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Guitar Hero: Love It Or Hate It?

I

I am not Spock

Commodore
Commodore
Is it a game which gets young people interested in music, and gets them buying albums by bands from 40 years ago which they hadn't previously heard of; or is it a cynical cash cow which makes people play with toys rather than pick up a real instrument?

I'm on the fence. It was a great novelty game at first, but I think they really have been milking the franchise recently. Why not make World Tour and 5 just downloadable content for III? When Harmonix left and gave GH to Neversoft, I think that's when the milking began, really.

Still, I'm considering buying Beatles:Rock Band and GH:Metallica, because I'm a fan of those bands. The 'band specific' music titles really depend on how much a fan you are. If they made a GH: Sabbath, or a GH: Iron Maiden, or a GH: Led Zeppelin, I'd so buy it. (The latter will never happen, though, with Jimmy Page slamming GH recently :()

What's your take on these music games?
 
Perfect game for a group of friends and I've enjoyed many hours with friends playing this on the Wii. It even better with 2 Guitars, drum and mic set. I've played World Tour, Greatest Hits, Metallica and soon hopefully Guitar Hero 5.
 
Different people will get different things out of the music games. There are definitely those who just want a fun jam session for a few hours, and there are also those who will develop a deep, abiding love for some of the musicians or genres in the games. I seriously doubt that people who would have learned how to play the guitar or drums are going to be turned away from those pursuits by these games. I've accepted that I will not put in the hours be a guitarist on the level of Jerry Garcia, but the games let me pretend that I am for a few minutes.

In my case, I'm loving Rock Band 2, and I'm discovering some artists that I plan to investigate further.
 
Some bands from the 70s are getting a new lease of life, thanks to kids discovering them in GH and the ilk. Hell, I'm discovering new music to get into from GH.
 
I had Guitar Hero II and III and enjoyed them, but once I went over to Rock Band I never went back. Rock Band seems to care more about the actual music content, while Guitar Hero sure loves overcharting their songs. I was playing Guitar Hero: World Tour and when the song required me to strum even though there were no notes, I knew then that I was glad I didn't purchase it.
 
Aragorn said:
I had Guitar Hero II and III and enjoyed them, but once I went over to Rock Band I never went back. Rock Band seems to care more about the actual music content, while Guitar Hero sure loves overcharting their songs. I was playing Guitar Hero: World Tour and when the song required me to strum even though there were no notes, I knew then that I was glad I didn't purchase it.
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I think Rock Band is the superior music game, no doubt. When GH was assigned to Neversoft, that's when it started going downhill.

GH Greatest Hits and GH5 are cash grabs, really.
 
I am not Spock said:
I'm on the fence. It was a great novelty game at first, but I think they really have been milking the franchise recently. Why not make World Tour and 5 just downloadable content for III? When Harmonix left and gave GH to Neversoft, I think that's when the milking began, really.
Click to expand...

Not entirely accurate... Harmonix was purchased by MTV. The Guitar Hero franchise is owned by Activision (after they purchased RedOctane) so after the deal Harmonix was no longer able to continue working on GH. Neversoft is owned by Activision so that why they were "given" it. If Harmonix had never left the milking still would have happened... Activison would still be the ones in control and they've made their policies across all their games quite clear.

Anyway, I haven't touched a GH game since GH3 which I really regretted purchasing. I'm pure Rock Band from that point forward. Harmonix gets it... when I'm playing any of the RB games I feel like what I'm doing is at least related to the music and when I'm playing GH3+ it feels like I'm pushing random buttons when some music happens to be playing.
 
^Yeah, and Harmonix's attitude to downoadable content is a lot better than Neversoft's. The latter force you to keep buying whole new games, whereas Rock Band integrates them.
 
Thought GH1 was pretty neat, loved GH2, hated GH3. Haven't touched a Guitar Hero game since. Haven't played any Rock Band games either, to be honest. Does that come in guitar-only versions, and if so, is there any point in getting it? I don't exactly host gaming parties. :p
 
It's so far from being the kind of game I'm into (I'm all about narrative, narrative, narrative...) that I've barely dabbled. But the guy I do a podcast with is a massive fan, his allegiance having switched to Rock Band some time ago.

I don't see why anyone would hate it. But you do have to wonder about the sanity of its more extreme fans, y'know, the kind of people who spend massive amounts of money on different designs of PLASTIC FUCKING GUITAR.

Ach.
 
