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Kurt Cobain, Versatile Front-Man

This collection of Guitar Hero 5 footage is... I don't know, a little messed-up?

Giant Bomb User of the Minute skrutop posted this video of Guitar Hero 5 on the boards this morning. It's a bunch of footage of Virtual Kurt Cobain doing a bunch of stuff that Real Kurt Cobain would have probably needed two shotguns to cope with. 
 

   
 
On one level, this is kind of hilarious, and it's definitely a testament to the graphical quality of Guitar Hero 5 that seeing V-Cobain sing a Bon Jovi song, or seeing him make rap poses while mouthing Flavor Flav's words seems so absolutely wrong on so many different levels.

I suppose a lot of this has to do with me being "of a certain age," such that I distinctly remember the whens and wheres of Cobain's suicide. While I never worshipped the dude like some of my peers did, you could certainly elevate him to some kind of "voice of a generation" status. And it's the near-mythic legacy he left behind and the way the Nirvana catalog has been protected from commercial interests over the years that makes this stuff so harsh. Blame Courtney Love, I suppose, for not continuing to protect that legacy. His appearance in the game seems fine, but perhaps the business deal should have prevented Neversoft from using that model in anything other than Nirvana's tracks? Or, in lieu of the license holders not caring enough about Cobain's likeness to place meaningful restrictions on its use, maybe the developers should have shown a little restraint? I wonder if there was even any discussion on this topic during the game's development...

I don't know. Like I said, it doesn't really bother me, and I'm certainly not outraged or anything, but it definitely struck me as completely crazy. Way crazier than all the other dead musicians who have appeared (or will be appearing) in music games. Three Kurt Cobains with invisible instruments, performing a Megadeth song! What? Too soon?
Jeff Gerstmann on Google+

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jeff

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Edited By jeff

Giant Bomb User of the Minute skrutop posted this video of Guitar Hero 5 on the boards this morning. It's a bunch of footage of Virtual Kurt Cobain doing a bunch of stuff that Real Kurt Cobain would have probably needed two shotguns to cope with. 
 

   
 
On one level, this is kind of hilarious, and it's definitely a testament to the graphical quality of Guitar Hero 5 that seeing V-Cobain sing a Bon Jovi song, or seeing him make rap poses while mouthing Flavor Flav's words seems so absolutely wrong on so many different levels.

I suppose a lot of this has to do with me being "of a certain age," such that I distinctly remember the whens and wheres of Cobain's suicide. While I never worshipped the dude like some of my peers did, you could certainly elevate him to some kind of "voice of a generation" status. And it's the near-mythic legacy he left behind and the way the Nirvana catalog has been protected from commercial interests over the years that makes this stuff so harsh. Blame Courtney Love, I suppose, for not continuing to protect that legacy. His appearance in the game seems fine, but perhaps the business deal should have prevented Neversoft from using that model in anything other than Nirvana's tracks? Or, in lieu of the license holders not caring enough about Cobain's likeness to place meaningful restrictions on its use, maybe the developers should have shown a little restraint? I wonder if there was even any discussion on this topic during the game's development...

I don't know. Like I said, it doesn't really bother me, and I'm certainly not outraged or anything, but it definitely struck me as completely crazy. Way crazier than all the other dead musicians who have appeared (or will be appearing) in music games. Three Kurt Cobains with invisible instruments, performing a Megadeth song! What? Too soon?
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CoolDrMoney

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Edited By CoolDrMoney

old news jeff, come on. can some mod lock this? 
 
Also, it's four Cobains playing megadeth. I'm willing to bet that he looks a lot more like the drummer these days.

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VWGTI

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Edited By VWGTI

" Three Kurt Cobains with invisible instruments, performing a Megadeth song! What? Too soon?"
 
Win.

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redgauss

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Edited By redgauss

GH is getting sad

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Druminator

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Edited By Druminator

This is still stupid.

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Edited By nanikore

Too soon, man. Too soon.

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Edited By Seedofpower

Oh god.......   "YEAAAAA BOYYYYY!" hahaha

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Edited By vigorousjammer

oh god... this is why I play Rock Band.

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hatking

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Edited By hatking

The avatars bother me more than anything else in this video.  Seriously they could not have thought that it looked alright.  Not ok.

