New Guitar Hero IV controller unveiled?

By Ellie Gibson Published 16 June, 2008

Bundle will cost USD 180, apparently.

The next instalment in the Guitar Hero series will work with a controller that lets you peform more impressive solos.

That's according to leaks from documents by market research Intellisponse that are flying around the Internet.

Apparently the Guitar Hero World Tour controller will feature a "new touch-sensitive guitar Neck Slide" which "opens up the entire guitar neck for unbound solos", so you can "shred how you want".

As previously announced the game will ship with a microphone and wireless drum kit, complete with cymbals and soft pads for quieter play. The whole shebang will cost USD 179.99, according to Intellisponse. Historical evidence suggests it'll be more expensive in Europe, but perhaps lessons will be learned from the Rock Band row and the mark-up won't be too high.

The tracklist is said to include songs from Jimi Hendrix, The Doors, Foo Fighters, Smashing Pumpkins, Korn, System of a Down, Ozzy Osbourne, Interpol, Muse and "dozens more".

Guitar Hero World Tour has already been confirmed for launch on PS2, PS3, Xbox 360 and Wii later this year. For more official details, check out our previous coverage.

Picture of Ellie.

About Ellie Gibson

Since joining Eurogamer in the mid 2000s, Ellie has written about subjects as diverse as the fall of Gizmondo, the rise of Hollyoaks actresses in Red Alert games and the noise a bear makes under NSFW circumstances.

Read more articles from Ellie by visiting the Ellie Gibson archive page.

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Comments (27) Latest comment 4 years ago

Comments threads automatically close after 30 days, but please feel free to continue chatting on the forum!

  • Der_tolle_Emil #1 4 years ago

    Finally some System of a Down. Quieter drums sound nice as well, the ones in Rock Band are really much louder than I expected them to be.

  • Eighthours #2 4 years ago

    Neversoft: sort the note charts. Then we'll talk.

  • DFawkes #3 4 years ago

    I'd buy it if it was cheaper than Rock Band, and actually released on PS3 at the same time in the UK (as the UK 360 one, not the US one).

    Although I guess I'll be left waiting for my Guitar Hero: Brass Band so I can finally play a plastic trombone :)

  • Zomoniac #4 4 years ago

    I wasn't going to bother. But since I'd pay £180 to have SOAD in a GH game then I'm in. And I call bollocks on this. A fully touch-neck is about as likely to appear as the studio feature they've been selling it on before deciding not to bother with it.

    And Der_tolle_Emil, you're the person I know who hasn't complained the drums have been too quiet.

  • Zomoniac #5 4 years ago

    Ah crap. Ignore that, I just realised you meant loud as in the pads are too loud rather than the drums are too high up in the mix.

  • johnnybrn #6 4 years ago

    So it will be £180 then by doing the usual trick of substituting the $ for £.

    What does concern me is -

    Apparently the Guitar Hero World Tour controller will feature a "new touch-sensitive guitar Neck Slide" which "opens up the entire guitar neck for unbound solos", so you can "shred how you want".

    Does that mean that the exisitng controller will be obsolete?

    Cos I sure as f**k aint gonna fork out for another guitar!
    Edited by 1 at 16/06/08 @ 09:39

  • McLovin85 #7 4 years ago

    Yay, another case of 'Please bend over Europe'. Looks like i'll be importing this bad boy.

  • MightyJordan #8 4 years ago

    Uh oh! This was what I was fearing! GHWT is starting to look good! I don't think I've got the room for 2 drum kits and 3 guitars! :D

  • asphaltcowboy #9 4 years ago

    If they can get it out here for £100 I'm in and RB can go f*ck itself.

  • XdarXideX #10 4 years ago

    Eighthours> What was wrong with the "note charts"? Guitar Hero 3 was great fun.

    Zomoniac> No more studio mode? That's news to me. When was it announced that it is no longer in the game?

    Oh and is it asking too much for a double bass pedal? :)
    Edited by 1 at 16/06/08 @ 10:00

  • jlaakso #11 4 years ago

    Considering that my outrageously priced Rock Band is shipping from the UK today, I'm probably not going to bother. I do say that the touch-sensitive neck does seem like a great idea. Since I've already got a bunch of GH guitars in the house, maybe we'll just let the drums aside and play on the guitars and mic with GH World Tour. No way in hell am I going to get two sets of plastic drums in the living room.

    Really, both Activision and Harmonix should work on making sure their games are compatible with the competitor's hardware. They're going to miss out on a great many customers who would like to buy your game and your DLC, but not another set of plastic instruments.

  • disussedgenius #12 4 years ago

    "Jimi Hendrix"

    /ignores cost

    /preorders

  • metalnut #13 4 years ago

    @XdarXideX: The note charts in GH3 were transparently created to challenge the Expert level gamers rather than being a representation of the underlying score. The result was that GH3 felt like an advanced version of Simple Simon rather than actually feeling like you were playing the tracks. GH1/2 and Rock Band both nail the note charts much, much better.

    Absolutely everyone I've had around to play GH1/2/3 & RB (I've owned all of them) much prefers the play the Harmonix games than GH3, hands down. When I ask them why it's because they say it 'feels better'. GH3 was a terrible disappointment if you've played the other games, particularly for social players, but RB totally nails it again and we're having a blast. They can do whatever they want with the GHIV hardware and track list, it's all completely irrelevant unless the software is better. I bought GH3 on the back of the tracklist and the experience with GH2, and was bitterly disappointed - if I'd spent £180 on it I would have been outraged.
    Edited by 2 at 16/06/08 @ 10:12

  • Zomoniac #14 4 years ago

    @XdarXideX: My bad, just checked it out and it's the Jam Over mode of the studio that's been pulled.

