Last year at E3 I stopped by the Red Octane area to check out this interesting game called Guitar Hero. It was this neat little game you might have heard of by now, a rhythm game with a great guitar device that allowed you to rock out to your favorite songs. The room where I saw the demo was small, but the game rocked. I hoped this neat little game wouldn't get completely overlooked.
Well, a year later things are completely different. Today I went to see the sequel, Guitar Hero II, and the booth was large and well-furnished. There was a line to see the game and people were eager to get their hands on it. There was even a press release sent out yesterday announcing that Activision was acquiring Red Octane, the game's publisher. Quite an impressive turn of events.
But, what about the game? Well, it looks like it will rock once again. More of the same great guitar action we have come to know and love, but with a wider variety of songs and more features that everyone has been asking for. 60 new tracks are planned for the game, with 40 licensed tracks of familiar songs. 3 new characters and 2 new venues join the existing selection. The new venues being shown off were the Blackout Bar and, interestingly enough, the Vans Warped Tour. Success makes people take notice.
The demo showed off some of the neat new features making the game look to be a must-have. For example, there's a cooperative multiplayer version, where both players contribute to the multiplier and the rock meter; these features work similar to the way they did in the original game. Each player can select their own difficulty, allowing a more experienced player to play on an appropriate level with a novice player. In addition, the second player will play either rhythm guitar or bass guitar accompanying the lead guitar of the first player; a great combination that keeps both players playing during the song. In addition, both players must tilt their guitars up in order for star power to activate.
The demo included a small selection of songs:
You Really Got Me
Strutter
War Pigs
YYZ
John the Fisherman
Psychobilly Freakout
Who Was In My Room Last Night
Arterial Black
A few songs are worth noting here. "Arterial Black" is from the band Drist; the guitarist Marcus Henderson is noted for doing most of the guitar recordings for the first game. He is a talented guitar player and did a wonderful job on the first game.
Unfortunately, it sounds like Marcus has less work to do this year. Primus provided the master track for "John the Fisherman" for the new version of the game. This shows a glimpse of what direction things are heading and how much more seriously everyone is taking the game.
Other features have been added to make the game more fun for novices and experienced players. Training has been revamped to help new players into the game. For the more advanced players, three-note chords have been added for a bit more difficulty. We were told Career mode was changed to feel more like a band on the road, and single-player mode will be quick to get into.
In all, it looks like a worthy sequel to the game. I am definitely looking forward this game.
I'm an introvert that extroverts well (especially online). I'm a pretty typical computer geek, able to spend long hours in front of a computer focusing on a project or game.
I was born to be a gamer. Some of my most vivid earliest memories are of creating games to play while I was bored. As a child, I was naturally drawn to computer games. Even though my conservative religious friends thought D&D was "evil", we still got into fantasy role-playing through computer games. I played on the computers at school when I could, and played on the game consoles I could afford to buy at home.
It was my love of games that lead to me to programming. I finished my assignments in class and then spent the rest of the hour working on little games. This continued into college, where I learned about text MUDs. I started coding on them and spent many late nights in the computer lab.
It was around graduation in college when I realized that a career in the game industry might be a good fit for me. After working in a boring corporate job for a bit and thoroughly hating it, I started looking for work in the industry. I was hired on at 3DO to maintain an online game called "Meridian 59".
After working at 3DO then working at Communities.com (both currently out of business through no fault of my own!), I helped start Near Death Studios, Inc. We bought the rights to Meridian 59 from 3DO and have relaunched the game commercially. (Details at: http://www.meridian59.com/)
I'm currently doing design and programming work on Meridian 59 while sneaking in as much gaming of all types (computer, board, paper RPGs, etc) that I can.
