looks perfect xD
hell..it's on the DS..
i don't care how it looks.
the only thing that matter is it works.
and..er..what about that soundtrack?..xD..
*wonders*..
this will different obviously..but on the DS..
come on..that is impressive xD

evilralphwiggum

will this work on the original ds because thats what i have and i really wanna get my inner rocker out on the airplane.

lumpy108

@shintobreak: I'm drinking to that! Down with Neversoft and Guitar Hero!

Americo

i can has drum parifreal?

bistromathics

@celery: I agree with you. For me this looks fun, I don't buy guitar hero to look like I actually play a guitar (even though I ACTUALLY play one), I buy guitar hero because I like the concept and recognize that it is a GAME.

So much whine and most of it is because this looks "un-cool", come on if you want cool buy a PSP and be on your way.

And about looking uncomfortable, maybe this will tire you after some time but how the hell would you like to play this game? A mini guitar? Yeah like you would play on the subway with your DS on your lap and a tiny stupid little guitar on your hands, that doesn't in any remote way looks stupid right?

WDYC

@AgainstOne: I do believe that just a couple days ago everyone was complaining about EA being greedy because they put ads in games and then don't give any kickbacks to the consumer, especially considering their sports titles require little development from year to year. Other than that, it would make sense that Red Octane is only really known for one game series because they are just a subsidiary of Activision, just like Harmonix will probably never be known for much more than Rock Band while being a part of EA.

FANBOY of ceilings

Ugh. They're sticking with the lame, "makes you feel like you're playing an action game instead of a guitar simulator" battle mode? That alone might make this worth passing on. I despise the battle mode in GH3. It was the dumbest addition to the franchise ever.

Fatmumuhomer

@c-lin' Fanboy: yes, i understand that all companies are in business to make money, and quite frankly i'm sick of hearing this argument in defense of RedOctane. they take it to a-whole-nother level that is just sickening. it is all they care about. it is the ONLY thing that drives them. it's disgusting.

AgainstOne

I dislike the battle mode in GH3 but I gotta say those items are pretty clever and use the hardware well :P

Frampis

@celery: Sounds like this plastic guitar toy isn't good enough for the gamers here; they prefer to stick with their other, fancier plastic guitar toys.

Except that the GH controller was at least close to playing a guitar...whereas this just seems like it'd be incredibly awkward.

But nice try.

TRT-X

@AgainstOne: I didn't have a link because it is from the new GameInformer magazine. I didn't pull it from the internet. Anyway, all of the companies are money grubbing. As long as you are getting your money's worth, what difference does it make? If someone wasn't able to make money of video games, do you really think that we would have video games? Whether you like it or not, money is what drives different industries. Just look at "green" technologies. That is something you would think would not be about the money, but even "green" technologies need profit to keep progress going. Even if they are trying to get a bunch of money out of it, I'm sure there are several people working on GH that are still about the music. It is evident every once in a while when the developers talk about exposing people to different music and the variety from Kaiser Chiefs to Van Halen to Stevie Ray Vaughn in a game.

FANBOY of ceilings

@BauerStyle: It is as necessary as any game. Why do people feel obliged to buy stuff?

Bunn

@c-lin' Fanboy: well, i wasn't going in that direction at all with those quotes. those were just to assert how RedOctane says they're going to do something and then they don't follow through with it. this is because i think that they're money-grubbing bastards who don't care about anything other than how much money they can con out of you.

but back to your point, which was that i have done nothing to show that some imaginary article that you won't even provide a link to is unreliable. well, come to find out, what you're talking about originated from an opinion piece from GameSetWatch back in august of last year. here it is, by the way:

[www.gamesetwatch.com]

in fact, the title of the article starts with "Opinion:" and the article itself is peppered with phrases like "I would hazard a guess", "partly on purpose, I reckon", and "I still think".

it is very clear that everything written in the article that suggests what you are claiming as truth is merely the writer's opinion and has no factual basis whatsoever.

it's good to know that one person's opinion can eventually be reported as fact by others if it circulates around long enough and resonates well enough with the right people, though.

AgainstOne

This will probably be fun..

JustOneFix

Sounds like this plastic guitar toy isn't good enough for the gamers here; they prefer to stick with their other, fancier plastic guitar toys.