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Edited By MetalGearSunny
@Vigorousjammer said:
" oh god... this is why I play Rock Band. "
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Edited By flaminghobo

It ain't right.

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_Phara0h_

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Edited By _Phara0h_

Kurt just rolled in his grave, and I trough up in my mouth after seeing the Virtual Kurt sing a Bon Jovi song......

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Edited By spiceninja

This is just wrong.  4 Cobain's with invisible instruments? It went from being kind of a cool tribute to him to a joke without respect.

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Edited By Damian

Not sacrilege or anything, but surely "a shot to the heart". It's like putting a digital Bill Hicks in an episode of Everybody Loves Raymond.

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hardcorebunnni

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Edited By hardcorebunnni

I know what you mean, Jeff. I may be only 16 but I've listened to every single Nirvana album and despite the life Kurt led and his eventual end,  I appreciate the music he and his band made and his position regarding selling out. Seeing his virtual self singing shit like Bon Jovi is ridiculous and it makes me question the overall quality of GH 5.
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skrutop

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Edited By skrutop

First the mug, now this...
 

I'M FAMOUS TODAY!!!!!!! :P

 
fame over :'(
 
Now we just need a virtual Cobain/Johnny Cash/Layne Staley/Sid Vicious supergroup.  C'mon, Neversoft, make it happen!
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Edited By Ziaxool

I don't know; it's just silly fun. I thought to the whole point of the grunge era was to just say "I don't really care, I'll just do whatever I feel like". This certainly seems to fit that message to me.

Having a grunge rocker promote styles going against that attitude though, that's another story. But, honestly, I think it would be the people on the recieving end feeling upset at that point.

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erinfizz

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Edited By erinfizz

eww.

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Edited By vigorousjammer

Cobain isn't the only horrible thing in this video.  Invisible instruments is the stupidest idea i've ever heard of... and seeing an avatar next to a fully polygonal model just looks SO FUCKING WEIRD.
Man, how does Neversoft get away with stupid shit like this and have people who still like Guitar Hero better than Rock Band?

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MetalGearSunny

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Edited By MetalGearSunny
@Vigorousjammer: They also get away with this.
 

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Edited By Hoagie

It's bizzarre. And kind of uncomfortable. I mean, most, if not all, of the other dead musicians in these games didn't commit suicide.

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deactivated-5f8c6f8176a85

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Thats just...wrong, so very very wrong...

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Edited By Ziaxool

@Vigorousjammer:

Well, for some people it's not about the interface, it's about the MUSIC. I have no idea what the Guitar Hero 5 setlist looks like (I feel like I've had my share of rythm gaming with the first three Guitar Hero games as well as the Metallica spin-off), but I have kept an eye on the Rock Band one, and I've got more fingers on one hand than they have songs that are appealing to me.

I don't care about the graphics or modern multiplayer or whatever new things they churn up: if you ain't got the music I won't be  buying the game.

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Edited By vigorousjammer
@Hoagie said:
" It's bizzarre. And kind of uncomfortable. I mean, most, if not all, of the other dead musicians in these games didn't commit suicide. "
I'm not so sure how much it has to do with that, but just that any musician singing a song that is so far from their style just seems wrong. Try picturing Ozzy up there instead of Kurt.  Ozzy's not even dead, and him doing a b-boy pose, or singing Bon Jovi would still freak me the hell out.

Note to Neversoft: If we have digital musicians in the game, limit them to their own songs! Otherwise, it's just fucking weird!
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Edited By Kornicos

Any thoughts of picking this up are out the window now. Sticking with Rock Band thanks.

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Edited By Dryker
@Damian:
Funny you mention Bill Hicks. If I recall, he's the comedian Tool wrote Eulogy for; and Maynard James Keenan was the first living musician I thought of who would be outraged by a treatment of his likeness like this. If Kurt was alive and had the chance to choose and explain his reasoning, is one thing, but after he's dead? Such should be illegal. He took his own life because he was sick of the bullshit. And what is he know? Part of the bullshit. Really effed up.
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Edited By dexterslu

I'm not sure what he's referring to, playing music with Avatars or his movements while singing...both are equally horrifying in my opinion.

