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Joystiq's updates the Instrument Compatibility Matrix
var digg_url = 'http://digg.com/gaming_news/Guitar_Hero_Rock_Band_Instrument_Compatibility_Matrix_v3_0'; Now that Rock Band 2, Guitar Hero World Tour and Rock Revolution are all headed our way, Xbox 360 gamers will soon be flooded with new instrument peripherals. This raises the question: which instruments will work with which games? Joystiq has stepped up to the proverbial plate and provided the answer: the Joystiq Instrument Compatibility Matrix 3.0. If you're planning to pick up any of these upcoming music games (and you really should be), consulting this handy chart is a must. It will be updated as new information is released, so be sure to bookmark it for the next time you've got a hankering for a new plastic instrument.
"I am Murloc" gets rocked already
Well that didn't take long. Despite the song only being announced yesterday,"I am Murloc" has been 5-starred on Expert, and you can see the video above to prove it. You can also see the notes they've chosed -- as a veteran of all three Guitar Hero games (and a current owner of Rock Band, though "Green Grass" is giving me trouble on Expert), I have to say that it looks pretty simple, especially compared to some of the other songs in GH3. It is too bad that they used the normal Guitar Hero 3 singer, too, and not a virtual version of Samwise.If you want something a little tougher, head down after the jump to see a hacked custom version of "I am Murloc" for Guitar Hero 2. The phrasing on that one seems to fit much more, and it seems to work a little better than the official version that got released in the latest game.
Joystiq Holidaze: the guitar compatibility guide
#comparechart { border: 2px solid #333; border-collapse: collapse; } #comparechart td { padding: 3px; border: 1px solid #ccc; vertical-align: top; margin: 0; line-height: 1.3em; font-size: 80%} #comparechart th { font-size: 80%; font-weight: bold; text-align: left; padding: 4px; background: #eee; } #comparechart th.x360th { font-size: 100%; border-bottom: 1px solid #333; background-color: #66FF99;} #comparechart th.mainth { font-size: 100%; border-bottom: 1px solid #333;} #comparechart th.ps3th { font-size: 100%; border-bottom: 1px solid #333; background-color: #99ccff;} #comparechart td.red { background-color: #f08c85; } #comparechart td.green { background-color: #b3e2c4; } 'Tis the season for shredding plastic guitar controllers in a virtual environment for screaming, adoring virtual fans - do you know if your plastic axe can rock with your game? Through playtests and corroboration via other sources, we have combined three handy charts (one for Xbox 360, PlayStation 3 and now Wii) to let you know what guitar controllers work with what games.First, the Xbox 360: Rock Band Stratocaster Yes No* No** Guitar Hero 3 Les Paul Yes Yes Yes Guitar Hero 2 Xplorer Yes Yes Yes Notes: * Can navigate menus, but during the songs the green button is stuck down, orange is red, and everything else is dead** Interestingly, the drums are recognized, so you can actually navigate menus using them, but playing songs is a no go.The PlayStation 3, however, has a much "easier" choice (after the break).
Joystiq Review: Pelican PS2 to PS3 controller adapter
The whole point of backward compatibility for most PS3 owners is being able to get rid of that PS2 in the old entertainment center. Yet many PS3 owners have had to keep their PS2 units hooked up for a few reasons, namely: Support for our old memory card saves. Support for rumbling controllers. Support for the Guitar Hero controller. The first problem is solved by an official Sony adapter which you can buy for $15, use once, and then throw away, we suppose. The second problem is solved by the recent firmware update 1.7, which added rumble support for old controllers hooked up via any number of USB to PlayStation controller adapters. Yet the third and most important problem remained -- if you want to play Guitar Hero, you need to keep a PS2 handy. Pelican's new controller adapter promises to fix this final problem, but the execution is less than perfect.
