Singularity Review

After observing a spike in radiation levels over the Russian island of Katorga-12, US troops are sent in to infiltrate and investigate the island. After a strange occurrence of incidents, including time travel, it turns out that you have drastically altered the timeline, throwing the world into Russian rule. Using the help of newly acquired "friends" and weaponry, can you revert things to normal? Do you even want to?

The story starts out plainly enough, until you’ve crashed landed on Katorga-12 and start running into some interesting creatures. They are human-like in nature, but with very decayed and mutated bodies. Oh, and they are super aggressive and out to eat you. In a hurry to meet back up with your squad mates, you run into an old building, where you are thrust back in time, to when the building was burning down in 1955. You happen across an individual who is clinging on for his life, and decide to save him. Unfortunately, that kind of altered the time line, and now the man you saved is the man you are trying to kill to set things right.

You return to your time, in 2010, shortly after rescuing this man, Demichev. He then captures you in 2010, and wants to know about your time traveling powers, which you are unaware of, but you escape with the help of Mir-12, some underground group trying to figure out this time traveling thing. From then on, you are running around the island, both in 2010 and in 1955, trying to get the time line back to the way it was and correct all of your mistakes. You’ll find out a lot about the happenings on Katorga-12 and how all of these things came to pass, with the help of various notes and recordings scattered around the island. Mir-12 agent Kathryn, and 1955 scientist Barisov will also help you try to solve this mystery.

Katorga-12 was first discovered as the only place that contained a super rare and powerful element, E-99. Once found, the Russians built all sorts of facilities on the island to research its unique characteristics and capabilities, including weapons research and time travel. Unfortunately, a terrible accident occurred, killing most of the island’s inhabitants, and mutating the rest into horrifying creatures who you must now battle.

Some of these enemies are pretty cool, while others are quite annoying. Most take a humanoid appearance, with special powers, such as teleporting through time and space, making them worthy adversaries. Other enemies are little exploding kamikaze bugs, which are bothersome and attack in swarms, and another is similar to a giant, acid-spitting spider. So, there is a decent variety of enemies, but you’ll usually face the humanoid opponents, as well as Demichev’s soldiers who have guns, so you can’t go running around all willy nilly.

Aside from a range of standard guns, like a pistol, machine gun, and shotgun, you also have more advanced weaponry, like a spike gun, remote controllable grenade launcher, or sniper rifle that allows you to slow time. There is even this sweet rifle where you can control the bullet after firing, so you can wind it around cover and obstacles and still hit your target in the face, delivering a satisfying explosion. You also have the help of your Time Manipulation Device, or TMD. This little guy is very useful in both puzzle solving and combat. You gain abilities as you progress, but eventually, you can move objects, age objects into their 1955/2010 counterpart, to decay/fix items, create a protective bubble that stops time, use it as a melee attack, and more. The time altering abilities are pretty cool, especially when a pesky adversary is all in your face; just send them to 1955, bwahahaha.

The game isn’t too puzzle heavy, but it has its fair share, and they are pretty inventive. Unfortunately, they are redone again and again, so once you solve it the first time, it’s a no-brainer when you come across it again. However, the first time you come across a puzzle, you will probably be stuck thinking about it for a minute or two, so I was impressed with the inventiveness of the puzzle, and how it doesn’t simply throw the answer in your face. You have to use your powers and the items around you to figure it out.

Singularity does do a good job of setting the mood though. 2010 is pretty disheveled and everything is overgrown, while everything is nice and new in 1955. There are a handful of very atmospheric, and scary moments in the game, where things pop out at you, or the overall environment is truly creepy. There are even messages you can find on walls that have been left by a mysterious person, possibly yourself, which make you question your mission, what you are doing, and who you can trust. To further bring you into the story and what all was going on back in 1955, you can find and read an assortment of notes and listen to audio logs left behind by scientists and other inhabitants. These are left on desks and tables and all over the place. They slow the pacing of the game a bit, as you can stop to read or listen to each one, but if you get really into the story, then it’ll be worth it to investigate as much as possible to learn about what went on on Katorga-12. Obviously though, you can skip right by these and continue on to the action.

Exploration is also beneficial to more action-oriented players, as you can find many, many E-99 tech pieces, which can be used to upgrade powers and weapons. These can be used to increase health and energy, as well as increase your sprint distance, gain more ammo per pickup, and other perks. There are also weapon upgrades which can be used to upgrade each weapon in various stats, like power, reload time, and clip size. There is a problem though, in the way the game limits your movements. If you go through a door to a new section of the map, that door will close off and you won’t be able to go back. So, if there was some stock pile of E-99 tech in one room, but you decide to explore this other room first, which happens to be the main path to the new section, you may get screwed and not be able to back-track to that E-99 horde. This happened to me a few times….quite annoying.

Naturally, Singularity also has a multiplayer mode or two. It features a relatively standard Creatures vs Soldiers deathmatch mode, as well as an Extermination mode, akin to territories. Each mode features humans versus creatures. Humans have multiple class options, each of which has a different perk, such as the ability to teleport short distances, melee, or other such skill. You can also choose a weapon independently of class, like a standard rifle, shotgun, or sniper. The creatures’ classes are a bit more diverse. Each creature class is a different creature, all of which act and move very differently, so many play styles can be used here. One is that large ass spider that can shoot bombs at you, while another creature can place proximity mines. The little tick creature can run up and explode near an enemy, or jump on him, kill him, and inhabit his body, giving you access to his weapon and confuse opponents.

The Creatures vs. Soldiers mode is a standard deathmatch mode and is self-explanatory, but Extermination is more team-based. Here, the humans have to work together to bring three terminals back online. Once online, their spawn gets moved up to that terminal. Of course, the creatures are there to stop you from doing this, so it’s a constant battle to see who can get the upper hand. Once the time limit is reached, or all three terminals get brought online, you switch sides. The team with the most terminals online at the end wins.

Overall, Singularity does a good job of bringing you into the world of Katorga-12 and the E-99 experiments, with the various artifacts you can find and there are cool time manipulation elements to play around with. One downfall is that the NPCs don’t look at you when they talk, which breaks down the immersion, but aside from that, the single player experience is nicely crafted to bring the player into its world. There is then multiplayer which you can delve into, with ranks and leveling up, which could keep you busy for awhile.

Overall Score: 7/10

This review was based on the PlayStation 3 version of the game, however, most of which has been stated should also be applied to the Xbox 360 and PC versions of the game.

