Guitar Hero III Comments by Keza MacDonald

'Sweet Child Of Mine? Jessica? FREEBIRD?' He he, they are my faves too.......

Ok, so i own 3 real guitar, 2 electrics and 1 bass. I can play about 4-5 songs on them, like House of The Rising Sun and Streets of London, very badly....

So, i can play those songs over and over again, and mess it all up continually and it sounds rubbish.....

Or, i can pick up GH2 and play 50-ish songs (And being a metal head, good songs) pretty darn well, with a very different control system, and multiplayer with my drunk mates over, many of whom are gorgeous ladies.

Of course, the annoying thing is, i can't do Hammer On's and Pull Off's, which is really frustrating, but you'll be impressed i've made it all the way to Hanger 18 (hit 90% so far) on Expert, just that and Freebird left. Jeez, gotta get those last two done before GH3 comes out.

Sheesh....

"I'm interested in whether Les has actually played Guitar Hero. The main advantage is the backing track, and feel of playing for a crowd. It's different to sitting on your own, practising an instrument."

No I haven't, the reasons I've mentioned in earlier posts. For me it falls in the same category as SingStar but that game, IMO, is superior because its more accessible and by improving my rather lacklustre singing capability I'm doing my family, pets and friends a favour... I think e.g. 'Drum Hero' would have appealed to me more as it would have actually helped me to play drums besides being a game.

@Les

I didn't say playing a real guitar wasn't fun. I play the guitar myself, and bass, and drums, and sing, so I know how much fun this whole music gubbins can be.

My point is that comparing to the two is pointless. Just like saying a golf game is pointless 'cos you could just go and play golf. Now sure, if you are terminally ill and only have a month left and need to make some important descisions about how to spend your remaining time... it might be an issue. For everyone else I would just say "either do both, or choose one, so long as you have fun who cares what you decide".

@Keza

"But Activision owns the brand, and the publisher. Surely that means it owns the code!"

Not necessarily. I worked for an indy once whose PS2 engine was the feather in their cap. They sold all sorts of game IP rights but they always kept ownership of their souce code. You always own whatever your contract specifically says you own.


@smelly

"Its VERY VERY VERY VERY VERY rare for publishers NOT to have written in the contract for a game that they get the FULL source code/tools/source graphics/etc complete with building instructions at the end of a game. "

I might question the number of VERYs you decided to add to that sentence. Plus the use of upper case isn't really necessary. If you can't bung a percentage in that sentence, its nothing more supposition and anecdote.


@Les

"No I haven't, the reasons I've mentioned in earlier posts"

Oh for crying out loud. Play the game dude, you may just even have fun :)

"Oh for crying out loud. Play the game dude, you may just even have fun :)"

I don't doubt I'll have fun. But for me it's in the same category as SingStar and I see little point in getting them both. :)

Ah. That explains things. The only people I ever meet who don't 'get' Guitar Hero are people who haven't played it. :-D

Or they took a look at the GH3 tracklist...

"I don't doubt I'll have fun. But for me it's in the same category as SingStar and I see little point in getting them both. :)"

They're kinda in the same genre in a very loose sense. It's a bit like saying you're not going to play Bioshock because you've got Halo and they're both first person shooters. GH also has one feature that sets it apart from the majority of music based games - its interactivity. In Singstar you just sing along to the music and get scored for it, but you don't actually make anything happen. Same with dance games, you're just tapping buttons in time to the music. In GH you are making the music. If you don't play, nothing happens. Kieron Gillen pointed this out in his rather good Escapist article on the subject and it's very true.

Or, if you're not interested in my waffle: Go play GH. It very good.

"They're kinda in the same genre in a very loose sense. It's a bit like saying you're not going to play Bioshock because you've got Halo and they're both first person shooters."

Which I probaly wouldn't or at least not close to each other. But Bioshock (storybased) and Halo (more geared towards multiplayer) to me are more apart than GH and SingStar. And as both latter games in essence offer unlimited replayability, I just don't feel the need to own them both.