People trash talking Guitar Hero series

[Malc]

I played Guitar Freaks with my brother at portsmouth arcade way before all this Guitar Hero and Rockband crap came out every year. Brilliant fun to play for a couple quid every now and then.

[Nisa]

I just played Guitar Hero 5 for the first time after buying it at launch and it has to have one of the worst song selections of any music game I have ever played(and I've played a ****ing tonne). I'm lucky if there's more than a dozen songs out of the 70 odd on the disc that I'll bother to play more than once. It's a real shame too because the game engine is the best one Neversoft have done so far.

The main reason Rock Band is better than Guitar Hero is the vast amounts of DLC available and the abilty to transfer pretty much every song from other discs bar The Beatles (the fact that less than half of World Tour transfers over to GH 5 is pathetic). Having over 400 songs and counting to play means I'll never get bored with Rock Band. The novelty of each Guitar Hero from 1 through 5 has worn off for me a few months after purchase but I've been playing RB 1 & 2 constantly since the "platform" launched about two years ago. The downside of all the DLC of course is the amount of money spent on getting it but it's a problem I can easily live with.

Gameplaywise I have more fun with Rock Band 2, the note charts are more fun/natural than many of Guitar Hero's and the timing window is a lot tighter/better in Rock Band as well(the timing in Guitar Hero is notoriously loose). Drumming in Guitar hero isn't quite as good either. Having to hit the hi-hat and cymbal simultaneously to activate star power is awkward when you're trying to maximise your score and keep your combo going, the fill sections are implemented poorly and the GH gems don't lend themselves to drumming as well as the notes in RB. I don't sing very often so I can't talk much about vocals but the general consensus is that judging your pitch is made a lot easier in Rock Band.

A lot of people will claim that Guitar Hero offers a greater challenge than Rock Band and in the case of songs on the discs this is pretty much true for the most part, however this is where the benefit of a vast DLC library comes into play. Songs like the ones found in the Yngwie Malmsteen pack,the Peace Sells and Texas Flood albums to name but a few are easily as challenging as the hardest songs on guitar found in Guitar Hero. So the whole Rock Band is much easier than Guitar Hero thing is a myth (provided you are willing to buy the DLC).

Rock Band easily wins on the presentation front as well, the visual style is superior (especially in The Beatles) as is the animation of the band members. Take a look at the incredibly robotic drummer animation in Guitar Hero 3 which has barely improved since for instance.

It may sound like I'm totally down on Guitar Hero but that's not the case, there isn't the gulf in quality between it and Rock Band that some people make out. I usually have a lot of fun playing the GH games but due to a few improvements made in Rock Band it is the superior series.

[plaer 1]

I picked up Guitar Hero 5 over the weekend and I've played the songs I bought the game for, but now what? I don't feel bothered to play the "filler" tracks.

Rock Band 2, I played relentlessly, even aiming to get gold stars on tracks I never even heard of.

People say Neversoft have improved on the series, I think otherwise. I have no compulsion to come home from work and give it a spin.

I switched from 360 to PS3 recently and even sold my GH:WT band set for a measly ?41.

When starting this thread I hadn't played GH5 and didn't understand the GH bashing. Now that I've read all the posts and played GH5, I'm starting to understand where people are coming. They may be the same game, but it's the execution that makes the difference.

I'm kinda think this is like The Simpson's and Futurama. Matt Groening started The Simpons and it was awesome, then he did "broke off" and concentrated on Futurama and that was even better than The Simpsons.

Man I miss Rock Band

[Fastware]

I see a lot of people using GHIII as a justification for disliking the series. It had a rushed development just 8 months, with a new developer, had to be made from the ground up and on two new formats. Of course it's not going to be the best it could have been under that situation. What Neversoft pulled off under that pressure was amazing.
With GHWT they improved a lot but but too much focus on the music studio thinking that free user made content could compete against DLC.
Harmonix are a a company of musicians that make good music games and their insight improves the game. They are excellent at PR going for the angle of doing it for the love of the music to counter the big evil Activision. A lot of hardcore gamers buy into this, but you need to remember they are a business first and formost. Harmonix are notorious patent trolls as well, every bit as bad as Activision in this respect. They are just good at keeping this out of the news.
The DLC is great for Rockband and for most of us that are comfortable with it. However you cannot sell DLC to everybody, a disc you can. The disc gives you a lot more content and easier to save money on with store discounts and trade ins. It may be seen as milking it, buy you don't need to buy all of them. Just the ones that intrest you.

In my opinion, Rockband is the better game but not by all that much as it seems some people like to make out.