by GrathiusXR:
©2009 Arthur Kotsopoulos
Well it seems that another year has almost gone by and Activision/Neversoft have provided gamers with yet another entry in the ever-growing Guitar Hero franchise.
With the latest iteration–Guitar Hero 5–features a diverse track list of 92 songs and some new nifty features while continuing to be challenging yet accessible to the casual gamer.
Off the get go, the first thing you’ll notice is that Guitar Hero 5′s presentation is toned down and more musical in the sense that, unlike Guitar Hero: Metallica, it isn’t all out metal artwork and vinyls. With amplifiers everywhere, you feel that Guitar Hero 5′s emphasis is more band-orientated than Guitar Hero:World Tour.
• Guitar Hero 5 Trailer
The track list consists of songs both popular and obscure, easy and difficult. Having played the drums on hard whilst a friend was on guitar at medium, out of all the songs we played each of them just flowed when played as a band.
Plus you can also import Metallica’s “Death Magnetic” into the game as well as tracks from Guitar Hero: World Tour to boost the track list to more than 100 songs. Whilst not as definitive as both Rock Band & Rock Band 2 it’s still a diverse and healthy selection of music.
With such a strong emphasis of playing as a band I felt that the band experience was there. That feeling of actually being on the stage and entertaining the crowd to give them a show worth every dollar.
Alongside the updated graphics meant that each band member moved and grooved in a very realistic fashion. Gone are the robotic monotone arm movements of the drummers, the infuriatingly two-time robotic strumming of the bassist and the bland craze of the singer.
In their place is a fully functional, entertaining band simulation that can be boosted, if you wish you see a bit of yourself on the stage, with newly introduced full avatar support. Your avatar can play any role in the band, from rocking out on the drums and guitar to the lead singer.
Go Avatar’s
There’s nothing more satisfying than having your avatar singing Johny Cash’s ” Ring of Fire.”
Funny I should mention Johny Cash, actually. As with every Guitar Hero there are several famous musicians and Cash is one of them. But this time around the unlockable rock stars seems to be creating a bit of controversy.
In previous Guitar Hero games unlockable singers would only be seen in their respective songs as the front-man guitarist or singer except in Guitar Hero 5 it seems that Kurt Cobain, upon unlocking, can be chosen to be the front-man singer in every single song in the game, or even appear multiple times on stage at the same time.
Take a good read OXCGN’s extensive article of how one of our writers feels on the matter. It’s a good idea to read up more on this whole situation, actually.
Other than the ruckus over Kurt Cobain, Guitar Hero 5 doesn’t really feature any other problems or game changing issues except for the fact that I believe it features the weakest track list in all the Guitar Hero games so far. Out of the 92 songs I only knew less than a quarter of them.
No fun in there
Out of those songs, not many were much fun to play. They don’t flow as well as other songs do, nor are they enjoyable to grind through.
However, that’s not to say that the songs aren’t fun when played with a group of friends. Which further goes to emphasize the whole band experience within the game.
When you play with a group, you get to laugh, chat, sing and have a great time which are ideals that good game should provide.
Graphically, this is the best of the franchise to date, and feature-wise the game is more user-friendly than all of the previous entries. What about those new features?
Well, Guitar Hero 5 has some great new additions, such as the jump-in-jump-out mode which allows other players to join in at any time during a song. Then, if they want, they can jump out. Plus you can now have more than one drummer, guitarist or bassist at a time.
Whereas before you might be restricted to playing an instrument you hated, you can now have a whole band of four drummers or four guitarists if you please. I find this a great addition, but it’s a pity there aren’t many great metal/death metal songs to enjoy with this feature.
Guitar Hero 5 has taken what worked in previous Guitar Hero games and added more nifty features to make it quite possibly the best Guitar Hero game feature-wise, but song wise I still feel Guitar Hero 3: Legends of Rock holds that crown.
If you’re looking for another reason to rock out to some of your favourite songs, an unknown track list, or just an excuse to round up your mates for an all-star band of drummers rocking with your avatars, then Guitar Hero 5 is the game for you.
©2009 Arthur Kotsopoulos
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I thought GH5 was Ok. I will always think Metallica is the best GH though.
Oh and is that girl in the pictures you? If so, you are very pretty.
I think that would be your 4am on your Friday morning, but check here http://www.timeanddate.com/worldclock/ as this will give you the exact time looking at Sydney time, then comparing it to your time zone. WHen I write this, it’s our daylight savings time of 11.55 AEST am Monday, and in NY, it’s 6.53pm Sunday.