How would you change Guitar Hero: World Tour?

Interestingly enough, a lot of the gripes you readers had with the original Rock Band were addressed by Activision in the rivaling Guitar Hero: World Tour (cymbals, anyone?), but we're pretty sure the picky ones out there still have something to complain about. And seriously, when dropping upwards of $180 to $190 for the full-on band kit, you absolutely have a right to nitpick. Now that you've hopefully rocked through a few set lists, how are you enjoying things? Are the revamped / new instruments to your liking? Are the sensors accurate enough? Do you wish there was a freestyle mode in order to give real drummers free reign over what beats they play? Is your equipment holding up under the intense pressure of rockin' it all night long? Grab a mic and spit your feelings (in rhyme or prose, whatever) below.

[Evan @ Nov 28th 2008 11:03PM]

Needs more cowbell.

[Jeff @ Nov 28th 2008 11:09PM]

More Cowbell!

[nicolas Hidalgo @ Nov 28th 2008 11:12PM]

yes MORE COWBELL!!!!!

[MyHeadisFed @ Nov 29th 2008 12:07AM]

he said that already.

[Edge @ Nov 29th 2008 11:25PM]

Rather than one bass pedal, how about two.

[reid @ Nov 30th 2008 9:02PM]

Needs harder songs, like at least twice as hard.

[Giroro @ Nov 30th 2008 9:00PM]

Nah.Gotta have more cowbell.

[domokun @ Nov 28th 2008 11:06PM]

Something to prevent that damn foot pedal from sliding away from you.

[Zack @ Nov 28th 2008 11:09PM]

Yea, in rock band and guitar hero I have the same problem, the drumset (rock band) or the foot pedal alone (guitar hero world tour) slides away from me when I'm playing on Hard or Expert (too much pedal ;] ). There should definitely be some sort of rubber frictiony soles.

[Tom @ Nov 28th 2008 11:11PM]

I thought you guys were nerds. How hard would it be to rig some adhesive or some other ingenious device to prevent the slippage? You have failed me young Jedi.

[Kevin @ Nov 28th 2008 11:41PM]

Yeah. Some rubber or soft silicon would work pretty well.

[Gorospanky @ Nov 29th 2008 2:33AM]

There's velco on the bottom of the foot pedal, so as long as your playing in a carpeted area your fine

[dagamer34 @ Nov 29th 2008 11:09AM]

@Gorospanky

No, that just ruins your carpet.

[MARSHAK @ Nov 29th 2008 11:09AM]

i hate reviving the "get a real instrument" arguement, but get a real solution. When you play real drums, you put a drum mat under the drums......go to a music store and put a drum mat under the controller

[ed @ Nov 29th 2008 7:30PM]

I put some adhesive velrco on the bottom cost 3 bucks, just the hooks so it will stick to the carpet. Obviously this will not work on wood of tiled floors. But if you play on carpet it works a treat.

[Joe @ Nov 30th 2008 1:23AM]

Cinder blocks dude. I always tell people this and they just give me a blank stare for a second, and then go DUUHHH. Works like a charm.

[Alex @ Nov 28th 2008 11:14PM]

More real instrument, less video game.

[who? @ Nov 29th 2008 12:03AM]

Maybe the ability to hook up a real instrument for uploadable/shareable recordings? Or did I miss that feature? Can anyone afford a real instrument these days anyway? Who am I talking to? Huh...

[Alex @ Nov 29th 2008 12:06AM]

For the price of the game you could get a half-decent acoustic or an electric/amp starter pack.

[elle @ Nov 29th 2008 12:18AM]

"For the price of the game you could get a half-decent acoustic or an electric/amp starter pack."

Already did, years before any of these games became popular. I greatly enjoy them both. Thanks for your insightful advice that has, incidentally, never before been provided in a discussion about rhythm video games.

On topic: Yes, let the music creator import audio files for backing tracks, even if just for local songs and not for GHTunes.

[Joe @ Nov 30th 2008 1:23AM]

I love these dicks. You simply say to them, "hey man, put that fuckin halo down and get a real energy sword."

Noob ass noob.

A huge part of what makes video games fun is the power fantasy. The fun is in being able to do something really well (even if it's only a simulation) that you wouldn't be able to do in real life. Sure, you can learn to play an instrument, and it's a worthy pursuit, but rhythm games don't just simulate playing instruments. They simulate playing instruments like a badass and being a rockstar. Stop shitting on my unobtainable dreams ;_;

[Tim @ Nov 28th 2008 11:14PM]

1. Release a drum-tuner app for Mac
2. The game is too linear. It needs to be more like Rock Band in that respect.
3. The slider on the guitar needs a raised dot on the yellow area. It's way too heard to figure out where you are when sliding.
4. Needs to allow full navigation of the menus using the drum pads.
5. Launching overdrive on the mic is way too hard. Sometimes I need to slam my hand down so hard on there to trigger it that I fear I will damage the mic.

[Christian Walters @ Nov 29th 2008 12:00AM]

I find stuff way to heard sometimes to....

[Matthew C @ Nov 29th 2008 2:01AM]

if you meant hard, then thats what she said.

otherwise, what?

[diego cruz @ Nov 29th 2008 10:27PM]

add a triangle

yeah

youll be the bad guy

imagine Triangle Hero and others

[Dean @ Nov 28th 2008 11:15PM]

1. Improve drum pad sensitivity

2. Non-squeaky strum bar

3. Not have to select storage device every single time

4. Harder drum tracks

5. Single song set-lists

6. No duplicate tracks with Rock Band 1/2

I've got more complaints, but it would basically turn it into Rock Band.

[lawyer bird @ Nov 29th 2008 12:46PM]

It's amazing that every generation of rock band/guitar hero games the build quality seems to suck ass from a completely different aspect.

