Guitar Hero World Tour

Guitar Hero World Tour Preview

The fourth full release of Guitar Hero will be titled ‘Guitar Hero World Tour’. Guitar Hero World Tour will be the seventh console title in the Guitar Hero series.

Guitar Hero World Tour will be the first game in the Guitar Hero series to feature a full line-up of instruments.

Guitar Hero World Tour currently has an expected release date of October 26, 2008.

Play Modes

The newest play mode feature for Guitar Hero World Tour is obviously going to be the band modes as this is the first Guitar Hero to feature drums and vocals. The modes that have been announced are ‘Band Career’ mode and ‘Battle of the Bands’ mode.

Band Career mode will be just like the regular career mode, only it will feature additional instruments.

Battle of the Bands mode will allow for a 4 vs 4 online play. [source]

Music Studio

The newest feature to this genre will also be introduced in Guitar Hero World Tour, and that will be the ‘Music Studio’ feature long been rumored for inclusion in an upcoming release of either Guitar Hero or Rock Band. [source]

The Music Studio feature will allow gamers to create their own tracks and upload them to a service called Guitar Hero Tunes, where other Guitar Hero players can download and rate the tracks. [source]

The inspiration for Music Studio was said to come from gamers who would use various tools to create note charts for their own songs and make custom Guitar Hero disks.

Guitar Hero World Tour project director Brian Bright told Eurogamer that “We’ve embraced the whole custom community and we’re giving fans what they want. It’s a full recording studio and an online repository, a library for people to post their songs.”

The first screen shot of the Music Studio can be viewed at the bottom of this page.

Instruments

Speaking to a reporter in April, Activision CEO Bobby Kotick said that Guitar Hero World Tour would feature a “hardware innovation” [source] new to the Guitar Hero series. Kotick also said, in an interview with Conde Nast Portfolio Magazine, that Guitar Hero IV feature more than just guitar.

That claim was confirmed in the May 20 copy of Game Informer magazine in which it was confirmed that Guitar Hero IV will feature not only guitar, but bass, vocals, and a drum set.[source]

The Guitar Hero IV drum set will feature 6 pieces (5 drum heads in total with 2 being ‘cymbals’ plus 1 bass drum pedal).

The Guitar Hero IV Developers teamed up with the creator of MTV Drumscape in the development of the drum set. The Guitar Hero IV drums differ from the Rock Band drums as well by having velocity detection, similar to the MIDI electronic drum kits.

They have also said that the Guitar Hero IV drums will be more durable and quieter than the competition’s. [source]

Responding to concerns from gamers about instrument controller compatibility with Rock Band, Activision confirmed that Rock Band instruments would be compatible with Guitar Hero World Tour. [source]

The Guitar

The New Guitar Hero: World Tour Guitar

Starting with the guitar, you will notice that the new guitar controller has a few new features. The most significant change is the touch sensitive pad just down from the regular fret buttons. The new pad will allow notes to be altered during sustains by sliding up and down the strip. The new strip can also be used to tap out notes as well, and is used extensively in the music creator.

For those who would be worried about compatibility, Activision has said that all previous Guitar Hero controllers will work with Guitar Hero: World Tour.

From an aesthetic point of view, the back/select button has been modeled to look like the bridge of a guitar. This is fantastic for those who prefer to use the select button to activate star power as well because it’s not only bigger, but easier to locate while playing. The body of the guitar controller itself is also bigger, more closely mimicing an actual guitar, and the d-pad has been shaped to look more like a real control knob on a guitar.

The Microphone

The microphone is pretty standard as far as video games go, and in fact looks very much like the Rock Band Microphone.

We were hoping for some improvement to the rock band design by an addition of some form of game navigation (hello 3rd-party manufacturers, we’re talking to you here).

Activating Star Power in the game with the microphone is done by tapping it quickly or “making a quick similar sound” during gameplay.

The Drums

Guitar Hero: World Tour’s biggest addition is without a doubt the drums. The drums with the game are the most realistic compared to a real electronic drum kit that we’ve seen yet. The drum set features 3 regular pads, a bass pedal, and two raised cymbals.

Activision promises us that the Guitar Hero: World Tour drum kit is quieter than Rock Bands, the sound of which has been a concern for some gamers (and their housemates). The drum heads are also larger than the Rock Band drum heads at 8 inches in diameter making them easier to hit, and they are also spaced out a little more.

As a bonus, the drum set is wireless and because the drums are now “velocity sensitive” they will respond to your touch appropriately. Hit the drum pad hard and it will be louder, hit the drum pad softly and it will sound softer.

Additional Features

On top of Music Studio, Guitar Hero World Tour will allow for even more customization options. Players can fully customize their characters from hair to clothes, tattoos to the type of guitar pick, as well as custom band logos and album artwork.

There was going to be a ‘Jam Over’ mode, which would have allowed players to ‘jam over’ top of existing tracks in the game, but a spokesperson has said that it has been dropped for the time being.

Release Date:
Guitar Hero IV will be released for the Holiday season in 2008, with a release date around October or November. [source] [source]

Tracklisting:
Guitar Hero World Tour will feature around 85 songs in total, and all songs will be master tracks. [source]

Project director Brian Bright has said that Guitar Hero World Tour will have “a pretty even split between the ’80s, ’90s, and classic rock” with a “good amount of emerging bands” [source]

Known Tracks/Artists:
The Answer - “Never Too Late” [source]
Foo Fighters - “Everlong”
Billy Idol - “Rebel Yell”
Sublime - “Santeria” [source]
Jimi Hendrix - “Wind Cries Mary”
Jimi Hendrix - “Purple Haze” (live) [source]
Van Halen - “Hot For Teacher” [source]
Grand Funk Railroad - “We’re An American Band” [source]
Paramore - “Misery Business” [source]

The Eagles
Linkin Park [source]
The Doors
Smashing Pumpkins
Korn
System of a Down
Ozzy Osbourne
Interpol
Muse [source]
Rumored Tracks/Artists:
At The Drive In - “One Armed Scissor”
Aerosmith - “I Don’t Want To Miss a Thing” [source]
Gavin Rossdale - “Frontline” [source]
Joe Satriani - “Satch Boogie” or “Surfing With the Alien” [source]
Bad Religion - “Sorrow” [source]
Ted Nugent - Boss Battle [source]
Lenny Kravitz - “Are You Gonna Go My Way” [source]
Travis Barker - Boss Battle
Blink 182 or +44- [source]
Tool - “Parabola”, “Vicarious”, and “Schism” [source]
Sting or The Police [source]