UK charts: Guitar Hero 5 beats Beatles News

I guess I'd have preferred to see it the other way round, but I had a great few days with The Beatles so far so that's good enough for me.

39 38 Carnival: Funfair Games

Epic sales!

Got both GH5 and Beatles RB on Friday, my first entry into the whole music game genre (better late than never!) and while an expensive purchase off the bat I can finally see why people love them so much...fingers are a bit sore now though :p

Say what you like about Activision, but at leat they and RedOctane have treated Europe with respect when it comes to release dates and instrument quality (and release).

I can't help but feel, that even though Rock Band is the slightly better series, they've lost a lot of good will through fucking up their European release dates, timed platform exclusivity and worst of all not releasing Rock Band 2 instruments in Europe until now.

The history of the Rock Band franchise in PAL territories makes for some shameful reading....

Sigh, the only remotely decent games coming out the next few weeks are racing games. Wish it was october 13th alreeady. This year is turning out to be a bit uneventful.

"Say what you like about Activision, but at leat they and RedOctane have treated Europe with respect when it comes to release dates and instrument quality (and release)."

shame about the prices then.

Also, Guitar Hero: Metallica didn't nearly get enough praise. Challenging (on par with the Tool tracks in GH:WT), fun and a hoot with multiple players. And I don't even like metal!

"Say what you like about Activision, but at leat they and RedOctane have treated Europe with respect when it comes to release dates and instrument quality (and release)."

For any other GH release, I'd agree with you but every retailer not named GAME have been saddled with last years guitar despite the newer model. And the fact that people the other side of the pond will be getting Van Halen free and in matter of months, whilst we have to presumably wait till the new year and pay full price takes what has been a great record for release dates down a notch.

Surprised to see Wii Fit go ahead of Wii Sports Resort after all this time.

anyone know of anywhere I can see the actual sales figures not just the chart positions?

@ M@tt: I did not know that, thanks for the info. I guess it was only a matter of time before they started dicking around with their instrument release schedule as well. History teaches us that Activision are indeed wankers of the highest order.

No surprise! :(

I guess one thing that could be said in their favour though, is that they successfully laid the groundwork for the franchise in Europe over the past 4 years. Unlike Rock Band whose European endeavours are more like an abortion....

" Beatles suck. there I said it... they've been around far too long. just my 2 cents."

Don't understand this claim, Beatles "were around" for 13 years (just to give two examples: Rolling Stones - 37; Metallica - 28). If they are still "comercially around" is not their fault, imo.
Just a matter of "bash the pop(ular) culture, so I can look hip" ?

Max, Metallica arent really metal.

A shame GH5 beat the RB-Beatles game in sales, as when it comes to songs I want to hear and play, GH5 has around 10-12 songs I consider decent ( hence I'm not buying it) whereas RB-Beatles had 45 great songs, so warranted an immediate purchase, and so far, 3 complete play throughs.

I think the Beatles re-releases may have fallen on slightly deaf ears as well, as there seem to be a lot of people, mostly under 30, who simply have no understanding or recognition of the brilliant music The Beatles produced ( could say the same for Zep, Floyd, Purple , Sabbath , the stones and the Who, I think they are all vastly underated and certainly mis-understood, by a certain age group )

As for differences in gameplay between RB and GH...they both seem pretty similar to me, and as such, the game styles/play types could be interchangeable.

It is always about the music with these types of games, and to date, none of the GH or RB releases has had an ironclad set list....until RB-Beatles, where every song is a winner. NONE of the previous GH or RB releases could claim this.

On a slightly more cynical side, you could also see RB-Beatles as a simple promo tool prompting the buyer of RB-Beatles to go out and buy the Beatles new remastered cds, but as I would have done this regardless, that bit of marketing passed me by.
Or is that a little too cynical ?

Regards set lists for GH and RB games in general, until you can pay to have a custom set list made up of songs you want to hear and play, GH and RB will always be games I will buy when they have dropped dramatically in price, and not on release day.
Perhaps Activision and the hated EA could offer that service for the next upgrade to said games? Allow you to order a customised tracklist version of a GH or RB game? Made just for you? Such a personalised service would at least justfiy the ridiculous £39.99 price tag games are still demanding these days.

Max, Metallica arent really metal.

you must be about 12 years old

I personally like the GH series a little more than RB, but that could be because I started with GH.

Anyway, good to see them both doing well. Although, I feel like they've both oversaturated the market a bit with release after release.

Also...Halo 3?? 0_o

beatles are amazing, and usually im strictly only into EDM. thats like a testament.

@cianchristopher:

They do seem to have managed a simultaneous worldwide release for The Beatles, so evidently it's possible for them to do this with other games. As much as I love Rock Band, I don't expect them to repeat this feat with any future ones though.

As much as rock band may be great if you don't like the beatles (like me) then you don't buy it, meanwhile GH5 does seem a bit tempting when the prices comes down.