Transformers: War for Cybertron Review

Transformers: War for Cybertron brings the war home for the Autobots and Decepticons, with Megatron trying to take over and control the planet for himself, while Optimus and the Autobots must try to thwart his efforts and save their home planet. We see a lot of familiar faces in this title, and can even take the role of almost all of them, as the campaign is split between playing as both the Decepticons and Autobots. There is even a healthy dose of multiplayer, so the only thing you have to ask yourself is, which side will you choose?

The first talking point is the campaign itself. It features 10 chapters, each of which, aside from the final two, have 10 sections each. These chapters are split up, 5 for the Decepticons, and 5 for the Autobots, but the entire story is cohesive and follows a linear path. The game starts with the Decepticon chapters, but you can choose to skip ahead to the Autobot sections, although doing so will have you missing out on all of the Decepticon happenings, which could easily confuse you, story wise. Because of this, pacing is a bit weird, because, obviously, the starting chapter(s) are a bit easier, and then it gets harder, but when you start the Autobot chapters, it's easy again. Also, the stories kind of mirror each other, at least with the final boss in each major section, so you'll be seeing some familiar sites, although both stray from each other, so each feel fresh. For instance, the main boss in each story line is a huge robot, but both are fought in completely different ways, and require different strategies.

The story starts out with Megatron, who plots to obtain Dark Energon, infect the core of Cybertron, and then rule the planet, and restore it to its past glory. I'm not the biggest Transformer fan, but apparently this is somewhere near the beginning of the timeline, at least with the civil war between the Autobots and Decepticons. Anyways, Megatron proves to be a fairly competent foe, and is successful, leading Optimus and crew to clean up what Megatron has done. Anyways...

At the beginning of each chapter, you can choose from 3 or 4 characters to play as. Each character has a unique class, like Scientist, Leader, Soldier, has unique abilities, and starts with a different weapon. Overall, the character selection doesn't really change gameplay up that much, and I didn't notice any diverse differences between classes, but it is still an incentive to replay chapters as a different character.

The entire campaign can actually be played in co-op as well; up to 3 players can join, but I didn't test it out myself. Without co-op, you have two guys backing you up, who act more as a distraction to enemies rather than kicking some ass, so you're still responsible for blowing those robots away.

Graphically, the game looks nice, but everything is a little too shiny, and most of the environments look the same. It all looks mechanical and metal and gets a bit stale, but the gameplay mechanics themselves are solid, which is good.

The perspective is third-person, slightly over the shoulder look, which I wish would just have been pure third-person. You can hold two weapons at a time, and the variety is pretty nice. There are machine guns, a scoped pistol, sniper rifle, rocket launcher, remote detonated grenade launcher, and some other fun tools. You can also melee with a giant axe, and cut robots in half, which is pretty satisfying. You also have a variety of grenades at your disposal, like frag, EMP, and ironically enough, healing grenades. Your character of choice has two special abilities, which can help him move around or deal some damage. And naturally, each character can transform into either a car or jet, depending on the scenario, which is done quite quickly, on the fly, and doesn't take you out of the action. As a vehicle, you can move around quicker, boost, and use a couple of extra weapons. The necessity of flight in certain levels helps to relieve the monotony, and handles quite well.

While the campaign is solid, and will last you at least 10 hours, especially if you want to find all of the hidden tokens, the game really shines in multiplayer. There are various team verse team modes, like deathmatch and zones, as well as Escalation. The game play is exactly the same as campaign, so you are still running around as a robot and can still transform into a vehicle, so fire fights can get pretty crazy, and you can get back into the battle quickly. There are a ton of challenges you can get, so you'll always see something flash up on screen to announce an extra 100 XP, which is always exciting. There are also kill streaks, so if you get a 3 kill streak, or 5, etc, you'll get a little bonus to use, like a radar to detect enemies, or health regenerator, or other useful item, so strategic combat is important.

Obviously, you can rank up your character, but a cool thing is that there are multiple classes to play as, like Solider, Scientist, Scout, and each of these are ranked up as you use them. So, you'll have to go from one class to another to rank each one up, so you can unlock new abilities and starting weapons. This will keep you playing for some time.

And if that weren't enough, there is another mode called Escalation, which is almost exactly like Nazi Zombies from Call of Duty: World at War. You can play with 4 guys total, and you battle wave after wave of transformers. The first rounds are pretty easy, but the higher you go, the harder and bigger the enemies are. As you take out baddies, you earn points, which you can spend on opening new rooms and purchasing new weapons, ammo, and health. If you take too much damage, you go down, but can be revived by team mates, if they get to you fast enough. Also, unlike Nazi Zombies, you can put some points down for, say, opening a door to a new room, but not spend the full points. For instance, if a door costs 400 points, you can put 100 towards the door, and have your teammates put in the other 300 and fill the meter. This way, you never have to force one player to spend all of his points on getting the next door, which is pretty cool. Unfortunately, there are only two maps for this mode, but it's still killer and something that will have you playing again and again. Heck, I still play Nazi Zombies.

Transformers: War for Cybertron is an all around fun game. I felt the campaign got a little repetitive, but whacking robots to death and playing with some of those weapons was pretty awesome, and the bosses got pretty difficult and felt fresh. The multiplayer ranks up there, with fun standard modes, and Escalation is great and will definitely keep you coming back. Don't think this is some lame, shovelware, movie, kiddy crap that gets built in a month and thrown out on every system, because it is much more than that, and definitely worth a look. If you're a fan of Transformers, or just like shoot-em ups, check this game out. If you need another game to throw hours upon hours away at with multiplayer, then you might have found a winner.

Overall Score: 7.5/10

This review was based on the PlayStation 3 version of the game, however, most of which has been stated should also be applied to the Xbox 360 and PC versions of the game. However, the Wii and DS versions of the game are different and should not apply to this review.

Blur Review

Blur, one of the newest action-packed racing games, takes the Mario Kart formula, and adds in a dose of adrenaline and realism to turn things up a bit for kart battling fans. Instead of cartoony graphics and racing karts, you have realistic environments and real, licensed vehicles. Blur kicks things up a notch, and it’s a pretty killer ride.

Blur doesn’t feature too much of a storyline, aside from the fact that you are some new racer on the scene, and must fight for fans and reputation. Through the campaign, there are 9 sections, each of which feature a head racer whom you must compete against in the end. Each of these sections houses 7 events, through which you can gain lights, fans, and new cars. The game is fairly streamlined, so there is no driving around a huge map to find the next event. You simply select it and you’re there.

