What used to be great about Guitar Hero was that, as popular as the games got with a progressively wider audience (children), there was still a focus on rock and roll and heavy metal culture and humor in the games. That and the song selections were fantastic. But mainly is it was a pure, unapologetic series about rocking out as a guitar god. There were even jokes within the games regarding other rock band positions, and how being a lead guitarist was the shit. Even when Harmonix left the series, nobody cared because GH3 was the best of them anyway.
Now, the corporate side of the gaming business being what it is, we have World Tour. What a piece of absolute garbage this game is compared to the previous entries. What this game boils down to is the "Let's keep things safe" corporate mentality of Activision Blizzard. They couldn't allow just another Guitar Hero game. Nope. Couldn't just do it again and keep the franchise strong. They HAD to jump on Rock Band's train, they HAD to take a game series called GUITAR Hero and piss all over it, and release a band game. First of all, GH3 blew away Rock Band in sales. What was the financial reason of doing a band game anyway? I mean, we can assume money was the reason for doing it right? Otherwise, World Tour would have just been the next traditional GH.
The whole experience of playing Guitar Hero is now permanently damaged, unless they go back to guitar-driven games at some point in the future. Sure the first three games will always be there, but that's where it ends unfortunately. Neversoft showed us they can carry on the GH franchise, and what does their publisher do? Demand a rip off game be made, but keep the name "Guitar Hero" instead of calling it "Guitar and bunch of other shit you and your friends won't want to play." Rock Band was at least novel, it was fun for a while. But nobody plays Guitar Hero to play bass or drums or sing. It's fucking Guitar Hero. If I wanted to do these other things, wouldn't I just play Rock Band? Whoops, actually that's the reason World Tour exists, so I won't go buy the competing product.
The purity of the guitar game concept that Harmonix created has been destroyed by a game of corporate catch-up. What GH4 should have been was a game dedicated to kick ass guitar-driven music and insanely difficult expert mode shenenigans, that's what GH should be at this point. Instead it's a band game, but that is fucking lame because now we have a bunch of shitty songs that aren't fun to play the guitar parts for. Actually there are some great songs on World Tour, but the great ones are significantly less numerous than on GH3, enough to where I'd never buy the game.
What exactly was the matter with just doing another Guitar Hero game?
GH: World Tour is SO LAME
First of all, I think it's one heck of a stretch to say Guitar Hero 3 is the best game in the series. I'd totally have to disagree with that. It was a very uninspired game with lame venues, dumb new modes, and not really much innovation. The soundtrack was solid, though, and having mostly master tracks was definitely a bonus. Regardless, a lot of critics were kind of displeased with GH3, especially since Rock Band was going in a new and bigger direction, leaving Guitar Hero in the dust. Of course they added instruments to copy Rock Band. Why wouldn't they? They have to be able to compete with them. Plus think of how much more money they'd make with people buying all the instruments. Dude, you know... it's just going to get worse, man. Especially with Neversoft at the reigns. Sure, I love the Tony Hawk series, but Neversoft milked it for as much as they could, and now they're about to do the same thing with Guitar Hero. Things have gotten far too expensive and they're starting to get real ugly. The appeal of the games has kind of worn off on me now. I just feel like they're not worth their heavy price tags.
I agree GreatGuero, these kinds of games in general are waning. There is a limit to the amount of plastic instruments you can fit in your damn house. But I said GH3 is the best in the series because the gameplay is so much better (hammers/pulls actually work) and the song list is solid.
What I wish is that they'd release a GH Ultimate or something with every song but with GH3's gameplay refinement.
I agree and disagree. I loved Guitar Hero I - III and I did feel skeptical when the new band format was announcee but honestly, it's still fun as hell, especially with friends. I would have rather had Rock band do it's thing and Guitar Hero stay true to it's roots, which would have made it more financially reasonable to own both but hey, what are you going to do?
