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New Guitar Hero Drumset Showcased
Kotaku is just one of many to have captured a recent showcase of Guitar Hero World Tour by Activision's CEO, Bobby Kotick. They have a nice video highlighting gameplay on the fancy new drumset. Looks like Guitar Hero is really turning up the heat in the ongoing war with Rock Band for dominance.
The Rock Band drumming on "expert" probably has the MOST skill required of any of the instruments. The REALLY hard levels require you to be an actual decent drummer to play the thing.
It doesn't even show Chad playing the drum pads. All that told us is that they're pressure sensitive... great. I would have like to have seen his reaction to playing it; not just his reaction to hearing about what it was.
well then all gh4 needs is a great soundtrack now and i think they would win in a competion. If they keep the gh note style it would defenitly look better
Here's the obligatory I don't need another plastic drum set in my house comment. Plus, with Activision blocking the Les Paul compatibility with Rock Band for ps3 patch, I don't feel the need to support GH or have incompatible instruments sitting around.
Harmonix got a lot of bad press lately for declaring that the Wii version would have no online play, no band tour support, no custom characters, no DLC, no support for the GHIII guitar, and just about every other major feature removed or gimped.
Harmonix has tried to pass the blame on to every possible target, especially Nintendo and Activision. Yet Activision already had most of the features in GHIII that Harmonix removed from Rock Band. Now with GHIV, Activision is announcing every feature that Harmonix claimed was impossible to support on the Wii, AND they have the full band support. Which further makes Harmonix look like they're trying to gyp customers.
The truth is that Harmonix had a contracted developer do a cheap-o port of Rock Band to the PS2. Since the PS2 had the weakest hardware of the last generation, they replace the game visuals with FMV and hoped that no one would notice. (Thus the lack of character creator.) At some point, some Harmonix or MTV exec got the bright idea that doing a quicky port of the PS2 revision (which is completely inappropriate for a console of the Wii's caliber, regardless of its graphical capability in comparison to the 360/PS3), thus resulting in a ton of missing features. Especially things that didn't make sense on the PS2. (e.g. No networking meant no online play or DLC. And the more massive FMV wasn't a problem since no one could download new songs anyway.)
Honestly, I think Harmonix would do a lot better if they just owned up to their mistakes and worked to correct them in the future. Instead, they keep blaming Nintendo for all their problems. As a result, I've decided that Harmonix does not need my $170. I'll be saving it for GHIV.
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Obviously Guitar Hero has the budget to do this kind of thing, and it's all publicity and hype for their set, but I think they're doing a pretty good job on this. It still just rubs kind of weird when you realize that the closer and closer they get to the real thing, the more people are just going to want to play the real thing. I don't know about you, but that video actually made me wish I was real drummer more than anything else.
Power to Guitar Hero. As long as the competition between you and Rock Band is fair and lively, the consumer benefits! Yay competition.
First link SHOULD have been here
"When life gives you lemons, don't make lemonade. Make life take the lemons back!" -- Cave Johnson
I would be happy to hate Travis from Blink 182 for you. Seriously.
But seriously, this interface has far more potential to work like a real instrument than the silly guitar doohickey. Could have a lot of value for training a real drummer without the noise and with fewer lessons.
Even more seriously, since it appears to track velocity, it probably has a midi output, which means someone will hack it to be a synth controller, which would be really cool and make me, a musician who loves to mock guitar hero, have to stop mocking guitar hero, if the hero is playing drums, thru a synth.
One final for serious: You could set a learning workstation like that up right now with midi drums, a sequencer and a giant screen but the cost and level of knowledge required make it untenable for a student, but I'm sure some wealthy folks have this set up so that they don't have to hear how bad of a drummer their spoiled kid is. Seriously.
The reason why features were stripped out of the Wii versions of both games is that the Wii itself doesn't support the features very well. How in the world is Activision going to support downloadable content on a system that only allows 512 MB of accessible space? 4 songs can add up to be 100 MB. Now they are saying they'll allow "Create A Song", downloadable content, dynamic customizable characters, "just like the other versions"? Where are they going to hold all of that on the Wii??
I don't think Activision or Harmonix had much choice of a choice but to strip these features out. So what has changed on the Wii where suddenly Harmonix is screwed and Activision can succeed? It still has the same storage restriction. It still has no common online framework. Nintendo's online store isn't geared to sell this type of DLC. I'm very dubious of Activision suddenly claiming they can do now do it for GH4.
ps. I don't know if anyone is blaming Nintendo/Wii for any of the problems but consider what happens to those faithful GH3 who bought 3 song packs at $6.25US. Compatibility goes beyond the stuff you plug into the console...
http://xkcd.com/359/
they do not really simulate their actual counterparts
Duh!