[Kyle @ Nov 29th 2008 3:28PM]

Haley Williams = Singer

she pops up
ozzy pops up

its not all guitar buddy

[Dave @ Dec 1st 2008 7:55PM]

I agree with:

- Non-squeaking strum bar
- Not selecting storage device every time you change a profile (especially since I only have one)

The other gripes I have are remedied by playing Rock Band 2. I have to say that the new drum kits are noticeably different than the first (broken) set I bought, so I don't believe that Activision didn't know there was a problem. The new set works great though. ROCK ON!

[Ben @ Nov 28th 2008 11:16PM]

I'm not one to complain about graphics, but they took this in a direction that they couldn't handle. Load times suck, textures are bad to decent, and characters look horrendous. For a game that has such a emphasis on character creation, they made characters look like poop. Humans have a bottom row of teeth and sometimes i think the game forgets this.

Also, I think it's lame as balls that the band worships the guitarist after EVERY song. I know its called Guitar Hero but there are 3 other instruments now, acknowledge them!

Overall, I complain because I think Rock Band is a superior or equal game in every way. I think Guitar Hero is becoming more childish despite the aging fan base and the complexity behind the music creator.

[Goatee Man @ Nov 28th 2008 11:33PM]

(Warning: Rock Band fanboy comment follows. This is just my opinion. Please don't take it the wrong way, people.)

What bothers me is just that Neversoft seems to take it too seriously... Harmonix knowingly made the game tongue-in-cheek as a way of telling people that it's just that: a game. They're fake plastic instruments, sure, but there's nothing wrong with pretending to rock out now and then, and I think Harmonix gets that pretty well. Whereas Neversoft has stuff like you said with the band worshipping the guitarist and all that... And the guest appearances by guitar figures is kind of irritating. It's just a game, Neversoft. Why make it all serious and "real" when it's meant to just be for fun?

[garrenteed @ Nov 29th 2008 12:07AM]

Agreed, realism translates to fun to a certain degree in video games. In my opinion if you're looking for the real thing, do the real thing.

[lorddshadow2 @ Nov 29th 2008 1:19AM]

but...it's hendrix! and slash! and morello! and sting! what more could you want? ...

bad question...real guitar/singer/bass/drums heroes as dlc anyone? make the supergroup of your dreams even if they would work horribly together...imagine this: buckethead on lead guitar, jack white singing and on rhythm guitar, john paul jones on bass, and the godly neil peart on drums...mmm....lots of dots...(rambles on) [yes that is a reference]

[Dums @ Dec 1st 2008 2:56PM]

When I'm on drums the band turns to the the drummer after the song.

[yopladas @ Nov 28th 2008 11:20PM]

Make it so that online, you are paired with people on the same diffulculty

[lickatoad123 @ Nov 28th 2008 11:21PM]

More cowbell, yes...

I am using my pedal on the carpet, and it's SUCK down, no problems... But my foot slides off it!! I applied some skateboarding grip-tape, but it didnt help... The foot pedal just feels flimsy.

[Marty @ Nov 28th 2008 11:22PM]

More exciting, so I give a fuck.

[Al Bundy @ Nov 28th 2008 11:24PM]

i'd replace it with real instruments that actually sounded half decent.

[Joseph @ Nov 28th 2008 11:24PM]

Use character models that won't give me nightmares.

[supakoopa @ Nov 28th 2008 11:25PM]

I would play Rockband.

[miko34 @ Nov 28th 2008 11:31PM]

Make it compatible with the next generation Xbox whenever that comes out so we don't have all this crap in our living rooms collecting dust.

[Michiel @ Nov 29th 2008 12:04AM]

Same goes for the Wii version

[y3k.nik @ Nov 28th 2008 11:32PM]

I wish they had the pedal so that you could you both feet simultaneously... would make some songs a lot easier.. and i am saying this with experience in rock band (system of down BYOB)...

[Jake Pollack @ Nov 28th 2008 11:45PM]

A.K.A. double bass pedal. (in rock band my friend had two sets and used a headphone splitter to connect both pedals. I haven't tried it out yet, but he says it works pretty well!

[MasterCKO @ Nov 29th 2008 8:43PM]

All the songs in RB that actually require a double bass pedal are charted without the left foot kicks (dunno about GH:WT). So it may be hard, but it's actually that hard to play those 16th kicks. No excuses for you, young grasshopper, practice, practice practice! ;-)

Plus, double kick pedals don't make things as easy as you might think they do (yay, using another limb!)

[poematik14 @ Nov 28th 2008 11:33PM]

The ability to move the drum pads around and make your own configuration.

[ilikecookies @ Nov 29th 2008 10:52AM]

yes, the snare and high hat placement are akward.

[Mike @ Nov 28th 2008 11:34PM]

Have a different developer make it, Neversoft's had two times to come out with an awesome rock game and they've failed both times. (Guitar Hero 3 was good but paled in comparison to the newly released Rock Band and World Tour tried to be Rock Band 1 and failed at it) Clearly, Harmonix knows what they're doing with the genre from when they started Guitar Hero 1 and 2 on to Rock Band 1 and 2 (except for Rocks the 80's, we're just gonna forget that one came out).

[obo @ Nov 29th 2008 12:23AM]

"Rocks the 80s" was a RedOctane concept that Harmonix executed. The $50 price point was probably Activision's, as it was the first GH game Activision published after buying RedOctane.

[Sam B. @ Nov 28th 2008 11:35PM]

To be honest, I only had two big problems. The first was with how loud the guitar controller was (strumming, buttons, etc.). And the second is that for every one good song I know, there are two or more songs from bands I've never heard, and they're all mixed together. It used to be with the tiers you'd play classic rock in one, metal in another, etc. But in World Tour I'm playing B.Y.O.B. right after La Bamba.