Why are they rushing RB2 out the door if they're supposedly "taking their time" with this particular feature? That means that if I want created songs in my RB, I'll need to wait until their next way-too-soon (but still too late to be novel) yearly installment, or I have to get GHWT, which doesn't even let me rock the mic (and will set me back another $200 and 5 sq. ft. of living room space).

A sad era for music games indeed.

Comatose Turtle

@karasu is my homeboy: See, that's my understanding of what they meant: taking songs you put into it and making a game out of it. So in other words, loading a song from your hard drive and putting note to it for you to hit. There's no way that could work for drums, bass, and guitar and be the same thing as the regular game. I mean, other wise they wouldn't be so adamant about multi-track recordings, right?

justhesh

I remember playing GHIII with a few people over, and everyone grimacing when we'd play the Rage Against the Machine song. My step dad grimaces everytime the Stevie Ray Vaughn song is played. Why? The vocal impersonations are sub-par. That being said, who's gunna want to play poor midi-esque versions of songs? seems like something that will lose its novelty fast.

Besides, its actually a turn off to real musicians. At the song creation point I'd rather just pull out my actual guitar and drums and make a real song. I've thought about possibly throwing a few on the game, but seconds later decided thats way too much work for almost no real payoff.

Still have to see tho, GHWT could win it if the setlist is that much better somehow.

superapplekid

@BonoMan: Yeah, I do. The drums will be better, and my friend who has been playing the drums since middle school thinks the exact same thing. The music studio will be amazing, with what... 100 of your own custom songs and 200 of other's custom songs in addition to the setlist and downloadable content. And I think the difficulty will be better. (You can't really say the tracks are better, because that's a matter of opinion and your personal musical tastes, not fact.)

Rock Band is fun and I do enjoy playing it. In fact, I play it at work on my lunch breaks and play it with my friends every Saturday for months now, so it's not like I have some anti-Rock Band sentiment, but the fact is I like to play about 15-20 tracks of the >100 songs out. (We've bought almost everything for our get-togethers, sadly most of it goes unplayed)

The problem is it's a lot of tame shit. I enjoy challenging and pushing my abilities, not getting 99% because I got so bored playing guitar so I started watching the drummer then fucked up my perfect streak.

I see a lot of Guitar Hero hate for no real reason. Because they don't like that Activision took over Rock Band after Harmonix? Because they like Rock Band's art more than Guitar Hero's? I don't know, but I think it's because they sucked at Guitar Hero 3 and decided they'd rather go suck Harmonix's dick instead because they're easier and they feel more accomplished by playing easier note charts better than they can play harder note charts.

They can enjoy their EZ Mode. I want "Oh shit, I need practice this bridge because this is not a natural muscle movement I've ever had to do in the 25 years of my life" Mode. So to see Guitar Hero have the Music Studio makes me all the happier, because I'm looking forward to the challenge. Especially playing some absolutely ridiculous shit that wouldn't be in a game like Guitar Hero or Rock Band because it doesn't actually involve a guitar... Like Shpongle or any of the great Goa/Psy Trance artists.

Slust

@I Think We're Property: LOL at 4'33" ...

Dirk Dorkelson

@d3ath_fly: Exactly. It was more about completely ignoring the beat then anything else just to keep your combo going.

So I'm not really interested in them incorporating Phase-technology into Rock Band like they've said they'd like to. They've expressed their satisfaction with how Phase runs, but it's actually awful.

karasu is my homeboy

@justhesh: I have phase. It's done pretty awfully. It rarely matches up, and when it does, it only keeps the sync for a few seconds before it gets off beat completely once more. It's really a mess.

karasu is my homeboy

Phase wasn't that good at even finding the beat in a song, sometimes being a confusing fraction of a second off that lead to missed notes because I was listening to the music, and hit the button on the beat, not the note on the screen. If their technology can't even do it perfectly for 1 player, how are they going to do it for 4 different instruments? Their technology is going to need a lot of work before it's Rock Band worthy.

d3ath_fly

@Fatmumuhomer: Why does everyone think GH:WT will stink? Because they shell out a GH game every year? RB didn't even come out until Thanksgiving last year, and RB2 will be out before then if they have their way. RB:Wii was a joke, a quick attempt at a cash-in.