Here's an F chord for you.
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Get this: it does not matter. Of course you do realize that every drummer's setup is different. The great thing is that after a certain level of expertise, it really doesn't matter where your drums are located. You get used to them and hit where you need to. You can ride your crash, not a problem. You can ride your floor tom for all that matters. I'm more concerned about the pads and how natural they feel compared to actual skins. That is, my real kit has mesh skins for practice, but I'll prefer real skins for the feel they have any time. Location and number of pads? Not so important. Oh, and the kit has a pedal, like Rock Band has, too. What I want is twin pedals. :)
What's your opinion of the more advanced electronic drum kits.
Anthropic principle: We see the universe the way it is because if it were different we would not be here to see it.
It is, of course, one thing to detract from those playing Guitar Hero when one has little music experience, and another thing when a music afficionado has devoted years of practice to learning how to really play music and sees people devoting great time and effort (and a nontrivial amount of money, for that matter) towards mastering some freakish simulacrum of real music, and expresses disappointment at untapped potential.
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Here's a B-flat half-diminished seventh chord right back at you, buddy!
The World Wide Web is dying. Soon, we shall have only the Internet.
Yeah, and while we're at it, everyone should stop playing GTA since it doesn't even come close to operating a gun, or a helicopter, or a.... what was that? Nintendo has a bowling game and you don't actually throw a 12 pound ball at your television?! Heresy I tell you!
:)
Oh, and that was sarcasm. I thought it was obvious, but since you're so dense as to completely miss the fact that it's just a damn game, I thought I'd point it out for you...
You Welcome, BTW.
Hey, look! It's Bono's brother.
Ill reply to you since you are the last reply that I see, and an obviously someone who enjoys getting mad.
GTA simulates what you would do if you were to steal a car and go on a killing spree. What would make stupid if it was Big Bird going on a killing spree using a blimp.
The Wii bowling simulates actual bowling... just like you would expect. You move your arm in an underhanded throwing motion to knock down the pins as best you can. Stupifying it would be like throwing a banana down the street to knock down homeless guys.
Guitar hero at least has an instrument shaped like what you are simulating, even if the handling is simplified, the concept is still the same.
This drum is NOT a drum set, but a glorified set of bongos, with sticks. Sure, there is nothing wrong with that, but, jesus christ, don't make the ignorants think this is how a rock band drummer plays the drums. It is flat out wrong. What would you say if guitar hero came with a harp controller instead?
"When life gives you lemons, don't make lemonade. Make life take the lemons back!" -- Cave Johnson
Heh. I have the exact drum set. It's been good to me for over a decade now.
"He who can destroy a thing, controls a thing." --Paul Atreides, Dune
It is, of course, one thing to detract from those playing Guitar Hero when one has little music experience, and another thing when a music afficionado has devoted years of practice to learning how to really play music and sees people devoting great time and effort (and a nontrivial amount of money, for that matter) towards mastering some freakish simulacrum of real music, and expresses disappointment at untapped potential.
Of course, just like it is one thing to detract from those playing Counter-Strike when one has little war experience, and another thing when a soldier has devoted years of practice learning how to really kill and sees people devoting great time and effort (and maybe money for a new mouse) towards mastering some freakish simulacrum of real killing, and expresses disappointment at untapped potential.Particles, stuff that matters.
I'm not sure if US arcades ever saw it, but the various incarnations of the Konami series DrumMania have done an excellent job of drum simulations.
There's a machine in my local arcades [I'm in NZ].
If each mistake being made is a new one, then progress is being made.
Will the GH drum kit hold up to real world use?
I have gone through 2 Rock Band pedals (and 1 guitar) in the last 6 months or so. The first one snapped in two - both the pedal *AND* base. My son just informed me this morning that the second one had developed a large crack in the pedal but the base was still holding (for now). They have been very good about replacements so far, so I am not too upset, but when you pay almost $200 for a game you don't want to keep sending it back to get fixed.
My question to the GH folks is will the drums (and pedal) hold up to real use? We do not abuse our equipment and our GH guitars have held up for more than 2 years. I am very disappointed with RB specifically and am wary about purchasing games with elaborate controllers: Wii Fit I'm looking at you!
Oh, and make it so the singer actually has to sing properly and not just hum into the mic for a 99%. Please!
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The XKCD comic has it right. It's not about trying to be a real musician. It's about having fun. If you are a professional musician who makes your living playing music, I can almost agree with your argument of "untapped potential". However, if someone is simply a "music afficionado" as you say, what makes their choice of entertainment any better than the next person's? They play music because they enjoy it. Other people play Rock Band because they enjoy it. Neither is right or wrong. They each just have a different preference for how to spend their free time.
You just described my favorite past time! and no I'm not talking about Rock Band, were you?