November 17, 2008 

Guitar Hero World Tour (GH4)

While I don’t own Guitar Hero World Tour, I know a man who does. Pre-ordered from play and got the full set including the free Guitar Hero 2 wired controller (nice).  Anway I’ve had a long enough play through to have a good judgement on the game. We canned it over the weekend and have done more than half the gigs.

The New Guitar

Very nice, the design is similar to the GH3 with just a few refinements – it has a big button easily used for star power. That in itself is a wonderful move.  The d-pad is replaced with a mini joystick – also fab.  There is also a touch sensitive slider which you  use instead of the strummer and use for crazy solos. I’m no guitar hero but I haven’t been able to use that successfully yet. Worthless.

The Drums

The biggest difference between GH3 & 4.  The drums are VERY nice. I still suck at drumming due to having timing that makes South West Trains service look punctual but I can’t lay any blame on the equipment and I can tell if something is made too cheap.  These are MUCH better quality than the Rock Band drums.  Seriously the footpedal is great.  Brian says he’s able to use the symbals to easily recognise which drum is which as he is able to see them while focusing on the screen so he now doesn’t have the situation where he used to lose track. I suspect that’s only a real help to beginners but sounds plausible,below is one colour, inbetween another and then below the other is another. It’s also not quite as noisy but still loud enough so everyone else can hear the beat (so long as I’m not drumming)

The Mic

Not seen, Brian said it was hidden for the good of mankind and that suits me fine as I sing so bad it makes me look like a master drummer… Man I can’t wait to be reviewing something I can play, Street Fighter HD & SF IV I long for you so bad…

The Game

Not so much Guitar Hero as more like Rock Band.  Seriously, it used to be Guitar Hero had the rock and rock band had the pop + rock. Not any more.  GH4 has a tracklist that smacks of we used our budget on a couple of big songs. It may get me bad looks from some people but seriously Livin’ on a Prayer is worth 3-4 of the mediocre to the point of boring songs in this.

You can view the setlist here
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_songs_in_Guitar_Hero_World_Tour

There are 2 lists you make while playing this

1) this song is dull/crap list.

2) Holy hell thats fiendish

Of course this is down to personal taste but to my taste is there were more tracks on GH 2 & 3 that I liked. Still Eye of the Tiger is almost certainly THE most fun song of any and will likely remain that way until someone is smart enough to release Ghostbusters and relieve me of money for their game and DLC.

Final Verdict

Will I get this, nope, I have no need to, make no mistake, it is still a very fun game, but it’s a game that I can play it round my friend’s house as part of the band. If I want to get better, I can get better at playing guitar on GH3.  Of course me not getting it is open to change if the Ghostbusters or Transformers The Movie soundtracks are released as DLC or there is a big J-rock DLC with plenty of Orange Range, JAM Project and although given that Rock Band is supposedly getting a Japanese makeover its more likely I’ll get my J-rock fix through them.

If you don’t have access to it, go for RB2, unless you plan on using the GH4 music creator which is probably only beaten by WoW for sheer amount of time you could potentially lose using.  I wouldn’t use it as my musical ability is and will always be frightening. Granted I haven’t played RB2 but I’ve seen the tracklist http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_songs_in_Rock_Band_2 and it has the best songs as there’s crossover between the 2 anyway so pick up the drums from GT4. The RB2 drums may be better than before but I doubt they’re as nice. Seriously, I’m left as the only person that WANTS to be the guitar. My brother will come back from his holiday next week and have a go and will no doubt post a more informed opinion as he batters songs on RB1 on hard but having seen Bri go from sucking to being a full convert, I think that says enough.  Hardware = GREAT, Songs = Good but not good enough for my liking.

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  • nikobe

    Ah perfect I saw you playing this the other night and was just about to email you for a mini review. Glad I asked for Rock Band 2 for Xmas now :)

  • binny

    I am still annoyed at how crappy the Rock Band kit is, especially as this new stuff comes out 6 months after I got mine. But at least there is compatibility. I would not be buying the kit again.

    But I will be sticking with Rock Band. Just so I can port all the songs from the first game into the second.

  • binny

    Thought of another great song to go with the Gareth’s list. “The Power of Love”. We can all put on our red body warmers and pretend its 1985 again.

  • Tis the Grizz

    OK the Guitar hero drum kit is excellent however the game it’s self is just a bit naff, I have to admit to being a rock band fan boy they just seem to have more stuff I like on it. Plus RB2 has the full backwards compatibility with RB1 so I just have masses of songs on it.
    In essence the drumming experience on guitar hero is better and more realistic with the 2 high hats and the great pedal as mentioned before however I just seem to have more fun with rock band because there are more and better tunes.
    If you haven’t got a kit get the guitar hero one, but its really not worth shelling out for both.

  • nikobe

    Just bought the Guitar + game pack for £48 (bargin I think)

    The wireless guitar is the best, really well made and solid. Love the star power button but haven’t got used to using it yet but then you don’t have to tilt this guitar as much to activate it anyway.

    The game is an odd one, feels very retro after rock band with slightly naff graphics. I don’t think the songs sound as good in Guitar hero, I’ve played with the mixing but it seems the guitars are louder in guitar hero with everything else pushed back, this makes it easier to pick out your notes but rubbish for anybody watching as the song sounds a bit odd (an example of this is the Linkin Park song used in Transformers, the intro is ruined by the lyrics being almost inaudible).

  • http://news.cnsource.info/story.php?title=Kimi-No-Todoke-v3-Critique Layla Gilster

    Just as usual you’ve presented some great content. Been a lurker on the website for some time and needed to give thanks to you for making the effort to publish it.

  • http://www.the-cwf.com sideswipe

    Thanks for the comment Layla. I’ve since got the Rock Band instrument set just because it was half the price of GH4 and then picked up Rock Band 2 and GH Metallica (& Guitar) and have been using that guitar for Rock Band 2 and Lego Rockband which got my money on day one just because of Ghostbusters – and it was worth it :)