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Rock Guitar Band World Tour 2: Weighing your options
El Guaco
Registered User regular
Registered User regular
(Quick caveat: GHWT is not out yet, so the jury may be out on some of this.)
I want to discuss this dilemma of mine. I own Guitar Hero 3, and have played Rock Band and really enjoyed both. With both coming out with fantastic sequels it almost seems unfair to choose between them, yet it hardly seems practical to have an entire room filled with plastic instruments when one will seemingly do the job of the other.
It seems to me that the best strategy will be to buy the full version of one with instruments and buy the software of the other without instruments. With that idea in mind, I am thinking that because GHWT's guitar and drums have slightly more features (extra drum pad, slide section on guitar), I'll go with the full version of GHWT and pick up a (possibly used) copy of RB2. The song list and DLC of RB and RB2 seems to be miles ahead of the GH series, so this seems like a good compromise.
Does this seem like a reasonable strategy? I'm open to input, because I'm sure there are plenty of others out there who didn't rush out and buy RB2 right away because they're in the same dilemma. PLEASE don't make this about "X rules, Y sucks" and other fanboy attitudes. If you really have strong opinions about one or the other please base them upon features you can describe that make a tangible difference.
I want to discuss this dilemma of mine. I own Guitar Hero 3, and have played Rock Band and really enjoyed both. With both coming out with fantastic sequels it almost seems unfair to choose between them, yet it hardly seems practical to have an entire room filled with plastic instruments when one will seemingly do the job of the other.
It seems to me that the best strategy will be to buy the full version of one with instruments and buy the software of the other without instruments. With that idea in mind, I am thinking that because GHWT's guitar and drums have slightly more features (extra drum pad, slide section on guitar), I'll go with the full version of GHWT and pick up a (possibly used) copy of RB2. The song list and DLC of RB and RB2 seems to be miles ahead of the GH series, so this seems like a good compromise.
Does this seem like a reasonable strategy? I'm open to input, because I'm sure there are plenty of others out there who didn't rush out and buy RB2 right away because they're in the same dilemma. PLEASE don't make this about "X rules, Y sucks" and other fanboy attitudes. If you really have strong opinions about one or the other please base them upon features you can describe that make a tangible difference.
El Guaco on
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But we don't know. So I'd really wait and see on this one.
So very, very true. It doesn't help that GH has ass art direction.
I would personally recommend that you wait until a bit after GHWT has been released so you can read up on forums and reviews and get a good idea how each game's instruments work with the other. Don't rush out and buy the GHWT bundle because you might get screwed, if not on strict compatibility than just on it not feeling quite right because of the added stuff.
If you can only get one, RB2 is probably the best option due to it's vast selection of songs. It remains to be seen whether GHWT will be properly supported with DLC (considering that GH2 and GH3 both promised this and failed, it's unlikely).
Ah, this is something I hadn't really considered much. Being a "real" musician, there are times when GH3 was rather frustrating as the note charts were sometimes inconsistent with the actual notes heard. That really bothered me. Is there any evidence that will change for the better in GHWT? I guess we'll have to wait on that one.
Well it's interesting to note that GH2 was HMX, not the people currently responsible for the franchise. They got a nice clean slate in the gaming public's eyes when they switched to RB. People seem to forget the completely botched DLC in GH2 was theirs as well. Or they bash Activision for pushing things like GH:Aerosmith and they forget HMX did Rock the 80's.
Actually, the 360 version was published after the purchase of the franchise by Activision. I do know that they basically contracted out the development of the 360 version to HMX, but I'm not sure if they left the responsibility of DLC to them or not.
There is no excuse for Rock the 80s.
Live and learn? The important thing is that you do it right the next time, which I would think that Harmonix did. My only current "regret" with GH3 is seeing the list of RB DLC songs every damn week and instead we get GH: Aerosmith. And I get the feeling that they may try that shit again.
Your feelings are uncanny.
Hard to tell. A few people have hinted that the GHWT tracks are pretty much like GH3 in previews, but considering the usual video game journalism approach to typically softball previews and not complain much, it's a toss-up. Several forumers who played it have said the tracks were much like GH3.
And I'd be shocked if GH's DLC ever reaches RB's levels, considering Activision executives have publicly stated they want to triple the number of GH disk releases per year. Keep in mind we're already getting four unique GH games this year.
Actually, we don't know that the tracks are being released as DLC. You may be forced to buy the game in order to play it, and who the hell knows if they'll even integrate into GH:WT.