Guitar Hero 1 wasn't great. GH2 improved on it. GH3 tried to write their own formula, and according to most it didn't quite work as well as GH2. You really think they didn't change ANYTHING? I'll at least wait until I see it in action before I condemn it. I'm sure they've made plenty of improvements.

I look at the song-composer in GH:WT differently. I see it as "free DLC," and considering the price of both companies DLCs I like that a lot.

Yes, Activision may be made of a bunch of big bad corporate jerks, but who cares about that if they put out a quality game. You guys are sitting here condemning Activision before playing their game, and praising Harmonix, when the last thing they did was shell out a crappy game to get quick money - what most would argue is EXACTLY what Activision did.

Saxboy

@I Think We're Property: Dude, I am already all over 4'33". Having that suddenly appear in an 18 song set would be an amazing relief.

nick.soapdish

disco biscuits in my rock band please.

@NimbusTLD: hallucinogen might be a better choice for rb. i do love me some shpongle tho

johnnylineup

It's a cool feature, but it's one that only a small percentage of the population is going to be able to use well. I would just end up downloading other people's creations in the end because I'm not musical enough to write my own stuff.

So, what I'm basically saying is that this wasn't a feature I was putting in my list of "must haves" thus I'm still going for RB2 and saying "screw you" to GH:WT. I could care less if the game lets you make your own music if the core gameplay stinks (and I suspect it will based on the crappiness of GH3).

Fatmumuhomer

You'd think they could just borrow the tracker format such as OpenMPT, only use the specific Rock Band instrument samples, and then voila! You could create anything, with a fairly easy to use interface.

How that would work on a console, and how they'd map the note hits to your music I don't know..

Krondonian

Sneak preview at future Rock Band 2 achievements-

Untz Untz Untz: Put an electronica/dance song into the custom track note generator.

Okay you're missing the point: Put John Cage's 4'33" into the custom track note generator.

Look, WTF is wrong with you?: Put an entirely spoken word recording (e.g., stand up comedy CD track) into the custom track note generator.

I Think We're Property

@Slust: Really? You honestly think World Tour is going to be better than RB2?

And honestly Kotaku always seems slanted towards Activision. Maybe it's me, but Rock Band has a.) better music and b.) better/more fun note charts.

So Activision has a vocal-less music editor...not seeing how that is any sort of upper hand really.

BonoMan

@NimbusTLD: Yes. In fact, to be more specific, Shpongle - Nothing Lasts... But Nothing Is Lost

Slust

Harmonix is a developer that seems to know what they're doing when it comes to music games.

thefais

@djricekcn: Not quite. 1UP have described in detail how this thing works in GHIV, and it's super-comprehensive. A bit difficult, and certainly not something for everyone, but supposedly it's got the ability to tag different instruments, do multi-track recording (the 1UP guy said he saw them do ten tracks, but that's not a confirmed ceiling), apply a bevvy of effects, and a bunch of other stuff. They described it as extremely versatile and complex, and it sounds it. It's a definite blow for RBII to not offer a song creation mode, but if they're taking time to make the eventual product more accessible, I think it'll serve them well enough.

wild homes is weathering cephalopod trouble!

@Mohican: One suggestion for you: Shpongle :D

NimbusTLD

@justhesh: have you ever played with cellphones where you make your own ringtones with a built in midicomposer? It's going to be something like that I assume

djricekcn

*yawn*

World Tour, please.

Slust

thank you for the picture of beethoven. a masterful, hopeful face of a genius, in these madding, pagan, darkened times.

Mohican

"[...] their EA-istic approach to gaming now. "

Damn you EnigmaNemesis, you lifted the veil I was unwilling to notice was there!!!

NimbusTLD

I love how whenever a game is lacking a feature of it's competitor, the PR is always "We're taking more time to do it right." Simultaneously excusing themselves and making the competitor look bad.

It's like the old "We're not retreating, we're advancing in another direction!" joke.

