Guitar Hero 5: No One Has to Sing!

By Jane McEntegart, published on May 15, 2009 at 5:10 PM
Source: Tom's Guide US | Keywords: , , , , | Themes: Digital Entertainment
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Activision has announced that the release of Guitar Hero 5 will allow you to have any combination of instruments you like.

Most of us are mature enough to not cause an argument over who gets to play which instrument in Rock Band or Guitar Hero 4. That said, whenever I play with friends, it always seems like no one actually wants to be on vocals, which lot of the time results in three people having fun (albeit and a limited amount) and one person having, well, significantly less fun. If that sounds similar to your experiences, then Guitar Hero 5 is for you.

Activision today announced that players can customize the make-up of their band with any combination of instruments, be it two guitars and two drums, or three guitars and a microphone, any combination is possible.

This actually seems like a pretty decent improvement which makes a change considering there’s already countless different “versions” of the game that all essentially amount to the same experience.

What say you, reader? Is this enough to actually make you want the game or will you stick with what you’ve already got (whichever version that may be)?

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Comments

dman3k 05/15/2009 11:20 PM
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Quote :whenever I play with friends, it always seems like no one actually wants to be on vocals
Who's the Simon in your house?

tenor77 05/15/2009 11:20 PM
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Finally I can play guitar hero without a guitar.....wait

Personally I'm sticking with Rock Band

verenos 05/15/2009 11:39 PM
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Does this mean with the new turn table controller we could play Beck with two turn tables and a microphone?

frozenlead 05/15/2009 11:45 PM
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I never found this game fun at all.

aj327 05/16/2009 12:12 PM
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They would have to change quite a bit to make it worth switching from Rock Band.

I bought Guitar Hero World Tour last year and returned it within a couple of weeks. The game play isn't nearly as good. In no particular order here are some examples why:

-- I never figured out how to create more than one band.
-- They gave you nearly infinite ways to customize the face but only a few changes of clothes and hairstyles.
-- Moving up from a nobody to a rockstar is a much more clearly defined goal in Rock Band.
-- The drums are confusing in guitar hero and had technical/sensitivity issues (at least for me) from day one.
-- The graphics during the actual game play seem more engaging and fun in Rockband. At parties people get really into Rock Band - not so much for guitar hero, likely for reasons mentioned above.
-- Oh and the story behind guitar hero never made any sense to me whatsoever. All that nonsensical Japanimation in the beginning is turnoff for me - kind of like those clips they used to have in the Tekken games...they'd leave with a general impression about something, but you never knew what the heck they were talking about.

Ramar 05/16/2009 1:10 AM
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I keep hearing stories of how guitar hero is catching up to rock band where people never mention that rock band already has all these features and does them better.

I'm a huge guitar hero 1 & 2 fan, but Neversoft made the series something awful.

Rather than fixing this microphone issue, why not work drum controllers that don't fail for everyone I know that owns the game?

Ramar 05/16/2009 1:12 AM
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And apologies for the double post, but I do give kudos for the ability to play both rhythm and lead, something sorely lacking from rock band.

Tindytim 05/16/2009 1:27 AM
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Ramar :
And apologies for the double post, but I do give kudos for the ability to play both rhythm and lead, something sorely lacking from rock band.


You can have a Rhythm, Lead, and Bass player in GHWT?

Ramar 05/16/2009 1:34 AM
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Tindytim :
You can have a Rhythm, Lead, and Bass player in GHWT?



"Activision today announced that players can customize the make-up of their band with any combination of instruments, be it two guitars and two drums, or three guitars and a microphone, any combination is possible."

Unless two of those guitars are playing the same thing, which honestly and sadly enough sounds like something they'd do.

Tindytim 05/16/2009 1:43 AM
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Ramar :
Unless two of those guitars are playing the same thing, which honestly and sadly enough sounds like something they'd do.


Well of course they'd be playing the same thing. Not every band has 2 guitarists. Now, it would be somewhat interesting to have 2 guitarists, and when you ran into a song that had 2, you would diverge (like TTFATF). But I can guarantee they won't do that.

I thought you were mentioning an actual feature of GHWT, not some assumption you made based on the information.

Ramar 05/16/2009 2:07 AM
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There's a little more information than that. Guitar Hero 2 actually had songs where you could play rhythm and lead. A shining example was Jessica. I'd really be tempted to look into GH again if that was the case, because as a guitar player I find the lack of distinction frustrating on many songs.

Tindytim 05/16/2009 2:16 AM
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Ramar :
There's a little more information than that. Guitar Hero 2 actually had songs where you could play rhythm and lead. A shining example was Jessica. I'd really be tempted to look into GH again if that was the case, because as a guitar player I find the lack of distinction frustrating on many songs.


You can play rhythm and lead in GH3 on all the songs.

