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Guitar Hero -- World Tour Guitar Mystery Images

Posted by timothy on from the good-to-live-where-this-is-worth-caring-about dept.

Erik Johnson writes "I noticed something interesting tonight when re-tolerating that Guitar Hero: World Tour trailer and took a few screens, nothing solid of course, just some intriguing visuals on the alleged new guitars for the game. Whoever directed the commercial obviously had strict instructions to avoid having any clear shots of the guitar controllers. Get a closer look at the images."

42 of 48 comments (clear)

  1. Pitch bending by meadowsoft · · Score: 4, Insightful

    I assume that the "slider bar" on the frets below the buttons is exactly that. Hold your finger down and slide it up and down to adjust the pitch. I envision a satisfying, StrongBad-esque "breeeeaaaaaaaaaoooooooooowrwrwr" happening as a result.

    1. Re:Pitch bending by Hoi+Polloi · · Score: 4, Funny

      Soon they'll be adding strings to it and then connecting those strings to an amplifier. Then the screen will show a series of, lets call them "notes", that correspond to specific hand positions on the strings.

      --
      It is by the juice of the coffee bean that thoughts acquire speed, the teeth acquire stains. The stains become a warning
    2. Re:Pitch bending by EvilIdler · · Score: 2, Interesting

      it's actually already happening:
      http://guitarrising.com/

    3. Re:Pitch bending by geekoid · · Score: 1

      Yep, and then a bunch of people who would never have tried to play guitar will give it a try due to GH.

      Oh, and there is a guitar/Amp/software package that lets you do this now. It's cheaper then Rock Band.

      I know my notes!
      Red, green, yellow, blue and orange~

      --
      The Kruger Dunning explains most post on /. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dunning%E2%80%93Kruger_effect
    4. Re:Pitch bending by AdamWeeden · · Score: 2, Interesting

      I would be in that camp. I'm about to start taking lessons for my guitar I got because of Guitar Hero. Mainly because I got to the end of Medium and was struggling and decided I could either practice, and get good enough to advance, or I could spend that time practicing a real guitar, and actually have some real world utility. I chose the latter.

      --
      I was quoted out of context in my autobiography...
    5. Re:Pitch bending by cupogoodness · · Score: 1

      That's what I'm thinking, it's there for some reason; maybe to make sure you can hit the weedily wees.

    6. Re:Pitch bending by Hojima · · Score: 1

      If guitar hero actually did teach you to play guitar, I would respect it. I understand that everyone is entitled to their own fun, but can anyone tell me why guitar hero stands out over all the other "press a button when we tell you to" games? I always envisioned a fun game that would be more complex and with more of a reaction to your actions, like kung-fu (though side scrolling games would most likely be better).

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      Help fight spam
    7. Re:Pitch bending by bluefoxlucid · · Score: 1

      I'm way ahead of you. Started playing guitar hero in Jan, and in March I built a 12AX7/6V6 driven amplifier from scratch. Now I'm designing one with a built-in natural compressor (rectifier uses a 5Y3 vacuum tube pair like in the Fender Twin-Amp 5D8, instead of a set of 1N7004 diodes) and push-pull 4-tube operation (6V6 and EL84 pair run simultaneously) with a multi-stage bypassable preamp (1x12AX7 or 5x12AX7 for preamp overdrive).

      My playing's improving too.

      --
      Support my political activism on Patreon.
    8. Re:Pitch bending by Scoth · · Score: 1

      My only guess is that being a rock star is a lot more interesting and "main stream acceptable" than, say, strange and jerky dancing or complex finger gymnastics. Pretty much everyone knows what a guitar is and the basics of how they work (push strings/buttons, strum) while dancing and such is little more esoteric. I'm personally enjoying Daigasso! Band Bros, which is an extremely difficult (on Pro level) rhythm/music game for DS.

    9. Re:Pitch bending by philspear · · Score: 1

      If grand theft auto actually did teach you how to steal cars and shoot cops, I would respect it.

    10. Re:Pitch bending by FishWithAHammer · · Score: 1

      People play it because it's fun and manages to keep being challenging.

      You know that popular thing you like? It sucks.