Even when Harmonix left the series, nobody cared because GH3 was the best of them anyway.As far as I can remember everyone HATED Guitar Hero III. All I would ever hear from various podcasts is how crap it was in comparison to Rock Band. This shouldn't be a surprise to anyone because, guess what, you don't get it right first time.
What I do agree on, however, is that it NEEDS to be guitar driven, and with songs chosen for guitar. Otherwise you get the snoozefest that is Rock Band single player... seriously, it's boring as hell. I was rather hoping the Metallica spin off would be guitar only and that this is how they would continue to approach it, giving the hardcore players something to enjoy. But no, they're caving to the masses and the loudest voices in the industry to make something like Rock Band, something which everyone can enjoy.
What I do like about Activision's approach is that, rather than give people only the option to buy a version with a bunch of songs they don't care about, they are also offering specific ones so that if you just happen to like <band here> you will be REALLY happy with the game. thankfully I REALLY like Metallica, so GH:M is going to be a day one purchase for me.
I'd like to add that I think World Tour has the most fun gameplay mechanic in the series. Not too brutal like GH2 and not too forgiving like GH3, but there's also the AWESOMELY FUN tapping mechanic. Which, seriously, has so much potential for awesome. I can't wait to play more metal based Guitar Hero.
I've stopped buying Guitar Hero. It's just not Guitar Hero anymore. It's Guitar Hero with a shitload of shitty instruments. Now I just play Rock Band. At least Harmonix didn't created a rip off.
Guitar Hero started going down hill as soon as Harmonix left. Seriously, Neversoft ruined the series. GH3 was a travesty compared to GH2. The sound quality was crap, the animations were godawful, and, while it sure as hell was a lot easier to shred, it was sloppy (IMO). The setlist was pretty kick-ass, though.
And World Tour.....oy. I mean, it's still fun in it's own right, but try playing Rock Band, and it's such a terrible step downwards. The animations are still crap (yeah, I know, little point there, but it still matters to me), the sound quality is worse (but a step up from GH3), and the game mechanics aren't as well put together as RB (correct me if I'm wrong, but if one person fails, the whole band has to start over? The hell?). The setlist is pretty good (TOOL, YES!), but RB has just as good a setlist. In total, it's almost painful to compare the two.
Neversoft is on "the list". We could've got two good musical franchises with (somewhat) different gameplay styles, and instead, they gave us a poor rip-off of the competition. Oh well. However, if you don't have RB, but still have GHWT, I'm not saying that it won't be fun. It'll still be cool if you've got pals around.
I think they tried to do too much and screwed it all up. And the presentation and polish is a joke. It looks awful technically and artistically and the guitar notes don't even line up with the music in certain areas. Neversoft is getting just as lazy as they did with Tony Hawk. They are not the music fans Harmonix is and it shows.
I was rather hoping the Metallica spin off would be guitar only and that this is how they would continue to approach it, giving the hardcore players something to enjoy. But no, they're caving to the masses and the loudest voices in the industry to make something like Rock Band, something which everyone can enjoy.QFT. Metallica only game? Awesome. Anything other than guitar in it? Meh. First of all I haven't purchased a full GH game since GH2 on 360, and unless the explorer controller dies on me I don't think I'll be buying a bunch of new plastic instruments for this, even though I love the band.
What I do like about Activision's approach is that, rather than give people only the option to buy a version with a bunch of songs they don't care about, they are also offering specific ones so that if you just happen to like <band here> you will be REALLY happy with the game. thankfully I REALLY like Metallica, so GH:M is going to be a day one purchase for me.
I haven't had the chance to play the first two games, but I've got Guitar Hero 3 and World Tour. I personally prefer Guitar Hero 3 over World Tour, as I found it to be much nicer to use. World Tour seems to have complicated things, especially hammer ons and the new touch-pad on the guitar. In my opinion, the new way to pull off hammer ons isn't too good and I find using the touch-pad doesn't work to well, although, when I can pull it off, it can be fun to use.
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