent? Nah, anyone can learn an instrument if they really dedicated themselves to it. It's not like people are pre-destined from birth with the ability to dance, be a DJ, or play an instrument. It's all what you decide to dedicate yourself to. But I digress...[/FONT]

[Morpheus]

[quote name='Korey'][FONT="Franklin Gothic Medium"]Time, maybe. Talent? Nah, anyone can learn an instrument if they [B]really dedicated themselves[/B] to it. It's not like people are pre-destined from birth with the ability to dance, be a DJ, or play an instrument. It's all what you decide to dedicate yourself to. But I digress...[/FONT][/QUOTE]

That's they key though. Not everyone [I]wants[/I] to take the time to learn. They just want to play the songs.

[Ellerby]

[FONT="Tahoma"][COLOR="DimGray"]Rock Band, or any of these games, are still fun even if you know how to play the real instruments. My friends love GH and Rock Band and also play Guitar, I've been playing the drums for almost 5 years now and I still love playing drums on Rock Band (because I'm good at it, haha).[/COLOR][/FONT]

[Korey]

[quote name='8bit'][FONT="Tahoma"][COLOR="DimGray"]Rock Band, or any of these games, are still fun even if you know how to play the real instruments. My friends love GH and Rock Band and also play Guitar, I've been playing the drums for almost 5 years now and I still love playing drums on Rock Band (because I'm good at it, haha).[/COLOR][/FONT][/QUOTE]

[FONT="Franklin Gothic Medium"]Lol, thanks to RL drumming, I got some wicked skills for the freestyle sections in Rock Band. I'm not saying these games aren't fun or that it's just a shameless gimmick of real instruments. I love busting out Rock Band sometimes when I'm with friends, but as a musician, I like the feel of my drums better :catgirl:[/FONT]

[Zen]

[color=royalblue][size=1]

Adding to the actual intrument arguement, a freind of mine is an actual drummer for a rather popular band. He went to a Best Buy one day and beat Rock Band's drum career in two hours on expert the first time through, five starring every song.

He also clued me in on that if you thought of a drum set as the controller, you could more or less play the songs as shown on the screen (except for fills of course).

Also, GH is what made me want to start playing a guitar, and thus I have started to learn. Before it I was primarily concerned with creating Hip Hop, but now I'm slowing turning into one of those omni-musician types like Beck.

As far as GH4 is concerned, I'm excited. I understand there will be some draw backs and what have you, but I read a full article this week in Game Informer on it, and I'm very interested. Several things that made me hate both GH and Rock Band are being fixed apparently, such as the ability to play whatever you wish through out your career without obligations to songs that you don't want to play, not because you can't, but because you think they suck (i.e. The first two set lists on GH3).

You can start a career and beat one song on easy, and the next on expert if you wish, without having to start on a whole new career setting. You don't have to replay the same songs thirty times (I'm looking at you, Rock Band...) though you can if you want.

The idea of custom-built intruments is cool, and an improvement on Rock Band's color-changing thing. The create-a-character is, admittedly, a rip off of Rock Band, but who cares? It's cool, and I think Neversoft would've been foolish NOT to steal that. Are you going to say that the NFL 2K series was ripping off Madden for having a create-a-team feature? The same applies for the multi-instrument scheme.

I own both Guitar Hero and Rock Band, and I play both and I enjoy both. They provide different atmospheres I believe and each has it's own spirit. I think I'm going to very much enjoy Neversoft's over-the-top version, just like I enjoyed Rock Band's realistic band life.

I personally think the drum-set is cool looking, and I'm sure that the current model is not the final product (so, 8bit, if it's not collapsable by ship, then I guess the joke's me, and I'll be investing in a swivel chair that I already own). The guitar is supposed to be re-modeled soon, though it will be backwards compatible, and I'm excited about that. The reason the drum set will be non-compatible with the Rock Band one is obvious, because there's an extra pad.

I think the create-a-song will be interesting, though I'm no composer. I may not give this a whole lot of time, but I'll probably download one's that are up on the net.