Lights are the main unit of points, through which you can unlock new sections to play through. You can gain 5 lights from placing first, 4 for second, and 3 for third. You can gain two additional lights by getting enough fans and by completing the fan run. The fan run is triggered by driving through a special item and then going through numerous gates. If you miss a single gate, you fail the fan run, but can try again the next lap. Fans can be gained by driving well, and using your weapons in a variety of ways. Do enough tricks, and you can gain some serious fans, which are also used to unlock new vehicles.

Luckily, Blur keeps things fresh, and you aren’t simply racing again and again, exactly. The first obvious deviation is the fact that there are race, checkpoint, and destruction events. Races are self explanatory, while checkpoint pits you against the clock alone. Get those boosts and time additions, and see if you have the skill and speed to finish fast enough. Destruction is a bit different, and has you racing around a track, taking out cars with bolts as best you can. The more cars you destroy, the higher your score.

Another way in which the game keeps you engaged, is by having a different set of requirements for duking it out with a section’s main “boss”. These are one-on-one races, in which you can either beat your opponent, or destroy him. Doing so, will net you 8 lights, as well as his car and mod, which is a special power-up. To be able to race these guys, you have to satisfy multiple requirements, which change each section. These could be “get 5 backwards shunts,” or “dodge 3 lighting strikes”. They are all different, but add a nice variety to the game and give you something different to try to achieve each section.

One final little addition, is in fan demands. These are triggered the same as fan runs, by driving through a small indicator. When acquired, you are given a little prompt and an item to achieve the request. These range from “get a long-range bolt hit,” to “get a reverse shunt hit while drifting”. The faster you complete the request, the more fans you’ll net.

The weapon set in Blur covers all the basics. You have a homing missile, non-tracking bolts, mines, super lighting to attack the head of the pack, a shield, a repair, boost, and one or two more. Most of the weapons, at least the ones that make sense, can be fired both forward and backward, and they can even be used to block incoming attacks. You can hold three at a time, and use or dispose of them as you wish. Figuring out how to use these weapons is key to success, especially on harder difficulties as the AI is relentless. You will have to use all of your skills to stay in first, and it is by far, no easy task. By the third section in campaign, I had to scale back the difficulty to easy because I couldn’t win any events. Those guys are ridiculous, but luckily, easy will still give you some challenge further down the road. Overall though, I think medium is a bit too hard, and easy is a bit too easy. I wish there was something in between.

Multiplayer is another big factor in Blur. Like so many other games, Blur features a fully fledged ranking system, complete with 50 ranks, as well as a “prestige” mode, where you can reset your rank to 1 and get a bonus in a Legend car. You rank up by getting fans, which is done in the same way, by using weapons well and getting a good placing. Luckily, even if you don’t do too well in a race, you’ll still net some fans, so you progress no matter what. As you rank up, you unlock new cars and mods, which will make you more successful. With multiplayer, the variety of mods is increased dramatically, and you can set up to 3 mods, which give you a variety of perks, so playing around with them and finding a good set is important.

Multiplayer also features a variety of lobbies to play in, some with 10 or so cars, while others can support up to 20, which can get pretty crazy, with bombs flying all over the place. Staying in first will definitely be a challenge. And like old school FPSs, you can even get a cool little award after the race, for most weapons used, or best accuracy, etc, so it’s always neat to see if you’ll be spotlighted for your skill, or lack thereof.

Another interesting feature Blur has is its connectivity. Not only is there online multiplayer and 4-player split-screen, but you can even post your progress on Twitter or Facebook. Personally, I find such things a bit pointless, but its definitely a cool thing to have for those interested. You can even pause a single player game at any time and take a picture, changing colors and tints, with a free roaming camera. Something I find a bit cooler, is that you can have a rival, which is a selected friend whom you can compete with. Once selected, you’ll get updates on your rival’s scores and times in campaign and all of their progress, so you can try to beat their times. It’s pretty nifty, and something that will keep you coming back and trying to get better scores.

Overall, Blur is a solid package. There are over 50 licensed vehicles to unlock and drive, from BMWs to Hummers, which you can paint and customize, to an extent. The single player campaign is fun and challenging, and the multiplayer will keep you busy for a long time, with 50 ranks and 10 Legend prestiges to go through. There are even a ton of challenges to achieve, for you completionists. This is by no means a simulation racer, but if you like Mario Kart and other weaponized racers, then you’ll enjoy this one. The driving is solid and requires skill, but is basic enough for a less hardcore crowd. Those looking for a challenge though, will definitely find it in Hard mode and with the online competitors.

Overall Score: 7.7/10

This review was based on the PlayStation 3 version of the game, however, most of which has been stated should also be applied to the Xbox 360 and PC versions of the game.

Wolfenstein Review

The latest installment of Wolfenstein has just been released. The self-titled iteration in the series brings back famed war hero B.J. Blazkowicz . After escaping a Nazi-filled tanker, he is sent back into a town called Isenstadt, as he is the only one who can put down the Nazis’ plan to use the occult power of the Black Sun to conquer the world. With the help of the resistance, does he have what it takes to succeed and stop their evil plan?

Wolfenstein starts out normal enough. You reach Isenstadt and meet up with the local resistance, who brief you on the situation and show you around town. You’ll have a buddy you can follow for this part, so you can learn your way around the main world, but after that, you can rely on both a world map in the pause menu, and a “GPS” which lets you know which direction to go towards your objective. However, after snooping around a bit, you’ll learn of the research and experiments the Nazis have been doing, and learn of the powers of the Black Sun and Veil.

Once you find a special medallion and crystal, you can use the powers of the Veil. The first power you receive is the ability to see into a new dimension. This turns the world green, and allows you to more easily see enemies, enemy weak points, and pass through hidden doorways. As you collect more crystals throughout the game, you unlock more powers. The three other powers are a shield, the ability to slow down time, and one that makes your weapons do more damage. All of these abilities will put you into the Veil dimension, where special creatures can damage you, so be careful. Also, you use up Veil energy, so you must be sure to use your powers wisely to conserve the energy when you really need it.

Aside from the Veil powers, you have a total of 8 weapons at your disposal, although you don’t have them all from the start. The first weapons you get are a standard MP40 machine gun and Kar98 rifle. However, once you’ve explored a little bit, you’ll find much more interesting weapons, like a Panzershrek rocket launcher, flame thrower, or experimental Nazi weapons, like a Tesla gun. These weapons are fairly useful from the get-go, but you can upgrade all of them at the Black Market if you have some cash. You get money from completing missions and finding gold throughout both the main world and mission levels. You’d be wise to seek out these gold pieces, because upgrades are almost essential to bringing down the Third Reich. Not only can you upgrade the standard components of weapons and increase their capacity, damage dealt, and other such things, but you can add things like scopes and silencers which are very effective. You can also upgrade your Veil powers, which are really awesome.

