Guitar Hero III vs Rock Band: I am Undone…
My friends, when Rock Band hits Canadian shelves all thought of being a hero of the guitar will fade away to nothingness. All previous joy derived from such a glittery and oh so jittery game will feel empty, will feel hollow, will feel…broken.
Rock Band takes the concept begun with GH 1&2 and propels it into the very now of play.
When my new Fender rests firmly in my hands once again and my own sweet copy of bliss spins indefinitely in my 360 I will tell you more. Though I won’t have to. You will no doubt experience this ushering into godhood yourself.
There are so many things…so many things…
And soon I will tell you of them all.
Until then, think on this quaint and inefficient comparison for it is all my joy drunk mind can think of:
Guitar Hero III is 1970’s Battlestar Galactica on a snowy tube tv running off a dusty VCR while you sit alone in a dark and sparse room.
Rock Band is the new Battlestar Galactica in HD on a 52 inch flat screen hanging above your bed while every inch of your body is being bombarded with Starbuck, Caprica Six, and Lt. Shaw’s sweet caresses.
And every one is naked.
And there’s cake too.
Hey, have you played Jam Sessions recently?
It’s an interesting issue, all these music games. I’m sure you’ve been reading Tycho’s thoughts about it of late, the idea that future versions of the game could be used to create new music. There was also some discussion of it on MTV Multiplayer where one of them thought out loud, based on the opinions of a Harmonix guy, that a rap music game couldn’t be made and I was like “dood Harmonix had a remix mode in Frequency”.
I still do believe that GarageBand is the best music game, and that guitar hero is still not nailing it. (I haven’t tried Rock Band, obviously.) As someone who actually plays music, I can’t help but feel that there is a middle ground between a not-really-that-musical game like guitar hero and actual full-fledged music performance and production that hasn’t quite been found yet. Garageband is on this axis, obviously closer to the pro end. Maybe jam sessions is somewhere in there, I should play around with it a little more.
It’s just that they call it playing music for a reason.
Oh yeah – Starbuck for sure.
six
And I was told the cake was a lie
You just have to play Rock Band with me this holiday season to understand what I’m talking about. Rock Band does so many things, and I think it’ll finally start to turn you from from the darkside. I just know you have to play this game to understand.
The “performance” aspect is captured so beautifully in Rock Band, you’ll have to play it to understand but when your band finishes a song as a non-musician you can finally understand what the “playing“ fuss is all about.
Likewise, you just have to play music to understand what I’m talking about.
as a musician and someone who has also played git hero:
– git hero really doesn’t capture a true “playing music” mode simply because the utter complexity of the musical scale lends the five buttons you hit (plus pick button) as not being very musical at all…it’s like a scale from c to g with no flats and no sharps.
– that being said, as a video game meant to capture a fragment of what its like to play a guitar in front of a live studio audience, and do some crazy button combos in a row, all the while making you laugh at yourself and get into the music…it’s pretty cool.
I love playing music, and like playing guitar hero.
now, as D mentioned, putting some jam elements into the game and allowing you to manipulate the notes while say, picking your drumbeat and back up elements would be very cool. oh…and then taking the musical piece you’ve created back to a “studio” part of the game and editing it and adding some features would stellar to those of us that love doing that sort of thing (me). all to go along with the rocking out, following a song pattern part too
longest post ever
I feel like we’ve gone over this one many times before… but the problem I have with these games is that the buttons you’re supposed to hit don’t correspond to the sounds you hear. Sometimes you might hear a I chord and hit ‘a’ or whatever, but the next time you hear a I chord it doesn’t want you to hit ‘a’. So those who have some musical background have a harder time playing the game than those that don’t, at least until you learn to ignore what you’re hearing and concentrate exclusively on what’s happening on the screen.
So then you have a music game that teaches you NOT to listen to music.
I hear that problem goes away a little once you start playing on the harder difficulty levels. And also, I haven’t spent more than a couple hours with Guitar Hero… I was waiting for Rock Band actually, as I want to try those drums.
I’m by no means a hater here, just a musician whose initial impressions were less than favourable, from a music point of view anyways. It was indeed fun, a good party game no question.
I verily agree with this post.
starbuck AND six
c’mon, like there is a choice between the two…
a choice between who first, maybe…
but only maybe