QualityJeverage

Well if they use the same thing that Phase uses...Then in game music creation will be really quite simple. But can that be done for each instrument?

Hmm in Scotland here, importing RB2 soon after its release. I do like sticking with Harmonix, I feel loved by them as an RB owner. :D

Arnold Rimmer's Garden Strimmer

Phase did it really well, so I look forward to seeing what Harmonix will do.

DukeOfPwn

Funny ... since it was the RB producers to announce they wanted to do this even before they launched RB.

Yet Activision swoops right in, and I still wont buy their EA-istic approach to gaming now.

EnigmaNemesis

"We're taking a radically different approach to that problem," he tells CNN. "It's something we wanted to take more time to do it right."

Is that like what they said for Wii Rockband?

"We didn't do multiplayer, so we could focus on the single player experience." "So there will be full single player for Wii like the PS3 and 360, and not like the PS2?" "No, it's just like the PS2 version."

I'll believe it when I see it.

Saxboy

I can't Wait till RockBand 2 comes out , It sounds so promising, And that picture that showed RHCP in it got me even more excited, The music creation feature in GHWT looked too complicated IMO, Hopefully if Harmonix does something similar it wont be too complicated.

kcgig101

I don't know how well it's done in Phase, but I don't see how it would work for multi-instrunment-based games and still have the same feel.

justhesh

@Comatose Turtle: Considering 90% of the game is already there (RB1), they've essentially had a year to work on what little else there is to add.

justhesh

It's going to use advanced neural sensors to do a spectroscopic analysis of your audio cavities and then send tiny experimental signals down the neural pathways to the sound sensors of your brain to see what is likely to be well received by you, delving deep into you're psyche, grokking your deepest likes and dislikes, formulating your ideal musical combinations! Thus it will, after much processing, produce a song that sounds almost, but not quite, entirely unlike tea.

Zazu_Yen

@Saxboy: wat.

Yofu

A lot of people complain about GH:WT copying RB, which I agree, they are copying them. But, at least GH:WT has the sense to add such OBVIOUS features as ONLINE "band world tour" the first outing, along with a form of music creation. RB was my first foray into rythm games like this(buying the GH's afterwards), but it really pissed me off with the huge oversights they made with the game.

I_Hate_This_Place

Until I can go plug in my iPod, leave it there for a bit and come back with more than 90% of my songs playable in game, I won't be buying another instrumental game anytime soon.

Coors Light is God

I guess GH wins this time around

mcool93

Bleh, I don't think the music creation is really a great option. It will be just so-so compared to programs whose focus is to write music. It just seems like they have it to "one up" what Guitar Hero is doing and that is very lame in my opinion. You shouldn't include something just because another company is doing it.

WasabiJoe

@Zazu_Yen:

How do you calculate 3? Are you counting the DS version? in that case are you kidding?

This is their SECOND attempt at a real full-on console GH game. Activision themselves said that they weren't really sure of how they were going to do with GH3 and used it as a good learning process; trying to get a feel for the game, following criticisms of the game, etc.

"it's kind of hard to bless them for noticing the obvious."

Really? I didn't expect such a comment from a gamer. If you've played many AAA games and their sequels you'll realize that many of them fail to do that very thing. Fix the obvious. I say kudos to Activision for trying to bring us a game with as many features as possible as well as trying to fix the mistakes of their past games.

NeoAkira

@Zazu_Yen: It's their first "band" outing. And even though it's obvious to include it now, it should have been obvious to Harmonix the first time around with the original RB. So far, they haven't even confirmed that there will be a online band world tour(I'm sure there will be, but it's still un-confirmed). If they still don't have this feature in RB2, I will not be buying it. RB introduced me to these games, but I'm not going to stay loyal if a developer does not give the fans what they've wanted for a long time and the competition does.

I_Hate_This_Place

@I_Hate_This_Place: "GH:WT has the sense to add such OBVIOUS features as ONLINE 'band world tour' the first outing"

Um, it's not their first outing, it's their THIRD (fourth if you care to include the 80's) so it's kind of hard to bless them for noticing the obvious.

