Customer Rating:  
Summary: Just ok....
Comment: This is just an *ok* game. we arent very impressed by it. We were more impressed with GH3.
We rented this game before we bought it. And very glad we did as it is not worth the $50 for game only.
This game seems to center around a band. Now that is fine and im sure very fun but what about those people who just want to play the game by themselves? And we have seen many comments on that here. Hopefully the next one (if there is one) will be better.
All in all its not a bad game, but not that great either. Will be waiting to purchase when the price goes way down.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Adequate gameplay, a nice presentation, and an awesome soundtrack are worth considering.
Comment: I've been playing Rock Band 2 for the past month and trying to write a review without comparing the two is impossible. I will try to keep the comparisons to a minimum and review the Guitar Hero as I experienced it.
Gameplay:
Guitar Hero lets four friends rock out to some of the best songs in rock history using drums, lead, bass, and vocals. All the instruments do an adequate job with only a few glitches...the most annoying being the star power deployment. The guitar is basically the same from the previous games with a touch pad being the main difference. The bass is similar to the guitar with an additional note. The drums have cymbals, two toms, a snare, and a base pedal. Deployment of the star power on the drums can be the most annoying of all. The game does make an attempt to allow the drummer some leeway so streaks can continue...but this is hit and miss...and if one instrument fails, the whole group fails. The soundtrack is very good and if you've played any of the previous titles you'll recognize quite a few songs...which should give you an edge.
The two biggest and most talked about features of the game are the character creator which allows you almost unlimited customization of your characters...if you can dream it you can create it...the only downside is that the graphics aren't as crisp as one might expect on a next gen system. The other feature and the most talked about addition is the music creator. This allows the user to create and share their own songs...there is a lot to navigate here and a lot to learn before you'll produce any quality songs...but it is fun and makes uploading and downloading songs a breeze. So with all that said, how does Guitar Hero World Tour compare with Rock Band 2? It doesn't. GHWT does make an effort at competing with Rock Band 2...but if you can only get one...Rock Band 2 is the one you want.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Lost and Forgotten Are the Traditional Guitar Hero Fans
Comment: OK, so this is a review of the game-only Guitar Hero: World Tour Playstation II game. If you're here looking to get information and feedback on the bundle version or to hear about online play, you're on the wrong product page.
This review is for those traditional Guitar Hero fans. The fans who...
1: Thought the price of a full set (nearly $200) is a little steep.
2: Play casually.
3: Do not necessarily own a next generation console (Xbox360, PSXIII).
4: Do not play online.
5: Just want to play some good songs.
This was the original targeted audience of Guitar Hero back in the day and has been up until about a year ago when Activision took over and began trying to sway the demographic to the hardcore players. The general audience of gamers who may not even have considered themselves gamers until they picked up a plastic guitar and began jamming to Carry on Wayward Son. To me, this audience has been abandoned in favor of a very specific audience that doesn't mind paying more. Marketing wise it makes some sense but along the way Activision alienated their traditional family and casual audience.
I'm sure the game is uber-fantastic on the next generation consoles with the drums, mic, and internet options but for those of us who just want to play guitar, we've been sold short.
Let us begin.
First is the soundtrack. It boasts some excellent classic songs like Beat It, which is ironic since my review on Guitar Hero 3 called for this song and everyone thought I was insane, believing the franchise should not be "Pop Hero." There are other great songs like Hotel California, Crazy Train, Eye of the Tiger, etc. There are even some decent recent ones by Haley Something and Jimmy Eats World. However, there are several issues with the selection.
For one, it is overwhelmingly songs from the past 15 years. The designers had a huge love for 90s music. This isn't necessarily a bad thing, but when you're trying to entice gamers from a wide-range of generations and bring in new ones on the basis of song recognition, you MUST balance your selection. It's as if the designers wanted to focus on young adults ages 13-21 and throw 22+ gamers a bone or two with Ted Nugent and Pat Benetar. This is bad marketing. Rock Band, at least, had the brains to balance their selection nearly perfectly. Very few songs prior to 1975 were used and the designers could've used considerably more.
I have a few minor issues with some of the selection of live versus recorded tracks such as Jimi Hendrix's Purple Haze and Sweet Home Alabama. I thought the vocals were considerably better on the recorded tracks.
Lastly, the television advertisements showed players (hilariously portrayed by famous athletes including Michael Phelps) playing Old Time Rock and Roll by Bob Segar. This excited me as I love that song, so I searched and searched all 90+ songs for it... to no avail! I should have looked on the official website for a complete track list as they didn't include it. This is false advertising. Commercials for previous installments used songs actually from the games, this game should not have been an exception. If the song is there and I'm not seeing it, someone please tell me how to get it!
Next, the game is severely glitchy. I can tell Activision dumbed down the graphics and then directly ported it to the PSXII. Many times the characters on stage will do one move then immediately change a pose or position entirely. This happens at the end of every song. I've also had the game freeze a number of times when I'm customizing my character. Fortunately, this does not delete my memory card or data... yet. Lastly, the loading time is atrocious. I thought Guitar Hero 3 was bad, this one is even worse. Just to sign in under co-op, you have to wait ten seconds for the character visuals to load even if you're already set to go. Making changes to your rocker takes several minutes and half of that is loading time.
