Guitar Hero: Rocks the 80s

[in5ane]

This is a massive cash-in, with no real added value, and only 30% of the tracks fun to play. It's still a good game, but not as quality as one expects from the series. I will always treasure GH1, this is going on ebay in about two weeks.

[dcmk]

no duran duran wildboys.

pooooooor

[Dazzyman]

I was being sarcastic about Elton John etc sorry hehe... thats why I said crikey before it None of those are any good but neither is Turning Japanese for a blumming leccy guitar so if they want to be creative for using a guitar game with that then why not shove in some of those to get the feel of the 80s as it wont be hard to alter some of those for guitar rifts, just dont give me Adam Ant hehe. I thought I was in an interactive The wedding Singer last night. Queen and I want to break free would have been a classic on this.

Could have been worse I guess they could have tried shoving in some Ice T into it and making that fit or Jean Michel Jarre

Ive tried playing more today but it just made me reach for 360 and GH2 (even rebought the tracks of MP even though I own 1 on PS2), just smarts of quick cash in before Rock band to me and brings the name Harmonix down (I didnt reliase they had even made this till it got released).

[MrMarbles]

This thread is barmy: it clearly needs a mindless fanboy rant to restore the balance in nature. It's a dirty job but someone's gotta do it:

- The songlist is fun to play. FUN.

- It has less songs, but there's far less filler than there was in GHII. Sure, there's a lot of songs that they could've chosen to put in but, even then, Moaning Minnies would still find stuff that didn't make it into the game. As I've mentioned above, the songs that have been chosen have been chosen because they play well.

- A Flock of Seagulls is almost as inspired a choice for the game as Boston was in the first, in my opinion.

- Does the quality of the covers really matter that much? Just pretend you're in an awful cover band. It's not like you're passively listening to the music - you're playing it. If anything, the master recordings are the eyebrow-raiser: I can't remember going to a gig where the song fades out at the end... But I've been to plenty where there've been questionable covers.

- This was always going to be an expansion - extra songs and nothing extra. Harmonix and Activision never, ever hinted at anything else. If the ?25 online price tag is too much, then wait a couple of months - I'm sure it'll be down to ?15 in no time.

But for Guitar Hero fans and rhythm action fans, the people who want to perfect their runs and who actually play the game religiously for the love of it rather than to just get to the end before starting on a new game, ?25 is in no way too much.

- I've said it before and I'll say it again, Expert Career is no easier than GHII's Expert Career - the difficulty just comes from different places: GHII relied on complicated riffs whereas '80s contains lengthy solos, many of which are incredibly intricate, harking back to GH's Symphony of Destruction.

There is no extra leeway and leniency in timing than there was in GHII - they use exactly the same engine and it doesn't appear have been tweaked in the slightest.

And it's one thing five-starring songs on Expert, but gold-starring everything is an entirely different kettle of fish. If any of the people moaning about how easy this expansion is manages to gold-star, say, ten of the thirty songs on Expert before GHIII/Rock Band is out, then I shall take everything back.

In conclusion: I'm correct* and anyone who thinks otherwise is wrong


*possibly excluding my opinion on A Flock of Seagulls

[in5ane]

I think the quality of the covers does matter... when I first played GH1, some of them were almost perfect sounding. This is pretty shoddy in some areas. Having it sound like the real thing makes it more enjoyable.

I liked the Seagulls one, reminded me of GTA, and the fiancé (who was getting bored at this point of my 'performance') started singing along!

[Dazzyman]

I am a religious GH fan though MrMarbles and a rythem fan in general (bought a JPN PS2 for Drummania with controller same for guitar freaks, own BMDXII and the expensive deck and only missing 2 of the series out of I think 11 now depending if you include USA one or not and not forgetting others like Samba and Maracass and that other drum game on JPN PS2) I imported GH1 on PS2, bought 2 when it came out then rebought it on 360 and Ive spent yonks on them but for me this is weak, price isnt the issue for me if it had been ?40 I would have bought it as I adore the series but some of these covers are really horrific as is the way they have been converted to playing. I will still play a handfull of these over and over but rest leave me cold. I keep going back and forward to this and GH2 on 360 (only way I can keep on this is to keep going back to GH2) so its ok for a filler and thats it for me.

[MrMarbles]

Then I guess it must just be a tomayto/tomahto thing

I'm personally really surprised by how good stuff like Turning Japanese is to play - I single that song out I was expecting to hate it, yet I find exceedingly good fun. And I'm finding the note-charts to make more sense than GHII's.

