Up until now I have not said much about Guitar Hero Warriors of rock. I suppose a lot of the attention has been diverted away by the unveiling of Rockband’s ‘real’ guitar controllers’ whose somewhat shiny if not a little controversial appearance would be enough to distract any hardcore fan. Still, I think its time to put realism aside for a second and change this. After-all, we are talking about a game here and not a virtual music lesson. It has been common knowledge for some time now that in contrast to Rockband’s attempt to bring music gaming closer to reality, the guys at guitar hero have decided to take their new release back to its roots. But how will this affect the set-list, story and gameplay?  I think its time to take a look at what we know now…

Set list update

Taking guitar hero back to its rock roots is to me largely dependent on two things. Number one, an epic (if slightly tacky) story line. Think guitar fights, fire, lightning and maybe even a dragon thrown in there and your on the right track.  Number two, a very loud Rock/Metal set-list. Think back to the glory days of battling rock stars and slaying the devil in Gh3 and you start to understand what I am looking for. So how is Warriors of Rock shaping up? Well fortunately I have found a nice Video which gives a glimpse of what to expect for the Warriors of Rock set-list. Stick with it people, there is something for everyone if you wait nicely…

So there you have a taste of the new set list. I suppose there shouldn’t be much to say after that…but then again when was I ever lost for words. Watching this Vid I coudn’t help but make a few small observations. The first observation was that though there is a fairly diverse mix of music, this set-list does seem much more reminiscent of Gh in its early days. Aside from the odd what were they thinking song, this taster video contains a good mix of modern hits, metal, some cheesy classics for good measure, epic monster marathon songs as well as a fair dose of the all important classic rock. In addition to this the choice of set-list feels much more like it has been chosen to incorporate the whole band, something which some previous Gh titles have missed a little.

Now for my second important point to take away. With the amount of song repetition going back and fourth between Gh and Rockband I was starting to worry the world may be running out of songs. I know, I know, there are a lot of songs in the world, but after hearing the same old stuff on multiple disks you do start to wonder if the world may simply have run out of Rock music. Thankfully this vid contained much less song recycling than we have seen in previous games, and has ever unearthed some old forgotten classics which I must admit made me smile. I suppose the lack of repetition will depend on what Rockband has chosen this year, but I for one am vaguely (if not a little naïvely) hopeful that the “I want what he’s got, his has sprinkles…” copycat nature of these games may be wearing off. Well…I can dream…

Oh and Dragonforce is back. This will be fun…

Story update

Now for a quick story update, well I say quick, it will probably go on forever but never mind.  Time for video number two. In this Vid we not only get to see Alex Lefeson and Geddy Lee (Rush) talk about their love of guitar hero, but we also learn a little more about the story as well as getting a better look at the Gh characters new Warrior looks.

So there you have it. The story of Warriors of Rock will be inspired by the music of Rush, the game will include the whole 2112 album and Geddy Lee loves guitar hero. In addition to this we now know that we will be soon embarking on a quest to find the Legendary guitar, re-discover the prohibited practice of rock music and awaken the Demi-God of rock. Nice.

Aside from the inventive new portrayals of the characters, and the story-line itself what interests me most is the level to which a single band has affected the games theming. With Rush included quite prominently into the game, it at first seems unusual that this game is called “Guitar Hero Warriors of Rock” and not “Guitar Hero Rush”. Despite the title claiming that this is more than another band add on game, it would appear that the story line, imagery, and locations are all inspired however loosely by a single band. So what makes this title different? Well for a start it is clear that this game does more than simply chart a bands rise to stardom. Instead Warriors of rock uses the music to create a fantasy, fictional story, which though is based largely on the music of a single band is not an actual representation of the band members lives. Warriors of rock seems to encourage us to lose ourselves in the imagery created by the music, and to me this is what music is really about, losing yourself. I’m not saying that the story line won’t be tacky, nor that this game will have the impressive realism that Rockband seems to be offering. Instead I expect quite the opposite, and will be very disappointed if I receive anything else.

Oh, and its my birthday today. Lovely.