  • QPRHOOPS81 #15 4 years ago

    i second that, 3 just felt wrong. I didnt feel like i was playing guitar at all, just merely pressing buttons in a bit of plastic. Ive not played Rock Band but in GH1&2 it felt like i was playing and i was completly immersed.

    Most annoying thing is i prefered the track list in the 3rd but never ever play it due to it being crap.

  • XdarXideX #16 4 years ago

    metalnut> But I HAVE played the previous games. In fact I played GH1 on PS2 solidly until I could play all the way through Expert (I'm no 5-star GH gamer though)... but the only thing I didn't like about GH3 was that it was more difficult than the other two. I thought Neversoft did a very good job of taking over the reigns from some other team who were dedicated to this kind of game.

    I think it's a stupid generalisation to say GH3 was a dissapointment to anyone who's played the other two, because clearly not everyone who has played GH1 and 2 share the same feelings about GH3.

    It's also a bit stupid to say that GH should feel like you're playing the real thing. The controller has 5 fret buttons... FIVE. On a smaller scale too. Personally I found Guitar Hero was hard to get to grips with being a guitarist of the real kind... mostly due to the fret spacing.

    The point I tried to make in my first comment is still valid. GH3 was FUN and that's what counts (though not as fun as GH2 I'll admit). Not that it was close to playing the song on a real guitar.

    Zomoniac> Phew! I'm glad! The studio mode is too good to get rid of!
    Edited by 1 at 16/06/08 @ 10:23

  • mika1h #17 4 years ago

    GH3's easier HOPO system is why I prefer GH3 over any other game in the series. The solos are just more fun to play in that game than in GH 1 or 2.

  • coojam #18 4 years ago

    DAMN IT I WANT DIRE STRAITS!

  • MikeN #19 4 years ago

    @jlaakso: comptability makes a lot of sense but not to games executives it seems. Given Activision's approach to the RB PS3 guitar and the extra number of drum pads in GHWT I don't hold out much hope for controller compatibility. Floor space is going to be a big issue for GHWT, most people won't have the vast living room for 2 drum sets. If activision make their drums compatible with RB it'd give people an incentive to 'upgrade' their drum kit with the promise of quieter pads and no wires.

    I'll echo the comments about GH3 note charts not being as good as GH1/2 or RB. Yes, at the end of the day you are simply pressing buttons on a small plastic guitar shaped controller but the note tracks on GH1/2/RB are much better aligned with the actual music so it tricks you into feeling like you're actually playing the notes.

  • Nithron #20 4 years ago

    I honestly don't understand why people complain about GH3's note charts.

    Granted, some of them, on expert, are seriously freaking hard. But I spent most of last night playing lead guitar in Rockband, on Expert, and i didn't fail on any of the songs, ever. I'm not sure why, but it might be because the majority of them consisted entirely of repeatedly strumming the same damn two-note combination thirty times over, switching to another two note combo and repeating until the end of the damn song.

    How exactly is that a good note chart? I don't play guitar, so maybe that's a more accurate portrayal of actually playing these songs, than, say, the actually quite interesting charts in GH3. If that's the case, then I may as well go grab a guitar today because damn, being a rock star must be pretty bloody easy.

  • metalnut #21 4 years ago

    @ XdarXideX / Nithron: obviously tastes vary - I'm just relaying what everyone I have personally played with (in person) has said. These are not hardcore players, they're just people who were happy playing at about Hard level on GH2, with an occasional Expert on easier songs. GH3 threw in a ton of extra stuff at Hard level which didn't feel right at all, it felt like you were hitting extra notes just for the sake of making it more difficult, not because that's what the song did (some people have said it's because they mixed the rhythm and lead parts up to make it more difficult & keep more notes coming). We've had 7-8 player sessions of the GH games for over a year and GH3 got voted out in about 2 weeks - we dropped back to GH2 until RB came out, which now gets all the play time.

    Of course it's not the same as playing a real instrument - I play real guitar too, although not very well. But I still say GH1/2 and Rock Band feel more authentic, GH3 feels like it's being made tricky for the sake of it regardless of what the music should feel like to play. I'm the sort of player who has no interest at all in trying to master Through the Fire and Flames on Expert, I just want to have fun and GH2 & RB do that considerably better in my house. YMMV.
    Edited by 1 at 16/06/08 @ 15:39

  • MrChuckles #22 4 years ago

    Korn & SOAD, i'm happy.

  • sanctusmortis #23 4 years ago

    Heh heh, like many forumites I was checking all this out for myself last night ^_^ Loads of details on it!

  • Funky_dino #24 4 years ago

    sounds like the new guitar could be good, although the idea sounds expensive if you know what i mean. I know they were talking of wanting to undercut RB, but from the sound of new guitar and the extensive drum kit £200 wouldnt surprise me

  • Zomoniac #25 4 years ago

    (some people have said it's because they mixed the rhythm and lead parts up to make it more difficult & keep more notes coming)

    Yup, it does. A good example is on Knights Of Cydonia, there's a section (the start of the "no-one's going to take me alive" bit) where there's no guitar, so it has you playing the synth part instead of just resting for 20 seconds. It's stupid.

  • wingzerosys #26 4 years ago

    Guitaroo Man -/- GH 3 -/- GH 2 -/- GH -/- RB.

    GM Pwn's all.

  • adman123 #27 4 years ago

    Gitaroo Man was sweet as but not really on the same music game scale as GH and RB, sort of a different style of play, but genius nonetheless