First Guitar Hero 4 Details Revealed

[YoungAlCapone]

So it seems 1up has the scoop on Guitar Hero 4 (http://www.1up.com/do/newsStory?cId=3167804). Well at least they are reporting what the newest issue of Game Informer has to say. A few choice details include vocals and a drumset in addition to the confirmation of the custom tracks rumor.

Apparently not too proud to borrow liberally from Rock Band, the June issue of Game Informer reportedly reveals that Guitar Hero 4 will add a microphone and six-piece drumset with cymbals to the existing guitar/bass setup. However, Guitar Hero 4 will take things a step further with the introduction of the Guitar Hero Tunes service, which will allow players to create their own tracks from scratch.

I still haven't even played Rock Band, that is all.

[Zero]

I still haven't even played Rock Band, that is all.

It's better than Guitar Hero 3. I don't really have much to say. The custom tracks thing seems kinda cool though.

[TrackZero]

Fuck off Guitar Hero, you're dead to me. Goddamn copycats.

[Mdot23]

http://www.blogsmithmedia.com/www.engadget.com/media/2008/05/5-14-08-gh_iv_drums.jpg

6 inputs vs. the 5 for RB's drums. meh.

[Talon-]

I like the placement of the cymbals. Otherwise, I hope I don't have to buy an entirely different set of play drums. :rolleyes:

[carnage11]

I'm not buying another fucking drum set. The make your own tune thing sounds cool, but it all depends on how they work it. Will I be allowed to create a Led Zeppelin song and then distribute it on Live? How are the copyright issues going to be? Will you be forbidden to make cover songs?

I like the idea of cymbals, but I'm interested to see how it all pans out. If the instruments are all shit, like the ones in the past, I'm not gonna bother.

[Cupelix]

Will I be allowed to create a Led Zeppelin song and then distribute it on Live? How are the copyright issues going to be? Will you be forbidden to make cover songs?
No. Strict. Yes.

I mean, seriously - there is NO way that this will really be used to any good effect. Maybe some local bands will be able to get their music out there - but I don't see how the copyright issues won't be a nightmare.

*edit*

And while the cymbals *seem* cool, in practice they won't be very nice. The left one will obviously be used as your high-hat. Fine. But the other one can't be both your ride AND your crash cymbal, because it won't make sense hitting it twice in a row for two different purposes. RB's abstracted pads are better, in my opinion.

[mkelehan]

I'll be waiting and seeing on this one. You know... I just don't have enough space for two drumsets that aren't compatible with one another.

Three, actually. I've got Drummania.

[Mantooth]

The different number of inputs should pretty much kill the possibility of cross compatibility between the Rock Band and GH4 drum kits. Good thing that I am more than happy with Rock Band.

[Teh Super King]

Hooray for more plastic instruments that aren't compatible with other games!!!!

I just can't imagine having 5 guitars and two drumsets and mics. If they would make the instruments from rock band work with GH4 they would have a better chance of selling more copies of the game. I just can't see that many people buying another set of drums just to play GH4.

The custom tracks sounds cool, but it's going to have be very basic for people to not be able to just make covers of songs. Also if the songs won't have vocals does that mean the person on the microphone will have to sit out if you end up playing your custom tracks? Cause if that does happen I can see a good many people just not bothering with the custom tracks.

[pomeroy]

Cause if that does happen I can see a good many people just not bothering with the custom tracks.

From everything they've released about the custom tracks, I see a lot of people not bothering anyway.

[Zander]

Fuck off Guitar Hero, you're dead to me. Goddamn copycats.

100% agreed.

[Jeff]

The king is dead. Long live the king!
If they take the GH3 format (technically difficult and interesting to play songs) and add drums and vocals, this will be great. If they try to copy the Rock Band format (bland pop-y songs that repeat the same 3 chords), this is going to fail horribly. Sadly nobody else sees the genius that was GH3 (sans the battle mode) and it's hard-to-master gameplay, so they're going to try and cash in by developing for the lowest common denominator.

[Sl1pstream]

Hard-to-master? They've gone from a game that was fun to play to something that was too frustrating to get any joy out of. The only reason I've touched GH3 in these past few weeks is because I need to practice for Rock Band at the end of this month.

