I know many of you think the series is dead, and are turned off by the new features, but I would like to throw in my two cents on the issue.

Drums and singing- I admit, this does sound like they're cashing in on RB. Hopefully, they'll eventually release the game by itself and the controllers separate. That way, I can just buy the guitar or something. But who knows.
I can see why some people wouldn't like it. GH is all about...well rocking out with a (plastic) guitar. I can understand that people are worried Activision will not focus on guitas as much and make it too easy. But there's no definite proof this will happen.

As much as I love RB, the guitar part of the game felt a bit...lacking compared to the GH games in general. Perhaps I should re-try it on different levels as I haven't played in awhile.

Create-a-Song- I don't see why people are annoyed by this. There's barely any info on it yet, so I'll wait to hear more about it before passing judgement.

Create-a-Character- Whether Harmonix added this feature or not in RB, Activision would have probably put it in GH IV anyway. They've done it with the Tony Hawk games (I haven't played the TH games, so I'm not too familiar with that system.)

Boss Battles- I heard they're revamping the boss battles, but I'm sure they won't be as bad. Of course, I myself felt neutral towards them in GH III.

Track List- GH III's songs weren't bad by any means. They were just more mainstream than the previous GHs. I didn't know a lot of the songs in GH 2, though I was never a musically inclined person before. So I guess as more songs are confirmed for GH IV, we'll see how it shapes up.

Graphics- They look better, and the art style seems like a fusion of the previous GH games and GH III from what I've seen. I also heard the animations will be improved. But we can only wait until videos pop up showing the game in action before saying that.

My reactions so far are mixed, though not as much as when all this stuff was first announced. Not to mention Clive Winston and Pandora will be returning. As I've said before, we can only wait to see if Activision is going to keep to their words.

Of course, not everyone will agree with me, and I still share some feelings with the members here towards this. I was disappointed with GH III as much as everyone else. However, from what I've seen GH IV looks like it could be an improvement. I'm still very undecided, I guess I can just wait for more stuff before making an ultimate decision.

ive gone off all sorts of GH or RB
we are getting ripped off over here. its just too costly for a game i just play casually for fun.
the only way to take a stand is simply not buying, if people dont buy then they will have to do something.

i feel like they are adding in stuff that is simply not needed, eventually they will run out of decent songs and then i really will lose interest

Yeah I've hear Europe is getting screwed over with RB.

I don't mind if they add new stuff, as long as they eventually make it so that the instruments can be bought seperately. I don't feel like paying a lot, and I don't have enough room. I don't know, I'm just going to wait on this.

I don't care about GH IV at all anymore. It shouldn't even be called GH anymore.

The simple fact that GH IV and a new Konami game, Rock Revolution, are both coming out this fall with guitars, drums, and bass (so singing in RR though) is over-saturating the market.

Despite the pure crap that was gh iii (to me), it appealed to the core GH audience. The one's that didn't want easier note patterns and all those extra frills that RB has.

This is a bad move on moronvision's part. They're going to alienate the people who love guitar hero.

Well true. I've been on several message boards, and the reactions are so polar opposites of each other I don't know who to side with. Each side has valid points. This is one of those things that people are really psyched about, while others have a seething hatred for it. I don't think it will totally "alienate" GH fans, as there are a good amount that don't mind it. But I see where you're coming from.

What I don't understand is why Activision is trying to compete with Harmonix. Isn't GH III generally selling more copies than RB? If that's the case, then Activision shouldn't be going this far.

Reading people's reactions to this on other forums, both the RB and GH fanboys are pissing me off equally. I don't even want to venture into either games' official forums.

It's sad that these things have to happen. From the RB and GH fandoms being torn apart, to the compeition, it's sad that both games can't coexist. Like on Score Hero. With the way the RB and GH sides of the forum (there are two separate sides to the forum) talk about each other, you'd think the forum is in a civil war. RB and GH are amazing games in their own right, it's getting harder to find people who want to share their interests for both games instead of going "My game can beat up your game." If you prefer one game over the other, that's fine, it's just getting to the point where people are killing each other over it.

This is the only forum that I feel I can have a sensible conversation with people on this matter, even if I don't agree with everything said. It's nice to hear people here express which game they prefer instead of acting like screaming fanboys, a rarity on the internet.

Ah well, this IS the internet, so it can't be helped in a way.

The way I saw it was that RB was about songs that the whole band had a hand in and everyone playing could enjoy and not feel cheated where as GH was about the guitar. So wtf should GH have a band set up? D: I'd fear losing the fun of air-guitar-with-a-plastic-guitar-ness...

Ultimately I'm a wait and see type of person so yea.

AP, I understand. I am a GH fan, excluding III. I am an RB fan too. I like both each for different reasons. I think it's a matter of RB may not be selling more copies but I think in the long run it's doing better. New DLC comes out every week, full albums, more stuff to play. While GH III has seen maybe four or five packs of songs since it came out and I think that's where the appeal is.

