First details of Guitar Hero 5 emerge

By Robert Purchese Published 15 May, 2009

Play with any combo of instruments you like.

Activision has said Guitar Hero 5 will let players use any combination of instruments, be it three guitars and a microphone, two guitars and two drums or four microphones.

The new instalment will be out in the autumn on PS2, PS3, Wii and Xbox 360, although whether that will be with fresh instruments is still "TBC", a spokesperson for the publisher told us this afternoon.

Guitar Hero 5 aims to be a bit more accessible to remove the faffing when friends are over for a quick play. To that end, developer Neversoft has added Party Play, where people can drop in and out of songs freely.

Competitive multiplayer has been spruced up with the RockFest mode, too, where players can battle across five different modes and over an entire set list if needs be.

World Tour's debut music creation studio will be reworked, and groups can now trigger Band Moments when they nail passages simultaneously. There are even song challenges where players must tackle tracks in certain ways.

And, of course, there are the songs. We're told to expect "the strongest, most varied set list to-date", which will be taken from over 85 bands including Kings of Leon, Johnny Cash and Bob Dylan.

All of the downloadable content for Guitar Hero World Tour will be compatible, and Activision will even upgrade the old game to support the upgrades and enhancements in Guitar Hero 5.

Head over to our Guitar Hero 5 gallery to see three drummers in action, or a lone ranger wailing to the crowd.

Picture of Robert.

About Robert Purchese

Bertie is Eurogamer's Senior Staff Writer. When he's not hunting down news stories he's often found playing with his kids or gabbling about fantasy games and strange online worlds. @Clert on Twitter.

Read more articles from Robert by visiting the Robert Purchese archive page.

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Comments (21) Latest comment 3 years ago

Comments for this article are now closed, but please feel free to continue chatting on the forum!

  • Burkey123 #1 3 years ago

    Have we not had enough Guitar Hero already?

  • Dr.Mott #2 3 years ago

    Meh, I won't be getting this. Not unless the songs are REALLY good.

  • Kazzahdrane #3 3 years ago

    Party Play sounds great - a feature that these games really need. It's just too much of a pain to change instruments and stuff.

  • Eyhren #4 3 years ago

    Kings of Leon, Johnny Cash and Bob Dylan... I wouldn't get my hopes up if I were you. Name me one Bob Dylan song that is awesome to listen to and would make an amazing guitar hero chart... on both guitar and drums...

  • SergeantMajorFury #5 3 years ago

    This may actually be the first Guitar Hero game I've bought in a while. Keyword here being may.
    Edited by SergeantMajorFury at 15/05/09 @ 18:44

  • riz23 #6 3 years ago

    More bollocks. After DJ Hero, Harmonica Hero, French Horn Hero and Melotron Hero we won't be needing any more Hero games. I'll be over here playing Rock Band with a bottle of Jack Daniels if you wish to flame me. kthxbye

  • Markusdragon #7 3 years ago

    Party play is a great idea. You know what else it'd be good with? Having your entire playable song collection on a single game and not having to change discs every few songs.

  • Eraysor #8 3 years ago

    RB is still far superior. GHWT was particularly rubbish, especially in its track list.

  • Syrette #9 3 years ago

    The instrument combo thing sounds a bit stupid to be honest. Why would I want to play with 3 bass guitars or whatever? Dual vocals might be cool but that'd obviously have to involve songs that have 2 vocalists. Again, a sort of tribal drumming with more than one drum would be awesome but the chances of the songs actually involving that are pretty much non-existent.

    Party Play sounds like a great idea though. That said I'm sure the next Rock Band will take that and add it as well, so if you rate Rock Band higher than GH (like I do, although I own neither of the band games), it's probably not worth getting GH for.

  • frycrayola #10 3 years ago

    Dropping in and out of songs? What, people can't wait three minutes?

    In and out of setlists, now that's a good idea. Faffing around with band members and the like remains fiddly and needs eliminated.

  • Tweakmonkey #11 3 years ago

    It's a pity that as the gameplay becomes better and more refined with each iteration that the quality of the song lists deteriorates. Of course music taste is a personal thing but it must be harder and harder for them to keep coming up with a list of popular songs.

  • Der_tolle_Emil #12 3 years ago

    Playing with three guitars or having four vocalists probably makes no sense when there is only one guitarist or one vocalist but 4 people singing the same song at a time surely didn't hurt Singstar at all. I think it's a great idea to be honest. I've been playing GH and RB a lot with a friend and sometimes it does feel like you are 'stuck' with only playing Bass. If you can mix difficulties as well (which will probably be possible) I think it's a great addition.

  • RobotRocker #13 3 years ago

    A preview with scant details and it already looks like a mess. Oh dear.

    The inevitable, fellating 9/10 review on EG should be a treat to read too.

  • M83J01P97 #14 3 years ago

    They make it sound like back compatibility with old games is a brand new idea that no one else has thought of doing before.....

  • jeebthegreat #15 3 years ago

    @riz23 Mellotron Hero would be awesome :p

  • riz23 #16 3 years ago

    Upon reflection maybe I would buy Mellotron hero. :p

  • DoKtoR #17 3 years ago

    Hopefully the song list hasn't got Willie Nelson and Fleetwood Mac this time- I mean wtf were they thinking!?! Willie Nelson?! Guitar Hero!?!? Come on people- get it together!!

  • jeebthegreat #18 3 years ago

    I'm not gonna lie 'on the road again' was a pretty fun song to play on expert :)

  • tonynibbles #19 3 years ago

    Rock Band is for n00bs anyway.

  • sam_w #20 3 years ago

    "Rock Band is for n00bs anyway."

    Visions says hello

  • MiniAmin #21 3 years ago

    Pornstar hero should be released in conjunction with fleshlight/dildo peripherals.

    Acclaim where art thou?