I can't really see the create-a-song mode working either. I'm with Harmonix on this one.

[Zero]

The king is dead. Long live the king!
If they take the GH3 format (technically difficult and interesting to play songs) and add drums and vocals, this will be great. If they try to copy the Rock Band format (bland pop-y songs that repeat the same 3 chords), this is going to fail horribly. Sadly nobody else sees the genius that was GH3 (sans the battle mode) and it's hard-to-master gameplay, so they're going to try and cash in by developing for the lowest common denominator.

Seriously? The only genius that can be associated with GH3 is it's marketing genius.

[Wyrm]

Rock Band did it first, and those of us that were planning to spend 200 dollars on a video game have already done it. Count me squarely out of the Guitar Hero club. The third one really did take a tried and true formula and actually made it the opposite of fun with the last few fucking songs.

And the create a song mode? Give me a break, they're just trying to get as many features as they can in there to pretend like it's going to be better than Rock Band.

[morose]

I like playing solo guitar on Guitar Hero 3 better than solo guitar Rock Band. I think GH3 is a fantastic game, and great at what it does. IMO it's a mistake to try and move into the "full band" game with Guitar Hero instead of sticking to what the name implies. There are plenty of guitar heavy tracks that will never make it into Rock Band simply because they are crappy singing/drumming songs. Should have stuck with those and the original premise instead of trying to compete with a heavily entrenched competitor. No way am I getting a different band game now that I have 30+ songs purchased in Rock Band with more coming all the time.

[divinechaos]

I've spent too much money on DLC for Rock Band to care about GH4. Speaking of which, this game shouldn't be called GUITAR Hero anymore for obvious reasons.

[Roc Ingersol]

I do like the drum layout better. But I can't say I like the look of that $2 pvc job for the legs.

Since I'm sure Activision will continue to be jackasses regarding peripheral compatibility, I can't say I'm interested. They're making me pick one or the other - and I simply have more faith in Harmonix to deliver a musical experience. I can't imagine Red Octane getting a composition tool right given the direction they steered GH3, let alone delivering on DLC given the way Activision is prioritizing shoddy sequels over leveraging their title as a platform.

Maybe they'll surprise me. I won't rule that out.
But I'm certainly not gonna run out and lay down a $200 bet on them.

[Jeff]

Hard-to-master? They've gone from a game that was fun to play to something that was too frustrating to get any joy out of.

That is half the fun. The game would be boring and have no replay value if you could beat Expert mode first time through and never fail any songs. The reason I love GH3 is it's always difficult without being unfair (except the boss battles. The boss battles deserve to burn in deepest, darkest circles of hell.) I guess I'm in the minority that I like that sense of accomplishment when I finally beat something after failing so many times.

[mkelehan]

Since I'm sure Activision will continue to be jackasses regarding peripheral compatibility, I can't say I'm interested. They're making me pick one or the other - and I simply have more faith in Harmonix to deliver a musical experience.

Agreement. My knee-jerk reaction to hearing the news that GH4 was going to try to take on Rock Band was, "Neversoft just isn't ready for this."

[carnage11]

I like playing solo guitar on Guitar Hero 3 better than solo guitar Rock Band. I think GH3 is a fantastic game, and great at what it does. IMO it's a mistake to try and move into the "full band" game with Guitar Hero instead of sticking to what the name implies. There are plenty of guitar heavy tracks that will never make it into Rock Band simply because they are crappy singing/drumming songs. Should have stuck with those and the original premise instead of trying to compete with a heavily entrenched competitor. No way am I getting a different band game now that I have 30+ songs purchased in Rock Band with more coming all the time.

I agree, for a Guitar oriented game Guitar Hero is the better game. As far as drums, singing, and what not, I'll leave that to Rock Band. Why not go two separate directions? Instead of trying to compete with each other? Guitar Hero could stand alone as the "Guitar Heavy" game with great guitar songs. As you said, those songs that just won't make it to Rock Band for obvious reasons, such as Raining Blood. There are more than enough guitar heavy songs out there to run with. Leave the Rock Band game to Rock Band. Duh?