While the Veil powers are already cool in their own right, the upgrades are devastating. For instance, the shield power can be upgraded to not only reflect bullets back at those that shot them, but to outright destroy anyone who gets too close to you. Turning on this power and running straight into a pack of soldiers is hilariously fantastic. The upgraded bullet empowering ability can destroy tanks with ease and shoot through just about any cover the enemy may be using. And there are also handy melee weapons you can pick up. Using the axe to decapitate German soldiers: priceless.

Wolfenstein is slightly open world, but more linear when you get into a mission. When not in a mission, you are free to wonder around Isenstadt, which is pretty large. You can search for gold or intelligence, which reveals more about the story or gives you artwork, or look for people to talk to who may give you an optional mission to perform. Once you’ve talked to the right people, generally the main characters in safe houses, you can make your way to a main mission. These are in areas outside of the main world and are reached either by getting to areas which are normally blocked off, or via vehicle driven by a fellow resistance fighter.

Most of the missions are about the same, and require you to move through a level and get to the end. Obviously, there is some task to be done, but main objectives are too obvious, unless you pause the game and look at your current objective. Typically though, you are either trying to destroy some piece of machinery or take out a high-ranking official, aka boss. These don’t simply require you to shoot them until they’ve taken enough damage, but rather, entail you finding their weakness and then exploiting it. Some areas are more interesting than others, than a giant castle, but you’ll basically be mowing down Nazis left and right in both. There are a variety of special enemies who use unique weapons, like a flame thrower or ooze-shooting gun, and have distinctive weak points. The AI is decent, but nothing special. Enemies will take cover at times, and rush you at others. There was never a time I can recall when they would just stand around while you shot at them or anything stupid like that. And their grenade throwing abilities? Ridiculously accurate.

The story mode is pretty short, clocking in at under 6 hours for my first play through on “hard”. I got a trophy for beating the game in under 12 hours, so perhaps it may take the average gamer longer. Naturally, it will also take much longer if you look for all of the gold pieces, intelligence, tomes, and secret missions throughout the game, which will greatly extend the play. Once you have beaten the game though, you can play a new one with cheats activated, which allow for pumpkin heads, and give you all of the weapons and upgrades from the start. Once that has gotten stale though, you can head over to the multiplayer.

In the current era of Call of Duty and Halo, it can be hard for a game, especially FPS, to create a good multiplayer universe and grab gamers’ attention, but Wolfenstein does a good job of offering players some engaging content. Wolfenstein provides 3 modes to play on 8 maps. The first mode is your standard team deathmatch, while the other two are objective. Both feature the option of choosing from three different classes: soldier, engineer, and medic. Each class is unique, having their own powers and options for weapons. The soldier can use any weapon, from the MP40 and Kar98, to a Panzershrek and flamethrower. The engineer and medic can only use a MP40 or Kar98, but have unique abilities that make them useful, especially in objective matches. Each map has their own objectives that you must complete for victory, and engineers are vital in success, as they are the only ones who can plant explosives to access areas needed for victory and build bridges and ladders.

There is also a ranking system in the game, that is very similar to others and levels you up based on your stats, which are all trackable, including kills, objectives met, etc. You also gain money for every kill and objective you complete, which can be used similarly to story mode, allowing you to purchase weapon and ability upgrades. Furthermore, there are some old-school-type awards given at the end of each match, which are always fun to get. The games I played did seem a bit laggy, and weren’t the smoothest I’ve ever experienced, but they were definitely playable. This is my first experience with PS3’s online play, so I’m not sure if it was more the PS3 or the game itself. Again though, it was totally playable.

Overall, Wolfenstein presents an engaging story featuring the legendary B.J. Blazkowicz. While the FPS mechanics are fairly standard, the game provides some unique weapons as well as cool Veil powers to devastate the enemy. There is plenty to explore in the game, from collecting all of the gold and intelligence, to seeking out resistance members to help out. Once you’ve done that, you can play up the multiplayer, where you can rank up to level 50 I believe, and upgrade your characters and weapons.

Overall Score: 7/10

Posted in cooperation with Gamers Platform

Avatars in Guitar Hero 5

They tried out Miis in a particular mode of Guitar Hero: World Tour, so I guess it was time to step up the game for Guitar Hero 5, as now you'll be able to rock out as your Xbox 360 Avatars; proved by this video on Xbox's official YouTube page.. which no one seems to have posted else wise:



The feature is pretty cool to see, as not too many games right now actually take advantage of the Avatars. But there's something strange about watching a group of men in business attire singing KISS... and the lip-syncing isn't all too there. Regardless, I'm curious to see if the Wii version will allow gamers to play as Miis in the full game this time around... no clue what to say for Sony gamers though, since the Home characters don't really leave that application.

Guitar Hero 5 brings new logo design

Call me not a fan of constantly released game titles, but sometimes even the subtle changes make me intrigued for better or worse. I mean, something must be going down at Activision when they not only decided to give the game a visual make-over from its previous incarnations, but to give the franchise logo a new look as well.

Subtle? Maybe. But I still noticed it right away when I was checking out RedOctane's press site. I'm just more curious as to why, whoever the powers may be, have decided to make such a change now? Especially with the franchise's key look is already defined for this generation, a mid-moment re-branding seems unnecessary. Perhaps we'll be able to tell once artwork and more show up for the announced Band Hero and DJ Hero titles (by the way, did we need those?).

New Guitar Hero titles coming soon?

If Activision's Guitar Hero press site is to be believed, which I don't know why it wouldn't be, it seems that a new console Guitar Hero title is on the way, as is a new DS title.

I mean ... you can't get much more convincing than that. I'm going to go out on a limb here and say that the 'Coming Soon' for the console titles is the worst kept secret, Guitar Hero: Metallica. But as for the DS game ... I hope it's not another On Tour title, because those seemed to have been launched within months of each other; and with the GBA slot-less DSi coming, the "Guitar Grip" peripheral will soon be obsolete.

What do you think this means?

Guitar Hero: World Tour Review

Guitar Hero: World Tour was released a few weeks back, and after lots of troublesome issues, not with the game itself, I have finally gotten the time to play the game enough to review. With World Tour, the Guitar Hero brand has expanded from just the guitars to include both vocals and drums, and perhaps one-upping Rock Band, but that is for you to decide.

