Rock Band v Guitar Hero 3

[Duck]

Ok, I'm a music game geek. Ask Karm. Infact, DON'T ask him. He's full of slander and lies, and more slander.

But anyway, now there's a competition on the two games. And quite so. Both were born from Harmonix, which is kinda the Konami Music whatever it's called version for America. Bemani! That's it! Anyway, lets get on to the comparason!

Graphics:

Now this is one of the LEAST important parts of a music game. Sure it should be pretty enough not to make the eyes vomit, but it doesn't have to look like the next final fantasy. Unless rocking out will summon Bahamut who will come in and smite my enemies who think they can out rawk me!

Rock Band's graphics are quite simple. All the character models are really just a few simple bases with occasional differences that can be put on nearly all the other characters. So really, when you buy a lot of the stuff, you can have a character that looks different from any other character. Which is just plain nifty. But, it's not impressive. What IS impressive, is that your specific character is put into the loading screens. It's a simple swap, but it really builds into the image of you being involved.

Durring play, Rock Band will do these kinda, I guess the best way to put it, is like they put on a different lens on the camera which makes things look really different, and sometimes it's quite jarring. Like you'll be doing your gig, and then the screen goes staticy and black and white. It's a bit of a change, and it takes some getting used to. As well as their use of blur effects. Not to say it's all bad on stage.

The best thing about the graphics on Rock Band is that the band ACTUALLY looks like it could be playing. The lip synch is pretty good, and so is all the band members playing. It just builds into the immersiveness the game should have.

Now Guitar Hero.

First off, let me say this, its opening is quite nifty. It's fully animated, and is just plain full of rock. But, from there it just goes down hill. Remember how your favorite character looked? For me, it was Johnny Napalm. Why? I dunno, I guess I liked the punk look. And the best way to describe what happened is to say they took all that was good with the character designs, and basically OVER exagerated it. Johnny looks like a heroin addict. Chasey does too. Judy Nails some how went from emo like girl, to punkish woman. Nearly every character looks, well.. horrible. The new J-pop character looks abysmal. Just plain God awful.

The other band members don't fare better. The lead singers mouth moves similar to a muppets. They also just look, uninspired.

What it DOES get right, are the Ledgends look. Slash looks like Slash, Tom looks like him too. Very nice.

The screen looks a bit busy as well. Each time you get a fifty note streak, the screen gets this lil flashing note telling you. Which at first lead to a lotta missed notes. The star power meter is kinda.. well it's hard to really tell when you're gonna really run out or get it completely full. Instead of being a meter it's these little lights you fill up.

The stages look nice though, sometimes a bit too busy for my tastes. but they look nice.

Songs

Rock Band is kinda the mix station, where Guitar Hero is the oldies/modern rock station.

That's the best way to describe it. Now, I naturally pefer more rock, but Guitar Hero 3's soundtrack leaves me a bit. The first two stages didn't really grab me. And I had to trudge through them to play the good songs. This isn't how it's supposed to be. They should have songs just grab you. The ones that want to make you play for them being nifty songs. Then the harder ones are the ones you follow through for difficulty's sake.

I perfer Rock Band over GH3, but its my taste. May be different for you.

Gameplay.

For the GH3 people. Remember GH2? Make it harder. That's GH3. Except the boss battles. Which are horrible.You only hear about half the song, and the way to win is just stock up the items, and unleash emall at once. Just not fun, I'd rather just beat the song.

Rock Band

Y'know GH? Karaoke Revolution? Great, you know guitar and vocals.

Drums are hard.

Don't let people lie to you.

It's hard. Fun but hard.

The thing about RB is that you really only get the full enjoyment if you have a full band. But other than that, they both really play similarly.

overall

I'd say RB wins. When you get a good group going, it almost feels like a real band. When you're all jamming, and you hear the CROWD sing with you two. GH3 just can't compare to that.

[Lucia]

Haven't played Rock Band yet, but Guitar Hero 3.. really lacks the feel of the earlier games. It just doesn't feel to me like a music game so much as a 'press the visual cues' game, and the early levels are just so slow paced and boring.

My opinion of course. And i used the J-Pop girl, but mostly because I didn't like any of the other characters, and utter lack of Pandora depressed me so.

[Duck]

Pandora not being in it, kinda upset me too. ESPECIALLY with the addition of the J Pop girl.

[Lucia]

I ALWAYS picked her in GH2.

I suppose I was less annoyed with the J-pop girl than most though. My way of thinking, least she isn't as ugly as everyone else.

[Xiao]

My opinion on Guitar Hero III: Guitar Hero had a good thing going for it, they had found the digital crack that makes simple games enjoyable, however after they had finished GH2, they got too high on their horse and began to think that they had just made a really good game, removed the digital addictiveness and tried to run on the game by itself which made it not as good.