Thank you, Pelican PS2 to PS3 adapter
If you were unfortunate enough to sell your PS2 before reading about the failed attempts to play the original Guitar Hero on PS3, you aren't alone. In fact, upon first hearing the news of this little gadget, you probably jumped up for extreme joy and knocked yourself out on a low-hanging ceiling fan. Jeesh, be more careful! Now, we've all been patiently awaiting this very product since it was known to be in the works since November. Thanks to Pelican and their beautiful PS2 to PS3 adapting magic, we can finally rejoice, hold our original Guitar Hero controllers high, and rock ourselves out silly.See, some of us actually made the tragic mistake of assuming everything would be fine, without bothering to physically check adapters or reading any news about incompatibility. And so, with rage-like Hulk powers, we may very well have smashed everything in our living rooms when we realized the horrible, staggering truth. While most of our audience was probably savvy enough to avoid this type of disastrous end, we were stubbornly unwilling to part with this cherished product that literally, brought us tears of joy. Yes, tears of joy. Game on, beautiful rock stars of the gaming world. Game on.[Via Joystiq]
First tracks from Guitar Hero: Rocks the 80's revealed
An alarming abundance of outrageous attitudes? Check. Enormous shoulder pads and poor color coordination? Check. Extravagantly large hair and excessively shiny accessories? Check. With this Summer's upcoming Guitar Hero expansion, Rocks the 80's, publisher Activision is dangerously close to delivering their first Japanese RPG. Thankfully, Opposable Thumbs reminds us that it's all about the music and lists the first seven tracks from the game's 30-strong list. I Wanna Rock (by Twisted Sister) I Ran (by Flock of Seagulls) Round and Round (as made famous by Ratt) I Want Candy (as made famous by Bow Wow Wow) Metal Health (as made famous by Quiet Riot) Holy Diver (as made famous by Dio) Heat Of The Moment (as made famous by Asia) Given the lack of the "as made famous" bit, it seems original recordings are provided by everybody's favorite contorted siblings and maritime birds. Curiously, Opposable Thumbs notes that Guitar Hero: Rocks the 80's will be "exclusive" to the PlayStation 2. Does that imply exclusivity for the in-store version, with the Xbox 360 receiving the expansion in downloadable form? Why would Activision limit the game's reach? After all, the pricing of Guitar Hero's online tracks makes it pretty clear that the publisher enjoys making money.[Thanks, Jess]
RedOctane promises new Guitar Hero every year
Tina Turner be damned, you're getting a new Guitar Hero game every year. In a Eurogamer interview, RedOctane co-founder and president, Kai Huang, reveals that every guitar freak's favorite franchise will soon have something in common with large men tossing balls and slamming into each other. "I think that fans can definitely expect that we're going to have one major release a year," says Kai. Following that, the peripheral manufacturer plans to "release update packs and content packs so there's more songs." And what about the controversial pricing of already released song packs? The pricing's "competitive," says Huang, though his comment may have been slightly garbled due to the degradation of interplanetary transmissions. "We've done a lot of evaluation on the pricing and the costs for each of the songs and how they work for each of the packs, and we think that they're priced competitively, but certainly we listen to the fans and we take that feedback, and if that's something we'll need to evaluate we'll do that."An annual release of Guitar Hero is hardly something we'd consider to be terrible news, but one caveat certainly needs to be heard -- not many franchises keep their sparkle on a yearly release schedule. Even fellow music maniac, Dance Dance Revolution, has taken a few bad steps in its rapid-fire career. We cringe at the thought of seeing a great franchise doing a power slide... down a set of stairs.
Red Octane 'looking into' Guitar Hero II patch problems
"We're aware of the problem and we're looking into it." So says RedOctane in response to complaints of a Guitar Hero II patch leaving Xbox 360s paralyzed by the dreaded red ring of death. A string of users have posted their tales of woe on the official Xbox forums, noting post-patch game freezes, startup glitches and eventual system lockups. The patch was initially issued to correct unresponsive whammy bars in some guitar controllers.Though Red Octane doesn't divulge to Eurogamer just exactly what "we're looking into it" entails, there's little hope that a further software patch could repair completely inoperative consoles. There's also no direct evidence to suggest that the patch itself is causing the Xbox 360 hardware to malfunction. The operating system might be fooled into thinking there is, however, which isn't much better than a physical malfunction. This occurrence is awfully similar to what transpires whenever a new Xbox 360 game is released -- is software causing a new problem, or is it letting you know that you had a rotten system to begin with?We'll let you know as soon as RedOctane or Microsoft comment further.