      --
      "You can either have software quality or you can have pointer arithmetic, but you cannot have both at the same time."
  2. Oh wow, it's a rectangle... by Tetsujin · · Score: 1

    That guitar clearly has some kind of rectangle on it! Holy shit!

    --
    Bow-ties are cool.
    1. Re:Oh wow, it's a rectangle... by k_187 · · Score: 3, Funny

      Yes, a rectangle designed to make you buy a new guitar when your GH3 guitar will work perfectly well

      --
      11 was a racehorse
      12 was 12
      1111 Race
      12112
    2. Re:Oh wow, it's a rectangle... by vapspwi · · Score: 1

      I just WISH my GH3 guitar worked perfectly well, but unfortunately I bought the game for the PS3 and the wireless guitar sucks.

      JRjr

  3. Drums by JCSoRocks · · Score: 1

    I want to know if those drums have a kick pedal. Most people I've watched can barely play the four pads and the kick pedal. Good luck with 5 pads that are farther apart and a kick pedal! It'll be fun for "real" drummers though. It'll be interesting to see how they cram visuals for 6 different things and how they arrange them. (In order regardless of height, or put the cymbals at either end, or ??)

    --
    You are using English. Please learn the difference between loose and lose; they're, there, and their; your and you're.
    1. Re:Drums by zegota · · Score: 1

      I'm hoping against hope the the RB drums will be compatible -- the cymbals looks to be both labeled by yellow, so maybe they map to the same note?

    2. Re:Drums by geekoid · · Score: 1

      Based on everything to date, the are not going to be compatible. Activision isn't playing well with others.
      But the kit looks sweet.

      Oh and one is Yellow, and the other one is orange.

      With these games:
      To play the Guitar, you only need to know the most basic information about a guitar, but to use the drums, you need to know how to play the drums.

      --
      The Kruger Dunning explains most post on /. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dunning%E2%80%93Kruger_effect
    3. Re:Drums by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      I want to know if those drums have a kick pedal.

      Yes, there is a kick-pedal. But only one. I'm waiting for the double-bass. =)

    4. Re:Drums by gstoddart · · Score: 1

      To play the Guitar, you only need to know the most basic information about a guitar, but to use the drums, you need to know how to play the drums.

      Really? What more information do you need? Hit the pad which corresponds to the color of the note which needs playing now.

      It will be one of the six inputs on the drums (three pads, 2 cymbals, and 1 foot pedal.)

      Other than overcoming ones own natural lack of rhythm and coordination ... what else do you need to know?

      Yes, it's a real question, I'm not making the connection to what else you'd need to know. It just seems you'll need to muddle through figuring out how to actually make your neurons help you do it.

      I guess the fact that I know nothing about drumming might be blinding me from an otherwise obvious answer. :-P

      Cheers
      --
      Lost at C:>. Found at C.
    5. Re:Drums by zegota · · Score: 1

      I think he was talking about the assertion that playing Rock Band on expert uses the actual drum tracks, so, according to the developers, someone who could play RB perfectly on Expert would be a pretty awesome drummer. I don't know how true this is, but the drums on expert are certainly difficult enough to make it believable.

    6. Re:Drums by flibuste · · Score: 2, Insightful

      Let's say it helps a lot to be a drummer. You have the body, hands and arm position right to start with on the drum kit (still akward though), a developped sense of rythm (which others have too of course), you already know most of the basic beats and you already have independence of hands and feet.
      In a sense, yes, it's "overcoming ones own natural lack of rhythm" but that's what playing *anything* is to start with.
      Having said that, RB is extremely frustrating if you actually are a drummer: there is zero room for interpretation (beside the small solo you do at overdrive time), the drum kit has the drum pads positionned weirdly and no cymbal. It sucks when you want to do freeplay as, although you're adding to the drum section, you lose at the game because you're hitting notes you shouldn't.
      Interestingly enough though, the drums are much more close to real drum playing that the plastic buttonized guitar is. You can actually learn something from the drums. You won't from the guitar.
      I'm looking forward to see what GH did with this new drumkit.

    7. Re:Drums by Shagg · · Score: 1

      You're not missing anything. It's a game, none of it is the same as playing the real instrument. It's not supposed to be. If it was realistic most people would get frustrated and quit, when the point is to just have fun. Both the guitar and drums are extremely simplified versions of the real thing. All you need for either is a very basic understanding of how it works. Push button, hit pad... etc.