When is GH5 coming out with the full bundle (as in, including guitar, mike and drum kit) in Europe anyway? All I can find is the standalone game or just a bundle with a guitar.

Wow. Lots of really old games on that list... CoD4, obviously, but also Halo 3, LBP, KZ2 and Assassins Creed. Must be the sales spike (for both HD consoles) driving the sales of the golden oldies. Good for them :)

OK, CoD4 never reallyt left the list in the first place. That must be the biggest commercial success fr a console game - if not ever, then certainly this generation? It just keps on selling, but pretty mch everyone must have a copy soon - right?

Has anyone got/heard any comments on the GH5 guitar?

I'm still waiting on delivery of my pre-order from play so don't know if its any better than previous guitars.

@Putty Man:

Here's an article on the GH5 guitar: http://www.fakeplasticrock.com/2009/09/0...

obviously the high entry price for RB beatles has kept it off the top, still surprising though(as its the biggest music licence you can get), but i suspect its sales figures will stay strong all the way till xmas and beyond. also its good to see STURMVICK B.O.P. doing well, hopefully it will encourage more devs to make a decent flight sim for the consoles,without any real compromises in the GP. gh5 must have sold well to trump DIRT2 although i feel dirts sales may be disappointing as there is a deluge of racing games coming up.on my count 5

GH:Metallica IS great, but the fact I can't play any DLC other than the Death Magnetic pack, really stings. I don't see any DLC planned for it either as it would probably require asking the band to come back and do the mo-cap thing again. Which is a shame cause I wanted ...And Justice For All dammit!

@donnie

needless to say, if you're basing your purchase decisions on reviews, the idea of pre-ordering is somewhat obsolete

@Donnie
totally agree...I went out solely to buy B:RB only but could only find the stand alone game, a special edition guitar for £89.99 with NO game or two band bundles going for either £109 or £179!!

I ended up getting GH5, guitar and GHWT (bundled in for free) for £69.99...luckily B:RB works fine with the GH guitar. This I thought was the much better solution.

Nirvana pwned the old codgers!!!! /jk

+1 Max for mentioning Tool.

gh 5 is a great game but on gh3 u cud complete songs on different difficulty lvs and earn a reward 4 doin so and on this u can complete the game on easy and get the same as doing it on hard with it showing no score on the career mode saying wat difficulty u completed the song on? am i doing something wrong

Welp, seems theres no hope at all for British gameplayers. You are all screwed and you deserve your awful 3-month expansion packs for buying that turd of a game.

Your only shot at redemption is getting Brutal Legend to No.1 in Rocktober.

Great news for DiRT though, well deserved ^_^

link'sdad: Metallica are metal and come to think of it I'm pretty sure 'Kill em All' was the start of what is called Speed metal and at the last album DM Sounds pretty heavy metal to me! You must have some hearing problem and a hole in your head!

ps3owner: You really don't have a clue about music as your comments on this page are down right stupid and you must be into all the new generic music which record companies force out! 3 of the biggest selling bands of all time speaks for it self! I know every one has an opinion but some should be left out like you, on this page!

Not a great showing for Mini Ninjas considering it's a multi platform release.

Dirt 2 is great and glad to see it doing well. I'm really glad we can at last have a bonanza of good racing games, with Shift & Forza also due soon.

I didn't expect Mini Ninja's to do particularly well.. The demo was pretty good, but it was quire clear the game was going to be quite short and very easy. It's nothing kids are going to be too excited about and older audiances will be turned off by the kiddy look and lack of challenge.

Also doesn't help that it seems to be very expensive everywhere, I was up in the city centre today and everywhere was selling it for £45, alongside things like Batman and the Beatles for £39.

It's good to see developers doing more adventure type games.. But like the EG review said, they should have put more trust into their audiance, the complete lack of difficulty or depth is going to stop me buying it, even when it seriously drops in price.

Wow, I didn't think GH5 would get near TBRB. What's the cost of each? Can you play GH5 with all your old gubbins, whereas TBRB you can't? I don't follow the music games very much so just trying to get a feel for why GH5 did so well...

@Tomo:

Both games are compatible with pretty much any instruments you may already have. Both games cost around £40 - £50 depending on where you shop. There were two instruments sets of The Beatles, one with the new kit for £180 or so, and the other with old kit for £110. Guitar Hero seemed to be available with guitar for £80 - £90 I think, although my attention was squarely on Beatles when I saw it.

And now for a word from our resident cretin:-

ps3owner :-Beatles suck. there I said it... they've been around far too long. just my 2 cents.

You heard it here first folks, this guy is a cretin.
Anyone else want to add a quality comment like our cretin friend here to what is mostly a mature and sensible conversation ?

I'm 23 and I think the Beatles are great. I can thank my parents for introducing the Beatles and other 'oldies' to me because it was what they wanted to listen to on the radio.