Guitar Hero v. Rock Band

[Pirate Jack]

Hey ya guys, so I like Guitar Hero. Don't get me wrong, Rock Band kicks the hell out of Guitar Hero III, but I still think that Guitar Hero is the stronger franchise and will probably win in the long run and here's why:

Rock Band will be easy to catch up with. The reason I love to play Rock Band, and play it every chance I get, is because it gives me a great opportunity to get completely shit-faced drunk, scream into a microphone, and smash things with drum sticks. And really, how hard will it be for Guitar Hero to do that? Karaoke programs that score how well you sing have been around, at least, 1999 and drums are an incredibly simple instrument to map. All you have to do is assign each real drum to a fake drum input (obviously there will be some doubling up because there are less pads than real drum set parts, but it can be done consistently). With a six piece drum set (instead of five piece) the drums can only be more accurate and more intuitive, if a little bit harder to master.

Release dates make this really interesting. The obvious thing to point out is that Rock Band has the advantage because it was released earlier and lots of people already have the peripherals. And while this will definitely seal the battle for North American Xbox360 owners, I don't think it's as important beyond that. Wii owners, PS2 owners, Europeans, and Australians have all been screwed over. Wii and PS2 owners get a gimped copy of the game, missing some of the coolest non-musical elements. Wii owners, Europeans, and Australians all get a release date that's approaching "Fall 2008". To top it off, it looks like Guitar Hero players are going to get much more frequent releases.

Mapping the guitar music has to be the toughest job of either developers. Mapping chords and notes from six string and fret combinations onto five fret buttons simply has to lead to a huge loss of realism and a lot of room to make stuff up. I enjoy Guitar Hero III, but I don't generally playing guitar on Rock Band. It might be because I'm drunk, or it might be because the guitar lines are kinda dull.

Lastly, and most importantly, Guitar Hero is a stronger franchise because of the music. Guitar Hero III has 71 songs. Rock Band has 58 songs (or 63 on Wii). Guitar Hero IV is rumored to have even more songs, and even more master tracks. Beyond that, it's just taste. I happen to like the Guitar Hero III soundtrack a lot more than the Rock Band soundtrack, although I probably enjoy Don't Fear the Reaper, In Bloom, and Wanted Dead or Alive more than any song in either game, short of Mississippi Queen. I also like Aerosmith and I've been hoping for the Eagles and Sublime in a rhythm game since I first heard of Guitar Hero. I recognize that Rock Band has a pretty good DLC list, but I play Wii and none of my 360 friends have actually bought anything (largely due to the consoles lack of wi-fi).

Plus Activision probably will test their base pedals before release.

EDIT: I lied. I also want "Joker & the Thief" and "Wonderwall" from DLC. Two songs. Maybe "Still Alive" too?

[Exploding Pigeons]

Guitar hero was faster and they controllers clicked.

Rock band makes my friends think they can sing.

[Pirate Jack]

I've never played Guitar Hero drunk.

Sometimes I worry Guitar Hero IV will magically not be fun drunk.

[Agrajag]

Ok so here's the problem. Contrary to popular belief, not every song you like is actually fun to play in a game. Plenty of songs have boring guitar parts. Even more songs have boring drum parts. Rock Band has limited itself to music which has, at the minimum, decent guitar AND drum parts, whereas Guitar Hero can pick songs which have great guitar parts and boring drum parts. This is why (in my opinion) it's much more fun to play guitar on GH than in RB. It also means GH's single player is more fun (there's only one instrument, but that instrument has consistently better parts to play). Now that GH4 is adding vocals and drums, its losing the only edge it really has. At the moment, there are actually substantial differences between the two, and there are reasons for buying one over the other (GH3 is for the more serious players, while RB is for someone who just wants to occasionally have fun at parties). GH4 will now also have to limit itself to songs which are good for both parts, or have some songs which simply suck for drums or suck for guitar. It's also going to lose the market of people who don't want to spend $200 on a bunch of fake plastic instruments to play a marginally exciting game.

So basically I'm not thrilled with either franchise at the moment. (let's not even mention the ridiculous prices for downloadable content).

[Pirate Jack]

I really think that there's more to it than just incorporating more instruments. No matter what you do, you're really not going to get drum lines that are nearly as interesting as the guitar lines. The drum is a rhythmic instrument, not a melodic instrument. Every song is made of variations of the same pattern, and that's ok. Drums are going to be fun, regardless of the song. The drum line simply needs to exist. Heck, Oasis' Wonderwall is DLC for Rock Band.

Actually, I change my mind. I'm also going to disagree that the GH:3 songs have weaker drum lines, as well as saying the drums aren't important. After looking through both soundtracks a bit, I'd actually argue that the Guitar Hero 3 soundtrack is more drum-focused. I haven't looked very hard, but I can't find a single song in GH:3 that doesn't have a pretty decent drum line. The key difference between the music on the two games is that Guitar Hero has rock music, while Rock Band was produced by MTV.

MTV: the people who are currently featuring Britney Spears and Usher on their main page.

Even if Guitar Hero goes with songs that are more guitar-dominant, the drum lines will be more interesting than they would have been in Rock Band because the the GH:3 drum set is more complex (Three levels and six buttons, instead of two and five) and more realistic.

I think that Rock Band IV is going to have a much cheaper "guitar only" package as well, to win out the price thing.

[Agrajag]

I actually like the Rock Band song selection better. Maybe the problem is just that they were purposely making everything really easy so as to not scare off newcomers? The guitar parts in RB are pathetic.

[mixofsunandcloud]

Personally, I prefer actual instruments.

[Exploding Pigeons]

/thread

[Desov2]

I actually like the Rock Band song selection better. Maybe the problem is just that they were purposely making everything really easy so as to not scare off newcomers? The guitar parts in RB are pathetic.

As an avid player of both GH and RB I do have to say that the rock band guitar parts are really pretty easy... except for that last song, Green Grass and High Tides... Bah, It's Freebird in a different order...

Anyhow, who's up GH:AEROSMITH! wooh!


...

[Pirate Jack]

Okay, Desov2 is family now.

[Exploding Pigeons]

What I want to know is how RB is gonna port to the DS?

[Shido]

You mean Guitar Hero?

And if you didn't already know that Deso's a badass, you're a loser.

[Exploding Pigeons]

No, what I meant was, how is Rock Band going to expand to hand held systems? (like Guitar Hero is right now).

It could happen, you and three friends all buy the game with different instruments and then use wi-fi to play, but that's stupid.

[Agrajag]

Or they could just, you know, not release a handheld version.

[Leetmuffin]

Fuckin' sweet.

In short, for those unfortunate souls that have the PS2 or Wii versions (which lack DLC) they're releasing expansions with 20 songs.

First pack contains:
30 Seconds to Mars, The Kill

All American Rejects, Move Along

Blink – 182, All the Small Things

Boston, More Than a Feeling

David Bowie, Moonage Daydream

Faith, No More We Care A Lot

Grateful Dead, Truckin’

The Hives, Die, All Right!

KISS, Calling Dr. Love

Lynyrd Skynyrd, Gimme’ Three Steps

Nine Inch Nails, March of the Pigs

Oasis, Live Forever

Paramore, Crushcrushcrush

The Police, Synchronicity II

Queens of the Stone Age, Little Sister

Ramones, Teenage Lobotomy

Smashing Pumpkins, Siva

Stone Temple Pilots, Interstate Love Song

Weezer, Buddy Holly

Wolfmother, Joker & the Thief

Packs will go for $29.99 and will be released on July 15th.