Whoops, wrong Tesla

Hands up who’s surprised? No-one? Excellent.

Somebody over at MTV Multiplayer was being particularly observant this week (or simply Googling “Guitar Hero 6″ over and over again, MTV can afford people to do that), because they’ve uncovered a recent interview with hard rock band Tesla in which they state they’ll have music in Guitar Hero 6. Don’t believe me?

Guitar Hero seemingly receives equal amounts of praise and criticism. Rude offers his opinion. “I teach guitar when I’m not touring and a lot of people start in on that. A lot of people complain, but I think it’s a good thing. Even if people don’t learn to play guitar, it’s exposing them to all sorts of cool guitar-based music that they wouldn’t have ever heard otherwise.” As far as the actual selection of ‘Modern Day Cowboy’ for Guitar Hero 6 went, Hannon explains, “They (the video game makers) chose it. Honestly, there’s some pirate versions of ‘Modern Day Cowboy’ that people have made up for the game out there. They did ask us what we would request. That was one of our three that we wanted.”

-Guitarist Frank Hannon figures “oh, what the heck”

So apparently Neversoft have approached the band, which I’d say practically confirms the fact that the game is at least in it’s planning phase. But hey, it’s not really jaw-dropping news, is it? Captain Obvious is feeling a little emasculated by the whole thing.

Check out the whole Tesla interview over at Brave Words & Bloody Knuckles, or peruse the MTV news post. Let’s hope the song list is better for the next installment!

As seen in a post by the amazing Kevin over at grinding.be, here is a video from the delightful people at the User Interface Software and Technology (UIST) conference (check out their YouTube channel for more awesomeness!).

University of Washington student, T. Scott Sponas, has created a muscle to computer interface which (among other wonderful things, like possibly mapping ASL/sign language) will allow you to play Guitar Hero without a guitar.

I wanted someone to break out into a ‘Deeledeeleedeeleee Wyld Stallyns!’ at some point there. If you go and skip ahead to 00:56 seconds you’ll see the magic, but I highly recommend watching the whole movie.

Notice the bad-ass monitors they had to strap onto the guy’s arm just to show this off, too.  Not exactly plug-and-play enabled, to say the very least.

"We only doubled up on two bands!"

Ever since my brother gifted me the Guitar Hero 3: Legends of Rock bundle for Christmas a couple of years back, I’ve been a great fan of the series and the music genre in general.  I’m not a naturally talented musician (despite six years practicing the trombone), so a game that gave you the chance to play along with all your favourite rock songs appealed to me.  Even more so because the game is constantly challenging and great fun to drag out when your party is getting to the boozy end of proceedings.

Because I loved GH3, I went out and bought Guitar Hero 2, Guitar Hero: Rocks The 80′s and Guitar Hero for PS2, Guitar Hero: Aerosmith, the Guitar Hero: World Tour bundle, Guitar Hero: Metallica and Guitar Hero: Greatest Hits. I have a grand total of four plastic guitars stashed around my house and one faulty, neglected set of electronic drums perched above my wardrobe.  And maybe with the exception of Greatest Hits, I’ve never been so disappointed in a Guitar Hero title until now.

Part of this may be because I picked up both GH5 and The Beatles: Rock Band in the same week, and stood next to one another it’s clear which game was made with care and attention.  But it seems to me, if you’re going to try and push a new title in the series out year after year, then you better be rethinking your gameplay, improving your features and adding something new for players to enjoy.  It’s the last point where I think GH5 falls down, and it’s the point that also has me feeling like such a pathetic shill at the fact I paid money for Activision to continue this cycle.

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I’ve only just sorted myself out with a copy of The Beatles: Rock Band, but according to VG247 it’s already been blitzed by Guitar Hero 5 in the UK’s first week of sales.  Not only was TB:RB outsold by the already released Batman: Arkham Asylum, but also failed to rank over GH5 and Colin McRae: DiRT 2, debuting it at 4th on the UK game sales charts.

Having just played the game through, we be thinking that Beatles:RB ain’t getting the creedence it deserves, but that’s how the coo-goo-gachoob crumbles I suppose.  Guitar Hero 5‘s aggressive “buy a copy, get everything else we ever did free” marketing would appear to be working for them.

I’ll post up our TB:RB review soon, it’s in the draft stages.

Take a look at the statistics…

Activision reps have spelled it out for the crew at Destructoid: DLC made for Guitar Hero 5 (such as the newly announced Rolling Stones tracks) won’t be compatible with Guitar Hero: World Tour.  This is primarily because of changing elements in the charts themselves (which if we understand this right, now have 13% more “weedilie”).  While some people are shocked, most gamers just expected it this way and are therefore not causing a fuss.