Seriously, this song and dance was trotted out already for the first GH. Where are all the wannabe guitarist college students from the original GH threads? They would have a field day with this.

celery

I'd still like to see how they manage to fit more than 10 songs on a DS cart.

cybereality

@LVP: the same way left-handed people play musical instruments: right-handed. I don't really see what the problem is. I've never heard of any left-handed people trying to play violin or clarinet any differently than right-handed people.

shimage

@AgainstOne: My boys? It's a magazine, not my boys. Even then, your quotes don't do anything to say that GameInformer is unreliable. There is a PS2-PS3 adapter from Nyko, and it doesn't work perfectly. Maybe that is why RedOctane never put one out. There is already one out and maybe there are technical reasons why they can't get perfect compatibility and they don't want to release a product that doesn't work any better than what is already out there. As for downloads of original GH tracks, I do recall everyone complaining about the downloads because they were too expensive. That is probably why they stopped making more of the original tracks available. Rehashing the existing songs and then putting them up for download is less cost effective as making new releases. Like I said, RedOctane is a company and needs to make money. They aren't going to make money by spending money on production of tracks that people weren't buying. It would have cost $97.76 to buy the original GH on 360 at the price the downloads cost. At that point, I would just deal with having to play the first game (or first 2 for me) on a different system just like most other people did. Not only does RedOctane make more money by moving on to newer GH games, but more consumers benefit. When they port old GH tracks to the 360 as DLC, the only people that benefit are people who have GHII on the 360, are connected to the XBoxLive, and never bought the original GH for PS2. Meanwhile, if they put out a new GH, that benefits PS2, PS3, XBox 360, and Wii players. Additionally, if they keep focusing on putting tracks from GHI on GHII for 360, that makes the players with PS2, PS3, and Wii feel like the 360 is getting special treatment. Anyway, I'm not saying that everything that RedOctane does is great and their shit doesn't stink, but more that people need to stop acting like Harmonix and EA's shit doesn't stink. Don't judge GHIII based on it being the 4th installment in the series rather than judging it for the game itself. Had GHIII come out first, and the first GH been the one that came out now, people would have loved GHIII and hated GH. Regardless of whether I can play the first two GHs on my PS3 or if there is another GH coming later this year, GHIII still delivers what I expect from a GH game. I bought the 80s version of GH, but only because it was on sale for $40 and came with a $15 gift card when I bought it. However, I still advised people who came in not to buy the game because it was not worth the full price and to only get it if you can get it for cheaper. I felt that the game was worth $25, but not $50 and even I can admit it. GHIII, though, I found to be worth the $100 I paid for it with a controller.

FANBOY of ceilings

I was cautiously optimistic until I saw the E10+

BossMonk

@jim_crawford: Rotate the top (or, as shown in the picture, left) screen 180 degrees.

Assuming they let you do that. It'd be silly not to, but stranger things have happened.

MrPsycohed

Wow...this looks entirely...un-fun. The small screen of the DS and the awkward positioning coupled with the terrible audio quality and missing orange button this thing is going to have makes me very wary about this.

FancifulUnicorn

@AgainstOne: Wayyyyyy too much text for a message post.

EmTeeZ

@c-lin' Fanboy: "You mean like you did? Even the newest GameInformer mentions the 80s version being a half hearted way of Harmonix fulfilling a contract."

just because they speculated doesn't mean that it's true and that you should too. it doesn't hold water. if what you (and apparently GameInformer) says is true, RedOctane wouldn't have accepted it. they would have sent it back as unfinished.

as for the rest of that long-winded post of your's, i don't know who that was directed to, as i haven't complained about any of those things. i simply stated that what you said about harmonix was untrue, as they were never in any decision-making capacity over the guitar hero franchise, like you were implying they were.

by the way, speaking of GameInformer, here's a choice quote i've dug up from the past by your boy over at RedOctane:

GameInformer: I've got a PlayStation 3. I have Guitar Hero 1 and 2 and two guitars. Are you going to have some sort of an adapter so you can use the PS2 versions because, you know, it's backwards compatible?

Bryan Lam: I wouldn't say they should be too concerned. Has there ever been a time that RedOctane has let you down?
LINK

and from GameSpot comes an eye-opener from another one of your boys from your favorite company:

GameSpot: Will Xbox 360 Guitar Hero II owners ever have access to the songs from the original Guitar Hero?

