Circuit City’s looking to rake in some last-minute holiday cash with an aggressive deal on Guitar Hero: Aerosmith for the Xbox 360. You’ll get the game and a wireless guitar PLUS a second wireless guitar, all for $47.99. → Read More
Activision may have a slight problem on its hands what with Guitar Hero: World Tour not selling too well. The latest numbers, as one analyst from Electronic Entertainment Design and Research has interpreted for us, suggest that Guitar Hero sales may have peaked. (Please note the distinction between Guitar Hero and “music games;” no one is saying that music games are dead.) This is the bad news, as articulated by the analyst: Currently, we expect unit sales to decline by more than 50 percent series-over-series for November. This is coming off the October month where series-over-series units declined by more than 60 percent. A couple reasons for this, maybe. (Who knows for real, in other words.) One is that Rock Band 2 has been reviewed more favorably than GH:WT, suggesting that it’s the better game. (Doug essentially says the same thing in his comparison between the two.) When forced to chose between the two (“you can only have one game this year for Christmas, son, seeing as though mommy and daddy are out of work now”), the rational person is going to pick the better game. Let’s not forget that many stores were selling Guitar Hero 3 cheaply on Black Friday, which could have eaten into GH:WT‘s sales. It could also be that GH fans put a premium on guitar play rather than the whole “we’re a fake band, together!” camaraderie of GH:WT. → Read More
Short Version: As music games go, both Rock Band 2 and Guitar Hero World Tour are impressive, fun, and either would make a great addition to any gamer’s lineup. But which one is best for you? → Read More
http://static.escapistmagazine.com/media/global/movies/player/FlowPlayerDark.2.2.4-tm.swf?1.1?config=%7Bembedded%3Atrue%2CplayList%3A%5B+%7B+%27url%27%3A452%2C%27linkUrl%27%3A%27http%3A%2F%2Fwww.escapistmagazine.com%2Fvideos%2Fview%2Fzero-punctuation%2F452-Guitar-Hero-World-Tour%27%2C%27linkWindow%27%3A%27_top%27%2C%27name%27%3A%27Guitar%2BHero%2BWorld%2BTour%27+%7D+%5D%2CsplashImageFile%3A%27http%3A%2F%2Fwww.escapistmagazine.com%2Fglobal%2Fcastfire%2Fsplash%2F452.jpg%27%2CshowVolumeSlider%3Atrue%2Cpid%3A%27html_test%27%2CinitialScale%3A%27fit%27%2Cloop%3Afalse%2CautoPlay%3Afalse%2CautoBuffering%3Afalse%2CusePlayOverlay%3Afalse%2CautoRewind%3Atrue%2CbufferLength%3A15%2CmenuItems%3A%5Bfalse%2Cfalse%2Cfalse%2Cfalse%2Ctrue%2Ctrue%5D%7D Spot on, as usual. Well, except for the all the bibbly-babbly about Australia residents not getting Rock Band soon enough. Everyone knows that Australia isn’t somewhere you live – it’s somewhere you fly to every few years for snorkeling and koala petting. (Man, I miss Australia.) → Read More
Near the beginning of this you’re like “Eh. It’s a kid on a bike.” Then, when you think of the planning that went into this carnival of lights, sound, and blue streamers you kind of realize that maybe the human race isn’t doomed after all if kids like these will be calling the shots in thirty years. Thanks, John → Read More
This is a silly, nigh inaudible video of some Harmonix developers playing Rock Band. They mostly stink, I think—I’m not a Rock Band or Guitar Hero connoisseur—but as Kotaku points out, it’s hard to fault Harmonix completely. First of all, this video was taken at the Nottingham GameCity3 event, whatever that was—it’s fair to assume that they all had a few beers in them. Unless you’re James Hetfiled in the late 1980s, you shouldn’t be mixing alcohol and guitars. Second, the girl isn’t even an employee of Harmonix; it’s former Edge editor Margaret Robertson. That’s no slight against Edge, mind you, but her awful playing is in no way Harmonix’s fault. Third, why hasn’t anyone made a Hop-Hop Hero Hip-Hop Hero (I leave the typo there to encourage you kids to stay in school, forever if at all possible) game? You’d think the big game publishers would be all over that. → Read More
In honor of Heidi Kium’s turn as a Risky Business-inspired Guitar Hero player (who, as John Brownlee notes, never looks at the screen), we present you with the ultimate Guitar Hero player, who, in the proud tradition of “hot girl playing Wii”, truly changes the way we look at a video gaming. Slightly NSFW after the jump. → Read More