However Activision are quick to remind everyone that you can roll forward all your current DLC, and tracks from both World Tour and Greatest Hits.  This includes the god-awful version of Dueling Banjos that one poor writer just downloaded without first previewing, only to find out it was a load of electric guitar wank rather than a classic and entertaining banjo duel.  I guess I wasn’t going to use that 160 MS points for anything interesting anyway.

I heard he can switch a harp faster than kiss a dove

Adding to their list of digital persona appearances in Guitar Hero 5, Activision have circulated a trailer featuring none other than rockabilly legend Johnny Cash.

We’ve known for a while now that “Ring Of Fire” was to be included in the game’s set list, but nothing had been mentioned about playing as the Man in Black himself.

Take a look at the trailer.

In more GH5 news, it’s revealed that a “new” feature has been added called “franchise compatibilty”. The long of short of it is: you know that thing you could do with Rock Band 1 songs, importing them all to Rock Band 2? Well now you can do that with Guitar Hero. Sure it’s unoriginal, but it’s a feature that’s long overdue, so you can only be thankful Activision finally caved on this one. We’re not talking every title here, just World Tour onwards. This is also good news for the chumps who bought Guitar Hero: Greatest Hits, like me, which is also going to be forwards compatible. Maybe it’ll mean I get some value out of that game after all.

Sheesh, just when I thought I was done talking about rhythm games today.

In an interview with 1UP, Guitar Hero 5‘s project director Brian Bright has outlined the new multiplayer modes available.  I’ve already written too much rhythm news today, so here’s some lazy quoting!

1UP: Can you run down what the RockFest feature is all about?

Brian Bright: It’s a suite of new multiplayer game types in Guitar Hero 5 that can be played individually or in teams. These new game types can be played one at a time, or you can create a playlist and try a different game type each round, tournament style. New modes include:

Momentum – All players begin at medium difficulty and go up in difficulty when they hit 20 notes in a row. But they go down in difficulty after missing three notes.
Streakers – You get points for getting note streaks. One point for the first 10 note streak, two for reaching 20, three for 30, and so on.
Perfectionist – The player with the top percentage of notes hit in each section (intro, solo, chorus, etc…) gets four points for that section, second place gets two, third gets one.
Do or Die – If you miss three notes in a section (intro, chorus, verse, etc.) you are out until the start of the next section.
Elimination – The song is divided depending on length and number of players. 30 seconds or so in, a timer pops up. When it reaches zero the player with the lowest score is cut, and the last man standing wins.

-The more things change, the more they stay the same

So while I’ll salute the idea to change things up a little, is it just me or do many of these mini-games seem kind of … samey?  Oh well, check out the whole interview, which also shows off a trailer of the new features.

It’s been a busy few days as far as simulation rock announcements go, so here’s a recap post to catch you up. I’ll warn you now though, this post is going to include several long lists! Don’t say I didn’t warn you!

How do I expert Red Devil?

Although it’s yet to be officially announced, some particularly keen-eyed gamer has noticed a listing on the ESRB for the next track pack for Rock Band. The Rock Band: Metal Track Pack listing includes the lyrics to two songs: Transmaniacon MC by Blue Oyster Cult and D.O.A. by Haunted (EDIT: THE Haunted.  Sorry Stu, you know I respect your collection of metal t-shirts). Couple this with an advance achievements listing on French site SuccesFull, and a few other songs immediately present themselves too:

• Judas Priest – Screaming for Vengence
• Motorhead – Killed by Death
• Hawkwind – Master Of The Universe
• Yngwie Malmsteen – Red Devil
• Nine Inch Nails – Closer
• Evile – Thrasher
• At The Gates – Blinded by Fear
• Guns ‘N’ Roses / Nazareth (can’t be certain on this one yet) – Hair of the Dog
• Lamb Of God – Laid to Rest
• Queens of The Stone Age – 3′s & 7′s

Of course none of these has yet been confirmed, but let’s just say the evidence is certainly stacked high enough.

Caught the next one via Joystiq and was kind of wierded out. Apparently tired of not being taken seriously as rockers with plastic guitars, a group called OpenChord has managed to create a working device that will let you play Guitar Hero/Rock Band using an actual guitar (plugged into a WiiMote). The idea sounds cool, right? Unfortunately, that’s exactly how it doesn’t sound. This would be because note charts displayed for a five fret guitar controller just don’t seem to match up with a real guitar’s fretboard. Strange that. It’s a really neat idea, but I think I’ll stick with my fake Les Paul controller for now. Take a look at OpenChord’s demo of the device.