As you might see, I did not really like Guitar Hero, It seemed to jump from annoyingly easy to frustratingly hard, not having any of the really fun middle ground that made up the majority of GH2, and as far as the song list goes... I'm a fan of more fast stuff and not horribly hard like metal, and almost all of the songs in GH3 were either slow or a very hard metal song with a few exceptions, I like the metal though it's not too fun to play, the only song I really enjoyed was Monsters. And most of the songs felt more like you were simply you were matching someone else play with the controller instead of feeling like you were actually playing the song which is the illusion the game is supposed to give

Haven't played Rock Band... too expensive...

[Lucia]

My opinion on Guitar Hero III: Guitar Hero had a good thing going for it, they had found the digital crack that makes simple games enjoyable, however after they had finished GH2, they got too high on their horse and began to think that they had just made a really good game, removed the digital addictiveness and tried to run on the game by itself which made it not as good.

"They" didn't make Guitar Hero 3, the developers behind it were bought by MTV and made Rock Band, GH3 is made by.. i believe, Neversoft.


I agree completely with your points. With a few exceptions, I found way too many songs in GH3 to be too slow to be enjoyable, nor did it have as many instantly recognisable songs as GH2 did (Mother? Them Bones? bloody FREE BIRD? Trogdor?) The only song I really cared about in GH3 was Cult of Personality, and that was in veeery far. It was kind of like the transformation scene in Quake 4, a small bright spot to an awful, awful disappointing and unfun game.

Overall, disappointment to be had.

[Lucia]

The other band members don't fare better. The lead singers mouth moves similar to a muppets. They also just look, uninspired.

Oh gods, I missed this, the lead singer is hilariously awful. Especially if the song has 2 singers (Closer by Lacuna Coil) and you have one person singing both genders.

[Shadowmaster]

I just got a 360 a few days ago, along with Rock Band, and wow. That game is incredibly fun. It takes everything Guitar Hero has ever done right, and enhances it 100 times.

I love the customizable characters. Some of the clothes are really cool looking. The fact that they also have the custom characters in the load screens makes it all the better.

The guitar feels alot better to me than Guitar Hero. The lack of that nasty clicking noise is great. And the bottom frets can probably make hard and Expert easier, if I can get used to them.

The singing is fun too. I love that the crowd sings along, but little things like that really make me happy. It just adds a bit of realism.

I haven't tried the drums out too much yet, but from what I've seen, it promises to be very enjoyable as well.

All in all a great game, and totally worth the large price tag in my opinion.

[Xiao]

I was able to play Rock Band the other day, and I must say that it was much better than Guitar Hero 3 in my opinion. The band making alone left me entertained for a long time (though I was in the giddy-stages of tiredness at the time)

[Duck]

Also a plus for Rock Band, the DLC.

Guitar Hero's DLC is one of two types. Single song for 200 microsoft points, or 3 for 500. While the song selection is alright (foo fighters, velvet revolver, an indie one, and one record lable one) it's fairly limited right now. Though there are a few songs that are free (halo theme (not that fun) and the boss battle songs)

Rock Band's varries from 80 points for a song to 440 for a 3 pack. And there's nearly double the content, for much less time. and there's more each week. And it REALLY varries. Metalica, Black Sabbath, Weezer, David Bowie, All American Rejects. Cheaper, more variety, and just plain more. Way ta go Rock Band.

[Lanzerus]

RB all the way, yeah GH was fun, but it is blown to smitherins if compared to RB

[Mendi-chan]

I suppose I'll put in my two cents. Most of the points about each of the two games have been covered, so I'll be short. Guitar Hero III is, in my opinion, requires a higher level of skill than does the Rock Band guitar playing. It's just plain harder. This can be good and bad depending on how you look at it, but I'm of the opinion that Guitar Hero has more enjoyable play compared to the Rock Band guitar. Also, the guitar controller for Rock Band is a disappointment. Everything looks great and works out well save for one thing, the strum bar. It just feels flimsy and unresponsive, and many a time I find myself wondering "Why didn't it count that strum?" Of course, you can just the Guitar Hero controller for Rock Band, so it really is a small issue.

Rock Band does outshine Guitar Hero in other areas however. The vocals and drums provide a nice addition to gameplay, and when put into combination with the guitar on multiplayer, it provides a whole new gaming experience. My personal standpoint on these two games is this. If your going to play alone, go with Guitar Hero, but if you can some buddies over, or even have Xbox Live (or Playstation 3 Online), than Rock Band is the way to go.

[Duck]

Difficulty in Guitar Hero IS much higher, but, to me, it's not nearly as fun. But if you're looking for a real challange, Guitar Hero is the way to go. Now the guitar, mine hasn't had a problem yet, but I hear it is a problem. Good thing, the Rock Band website is set up for ways to replace the broken ones. But it's still a nasty problem.

[Sam]

I just got Rock Band for christmas along with Guitar Hero 3. I Love Rock Band not only for you and your friends playing different instraments (hence the name rock band) but also because of the world tour mode. For once choosing your home town matters and is where you start. Guitar Hero 3 however just has the same feeling. Its fun, but nothing radically good and new has been added to it

[Lucky]

I seem to have a funner time playing Rock Band then GHIII. (go as far as to say GHII also)

and since these sort of games are ment for mindless fun, that's all that matters to me.

XD