[Munkey Boy]

A new Guitar Hero game then - this time with drums and vocals. How does the new kit work? Does it bring anything new to the table with it's studio mode, or is it just a rehash of other games? Please vote in our poll and leave comments in the thread once you've played the game enough to judge.

[Semerie]

sorry to say but i had to vote average for this..
the features made it excellent... but the song track made it poor
im not good at reviews so.. thats all

[Chrispyphillips]

I'm renting space 3 and will post proper impressions when I've played it more (not been out long enough for a full and frank review) but am loving it at the moment.

[Kahled]

Just an average from moi.

Maybe the novelty is wearing off now as the genre is being done to death but this just really and utterly failed to grab me. The song collection is not the best and while I had hoped to find some previously undiscovered gems in there it has so far not delivered, worse I am now just really not that bothered about piling through the rest of them. An unlock code would seem to be the way to go with this one.

Had a try at the singing mode and it was utterly dreadful with the conventional headset, disappointing since Rock Band seems able to manage quite adequately.

Maybe there is some salvation in the drumming mode but it just seems not worth the hassle to actually go through the effort of setting everything up to play it...

The music creation tool and the ability to access other peoples creations is about the only thing that stops this scoring even worse, although even there a distinct criticism must be laid at the dreadful documentation to support this mode.

[DrinksInBars]

I have tried most modes now, but have to say over all i am quite disappointed. I voted average,a s the game isnt bad per say, but the game is just not as complete as rock band and suffers from poor song choice and play tracks. For example the gf and i decided to give the singing a go and the first set available was ramblin mand and some steely dan. in what felt like a forty minute song there must have been less than a minute of actual singing and we were both so bored and unimpressed by the actual mechanics of the singing that i just hummedmy way through what came up. It just got worse, many of the songs vocally are pretty poor and the game is very hard to sing with, registering everything as massive fluctuations, i found i had to whisper to hold the notes and although i am a ridiculously bad singer, i was able to belt out songs on rock band and score my way through most of the medium career without hitch. the fact is the game just felt dull and unfinished.

the drums are next, and for some reaosn (using rb drums) it feels relly really repetitive. I hated the bass pedal in rb because it was so hard, but i persevered and felt like i accomplished something when using it, but here its barely involved so much so i lost points because i was hitting it with the music and for some reaosn they just randomly didnt put it into the chart! at other times when there were no drums i was being asked to hit notes or pedal notes and wondering what i was doing.

some songs though (read heavy metal and blasting rock) actually had quite good charts and were diverse, mixing it up a little, but they were to few and far between. There are also some frankly shocking tuens in this one, more than any other GH game, with only a few redeeming songs to make up for it.

I need to play the guitar abit, but i am finding myself very hgihly unmotivated to try, as i know compared to drums it will be ridiculously difficult. I really am going to trade this for rb 2.

I havent even mentioned the interface which feels liek a massive step back. the small lights and crappy font for the multiplyer, the turning everything blue on star power. The ridiculously small writing and jagged edges to everything. the highly repetitive animations...

was so looking forward to this game, and was so disappointed.

oh gosd i almost didnt mention the menu, where the hell is it?? its just one big long eye bleeding list. And having to play a full set in one go, what genius came up with that idea?? i thought we were movign toward casual games???

edit - spelling is atrocious in that ^

just wanted to add i had to play drums on hard to get a good chart, any lower and it was to boring. i also found it hard to score highly eventhough i hit 95 - 99% of the notes on every song. the only song i actually 5 * i had like a 700 note streak.

[lentini]

Voted 'Bad' from me

Some of my biggest gripes:

• Offers nothing new over Guitar Hero III, apart from the added instruments obviously
• The setlist, while including some great tracks, are particularly dull to play (I'm looking at you, Rooftops)
• The interface/presentation is shockingly bad
• Round gems and a horizontal bar for the drums charts do not work
• The graphics and animations are pretty poor
• Character models are very poor (especially their 'version' of Hayley Williams )
• Went through 2 guitars in 2 days....so much for the 'awesome' instruments, Brian Bright
• Much-hyped Music Creator is nothing more than a ringtone maker

I REALLY want Neversoft to create a good Guitar Hero game for once. I'd hate to see the franchise I loved slide into the mediocrity abyss that it seems to be doing which seems to be fueled by Activisions need to squeeze every penny out of it and, in doing so, rip out all the soul.

[drskhaled]

I gave it an eight though really 7.5 rounded up. i've finished guitar career on expert, drum career on expert/hard (90% expert), nearly finished bass career on expert.

The good;
Guitar career. doesnt seem overcharted like GH3 and many songs are excellent to play. sweet home alabama, ramblin man, hotel california (hmm lots of southern rock). jimi hendrix and more. The actual guitar itself is their best yet, and i love tapping the touch strip to strum. songs that dont need alt strumming are just as easy to 5* as with the strum bar. I'll miss this feature when using the guitar on rock band. Oh and it was with this new guitar i finally finished sleepwalker on rockband!

Bass career; finally a worthwhile bass career. open notes are a welcome additional note to make things more challenging.

Drum career. a good first effort IMO. Some really fun charts but not nearly as fun as rockbands overall. i dont know how boring they are on easy as i only play expert and drop down to hard on a few tough songs. Round gems work fine for me and neversoft were hardly gonna use rectangular gems, theyre accused of plagiarism enough as it is. I would say its easier to mentally count rockbands gems (ie in multiples of 4) but in practice the shape of the gems didnt make much difference whilst playing.
I dont have the ghwt drums but from what i've read if you have a functioning set theyre the better set to get (except for the pedal).

vocal career. only good for letting my 3 yr old daughter shout into the mic while i hit the drums. I'm not interested in videogame karaoke.

