Sunday, August 23, 2009

Guitar Hero 5 is Smelling Like Teen Spirit...



Looks like some lucky folks have Guitar Hero 5 early (game is out on September 1st) as videos are starting to show up on YouTube and DailyMotion. It is the usual folks that these games early to show off to the world Expert Guitar sightreads. Above is a highly anticipated song that is finally in a music game, which is "Smells Like Teen Spirit" by Nirvana. Things I noticed so far is the soundtrack as expected is pretty hit and miss meaning you're not going to like everything offered on the disc, but I guess the variety is there for those who expect the same old stuff. Also, activating star power might be a little distracting this time around with the crazy effect as something like that could mess a combo up. Other than that, Guitar Hero 5 is the same old game with more songs and more gamey-like features to appeal for casual play like the drop-in, drop-out multi quickplay. So check the tubes this week for early footage of Guitar Hero 5 if you're curious.

Quick Hands-On with The Beatles: Rock Band



I was at GameStop yesterday for a bit pre-ordering Batman: Arkham Asylum last minute (I am buying it after all) and I stumbled by a demo of The Beatles: Rock Band on the Xbox 360 kiosk. I was like oh snap, let's try this bad boy out and so I did. The demo consists of guitar and bass only with five songs to choose from, which are "Yellow Submarine," "Day Tripper," "I Feel Fine," "Can't Buy Me Love, and "Here Comes the Sun." There is also a setlist option which I did to play all five songs in succession as I decided to play guitar on Expert using the Guitar Hero World Tour guitar. At first, I felt a bit rusty at first, but since these Beatles songs are pretty easy to play on guitar, its not that bad. Besides from being typical Rock Band with notes to play, overdrive, and all that jazz, it is the love that Harmonix put into this product as it shows when playing. Each song has its own background when the Beatles are there singing like it's their own music video, but with the Rock Band graphical style. With all these colorful backgrounds, The Beatles: Rock Band is a pretty game to look at.

After playing it for a bit, I'm pretty sold on The Beatles: Rock Band as it is a way better game than I thought it would be. Sure, you're getting a bit easier game if you have been playing Rock Band since it came out, but its the care that Harmonix put into the game making it the pure Beatles experience. Even if you know some of the songs by The Beatles, I think you should still check this out as it is still crazy of the fact we are finally playing Beatles songs on Rock Band. Also, the temptation of coming back to this genre has risen a bit too as it is as still as fun as I remembered it when I was all into Rock Band 2. The Beatles: Rock Band comes out in two weeks, which is September 9 and I hope it succeeds because it is a pretty awesome game.