Guitar Hero Live' Sent Me Running Back To 'Rock Band 4

Forbes contributor Jason Evangelho talks about the shortcomings of the new Guitar Hero Live and why Rock Band 4 ends up on top.

[Masterofwiiu3ds]

100% disagree. The "plastic instruments" genre needed something new and different, and I felt like Guitar Hero offered that. Not just the fret layout, but the way you feel like you are playing a concert. Or the music videos that play rather than the generic crowds.

In Guitar Hero Live, there's never an instance of a male singer singing a female vocal, or vice versa, but this happens all of the time in Rock Band.

Rock Band 4 is basically just Rock Band 3 (minus the keyboard) ported to current-gen consoles. I like it for what it is, but there is absolutely nothing exciting or fresh about it.

I'm not knocking Rock Band - I like it for what it is - but it feels like genuine effort was put into the new Guitar Hero (for example, every song was recorded live multiple times - for good and bad reactions). The lead singer sings every word of every song. You can see people in the crowd singing the songs, etc.

[TheRacingX]

hmmm your opinion here has piqued my interest.... I didnt want to see "same thing new wrapper" and that seems to be the consensus with rock band.... AND ....look at the source here....Forbes?? their "reviews" are not very trustworthy when you read them.....

[Masterofwiiu3ds]

I picked up both since it's been a while since we played these games in my house. And I have to say, everyone here (my, my wife, and my 2 kids) all gravitated towards the new Guitar Hero. The fret layout takes some getting used to. Maybe about 3o minutes to an hour of playing. In the article, the Forbes guy suggests trying it out at Best Buy first - I don't think that's a good idea unless you can really play it for nearly an hour. Most people won't get the hang of it right away.

But once you do, it makes a lot of sense. At least it did to me.

The game isn't perfect. I wish you could buy songs and keep them. But it's fun. When I'm in the online mode and song after song starts playing, and I play each one, and I see my score versus other people who played the song, it creates a fun challenge.

[Baka-akaB]

Even after trying it , the GHL experience just isnt for me .

The FMV feel isnt immersive for something like me i end up with "less" , in the sense that i can't even truly see and experience my group like u sed to in both titles , and feel like going through heavily rehearsed , fake and unsatifactory motions and live events .

Crowd reactions and sing alongs arent new to either franchise . The difference is that it wasnt done with a live audience , but had much more variety and feel to it , imo .

It's very ironic that an actually live experience feels fake and baked compared to cartoonish renditions of concerts ... but that's how i keep feeling .

And if i don't like the concert , you can imagine how little i feel involved and interested from playing music videos in other modes . When those appears on screen , i feel like , well might just use a pad then and do it hatsune miku and regular music games instead .

I don't mind the change in the controls and guitar for GHL , i feel that THIS is the revolution for the serie , and not a worthless gimmick , and the good way it set itself apart and propose finally something else than "similar to Rock band but not the same" .

I just don't like the other aspect of the game . Tradition and Rock band with the allure of its gigantic dlc legacy list it is then , despite the numerous frustrating issues with the current build of the game

[jb227]

See my issue with Guitar Hero is that I play the actual guitar so I never got into playing the video game version of one. I don't however play the drums so I always had a blast playing the Rock Band drums...I'd be all for trying the new layout for Guitar Hero if they had also included a drum set for me to fall back on if I didn't dig it, but that's not the case. All of the trappings & the GH Live mechanic all sound great though, if they could marry those gameplay ideas to the Rock Band format I feel like it'd be a match made in heaven. I dunno, either way as a musician by trade I typically like to keep gaming completely separate from music, but I enjoy it more when there's the full band in a single room setup that Rock Band offers.

[just-joe]

Rock Band 4 is basically a stripped down version. Barebones character customization, bland setlist, and no online play at all is ridiculous and the excuse by apologist saying "it's coming later" is saddening when Harmonix has only said that they "are looking into it and seeing how sales are". Way to hold a feature hostage.

I loved series, I wouldn't have bought over 12gb of music if I didn't, but this was a huge disappointment and a complete step down for what was supposed to be a revival of the genre.

[Dudebro90]

Rock band is fine, but that's it, its a fine rock band game. It does almost nothing new which is a shame since it was on a new era of consoles.

If you want more of the same, get Rockband.

If you want something new with 240 songs(plus another 70 by 2016) for $100, go with Guitar Hero

[deadpoolio316]

You people need to QUIT trying to claim its 240 songs damn....Its FORTY TWO....On the disc are FORTY TWO songs...So people without, slow or people that dont want to connect to the internet get FORTY TWO SONGS.....The other 200 and the 70 by 2016 are GHTV content, where your not playing what you want when you want unless you purchase GH currency...

