Guitar Hero III

[DLH]

Picked up a knock-off guitar controller for the Wii today for $60.

I thought knock-offs were supposed to be cheaper.

[Menolly]

Picked up a knock-off guitar controller for the Wii today for $60.

I thought knock-offs were supposed to be cheaper.

It is here, by $10.

[Zarathustra]

I'm coming to this game very late in the, er, game. As an actual bass player, I was always one of those musicians who looked down on people who spent hours with a little plastic "guitar." That episode of South Park which ended with, "YOU ARE GAY!" as the final message of the game was pretty much my attitude.

But then my son's friend brought over his gear. I was quite startled to hear 3rd graders rocking it out to King Crimson and Rush. It had been a few years since I saw the South Park episode in question, and I didn't realize that I was mirroring the dad in that cartoon when I forced the kids to come down to the basement and listen to me play bass. I thought they'd be amazed that I was playing the same song they were playing, except on a real instrument. And sure enough, they mirrored their cartoon counterpart roles by saying, "that's lame," and immediately went back upstairs to play.

So I gave it a try. It was fun. Addictively, guilty-pleasure fun. My wife bought our entire family Band Hero, and we were off.

My brother is a drummer in a band. He said that drumming in Rock Band on Expert is vey very similar to actual drumming.

The drums are the only thing I play, now. It DOES feel like I'm actually playing drums! I'm up to Expert on some songs, which is pretty much hitting every single beat myself. So this is how I justify it ... I'm learning a new ("real") instrument. Sure, I'm banging away on plastic drums. But the timing is all me. Getting three limbs to move in three different rhythms is not a game, damnit!

I'm ready to add a second bass pedal in order to do the double-bass beats on the Van Halen game, but I've tried out two and they didn't work. Does anyone else have any success with the double bass pedal?

Just to let you all know ... Rush's entire 2112 sage is coming to Guitar Hero in September. It's a definite buy for me. I can't wait.

[Menolly]

I know nothing of a double bass pedal, but your whole post just tickles me Z. Thanks for sharing and admitting that.

[Brinn]

Rock Band > Guitar Hero!

[dlbpharmd]

Rock Band > Guitar Hero!

Damn straight!

[Zarathustra]

Why is that?

As big fan of classic Van Halen, I can't imagine anything better than 30 or so VH songs from the first 6 albums ... except all of Rush's 2112, which is coming in September! There's also the new Soundgarden coming out for GH.

What is it you guys like about Rock Band?

[Cagliostro]

I'm not stuck on "classic rock," so I find the song choices in Rock Band to be heaps better. Plus, Rock Band has always been about getting the closer feel to actually playing the music, and with RB3 they will be introducing Pro Mode which is actually playing the guitar (once you buy their new instruments, of course), and introducing a keyboard as well. GH is still rehashing the old, although their next effort is introducing a storyline into the game play. Rock Band was first out with the drums and microphone, and GH had to catch up. A lot of the folks from Rock Band were also who started GH, and you can tell from the song choices from GH2 to GH3.
I only bought one of the full band GH games, and had a lot of trouble with their vocal setup on the screen, especially when it came to reading lyrics.

So it seems to run down as such:

Guitar Hero: Enjoying the simulation and emphasis on game, classic rock and hard rock. Band Hero was created to get more of the pop. They have characters that have been running throughout the games that are icons of the game.

Rock Band: Emphasis on the music and the instrumentation. A lot more introduction of little named bands, several of which are pretty damn enjoyable. Also a broader spectrum of music, with more punk, a bit of industrial, and poppy geek rock. You select your own avatar to represent you in the game.

[Ki]

Rock Band > Guitar Hero!

Damn straight!

You boys will make a competition out of anything!

[Brinn]

No we won't! Can you prove it?!!?

[Zarathustra]

Nice explanation, Cag. Thanks for the info.

You boys will make a competition out of anything!

(Says the girl still playing on Medium. )

[Edit for full disclosure: I still play guitar/bass on Medium, too. ]

[Menolly]

I still haven't gotten past the frigging tutorial, so playing on Medium sounds awesome to me!

Of course, my guys are further along, but still, medium sounds awesome to me.

[Cagliostro]

I traded in a heap of PS2 games on Saturday and picked up Lego Rock Band based on someone bringing it in to work on Friday. I didn't know that it had weird little extra challenges on there, and while not exactly a real storyline, it has "events." I guess Guitar Hero had challenges where you had to beat someone else on the stage, but this definitely took it to more of a storyline. Which just makes the new Guitar Hero even more seem like a retread of something Rock Band has done.

So after trading in the PS2 games, and picking up the Lego Rock Band game, I still have over $120 in trade value, which means I'll be picking up the Rock Band 3 with keyboard bundle for under $20. Wheeeeehooey!

[Zarathustra]

Well, I read that they're not making any more Guitar Hero. After spending hundreds on this game to get the equipment, now they're going to stop? You've got to be kidding me. I wish someone would create and sell some software that would take any song and turn it into a GH game, so I could play my entire music collection.

After a year, I'm finally playing most songs on expert (drums only). That includes YYZ and Spirit of Radio from Rush. Not easy drum songs! The entire new Soundgarden CD is available for download, and it is a joy to play. (Basically, their greatest hits.) Their drummer, Matt Cameron, is a master at creating interesting beats and then expanding those beats throughout the entire drumset. Spoonman is a blast!! 2112 (Rush) was surprisingly not much fun. It goes from impossible to no drums at all, back to impossible.