I think I'd be all for this is it wasn't for the fact that every interview the gh people do, they have to made snide comments about rb.

The two fricken companies used to be one and they made gh together. I don't get why they can't let the two games be their own entities. I still think this might alienate the core gh fans who didn't want the side stuff in rb.

I don't know. We'll see. But this is definitely one I'm not getting any time soon. Besides having huge doubts that activision can make good games anymore, I just don't have the money or the space for another guitar, another drum set, etc.

And only one of those packs was great, IMO.

i like about half of the rb dlc. with that said, probably the main reasons i'm not interested in gh iv is i don't want to spend that much money again or have another drum set and guitar in my room.

The worst part about the gh dlc is you have to get the pack, you can't pick and choose.

I'd would have been thrilled if gh iv went down the road towards guitar sim or even back to the roots of gh. I'd be all over it but this just reeks of them trying to cash in even more on something they shouldn't be doing. The market is getting over-saturated with music games and people aren't going to be willing to keep shelling out the money for this. The rumor is that the gh iii controller won't even work for gh iv. If that's true, you can't say that's not a shady deal on their part.

It's been a while since I was here.

Now, while i'd love to give you all an opinion on GHIV, I can't, since we know next
to nothing about it. I will say, however, that Harmonix will win in the end.

Expect the unexpected a real opinion when we get more information.

Guitar Hero World Tour

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I think I will be taking an official pass on this one. Perhaps one day but not any time soon.

they're "reinventing" gh. i see. that was almost as good as the guitar hero on tour trailer. that was classy.

see, i'm still in the "if it ain't brok don't fix it" boat on gh. they could have made an awesome gh 4 with tons of new features and what not. there's no need to compete with rb. they were making more money on gh 3 anyways.

Wow, I've got to say, that trailer looks stupid. I'd sooner buy GH On Tour.

ok, well i guess the fact that they are making another band game isn't a bad idea altogether. there has always been competition within each genre. the thing that is getting ridiculous is the amount of peripherals you need to play each game. every time a new rpg, fps, platformer, etc comes out you usually get to play with the same controller you play every other game with for that console. if they made universal band peripherals then it wouldn't be such a sucker punch everytime some other company released a new game. it would just be part of the competition, but each developer is fighting to be bigger and better than the other while in the turn is screwing over the consumer.

if the mic (prob will), guitars, and drums all work with all band games then each unique game can do great.
sales will be based on who makes the sweetest game.
having unique controllers for each game will limit sales for everyone.

we know that's not gonna happen thanks to activition blocking the patch that would let GH III controllers work with RB.

well, yes i don't actually expect them to, but it makes sense. you have one guitar that works for each console. then have 3rd party ones to sell too, just like the regular controllers. and that whole activision/harmonix thing was bogus. why the 360 and not the ps3? i might have bought a les paul. i think more people might have bought gh3 that bought rb for the guitar. i can't see how it really would have hurt them to have cross-game functionality.

exactly, make a standard and have the game companies work around that so we don't have out shell out tons of money for each version of rock band and guitar hero.

how-many-buttons-does-the-new-guitar-hero-controller-need

Becoming even more of a Rock Band knock-off...

If they had done that, add more buttons, and make them all be used rather than 5 solo buttons and centered just around guitar, that would have been sweet.

it almost looks as if those aren't buttons at all, it's hard to tell from the picture. too small and blurry.

after reading the article in game informer (finally), i kinda wish ghiv was compatible with the rb stuff or that there was a universal kit. if it's as good as they're claiming then the game actually sounds decent. but still, 2 band kits? that's just crazy.

good:
- ability to keep the same character with all instruments
- earning cash in online mode
- if you can't pass a song in the difficulty you started, you can play it in a lower difficulty to pass it and move on.
- star power in drums is started by hitting both cymbals at the same time (i always thought the little freestyle thing was kinda weird in rb)

... there's probably some stuff i'm forgetting

i don't really know about the bad since they're not going to talk about it, but they say that the old guitars should work, no question, you just won't get all of the functionality of the game. we'll see about that one.

but not getting all the functionality would be pointless, that's just me. why pay so much for a game only to be able to enjoy half of it...cause that want to ream your wallet as much as possible.

well, that's exactly what i'm saying, apparently it's some super secret something or other they're not telling about yet. unless it's the freakin-god-of-all-band-games-that-you-can't-live-without, i'm not getting it. and even then, it seems unlikely since i have all of this other plastic band equipment in my room :rolleyes i'll decide when the time comes and when i see what rb is doing.

i'm in no hurry for another band game sin cei've barely scratched the surface of RB. I keep hoping they put out a patch for BWT online.