Do's
- Give us more songs (DLC), at a consistent rate. I'm sure many of us would gladly pay monthly subscriptions to music services that offered many and a wide variety of songs.
- Create-a-song sounds like a good idea. Do we need to buy another disc+guitar+drums+mic to utilize it? No. Also, the obvious copyright issues, and the nature of humans to consistently break copyright laws all over the internet. If I can make a tab of a guitar song and throw it on the net, why can't I make a Guitar Hero cover of it? We see youtube videos all the time of hacked GH games. Are they prepared to start taking action against this? Will Metallica start suing people again?


Don'ts
- Don't make us buy new peripherals each iteration. GH1 and GH2 and GH80s all worked off the same guitars. They did it right. I bought all three and didn't mind. I will NOT buy GH4 if I need a new guitar to play it.
- Don't centralize a specific artist and make the whole game about them. This is a corny marketing scheme that no one is falling for. So what if Slash and RAtM guy was in the last one. It was corny. Aerosmith, while nothing to scoff at, is not a good idea. I don't want to play all Aerosmith songs, nor do I want to be them. They're like 90 years old.

[Nura]

Hell, i'll buy this.. I'm still mad at EA for making the EU wait so long for Rockband

[oldschooldimo]

fuck this game. Already have the better version (rock band) and im happy with it. Im never gonna buy another drum set and I have never enjoyed playing more then 3 songs on the guitar hero games. Rock band 4 Life.

[Sl1pstream]

and I have never enjoyed playing more then 3 songs on the guitar hero games. Rock band 4 Life.

You do realize that the first two GH games were made by Harmonix, the creators of RB, right?

[Meatgortex]

Dumb move for the GH series. By focusing on the guitar they had a much broader choice of music because all that mattered was the guitar tracks, hell some of the best songs to play are instrumentals. Once you make a game with four positions you have to choose songs that have all four parts in relatively equal measures. It makes song selection much more complicated.

Additionally not making the games compatible is a big fuck you to consumers. Well my fuck you response will be to not buy the game. They could have got my $60, and instead they grabbed for more and will get nothing.

[Fartacus]

The artwork will be crap and the game will be unpolished and horribly balanced, if it's being done by Neversoft that is. Count me out, Harmonix is the king of music game developers, and Rock Band is the king of music games.

[Mantooth]

The king is dead. Long live the king!
If they take the GH3 format (technically difficult and interesting to play songs) and add drums and vocals, this will be great. If they try to copy the Rock Band format (bland pop-y songs that repeat the same 3 chords), this is going to fail horribly.

Bland pop-y songs that repeat the same 3 chords???

I need a Jean-Luc face palm pic stat!

[Rock Bandit]

As long as Guitar Hero keeps chasing Harmonix' tail they'll never win me over.

[divinechaos]

I just don't get this move. We don't need another BAND game. If there is one thing that I liked about GH was that the track list was based around the guitar and that made the list awesome. I found RB's song list to be weaker than GH because it had to include all those other instruments. I am definately not gonna be getting this because RB has done everything right so far and I don't know how Activision can take the next step. And no, I don't care for custom tracks.

[MosBen]

A bit of challenge is fine, but chasing challenge is a dead end. Tony Hawk started out a bit rough but fun. In each of games in the series they just kept making the games a little more refined and a bit harder until it wasn't fun anymore for me. You can't build a sequel for people who have expertly mastered the the previous game. Guitar Hero 2 was harder than the first, but was fun. GH3 was punishing and annoying.

[Earth Djinn]

I will say one thing.

I live in Australia, and Rock Band hasn't even been dated here yet, let alone fucking released. GH3 launched here last year at the same time as the rest of the world, and I have faith that GH4 will launch here at the end of the year with the rest of the world too. As much as I want Rock Band (and I do, so bad), so far its been GH that has been my only option for music games past GH2. So I will buy GH4, and as much as I want to support Harmonix, they really aren't making it easy for me.

[UnderHero5]

That is half the fun. The game would be boring and have no replay value if you could beat Expert mode first time through and never fail any songs. The reason I love GH3 is it's always difficult without being unfair (except the boss battles. The boss battles deserve to burn in deepest, darkest circles of hell.) I guess I'm in the minority that I like that sense of accomplishment when I finally beat something after failing so many times.