Ramar 05/16/2009 2:20 AM
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Then...why on earth can't we do that in Rock Band or GHWT? Besides Activision not giving a damn?

Anonymous 05/16/2009 3:53 AM
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This wilil go out to-{((frozenlead))}-


Rock Band!!!!!!!!!!........... why would you stick with the Worst game ever, when you could have the best game ever???... Guitar Hero World Tour, Guitar Hero Metallica, And Guitar Hero Aerosmith are the best 3 games to play on with the drums. It is more realistic with 5 drum (With add-ons) then play with Rock Band. I mean that MTV Has a bad way of getting attention through people who have the brain of a pea and the attention-span of a gardon-hose.

Anonymous 05/16/2009 3:54 AM
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caffeinecarl 05/16/2009 6:44 AM
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I've enjoyed playing all the instruments on Guitar Hero and Rock Band games. The drums much more on Rock Band, but honestly, if nobody else wants to sing, I'll be lead singer... on EXPERT!

caffeinecarl 05/16/2009 6:51 AM
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Sorry for the double post, also, but as many many other people have mentioned, GH2 is STILL by FAR the best game in the whole series.

meowkitty77 05/16/2009 9:33 AM
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Pizzanag, base your arguement on facts and not your personal opinion. Sales figures and download rates for the 500+ songs for rockband disagree with you.

tbq 05/16/2009 10:39 AM
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My friends and I all joke that Guitar Hero is simply DDR for fat kids. Naturally we play more DDR at parties than either Guitar Hero or Rock Band.

Hindesite 05/16/2009 3:51 PM
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Though I really like this idea, I just wont pay for another "band simulator" outside of a Harmonix made game ever again. Activision has just killed this series since Guitar Hero 3. It's a shame Harmonix sold them the series.

I hope they adopt this idea for Rock Band, but even if the don't it'll still be Rock Band only for me.

pocketdrummer 05/16/2009 10:33 PM
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How is that going to work? When you mess up, it stops the music or makes a jacked up noise... Who gets to carry the song? Or does it mess up every time anyone messes up? You won't even hear the song if too many people suck.

gio2vanni86 05/17/2009 7:03 PM
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I like them both. Rock band and guitar hero. Both are practically the same shit. Different songs. Thats it, oh yeah and two different names made by two different publishers/developers. Beyond that guys its the same shit.

matt87_50 05/18/2009 1:28 AM
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you mean you can't choose just to have lead base and drums in GH4? sounds more like a bug fix than a new "feature"

MustWarnOthers 05/18/2009 4:30 PM
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I gave up on these games back when PaRappa the Rapper was out. Zzzzz.

chefhusker 05/18/2009 5:31 PM
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I love my games, but I'd rather play real music. I take my guitar and saxaphone wherever I want. Alas, it is hilarious sometimes to watch ppl get excited when they play these titles...

Antilycus 05/18/2009 5:42 PM
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dude your friends suck, singing is totally BA!

Tindytim 05/18/2009 7:07 PM
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chefhusker :
I love my games, but I'd rather play real music. I take my guitar and saxaphone wherever I want. Alas, it is hilarious sometimes to watch ppl get excited when they play these titles...


Good god,

You people annoy the hell out of me. Of course the game isn't real, I don't think anyone thinks they can shred out crazy solos after playing Capri di Diablo on easy. It's a game, idiot. I don't criticize people who play Virtua Fighter, and get in their face about how they can't do any of that in reality.

Just because no one cares about your crappy guitar playing, doesn't give you license to attack people who just want to have fun.

hellwig 05/18/2009 8:50 PM
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The difference between guitar hero and virtua fighter is you don't stand around throwing punches and high-kicks to play virtua fighter (unless you play on the Wii). It might be fun to play, but you look like a douchebag doing so (kinda like DDR).

Yeah, its all pretend, but imagine those nerds sitting around a dark table dressed like wizards and rangers swinging cardboard swords and chanting in elven. I lump guitar hero in with those guys.

Anonymous 05/19/2009 3:55 AM
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Wow, you are too worried about how you look to have some fun. You're so cool.

lurker1978 05/19/2009 5:43 PM
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That's because he doesn't know how to have fun. I love me some Rock Band when I'm partying with my friends. But hellwig must not have any friends, or he'd understand why we like these games...

I gave up on Guitar Hero when I got bored with medium, and the jump to hard is impossible. Rock Band feels more natural, and I've found my niche, which is Bass on Expert. Good thing no one else likes bass.

Ramar 05/22/2009 7:18 AM
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Not sure why xboxps3wiiman was muted (beyond his strange name) but I completely agree.

Jaded is the new black.

To be honest, beyond just having fun, Rock Band is also a good tool for getting newer musicians to learn how to play together, and a great vocal coach for our lead singer. Our drummer learned the basics of drumming from whacking those colored pads. Edutainment!


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