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Edited By vigorousjammer
@Ziaxool: I honestly don't know how that's even possible... a lot of songs are both in Rock Band and Guitar Hero, and Rock Band has so many different genres of music, ranging from classic rock, to indie rock, to metal, to funk, to country... like, seriously, there's something in Rock Band for everybody... What kind of music are you referring to that Rock Band doesn't have?
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Edited By zitosilva

It's just tasteless. Really, all they keep presenting just keeps me further and further away from GH 5. I sure hope there's no Johnny Cash in the same poses we've seen Cobain doing.

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Edited By RHCPfan24

Damn, this is shameful. I really don't like seeing any dead people in these games. I think Jimi Hendrix was worse because he just strolled on stage like nothing ever happened but damn, Cobain would not be happy.

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Edited By Kiemoe

Hey, Kurt Cobain killed himself because he was afraid of his music fueling a bland corporate mechanism. So if anything says bland corporate mechanism more than Guitar Hero, let me know.

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Edited By twenty0ne

I couldn't care less about Kurt Cobain...

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Edited By elfbot

im in like half of those clips wooooooo

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Edited By skrutop
@elfbot said:

" im in like half of those clips wooooooo "

I was a bit disappointed not to see you in the DLC vids again this week, elfbot.  Are you going to be in any full-band vids for GH5?
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Edited By Ziaxool
@Vigorousjammer:

Well, if you ask me, the game with the best song list is the game that spawned it all; the first Guitar Hero. Almost every song on that list is a classic; Black Sabbath, Pantera, Ozzy, Queen, Joan Jett... You get the idea!

Anyone who hears the tracks will want to play it, the tracks are stretching many genres and are all familiar and rocking.

With game two, I felt the quality really dropped in my mind. Sure we had us some Kiss, the Sabbath was still there and some Gn'R, but a lot of the tracks were either just straight of top lists regardless of lasting power or anything, or more B-rate classics.

Guitar Hero 3? Come on; the Killers, Slipknot, AFI (or was it another band like that? I don't remember) and so on... Sure there was Alice and Slayer and all that, but track-to-track, there wasn't a lot of meat on those bones.

The first game, when I played it with my buddies we'd play mostly any track. With game two, that dropped to five or so. Game three, the set list was so much larger, but there was still only five to ten songs I'd actually enjoy to play.

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Bruce

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Edited By Bruce

I gotta say, GH5 knocks RB 2 on its ass in terms of character models and animation.
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Edited By elfbot
@skrutop: gregg isnt doing gh5 vids so i dunno. i was kicked off because joshie is back and he does live streaming 
 
 
imagine when band hero is exportable. imagine kurt singing all those pop songs
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Edited By FuzzYLemoN

This is messed up on so many levels.

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Edited By toowalrus

I've never really had much respect for Cobain since his suicide anyway, so this totally makes me chuckle. Cobain didn't care about his fans enough to keep living, so we shouldn't care when we make a mockery of everything he stood for.

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Edited By Death_Burnout

Hilarious yet messed up, certainly.
 
Sweating Buuulllllettts!

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Metamorphic

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Edited By Metamorphic

I hope Giant Bomb rates it 3 or less stars. I have had the game for a while now and it's not that great when compared to others (Rock Band 2).

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Edited By Ziaxool

I've got to hit the hay now, but if you're interested in continuing any discussion just leave a P.M..

Otherwise I'd be happy to agree to disagree.

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Afroman269

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Edited By Afroman269

Wow Guitar Hero just wow. This brand is just getting shittier with each release. I'm going back to watching a bunch of Beatle Rock Band vids to cleanse my mind of this garbage.....

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Edited By Th3_James

Wow, the avitars are really lame

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Edited By jimbo_n

This phenomenon is nothing new in the franshise. Youve always been able to uncofortably pair up the real world musicians in GH with wierd songs that dosent fit them at all. Now they may not be dead wich is the case here but this is really the nature of the game. 
Personally I´ve always thought that the real world characters should be locked to their songs because it gets way goofy this way. 
But really, at the end of the day, whatever. Without any disrespect to Kurt.
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Edited By dethfish

I really liked the last GH game I bought and I would like to buy this one but this is messed up. What makes it even weirder is the stupid little midget looking avatars next to him. 
 
Damn it Guitar Hero, this is why people don't like you.

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Edited By Foggen
@Damian: So what you're saying is Kurt Cobain needs to be carrying a fat bottle of Orange Drink.
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Edited By MrKlorox

Neversoft is a joke. Fuck that studio and it's entire non-musician workforce.