Dusty Welch (RedOctane): While the songs that will be available for download through the Xbox Live Marketplace have yet to be confirmed, we can assure our fans that they can likely expect to see these songs. Through the feedback we've received from fans and from reading the message boards and other forums, we know that this is what everyone wants because of the awesome set list from some of the most legendary rock bands and artists ever!
LINK

so he explicitly says that he knows that the fans want the original guitar hero tracks as dlc. let's see how well they've delivered on what their fans want:

the game was released for 360 on april 3rd, 2007. on april 11th, 2007 nine songs from the original were released as dlc. exactly 3 months later on july 11th, 2007 three more original guitar hero songs were released as dlc. that was it. no more after that.

the funny thing is that harmonix actually listen to their fans and are actively supporting and updating their product to make it even better. what are your boys over at RedOctane doing?

oh, that's right, they're too busy cranking out sequels to actually care about the things their fans want for the already released works, like the PS2-to-PS3 adapter or the ability to play the original guitar hero songs on 360 or PS3. things they know their fans want. things they've said they had plans to deliver.

you done yet?

AgainstOne

@tinkyXIII: Nope. It took only one: Guitar Hero 3. Everything else is par for the course.

mind in rewind

I found the song selection and note charts to be crummy in Guitar hero 3. In addition I find GH3 has more problems with wireless guitar lag than either rockband or guitar hero 2.

Yes, GH80s did kind of suck as well.

TheGreySpectre

This does not look appealing to me at all. Add me to the people who are done with the Guitar hero series. I'll stick with rockband until a guitar hero that doesnt suck comes out again.

TheGreySpectre

@PMAvers: That is the one thing that I do like about the DLC over disk expansions. I think it would be cool if for the Aerosmith version of GH they allow you the choice to put the games on your hard drive so you can play them within GH3 or if it came with a token to download the tracks. Unfortunately, though, that would probably come with some kind of DRM that would not allow you to play the disk in other systems so that you can't download all the tracks and then sell the game. A Warhawk type system where you can either download the game from PSN or buy the disk would be cool, as well.

FANBOY of ceilings

@AgainstOne: You mean like you did? Even the newest GameInformer mentions the 80s version being a half hearted way of Harmonix fulfilling a contract.

Really, all the people who complain about Guitar Hero are only complaining because they have to have something to complain about. The fact that Rock Band exists doesn't change the gameplay of GH. It is still the same game. No matter what Activision does, though, everyone complains. If they would do like Rock Band and release a lot of DLC, people would complain that the content costs too much. If they release multiple versions, people complain that they are milking the franchise. If they don't do anything, people will complain that they are ignoring fans. If they add drums and a mic, people will complain that they are copying Rock Bank. Hell, people even find ways to complain about the free downloads. In the end of the day, Activision is still a company and they need to make money, but so are EA and all other gaming companies. If you don't like something, don't buy it. Don't whine that you don't like it. If you are going to complain, complain about things that go beyond not liking something. It is one thing to complain that the controller doesn't work properly or you would like the PS2 versions of GH and the PS3 version to be more compatible, but whining about milking a franchise is stupid. They are going to continue putting out new releases as long as they make money. Had GH3 come out and the controller didn't work, the game lagged excessively, and the end product was poor in general, then yes, you would have justification in complaining, but as long as the games still work properly don't complain that they are putting out too much material.

FANBOY of ceilings

@c-lin' Fanboy:

I'll take DLC over "expansion" disks anyway, since I'd rather have one "master" framework of a game, with all the songs I have available at one time, rather than having to switch disks & games all the time.

PMAvers

@Amsterdaam - KEEP SMILING: Great White vs. 9/11. Okay? Good comparison, I guess.

Yeah, I've been in many bands. I got to be in GH1, 2, Rock the 80s, GH3 AND Rock Band. And nothing ever went wrong with the pyros.

Luis

@c-lin' Fanboy: proof please? don't make allegations for which you have no substance.

AgainstOne

Guitar pick/stylus? Does it work on a real guitar? Pics! I need pics!

excaleranth

@blizzardjesus:
The sound quality I wouldn't worry about too much, if you've ever played ouendan 2 that game had 19 songs of pretty decent sound quality, plus they could always use the gba slot to put extra memory for more songs and such, on the other hand it's being ported by Vicarious Visions whom did a terrible job on the guitar hero 3 port.

boxofthegods

@AgainstOne: It was a half hearted effort in order to get out of their contract. It had nothing to do with Activision telling Harmonix what to do and everything to do with them not caring about what crap they put out as long as they could be done with their contract.

FANBOY of ceilings

If this thing fits flush on the Lite does that mean that there will be a seperate version for all us people who either prefer the phat or can't afford a Lite? It sure appears to be flush.

daizyujin

@LVP: you probably turn the DS on it's other side, just like Brain Age.