The first thing I want to discuss is the instruments themselves. The guitar feels very similar to the GHIII guitar, due to the fact that the fret buttons are the same, however, there are many important changes to note. The minor changes include a button below the strum bar that is used to activate star power, although you can still tilt the guitar for the same effect. The whammy bar is also extended and feels good. The main change to the guitar, aside from the shape and color, is the addition of a slider bar, or touch sensor, which is used in a variety of ways. This touch sensor represents each of the fret buttons, but is merely a flat touch surface with no physical buttons. Essentially, the touch sensor is used in special sections of the songs to play notes without having to strum. You can use the touch sensor and not strum when there is a purple line connecting the notes or when the notes are transparent. This is a neat feature, but I find it very difficult to switch from the frets to the touch sensor while in a song, so I just stick to the frets and strumming, but it’s good that there is an option. Also, you can opt to tap the touch sensor instead of strumming, which I found to be interesting. By this, I mean that you can use the frets and tap the touch sensor instead of strumming, which can be done at any time.

The next instrument of note is the drum set. The main drum board houses 3 pads and the various Xbox buttons, and also connects to 2 raised cymbals, for a total of 5 pads, as well as a drum pedal. The drums play very similar to those in Rock Band, except you have an extra pad to work with. The cymbals don’t seem to play very differently from a standard set, but it definitely looks cooler and is still a lot of fun to play. The placement of the pads and cymbals is done well, although I find it somewhat difficult to hit the middle blue pad because I get confused. Also, I sometimes get my drum stick stuck under a cymbal, which causes me to miss a note or two and is frustrating, but it’s something I have to work on and not really anything wrong with the set itself. I found it quite sturdy and didn’t have any problems with it wobbling or anything of the sort. I also want to note that you activate star power by hitting both cymbals at once, which is quite difficult during hard songs, where notes just keep coming, not giving you time to perform this combo.

The last instrument is the microphone, which is pretty standard. It’s a well-built, real microphone, but nothing special. The vocal gameplay is also fairly standard, where you have a line, called the comet, flowing on the screen and when lyrics come up, you want to keep the comet on the line, or tunnel by matching the pitch. There are also special sections where you can pump up the crowd to earn star power and freeform sections where you can sing whatever you like to earn more points. Both the guitar and drums are wireless, powered by 2 AA batteries, while the microphone is wired via a USB port.

Because Guitar Hero: World Tour introduces both new instruments and new features into the series, it will be important to run through the tutorials. The tutorials are split up by instrument and game features, so you can easily navigate to a section you need to learn, such as new guitar features, or band features, etc. Each section is narrated by a different person who puts their own flavor into it, so it makes the tutorials somewhat entertaining. They go step-by-step and you can choose to skip a lesson, which is very useful, as you probably already know what star power is and how to use it.

After you’ve figured out how to play, you’ll want to jump into it, except, you need your own character to rock out with. The customization in World Tour is pretty in-depth, but easy to use. The first thing to customize is your character. There are lots of options to choose from, starting with your facial features, like eyes, nose, eyebrows, mouth, and more. Then you can move to your hairstyle, body type, tattoos, accessories, and clothes. With most options, you can also change the colors from a large color spectrum, which can make things very interesting, such as making your character have bright blue skin. Then you can add some poses and attitudes on your character, so they will rock out how you want them to and have specific mannerisms, which is cool. Luckily, unlike the first Rock Band, this character can be used for all the instruments, as opposed to just one.

On that note, it will be time to customize all 4 of your instruments. With all the instruments, there are a ton of things to customize. For instance, with the guitar, you choose the base, the board, the strings, the styles, the colors, the buttons, EVERYTHING. Interesting enough, as you progress through the game, you unlock new parts, as opposed to new guitars themselves, so if you want a new guitar, you have to make it yourself instead of just choosing a new one, which is kind of weird and makes things a bit more difficult for people who just want to choose a new guitar. There are a ton of pieces to unlock and purchase, from standard looking ones to crazy ones, so you can still make some far-out instruments to give your character some uniqueness.

Now, finally, once you’ve created your perfect character, you are ready to rock out. You can do so in either the single player mode or band mode, but both are practically the same. You go from venue to venue and play a few songs at a time, unlocking more as you go. The menu is set up via fliers of that venue that display the songs that you will be performing. Fortunately, you can change difficulties at any time and continue onwards with your career. So, if you get stuck on a song on Hard, you can change the difficulty to Medium and try that song, without having to worry about starting all over or anything of the sort. Once you complete a song set, you’ll get paid according to how well you did, with certain bonuses for a variety of things, such as your star ranting or never falling into the red, etc. You can also play a head-to-head mode to see who gets the most points.

The online mode is the same as the local modes, where you can either join together with some other members online and form a band to play some venues, or go head-to-head. When I played, I didn’t experience any lag, and the play was like someone was in the room with me playing locally. However, it was semi-difficult to find people to play with, but I’m sure that was just due to the time I was playing, and hopefully more people will be playing now.

Once you’ve played the game for awhile, you might start to get a little bored with the 80+ song library and decide you want to make some of your own, and luckily, with the Music Studio, you can do just that. You can start out in the Music Studio and just jam away and record what you play. Afterward, you can edit your song in GH Mix, where you can make all kinds of alterations to make the song exactly how you like it. There are a ton of tools at your disposal to use, and it is pretty complicated, but luckily, there is a lengthy tutorial you can go over to help you understand how everything works and how to make a perfect song.

Also included is GH Tunes, where you can download user-created songs, or you can upload your own. Here, you can download any number of songs for free and continually get new content. Unfortunately, Activision has taken down any and all awesome copyrighted material, which is a shame, but understandable, so if you want some nostalgic Mario-themed music, you’ll have to create it yourself.

Overall, Guitar Hero: World Tour brings the Guitar Hero experience to the masses via not only the guitar and bass, but also the drums and vocals. World Tour expands on what the series has already created and World Tour just builds on what you’ve already come to know and enjoy. The customization and song library are great, and with the ability to download user-created content and with Activision putting out new songs very frequently, you can always find something new to play.

Overall Score: 8.8/10

Guitar Hero On Tour: Decades review

I hope you're ready to pull out those guitar grips and slide them back into your DS because Guitar Hero is back with On Tour: Decades for the Nintendo DS, bringing with it 28 new songs to jam out to.