GHII problems software based, patch inbound
Guitar Hero II, we've been writing about it nonstop since it was released. It was the major topic of our most recent Fancast. The song packs have outraged us. The game itself, however, is basically pure gaming gold. At least, it's gold so long as you have a functional guitar. Our own David Dreger, for example, has a broken whammy bar. Or does he? According to a recent statement from Activision, it looks like the whammy bar issue may actually stem from software, not hardware. Activision and Red Octane's support pages note that the issue is caused by an element of Guitar Hero II that was added to "ensure accurate scoring". In other words, it was placed there to prevent cheating. Activision plans to release a patch that should rectify the issue within the coming weeks. So, if you were planning on fixing that guitar yourself, you may want to wait for the patch. After all, if you fix your guitar, and then Activision patches the game, you may wind up with the same problem all over again.
First wave of Guitar Hero II songs rock Marketplace
3 sets of 3 songs from the original Guitar Hero have landed on Xbox Live Marketplace for GHII. Track Pack 1 has Ozzy's "Bark at the Moon", "Ace of Spades" by Motörhead, and The Exies' "Hey You". Pack numero dos is rockin' "Killer Queen" by Queen, The Donnas' "Take it Off", and "Frankenstein" by The Edward Winter Group. Finally, the third Pack gives you "Higher Ground" by Red Hot Chili Peppers, Incubus' "Stellar", and "Infected" by Bad Religion. Note that all of these songs are covers and not master tracks, like they were before. Each pack weighs in a 500 MS points. That means, at this price point, to get all 47 of the original Guitar Hero tracks, it would cost you roughly 7,850 MS Points or $98.09 USD. So, will you be picking up any of these packs, if so, which one?
Guitar Hero III60 encore this fall
RedOctane's Support Center has an interesting tidbit of information regarding the next installment of Guitar Hero, and it's release schedule. The PS2, PS3, Wii, and Xbox 360 can expect to be rocking out to a new set of songs to unlock in Guitar Hero III this Fall (for North America). This also will be Neversoft's first shot at the game, so it will interesting to see what direction they take the series, and if the pedal jack will be used or not. Do you think that this is too soon for the next game? Or is it justified as the PS2 release was back in November?[Via QJ.net]
GHII guitar works on Windows, Frets on Fire
As if Guitar Hero II wasn't enough on its own, it seems the X-plorer guitar does even more than expected. Our overlords and fellow slaves of rock at Joystiq have discovered that the X-plorer guitar controller that ships with the Xbox 360 version of Guitar Hero II works flawlessly with Windows. The device reportedly works in both Windows XP and Vista. The fret buttons correspond to buttons 1 through 5, back and start control 7 and 8, the D-pad and strummer control the Point of View Hat, the whammy bar controls X rotation, star power controls Y rotation and the Z-axis moves as you move the guitar.With some control configuration, the peeps at Joystiq even managed to get the guitar up and running with the freeware PC Guitar Hero clone, Frets on Fire. Getting the guitar to control a guitar game is interesting, but we're not satisfied. No, we won't be satisfied until we're pulling off headshots with our guitar. Even better, we'd like to see someone rig a music program to use the guitar as an actual instrument. Maybe someone could whip something up with Game Studio Express. Anyone care to take up the challenge?[Via Joystiq]
School of Rock: free Guitar Hero strategy guide
If there's one thing we like, it's a really well-done strategy guide. Add the words free and video to that guide, and you had us at free. The video part is just a bonus. It sure beats the old days of searching Usenet and praying that someone had posted a way to beat the uber-boss on level nine.GameAlmighty has put together a top-notch strategy guide for Guitar Hero to help you rock yourself to high-scores. It does get a bit dry at times, but thankfully the videos are brief and informative. It's not quite a face-melting tribute to rockmania, but it'll improve your thrashing for sure.However, it probably won't help you if you've got whammy bar problems.