Scratch: The Ultimate DJ has cleared it’s legal woes with new developer Commotion Interactive taking the reins of the NuMark produced DJ simulator. While it’s been remarked upon that Scratch will definitely hold the technological edge over it’s competitors, with it’s new release date set for early 2010, Activision’s DJ Hero is certainly going to have the advantage of early saturation (and an over-bloated marketing budget too!). Given the difference in controller design, it’s also highly unlikely that we’re going to see peripheral compatibility with the two titles. While it’s great to hear that the game is back on track, it’s going to have to work hard to prove itself to the rhythm game market at large.

Details have also been trickling in for the next band-branded Guitar Hero venture. None of my suggestions made it in. Guitar Hero: Van Halen is due to be released December 22nd this year, just in time for a last minute Christmas present. The full track list has been released, and early reports that the game would contain no Sammy Hagar tracks have been confirmed. Ready for some big lists?

Here’s the Halen:

• Ain’t Talkin Bout Love
• And The Cradle Will Rock
• Atomic Punk
• Beautiful Girls
• Cathedral (solo)
• Dance The Night Away
• Eruption (solo)
• Everybody Wants Some
• Feel Your Love Tonight
• Hang ‘Em High
• Hear About It Later
• Hot For Teacher
• Ice Cream Man
• I’m The One
• Jamie’s Cryin
• Jump
• Little Guitars
• Loss Of Control
• Mean Street
• Panama
• Pretty Woman
• Romeo Delight
• Running With The Devil
• So This Is Love
• Somebody Get Me A Doctor
• Spanish Fly (solo)
• Unchained
• You Really Got Me

And of course, because no-one hates themselves so much to buy a purely Van Halen based game, here’s the rest of the tracks:

• Alter Bridge – Come To Life
• Billy Idol – White Wedding
• Blink-182 – First Date
• Deep Purple – Space Truckin
• Foo Fighters – Best Of You
• Foreigner – Double Vision
• Fountains of Wayne – Stacy’s Mom
• Jimmy Eat World – Pain
• Judas Priest – Painkiller
• Killswitch Engage – The End Of Heartache
• Lenny Kravitz – Rock And Roll Is Dead
• Queen – I Want It All
• Queens of the Stone Age – Sick, Sick, Sick
• Tenacious D – Master Exploder
• The Clash – Safe European Home
• The Offspring – Pretty Fly For A White Guy
• Third Eye Blind – Semi-Charmed Life
• Weezer – Dope Nose
• Yellowcard – The Takedown

However, if you’re in Europe, you might not want to go adding GH:VH to your Christmas wish-list just yet, because apparently December 22nd is only the American release date, with the EU release date set at early 2010. Not sure if this will mean that the Australian release will also be set back a little, but let’s face it, December is going to be so chock-a-block full of plastic rock, I’m sure we’re not going to pull our massive hair out if we’re being delayed for a Van Halen themed Guitar Hero.

As a quick editorial, it’s going to take a lot to convince me that GH:VH isn’t a cash grab. The previous band themed Guitar Hero titles have usually only just saved themselves from being universally canned as re-hashed DLC. This run down, to me, seems like exactly that, and given that it’s being released alongside Guitar Hero 5, DJ Hero and Band Hero, maybe Activision should be considering giving the series a rest for a short while. Or it might turn out that people playing Semi-Charmed Life won’t be the only ones singing “I want … something else!”

In other news, a tourist, lost in the wilderness for a year or so, has been confirmed deceased today.  The tourist, known only as Guitar Hero’s Artistic Direction, was confirmed dead by sad news.  Family are said to be “indifferent” to their loss.

In other news, well, we’re still going to buy it, so who cares?  Not Activision’s accountants, certainly.

Can you feel the emotion yet? No? Yeah, me neither.

Well here’s one I didn’t see coming. News from the gang over at GamingBits, they’ve posted up a video of (I assume) in-game footage of Xbox avatars playing as a band.

Like I said … didn’t see that one coming.

Frankly, while I completely support the integration of avatars in as many things as possible, Guitar Hero? Really? LEGO Rock Band, maybe, but it kind of ruins the last shred of what they call their “artistic style” if you ask me. If they’re going to drop this in, well, why not Miis too? Sure, the Wii only offers a more basic avatar system compared to the 360, but why not? They already look out of place, why not just go the whole hog?

They’ve worked so long making realistic animations for drumming, guitar and vocals, which is something that your average avatar can’t replicate. Watch the video. It looks like the singer is about to take a massive bite out of the microphone, because his mouth has no animation while singing.

Take a look, it’s kind of hypnotic, like a lava-lamp in a car crash.

In related news, Activision finally dropped the full setlist for the upcoming title. If you’re interested, hit the “Read More”, I won’t make a nine mile post to take up the front page. It’s looks like a great selection, definitely a step up from the ecclectic choice of GH: World Tour.

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