Until next time

24

x

Guitar Hero Warriors of Rock

Due for release September 2010

With the hype for christmas building I find myself in the mood for reminiscing. Guitar Hero 3, my first ever Gh title was in fact a christmas present. Therefore this seems like a perfect time to look back over all of those songs which brightened many a long and tedious winter day. I refused to buy the greatest hits disk because I disagree with the choice of songs it offered (quite frankly I thought I could have chosen better with the game cases, a blindfold and a set of darts but thats neither here nor there) so without point or purpose here is how I would have done it, from Gh1 through to World Tour. My perfect set-list.

NB: These are not the songs I am best at, or indeed the most challenging (as you will see). They are merely those which I find most amusing, that I would pick up my plastic guitar and decide to play first. Though if you get the chance to play me and want to win, perhaps best avoid these songs. OR if you want to make me happy, choose them all!

Infected- Bad religion GH1(Dark, in a sexy way)

More than a feeling- Boston GH1(You just have to sing along!)

Spanish Castle Magic- Jimi Hendrix GH1(One big upbeat solo, always fun)

Carry on my wayward son- Kansas GH2 (I love the quiet section in the middle, beautiful and hypnotic)

Cherry Pie- Warrant GH2 (love the solo, also so tacky its good)

Who was in my room last night- Butthole surfers GH2 (I can’t help but thinking during the solo ‘Oh yes….he went there’)

Sweet child o’ mine- Guns n’ Roses GH2 (its just a classic)

Jessica- Allman brothers GH2 (whats this…I don’t know it…OMG TOPGEAR!)

Free Bird- Lynyrd Skynyrd GH2 (its just so pretty)

Talk dirty to me- Poison GH3 (nice easy end solo)

When you were young- The killers GH3 (miss the euphoric notes and you have to leave the room)

Paint it black- The rolling stones Gh3 (Black, Black like the Sky…)

My name is Jonas- Weezer GH3 (easy but so pretty)

Even flow- Pearl jam GH3 (they rock, great live too)

Black Magic Woman- Santana GH3 (Full of Twiddle and Widdle)

Rock you like a Hurricane- The scorpions GH3 (Cheesy!)

La Grange- ZZTop GH3 (an all time gh fave of mine)

Hellicopter- Bloc Party GH3 (I sing the word ‘Helicopter’ through all the ending notes to make it more fun, it doesn’t go with the tune at all but hey)

Stricken- Disturbed GH3 (good for the rage days)

Devil went down to georgia- Charlie Daniels band GH3 (Best moment ever, and I mean ever)

Monsters- Matchbook Romance GH3 (Great end to Co-op mode, fiddley and fast, like many a drunken fumble)

Avalancia- Heroes del Silencio GH3 (Euphoric, love the slide)

Don’t hold back- The sleeping GH3 (Good for a lift)

Prayer for the Refugee- Rise against GH3 (So beautiful, and sad)

Through the fire and the flames- Dragonforce (A Fetish, So hard but soooooo good)

18 and life- Skid row 80’s (One for those ‘Well, it could be worse’ moments)

Holy Diver- Dio 80’s(Makes me laugh, I finally understand Jack Black Alllllright)

The Warrior- Scandal 80’s (Stewie Griffin’s I-pod commercial)

What I like about you- The Romantics 80’s (It just doesn’t stop with the double notes)

Play with me- Extreme 80’s (I struggled with this in expert until my fingers ached, just because I loved it so much)

Dream On- Aerosmith (Easy to play but truely perfect song)

Train Kept a Rollin- Aerosmith (I like the increase in pace, fun on drums when playing rockband)

Mama Kin- Aerosmith (Exciting from start to finish)

Beat it- Michael Jackson WT (fun in band play, who doesn’t know it)

Everlong- Foo fighters WT (I LOVE to drum this song! I mean LOVE)

Hot for teacher- Van Halen WT(Fast, Furious, Sexy…How could it not be there)

La Bamba- Los Lobos WT (No NOT LaMamba! A chidhood fave of mine)