Zazu_Yen

@BonoMan:

GH3 has about as many overcharted songs as GH1 or GH2. But I guess your opinion is your opinion huh? Meanwhile I'll keep laughing at how bad you people apparently are at these games.

And I like how no one ever notices or complains about undercharting in Rock Band. Example: Train kept a rollin' (since it can be easily compared with the superior GH:A version).

Oh and for the actual article.... well I guess that's a fancy way of saying "yeah we've got nothing at the moment".

Ghar

While I can understandt he appeal for created songs, I just dont see the big deal when 1) You can't have vocals 2) You're going to have to go through ALOT of bad before you find anything good.

Using that as the only reason GH:WT will be better is simply not enough in my mind. I'm interested in GH:WT, don't get me wrong, but I"m WAY more excited about RB2.

At the end of the day, I simply have more fun with Rock Band than I did with GH3. Whether it's the overcharting of the songs, or something else I can't say, I just got MUCh more enjoyment out of Rock Band. Not to mention all the DLC that will be useable for RB1 and RB2.

I'm curious if the DLC for GH:WT will be backwards compatible or not as well at this point.

Zakuen

Ok it's pretty simple to decide which one will be better. The one with the better songs.

As of right now for me Rock Band has better songs, plus they actually did DLC right. So they are my preferred music game platform. Will it stay this way forever? I don't know.

But I do know that a create a song feature will not persuade me one way or another. It's always been about the music, it always will.

Ben Longo

@BonoMan:

/agree

EnigmaNemesis

@mcool93: What on earth makes you think that? Just because it includes a gimmicky (although could be cool) feature that is not important to the main point of the game (playing your artists favorite songs and feeling like a "rock star")?

@I_Hate_This_Place: I wouldn't quite say it's an oversight. They clearly saw something in there that was possibly screwy. It's not like they forgot to do it...they tried...something made them think it needed to be held back for further development and now they will most likely include it. They know their fans want it so it's not being overlooked.

@Slust: Yeah sure your opinion is your opinion no doubt and there's nothing wrong with that. But I like how you pretend that song likeage is the only objective factor you listed. Everything you listed is objective. You haven't played with the drums (and I don't care with what your friend from middle school says..it means absolutely jack when it comes to fake drums). You haven't played with the music creator and you just haven't played the game at all yet.

The thing that gets me about GH3 isn't the tracklisting (good, but not great), but the fucking TONY HAWK EXTREME LOOK AT ALL THESE NOTES! notecharts. Neversoft completely added ridiculous notecharts with artificially inflated difficulty. I don't mind a hard song if it's a hard song because it's a HARD SONG. What I do hate is making a weak song hard just for shits and giggles. Making single note plucks into three chord charts for no damn reason other than to make it "hard" for all the scorehero douches out there.

Not to mention Activision just whoring out the franchise as a whole. I mean defacing a damn Jimi Hendrix statue? That's just tacky.

Your opinion is your opinion and that's fine. But don't pretend to just "know" the drums are going to be better or that the music "studio" is going to rock, because you don't.

Oh and RB has over 200 songs.

BonoMan

@NeoAkira:

"Really? I didn't expect such a comment from a gamer. If you've played many AAA games and their sequels you'll realize that many of them fail to do that very thing."

If you're willing to accept a lack of innovation as the status quo, than yes, by all means, praise the observance of the obvious.

"I say kudos to Activision for trying to bring us a game with as many features as possible as well as trying to fix the mistakes of their past games."

And I agree with you here, kudos to Activision for not ceding the rhythm game wars without a good fight, although a keyboard would have been nicer than cymbal pads. And I'm still pissed at them for blocking Harmonix PS3 guitar patch.

Zazu_Yen

Best choice of headline pictures on any site, ever.

Kenny

Meh, it's always easy to say how obvious something is later, getting pissed at a game for not having a feature it never promised seems rather pointless, especially when it brought so much else to the table.

That being said, I was always pissed that cooperative play wasn't available in Career Mode until III :)

Zazu_Yen

really GH:WT is mainly for wii owners because i bet all the people bitching about it sucking have RB for 360 and PS3 and RB wii was such a shitty game i feel sorry for anyone who bought it.

hevensxj

@Ghar:

Where on earth do you get that I'm bad at the game? I can beat anything on expertly regularly.

