GH fans, get ready to rock! I just saw a partial list of songs offered for GH III, as well as some news on features and system availability (hint: PS2, PS3, Wii, and 360, and all can enjoy wireless awesomeness.)
Here’s some of the songs being offered up to the rock gods as being worthy of their awesomeness:
Sabotage (by Beastie Boys)
My Name is Jonas (by Weezer)
Rock And Roll All Nite (as made famous by Kiss)
School’s Out (as made famous by Alice Cooper)
Looks like lots more songs by the actual artists this time around, which is always cool. I’ve been thinking since the first GH that one of any number of Weezer songs would be great to don on GH, and I finally get my wish (one of my favorite songs, too.)
There’s going to be some creative adaptation for a couple of songs:
“Paint It Black” has sitar on the verses.
“Cult of Personality” is squealing metal guitar goodness, relying as much on high-distortion trickery as on traditional note-playing in order to create the notes.
I wonder how things like that are going to translate into the plastic rhythm game controller.
I’m still waiting to see a larger list, holding out hope that they will include a few electric blues or blues rock songs. GH1 had “Crossroads” and “Texas Flood.” Both were fun, and I played them quite a bit. GH2 had jack diddley bupkiss, and I was immensely disappointed.
To each his own and all that, but I thought GH2 had some good ones. Not enough - but a few. Message In A Bottle, Crazy On You, Heart Shaped Box, Mother, Jessica and Killing In The Name Of were the ones I liked the most.
I just wish there was a Violin/Cello hero with both traditional classical pieces and arrangements of rock songs for strings.
GH2 has some great songs to play. Some of my favorites are “Tonight I’m Gonna Rock You,” “Carry On My Wayward Son,” “Monkey Wrench,” and “Rock This Town.” A lot of variety in those choices. However, it just doesn’t have any blues.
Before we say anything, I want to be made clear that I’m not “that guy.” You know, the guy who says, “Whatever man, you’re just wasting time. You should be playing a real guitar!” That guy doesn’t get Guitar Hero. I play both a real guitar and the game. I enjoy both activities for completely different reasons. Now that I’ve gotten that out of the way, two things…
Talking about what translates to the game controller is essentially meaningless as the method they employ for mapping the ridiculously expressive potential of 6 or 7 strings spanning 24 frets onto five buttons is entirely arbitrary. I’ll grant that for the most part, the buttons try to ascend and descend in a manner roughly comparable to the pitch of the notes being played, but a lot of the time it simply isn’t possible. As an example you’ll often end up in a situation where an “orange” note is obviously lower in pitch than a “green” note or something of that nature. It hurts my brain, it does. Also, the notion of tapping, hammering, etc. in the game is fundamentally broken. The so-so ability of Guitar Hero to represent the feeling of “playing a guitar” goes right out the window any time a complex passage comes up in a song.
Thing two. I’m psyched for Cult of Personality. Vernon Reid lays down what is truly one of the best riffs to come out of the 80s. That riff is what being a “guitar hero” is all about. Heavy metal thunder and all that.
…I’m also looking forward to Cherub Rock, My Name is Jonas, and Barracuda.
I don’t know that the mapping is entirely arbitrary. Check me if I’m wrong, but aren’t they essentially taking tablature notation for 5 strings and streaming it? Think of each button as a string on the guitar, minus the low E string. The strum bar plays the note, and the notes come by in the right sequence.
The Red Octane site is now taking pre-orders for Guitar Hero Encore: Rocks the 80’s
It says a July release, but no specific day. It’s so far only for the PS2.
I bought GH2 through this website as they usually give you a freebie. Last time it was a gig bag for the GH controller. This time it’s a GH black T-shirt.
So far the track list for the 80’s edition is underwhelming me. More obscure metal… The Go-Go’s?
Where’ the Van Halen? 1984 has a half dozen great guitar tracks. There was lots of great guitar music in the 80’s - hopefully more of the mainstream stuff will make it into the game.
One of the things that’s starting to bug me a bit about guitar hero is that they really seem to be aiming more and more at the metalheads and the guitar shredders who just want really fast songs. I’d prefer to play stuff that’s a little more melodic. Tracks like Texas Flood, Jessica, Ziggy Stardust, etc. Those are the kinds of tracks I always go back and play just for fun. Songs like ‘Cowboys from Hell’ or “Jordan” just make my hands sore. They’re “Play them until you hit your goal, then never play them again” songs for me.
Most are OK, but the “Synchronicity II” cover just doesn’t work IMO. Unlike a lot of players, I don’t mind the cover vocals of “Killing in the Name of” from GH2, but it’s got to be pretty hard to do a proper Sting voice. It’s good they made the effort anyway.
I think it’s a good mix so far. I usually play the same 8-10 songs over and over on GH1 and 2. I like the songs with hammer ons and pull offs like “Jessica” or widely spaced notes like “Sweet Child” on hard.
My favorite song to play is “Tatooed Love Boys”. I like the timing and the notes / chords flow well. “Jordan” is just for bragging rights among my friends. I also like “Can’t You Hear Me Knocking” - underrated but well put together song.
I agree with Sam, “Guitar Hero: Van Halen” would make a good encore edition.
Agreed. The vast majority of the shredder tracks I’ll play once to advance, then never touch them again. It doesn’t matter if they’re challenging songs to play in the game if they’re horrible songs that are a pain to listen to.