I do have to see how gimped the Wii versions end up, that will influence which one I pick up first though.
As others have pointed out, the full extent of compatibility won't really be known until you have both games and all the instruments actually sitting at your house, but I think it's safe money that all of the instruments will be cross-compatible at some base level but each will have individual strengths for their native game that you're not going to get in the other one. You mention the slide section on the GH guitar, but the Rock Band 2 Strat also has solo buttons up on the fret (can use at any point, but during solos you can use them without having to strum), and there's also an auto-calibration feature that sets up your home system automatically. I highly doubt any of these features are going to work in the other game.
Additionally, the RB Strat and GH guitar have two very distinct feels; the RB Strat has the more flaccid, rubbery strummer that some people dislike over the clicky-clacky GH strummer, but I love the Strat. The fret buttons also have very different tactile setups, so you might be more comfortable with one guitar over another.
The drums are the bigger question, and due to the way the games seem to chart drums, you're not going to get 100 percent compatibility, and it's due to how Harmonix charted certain songs in Rock Band: Songs like Everlong and Teenage Riot, where the main pattern is 16th note hits on a high hat, have the hi-hat on Red and the snare on Yellow, but in GH's Everlong the hi-hat is Yellow and the snare is Red. This doesn't happen with every song, but I think it'll come up enough that it might be a problem if you're a high-level drummer.
Long story short, you should pick a "primary" game that you definitely want 100 percent compatibility with, buy those instruments and enjoy the fuck out of that game. Then consider the functionality with the second game as a very nice bonus.
You mean aside from the fact that it was on a platform where DLC wasn't feasible in the slightest?
Arg.
This is mostly because despite the party atmosphere attributed to these two musical entertainment games, Guitar Hero World Tour seems to be catering more to the ScoreHero Hardcore players and alienating people who maybe can't wail on all the skittles as they fly by. The most apparent evidence of such is that, as I mentioned after my PAX playthrough, one member of the band failing on GHWT fails the song. There is no savior.
Red Octance makes better instruments
XBL : lJesse Custerl | MWO: Jesse Custer | Best vid ever. | 2nd best vid ever.
I was positive I read somewhere the folks at Activision talking about removing a fret from the chart when you used the RB drums... maybe in the Game Informer preview? I dunno...
What?
And seriously, the build quality of rock band instruments is shit. anyone who defends them is just biased based on RB being the better game, and ignoring the fact that the instruments themselves are simply unreliable.
Red Octane, on the other hand, has a history of making high quality peripherals. Guitar Hero, and hence Rock Band, would never have taken off if it weren't for their guitar designs. Harmonix makes amazing games, but it was Red Octane who got the GH franchise noticed, and in doing so paved the way for Rock Band.
Just because each company has since been bought out by much larger entities doesn't mean that you have to pick one to be good and the other to be evil. They are both leaders within their particular areas.
I can't speak for the new GH guitar, of course, so maybe they've turned it around since then...
But the rb2 strat is molded from 100% highly concentrated awesomeness.
it is by far my number 1 fake plastic instrument.
And Guitar Hero is going to have DLC? I would have thought that they would have just release expansion packs.
Or we haven't had problems with our RB controllers. Both my drums and guitar still work great, even though I bought them in a launch package. I also love the feel of them both.
I won't deny Red Octane's awesomeness at making peripherals, but the RB instruments are still great. And Guitar Hero took off not because of the instruments, but because of the mixture of nice instruments, awesome music, and good gameplay. It was not one or the other.
And as far as I know Harmonix have said that RB2 Wii will be 'complete', hopefully meaning it'll have dlc.
Wait until WT is out (it's only a month away), read the reviews of the software and more importantly hardware, see how RB drums work out in GH and vice versa, Neversoft DLC plans (weekly seems to be the plan, but of mice and men) and make a decision then.
Thing is, you'll probably be able to have about 7 songs before running out of room.
It was the instruments that got the intial attention.
Harmonix has made other, similar, awesome games before, with popular liscenced music, and the mainstream didn't care.
When you throw Red Octane's guitars in to the mix, you get the attention needed in order for the mainstream to sit down and play the game, and see how awesome it is.
X and Y both rule!
Really?
The method they will use basically is that you save all your songs to a flash card and run them from there.
Harmonix has been pretty close-lipped on exactly which features will and won't be in the Wii version of RB2. I pay pretty close attention to their news and haven't seen anything that clarifies their approach to Wii DLC.