      --
      Unix is user friendly, it's just selective about who its friends are.
    8. Re:Drums by Shagg · · Score: 1

      Not really. There's a really big difference between just hitting the right pad at the right time, and actually playing music. Someone who can play the drums in RB on expert is certainly very coordinated, but there's a lot more to being a drummer than just coordination.

      --
      Unix is user friendly, it's just selective about who its friends are.
    9. Re:Drums by Captain+Splendid · · Score: 1

      To play the Guitar, you only need to know the most basic information about a guitar, but to use the drums, you need to know how to play the drums.

      Totally agreed. Get me on guitar and I can kick ass easily. Get me on the drums and I'm out in under a minute.

      --
      Linux, you magnificent bastard, I read the fucking manual!
    10. Re:Drums by xero314 · · Score: 1

      All you need for either is a very basic understanding of how it works. Obviously written by someone that either does not play the drums or does not Rock Band.

      Being someone that does both(all be it I haven't drummed in a number of years), I have to say the RB drums are a lot closer to reality then the guitar. RB drums are very good practice for coordination, limb independence and speed. To complete RB drums on the expert level requires a lot of practice, including knowing the basic rudiments. Sure it doesn't make you a professional drummer, but would get you through your high school jazz band.

      Just saying to not knock it until you try it.
    11. Re:Drums by bluefoxlucid · · Score: 1

      If you close your eyes, you can learn some rhythm from the guitar. It's still an instrument, just a primitive one. I tend to use GH3 to get rhythm down at night when nobody wants to hear me blast my amp, and also to teach myself to sing while playing since Guitar Hero takes far less thought and coordination than guitar. One step at a time.

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      Support my political activism on Patreon.
    12. Re:Drums by ericvids · · Score: 2, Insightful

      That's what I thought when I started playing Drummania (a Konami arcade game where Rock Band's drum portion was loosely based on).

      Then it got really tiring. Literally. I was struggling to finish songs because my arms are getting tired with the fast rolls. I'm getting callouses all over my hands. I'm getting leg cramps from hitting the bass pedal too fast. Etc.

      That is, until I met a few people playing the game who taught me some basics that you do on the real drums. Things like basic posture and stick control, bounce-rolling, perididdling, the heel-and-toe technique for hitting the pedal, etc.

      Then the game became infinitely easier.

      The real problem is that games like these do NOT actually teach you those basics at all; they just assume that you will learn it intuitively after playing the game for hours, but it's not really the case for some people, e.g. me.

      So, yeah, you definitely need MORE information to play drums on a rhythm game like this than just "hit the pad corresponding to the color of the note". It's a totally different game than, say, DDR, where you don't NEED to learn how to dance to play it.

      --
      Pet peeve: Profane people propagating perfunctory pedantry.
    13. Re:Drums by gstoddart · · Score: 1

      So, yeah, you definitely need MORE information to play drums on a rhythm game like this than just "hit the pad corresponding to the color of the note". It's a totally different game than, say, DDR, where you don't NEED to learn how to dance to play it.

      Interesting. Since I've not yet played Rock Band, I've no experience with the drumming in it, just playing through GH on medium.

      How far into the game does one need to go before one simply can't wing it? I don't expect to ever reach Expert, and doubtfully even hard.

      I guess it makes sense that it would require some actual drumming technique. It just never occurred to me.

      Cheers
      --
      Lost at C:>. Found at C.
    14. Re:Drums by flibuste · · Score: 1

      True. You also get good finger training if anything else. I've never dared trying to sing while playing but that's indeed a very good idea for practicing.

    15. Re:Drums by bluefoxlucid · · Score: 1

      It took me 2 days to be able to sing while playing. Getting my mind off playing made me BETTER at Guitar Hero by a lot. I need to actually learn to play a song on real guitar before trying this.

      --
      Support my political activism on Patreon.
  4. Re:But still... by geminidomino · · Score: 4, Informative

    ObXkcd

    http://xkcd.com/359/

  5. Re:But still... by Vampyre_Dark · · Score: 1

    Are they really retards, or does the game just mislead them to the technique and difficulty of guitar playing? they saw the reality of it, and saw that it wasn't for them.

