People trash talking Guitar Hero series

[Lebowski]

just got a rental of rock band through from love film and with all the comments ive read i put it on expecting a widley diffent experience. The pace of the songs is better on rockband and it dose draw you more into feeling like your playing the track in a way the new guitar heroes dont.

But they are essentially the same game one is just a more refined plastic guitar experience. to get pissy about it harmonics made the first 2 guitar hero games before they went on to make rockband after a fall out with activision. so they are all made by the same dev really up to point.

[rmoxon]

I'm blown away.

I'd take your point if say, GH had 7 notes, and the notes went sideways, and the music was mainly by 1940's skiffle groups, and the controller was a plastic African thumb piano with built-in light gun that let you shoot the notes off the screen ...

But both games feature rock songs transcribed on a 5-note downward-scrolling highway, played on a plastic guitar controller. They quite often feature the same songs with mainly similar note tracks. They both have the same mechanics for playing the notes that have been present since GH1 (bar a few very minor additions that both series have introduced).

The difference in GAMEPLAY between the two series is utterly negligible.

After that, it's a matter of tracklists, presentation and nitpicky things like drum fills and stuff. If you think RB is exponentially better than GH for those reasons, then fine, but to say that the two games are not effectively the same is just moronic.



If it WAS a realistic simulation of playing a real instrument, then by rights, it would be bloody difficult.

If what I said blew you away then you are very easily blown away ..

Anyway as I keep saying, and as you keep seeming to ignore, for me Rock Band is better mainly becuase the note charts are more realistic, where as Guitar Hero somtimes dosent even feel like youre playing the song youre suppose to be, and thats not fun. Its that simple really. Im not sure how you can call such a big difference neligible.

I do have to admit though that the note charts on Guitar Hero 5 are a major improvment over GH 3 and World Tour.

[MrMarbles]

I'd disagree with any point saying the note-charts in one are more realistic than the other - neither game could be described as being a realistic simulation of guitar-playing.

However, I do prefer the note-charts of Rock Band purely because they are more comfortable to play; they fall under the fingers a lot more naturally, with painless transitions between notes that leave me feeling like my playing is more fluid and elegant.

Neversoft, meanwhile, seem to favour creating more challenging note-charts - they do this by making it more difficult to make the transitions between certain notes successfully, requiring far more unnatural stretching to get the fingers in the right places - again, see my previously posted Nothing Else Matters video for evidence of this.

The "hardcore" score-chasing crowd love this, but it's not my cup of tea. I much prefer a comfortable playing experience that I can enjoy, and that's what Harmonix provides me with their note-charts.

I do hope that this comes across as a balanced opinion as to why I prefer Rock Band's note-charts.

Sorry to keep coming back to this largely pointless argument, but I always side with the underdog. I can't help it. It's in my nature.

The underdog in this case being the game that steamrolls Rock Band in terms of sales and rakes in the cash for Kotick

[Brats]

Almost every fanboy argument ever since the dawn of time comes down to this.

It's not about which is best. It's about justifying the one you've spent money on.

But that doesn't really apply here. The main cost of these games is the instruments, and they work on both series (early GH games excluded). If you spent ?150 on Rock Band plus instruments, it makes sense to buy Guitar Hero too as for ?40 you're effectively doubling your gameplay.

Or that would be the case if you thought GH was as good. Clearly many people don't, but has nothing to do with justifying their purchase. You are not 'locked in' like you are with buying a single console.

[ItsThere]

@ Peeveen

I saw this and thought of you...

[rmoxon]

I'd disagree with any point saying the note-charts in one are more realistic than the other - neither game could be described as being a realistic simulation of guitar-playing.

However, I do prefer the note-charts of Rock Band purely because they are more comfortable to play; they fall under the fingers a lot more naturally, with painless transitions between notes that leave me feeling like my playing is more fluid and elegant.

Neversoft, meanwhile, seem to favour creating more challenging note-charts - they do this by making it more difficult to make the transitions between certain notes successfully, requiring far more unnatural stretching to get the fingers in the right places - again, see my previously posted Nothing Else Matters video for evidence of this.

The "hardcore" score-chasing crowd love this, but it's not my cup of tea. I much prefer a comfortable playing experience that I can enjoy, and that's what Harmonix provides me with their note-charts.

I do hope that this comes across as a balanced opinion as to why I prefer Rock Band's note-charts.