I'm certainly enjoying it far more at this stage of owning it than I enjoyed GHII, but I think my personal music taste may be just as much of a factor.

It's almost like we're polar opposites bar our mutual love of rhythm-action. I shall designate you as my nemesis.

[Roddie]

Really wish we could've had some Duran Duran, Japan or Prince but you can't have everything. TBH this expansion pack is pretty much exactly what I expected it to be; there's already quite a few standout tracks and I know that there will be a rake of them I'll suddenly get into in due course.

The only real big downside IMO is the lack of bonus tracks, me and my flatmates tended to play them more than the main tracks. Most people seem to be saying they couldn't have them because we're not in the 80's, but it's not like a band from today can't make a song that sounds like it's from the 80's, half the Freezepop stuff already does!

[crocky-chocky]

Thanks Yoshimax for hand stance tippage, I find I can rock a lot harder now.

I'm also playing a lot of Turning Japanese, I detest that bloody song...but it's mega fun.

Aye, Freezepop would have been ace, I LOVED the track they did for GH2. Still loving this game though...Holy Diver is HILARIOUS.

[MrMarbles]

I can't stop playing this: I've five-starred all but the final track now which is currently sitting at four stars.

Almost every song is frankly superb to play, but my current fave is RATT's Round and Round which positively encourages headbands and a smoke machine.

My use of the word "fave" has made me feel like a Newsround Presspacker.

[Pookmunki]

This thread is barmy: it clearly needs a mindless fanboy rant to restore the balance in nature. It's a dirty job but someone's gotta do it: *snip*

Reminds me, why no Faith No More? Crazy scenes...

[Nisa]

Reminds me, why no Faith No More? Crazy scenes...

Judging from what I've played of this it seems they're saving all the good stuff for Guitar Hero 3. This version is still fun to play but unless you love cock rock (like a mate of mine) the song selection leaves a lot to be desired. There's some really good stuff on this like Anthrax and Maiden but it's hardly worth the asking price, charging full price for an expansion is taking the piss tbh. It'll be nice to see Activision get knocked down a peg or two when Rock Band comes out, hopefully it'll put an end to the overpricing they've been up to lately with both this and the GH2 360 downloads.

[MrMarbles]

Before I played Rocks the 80s, I fully expected Wrathchild to be one of my favourite songs but, much like The Trooper on the 360 version of GHII, it just isn't as fun to play as many of the other songs.

I'm a massive Maiden fan, and I'd never listen to half of the stuff on Rocks the 80s on my drive to work, but I'm not above admitting that the cock rock suits the game far better and feels better to play.

Turning Japanese is a perfect example of this: a godawful song, but the note chart in the game is truly excellent.

For me, GHII oftentimes completely failed to make me feel like I was playing guitar in the same way GH did - it completely threw me out of the illusion with horribly unnatural note charts at times. Rocks the 80s really feels like a return in spirit and tone to GH to me.

Although everything's entirely subjective and this is all my personal opinion. Doesn't stop me from being right, though

[Nisa]

The Trooper is one of my favourite songs to play on Guitar Hero 2, playing on expert felt pretty natural to me, it might be a little bit trickier than the real thing but when you nail it it's really satisfying. A lot of the note charts in the 15 or so songs I played in Rock the 80s were pretty dull tbh.

As far as the theme goes, what bothers me is that a lot of bands that defined 80s rock/metal are missing, thrash metal was at it's peak in the 80s yet Anthrax are the only representatives of the genre and no Van Halen is another obvious omission. This game just seems like a quick cash in, looking at the amount of effort that's going into GH3 which is out in just a few months seems to suggest that this is the case.

Like I said it's still fun to play but it's also very much a missed opportunity.

[Dazzyman]

OMG with my pee take of Elton John etc.. I forgot about the Epic Faith No More's Real thing album, man that brings back some good memorys of leaving school at 16 and finding "life" hehe and has to be in my top 5 of all time. My cousin was also reeling off loads of death metal stuff from the 80s when we where playing it yesterday (had to stop him smashing my Sony X up when Seaguls arrived again).

Ive found 3 songs i like thats it and now officially gone back to GH2. I watched the Rock Band video last night and that has some promise. I hope we get some Faith no more on that from any album.

Your nemesis is exiting this thread MrMarbles as I need to find a way to put Kylie on this hehe