Oh and there really isn't any undercharting on Rock Band. That's why nobody complains about it. Surprise surprise most songs AREN'T that difficult to play in real life. But you're just used to inflated trumped up charts in GH3 so you must think that's what all songs are like. It's goin to be closer to the real song in Rock Band whether it's boring or not. They're not goin to artificially inflate it.

My god there is so much stupid in your post it hurts. I can only assume you're either a troll or a scorehero fag.

The thing about the scorehero idiots is that they're like audiophiles. They just care about their equipment and "listening sessions" and stupid fake trinkets rather than...you know...the damn music.

BonoMan

On a sidenote, I am still miffed at Harmonix treating Wii as a non-matter, then when they came by, give us a gimped version. Even GH3 have online mode at least!

...come think of it, kinda like Joystiq, actually.

Jestersage

@Slust: You tell them... If people think Activision is "Bad", wait till they try the songs at GuitarFreaks. Hey, it's only three buttons, right?

@Ghar: And a perfect example of RB taming music game for the mass. Good thing it's Roxor that made ITG and not Hamronix, or otherwise we will never get a 13 footer... with hands!

Jestersage

@BonoMan:
Generally when people complain about a game being too "difficult" it's because they suck at it. If this is one of the rare times where it is not the case then >_> woops.

And um did you even notice my example? The main riff(bleh whatever it's called...) is supposed to contain chords. Rock Band just uses single notes while GH:Aerosmith uses 2-note chords. Thus, an example of undercharting in RB while GH gets it right. And if you look at GH:Aerosmith (Activision/Neversoft's 2nd GH game) it's clear that they're improving things even further.

Ghar

I really couldn't care less about a music creation mode, because, as others have stated, (a) you won't be able to add vocals, so it will be a cheap knock-off of developer-created DLC, and (b) few people will actually take the time to learn how to use it well enough for you to want to DL their creations.

Online World Tour would be nice, but I'd rather see a single player World Tour mode, or something, ANYthing, that breaks the ****y five-song-tier structure we've been given since GH1. Even online, you still have to coordinate schedules, and I really don't want to be on the last song of a huge setlist only to have the connection get foogared.

seafisch

I hate Guitar Hero because I love fellating Harmonix and I suck at Guitar Hero, not because Activision are huge assholes about owning the franchise and seem to think Harmonix are "copying" them.

Also it is opposite day.

Aye Mak Sicur

@Zazu_Yen:

"If you're willing to accept a lack of innovation as the status quo, than yes, by all means, praise the observance of the obvious."

The only way to define innovation is by comparison. If something is changed in a way that makes something more intuitive or useful than it used to be it is innovative. So yes, if lack of innovation is the status quo and someone goes above and beyond the status quo it is praise-worthy.

Besides, we have yet to play the game itself. This is only based on the improvements we've seen them make from GH3. You seem to be assuming that this is just like GH3 with a couple of little features added, but I don't see it that way at all. Not only are they incorporating all the features that make their competition praised (multiple-instruments), but they are also trying to expand the gameplay possibilities as much as possible (Music creator, online World Tour, better drums).

NeoAkira

I'll rather have a note chart editor instead. Anyone else with me?

holysocks

Anyone who argues over something this stupid has somehow managed to have bigger problems than I do. The two games are only slightly comparable, and when each side is taking what it does to the next level, the idea that the other side's fans would take the time to try and debunk the efforts of the other is nutballs.

Having seen people take this stupidity well into personal territory on multiple occasions, I can assure you that there is not the slightest point to any of this childish arguing. In this topic alone I have witnessed both sides distort reality just to hold the title of the world's best fake guitar, and as a gamer who at one time liked to imagine there was something of substance in the average gamer, I find it incredibly depressing.

Aside from the unusual way in which the companies switched sides, there is nothing remotely worthy of reading anything into as far as their motives go. Harmonix did what it had to do to survive against its own creation when it made Rock Band, and Activision did what it had to do to survive against a competitor which suddenly brought much more depth to the table.

