Aeropodcast #39: The Big Red Button
Stephen takes the mic and runs with it as host of the show this week. He joins with Joe Fourhman and Paul Munn to put Rock Band 2 and Guitar Hero World Tour under the microscope to cover what’s been announced, what’s been rumored, and which might be a better value. The other big news this week is the deployment and then recall of the 2.40 PS3 firmware update. While Paul’s happy with trophy support and the messaging features, Stephen wasn’t able to nab the update before it was pulled, and both Stephen and Joe don’t own Super Stardust HD yet. Joe did point out that while the XMB works in-game it definitely feels slower than the out-of-game XMB.
Paul took a moment to congratulate IGN on and recommend Podcast Beyond #50, Stephen talks about Chrono Trigger DS, and the gents talk about Venom Games shutting down hot on the heels of their release of Don King Prize Fighter.
Thanks as always to Stephen, for mixing this on the turntables of steel, and visit www.revolutionvoid.com to get downloads of our podcast music.
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Deep breath…..Okay, now that I am done screaming at my laptop as listening to the podcast, I have to say that first off, no vocals in any song that you create in the Guitar Hero World Tour.
Also, all Rock Band DLC is feature compatible with either version, past, present and future. So no matter how you buy the DLC, it will work with either version. Not so with Guitar Hero World Tour. Rock Band has also stated that all equipment from the first is compatible with the second, which means I don’t have to buy another drum set, unlike what I have to do with Guitar Hero World Tour.
I think that Guitar Hero World Tour will cater to the Wii crowd better by allowing DLC, but on the PS3 and 360, I think that Rock Band 2 will reign supreme. I just can’t see enough people wanting to buy another drum set, or another guitar. I have two guitars, and a drum set, along with a mic, so why do I need one more of each. I don’t, and I think many are in that mold.
Joe F. hit my point perfectly about the song creator. A minute proportion of people that buy Guitar Hero World Tour, will use it. Same thing with every FPS that comes on the PC with a map editor. A minute fraction of those people go on to make content.
Lastly, I think that people are burned out on Guitar Hero, for lack of DLC, and the constant stream of new discs for the game. Guitar Hero II, III, Rock of the 80′s, Aerosmith and now Guitar Hero World Tour in the span of two years. Sounds like Tony Hawkitis to me.
I think Guitar Hero may well be on the path of another music/rhythm game, Dance Dance Revolution. Despite a few years of being white-hot in the arcades and a relatively interesting party game during the PS1 era, DDR has since devolved into an industry non-event, thanks to too many iterations, a lack of fan service, and endless whoring of the brand name.
Obviously DDR is still successful, so that’s not necessarily a bad thing to follow their model… I just wonder if we won’t get to a point where we look back and say “man, remember those two years when Guitar Hero was a huge cultural thing.” I wonder if we aren’t already there.
Until both games are out, we won’t know what they have and what either does right or wrong. The fact of the matter is only Xbox 360 owners will be able to play Rock Band 2 at launch. Every other version will lag behind, whether just in release date or in feature set as well.
It will be interesting to see the actual feature set both games have when they launch, but my point remains: EA/MTV/Harmonix is simply NOT TRYING HARD ENOUGH to bring their game intact to every platform, while Activision/Neversoft/Vicarious Visions are. In my mind, the latter gets serious props for that.
Was the Wii version of Guitar Hero III delayed? I am thinking that it was, which has me wonder if it will be again. If they can come out day and date with the rest of the platforms, then I am impressed. But I wonder if all the old DLC will be available for the Wii, as it will be on the other versions of GHWT on the other platforms. That would be another plus. Also, as you and I both know Stephen, promises mean nothing until the game is released. Age of Conan promised a hellified DX10 experience, until they dropped it days before release.