  6. Re:But still... by geekoid · · Score: 1

    So GH got 24 people to give the guitar a try. I fail to see how that is bad.

    --
    The Kruger Dunning explains most post on /. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dunning%E2%80%93Kruger_effect
  7. Re:But still... by SBacks · · Score: 1

    I disagree. The douchebags that play GH become mega-douchbags that think they can play guitar. Normal people that play this realize its a game and don't become douchbags.

  8. I play guitar by kellyb9 · · Score: 2, Insightful

    In my experience, people who feel the need to bash this game because it's not like playing a "real guitar" usually aren't that good at "real guitar playing". I play this game, and I play the guitar. If nothing else, I see at least one positive to come out of this game as far as real guitar playing goes. This is that you learn how to move your fingers more independently. Maybe eventually, they will be able to improve upon the design so it becomes closer and closer to the real thing, but in the mean time, I think they are doing a great job at putting out an entertaining and thoroughly enjoyable game for musicians and non-musicians alike.

    1. Re:I play guitar by gstoddart · · Score: 1

      In my experience, people who feel the need to bash this game because it's not like playing a "real guitar" usually aren't that good at "real guitar playing".

      I figure with all of the actual, real world "guitar heroes" who have been associated with this project, and the fact that a lot of them were fans of it before they got invited to be part of it ... any one doing that amount of whining just needs something to bitch about.

      Seriously, if Slash and all those guys were fans of it and playing it, isn't the point of how much it's like a "real guitar" mostly irrelevant? I mean, it's a game, and I would think that anyone who is less of a "guitar hero" than someone like Slash hasn't got a whole lot of room to be whining about the fact that it's not "real" guitar.

      I wouldn't claim that my "mad skills" of muddling through medium would carry into any actual real-world ability to play music. I've had to learn more about the beats and rhythms of these songs, but I doubt I know much more about music than I used to.

      But, seriously, who is claiming that it's just like playing a "real" guitar? If professional musicians play the game and find it fun, us mere mortals bitching about it's lack of accuracy to a real guitar just seems silly. This just seems like a bunch of people whining that the rest of us get to pretend to be musicians in the privacy of our own homes.

      Cheers
      --
      Lost at C:>. Found at C.
    2. Re:I play guitar by morari · · Score: 1

      I don't know that Slash is a good indication of anything, especially whether or not actual guitar playing is involved...

      --
      "He who can destroy a thing, controls a thing." --Paul Atreides, Dune
    3. Re:I play guitar by gstoddart · · Score: 1

      I don't know that Slash is a good indication of anything, especially whether or not actual guitar playing is involved...

      *shrug* I'm not a fan of his music, but he's a rock star and I'm not.

      From what I've heard, his technical ability isn't anything to sneeze at.

      My point is that people whining that it isn't enough like a "real" guitar have completely missed the point of the game. It just seems such a bizarre thing to kvetch about.

      Cheers
      --
      Lost at C:>. Found at C.
  9. Re:But still... by eln · · Score: 1

    Maybe they decided to give the guitar a try, and then stopped because it turned out their guitar teacher was an asshole.

  10. How much Did Activision Pay for this Post? by xero314 · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Good job Slashdot.

    When Activision is screwing their customers by denying cross compatibility the moderators refuse to put the article up, even though it was voted all the way up on the firehose.

    When someone has some wild speculation about a new game being released by Activision it goes right to the front page!

    1. Re:How much Did Activision Pay for this Post? by morari · · Score: 1

      It's a two way street. EA/Harmonix has actively decided to just keep using their stupid USB dongle for the Wii instruments as opposed to taking advantage of the remote like Activision's guitar did. They want to use high-minded phrases like "open controller standard" but then fail to utilize the most obvious one; the Wii remote. Of course, EA/Harmonix made all of the wrong decisions concerning that gimped Wii game they plan on calling Rock Band.

      --
      "He who can destroy a thing, controls a thing." --Paul Atreides, Dune
  11. Re:But still... by brilanon · · Score: 1

    If this guy is really doing what he said we should probably try to encourage him to say anything he can.