They have carved their niches, and each side is going to continue to react against the others' attempts to take more of the pie. You're going to continue buying whichever one offers you what it is you look for in fake plastic instruments, and unfortunately you're also probably going to continue spending more time harassing the "others" than you will actually playing the game.

Don't fret though! There's always a winner eventually, and when there's no longer some asshole competitor forcing our favorite game to evolve, that winner is everyone.

Bobby McPresscott

Considering the pure amount of crap when it comes to custom tracks/charts for programs like Stepmania, Frets on Fire, and hacked/modded Guitar Hero, the music creation feature being missing from Rock Band 2 doesn't effect me at all.

I wouldn't touch it in GHWT OR RB2 (if it was included) outside of the token morbid curiosity, as I'm just not interested in making my own tunes. If I wanted to do that, I'd just take up a real instrument. I imagine it'd be a lot more satisfying.

darthonyx

I thought it was supposed to be a music composer not a abilityt to take MP3s and convert them to Rockband/GH tracks. I can't see Activision implementing something that does a good job of converting mp3s as that they esstially obsolete a very profitable series.

TheGreySpectre

@Zazu_Yen:

Ah, sorry if I misinterpreted your comment.

NeoAkira

@Bobby McPresscott: "Anyone who argues over something this stupid has somehow managed to have bigger problems than I do. The two games are only slightly comparable, and when each side is taking what it does to the next level, the idea that the other side's fans would take the time to try and debunk the efforts of the other is nutballs."

Right, and meta arguments that decry that there is an argument aren't pointless at all. But thanks for using almost 300 words to tell us that.

Yeah I guess two rhythm games with rock music that let you form bands with guitars, drums and a mic and take you on a virtual tour of the world aren't anything alike and can't possibly be compared.

Your argument is circular. If we're not to compare and contrast, pick which one we like and put our money in that one; if we instead just, what, pick one franchise and stick to it no matter what... how will that drive innovation?

Zazu_Yen

@NeoAkira: "So yes, if lack of innovation is the status quo and someone goes above and beyond the status quo it is praise-worthy."

Agreed, but I'm not willing to accept the lack of innovation as the status quo, there is lots of innovation in the industry, it's just not seen in the mainstream much.

"You seem to be assuming that this is just like GH3 with a couple of little features added, but I don't see it that way at all."

How can I assume that? They're adding instruments, a music creator and online world tour, two of which features leapfrog Rock Band and one of which trumps Rock Band 2. I already agreed that Activision deserves props for taking the fight to Harmonix.

Zazu_Yen

@Zazu_Yen: HAHA that's also very true :P

I guess some times one just has to vent.

Having said that, i'm still waiting to get more info on both of the games. But right now it seems that i'm gonna choose GH. DLC is a none issue for me, since sony doesn't let me buy stuff from the PSN, wich means that i actually have more content for guitar hero because of the free stuff the've been giving. And music creator is something that intrigs me a lot.

I think people are underestimating how big this could end up being. At least for me it's a killer feature. Just look what people have been doing with band bros (By the way, PEOPLE import the new one, is awesome). So if they make it right it can have tons of depth.

So let's see how it plays. Rockband looks awesome too, but i entered late to the game and i don't have that much disposable income, so I will buy one or the other, right now it seems to be guitar hero.

Falsoman

@Bobby McPresscott: I can't agree more with you.

It's rather sad that people take so freakingly serious a damn videogame. Wichever side you are on, it's stupid to get upset about this. And it gets really boring to see people taking shots against the competition and trying to diminish the work of this people just because you like one better than the other.

It doesn't contribute to anything just to be bashing everything, and hey, i'm a cinic too, and sometimes it's comic to make silly arguments, but all the things that have been said here against each game have been said in every freaking post.

So GH is copying RB, who wasn't expecting this? So RB doesn't have the mode that GH is advertising so much. Boo Hoo. Both games are gonna be fun, and probably great. You don't like one, cool, you can like whatever you want, but please stop trolling around. It's boring.