Lazy Eye- Silversun Pickups (simple but beautiful)

Love Removal Machine- The Cult (Sexy when played on drums)

Purple Haze- Jimi Hendrix WT (The day I kept my x4 through the entire end solo was one of the happiest days of my GH life…)

Enter Sandman- Metallica (So powerful on drums, its soooo satisfying)

One- Metallica (Passing the end solo in this was a major milestone for me)

Nothing else matters- Metallica (All love songs should in my opinion have at least one guitar solo…)

And there you have it. Now all I need is for someone to put it on a disk for me so I don’t have to keep swapping them over…Someone…Anyone…Neversoft? Now that I have opened up my most private, and personal music preferences I would very much like to hear from you guys. So tell me, Staff, contributors and gamers of the world, what have I missed? Do you have an absolute favorite that you re outraged I have not included? If I have forgotten your true favorites (And no picking the hardest songs just to try and show off, I’m onto you) Drop me an e-mail/comment and I will be happy to make a full apology in writing at some point during my future posts and add your song to the list, just because I’m nice like that.

Thats it from me this week. I’ll be at Eurogamer with the rest of the team in London next Saturday, and hopefully, If your all good, I’ll be able to give you something a bit more juicy then, and I don’t mean a peach.

Until we meet again,

- GuitarGirl24

As your music correspondent it is my duty to bring you all of the news from this genre, so it is my solemn duty to inform you that yes, ‘Band hero’ is officially on the way.

Now being a rock goddess through and through, I am obviously programmed to despise the idea of band hero. However before I weigh everyone down in my own personal opinions here are some facts.

Band hero will work similarly to guitar hero 5 with a similar theme of band gameplay, however instead of focusing around the guitar as the key instrument Neversoft claim that this title will be designed with all four instruments in mind. They are also aiming to incorporate more mainstream acts such as Taylor swift,  Lily Allen and the Jackson 5 to make the game more enjoyable for the whole family. For some time now the Gh series has chosen to incorporate guest stars to add to the atmosphere of the games and this game follows suit. So far confirmed guest stars include Taylor Swift and Adam Levine (Maroon 5) with several others still awaiting conormation. The game will have the same multiplayer options as GH5, with the added bonus of being able to change difficulties drop out and even swap instruments at any time during a song. From what I can make out with its mainstream hits and ease of use this game is geared entirely towards party play, which is not for me, but not necessarily a bad thing for everyone. Now, just for you, because I love you all, here is a sneaky look at the confirmed songs so far…..Cries into beloved plastic guitar…

• The All-American Rejects -Dirty Little Secret
• Jackson 5 – ABC
• Don McLean – American Pie
• KT Tunstall – Black Horse and the Cherry Tree
• Poison – Every Rose Has Its Thorn
• No Doubt – Just a Girl
• David Bowie – Let’s Dance
• Taylor Swift – Love Story
• Taylor Swift – Picture to Burn
• Taylor Swift – You Belong With Me
• Fall Out Boy – Sugar, We’re Going Down
• Fall Out Boy – Thanks for the Memories
• Lily Allen – Take What You Take
• Nelly Furtado – Turn Off the Light

And now for my real opinion, my own personal rant if you will. Is it just me or does the above set-list seem more like something out of sing-star than a true GH title? I mean in my opinion the pervious GH games are very accommodating to all instruments, especially the more recent titles, and so why they had to release something like this under the same name truly baffles me. I know they are trying to cater for more mainstream tastes, but in doing so they have lost a great deal of what guitar hero was really about, the tacky, heavy metal, rock god simulating experience. If they were going to release something like this I don’t know why they didn’t distance it from the Gh series all together, even the name ‘Band hero’ doesn’t sound right, so why force it. I would say that this game seems more accommodating to female singers (any girl who has tries in vain to battle through the GH World tour vocalists career will know what I mean) However personally if I want to sing I play sing-star so to me this is not a great selling point. Also, personally I wouldn’t call Taylor swift a ‘Band Hero’. I accept that she is in vogue at the moment, but she hasn’t been around long enough to truly be considered a pop legend therefore to have three tracks and a guest star appearance in this game is quite frankly overkill.

