Guitar Hero -- World Tour Guitar Mystery Images

Erik Johnson writes "I noticed something interesting tonight when re-tolerating that Guitar Hero: World Tour trailer and took a few screens, nothing solid of course, just some intriguing visuals on the alleged new guitars for the game. Whoever directed the commercial obviously had strict instructions to avoid having any clear shots of the guitar controllers. Get a closer look at the images."

Pitch bending

[meadowsoft]

I assume that the "slider bar" on the frets below the buttons is exactly that. Hold your finger down and slide it up and down to adjust the pitch. I envision a satisfying, StrongBad-esque "breeeeaaaaaaaaaoooooooooowrwrwr" happening as a result.

Re:Pitch bending

[Hoi Polloi]

Soon they'll be adding strings to it and then connecting those strings to an amplifier. Then the screen will show a series of, lets call them "notes", that correspond to specific hand positions on the strings.

Re:

[EvilIdler]

it's actually already happening:
http://guitarrising.com/ [guitarrising.com]

Re:

[Hojima]

If guitar hero actually did teach you to play guitar, I would respect it. I understand that everyone is entitled to their own fun, but can anyone tell me why guitar hero stands out over all the other "press a button when we tell you to" games? I always envisioned a fun game that would be more complex and with more of a reaction to your actions, like kung-fu (though side scrolling games would most likely be better).

Re:

[Scoth]

My only guess is that being a rock star is a lot more interesting and "main stream acceptable" than, say, strange and jerky dancing or complex finger gymnastics. Pretty much everyone knows what a guitar is and the basics of how they work (push strings/buttons, strum) while dancing and such is little more esoteric. I'm personally enjoying Daigasso! Band Bros, which is an extremely difficult (on Pro level) rhythm/music game for DS.

Re:

[philspear]

If grand theft auto actually did teach you how to steal cars and shoot cops, I would respect it.

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[FishWithAHammer]

People play it because it's fun and manages to keep being challenging.

You know that popular thing you like? It sucks.

Re:

[geekoid]

Yep, and then a bunch of people who would never have tried to play guitar will give it a try due to GH.

Oh, and there is a guitar/Amp/software package that lets you do this now. It's cheaper then Rock Band.

I know my notes!
Red, green, yellow, blue and orange~

Re:

[AdamWeeden]

I would be in that camp. I'm about to start taking lessons for my guitar I got because of Guitar Hero. Mainly because I got to the end of Medium and was struggling and decided I could either practice, and get good enough to advance, or I could spend that time practicing a real guitar, and actually have some real world utility. I chose the latter.

Re:

[bluefoxlucid]

I'm way ahead of you. Started playing guitar hero in Jan, and in March I built a 12AX7/6V6 driven amplifier from scratch. Now I'm designing one with a built-in natural compressor (rectifier uses a 5Y3 vacuum tube pair like in the Fender Twin-Amp 5D8, instead of a set of 1N7004 diodes) and push-pull 4-tube operation (6V6 and EL84 pair run simultaneously) with a multi-stage bypassable preamp (1x12AX7 or 5x12AX7 for preamp overdrive).

My playing's improving too.

Re:

[cupogoodness]

That's what I'm thinking, it's there for some reason; maybe to make sure you can hit the weedily wees.

Oh wow, it's a rectangle...

[Tetsujin]

That guitar clearly has some kind of rectangle on it! Holy shit!

Re:Oh wow, it's a rectangle...

[k_187]

Yes, a rectangle designed to make you buy a new guitar when your GH3 guitar will work perfectly well

Re:

[vapspwi]

I just WISH my GH3 guitar worked perfectly well, but unfortunately I bought the game for the PS3 and the wireless guitar sucks.

JRjr

Drums

[JCSoRocks]

I want to know if those drums have a kick pedal. Most people I've watched can barely play the four pads and the kick pedal. Good luck with 5 pads that are farther apart and a kick pedal! It'll be fun for "real" drummers though. It'll be interesting to see how they cram visuals for 6 different things and how they arrange them. (In order regardless of height, or put the cymbals at either end, or ??)

Re:

[zegota]

I'm hoping against hope the the RB drums will be compatible -- the cymbals looks to be both labeled by yellow, so maybe they map to the same note?

Re:

[geekoid]

Based on everything to date, the are not going to be compatible. Activision isn't playing well with others.
But the kit looks sweet.

Oh and one is Yellow, and the other one is orange.

With these games:
To play the Guitar, you only need to know the most basic information about a guitar, but to use the drums, you need to know how to play the drums.

Re:

[gstoddart]

To play the Guitar, you only need to know the most basic information about a guitar, but to use the drums, you need to know how to play the drums.

Really? What more information do you need? Hit the pad which corresponds to the color of the note which needs playing now.

It will be one of the six inputs on the drums (three pads, 2 cymbals, and 1 foot pedal.)

Other than overcoming ones own natural lack of rhythm and coordination ... what else do you need to know?

Yes, it's a real question, I'm not making the con

Re:

[zegota]

I think he was talking about the assertion that playing Rock Band on expert uses the actual drum tracks, so, according to the developers, someone who could play RB perfectly on Expert would be a pretty awesome drummer. I don't know how true this is, but the drums on expert are certainly difficult enough to make it believable.

Re:

[Shagg]

Not really. There's a really big difference between just hitting the right pad at the right time, and actually playing music. Someone who can play the drums in RB on expert is certainly very coordinated, but there's a lot more to being a drummer than just coordination.