I spent a lot of time playing Rock Band with a group of friends last summer, and this year I got addicted to Guitar Hero: Metallica for a few months.

I've dabbled with the other GH games a little bit over the years, but I've never been massively into the series as a whole. They are definitely great games to play with friends though.
 
I like Guitar Hero I and Guitar Hero II. I don't care much for Guitar Hero III, but I do love the Les Paul controller and use it regularly on Rock Band. I am a musician, I play drums and guitar, and do a lot of studio recording and live performing, so I am more drawn to the singing/drumming of Rock Band than anything else. I suppose because it's closer to the "real thing." Expert on drums is close to playing the real stuff. Plus, a lot of the tunes on the Rock Band games I played in actual bands in the '90s (In Bloom, Black Hole Sun, Enter Sandman, Run to the Hills, Vasoline etc.)

For some reason I never got into GHIII, not sure what it was, but I felt GHII was the better game. I am curious about GH-Van Halen, since that is one of my favorite bands of all time, but since they left out a large portion of VH's catalog, and (I think) they have Wolfie in the game instead of Michael Anthony, I may just forget about it. GH-Metallica looked like a lot of fun, may check that out, that was a band I grew up with, but pretty much lost interest in over the past 10 years or so. Never have checked out GH-WT so I don't know what that's like.

I will say that I find Rock Band insanely fun, especially with others. The Beatles Rock Band is great, and I love a lot of the downloads for Rock Band - like the Cars, which I though was great.

The Beatles Rock Band has recently gotten me back into these games again, so I may check out GH5.

One thing I enjoyed doing in the practice modes, is playing my real guitar along to the tracks - I found it to be a good practice tool. Especially since you can mute the in-game guitar.
 
Just another generic push-the-right-colour-button-at-the-right-time game with no depth. At best it's a "party game". I'll stick to playing real guitars at real volumes and risk my hearing.
 
Geckothan said:
Just another generic push-the-right-colour-button-at-the-right-time game with no depth. At best it's a "party game". I'll stick to playing real guitars at real volumes and risk my hearing.
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Aye, and see that Mario? I'll stick to jumping down REAL pipes, thank you very much.
 
Skywalker said:
Thought GH1 was pretty neat, loved GH2, hated GH3. Haven't touched a Guitar Hero game since. Haven't played any Rock Band games either, to be honest. Does that come in guitar-only versions, and if so, is there any point in getting it? I don't exactly host gaming parties. :p
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I've actually never played a RB game multiplayer before and I don't have all the "stuff". I just buy the game discs and I bought the wireless 360 guitar to replace my old wired GH2 one... you can't buy it together but you can get each separately. The campaign mode is geared towards having multiple people, but it's still perfectly playable solo.
 
Geckothan said:
Just another generic push-the-right-colour-button-at-the-right-time game with no depth. At best it's a "party game". I'll stick to playing real guitars at real volumes and risk my hearing.
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I've been playing drums for the past 18+ years, guitar equally as long. I think both the real thing, and the "generic push button thing" are fun. With the sound system I have hooked up, I run an equal risk of ruining my hearing with that as I do with my Pearl kit or Marshalls.
 
Personally, I love it. I like Rock Band as well, but to me RB is much easier and it often feels like it leaves notes out that should be in there. Guitar Hero: Metallica is much more challenging than anything Rock Band has done. I recently purchased The Beatles: Rock Band and although it is fun, from the guitar standpoint there are only a couple of songs that actually made me feel like I was playing the real thing.

Again, I like them both, but GH is my preferred choice. Now if they could just get the DLC sorted out. RB trounces them in that area.
 
Geckothan said:
Just another generic push-the-right-colour-button-at-the-right-time game with no depth. At best it's a "party game". I'll stick to playing real guitars at real volumes and risk my hearing.
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Amen, brother. I feel the same way about Call of Duty. It's just a push-the-buttons at the right time "party game." I'll just join the Army and go to Afghanistan and shoot some real people. That'll show these poseurs. :lol:

Seriously, I've never gotten the criticism that people playing GH/RB should instead be taking music lessons and learning to play real instruments. That totally misses the point of the game - it's, well, a game. The people playing don't want to invest the enormous amount of time and money it takes to actually learn how to play "Eruption" note-for-note, they just want to relax for a bit with a fun music game. And I say this as someone who plays the guitar and has an extra room filled with guitars, amps and other equipment I've collected over the years (much to my wife's chagrin).
 
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