I'm just generally excited about the game. I'll buy it, just like I'll undoubtedly buy Rock Band 2 when and if that rolls around. I'm a fan of both series, 'til the end. Just like Tekken and Virtua Fighter or Metal Gear Solid and Splinter Cell (though Snake would so pwn Sam Fisher, any day of the week).[/color][/size]

[Ellerby]

[FONT="Tahoma"][COLOR="DimGray"][quote name='Zen'][color=royalblue][size=1]Several things that made me hate both GH and Rock Band are being fixed apparently, such as the ability to play whatever you wish through out your career without obligations to songs that you don't want to play, not because you can't, but because you think they suck (i.e. The first two set lists on GH3).[/color][/size][/quote]
...dude, you can do that in Rock Band. Save for eventually having to play every single song in a row if you want to beat the endless setlist (which I still haven't) you can easily fly through World Tour mode without ever playing crappy songs.

As for single-player career mode, which is what I'm assuming you're referring to, I think the ability to skip songs is bullocks. Are you really beating the game if you can't bring yourself to beat every song on a certain difficulty? By allowing people to "cheat" they're taking away the whole "I finally beat Guitar Career on Expert!" thing.

[quote name='The Boss][color=royalblue][size=1]You don't have to replay the same songs thirty times (I'm looking at you, Rock Band...) though you can if you want. [/color'][/size][/quote]
What? At what point in Rock Band does it ever make you play a song more than once? In Single-Player you play it once and that's it and in World Tour you can avoid playing certain songs entirely!

I think Guitar Hero IV will be good. Heck, it will probably be great! But only because they're sticking with what works. They aren't bringing anything new to the table (although the touch-sensitive drum pads [i]IS[/i] a nice addition, I'll admit).[/COLOR][/FONT]

[Zen]

[quote name='8bit'][FONT="Tahoma"][COLOR="DimGray"]
...dude, you can do that in Rock Band. Save for eventually having to play every single song in a row if you want to beat the endless setlist (which I still haven't) you can easily fly through World Tour mode without ever playing crappy songs.

As for single-player career mode, which is what I'm assuming you're referring to, I think the ability to skip songs is bullocks. Are you really beating the game if you can't bring yourself to beat every song on a certain difficulty? By allowing people to "cheat" they're taking away the whole "I finally beat Guitar Career on Expert!" thing.


What? At what point in Rock Band does it ever make you play a song more than once? In Single-Player you play it once and that's it and in World Tour you can avoid playing certain songs entirely!

I think Guitar Hero IV will be good. Heck, it will probably be great! But only because they're sticking with what works. They aren't bringing anything new to the table (although the touch-sensitive drum pads [i]IS[/i] a nice addition, I'll admit).[/COLOR][/FONT][/QUOTE]


[color=royalblue][size=1]

See, I'm talking about the career mode, where, you beat a song, say, Mississippi Queen in one club as a bonus set or something, then you go to another club and Mississippi Queen is the first song I have to play. It has happened more than once to me. Also, there are ALOT of songs on Rock Band that I dislike playing, such as Long Time, which I was forced to play in order to get to the next set list on Expert (see, I don't play on any other difficulty, atleast on Guitar).

As for the whole "I beat the game on Expert thing" it's just as good as saying "I beat every song on expert". I mean, you can play the entire game and set list on hard, normal, and easy, this is just making it where you don't have to do it over and over again until your at expert level for the song. IF you want, you can just go back, and re-beat the song on a higher difficult when you are ready, and if you are a beast, you'll beat all the songs on expert eventually, and I'm very, very sure, be rewarded for it. I don't see the difference other than it being a plus.

They are also bringing the "make a song", "design an instrument", and enhancing the create-a-character, along with two new controllers.[/color][/size]

[Ellerby]

[quote name='Zen'][color=royalblue][size=1]See, I'm talking about the career mode, where, you beat a song, say, Mississippi Queen in one club as a bonus set or something, then you go to another club and Mississippi Queen is the first song I have to play. It has happened more than once to me. Also, there are ALOT of songs on Rock Band that I dislike playing, such as Long Time, which I was forced to play in order to get to the next set list on Expert (see, I don't play on any other difficulty, atleast on Guitar).[/color][/size][/quote]
[FONT="Tahoma"][COLOR="DimGray"]Alright, I'll give you the career mode thing. I can see that happening (though I still say it's avoidable, there are tons of different set lists including make your own set lists you can do to unlock fans and venues, even at the beginning of the game).

