Video game reviews: Rock Band (Xbox 360, PS3) – Part 2

Regardless of how great people say Rock Band is, people need to realize that Guitar Hero is an actual series as in there has been more than one sort of Guitar Hero game and the next Guitar Hero series coming out is for Aerosmith. Rock Band can't even hold a match stick to that. Yes, Rock Band has only just come out but frankly, it's not impressive at all.

Have I played Rock Band? Yes, I own it. Do I like it? Sure, it's alright but again, it's not Guitar Hero.

EA Games which is the company that brought out Rock Band has an extremely bad reputation of cranking out product that are not shall we say, quality games. Quantity is better than quality when it comes to EA. The only game series from them that I can say that they do take their time in is The Sims.

EA Games started out as a sports video game genre company but soon expanded to try and do other genres and have, in quantity terms, succeeded seeing that they're named to be the internationally known, number one video game company. Have you ever known anyone to work for EA Games? I have and it was my husband. I will tell you that they treat most of their staff like sheets of paper; when they're done with you, they crumple you up and throw you away. EA Games is known to be the slave drivers of the video game industry.

What does this small reflection on EA Games have to do with Rock Band? Everything; Rock Band stinks.

Why? Well for example the guitar. Strumming is very difficult on their guitar it's stiff, the buttons to press are difficult to press, the battery cover actually has to be screwed on and off and keeping batteries in the compartment means that the batteries will drain a lot quicker.

The drums and microphone is a good idea it is an innovative idea however, the whole game is not.

Did EA Games even know that Guitar Hero existed? The music choice on Rock Band is alright but for those who really like to rock it out will say that Guitar Hero has better songs and for this I must agree.

I honestly did not truly appreciate "rock" songs from before my time until I played it on Guitar Hero. Songs such as Barracuda from the group Heart, Mississippi Queen by Mountain, Disturbed, and what have you. I especially liked Mississippi Queen because of the bluesy rock sound and when I saw it on Rock Band I thought it was awesome but then I tried playing it on the guitar for Rock Band and was highly disappointed. The notes were extremely easy on the easy mode and easy on the medium mode but

Video game reviews: Guitar Hero World Tour Review (Xbox 360)

Guitar Hero: World Tour. The name just doesn't sound right now, considering the series has ventured along the path of Rockband's

band style game-play. Granted, Guitar Hero is a big brand and a change to the name could lose recognition amongst the casual gamer fan-base. However, I do feel that they need to change their name to fit the product they are selling.

I am no expert at these types of games. I can barely manage hard on most songs on all of the games, failing terribly within the first 10 seconds of body-part aching mode known as expert. So now you know that I'm not an elite hard-core video-game rocker, let's get on with the review!

INTERFACE AND PRESENTATION

I know most game reviews don't have a section dedicated to the interface of the game. Although, I feel that it's an important factor within a game of this genre. By the term interface, I mean the menus, and the "fret board" within the game. By the term presentation, I mean how the game is presented and advertised.

I find the menu system somewhat lacking the sleek design that Rockband has to offer. It feels too over the top and everything is cluttered together. It doesn't majorly detract anything from the usability of the game but it sure could use some work! My biggest gripe with the interface in this game is the fret-board. I don't see any improvements in the fret-board from the 3rd

game. The 3rd made some slight alterations to the fret-board from the 1st & 2nd games and the 3rd seemed good for a while until Rockband hit.

Some of you may know, and some of you may not but Guitar Hero 1&2 was made by a company called Harmonix. Harmonix are now the developers of the big hit Rockband as they felt they need to branch out from guitar hero series. Neversoft took over the series with the 3rd one and made it a big hit. However Harmonix's Rockband made the perfect in-game fret-board in my opinion. They realised what was wrong with 1, 2 & 3 and fixed it and created a creative functional interface for the fret-board. I'm not saying that Guitar Hero: World Tour's in-game fret-board is terrible, but compared to other products in the market it doesn't do itself any justice.

I have no major complaints on how to the game is presented except from the product name. They got the world tour part spot on, because that is what you do: go on a world tour. However, you aren't just a guitar hero anymore as you can be the Following: A bass hero, a vocal hero, a drum hero, AND a guitar hero. Yes, the company's

How do you change main wii motes without having the main one available?

Sarah asked:


My dad took the main Wii mote to his gf's house, and I just got Guitar Hero. The other WIi mote I have just keeps flashing blue like 4x and does nothing. Is there a way that I can transfer the main on to be the one I have now without the actual main one?

What are the differences between guitar hero world tour wii and ps3?

Guitar Hero World Tour for Nintendo Wii is a Lifetime of a Gaming-music Experience

Angelina Maben asked:


New video games; console games have produced craziest gamers than ever before. Especially there is this whole lot of audiences who are cherishing musical games like Guitar Hero world tour than the normal regular gaming titles. The popularity of games like guitar hero has also boosted the sales figure for accessories such as guitar controller; skins and others.

Guitar Hero Wii is arguably the most authentic musical kit ever with its largest majestic on-disc seat list wrapped up in a music-rhythm set-up game till-date. Guitar Hero indeed consists of master recordings from some of the greatest of classic and modern rock bands of all-time including Van Halen, Linkin Park, The Eagles, Sublime and others.