As the title suggests, the game's venues are broken down into decades, starting with the modern times and moving from the 2000 to the 1970's, making up a total of 5 venues, each housing 5 songs from the era, with those 3 extra songs labeled as “victory songs”, which you unlock as you complete the Career mode. Decades has some really good music this time around, with almost every song being easily recognizable and fun to play. Medium difficulty is rather easy, where I could get 5 stars without too much effort, and almost 100% on every song. The difficulty doesn't ramp up too much between venues, however, there is a huge difficulty leap from Medium to Hard, like there was in the original On Tour, so practice up before making the jump.

For the single-player career mode, there are three options to choose from: guitar, bass/rhythm, and guitar duels, each of which uses their own music sets, so you can't play half the songs with the guitar, and then switch over to the bass. However, finally, you can play a song on say, Hard, and if you complete it, you will also get credit for beating it on both Medium and Easy, which is very useful. For instance, if you start on Hard and beat a few songs, but then hit a wall, you can switch over to Medium and continue where you left off, as opposed to starting all over. Keep note that the opposite is not true. You can't get stuck on a song on Hard, play it on Medium, and then continue on Hard. Anyways, the guitar and bass play the same, except they play a different set of notes, but the guitar duel has you battling another guitarist; whoever has the most points at the end wins. Like On Tour and other Guitar Hero games, the duels feature weapons and items you can use if you complete a specific rift, like for Star Power, and then you can choose to use that weapon by tapping its icon on the touch screen. These attacks are the exact same as the ones in On Tour, so don't except any changes here; you have the fire, cut string, shield, up difficulty, autographing, and things of that nature, all of which are countered via the touch screen or microphone and are fun to play around with.

You have the same 5 or so characters to choose from, but you have a few more costumes and outfits to put them in. This time, their outfits are themed with the different decades in the game, so each character has a variety of outfits that they can wear, and many of them greatly change their appearance, due to the era in which the clothes and styles are set, so it's fun to experiment with those and find some you really like, Axel Steel's disco gear or Judy Nails' hippie getup. There is also some good “customization” with the guitars, where there are a decent number of different guitars, and then many have alternate colors and styles, making for a good variety and some pretty cool instruments.

Overall, Guitar Hero On Tour: Decades is another good music game for the DS. There aren't any major changes, or any changes really from the first On Tour title, but there is of course all-new music to enjoy. The game features 3 modes to play in, as well as multiplayer, where you can play with the On Tour music as well if another player has that cart, so there is plenty to do, although you can play through all 25 songs in a few hours. It would be nice to see the next game have more songs, but the gameplay is still rock solid and it's the perfect portable Guitar Hero experience.

Overall Score: 8.9/10

Guitar Hero: World Tour - Billy Corgan

Just put u a new video I got from Activision for Guitar Hero: World Tour. In addition to the recent announcement of Ozzy Osborne and Zakk Wylde as characters in the game, they're also bringing in Smashing Pumpkins frontman Billy Corgan. Take a look:

I guess it's sort of nice to see musicians I respect in the game, instead of say ... Brett Michaels who was in Guitar Hero III. But there's also the sellout factor, at least in my eyes. Personally, I'd rather get Rock Band 2 given the choice. It's not that I don't like Guitar Hero, but when you're name's GUITAR Hero ... maybe you should stick to that instead of bringing in other elements for a quick buck. Plus, I'm sure "Band Heroes" or something like isn't that hard to trademark...

Golf: Tee It Up! review

Not too sure why this wasn't posted by Zach himself when he posted the review. But Classic VFH has had a review of Activision's Golf: Tee It Up! for about a week or so now, check it out!

Golf: Tee It Up! review - Classic VFH
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UPDATE (3/22/10) VFH Classic is dead:

Golf: Tee It Up! is a fairly basic golfing game for the XBLA that contains a few features to set it apart from other golfing titles. I think I should say though, that the last golf game I played was the one in Wii Sports, and before that….perhaps that awesome one for the PC back in like, 1996 or something, so yeah, it’s been quite some time so I can’t really compare it to other games in terms of features and gameplay, so I’ll just let you know about some of its features.

The first thing you’ll notice when you boot up the game is the fact that you can customize your character. The first option is really basic, giving you the option of a male or female character, but then you can edit your character’s hands, feet, clothing, and accessories, and these things range from normal-type clothing, to crazy stuff, like monster hands and feet to horns, so it’s cool to be given these features to make your character unique.

After you are done creating your character, you can either choose single player or multiplayer, local or online. Both feature the same two courses, Caribbean and Parkland, which both pretty much look the same. The backgrounds are a little bland, but still filled with something as opposed to being completely blank. The courses themselves are decent enough, with fairways, roughs, bunkers, and trees and other obstacles including boulders. They are pretty nice, with some fairly direct holes, while others have curves and trees and things in the way which you must maneuver around and so forth. I was a little disappointed as I kind of thought the courses would be more abstract, but only the 18th hole in the Parkland course was like that, with a giant hole in the middle with some raised levels and such.


Ahhh, a pleasant, peaceful golf course where all your worries melt away in the sun's basking warmth. A bunch of sand traps, as you can see, and trees keeping you out of the OB. It's never too difficult to stay on the fairway, except in a couple cases.

The gameplay is rather simplistic and another area, like the fairly limited amount of holes, where the game falls apart or at least loses its appeal. The game doesn’t really require all that much skill and is best suited for the younger audience or people who don’t like a challenge. You simply choose a club and a curved line will show you exactly where the ball will land. You can apply spin to it by hitting the ball in a specific spot to make it go further or curve. Obviously, this line won’t factor in wind, so you must do that yourself, but wind will never get above 7mph, so once you see how it affects your ball the first time, you’ll be able to place it accurately ever time. You have the standard power bar, but it isn’t very difficult to hit a perfect shot every time once you get the rhythm down. To make the game even easier, but more interesting, there is a Focus Meter. At the beginning of each new hole, you get a total of 4 extra seconds of focus, which can be used in three different ways; extra power, putt assist, or to manipulate the ball mid-flight. Extra power takes away one second from the meter, while the other two are timed. The putt assist shows a line where the ball will travel if you take the shot from the angle you are currently at while putting. The ball manipulation is the most useful, and can make the game too easy if you get good at it. You simply press and hold the right thumbstick in the direction that you want the ball to travel, and with a little momentum, you will make the ball go that way, which can easily allow you to sink in a long shot, or at least get it much close to the hole that what would otherwise occur.