SAKY

@c-lin' Fanboy: how is it their fault that they were doing what they were told to do? they didn't have creative reigns over the franchise, red octane did. red octane told them what they wanted and how much budget they had and harmonix delivered what was asked. are you really that dense?

AgainstOne

Alright, now it's getting a little ridiculous. They've already got you scratching the hell out of your screen in order to play, and now to add more gimmicks we're blowing out fires and signing autographs. I'm sorry, with the Aerosmith game and now this, I'm done buying Guitar Hero.

furiousmilton

Wow. Took Activision what, three games to screw up the series?

Bravo, you bastards. Bravo.

tinkyXIII

@BenKenobi88: 50.00

Gadgetron

@TRT-X: *cough*cough*

FANBOY of ceilings

@liposome:

You hold the DS with the fretting hand so shifting positions would be nigh impossible.

doubtful

When are we going to see the track list?

I'm thinking that this game will be a turn-off for most of the hardcore gamers, but will be a huge seller amongst the casual DS gamers... I even got a little excited when seeing that promo/commercial... (just a little). Activision does it again...

onomeister

@Parsifal: I don't see how band specific discs are any worse than DLC. If you look at the average cost of DLC you would be looking at paying more than $60 for the amount of songs that are on the discs, you don't have to wait for the download to complete, and you don't fill up your hard drive. Also, you can't download a new controller. I need at least one more GH to come out as a bundle so I have two PS3 controllers. We also haven't seen any pricing yet for the new artist specific games. For all we know, it could be cheaper. I doubt it would be more expensive. Especially since this is something that Aerosmith wanted to do rather than it being Activision hunting them down.

FANBOY of ceilings

@blizzardjesus:
Everything about that was wrong. Everything.

Demonbird

It looks like something a Chinese company would make: Blatantly and badly ripping off the original product. Looks pretty bad, in my opinion.

Nereos

@WildWon:

To piggyback on your piggyback:

If only Great White had blown really really hard...

I was under the impression that Great White did blow really hard, and that's why they were playing in shitty bars.

doubtful

@blizzardjesus: In the IGN preview, they mention it'll have around twenty songs.

To me that doesn't seem enough to be worth buying given that the console versions have more than twice that.

shintobreak

Wait, why are there only 4 fret buttons?

liposome

I need at least a FEW songs! And cost!

BenKenobi88

DS carts only really go up to about 150 MB-ish.(last i checked) So I'm left to guess that this will feature 5- 10 songs??? Maybe more if there are no vocals. Then there's always Midi...

blizzardjesus

@c-lin' Fanboy: RB has been out for around 18 weeks now and we've only gotten DLC and discussions of an expansion (backwards DLC compatible) down the road in 2008 at some point.

Meanwhile, Activison took over GH in time for the 3rd game...and already has plans for three games this year (two artist expansions and the full 4th title) + the DS version.

Not to mention the Carabiner. *shudders* Saw one of those in a Target for $10. Just couldn't bring myself to buy it.

@LVP: Lefties will play it the same way they'd play Guitar Hero. Set it to lefty mode and flip the ds the other way. The screens will rotate 180 and you'll be holding it the exact same way...just in the other hand. The only difference this time is the your pointer will be hitting blue instead of green. But that will be reflected in the screen.

It's actually an interesting problem for people such as myself. I write left handed, but do everything else (except drum in Rock Band) right handed. So for me the natural position for holding a stylus is the left hand. Yet it's my left hand that's been fretting all these years of Guitar Hero.

So I'm just as concerned about a lefty mode as you are.

TRT-X

@c-lin' Fanboy: Activision sees Guitar Hero as something to be put out as many times a year as possible. Look at how bad this looks and look at Guitar Hero: Aerosmith and tell me that they're making products worth buying.

They did this before with Tony Hawk.

Sure, EA does this with Madden, but at least Harmonix and MTVGames have more input into what goes on.

shintobreak

@sanctusmortis: its not [www.redoctane.com] 50.00

Gadgetron

The audio will be low quality and the songs will all be kid friendly. Have to appeal to the DS market.

Demonbird

The video on IGN yesterday actually made it look somewhat playable, although I still think Guitar Hero without the plastic guitar is like Portal without the portals. Will wait and see how it goes, anyway, as Ouendan shows that rythym games can work in a portable format.

johnny_ultimate

I'm not going to buy this, I just want to find out what songs are available.

kent_f

@c-lin' Fanboy: going to? it has already happened.

