Mal12345
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I was a Guitar Hero expert years back (2007 - 2008), so I decided to take a crack at the latest version of Guitar Hero.
I knew beforehand it was going to be very different from the original Guitar Hero, particularly the guitar controller which looks somehow smaller (ukelele sized) and has 6 buttons instead of 5 on the fretboard (the neck of the guitar).
I also figured it would be a finger joint killer, which it is. But that's because my fingers aren't what they used to be. The worst buttons for me are the whites, which force me to bend the fingers on my left hand down in a very tight and unnatural position.
The first songs in the game aren't exactly chart toppers. Those are unlocked after beating a few rounds of the game.
Guitar Hero Live features a live audience background. The concerts take place at a couple different venues. The original Guitar Hero used a fake audience. Everything is live, so the game does live up to its name, for a full immersion experience. When we purchase a 50+ inch TV in a couple months, it will be even more fully immersive.
When you play well, the audience goes wild and your fellow band members nod their heads and smile at you. When you do poorly, the audience begins to boo, throw things that look like white dixie cups on the stage, and the people on stage give you worried looks and comments. Some comments are supportive of your plight, others are rather negative. If you do a really crappy job, though, the game will show a female fan who apparently fainted from all the badness, and is being carried out.
They've changed the name "star power" to "hero power," which doesn't matter because they do precisely the same thing. But "star power" was a better name. The guitar itself has a few extra buttons, including a little knob/button that doubles as a joystick. The "highway" (the name of the on-screen fretboard that shows the notes coming down toward you from heaven or something), is a bland faux-wood brown, and the notes indicators are black or white guitar picks. The colors are generally muted down, and even engaging star power (or hero power) has far less of a "blast" on the screen than before.
Some reviewer on IGN wrote:
"The problem with GH Live is not the overly cheesy vamping of the live-action bandmates around you, nor is it the way they dynamically chastise you when you flub a solo. No, the problem is that I simply didn’t care about them. So little context is given between sets – just some brief radio DJ banter and a few fake fan tweets – that when you’re just shunted from band to band every three songs there’s never any sense of camaraderie on stage. I didn’t feel like part of the band; I felt like a total stranger."
Guitar Hero Live Review - IGN
It was generally a good review of the game. But I don't care about camaraderie. There are more important things to think about or try to work around. Why should I care about the camaraderie in a video game? It's cool to see everything on stage up close though.
(I admit to having felt game camaraderie on one occasion, while playing Skyrim. This game gives us companions to help us along. One time my companion was way off on an island firing magical blasts at some enemies in the distance who were trying to take me down. It was such a thoughtful gesture that, for the first time in my game-playing experience, I felt like a companion in a game was almost real. Talk about immersion... But it's not a feeling I actively seek out, unlike the reviewer at IGN.)
Guitar Hero Live is billed as being simpler yet more difficult to master. I think this is a good way to put it.
I knew beforehand it was going to be very different from the original Guitar Hero, particularly the guitar controller which looks somehow smaller (ukelele sized) and has 6 buttons instead of 5 on the fretboard (the neck of the guitar).
I also figured it would be a finger joint killer, which it is. But that's because my fingers aren't what they used to be. The worst buttons for me are the whites, which force me to bend the fingers on my left hand down in a very tight and unnatural position.
The first songs in the game aren't exactly chart toppers. Those are unlocked after beating a few rounds of the game.
Guitar Hero Live features a live audience background. The concerts take place at a couple different venues. The original Guitar Hero used a fake audience. Everything is live, so the game does live up to its name, for a full immersion experience. When we purchase a 50+ inch TV in a couple months, it will be even more fully immersive.
When you play well, the audience goes wild and your fellow band members nod their heads and smile at you. When you do poorly, the audience begins to boo, throw things that look like white dixie cups on the stage, and the people on stage give you worried looks and comments. Some comments are supportive of your plight, others are rather negative. If you do a really crappy job, though, the game will show a female fan who apparently fainted from all the badness, and is being carried out.
They've changed the name "star power" to "hero power," which doesn't matter because they do precisely the same thing. But "star power" was a better name. The guitar itself has a few extra buttons, including a little knob/button that doubles as a joystick. The "highway" (the name of the on-screen fretboard that shows the notes coming down toward you from heaven or something), is a bland faux-wood brown, and the notes indicators are black or white guitar picks. The colors are generally muted down, and even engaging star power (or hero power) has far less of a "blast" on the screen than before.
Some reviewer on IGN wrote:
"The problem with GH Live is not the overly cheesy vamping of the live-action bandmates around you, nor is it the way they dynamically chastise you when you flub a solo. No, the problem is that I simply didn’t care about them. So little context is given between sets – just some brief radio DJ banter and a few fake fan tweets – that when you’re just shunted from band to band every three songs there’s never any sense of camaraderie on stage. I didn’t feel like part of the band; I felt like a total stranger."
Guitar Hero Live Review - IGN
It was generally a good review of the game. But I don't care about camaraderie. There are more important things to think about or try to work around. Why should I care about the camaraderie in a video game? It's cool to see everything on stage up close though.
(I admit to having felt game camaraderie on one occasion, while playing Skyrim. This game gives us companions to help us along. One time my companion was way off on an island firing magical blasts at some enemies in the distance who were trying to take me down. It was such a thoughtful gesture that, for the first time in my game-playing experience, I felt like a companion in a game was almost real. Talk about immersion... But it's not a feeling I actively seek out, unlike the reviewer at IGN.)
Guitar Hero Live is billed as being simpler yet more difficult to master. I think this is a good way to put it.
