Let Us Rock!

The internet is abuzz with the recent release of Guitar Hero Metallica, and while we all head bang to "Master of Puppets" and "Enter Sandman" something has slipped through the net to a certain extent.

 

Red Octane, the developers of the Guitar hero franchise, have recently released news of Guitar Hero 5, and a new addition to the Hero family, DJ Hero. At this year's E3 some lucky folks were able to get hands on with Guitar Hero 5 and see its new "Party Play" feature, as well as news, unveiled no less by Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr, that The Beatles: Rock Band is in the works. Anyway, more on the Beatles later, back to GH5. It's set for shipping for PS2, PS3, Wii and XB360 on September 1^st and will feature, as I said, a "Party Play" mode. This new feature will allow 4 players to jam using any combination of guitar, microphone, bass and drums (including multiple of the same instrument) to playlists up to 128 songs in size. Users can drop in and out of the action or swap instruments at will, choose to tackle tracks like Stevie Wonder's "Superstition" or pass on Tom Petty's "Running Down a Dream" as the mood strikes. By synchronising responses with timed on screen prompts, aspiring rock stars add harmony back to hit singles from starring acts including Elton John, Jimmy Eat World, Johnny Cash, Queens of the Stone Age and Kiss.

 

Also demo'ed at E3 was a new "RockFest" mode, enjoyable with 4 band members locally, or eight online. Five distinct flavours of action include such options as "Momentum," wherein successfully shredding 20 notes in sequence increases game difficulty, while missing three chords instead causes it to drop. Likewise, "Streakers" challenges players to consistently pound out flawless successions of notes, while knockout mode "Elimination" causes the lowest-scoring player to be dropped every 30 seconds.

 

As well as all this awesomeness, I have news that Guitar Hero: Van Halen, has been CONFIRMED, and is due out some time this year.

 

Back to "The Beatles: Rock Band". Due for release on September 9^th, the Rock Band franchise adds another to it's slowly growing list of games. The game is set for release across the 3 main consoles, these being the Wii, PS3 and XB360, the game features creative input from all, including contributions by Dhani Harrison, son of the late George, who was instrumental in the project's creation. As members of the Fab Four, represented on-screen by 3D virtual avatars, players can strum on guitar, sing or play drums along with the band to smash hits including "Here Comes the Sun" and "I Saw Her Standing There." Hitting stores the same day the Beatles' entire digitally remastered catalog arrives on CD, 45 tracks will be playable courtesy of Rock Band developer Harmonix. Ten were revealed today, ranging from "Back in the USSR" to "Octopus's Garden," "I Am the Walrus" and "I Want to Hold Your Hand," while the complete Abbey Road album will be available for download at launch. According to music supervisor Giles Martin, all tracks have been remastered for optimum quality.

 

"The game is good, the graphics are good, and we look great," chuckled Starr. So too did the game's introductory movie, previewed for the first time, a head-spinning montage of anthropomorphic suns, Donnie Darko-esque rabbit-headed performers and vintage-era concert sets. Like actual gameplay itself, the video spans the decades from 1963 Liverpool to the band's psychedelic years. Fashion, scenery and artistic styles will change to reflect each period, with classic performances highlighted running the gamut from the band's unforgettable appearance on The Ed Sullivan Show to its seminal gig at Budokan in Tokyo.

Quoted in this Post: Rolling Stone Magazine, Ringo Starr and Paul McCartney