Hey, so we'll have more to say about Guitar Hero Live on this week's podcast (which will be up later today), but here's the new game's new guitar peripheral.

I would have preferred a close-up of the fret board, but there you go. The frets are what makes this game different. It's a three-by-two configuration that represents itself with black on-screen indicators for one side and white ones for the other. This escalates into having to hit both sides of the fret board at the same time, which actually creates more realistic-feeling chord shapes with your left hand. We got a chance to play around with it (and a build of the game) recently and it's surprisingly cool.

Here's an example of what the game looks like when you're actually playing it. Yeah, Guitar Hero Live is kind of an FMV game. Can't say I saw that coming. Anyway, once you see the guitar, the white and black on-screen prompts should make a lot more sense.

Have they announced a price/release date or is that saved for E3?

Looks good. If it's backwards compatible with RB, I might actually pick one up. I've always used GH guitars (with RB drums).

I assume there's an image or video missing from the article?

EDIT: Ahhh, just noticed the video link, that must have supposed to be embedded here.

EDIT 2: Video is embedded! Isn't even the one in the video link, looks cool though.

Having to buy new plastic instruments makes this DOA.

Something something flat circle...

*edit: But the 2x3 black/white button layout is a smart way to handle the things, so good on them for that.

DAT FMV FPS

looks pretttty bad and awfully cheesy...

Rock Band LOYAL

Changing difficulty on the fly looks cool.

I'm sort of massively into this. Made up they're trying something mad.

I'm intrigued to see what the charts look like on higher difficulties, and how hammer-on/pull-offs work. It looks good, but a bit simple.

@jwl1092: press release says $100 with game.

I actually think this is cool. . . it's not just a re-hash of the old guitar hero. It's something different.

The world's most successful covers band.

Don't know about the changes and layout. I may pick this up, but only after its like 40 bucks because no one wanted to buy new plastic controllers.

Cool beans. If they're not gonna allow users to use old peripherals at least changing it up with a new setup is a good thing. I'll be 100% honest though, if I can't turn off those FMVs I don't know how much I'll enjoy this. Just saying it would be sorta awesome if they allowed you to play the songs and have custom videos/movies/netflix/ect running in the background with subs or something......

Missing a note makes it look like you've been COD shot. At least you regen health.

@jeff Here's a shot of the fretboard from Kotaku UK

Intrigued by the new button layout, but those FMV band guys are THE WORST.

That FMV stuff looks pretty cheesy in spots, but I'm actually kind of into it. It just makes me wonder how many of those could they realistically have? And how the transitions into the band disapproving of you actually works. It seems seamless here, but of course it would.

@chickdigger802: ah thats not too bad, cheers.

So by going FMV will that dramatically decrease the amount of songs and genres of music available for this game, particularly for DLC?

If they're actually changing up the mechanics, buying another piece of plastic is a lot more reasonable.

Get fucked, Guitar Hero.

It was one of the first thoughts I had.

Also, I don't want to play songs with those arseholes.

Or flirt with groupies backstage.

Wow that FMV.... Full on fantasy. Not sure.

No thank you, never again music games with plastic instruments for me.

The new controller and the awful/great FMV has me way more interested than it has any right to...But those song choices for the reveal pretty much confirm to me that, in all likelihood, the soundtrack will be mostly stuff I don't like. And the game's no good to me if I don't enjoy the music.

But hey, as someone who only ever played these sorts of games on easy because using four fingers was more than my hand could handle, this new controller looks cool.

Interested, but really don't want another generation of plastic instruments taking up space and no easy way to get rid of them besides just dumping them. Goodwill even had to stop accepting them.

@johnnymcginley: My guess is this is just promo stuff. Maybe for the career/single player mode you'll have a bunch of videos with these guys, but for most songs you're probably going to be looking at either the same video over and over or they'll just use music videos if they're available and start blurring out the image if you start messing up.