Again, I can tell they dumbed it down for last generation systems but daaaang. This was more then awful.
My last complaints deal with the format itself. Unlike previous Guitar Hero installments, World Tour requires you to play through an entire play list to advance to the next group of songs IN ONE SITTING. This means you gotta set aside at least ten minutes to play each 'gig.' To make matters worse, the more you advance in the game the LONGER the gigs get. One particular gig took me almost an hour. This WILL alienate casual gamers as the game requires a lot of time just to advance. This is not Oblivion or some extensive RPG that requires a lot of effort, this is Guitar Hero, the game that is supposed to market to the casual gamer! The audience should never be forced to do anything unnecessary and that's exactly what this is.
To a certain degree they did keep the boss battles albeit under different rules. Instead of sending battle thingies back and forth to screw the other up, you just play and play. I still think they could have done without it. Lastly, they now make you pay money to unlock certain gigs. I think this is a big no-no especially since the songs were not even worth it unless you're a Tool fan.
Now, despite my large reservations I do have some praise. The designers did fix two major issues. The first is when you pause. Originally you had to immediately jump in the song but now you have a few seconds to align your hands. The second improvement is that you can now hoard star power in co-op and build star power even when it's deployed. This makes point maximizing that much easier.
Then there's the sound studio. I'm still trying to get it to work but I think you need the full kit. It's a nifty idea but will be lost on those who just bought the game only.
All in all, the game is not bad but the designers forgot many things. It seems as though you have to play it on a next-gen console and with the full set in order to truly appreciate it. This is bad for marketing. I'll stick with Wii Music until the prices on the sets drop like 50%. Get Guitar Hero 2 if you're new to this. It's not glitchy, had great songs, and doesn't require a whole paycheck to own.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Pretty Good
Comment: So I just finished playing this game all the way through on easy and medium, just to see all the songs. The 85 song play list is impressive, and there are many decent titles in there. And yet for all that (plus the new features of character creation and create your own songs), there just feels like there is something missing. In the past Guitar Hero games, I could easily find myself enjoying one great song after another, sometimes even providing me with a challenge on easy lol (Raining Blood and Through the Fire and Flames from GH:III come to mind....!!!) But in this game, it almost seems like you have to wade through song after song before you find that one that really gets you into the game. However, because this game is still new, I have faith that more music tracks would be available in the future (this is more then easily said then done on the PS3 and X-Box 360 versions).
The game also comes in a full band kit version, with guitar, drums and a mic. I never cared much for all that extra stuff, I just enjoy the game playing guitar only. Speaking of which, they made a new model of guitar for the PS2 and all versions of this game. The biggest changes are that it is longer and comes with a feature called the slide bar. This is useful for tackling tough note sections on harder difficultes. Its a nice feature, but could have been left out. Also, this newer guitar has been marketed more to those who consider themselves "hardcore" players of these games. I'm nowhere near that level, more of a causal gamer who enjoys the game at his own pace, not because I know I can beat a song on the highest difficulty.
Pros:
a) Solid 85 song list, covering everything from classic rock to modern stuff.
b) Character creator-certainly will be fun for people that are into that sort of thing.
c) Music creator-haven't tinkered around with that yet, but looks promising. Plus, any songs you create in there can be shared (on the next gen console versions anyways).
d) Improved graphics
e) Biggest cast of playable characters to date, including your custom one.
Cons:
a) Notes and the "highway" seem to be further away from you, so to speak. In the previous games, for example, this was almost jumping out at you, that is how close it was to the screen.
b) At the end of each song, your band members do the same motions over and over again. Gets very repetitive and annoying by the end of the game.
c) On easy, for some of the "boring" songs, it seems you literally hit the same note over and over again.
d) No down-loadable content on the PS2. If you are really into that, I would suggest grabbing the version for one of the next gen consoles.
As you can see, there are definitely more good things about the game then bad. It doesn't seem to have any glitches (for me anyways). Hopefully I won't get flamed for saying this, but I think this wasn't the strongest/best of the Guitar Hero games. To date, the second one is my favorite. However, considering the impressive song list, it is certainly worth checking it out. At the very least, rent it and give it a whirl. It may not be the strongest game in the entire series, IMO, but its good.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Impressive...
Comment: Guitar Hero World Tour lives up to it's lofty expectations. The set list is LONG and diversified ranging from metal to world music to pop and country. The introduction of drums, bass and vocals greatly enhance the games long term replay value. I am really impressed with the BASS option for the game it is spot on and very fun to play. The difficulty levels now include a BEGINNER level in addition to the EASY, MEDIUM, HARD and EXPERT options. Another good feature of World Tour is the ability to toggle between difficulty levels and still continue through the same set list. There are also some new play options for guitar/bass such as continued sustain notes and open strum notes. It took me a good couple of days just to complete the game ONE time, so you really get a good bang for your buck. I have not even gotten to the create your own rocker or song creator options yet. The Bottom Line...this is the BEST title in the guitar hero series...yet...Guitar Hero Metallica is on the horizon. Highly Recommended.
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