Gadgetron

@Luis: Oh god, I'm surprised that you didn't reference 9/11 in your post. I assume you've never been in a band, because whenever you use pyro, something goes wrong, and rarely in the scope of the Great White incident.

Amsterdaam - KEEP SMILING

"the integration of the microphone and touch screen gameplay on the DS, further illustrates Guitar Hero's leadership in delivering the most unique and creative quality hardware and software on the market..."

Yes. Because GH:OT will be the first game to ever have people scribbling randomly across the touch screen while yelling/blowing into the microphone.

The Guitar Grip (note the caps as it's a trademark now), is clever...and MIGHT actually be useable. But let's not get ahead of ourselves here Activision. Kthx.

TRT-X

Looks playable, right? Okay, mime holding your hand in that position. Now keep it there for a couple hours.

jim_crawford

How do you play that if you are left handed?

LVP

the main question that needs to be answered is "is this going to work on the original DSes or is this adapter lite-only?"

AgainstOne

@Luis: Well, you can't always immediately jump to the worst possible example. Crappy lighting, deflated set pieces and bad pyrotechnics are "budget basement"-level traditions. There are plenty of times where a rocker or trashcan or whatever lighting on fire has been done for the sake of comedy. If the aim is to make the other guy's performance go wrong then that's as good a way as any.

@c-lin' Fanboy: It's probably the fact that so far all we see at "Rock Band" is DLC while we keep hearing about things like band specific game discs over at GH. I did say "so far", we'll just have to wait and see how things turn out, but for the foreseeable future it doesn't look like Activision plans on reigning in the new versions.

Parsifal

I think this is actually looking alright, but I've got to wonder how many song there'll be and if they'll be any good.

Zeouterlimits

I hate blowing into the mic...or having to shout. And why does one have to yell to activate SP on a guitar? Though I suppose you can't have a button or anything considering your free hand is going to be busy strumming.

I LOVE the concept of GH on the go. But I don't think the layout is very practical. One hand is holding the Guitar/Game while the other has to cross over to stum. I'm trying to imagine it just sitting here and it's not working.

Also: it's rated E10+?! What kind of music can you get in an E10 game? Weren't GH and RB both Teen?

TRT-X

Price?

Seiven

that control setup still looks like it will suck.

Gadgetron

@Luis: hopefully it'll be a bit more tasteful like, say, the bassist's eyebrows catching on fire.

geekgrrl

@shintobreak: Why is it that everyone assumes that EA and Harmonix aren't going to run the Rock Band franchise into the ground? Besides, the 80s version of GH was Harmonix's fault anyway.

FANBOY of ceilings

@SageofAnacostia: it has a "strap on" so you dont have to hold the DS

frederic249

All I want to know is cost. That can't be cheap.

sanctusmortis

So we use are right hand for both strumming and the fret buttons? The placement of the "Guitar Grip" is confusing and questionable. This really does look more like Accordion Hero. They should have given us a mini guitar-shaped controller or something similar.

SageofAnacostia

not sure id play this in public...making the "on the go" feature pointless....

bah, what the hell.

frederic249

does anyone else besides me think that looks incredibly uncomfortable? i mean is guitar hero on DS really that neccesary?

BauerStyle

To piggy back off an earlier comment...

If only Great White had blown really really hard, all 185 fans of theirs would still be alive.
[/sick sarcasm]

I'm quite exited for this game however. I'm a sucker for GH, as is the wife. And the grip is a pretty rad idea.
I suppose we'll have to wait for reviews now!

WildWon

I won't be purchasing this but the accessory looks rather amusing and certainly an unexpected approach to the game in my opinion.

Eon.

So... will the songs be the same as in gh3?

4Degrees

Wow, just wow. This is either going to be awesomely sweet or bitterly painful when it comes out. :P I doubt they will have and DLC of any sort but it MUST have Wi-Fi no ifs, ands, or buts about that.

JerryJax

@shintobreak: How is this further proof? I'm looking forward to this game, and I love Rock Band.

statnut

"put out pyrotechnics gone wrong"

Um, am I the only one who though of the Great White concert tragedy? I have to question this part of the game.

Luis

Further proof that Activision is running that franchise into the ground. Yay for Rock Band and Harmonix.

shintobreak

I really want to know how much this is going to cost me. I was thinking around 50-60.

JustJake