There's other images coming out that look like they just lay the highway over bands music videos.

The FMV stuff was fine. I'll take it over whatever garbage these games used to have.

@jesus_phish: Going to actually try and emulate chords to an certain extent, it seems.

The POV FMV is weird because the note track it makes it look like you're playing your guitar with the neck pointing away from you. Like you're looking down the iron sights. Of a guitar.

Might be interested in this but most likely not at full price. Cos I bet it's gonna be like 80 bucks or something. Wonder if Rock Band's gonna have more compatibility with the old instruments. I only have the GH:WT stuff which does work with last gen Rock Band.

I'm not a rb or gh fanboy but man this looks dumb as hell.

Biggest flop of 2015 already called it

I wish they'd just go with the real thing like Rocksmith. I was never able to get into Guitar Hero because it just felt stupid fumbling with buttons to make approximations of songs I can actually play more easily on a real guitar.

I'm down for FMV nonsense. I'm even okay with buying and learning a new plastic instrument.

But by the looks of what they chose to put in these trailers, and what I've read elsewhere, the song selection for the game is going to be garbage, more or less. Pass.

Don't get me wrong. I think The Black Keys are pretty okay, but fuck you. I want to be playing stuff like The Who, Rush, and Guns N Roses in my plastic instruments games.

They announced a price, and it's $100 for game and guitar.

The new Rock Band is talking about trying for compatibility with old instruments, but who really knows until they announce some more. My personal feeling is that I don't think they would have talked that much about it if they don't have something at least significantly in the works (like a dongle or something to make the old stuff work).

Wait what? This looks horrible! And I was ready to jump into the next generation of music games but this is not the game I wanted, at least not the look of it.

Guitar Hero, you can do what you want, I'm not interested. But if you ruin this for EVERYONE like you did last time, you can go fucking die. Bring on RB4.

While I know Guitar Hero and Rocksmith cater to different audiences, but if you have even the slightest interest in guitars, pick up a cheap guitar and a copy of Rocksmith instead. It even has custom songs that people make themselves and share and you'll learn a real instrument!

So the rumour about a more realistic art style just meant FMV.

I am pretty excited.

The new guitar seems cool and I hope this is a nice return. FMV is NEVER good, so people complaining should go watch what is considered "good" and realize it always is cheesy and lame.

The vitrol in these comments already disgusts me. GH did not kill the brand. Rock Band was just as bad with all the variations of instruments.Both brands equally contributed.

lol, no thanks

This does seem pretty cool, but if Rock Band 4 works with all of the shit I already have, Rock Band 4 is what I'll be buying.

That's actually a really cool new take on the guitar controller, but I'm way too bought in to the RB series with all (most) of my old content carrying forward. It's probably something I'll try to pick up later on when they're slashing prices to get them off shelves.

I really like the idea of the new guitar, I really hate the FMV.

So... are all the songs in this game going to have these FMV backgrounds? Wouldn't that limit the selection quite a bit compared to a system where the bands didn't actually have to still be active/living?

I imagine that the DLC is going to be mad expensive too if they have to shoot new video for each song.

Want to see more of both GH and RB, I was super addicted to the games and finally broke free only a few years back so they have to do a lot of things right to bring me back in

Oh man I'm way into that FMV. That is awesome.

EDIT: Oh man if they could cut in shots of the band giving you really dirty looks when you start failing. THAT WOULD BE THE BEST.

EDIT 2: Didn't watch enough of the video. THIS IS THE BEST.

I feel like I probably only have room in my life for one franchise these days, and RB has been my jam for years, but I gotta hand it to them for doing something different with the buttons and highway layouts.

Also, I kinda love the "Seriously bruh?" stink-eye from the singer when the player was fucking up.

Could not be less interested in anything Guitar Hero related especially if Harmonix pulls off being able to use old instruments in the newer games. That and moving over all my purchased DLC makings the new Rock Band much more favorable to me.