The bad;
OK deep breath, everything else. The menu, the graphics, set list (even though this is subjectively based on musical taste and not fact, i think the majority view is the list is poor) and that woefully gimped music creator.

I dont mind that the music creator is complicated so long as it is usable by people with talent. But when that talent gets shot down by heavyhanded censors well then its all a fuss over nothing. BIG let down and correctly predicted by Lentini months ago that it was gonna be rubbish.

The character art is rubbish and the animation whilst better than GH3 is still not as natural or as endearing as rockbands. The rockstars are mostly weird imitations. Ozzy doing la bamba is just wrong, Jimmi hendrix looks cool but nugent and wylde are just laughable.

Some of the charts are rubbish (guitar or drums) its all bit schizoid TBH. So overal some really fun songs, great instruments (when they work) let down by a poor interface and yesteryears graphics. Its certainly not gonna be my main music game and DLC will be largely downloaded for rockband. Still i'll end up buying GH;Metallica and all the DS games when they come out. May even get rock revolution (for spirit of radio and Megadeth) when it hits the bargain bins.

[lentini]

Originally Posted by drskhaled

BIG let down and correctly predicted by Lentini months ago that it was gonna be rubbish.

[shagaboopon]

I voted good despite it being probably an average game for me. The real deciding factors of how much you enjoy this game is based on a couple of factors I think.

1. Have you played Rock Band and enjoyed it
2. Does the majority of the setlist appeal to you

For me I played Rock Band and found it a fantastic evloution of the genre. Despite my gripes about the relative easyness of the guitar tour the drums blew me away and changed my first impressions of the game. It also helped I really enjoyed every song in the game apart from Suffragette City.

In the case of this game I found the guitar to be rubbish with pointless gimmicks implemented. The stupid lower fret bar slider should have been abolished and the solo's left in the traditional HO/PO manner rather than the mess we're left with. The drum tour I cannot criticise too much but given how dull the songs are to play and the fact the sound mix is crap really didn't impress me. In my opinion if you've spent a lot of time with Rock Band then this game is a very poor imitation, I'll not start on the issues already mentioned above or what will no doubt be appaling DLC support (with Metallica the only exception).

Good but not good enough now. Its like releasing Half Life II now as a full price game and expecting high review scores, the genres moving on and this franchise is stuck in the past.

[Lezman]

I'm not going to vote yet, as I've finished the guitar career but only a bit into the bass one. Currently hovering around a 7. I'm getting more into the setlist on a second playthrough though so hopefully will enjoy it more.

From what I am reading though people who have the drums love it, and people who don't...don't love it.
So I'm sure I'm missing out by not having drums

[featherhall]

I played through career on medium (quite hard enough for me) with the guitar only, and thought it was brilliant.
I didn't recognise alot of the songs, but was more than happy with what was on offer.
thumbs up from me (and the girlfriend loves it)

[nicklone86]

Having spent about 10 hours with this game I have given it a 7.

Get a bunch of friends together and its a blast, but on your own its decidedly dull. The set list is for the most part atrocious, not a patch on GH2 and GH3. When there is an issue such as that it just makes the enjoyment level suffer so much and the career mode feels like a huge chore to play through sometimes. This is the first "music game" I have experinced on the drums and find them hugely enjoyable and very challenging, so I am pleased that the band feature has been included in this version.

Pretty standard online, cool character creation mode and a poor excuse for a "music creator" means this game is pretty hit and miss. I might pick up rock band 2 and see if there is much difference. Price tag is rather laughable but the kit is very sturdy, well thought out and executed.

[SavageDonkey]

Not sure why anyone would waste the time on these. My sister recenly bought this and forced me to play lol. While I'm a fan of games like Parapper the Rapper, these make no sense! I understand the whole perty thing but.....

Surely you'd be better served buying a real guitar?

[lentini]

Originally Posted by SavageDonkey

Surely you'd be better served buying a real guitar?

real guitar involves lots and lots of tedious lessons and learning

fake plastic guitar does not

[Lezman]

Originally Posted by Lezman

I'm not going to vote yet, as I've finished the guitar career but only a bit into the bass one. Currently hovering around a 7. I'm getting more into the setlist on a second playthrough though so hopefully will enjoy it more.

From what I am reading though people who have the drums love it, and people who don't...don't love it.
So I'm sure I'm missing out by not having drums

Right I gave it a 7. And thats generous as I do like quite a few songs. But the rest are dull. Plus Tool is 20 minutes of my life I'll never get back

And what's up with that quickplay menu? I could barely read it!

I've now sold it and got Rockband 2. Much happier

[shagaboopon]

Originally Posted by SavageDonkey

Not sure why anyone would waste the time on these. My sister recenly bought this and forced me to play lol. While I'm a fan of games like Parapper the Rapper, these make no sense! I understand the whole perty thing but.....

Surely you'd be better served buying a real guitar?

I have a real guitar that I can play very badly. At the end of the day I tried learning to play guitar and it was very tedious and frustrating. I look at it this way, in order for me to become even an average guitar player would take the best part of 5-10 years, I personally don't think there would be any future for my skills other than my own personal enjoyment. Right now though I can skip all the heartache and hard work and get the fun right now playing a game instead.

I suggest you get some secret practice in on the game so you don't get owned by your sister in game then perhaps the enjoyment would increase , sorry, I couldn't resist .