William BagleyGuitar Hero vs Rock Band Round 1
October 29th 2007 10:32
It's arguably one of the more interesting up and coming contests in the gaming industry. Guitar Hero, now a long standing and successful music franchise entering a new age in more ways then one, and Rock Band, which aims to take everything learnt from the GH series and turn it upside down.
Over the coming months, between the release Guitar Hero III next week (woot!) and Rock Band early next year (not so woot, impatient as I am), I'm goning take a wonder through some of the more interesting aspects of this slowly brewing rivalry for gamers wallets, and to find out once and for all who is the true king of the plastic musical instrument wars...
So, Guitar Hero. Yes, I've played it (I own the 360 edition of GHII), and I love it. It's like an overly fancy puzzle game detailed with a plethora of musical masterpieces (and a few duds, depending on taste) that thankfully doesn't make you look like a complete and utter idiot in front of other people (sorry to all you dance dance revolution players, but it's just CRAZY!) ... well, unless you jump around a bit ... or you're drunk.
Anyway, so the games' original creator, Harmonix, moved on from publisher Red Octane to the lovely folk at MTV, in hopes to make a new kind of music sensation (ie. Rock Band), leaving Guitar Hero without a developer. Enter Neversoft, a name synonymous with the Tony Hawk franchise, who have been hard at work rebuilding the GH world for it's third (official) outing. It'll mark the first time the game will play out with full online features as well as making its début on the Nintendo Wii, along side its PC, PS2, PS3 and Xbox 360 editions (the most the series has been released on since its original release on PS2 not too long ago, although why they decided to make a PC edition, I have no idea).
So now, with a week to release here in Australia, the first lot of reviews out of the states are filtering through, and the news looks good for all GH fanatics such as I. The new wireless guitar model rocks, online rocks, the music rocks ... you get the idea.
Guitar Hero III 1 - Rock Band 0
Now it's up to Harmonix and MTV to hit the right note. It's redefined music model features not only guitar, but also as drum kit, base and a lead singer. This complete band has never been attempted before, but being Harmonix, they can sure as hell pull it off. But there's a few questions in my head, some that I won't get answers to at least until I pull off Knights of Cydonia on the hardest possible setting (darned plastic guitar buttons being so tricky to master).
For one, will it be worth shelling out nearly $200 for the entire system? Can you buy instruments separate, especially since I already own a guitar or two for my 360? Will online, if any, be as good as what everyone is telling me GHIII is?
The challenge has certainly been set, and this is one I'm looking forward to watching, if only to discover how much my hip pocket is going to feel so much lighter once it's all over, one way or another. More on Guitar Hero vs Rock Band next week, as I take GHIII for a run...
Over the coming months, between the release Guitar Hero III next week (woot!) and Rock Band early next year (not so woot, impatient as I am), I'm goning take a wonder through some of the more interesting aspects of this slowly brewing rivalry for gamers wallets, and to find out once and for all who is the true king of the plastic musical instrument wars...
So, Guitar Hero. Yes, I've played it (I own the 360 edition of GHII), and I love it. It's like an overly fancy puzzle game detailed with a plethora of musical masterpieces (and a few duds, depending on taste) that thankfully doesn't make you look like a complete and utter idiot in front of other people (sorry to all you dance dance revolution players, but it's just CRAZY!) ... well, unless you jump around a bit ... or you're drunk.
The Wii edition of GHIII ... looking spiffy
Anyway, so the games' original creator, Harmonix, moved on from publisher Red Octane to the lovely folk at MTV, in hopes to make a new kind of music sensation (ie. Rock Band), leaving Guitar Hero without a developer. Enter Neversoft, a name synonymous with the Tony Hawk franchise, who have been hard at work rebuilding the GH world for it's third (official) outing. It'll mark the first time the game will play out with full online features as well as making its début on the Nintendo Wii, along side its PC, PS2, PS3 and Xbox 360 editions (the most the series has been released on since its original release on PS2 not too long ago, although why they decided to make a PC edition, I have no idea).
So now, with a week to release here in Australia, the first lot of reviews out of the states are filtering through, and the news looks good for all GH fanatics such as I. The new wireless guitar model rocks, online rocks, the music rocks ... you get the idea.
Guitar Hero III 1 - Rock Band 0
Now it's up to Harmonix and MTV to hit the right note. It's redefined music model features not only guitar, but also as drum kit, base and a lead singer. This complete band has never been attempted before, but being Harmonix, they can sure as hell pull it off. But there's a few questions in my head, some that I won't get answers to at least until I pull off Knights of Cydonia on the hardest possible setting (darned plastic guitar buttons being so tricky to master).
The drum kit for Rock Band ... you can't stop the beat
For one, will it be worth shelling out nearly $200 for the entire system? Can you buy instruments separate, especially since I already own a guitar or two for my 360? Will online, if any, be as good as what everyone is telling me GHIII is?
The challenge has certainly been set, and this is one I'm looking forward to watching, if only to discover how much my hip pocket is going to feel so much lighter once it's all over, one way or another. More on Guitar Hero vs Rock Band next week, as I take GHIII for a run...
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