All in all I don’t think I would dislike his game so much if it wasn’t so strongly affiliated with the Gh series, perhaps if it wasn’t called ‘Band Hero’ I would have a better personal opinion of it. Still, as much as other may love this game I will say that I don’t think I will be becoming a Band Hero myself anytime soon. After all, Gh5 has a set list with some mainstream hits and a big dose of rock as well, and after a thorough play through I can truly say this is my favorite release of 2009. I will try and update you all when I have a chance to play this game, but until then my suggestion is to buy Gh5….and enjoy it.

GuitarGirl24

Now I know for most people this probably wont be as big a deal, but for me guitar hero releases are the highlight of my year and I’m pleased to say this new addition is no disappointment. With a set-list of over 80 songs and stunning graphics this is a must buy for any fan of the Guitar Hero series. After Guitar Hero Metallica (mainly for Metallica fans) and Guitar hero greatest hits (lets face it a cop out really) this is a real breath of fresh air. The set-list is diverse with a good mix of modern hits such as ‘Sex on fire’ by Kings Of Leon and classics like Nirvana’s ‘Smells like teen spirit’ making this a game exciting and fresh throughout. I must admit I also got very excited when I found out they had included ‘Plug in Baby’ by Muse. One of my all time favorite bands so I had to mention it somewhere.

Now a bit about the gameplay. I have a theory about Guitar Hero. In my opinion with every GH release the note streams get more complicated but the reaction time of the game speeds up allowing you to keep up. In effect the games are slowly getting as fast as the people who play them, and to me this is no exception. The notes come thick and fast from the onset, but due to the slick programming this is not a problem, in fact it’s a joy to play. The difficulty level is in keeping with that of GH Metallica, with tricky solo’s and the promise of some really challenging levels nearer the end. A nice addition to the game is the opportunity to complete additional challenges within each song. These challenges are instrument specific and set you a range of different tasks to gain additional stars. The tasks range from whammying the most notes to getting the longest note streak or hitting the most notes of one color. I find these challenges really bring out my extremely competitive nature and so add great replay value to the game.

And now for a quick moan, skip this paragraph if you want a happy read.

Only one thing is annoying me about this game, and it’s a big problem. When you create a band and start your solo career it only displays the overall best star rating you have achieved for all instruments you have played. For example, when I started my guitar career and went through the songs it was easy to keep track of my place within the game, I just looked at my star ratings. However when I repeated my career with the drums the fact that I was a drummer this time and not a guitarist was not obvious from the song selection screen. This made it extremely hard to track how I was progressing within my drum career. GH Metallica had the same problem and I would have hoped they would have spotted it before this game was released, sadly no luck.

That’s it, Moan over!

Onto the Visual stuff. The character movements have been improved and you can now play in a band comprised entirely of Traditional GH characters which is a novelty. All of our favorite characters are still there, even if Judy nails is looking a bit skinny for my liking (I wonder if she is eating enough) alongside the opportunity to create your own characters much the same as in GH World tour. I feel that Guitar hero has the edge when it comes to character customization and this game is no different. I have always been able to create a good likeness using the GH rock-star creator, something I have never managed to fully achieve with RockBand. In this game you can create the real you as well as many other random creations which in itself leads to hours of fun. Alternatively if real life doesn’t float your boat, why not take a step back and let your XBox 360 Avatar play for you? A quirky feature more than anything but fun nonetheless. One way this game differs greatly from its predecessors is that the screen layout has been cleaned up, with all of the information such as the star power bar and score bar consolidated around the fret board area. At first I found this a little odd, but once I had become used to it I began to appreciate how much of the screen this frees up for the graphics.