I'm definitely with you on everything you've said.
I've completed every song on Expert in GH3, with the exception of Raining Blood, the final Boss Battle, and Through the Fire and the Flames. I love the challenge of the GH games. It's what has kept me playing the series since the day the first game came out (and Frequency/Amplitude before that).

That said, Rock Band has also proven to be a challenge. I'm still plunking my way through Expert drums (98 of 118 songs complete) and loving it.
As for guitar... RB is definitely a challenge, but not in the same way that GH3 is. There is something off about the timing in Rock Band... and to be honest, neither guitar I own works well with Rock Band. The official Rock Band guitar SUCKS for high level play. The buttons blow, even after I did some custom work on them. The Xplorer guitar I have for GH3 (wired GH2 guitar) works like crap with Rock Band for some reason.

For one, Rock Band has much more strict timing when it comes to hammer ons/pull offs than GH3, and second is the fact that (this could just be my specific guitars problem) the timing of the strum bar on the GH3 guitar is off, in that it "strums" before the click. It's only slight, but it's enough to where it doesn't agree with Rock Bands more precise timing requirements.

I have one song left to beat on Expert guitar in RB (Green Grass and High Tides) and I can not get through the hammer ons/pull offs for the life of me.

I have more fun with the drums in Rock Band, and more fun with guitar in Guitar Hero. Plus, as was said, most of the guitar parts in Rock Band are very slow and repetitive. Less realistic or not, Guitar Hero's guitar parts are more fun to play.

Edit: Oh yeah. I think it's a foolish idea to make GH4 a band game, and not make it compatible with the RB equipment. As I said in another thread, I won't be buying it because of this. I'm not spending another $250 and taking up MORE space with plastic instruments.

[Roc Ingersol]

GH3 allows so much more slop on notes in general, and hammer-ons/pull-offs in particular, that I can't even really play it on Expert anymore. It screws everything up when I go back to Rock Band.

Sounds to me like you might need to tweak your a/v lag Underhero, but for the love of baby jebus don't use GH3 to calibrate (due the slop).

And personally, I love the RB guitar, as it's sooo much easier to slide up and down the frets.

[vallor]

I didn't realize the pain in the butt having a set of play drums would be to store, then pull out to play, then re-store...

I won't be buying any other games with nifty, but ultimately pain in the ass controllers.

Having to drag this big contraption out every time I get the impulse to play RB sometimes is enough to smother the impulse and I just do something else. You have to be ready to do some work for your rockbanding! Unless you're lucky enough to have space to dedicate to the drum kit (or play it so often you never have to put it away).

And let's face, the most interesting part of rockband is the drums. Vocals were better in Singstar and Guitars are old hat these days. But the drums are great and new and neat and... take up a lot of sq. footage.

[pomeroy]

And let's face, the most interesting part of rockband is the drums. Vocals were better in Singstar and Guitars are old hat these days.

Ugh. I hate Singstar.

[carnage11]

Unless you're lucky enough to have space to dedicate to the drum kit (or play it so often you never have to put it away).


That's me. My girlfriend can't get into her dresser because the drums are in the way.:D

[f1sh3r]

If I can make a tab of a guitar song and throw it on the net, why can't I make a Guitar Hero cover of it?

how long has OLGA been down now?

[carnage11]

how long has OLGA been down now?

I get tabs on Guitar Pro pretty regularly. But you're right. They try to close the sites down, but it's a losing battle. And why do people care so much whether I write a tab of a popular song? Most artists should be happy that people enjoy their music and want to play it themselves. That would be quite a compliment if you ask me. Of course I know it's probably not the artists. It's more likely the money grubbing record companies.

[f1sh3r]

i really wish the guitar hero line would stay focused on guitars. look at what rock band did better than you, and fix the problems people had, and put out a kickass guitar game. not a band game. some of us have zero interest in drums and vocals, we just want a better guitar hero!

[Bahamut]

Dumb move for the GH series. By focusing on the guitar they had a much broader choice of music because all that mattered was the guitar tracks, hell some of the best songs to play are instrumentals. Once you make a game with four positions you have to choose songs that have all four parts in relatively equal measures. It makes song selection much more complicated.

It doesn't make it complicated if you know where to look. Rock Band failed at this so far, and I don't have much hopes for GH4 in doing much better. Both brands have fallen far short throughout their duration.