Here, you can see all of the information, from your club and how far away the tee is on the left, to your ball, focus meter, and wind meter on the right. Those little dots in the middle of the screen is the line that shows where your ball will go, assuming there is no wind. You can get a better view by holding the RB I believe it is, where you get an aerial view which is very advantageous. The meter on the bottom is the power meter of course, with a little flag icon so you know how far you need to hit it. Also, I never hit a super horrible shot, but I never noticed any slice or hook when it was slightly off.

Putting is a little difficult. It’s the same principle as regular hitting, where you can see how hard you need to hit the ball to reach the hole if the land was flat, but the problem is, is that it’s sometimes hard to see the hills and valleys. There are contour lines, but they are very light and hard to make out sometimes. Also, you can’t freely move the camera, so you are very limited in what you can see. You can zoom in from your player to the hole, but this is done rather quickly and you have no control with it, making some putts frustrating and more luck than skill.

Once you’ve mastered all of these techniques, you can take your game online and challenge up to three other people to a round. The online set up is pretty nice, as you get right into it and don’t have to wait on the opponents or anything. You simply take your shot when ready. Little blips show up on-screen to show you where the other people’s balls are so you can see how you are fairing. Then a little message will show up on the top screen when they get it in so you can see what they got; par, eagle, bogey, etc. After each hole, you can check out the scorecard and watch replays of anybody’s performance. I only played online once, but mid-play, one of the people quit, which ejected everyone from the game, which I thought was rather lame, as it didn’t allow the rest of us to finish which just seemed wrong. Other than that problem though, the online played really well and was fun and competitive.


From here, you can see how the ball is spinning, which can semi-maybe help you see how you need to use that Focus to put a different spin on it, although the focus more so simply moves the ball completely in the direction desired, as opposed to simply changing the spin.

The game also features a point system, aside from simply calculating your total strokes. You get points from a variety of things, such as a close approach, keeping the ball on the fairway the entire hole, chipping it in, etc. These points are simply another way to track your progress and give you a high score.

Tee It Up has some decent sound effects, but zero music while actually playing. There is some music in the title screen, but once you actually get on the course, it is quiet as can be, minus the hum of some animal. There are sound effects though, thankfully, but no music. When you get the ball in the hole, people will cheer or sound sad, depending on how well you did.

That’s about it really. Golf: Tee It Up is your basic golf game with an interesting Focus ability and nice character customization. However, with only two courses, each of which is very similar, you won’t find much longevity in this title. Although supposedly, there will be future courses available to download, which would be nice. Still, you are probably better off saving your money and getting a Tiger Woods game if you want the full golf experience.

7/10

Guitar Hero World Tour Boxart

Here's the Xbox 360 boxart for Activision's Rock Band ... Guitar Hero World Tour. I can't help but think I've seen box art like this before, with the real silhouettes, but when I saw it last it was blue...

Huh, how'd that get there?

Guitar Hero: Aerosmith Review

Hey there again. Just wanted to let you know that the Guitar Hero: Aerosmith Review is up on the VFH main site.

Pretty good game, but not a super lot of songs, and obviously if you don't care for the band, then you shouldn't waste your time or money.

Anyways, keep your eyes on the site, as it is sure to get flooded with news next week when E3 kicks off on Monday with Microsoft's Conference. Should be exciting.
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UPDATE (3/22/10): VFH Classic is dead, sadly, this review was unrestorable.

Guitar Hero: On Tour Review

Hey you guys, just finished up my Guitar Hero: On Tour Review which is of course up over at the VFH main site, where you can read many of our reviews that span all the major gaming consoles and handhelds.

Anyhoo, it's a really fun game and plays just like any GH game, so if you are into that, then you should definitely check it out.
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UPDATE (3/22/10) VFH Classic is dead

I have to be honest, I was a bit leery at first about Guitar Hero: On Tour, but still excited to try it out for myself. After checking everything out and plugging in the peripheral and checking out the tutorials, I was ready to go, and to my surprise, it seemed that the game featured everything from its console brethren and played just as well. Let me tell you a little bit about it.

The first thing you’re going to notice of course is the fact that the game box is much larger than normal. This is of course due to the fact that the game comes with a grip peripheral, which comes at a premium, brining the total of the game to $49.99. If you aren’t as hip as the rest of us and still have the old DS, then don’t you worry, as you can put in a special adapter so you can still play the game. Once that is done, you can simply slide in and out the peripheral into the GBA slot. The grip comes with a hand strap thing so you can secure it to your hand. Interestingly enough, it also comes with a plethora of stickers, just like for the guitar, and you can even change the face plate, so when new ones come out, you can exchange them for a specialized look, which is pretty cool. It is true that the grip only has four color buttons, instead of the normal five, but this is essentially the only way it could have been done, and you don’t lose any difficulty or fun because of this. Overall, the peripheral and buttons are very solid and well built and it feels just like the guitar. It is definitely a fine piece of work and something that will stand up against the test of time. Because of the way the peripheral is set up, you have to hold it sideways, in the book form, which works out very well. However, it will take some time to get used to as your wrist will start hurting after the first couple songs, however, this was also the case with using the actual guitar. You just have to get those wrist muscles strong and pace yourself, taking breaks after every couple of songs.


Here, you can see the grip peripheral from the back with the adjustable hand strap. It rests in your hand with your fingers on the buttons.

Like I said, the game is played in the book form, with the notes and performance going on on the left screen, while all your stats and guitar are on the right. The left side plays out exactly like regular guitar hero, with the notes scrolling downwards while your character is dancing around on stage. On the right, you have a variety of things, including your score, star power meter, combo multiplier, note streak, and of course your virtual guitar. However, it is near impossible to follow these things on the right, as you will have to keep your attention on the notes on the left, and glances, however quickly, to the right will throw most players off and cause you to miss a few notes, if not many more through the confusion. Luckily, you don’t really need to look at the right at all though, so don’t worry about it.


Upper left of the right screen is the Rock Meter, which shows you how well you are doing, and if it reaches the end in the red, then you fail and must start over. The blue gauge on the left is the star power meter and once it is half-way full, you can activate and use it to double your multiplier which is shown below it. As you can see, the guitar is shown on-screen, however, you don't have to strum directly on the strings, nor do you have to have your stylus on the whammy bar to use it. Also, on the right, you can see that the first green note that you are about to play doesn't have a black circle around the white center, meaning you can either hammer-on or pull-off the note so you don't have to strum it.

