.:which one is for you?:.
first off, let it be known that i think i will probably house a small kid in my psyche for the rest of my days. i came to this realization this morning when, after taking a shower and getting dressed, i got pre-occupied with putting stickers on my nifty new black les paul guitar game conroller. mind you, i wasn’t just slapping them on there. i was actually thinking about which ones i’d use and how i’d arrange them to achieve maximum visual coolness.
man, i have way too much time on my hands…
so, over christmas, i went and purchased the games rock band and guitar hero III. i only meant to have rock band, but the guitar controller i wanted/reviewed the best only comes in a bundle with guitar hero III. i’m glad it worked out that way, as both offer similar-yet-different experiences.
i have to admit that i’m a little bit behind the curve on the whole guitar hero thing. for some reason, it never appealed to me up until the recent release of III. III, entitled ‘legends of rock’, incorporates the idea of ‘guitar battles’ with famous guitar players on top of the regular rhythm-based gameplay. slash seems to be the poster child for this. seeing that i love, respect and think that slash is a complete bad-ass, i decided that what’s good for the goose is good for the gander.
but instead of buying it when it first came out, i decided to wait because i knew that rock band was coming. rock band was intriguing to me from the standpoint of having and entire band rather than just doing the guitar thing. the whole co-op aspect of it was also appealing. plus, it’s endorsed by MTV and was catching a lot of really good buzz for being a fresh take on the proven guitar hero formula.
as i said earlier, i’m glad i have both because, while they are the same core games, the presentation and the ‘feel’ of them are totally different.
guitar hero III: legends of rock
guitar hero III: legends of rock takes and puts you in the cartoonish world of an up-and-coming band beginning their climb to fame. you get to choose one of seven or so different rock star stereotypes (the punk guy with the mohawk, the hendrix clone, the hair rocker, etc.) and then proceed to ‘gig’ at different locations. completing songs and full gigs gets you money and sponsorships. getting sponsorships gets you more money. and getting more money allows you to customize your character a little more. for example, you can buy different outfits, songs and guitars. seeing that the game is heavily sponsored by gibson, you can only purchase gibson guitars…which is fine because gibson guitars are pretty freakin’ awesome. of course, the most recognizable are the explorers and the les pauls. and you can also buy different finishes for them. but your big purchases come in the form of unlocking guitar legends…like slash…after you battle (and consequently defeat) them. the first guitar legend i beat was tom morello. i quickly earned enough cash and unlocked him, which means that i can now use him as my avatar. this doesn’t have any effect on the game other than lending it some cool factor. it’s pretty sweet to be tapping along to ‘mississippi queen’ or ‘evenflow’ and seeing a 3D version of tom morello jumping around representing your inner rockstar.
overall, guitar hero III feels very refined and polished. it should be, seeing that it is the third iteration of the game and all. load times are good, character animations are solid, song selection is diverse and the interface is excellent. i wish there was a little more character customization. you’re pretty limited to what they have provided for you. i am also a little bit annoyed at the fact that when you hit the whammy bar, it seems to distort the whole song rather than just the guitar track. that makes the whole experience a little less credible, but it’s a pretty small thing.
rock band
rock band is all about options. guitar not your thing? be the drummer. feel like taking your shower singing voice and putting it to the test? you can do that. want to play with three other friends as one big happy fake band? go for it.
the idea is still the same here in that this chronicles your adventures with an up-and-coming band. the first thing you’ll notice right off the bat is that, while neither game takes itself really seriously, rock band is the more serious of the two. there is a little taste of hipster here. the art direction smells very much of MTV, and the presentation feels more surreal and much bigger. for example, as you move to bigger stages, you’ll notice the name of your band in lights in the background. you’ll see that the character animations are a little more diverse and ‘rockstar-ish’. the venues you play in are pretty fairly believeable.
what guitar hero lacks in customization, rock band has taken and made it the bread and butter of the experience. you could (and i did) spend at least 1/2 an hour in the initial character creation screen. you control everything from the shoes, pants and shirt your character wears down to the style of rings he/she wears on his fingers. you control his/her build and hair style (eyebrows too….yeah…crazy….). you can even customize according to the musical genre…so if you are, say, the darkest of the dark goth dudes, you can put yourself in black leather, chains and make-up if you like. and, just like in guitar hero, you can customize your instruments too, only rock band is heavily sponsored by fender. this is pretty cool because the fender line is extremely diverse in both body styles and finishes. they even had my specific real-world guitar in there (a 1972 fender tele deluxe). of course, buying clothes and guitars costs money which is earned by completing gigs. you can imagine that this gives you a lot of incentive to keep playing (i.e. keep playing to earn enough money to buy that 40K guitar in the shop or an entire line of genre-specific clothing).
