Posts tagged Neversoft
Guitar Hero 5: Same As It Ever Was?
Jul 14th
Unassuming box art adorns the latest Guitar Hero reprisal. Are we due for some pleasant surprises, or is what we're seeing just what we'll get this September?
I always feel a little guilty for chastising Neversoft’s decisions in guiding the Guitar Hero franchise since it picked up the reins in 2007. It’s almost certain the studio has been under a lot of pressure for years from publisher Activision’s growing dependence on expanding and exploiting franchises at a fever pitch — just look at the decline in quality as the Tony Hawk franchise relentlessly iterated upon itself.
So try to imagine how Neversoft’s staff must have felt when Activision dumped what was arguably the biggest name in gaming fresh into its lap and demanded the biggest, best sequel to be built from scratch in less than a year. That’s probably more or less what happened when Harmonix and Activision/Red Octane parted ways in late 2006.
That’s no mean feat, especially when you consider that Neversoft also had to compete against the Guitar Hero series’ originator, Harmonix, and its debut of the genre-expanding Rock Band franchise. Yet despite better name recognition, higher sales numbers and a marketing campaign to rival MTV/Harmonix’s own, it all comes down to this: Neversoft’s Guitar Hero games just aren’t as good as the Guitar Heros and Rock Bands that Harmonix put out.
Daily Recap: May 15, 2009
May 15th
The all-glorious Friday is upon us once again, so being the casual day it is let’s just get down to the news. No introductory hyperbole from me this time–a shame, I know.
Guitar Hero 5 is coming and it has songs (surprise!), free-to-play MMO Free Realms has racked up quite the player base in its first few weeks of existence, Valve’s sneaky with its surprises as usual, and Mass Effect 2 footage is available for your viewing pleasure.
Not Guitar Hero 5–but close enough
Though the game has been known about for a while now, Activision today tossed out a few official scraps of details on the upcoming Guitar Hero 5. Players will be able to tackle the game’s tracks with any instrument combination they see fit. Want to sing through a song with three other friends all using microphones? Go ahead.
It’s an interesting mechanic to put into a rhythm game–certainly one that isn’t “authentic” as far real bands go (though, yes, these games aren’t meant to be taken literally). And while we’ve been somewhat biased in favor of Harmonix’s Rock Band titles (or, at least Nick and Doug have), I personally find the gameplay freedom Neversoft’s offering to be great. Add-in the beginnings of a solid-looking track list and the new instant difficulty/instrument swapping, and the next Guitar Hero game might turn out to be one actually worthy of the franchise’s name.
Review: Guitar Hero: Metallica (Xbox 360)
Apr 6th
The Ecstasy of Gold
When the biggest name in music gaming dedicates an entire game to the most popular thrash metal band of all time, there’s not much need for introductions. (After all, we just covered the demo a couple weeks ago!) Just about everyone with a pulse has played one of the billions of Guitar Hero games by now, and Metallica has been an institution in popular music for more than 25 years. Say what you will about the Grammy Awards, but you don’t win nine of them without developing a sizable following.
Remember, this is the second time Neversoft has tapped a musical juggernaut to star in a game. However, Guitar Hero: Metallica comes a year after Guitar Hero: Aerosmith, and it benefits from being built on top of the newer Guitar Hero World Tour engine. While Neversoft demonstrates that it is capable of improving upon past failures — and really, this is the best Guitar Hero game they’ve made yet — this latest Guitar Hero iteration, just like every Neversoft-developed game in the franchise, is packed with ambition but stunted in delivery. Read the rest of this entry »