Re:

[flibuste]

Let's say it helps a lot to be a drummer. You have the body, hands and arm position right to start with on the drum kit (still akward though), a developped sense of rythm (which others have too of course), you already know most of the basic beats and you already have independence of hands and feet.
In a sense, yes, it's "overcoming ones own natural lack of rhythm" but that's what playing *anything* is to start with.
Having said that, RB is extremely frustrating if you actually are a drummer: there is zero

Re:

[bluefoxlucid]

If you close your eyes, you can learn some rhythm from the guitar. It's still an instrument, just a primitive one. I tend to use GH3 to get rhythm down at night when nobody wants to hear me blast my amp, and also to teach myself to sing while playing since Guitar Hero takes far less thought and coordination than guitar. One step at a time.

Re:

[flibuste]

True. You also get good finger training if anything else. I've never dared trying to sing while playing but that's indeed a very good idea for practicing.

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[bluefoxlucid]

It took me 2 days to be able to sing while playing. Getting my mind off playing made me BETTER at Guitar Hero by a lot. I need to actually learn to play a song on real guitar before trying this.

Re:

[Shagg]

You're not missing anything. It's a game, none of it is the same as playing the real instrument. It's not supposed to be. If it was realistic most people would get frustrated and quit, when the point is to just have fun. Both the guitar and drums are extremely simplified versions of the real thing. All you need for either is a very basic understanding of how it works. Push button, hit pad... etc.

Re:

[xero314]

All you need for either is a very basic understanding of how it works.

Obviously written by someone that either does not play the drums or does not Rock Band.

Being someone that does both(all be it I haven't drummed in a number of years), I have to say the RB drums are a lot closer to reality then the guitar. RB drums are very good practice for coordination, limb independence and speed. To complete RB drums on the expert level requires a lot of practice, including knowing the basic rudiments. Sure it doesn't make you a professional drummer, but would get you through your

Re:

[ericvids]

That's what I thought when I started playing Drummania (a Konami arcade game where Rock Band's drum portion was loosely based on).

Then it got really tiring. Literally. I was struggling to finish songs because my arms are getting tired with the fast rolls. I'm getting callouses all over my hands. I'm getting leg cramps from hitting the bass pedal too fast. Etc.

That is, until I met a few people playing the game who taught me some basics that you do on the real drums. Things like basic posture and stick

Re:

[gstoddart]

So, yeah, you definitely need MORE information to play drums on a rhythm game like this than just "hit the pad corresponding to the color of the note". It's a totally different game than, say, DDR, where you don't NEED to learn how to dance to play it.

Interesting. Since I've not yet played Rock Band, I've no experience with the drumming in it, just playing through GH on medium.

How far into the game does one need to go before one simply can't wing it? I don't expect to ever reach Expert, and doubtfully eve

Re:

[Captain Splendid]

To play the Guitar, you only need to know the most basic information about a guitar, but to use the drums, you need to know how to play the drums.

Totally agreed. Get me on guitar and I can kick ass easily. Get me on the drums and I'm out in under a minute.

Re:

[Anonymous Coward]

I want to know if those drums have a kick pedal.

Yes, there is a kick-pedal. But only one. I'm waiting for the double-bass. =)

Re:But still...

[geminidomino]

ObXkcd

http://xkcd.com/359/ [xkcd.com]

Re:

[Vampyre_Dark]

Are they really retards, or does the game just mislead them to the technique and difficulty of guitar playing? they saw the reality of it, and saw that it wasn't for them.

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[geekoid]

So GH got 24 people to give the guitar a try. I fail to see how that is bad.

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[brilanon]

If this guy is really doing what he said we should probably try to encourage him to say anything he can.

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[eln]

Maybe they decided to give the guitar a try, and then stopped because it turned out their guitar teacher was an asshole.

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[SBacks]

I disagree. The douchebags that play GH become mega-douchbags that think they can play guitar. Normal people that play this realize its a game and don't become douchbags.

I play guitar

[kellyb9]

In my experience, people who feel the need to bash this game because it's not like playing a "real guitar" usually aren't that good at "real guitar playing". I play this game, and I play the guitar. If nothing else, I see at least one positive to come out of this game as far as real guitar playing goes. This is that you learn how to move your fingers more independently. Maybe eventually, they will be able to improve upon the design so it becomes closer and closer to the real thing, but in the mean time, I think they are doing a great job at putting out an entertaining and thoroughly enjoyable game for musicians and non-musicians alike.

Re:

[gstoddart]

In my experience, people who feel the need to bash this game because it's not like playing a "real guitar" usually aren't that good at "real guitar playing".

I figure with all of the actual, real world "guitar heroes" who have been associated with this project, and the fact that a lot of them were fans of it before they got invited to be part of it ... any one doing that amount of whining just needs something to bitch about.

Seriously, if Slash and all those guys were fans of it and playing it, isn't the poin

Re:

[morari]

I don't know that Slash is a good indication of anything, especially whether or not actual guitar playing is involved...

Re:

[gstoddart]

I don't know that Slash is a good indication of anything, especially whether or not actual guitar playing is involved...

*shrug* I'm not a fan of his music, but he's a rock star and I'm not.

From what I've heard, his technical ability isn't anything to sneeze at.

My point is that people whining that it isn't enough like a "real" guitar have completely missed the point of the game. It just seems such a bizarre thing to kvetch about.

Cheers

How much Did Activision Pay for this Post?

[xero314]

Good job Slashdot.

When Activision is screwing their customers by denying cross compatibility the moderators refuse to put the article up, even though it was voted all the way up on the firehose.

When someone has some wild speculation about a new game being released by Activision it goes right to the front page!

Re:

[morari]

It's a two way street. EA/Harmonix has actively decided to just keep using their stupid USB dongle for the Wii instruments as opposed to taking advantage of the remote like Activision's guitar did. They want to use high-minded phrases like "open controller standard" but then fail to utilize the most obvious one; the Wii remote. Of course, EA/Harmonix made all of the wrong decisions concerning that gimped Wii game they plan on calling Rock Band.