[quote name='Zen][color=royalblue][size=1]As for the whole "I beat the game on Expert thing" it's just as good as saying "I beat every song on expert". I mean, you can play the entire game and set list on hard, normal, and easy, this is just making it where you don't have to do it over and over again until your at expert level for the song. IF you want, you can just go back, and re-beat the song on a higher difficult when you are ready, and if you are a beast, you'll beat all the songs on expert eventually, and I'm very, very sure, be rewarded for it. I don't see the difference other than it being a plus.[/color'][/size][/quote]
That's just my point, if you're skipping songs to get to a new set list you [b]aren't[/b] beating every song on expert. If you want those bragging rights, you have to go back and play the song anyway! I guess I just always enjoyed playing through the game on Hard, beating it, and then attempting to beat Expert mode from the very beginning.

[quote name='Zen][color=royalblue][size=1]They are also bringing the "make a song", "design an instrument", and enhancing the create-a-character, along with two new controllers.[/color'][/size][/quote]
Making a song isn't going to be anything special. You can't add vocals and I doubt it will have much depth at all, though I guess we'll have to wait and see. I haven't heard anything about design an instrument so I can't comment on that but as far as the create-a-character thing goes can they [I]really[/I] improve on Rock Band in that department?

I've had Rock Band for a solid 5 months now and my character is [i]still[/i] changing. Tons of clothes/hairstyles/instruments/tattoos (which, in itself, is a blast) make for completely unique characters. I have [b]never[/b] run into [i]anyone[/i] online that looked even remotely similar to my character.

Guitar Hero 3 had what? 10 characters to choose from? Of course their character creation is going to be considered a "re-enhancement." It didn't even exist in previous games.

And what new controllers? So help me god if you mention the drum kit. That hardly counts as "new."[/COLOR][/FONT]

[Zen]

[quote name='8bit'][FONT="Tahoma"][COLOR="DimGray"]


That's just my point, if you're skipping songs to get to a new set list you [b]aren't[/b] beating every song on expert. If you want those bragging rights, you have to go back and play the song anyway! I guess I just always enjoyed playing through the game on Hard, beating it, and then attempting to beat Expert mode from the very beginning.


Making a song isn't going to be anything special. You can't add vocals and I doubt it will have much depth at all, though I guess we'll have to wait and see. I haven't heard anything about design an instrument so I can't comment on that but as far as the create-a-character thing goes can they [I]really[/I] improve on Rock Band in that department?

I've had Rock Band for a solid 5 months now and my character is [i]still[/i] changing. Tons of clothes/hairstyles/instruments/tattoos (which, in itself, is a blast) make for completely unique characters. I have [b]never[/b] run into [i]anyone[/i] online that looked even remotely similar to my character.

Guitar Hero 3 had what? 10 characters to choose from? Of course their character creation is going to be considered a "re-enhancement." It didn't even exist in previous games.

And what new controllers? So help me god if you mention the drum kit. That hardly counts as "new."[/COLOR][/FONT][/QUOTE]
[color=royalblue][size=1]

Well, as some people are already saying "fail" to a few of the songs, I don't see the problem in letting them skip the ones they don't want to beat. Regardless, all of them are going to be different in difficulty, and I'm sure there will be so many songs available that skipping songs won't even be a big deal. And again, if you want bragging rights, then you can get them, and if you're the person who's like "I don't really care, I just want to play this song without beating a handful that I hate" then you can. Like, it's very, very, very annoying that I can't play or even see "The Devil Went Down to Georgia" on Expert because...

1). I made the mistake of starting Guitar Hero 3 on Expert,

and

2.) I can't beat the last, like, three songs on Expert, even though I beat the rest of the game.

I don't want to go back all the way and beat the ENTIRE game again on hard or normal, just so I can see that one song. So if you are a player searching for bragging rights, then you can go right on ahead and beat every song and get your props. But if you are like me, where I play for both, but I want to play my favorite songs first, then you can. OR if you are just a casual player, you can go through out the set list and find the songs you like.