One of the most interesting things I've learned is how each drummer has his own style. Sure, this might seem obvious. But you don't truly know until you've played their songs (on Expert, which is pretty much beat-for-beat). Cameron (Soundgarden) fills the musical space with drum work that compliments the song without taking it over--always with something interesting and imaginative which draws your attention to what the other instruments are doing. Peart (Rush) is more about showing off and playing insanely fast fills and bass beats. Alex Van Halen is a more repetitive, less imaginative drummer, but still quite challenging. Bruford is too difficult to attempt even a few measures. And then there are drummers out there who must have trouble staying awake; I don't see how they can play the same boring repetive basic beat for 5 minutes straight. Why get a human drummer to do that at all? Music shouldn't sound like it was made by a machine.

Anyway, drums are fun. I might have to buy a real set some day.

[Cagliostro]

Yep, GH lost, which makes sense as Rock Band always seemed to be focusing on adding to the musicianship. If you look at the two latest releases, you'll see why - Guitar Hero adds a story line - Rock Band adds a working guitar for both guitar and bass parts, adds cymbals to the drums (which, admittedly, Guitar Hero was first on), adds a keyboard, and has harmonizing on the vocals. My minor quibbles with some of the equipment and the software being a bit buggy on Rock Band 3 aside, it still is the best iteration so far. I know that Rock Band company Harmonix just recently got sold off, so I don't know if there are any more Rock Band games to come out either, but the downloads are still going strong.

I also really like the drums, but I'm finding it very interesting to learn the full parts on keyboard and guitar, though I'm still far from being able to play on expert on either.

[Zarathustra]

Yep, GH lost, which makes sense as Rock Band always seemed to be focusing on adding to the musicianship. If you look at the two latest releases, you'll see why - Guitar Hero adds a story line - Rock Band adds a working guitar for both guitar and bass parts, adds cymbals to the drums (which, admittedly, Guitar Hero was first on), adds a keyboard, and has harmonizing on the vocals.

I see what you mean. I certainly can't stand playing the fake guitars, and never touch them. But it's a way for me to play with my kids and still feel like I'm learning a real instrument. I don't know if a 10-yr-old could play the new RB guitar, based on your description in the other thread.

I know that Rock Band company Harmonix just recently got sold off, so I don't know if there are any more Rock Band games to come out either, but the downloads are still going strong.

A smart tactic for the people at Rock Band would be to try hard to make their game compatible with all those "stranded" Guitar Hero gear owners. I refuse to buy all new equipment. I'd buy real drums before I reinvest in another version of this game. I tried one RB disc, and it sort of worked with my drums, except sometimes the same color would be a cymbal or a tom, depending on the song. The lack of consistency in translation between the two games was really annoying.

[Rigel]

A smart tactic for the people at Rock Band would be to try hard to make their game compatible with all those "stranded" Guitar Hero gear owners. I refuse to buy all new equipment. I'd buy real drums before I reinvest in another version of this game. I tried one RB disc, and it sort of worked with my drums, except sometimes the same color would be a cymbal or a tom, depending on the song. The lack of consistency in translation between the two games was really annoying.

All the GH stuff should work with RB. And they've said that RB will probably continue through DLC rather than new iterations of the game, at least for the foreseeable future.

[Cagliostro]

Yeah, the drums are the only thing I have my doubts about with the GH to RB conversion, but it wouldn't be hard to find if it was compatable with Rock Band 3 (I would have my doubts about Rock Band 2, and would almost guarantee that the cymbals wouldn't work with Rock Band 1).

Actually, I just found a compatibility page here. As Rock Band 1 & 2 do not have cymbals in it, I'm guessing the cymbals don't work as intended, but I suspect RB3 would work in the pro-mode.

As for your 10 year old, it's certainly a tad easier than a real guitar, and kids are picking up real guitars all the time. It depends on your kid, really, but ultimately the game, not in pro-mode, still works fine with the GH guitars. I still play my 5 fret guitars in the game quite a bit. You wouldn't need to buy anything from your current setup, supposedly. But if you buy more, you can have more fun. I had Rock Band party last month where I was playing the pro-guitar along with someone playing the 5 fret guitar on bass, another on pro-drums, another on non-pro keyboard (which is basically 5 keys instead of the whole keyboard in pro-mode) and a couple people on harmony vocals. RB3 is amazingly robust. Sadly, it is also the only game I have that suffers a bit from buggy software, but it has gotten considerably less frequent (which was fairly rare anyway) since they sent a recent update.
But ultimately, if you don't like the music choice, none of these games are much fun. I bought the Aerosmith game basically paying for an extra guitar and getting the game free when Circuit City was going out of business, and since running through the songs once, I haven't picked up since then. So check out the song list, as well as the download list, and see if it suits you. I personally prefer RB songlists to GH typically.
I don't know if GH did this, but with each iteration of RB, they made it so you can pay a fee to have all (or almost all) of the songs (RB only) transferred to the new game so that you have one huge playlist. And downloaded songs instantly transfer over - no fee necessary. I like that idea, but don't fancy paying $5 for something I already have that I could just switch a disk to play. But with some of the features of RB3, I'm considering doing so - not that you can play pro-guitar on songs that are not specifically created to be so, but you can play pro-drums, which makes me consider it. And you can also play the non-pro guitar and bass parts on the non-pro keyboard, which is somewhat fun in the harder difficulties.

I'm speaking purely as a PS3 owner of RB3, so other platforms may vary. I understand RB is not as good on the Wii, especially since not all downloadable songs are available due to restrictions within Nintendo.