The underdog in this case being the game that steamrolls Rock Band in terms of sales and rakes in the cash for Kotick

No

If you were to play a song on a guitar and then play the same song on both Rock Band and a more recent Guitar hero game, I bet you would generaly find that generaly Rock Band seemed like you were playing simular (though obviously not the same) to how you just did it on the guitar where as the Guitar Hero version dosent.

For Instance, some of the songs on Guitar hero 3, on expert, are just plain ridculous, you arent even going with the rhythm of the song, nevermind hitting notes that make sense on the scale.

[MrMarbles]

No

Er. Yes.

There is nothing remotely realistic about either game's note-charts. As for the rest of your point, you'll find that I mostly agree with it (but I try to phrase it in a more balanced manner).

[rmoxon]

Er. Yes.

There is nothing remotely realistic about either game's note-charts. As for the rest of your point, you'll find that I mostly agree with it (but I try to phrase it in a more balanced manner).

Well I still disagree, Rock Band is as close you can can get to being realistic with only 5 notes as far as the hand movment and timing of the rythms is concerened, which means that, while clearly a game, it is relativley realistic. But we seem to be just be going round in circles now so I'll leave it at that.

[peeveen]

For Instance, some of the songs on Guitar hero 3, on expert, are just plain ridculous, you arent even going with the rhythm of the song, nevermind hitting notes that make sense on the scale.

Any examples?

I started off with GH3, and to be honest, every other GH/RB I've played since has been a slight disappointment. Rapid three-note-chord switching FTW!

@ItsThere, lolz at that pic.

Rock Band is as close you can can get to being realistic with only 5 notes as far as the hand movment and timing of the rythms is concerened, which means that, while clearly a game, it is relativley realistic.

I'm not sure what you mean. If we're accepting that boiling down the skills of playing a guitar professionally into a 5-button approximation is hardly "realistic", then I don't see how there can be a gulf of difference between two note charts. So long as notes are in time, and ascend/descend in the right direction, that's pretty much all you can do, and I haven't seen anything in any GH/RB game that made me think "this chart is bollocks". I've seen some trivial oddities in certain songs in both games, but like I say, nothing that makes me want to put one of them on a podium and the other in the bin.

[rmoxon]

Any examples?

I started off with GH3, and to be honest, every other GH/RB I've played since has been a slight disappointment. Rapid three-note-chord switching FTW!

@ItsThere, lolz at that pic.

And thats my point right there.

3's and 7's by Queens Of The Stone Age for instance.

The Guitar hero 3 version has lots of 3 note cord bits that simply shouldnt be 3 notes and also a few notes that arent even on the song. this makes the song an increadable pain thats more difficult than it should be and most people would probabaly consider it less fun than the Rock Band version which is not only more acurate but actualy feels like youre playing the song.

[peeveen]

But most guitar chords use AT LEAST three fingers, so by that token, the RB version is surely LESS accurate, no?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nrpx5Qc8pHM&feature=related

There ye go, bar chords throughout, using four fingers.

[rmoxon]

Not really, i suggest you compare his hand movement on that video to the hand movement of someone playing both games.

You will find the Rock Band version more acurate.

The Guitar Hero 3 version adds some Bass parts which is just odd really.

[rmoxon]

Just found a comparison video of the song on both games, here

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iDNPtxZ9Y00

Thought it dosnet have sound, unfortunatley, you can still see the differences are drastic.

[peeveen]

I'm not disputing the fact that they're different, but I don't see how they're SO different as to make one instantly dismissable and the other excellent.

And if you're comparing hand-movements to that youtube vid, I could argue that the GH chords actually look more like the real sequence at the start, in that the chords alternate between low-high positions, whereas the RB chords start at the high end and work down. ... and, of course, use less notes.

I see transcribing a song to GH/RB format like trying to compress a 1024x768 landscape picture to a 16-colour 32x32 icon. You're losing a huge amount of information, and no matter what scaling or dithering or palette-selection techniques you use, you're only going to get the vaguest approximation of the original. Some people might prefer one conversion technique to another, but in the end, there's nothing inherently wrong about any of them, unless the icon turns out to be a cock and balls.

That said, to show I'm not a GH fanboy, I will say that putting the notes for the trumpets onto the guitar track of "Superstition" in GH5 was a mighty silly decision.

[importaku]

Either way makes no difference they are both ripoffs of this...