Guitar Hero II Rocks out today
We've waited for months for this day, and lo, it has arrived. Guitar Hero II is out and ready to allow you to jam to the likes of Aerosmith, KISS, Alice Cooper, Stone Temple Pilots, and even shed a tear for My Chemical Romance. Packed with 74 songs and downloadable content available in the coming weeks, this spring is starting off with a bang. So here at Fanboy Towers, only two Fanbloggers have the intention of getting the game, half of which are able to pick it up today, and we'll let you take the wild guess who's who in that situation. But the situation we want to know is whether any of you, dear readers, are planning on busting out the tunes today. Who here is going to rock out and grab GHII today? How about later?
Instruction Manual confirms pedal for Guitar Hero's future
When you get your hands on a copy of Guitar Hero II, tomorrow, you'll find in the instruction manual the answer to the question which many inquisitive gamers have been pondering: What's that port on the bottom of the axe for? While it's been rumored for an effects pedal since the first shots showing it were released, it can now be confirmed. The manual explicitly states three things, first that it's for an effects pedal. Secondly, it will, naturally, be sold separately, and finally, that the feature is currently unavailable. We'll probably see it get use in the next iteration of Guitar Hero's series. Would you welcome some footwork when rocking out?
Guitar Hero II tourney in Florida April 7th
With Guitar Hero II mere weeks away from release, competitions were bound to start to get planned. GameHQ is holding a tournament on April 7th, sponsored by Red Octane. The catch, of course, is that it takes place in Deland, Florida at the Sunshine Bowling Center. Festivities start at 7:00 pm and there are unspecified prizes to be given to true rockers. We do like the name of the group, though: G.H.O.U.L., the Guitar Hero Organized Underground League. So, if you live in that region of America's wang, are you going to see what all the fuss is about? If so, will you start practicing now on the PS2's version, or wait until you pick it up for 360?
Guitar Hero II hits UK on Good Friday
So on Friday, or maybe it was Thursday, we told you that Guitar Hero II was releasing on April 3rd in North America. Well, fortunately the blokes over in the UK won't have to wait too much longer after the fact to get their grubby hands on a guitar controller. According to Eurogamer, Activision US also announced that the UK should have Guitar Hero II hit store shelves on April 6th, Good Friday. Hopefully there will some stores open for business to sell it to eager gamers looking to rock out on the long weekend. [Via QJ.net]
Guitar Hero II rocks 360 on April 3rd
Screw Guitar Hero II demo stations! Why waste time with a puny demo station when you can bag the real thing in just two weeks? That's right, Activision has officially announced that Guitar Hero II will release on April 3rd. Wait a minute, that sounds awfully familiar. Oh, that's because we reported it two months ago, booyah!At any rate, in just over two weeks, budding 360 rockers will finally get to lay down some righteous chops with the best of them. The 360 version of GHII features the all new X-plorer guitar, updated graphics, and 10 exclusive new songs. Not only that, but Red Octane already has a ton of downloadable content in the pipeline.So, 360 fanboys, we ask you: are you ready to RAWK?![Via Joystiq]
Badges of Honour back at Blockbuster
For you fellow Canadian fanboys out there, Blockbuster Video is carrying the "Badges of Honour". For a toonie, you can get your hands on one of five limited edition badges, from GRAW 2, to Guitar Hero II to Halo 3. Proceeds are going to be donated to the Children's Miracle Network, so its definitely for a good cause. They will only be available until Sunday, April 1st, 2007, so next time you're renting something over at Blockbuster, pick up a couple badges to help show gamers care.[Thanks, DjDATZ]
Halo 2 Theme on Guitar Hero II? Schweet
OXM's exclusive article and review combo of Guitar Hero II in their March issue had an interesting tidbit on an exclusive song. Apprarently, the Xbox 360 version will get a little spartan nostalgia as they get to rock out to the Mjolnir Mix of the Halo 2 theme. In terms of the song itself, it sounds like a lot of fun, as the guitar is very distinctive. Honestly, who wouldn't want to play the Halo 2 theme? Still, when we read the magazine's article prior to coming across this news, we didn't see any mention of the song, but perhaps we overlooked it in a sidebar or something. So, until we double check our issue of OXM, or a Fanboy reader confirms it, we're going to classify this as a rumor. No word if it is going to be available on the disc off the bat or through a download off of Xbox Live Marketplace. We're going to look into this as soon as we can. Let's say this is true, how do you feel about the Halo's theme showing up in other games? [Via GameStooge]