While making a song may not be something special to regular fans, its obvious by the various hacker-songs all over the internet that there is a definite market for easy-to-use software. And so what if you can't add vocals? I'm sure that if you are dedicated enough to convert an entire song to the GH4 format, I'm sure you've atleast remembered the words to it, so if you and your buds want to do your version, tell your buddy to just put up with it. There are just too many legal issues with created songs using vocals, its self-protection that you can't blame Neversoft for, since they are allowing an online community for song sharing and apparently "signing" people who put up quality songs. So if me and my buddies decide to convert a version of "Bow Down" by Born of Osiris onto GH4, then I guess I'll just grab the mic and a lyrics sheet.

Since there was some falling out between the Gibson name-brand and GH, the creators have decided to implement a "create-an-instrument" thing, where you can choose everything about the look and shape of your own custom guitar.

And while I will admit that the Rock Band create-a-character is great, there is room for improvement, particularly stage moves, attitudes, and, with any luck, maybe even (real) band t-shirts, name brands, and etc. Also the hair styles, while some are great, are mostly terrible. It's either various degrees of normal length, or just freaking nutty. So while I'm not 100% on what GH4 is offering, for me, there is clear room for improvement on the create-a-character. Also, the GH4 has already gaurunteed detailed character movements, so I'm very happy about that.

Luckily, my imagination is decent enough to create an original character myself, just as you have. But then again, that may be because my characters consist of God himself, and a Punk-Rock version of myself. But it'd make me no happier if I could give my character a hardcore fitted cap with b-ball shorts and colorful skater shoes like I actually wear, instead of super-tight jeans and converse, because that's the closest to normal clothes that are available.

All the original characters are returning, also with inter-changeable costumes amongst themselves and cross-dressing aswell for some reason.

And when I say new intruments, I mean re-designed ones. Along with the drums, which pretty much has an extra pad, the new guitars will have some mysterious new feature that Neversoft is keeping under tabs because they have yet to patent it. Apparently, however, it is going to change the way, or atleast, the possibilities, of which the guitar can be used and played in game. So while the controllers will be backwards compatible, the new guitar will somehow allow for an extra feature to be used while playing.

So while GH4 is obviously copying the good qualities of Rock Band, as it would be foolish not to, they are also improving upon it and doing their own original things with it.

So enough of your flim-flam.[/color][/size]

[Aberinkula]

[COLOR="DarkSlateGray"]Theres an upside to no vocals though. If you suck at singing and you add vocals to a song, than someone will have to sing horribly as well to match the pitch and ****. But still, maybe there could be something you sign saying that you can add lyrics, but if someone steals them, that it isn't Neversoft's problem, and they nor you can't do anything but suck up or tell the person to stop... seems harsh but some people will want to add vocals. Or you can add vocals, but you can't sell songs with vocals.

When I buy Rock Band and GH4, I'm automatically going to hard mode. I can play medium but I get bored and I feel less like 'Guitar Hero' when I play a song on easy, which I fail a lot cause its too slow :rolleyes:

And I agree with Zen about the clothing you can chose, strickly rock clothes gets bring after a while.[/COLOR]

[Zen]

[color=royalblue][size=1]

[YOUTUBE="Guitar Hero World Tour"]6rvK-uq_qXs[/YOUTUBE]

[YOUTUBE="The New Drumkit"]ZGL0BHUlPfE[/YOUTUBE]

Neat. My hopes are even higher.[/color][/size]

[Neptune]

[FONT="Trebuchet MS"]Wow, that's got to be some kind of record. Three minutes after you post the videos they become dead links. That's messed up. Oh, nevermind, thanks Aceburner.[/FONT]

[The Spectacular Professor]

[quote name='Neptune'][FONT="Trebuchet MS"]Wow, that's got to be some kind of record. Three minutes after you post the videos they become dead links. That's messed up.[/FONT][/QUOTE]

Nah, they're just embedding-disabled. Click on the video screen to see them.

[James P. Galvatron]

I just don't know if GH4 Doesn't have master recordings like Rockband I'm not gonna wanna play it in the first place cause some of their covers are just plain terrible.

Rockband has contracts with so many record companies allowing real master tracks and I think they will beat Neversoft in the acquisition of The Beatles record catalog, and if they do oh man I can't wait to play Strawberry Fields and Elanor Rigby on Rockband.

[Desbreko]

[color=#4B0082]Everything I've read about Guitar Hero: World Tour says that all of the game's tracks will be master recordings. So I don't think that will be much of a concern.[/color]