I'll just wait for RB2 so I don't need new instruments hopefully.

oh yeah, and there is supposed to be a bass career mode.

i hope that harmonix lets you keep the same instruments. i sent off for a replacement for my guitar yesterday since it doesn't strum down anymore.

Good points all around.

Im all for GH4, even more so for the make your own stuff...though people for the first while will more then likely just try and come up with stuff to "beat" Dragonforce for difficulty.

When I think they should do, which will make or break the game for me personally is make it backwards compatible with all the Rock Band equipment.

As it is I have enough peripherals to start my own store, I have my GH guitar, GH 2 guitar, GH3 guitar, GH 3 wireless guitar, Rock Band Guitar, Rock Band drums, Rock Band Microphone.

Being that the GH 2 guitar works for GH 3 aswell as in rockband (of course you dont get the little toggle switch for changing flange/echo/reverb and so on like the RB one has) it was nice, very nice.

I will get GH 4 if and only if... the GH 2/3 AND RB guitars work with it, aswell as the RB drums and RB Mic.

I enjoy the franchise I'm glad their stepping into a new area of risky marketing years ago has paid off for harmonix/red octane/mtv but stop milking the customer...make everything work with everything else.

Also all of the downloadable "content" when I can buy a MP3 legit off something like iTunes for around $1 and have to pay more for a "cover version" of it on a game I get a foul taste in my mouth (and wallet).

They should release a patch/expansion for the 360 and PS3 that allows users to imput their own MP3's and have the game code them for playing. I know it can be done because of all the "hacked" PS2's out there that do it allready, but while I will never support or condone illegal actions in these matters, being that the company is not a third party developer but the original programers they not only have the power to give us that option (for a price) but they could do it instantly as they allready have the software developed for it.

Sadly, to many people pay big bucks for the download songs so they make "more" money milking our wallets instead of providing us with the power to do it ourselves.

The primary reason is money, they want more, of course.

The second reason, which is just as important as the first...they would likely be out of work, if we could all play what we wanted on our games (after buying the software to do so all legal like) they would have to use their brains to develop something "new" that people would buy instead of just bumping up graphics, changing songs and adding a new "mode" here and there.



Sorry I got kinda ranting there...

in the article in gameinformer they said they were pretty sure that there would be some illegal activity with the song uploading. they are trying to encourage new artists to upload their own music, but imagine how much of it is going to be from people's mp3s of their favorite songs. from the music editor you'll be able to add in bass, guitar, and drums, but no voice.

from what i read (i think, i'll have to go back and look) there is supposed to be a simple track uploader for ghiv. they said the interface was pretty simple to use and it would put together the beat and some note sequences maybe? hm, i'll check on that.

if they did make it compatible with the rock band equipment (which i highly doubt by what happened with the last game) then i would probably get it. i see that you must have gotten the 360 version of rock band, because us ps3 users got screwed in the use of gh controllers. thanks whoever did that, much appreciated :glare

I think having a track uploader for mp3's would bring about some copyright issues, no?

yeah, i don't think it will be uploading exactly, but you'll be able to record it somehow and where there's a will, there's a way. just look at youtube... how many of those vids are legal?

this has potential for many lawsuits i would think. i guess we'll see.

meet-the-new-guitar-hero-controller



http://kotaku.com/5018197/guitar-hero-world-tour-first-look

this along would bring me back to the series IF they're not crappy versions of the characters.

guitar-hero-world-tour-drum-controller-outdoes-rock-band

Okay, it's looking better than it did last week. But that guitar...That guitar. It's mine.

But without the guard.
Muse is a rumored artist, that's good, but I need more. Bloc Party? If they are both in it, I hate to say I might just buy it. WE'LL SEE.

I pre-ordered it with the guitar only. But the graphics do look better, and I beleive you can use the GH characters as templates to create a rocker. If that's the case, we will no longer be stuck with the trashy GH III Judy Nails and stuff.

I kind of hope that the rest of the band from GH will be back or at least we could be able to create look-alikes of them. I admit, I did like the singer from GH and GH II(I was upset they made him so horrible looking in III. I heard it's because they used mo-cap for lip synching, but still...), the drummer was decent, and the bassist was awsome (I know in the videos in GH 1, the development team said he ended up being everyone's favorite character.)

I don't know, the game has a huge amount of potential and would be epic if they pulled it off. Of course, this whole thing is a huge risk for the developers, it could also be an epic fail if it flops.

The developers seem to be putting more effort into this game than GH III. One of them even admitted that Activision rushed them with GH III. But who knows. Optimists and naysayers both should be reserving judgement until the game comes out.

P.S.- For some strange reason, I'm actually looking foward to the GH DS game. It seems like a fun little amusement. Plus I need more DS games.

I'm iffy on it still. I would have preferred just guitar with deeper focus but we'll see what the coming months say.