Speaking about the Guitar Hero World Tour Bundle, it includes an amazing wireless guitar; avant-garde options; incredible several modes and a rock-and-roll experience. The wireless guitar comes with superb touch sensitive slide bar as also higher accuracy with more responsive dual-color fret buttons, jam effortlessly with an elongated strum bar, improved battery life with built-in auto sleep mode!

Well you can even compose record, edit and release your own music, thanks to the new innovative music studio. Avant-garde options include this wonderful option of customizing your own rocker as also you can select from the numerous in-game music artists.

Guitar Hero World Tour for Nintendo Wii includes the sensational largest selection of on-disc music with over 86 master tracks, some of them being Airbourne - Too Much Too Young; Linkin Park - What I've Done and much more in fact providing utmost pleasure with a redefining music and gaming experience ever!



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How could school work and homework ever compete with video games? Any ideas?

DBrain asked:


My son and his friends go after Halo 3 and Guitar Hero like they are mad scientists on the verge of a cure for cancer. They could stay up all night, skip meals, even turn down a trip to the mall, just to get to the next level on their video game. How can educators ever generate such enthusiasm and interest for academics? Who says academics have to be so boring? Who says we couldn’t merge the two (video games and academics)? How can we do it?

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Guitar Hero III – the Difficulty Brick Wall – Part One

M6.net asked:


This is a guide to aid you in overcoming the seemingly insurmountable gap in the difficulty settings of what was the highest selling video game of 2007 even though it was only released in October:  Guitar Hero III - Legends of Rock. It is well documented that this game has a number of very large jumps in the technical difficulty of the game. These are known as brick walls. The most obvious ones are between the main difficulty modes; Easy, Medium, Hard and Expert. There are however other gaps as well. They are easy to see when you compare say 'Hit Me With Your Best Shot' to 'Through The Fire and Flames' on basically any difficulty. There are simply are not enough songs in between these two extremes, the worst gap for me personally was between the later tracks on Medium difficulty and average ones on Hard.

The general gaps that I have seen people complain about are these:

The 7th and 8th tiers of tracks on every difficulty seem to be much harder than the rest; esp. 'Raining Blood' and other very fast tracks. In the later difficulties it is particular sections of these tracks that become a problem.

The jump between each difficulty setting, especially between medium and hard, I.E. 'Oh GOD NO what is that blue/orange thing on my screen?!'

Specific sections of certain tracks: Such as the start of 'Through the Fire and Flames' on expert, the fast solo in 'One' on hard and expert and the 'Running Triplets' on 'Knights of Cydonia' (DAM THEM ALL).

First of all, as I am sure you have heard before if you are looking for a guide such as this; I will mention that the only way to really get better at this game and progress through the harder modes is to practice, practice, practice. However, there is practice that can help you out and practice that can in fact hinder your progress and lead to bad habits such as never moving your fret hand (which can make the jump to hard mode nearly insurmountable (unless you have five fingers and a thumb)).

Let's start at the start. If you are having trouble with the very beginnings of easy mode, just practice the first few songs (Pat Benetar, etc) until you have gotten the hang of fretting and strumming and all the basic stuff; make sure you have run through the tutorial at least once (if you are playing on the Xbox360 you will get an achievement for it anyway so why not?). Once you have the general idea of how to play the game you might notice that certain tracks or small sections of tracks seem harder than the rest; get used to it, these are the tracks that will keep you up until 5:17am on a Saturday night shaking from all energy drinks that you have been pumping in to try to step up your reflexes. (Actually I think energy drinks help me play certain tracks sometimes but that's probably something to check with your doctor about).

Soon enough you'll be working your way up to the hardest tier of the easy setting. Easy is essentially just that; easy. If you have troubles with any particular track just practise it in the practise mode until you can maintain a decent notes-hit percentage. The main ones to watch for in easy are the battles. You might not be used to using star/battle power functions or playing in lefty flip mode (just one of the many battle attacks that can be used against you), the best practise for this is to play battles against other people (if you can find any).  One thing that I suggest you do not do is; play each note with the same finger every time. Once you get into this habit you may continue it into medium difficulty and if you get stuck enough with this style it will make the game very hard for you in hard mode as it is no longer possible after the notes start speeding up and there are five of them to play.

Once you've finished the easy campaign you'll be adding a whole extra note to the mix in the Medium setting. Medium is much faster than easy as well but by this time you'll be used to the game as a whole and you'll probably be having a lot of fun. Medium is for the most part, the main difficulty setting that most casual gamers and other random party goers will play the game at so get used to it as quickly as possible. Medium is essentially the 'meat and bones' of the game for quite a while. If you have any particular trouble my suggestion is, besides the normal practise mode stuff, to go back to easy mode and try to five-star the song on that difficulty. Once you can five star it on easy without thinking you should be able to at least pass it on medium. Sometimes it is best to just leave that track for a while, go try to high score or five/gold star some other track on a mildly challenging difficulty setting. Invite someone over for some co-op/pro face off or figure out some other way to get some general practice in that won't force you to smash your controller/TV/game system.



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