BTW right now in RB4 aside from the 63 on disc there are 1,980 Rock band songs available, not including the RB1, RB2 and, RB3 exports that they are working on, lets also not forget that people who take care of their stuff can use their old last gen instruments in RB4, and Harmonix has said RB4 will be the ONLY RB game released this gen...Activision/Guitar Hero im sure IF these sell will rush back to the 5-6 releases in a year with zero compatibility for the last version

[Baka-akaB]

Let's be candid here .... No one that played Rock Band in the past is likely to only have the 60-63 songs from the RB4 release .

If you're a long term fan you have potentially and effectively triple that via past songs and dlc alone already available , or activated again at some point .

And you're not at the mercy of some pseudo tv's current playlist , unless you invest into currencies .

Both systems obviously got their own advantages and own appeal

[Taz X14]

It's forbes. Their reviewer has no idea what he's talking about and usually writes clickbait articles or writes things which are clearly sponsored or paid for in some way... gaming journalism at it's finest there.

[traumadisaster]

You couldn't be more wrong. I don't agree with some of their articles but they are independent to write what da heck ever they want.

They of all have no tie-ins with ea etc. I do like some of their opinion pieces.

[ShadowKing-]

the biggest thing right now is guitar hero is 100 bucks and RB 4 is 60 bucks, and that is what is gonna kill GH a little, i have always been a fan of both games, and right now with other games coming out this year, im having to choose RB over GH for now.

[Eliseo676]

However, Rock Band is the pinacle of DLC. Costing you a lot of money to keep expanding your library, while not even porting all the songs from previous games.

At least GH offers expanding playable songs to be paid with in-game curreny.

Also to note, no sequel to Guitar Hero is coming this gen, while Rock Band will keep "moving foward".

People should read more over this titles.

[jb227]

I've never heard of Rock Band insinuating that there'd be future installments, only dlc. Look at what is available right now, all Rock Band dlc is transferring over from last gen, and users are able to use last gens peripherals, whereas you can't on GH. Going solely by the installments on offer, Rock Band is obviously the one catering to future support outside of buying all new peripherals and games. The GH devs might be talking a big game, but the Rock Band devs are the only ones backing it up at this point.

Also, GH does offer songs with in game currency, but you can't outright buy those songs to play whenever you like with it from my understanding, you are paying for single plays of songs out of rotation from GH live...not sure if those songs are purchasable w/ real world currency or not, but the 'coins' earned in game most definitely can't buy those songs outright.

[lashes2ashes]

Harmonix has already stated this is most likely the last rockband, rockband 4 was built to be a app like system for songs and features to be added over the years. And if it sells good they will make more guitar heroes until it's run into the ground again.

[DarkBlood]

the sad part is you cant play guitar hero with the controller like you can with guitar hero 3 *thats the last one i own since" i dont know if rockband 4 can let you use the controller but if someone can confirm that for me i might get that in the future.

another thing i was not particularly fond of was the crowd background noise but at least i can turn that off so i can hear the music properly when im playing.

my initial impressions arent good but im going to give live a couple more weeks before i make my final decision. since im going from GH3 to GHL so you might understand why im not fond of the way its being done now

[Haki1112]

You can use GH3 controllers with Rockband 4

[DarkBlood]

i meant actual controller not the guitar one like you can do with GH3

[BiggerBoss]

Why would you want to play with a regular controller..?

[traumadisaster]

Cmon man...the world is big, it supports all kinds.

[RavageX]

I'm disappointed with both tbh. Weak setlists. Lack of features from rockband, plus I'm just not as interested this time around. Rocksmith on the other hand...

[patsrule316]

I have GHLive, and overall, I really like it when it works. The guitar it came with is registering extra hits on a lot of down strums, which can be frustrating. When I am not getting the extra hits, the game is great. The live part is surprisingly cool (even when playing Riannah and Katy Perry, which normally would probably have driven me up the wall), and the TV part is awesome. It is just a constant set of music videos with lots of songs I really like. I have over 40 on demand songs banked, and haven't had a desire to use it yet (they give you a free on-demand song in the tutorial which they make you use, but other than that...). I have already come across Dream Theater's and Rush's songs 3 times each, and those are my two favorites in the set-list. I haven't felt the need to play a track on demand yet. The tv part, and seeing what is coming next, is so addictive.