As for the graphics themselves, they are stunning. In fact I am now lusting over a larger TV as I feel it would be really worth having to fully appreciate this game (at least that’s what I keep telling myself). The menu screens have the usual doodled rock theme which I have always loved and the layout of the set lists in career mode is clearer and more exciting than in world tour giving the game a clearer, more structured feel. The game graphics themselves are still cartoonish and exaggerated in style, but with a more electric, dramatic feel which I love. The fret board is less fussy but has a new texture, and I love the way that blue lights sweep across the board when star power is activated instead of the usual electricity. It is for this reason I would urge everyone to play this game in the dark. The bold colors and use of blue light within the game really lend themselves to the real gig experience when set against a dark background, it is darkness makes this game truly great and I promise…you won’t be disappointed.

I’m off now to dim the lights, close all the doors, slip into something a little more comfortable, pick up my beloved plastic guitar and rock out.

Until next time.

GuitarGirl24

This all started back in the days of Guitar Hero 3: Legends Of Rock. Activition and Neversoft made computer generated versions of Slash from Guns ‘N’ Roses/Velvet Revolver fame, and Rage Against The Machine/Audioslave famed guitar soloist Tom Morello. This was a really nice touch to the game, and in my opinion it gave Guitar Hero the boost it really needed to get into the big leagues of gaming.

World Tour, the forth installment of the series, then took the whole band thing which in turn, sprouted more potential for guest stars. You didn’t have just guitarists, but top performers on other instruments. From the likes of Sting on bass, Travis Barker on drums and Hayley Williams and the prince of darkness himself, Ozzy Osbourne on vocals. But Guitar Hero would not be Guitar Hero without the guitarists. On World Tour, you had Billy Corgan from the Smashing Pumpkins, Zakk Wylde from Black Label society fame, Ted Nugent! Who played his hit “Strangle Hold” and who can forget the Legend that GH World Tour resurrected, Jimi Hendrix.

Of course when I talk about these guest appearances I cannot forget to mention Guitar Hero: Areosmith and Guitar Hero: Metallica! To me it sounds as though Activition and Neversoft are trying to get hold of all the bands/musicians they know and cram them into games before Harmonix and EA even finish Beatles Rock Band.  I mean GH Van Halen is due before the year is out.

Now Guitar Hero 5 is pretty much just around the corner, yet again the guest list for this game is racking up. I mentioned briefly who three of the guest starts would be in an earlier posts but here, I am going to give you a rundown of who has been announced.

Shirley Manson

Lead singer of the band, Garbage, Shirley will be singing on the bands hit “Only Happy When It Rains”.  Sounds like a nice happy number, but here is a nice of Guitar Hero trivia for you, She is the second woman rock star to become a part of the GH family the first being Haley Williams. That’s two women to a stonking thirteen men. (that’s including the GH 5 line up as well) and they are both Red Heads…weird

Johnny Cash

The first to be resurrected for the game (yes in GH 5 there is more than one dead guy) and Mr Cash will be playing on his classic song, “Ring Of Fire”. I think it is great for GH not to just get hard rock and metal musicians into their game, and to me Johnny Cash is a legend that really needs to be recognised more.

Matt Bellamy

When I first heard that the Muse front man will be making an appearance, I pretty much jumped for joy, then hit my head… Any way with a Guitar legend like Bellamy you got to have a legendary song to go with him. So the Muse hit “Plug In Baby” will be fronted by the crazy string bending man himself. This is going to be great.

Carlos Santana

GH 3 had “Black Magic Woman”, two games later the Guitar Hero track list now has “No One To Depend On” and what better to mark this moment than have Santana play the song himself. Famous for his solos and Latino esque style this is sure to be a very solo-filled outing for Carlos’s gaming Debut.

Kurt Cobain

The so called Grunge God lives once more. This guy is the second musician to be resurrected for Guitar Hero 5, and his appearance on the game is huge. Playing two massive Nirvana hits “lithium” and “Smells Like Teen Spirit” this is only the second time Nirvana have made it to the GH franchise. The first being World Tour with “About A Girl”, So I see this as GH saying, sorry to deprive yo of Nirvana, here, have Kurt Cobain and two of Nirvana’s best songs.

Guitar Hero 5′s lineup looks pretty awesome, and is litrully just around the corner.  September 11th for us guys in Europe, I expect all of you to be rocking this game hard!

Garv!