The controls have been done right, although because of it, can lead to a bit simpler time if you know what you’re doing. The rules are all the same here, except strumming and especially whamming are a little easier. To do either, simply swipe anywhere on the right/touch screen with your pick stylus that they give you, which is really cool actually and very ergonomic. For this reason, if there are notes that are really close together, you can simply continue to swipe away at the touch screen, as opposed to breaking away contact first, however, this is just a skill you must learn and doesn’t detract from the difficulty or fun of the game. While this seems different from using a strum bar, it is actually very similar and it feels good to do and natural. Also, the touch screen with the strumming, and the rest of the controls, are very, very responsive, so you don’t have to worry about the game not picking up your strums or anything of the sort. You can pretty much activate star power anyway you like. You can tap on the star power meter, scream something into the microphone, blow into the microphone, or press any of the DS’s buttons. I prefer the blowing, although sometimes this still throws me off a bit and causes me to miss a note, but it’s the easiest, least embarrassing way to do it I think.


Here, you can see how to hold and view the DS and game, and how the peripheral looks like when attached. You can also see the pick that comes with the game, which is stored inside the peripheral and has nice finger grips to ensure you hold on to it. I prefer the pick to the actual stylus, as it makes strumming easier.

The game offers up two main modes, being Single Player and Multiplayer. In Single Player, aside from quick play, practice, and the tutorials, you have your Career and Guitar Duels modes. The single player mode plays out just like the console version, where you have five tiers, each consisting of five songs, and you have to complete all five songs to move on to the next tier. You can play each song in the standard Easy, Medium, Hard, and Expert difficulties, and at the end of the song you are given your star rating, as well as all the normal stats, including your max combo, score, and the breakdown of how well you did in each section. There is even a high scores section where you can put down your initials if you did well.

Guitar Duels plays the same way as the Career mode, except you are dueling someone, as if you were actually playing a real person in Multiplayer. You play the song as you normally would, except some sections that would be star power are now the special weapon sections, where if you hit all the notes, you gain a weapon to use against your opponent. Of course they can throw weapons at you too. The player with the highest score at the end wins. The attacks, by the way, are all pretty cool and use the DS’s abilities in some way. The scissor attacks cuts the one of the guitar strings on your opponent’s guitar, so they must use the stylus to connect both the ends together to fix it, while the autograph attack sends a fan to your enemy in which they must sign some item before the fan will go away. There is also an attack which causes a fire and requires that you blow into the mic, while there are others that raise their difficulty level or decrease yours and many others, which are all fun and inventive, making for entertaining and exciting battles.

The Multiplayer section contains three main modes, including regular face-off to see who can rack up the most points; guitar duel to see who can get the most points, but with the aforementioned attacks implemented; and co-op, where you play together, with one person playing lead and the other playing either rhythm or bass. I haven’t personally gotten a chance to play these modes, but the standard gameplay obviously hasn’t changed, and given three modes as opposed to just one will improve replay ability and bring out more enjoyment into the title. It’s good to know that they didn’t skimp on the multiplayer and only offer one mode.


The dueling mode. Currently, I am under attack by the fire, which I must blow out before I can hit anymore notes. You can see who is winning by looking at the bar on the top of the right screen, as well as look at and use your items which are on the left of the right screen.

The feature list seems a little lacking, but is overall decent enough. You can choose to play as one of six different characters, all of which are series favorites, including Judy Nails, Johnny Napalm, Axel Steel, Lars Umlaut, and others. You also have your choice of ten different guitars, although seven of them are locked at the beginning of the game. There are also a variety of different colors and outfits you can buy from the store for both your character and guitar, which gives a good variety. On Tour also features 25 songs to play, including a secret unlockable track or two. The track list is pretty diverse, including some good songs, and some not so good songs. Because I’m nice, I’ll list all the songs and let you decide for yourself (Note: Some songs are covered):

• Ok Go - "Do What You Want"
• No Doubt - "Spiderwebs"
• Jet - "Are You Gonna Be my Girl"
• Blink 182 - "All the Small Things"
• Twisted Sister - "We're Not Gonna Take it"
• Nirvana - "Breed"
• Smash Mouth - "All Star"
• Rick Springfield - "Jessie's Girl"
• Pat Benatar - "Hit Me With Your Best Shot"
• Maroon 5 - "This Love"
• Los Lonely Boys - "Heaven"
• Bloc Party - "Helicopter"
• The Doobie Brothers - "China Grove"
• KISS (cover by Line 6) - "Rock and Roll All Nite"
• Daughtry - "What I Want"
• Steve Miller Band (cover by Wavegroup) - "Jet Airliner"
• Santana (cover by Line 6) - "Black Magic Woman"
• Stray Cats - "Stray Cat Strut"
• ZZ Top (cover by Line 6) - "La Grange"
• Skid Row (cover by Wavegroup) - "Youth Gone Wild"
• Ozzy Osbourne - "I Don't Want to Stop"
• Incubus - "Anna Molly"
• Red Hot Chili Peppers - "Knock me Down"
• Stevie Ray Vaughan - "Pride And Joy"
• Lynyrd Skynyrd (cover by Wavegroup) - "I Know A Little"

Guitar Hero: On Tour is a fantastic expansion of the series onto the Nintendo DS, with everything you come to expect and enjoy out of a Guitar Hero game. The game features everything the console versions have, with a decent track list and two single player modes that will keep you busy for awhile, and once you find a friend with the game, you can enjoy battling each other for days and days. The hand grip peripheral is very well built and the buttons feel like the ones on the guitar peripheral. While there are only four buttons instead of the usual five, nothing is lost, as the game is still insanely fun and addictive to play, as well as very difficult and rewarding on Hard and Expert difficulties. And if you happened to be left-handed, then don’t worry, as there is an option for that. So, if you have the money to spare, and are a fan of the series, then there is no reason for you not to pick up On Tour, as it is the perfect portable music game.

9/10

Looks like I was wrong

So Activision just released some nice clear images of the Guitar Hero: World Tour instruments. It turns out that the guitar isn't a Gibson Longhorn... in fact it's not even a Gibson! It's nothing! I don't know what this means for the series and what guitars they'll even play to showcase, but this all smells like cheap and sell out to me...

via IGN

First trailer for Guitar Hero: World Tour

Here it is, the first teaser for Guitar Hero: World Tour


What can I gather from the trailer? Well, it looks like the Drum Controller is big... And I really doubt that big disc that has no effect other than be the silhouette of a base drum will be included in the final set. But the guitar, it looks to be a Sunburst color Gibson Longhorn.

(A real Gibson Longhorn)

Also, I wonder if this title has any relation to the DS game, Guitar Hero: On Tour?