Falsoman

@BonoMan: If you could see me, you'd see that I'm agreeing with you SO hard right now.

Defenestrated

Just the promise that you can use RB1 DLC in RB2, and vice versa has me sold on it. I'm also intrigued at the games real world musical instrument training and vocal coach thing angle. Those GHWT drums do look smexy though. I gotta give Red Octane props on doing some seriously neat controllers.

I think for me rhough its ultimately going to come down to who has the best track list. And so far Harmonix has Guitar Hero weeping in the corner peeing itself.

Cameroo

I believe GameInformer said that Guitar Hero decided to take out the Custom user tracks. It was in this months issue in the Good, Bad and Ugly bar that they always have. Plus after reading the article Harmonix just said that they are making a Different approach, they didn't say they weren't doing it.

Assassin_Kensei

@Assassin_Kensei:

"I believe GameInformer said that Guitar Hero decided to take out the Custom user tracks. It was in this months issue in the Good, Bad and Ugly bar that they always have."

Please, someone say this man is talking bullshit!

Poochy

@Saxboy: Um...why do I think GH4 won't be good? Because GH3 wasn't good. Simple as that. It was Neversoft's first attempt at a music game and it just wasn't fun (imo, obviously, but also according to many, many other people I know). It wasn't bad necesarily, it just wasn't good when held up against a game like RB (or even GH2 really. I'll still go back and play GH2).

If Neversoft couldn't get even the guitar part of the game right and make it fun, I have strong doubts they'll be able to pull in drums and vocals and make them good as well. It has nothing to do with the number of GH releases. Harmonix has been making music games for years and it shows. And since GH is owned by Activision and because the games make money, I doubt anything will be different from GH3. I totally expect boss battles and those sucked!

Fatmumuhomer

God, you're all such Harmonix tools. When Guitar Hero World Tour is released October 28 amidst raving reviews, I'll just sit back and laugh at all the KaneRobots and Fatmumuhomers of the world that bought the festering shit (in comparison to GH IV) that is Rock Band 2, fresh from Harmonix's too-lazy-and-incompetent-to-properly-port-our-own-shit-to-what
-happens-to-be-the-leading-console ass.

Poochy

@Slust: I see a lot of Guitar Hero hate for no real reason.

If you think there is "no real reason," you're not paying attention. GH3 was a piece of shit that completely broke what was fine prior to that. Licensing bands for standalone, quick-cash in releases doesn't help, nor does Activision's fucking stupid lockout of other peripherals.

If I want to create music, I'll use the programs I have on my PC with my real guitar and keyboard/workstation. Even if I didn't have that, I'd still be able to create music with programes like ACID Pro. I don't need the dumbed down experience that GH4 is sure to provide.

KaneRobot

@Poochy:

Sounds like you bought the wrong console to me, to play that game on.

EnigmaNemesis

Guitar Hero would be dead already if Harmonix would have correctly ported RB to the Wii in ANY sort of timely manner.

But since they didn't, you have millions of people who prefer GH simply because they own a Wii and not a 360 or ps3.

I don't think that anyone can argue that GH3 for Wii was and will remain wildly more successful than RB Wii will be. The lack of online bundled with delay after delay have killed RB for the Wii audience.

And that just happens to leave the door wide open for the 6 intro screen, boss battling crap-fest that is now the Guitar Hero Franchise.

I REALLY hope that Activision will learn from their mistakes with GH3 and make GH:WT a MUCH better game, but I'm not holding my breath.

phor11

@phor11: Your comments amaze me, sir.
Please read up on GH:WT before blindly (and inncorrectly) assuming that it will be anything like GH3.

Poochy

I knew my fellas at Harmonix would come through for us.. ^.^

King Seafoam

@Poochy:

Someone's a little touchy. Kotaku isn't the place to go around calling people tools. Its possible to have a discussion without resorting to verbal attacks.

rljohn

Instead of Harmonix keeping at the technology for phase, they shouls just devote all their time to make notes for the songs.

Once you have a DLC library the size of iTunes, who needs custom created songs?

Of course, not like that could happen in even a few years.

:P

trogdor0071