rock band also one-ups guitar hero in the ‘rock star experience’ department. one of the first songs you play is ‘in bloom’ by nirvana, and i’m telling you, when it kicks you into the solo section of that song, it gets you pretty fired up. it also helps that you can choose the types of guitar effects (echo, flange, wah, etc.) that happen when you enter into the starpower/overdrive mode (note that you can only do this with the rock band guitar controller, as it has a little switch that allows you to select which effect you want to use).
but rockband isn’t quite so refined. while each set of songs essentially constitutes a gig, the flow is severely crippled by load times. you’ll wait about 15 seconds for a song to load. once you finish the song, you end up going back to the song selection menu where you choose the next song, and then it takes another 15 seconds to load that song. you feel like you’re playing one-off songs. and, if you really screw up the song, there’s no easy way to re-do it. you have to wait…load the song again…etc. or just end it before it’s done.
the other thing that i’ve found incredibly annoying is that your band mates arbitrarily change. you’ll leave the game with one group only to come back later to find that all three of your band mates are completely different. seeing that there are male and female songs throughout the game, it’s inevitable that this happens with the singer. but a new bass player? or drummer? why can’t you keep the same ones for yor career? better yet, why can’t you customize them just as much as you customize your player?
there also isn’t much of a running story throughout the game. you hop from city to city, venue to venue, but there isn’t any particular reason as to why you go where you go. and there’s a big disconnect between playing at small clubs and then all of a sudden you’re playing these giant arena shows. that doesnt’ make much sense.
the presentation of the actual gameplay is a little bit generic as opposed to the nice shapes and various indicators guitar hero has built in.
finally, if you decide to buy the special edition bundle, let me forewarn you that the instruments are not exactly very well built. while i can only speak for the guitar, i can tell you that it doesn’t come anywhere near the quality of the guitar hero (red octane) instruments. the buttons on the fretboard feel ‘mushy’ and are not very tactile. the instrument as a whole feels cheap and very plasticky. the response feels ever-so-slightly off when playing. activating overdrive is generally hit or miss if you tilt the guitar up to use it. plus, it’s wired, which kind of sucks. on the other hand (and as mentioned earlier) the rock band specific controller has a switch on it which allows you to choose the guitar effects that are happening when you activate overdrive. not that this effects the way the game plays, but it’s an extra little ‘experiential’ thing that you may want to consider.
purchasing advice
you have to know that there is a whole ridiculous debacle going on with the controllers being compatible between games. i had initially purchased the guitar hero x-plorer controller because it was the only ‘name brand’ instrument i could find that didn’t come bundled with the guitar hero game. unfortunately it didn’t do so hot when trying to activate overdrive for rock band, and so i returned it. i don’t know if it was just a fluke or if it was a genuinely defective product.
i’m not going to explain how, but i ended up testing out the rock band fender controller. read the above for my take on that. i wasn’t very impressed. add to that the fact that it absolutely DOES NOT work with any of the guitar hero games right now. this is fine if you don’t plan on buying guitar hero…and who’s to say that a patch won’t be released in the future to remedy that?
i bit the bullet and bought guitar hero III with the black les paul guitar controller made by red octane. i’m extremely happy i did. not only did i get the other game as a little extra bonus, but the controller is considerably nicer/much better put together than either of the other two. and it’s wireless. AND it works perfectly with both games.
for penny pinchers looking to play rock band: grab an off-brand guitar controller and rock band. that’ll run you about $110 + tax. i do not recommend this because i believe you get what you pay for when it comes to the controllers.
for penny pincher +’s looking to play rock band: spend the extra $10 for a total of $120 + tax to get the red octane x-plorer controller. it’s built similarly to one of the newer les paul controllers except that it’s wired. it doesn’t feel quite as good as the les paul, but it’s far better than a generic.
for those about to rock with rock band: buy the special edition rock band bundle, which comes with everything you need to get up and running with a group of players. that’ll rob you of $169 + tax, and you unfortunately won’t be able to play guitar hero.
for penny pinchers looking to play guitar hero III: purchase the guitar hero III: legends of rock bundle for $100 + tax. that’ll get you the best controller and the guitar hero III game, which you will have plenty of fun with. save your ducats for rock band at a later date.
for those about to rock with maximum diversity: purchase the guitar hero III legends of rock bundle AND rock band for $160.00 + tax. yep, that’s only $10.00 less than the special edition rock band bundle. however, there are two reason why this is a better idea:
- do you really NEED the drums in the SE rock band bundle? the microphone? i decided i did not, that i’d be better served with a second game.
- the controller works perfectly with both games and is wireles
the bottom line
if i absolutely had to pick one to start with, i’d tell you to start with guitar hero. while i admit that i personally like rock band a little better, guitar hero is the more fun/integrated/better executed of the two games. plus, you can’t beat the fact that they sell the controller and the game for $100.