User reviews of Guitar Hero World Tour aren’t so hot—it’s averaging a 5.8 on Metacritic (but nets an 87 based on “professional” reviews). One reason for the low score is this weird drum kit sensitivity issue that a bunch of people are reporting. Activision, the game’s publisher, says the problem only affects an early run of drums. Be that as it may, Activision says it will offer a drum tuning kit to help you out if yours is malfunctioning. You’ll need to head to activision.com/support to get the “fix my game, please” process started. Meanwhile, Rock Band 2 is doing a little better on Metacritic. → Read More
Nothing makes me wanna buy Guitar Hero 4 now that I know Michael Phelps, A-Rod, Kobe, and Town Hawk find no fault in jamming on little plastic guitars. → Read More
Flickr’d Activision is hard at work at DJ Hero (may not be the final name), which, presumably, would bring the same sense of fun that Guitar Hero brings wannabe rock starts to wannabe DJs. (Never mind that we’re starting to see signs of Guitar Hero fatigue.) That’s what World Tour‘s project director, Brian Bright, told Joystiq. How would a DJ Hero game work? Well, it needs to capture the essence of being a DJ: staying up till 7am working clubs that double as pharmacies (get it?); kissing up to club owners who are more interested in selling Grey Goose than whether or not you play Booka Shade or that rare 19 minute remix of John Biggs’ cult classic “Where’s the Beef?” The thing about a DJ Hero concept is that you can pretty much be a DJ with a cheap deck and some software. Bam: there’s nothing between you and Armin Van Buuren except for talent. That is to say you’re the one with talent. → Read More
With a wood neck, a rosewood fingerboard and metal frets, Logitech is taking Guitar Hero to an uncharted realm of douchebaggery with its Premiere Edition Wireless Guitar. The $250 wireless axe is probably one of the best feeling fake guitars ever, but that doesn’t make it right. Hopefully if you show up at your buddies house for an evening of jamming with this thing, it will signal something in your friends head that maybe, just maybe, you guys take the Guitar Hero thing a little too serious. If you’re still interested, the Premiere Edition Guitar will be available this December. → Read More
For anyone out there who hasn’t played Guitar Hero yet (is there anyone?), now’s your chance to see what all the fuss is about on the cheap. Well, now’s not your chance but tomorrow will be. For one day only, from 6am to 6pm Pacific time, you can get the Guitar Hero II Xbox 360 bundle for $39.99 directly from Red Octane – the company that makes the game. That’s Wednesday, October 22nd. Follow this link right here. That is all. → Read More
The UK version of the Guitar Hero World Tour pre-order bundle will include a free bass guitar. The news comes from UK trade news site MCV which claims that the bundle has been announced by Activision UK – no word on whether this deal would be good in the US as well. A quick look at the US pre-order package on Amazon.com makes no mention of a free bass, though, while the Amazon UK page makes it very clear that there’s a free wired bass guitar involved. Lucky! Whatever the case, it’s good on pre-orders only so hop to it. The game is set to ship on November 14th in the UK and October 26th here in the US. → Read More
So here’s a juicy little tidbit concerning Guitar Hero. The CEO of Activision Publishing, Mike Griffith, said yesterday at an analysts’ pow-wow that the company is considering different ways of cranking more money out of the plastic guitar game. Big surprise there, of course. Quoth the CEO: Looking even further out, we’re exploring new models, like an annual pass subscription where players can subscribe and get a certain number of songs downloadable each month. That sounds pretty good to me, provided Activision doesn’t get greedy and wants to charge $20 a month for a couple of songs. I understand that there’s a hell of a lot more to getting songs working in Guitar Hero than having EMI send over a WAV file, namely all the programming involved in getting the song up and running. I don’t know, maybe $10 a month for unlimited songs? That seems reasonable. But yeah, this is all wild speculation, which is the best kind. → Read More
