Guitar Hero: World Tour demo video blowout

by Kyle Orland { Jul 16th 2008 at 4:55AM }

Reading about people playing Guitar Hero World Tour is one thing, but seeing it in action is quite another. We've chopped up and condensed the extremely lengthy World Tour demonstration contained in Activision's non-E3 press conference into the most important, informative and interesting bits for the below embedded videos. We've even included a full, six minute performance of Van Halen's "Hot for Teacher," performed by the developers themselves. Rock on!

Guitar Demonstration

Drum Demonstration

Song Maker Demonstration

Character Creation Demonstration

"Hot for Teacher" Performance

Tags: activision, demo, e3-2008, guitar-hero, guitar-hero-world-tour, video

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)

JontheNinja @ Jul 16th 2008 5:05AM

Let's cash in off Rock Band's success.

Let those guitar heroes sing.

Ramifications @ Jul 16th 2008 12:00PM

Without a competitor...rock band would have less reason to advance and move forward. I welcome Guitar Hero and its advancements! It can only make Rock Band 2 (and 3) better!

Ghen @ Jul 16th 2008 1:07PM

Did you even see the song creation portion? That is AWESOME. Definitely finalizes the deal for me between which to buy.

Vegnagun bwf @ Jul 16th 2008 3:39PM

Exactly. Neversoft could have kept Guitar Hero with straight up guitar songs, but then Harmonix wouldn't have the competition.

I'm a huge fan of Rock Band, but Rock band 2 doesn't really innovate at all. Now that Guitar Hero is innovating over Rock Band, Harmonix will have to step up their game for the next Rock Band to make a much better game.

Nailio @ Jul 16th 2008 5:07AM

I am very tempted to get this rather then RB2.

Granted I dont own RB, but played the hell out of it at my friends. I just dont like RB's guitars, I like GH's clack too much when strumming.

Jim Halpert DM @ Jul 16th 2008 8:17AM

Well..lets hope all of Guitar Hero's peripherals work with Rock Band 2...then you could just get both.

JJ Rooster @ Jul 16th 2008 9:25AM

If you have a 360 the GH guitars already work with Rock Band, and that's what I use too. I hear RB's new strat has reduced the mushy strum and the clicking frets, so I want to try that out.

Monkeydog @ Jul 16th 2008 5:17AM

Hot For Teacher?!?!

I was kind of fearing that World Tour would start to stray away from challenging songs for the guitar, which is the one thing I always liked about Guitar Hero III over Rock Band.

But with Hot For Teacher in the game? Wow, hot damn, I'm sold.

T @ Jul 16th 2008 8:23AM

The songs in GHIII were challenging because they were MADE challenging.

There are songs in RB that are just as difficult becaues of tricky note sequences vs. having to play chord after chord after chord.

And after watching them play this song...pretty much confirms what I was worried about. All of these new "features", so they build the song charts to be WAY over the top (did I just see 32nd triple chords?)

*eck*

Vcize @ Jul 16th 2008 10:54AM

Lmao @ complaining about GH3 being chord after chord.

Dude, RB was chord after chord after chord after chord after chord after chord after chord after chord after chord.

Benjamin Breeg @ Jul 16th 2008 11:21AM

To T:

I know, I hate when developers give me the option of harder difficulties. I wish they would forget about making it challenging and just make it as life like and realistic as possible. When I play GH or Rock Band, I'm not looking for a challenge or fun, I'm looking to have the most realistic experience I can possibly have. If a song is ridiculously simple, I want to play it that way. I hate having the option to have a game be more challenging than it would be in it's in-no-way-similar real life counterpart.

BTW, that was sarcasm. Some people actually realize that these games are played to have a challenge and to have fun, and don't really care if they add chords when there wouldn't be one in a real guitar version of the song. It's guitar hero, it's not meant to be the most realistic simulation of playing the guitar.

Taco_Hell @ Jul 16th 2008 11:49AM

Benjamin, there's a BIG difference between challenging and fun, and what Guitar Hero does. Yes, we know it's not supposed to be realistic, but at least the note charts should follow the song somewhat closely, like in Rock Band. In Guitar Hero, on the other hand, they trow you random notes, that you can't even hear on the song, just to trow you off and make the game that much frustrating rather than fun. Hell, the whole point of these games is to make you feel like you can actually play these damn songs, something Rock Band makes me feel, but Guitar Hero falls extremely short of, due to their increasingly ridiculous note-charts that just drive people insane.

Young_Nastyman @ Jul 16th 2008 11:54AM

amen taco, amen

Heh @ Jul 16th 2008 1:12PM

Not a fan of overcharting do to the fact that I usually go "um, that's not how I play it irl" but I can't deny how much fun I had playing Through the fire and flames and kicking everyone's butt do to the sheer fact that no one else could play it that plays GH/RB with me. ;)

Tiptup300 @ Jul 16th 2008 5:20AM

Seriously, I get that it's a sequel to the Guitar Hero franchise, but why do they try their hardest to to try to recreate the interface. They can't pull it off. Just use your own Neversoft! I can't believe that's the new loading screen.

Psycho2 @ Jul 16th 2008 5:35AM

It is similar to Rock Band but I think Activision has perfected apon it.

Sam Earl @ Jul 16th 2008 6:30AM

In what way exactly?

jsn @ Jul 16th 2008 7:08AM

apon? I'm not exactly sure where the perfection is. It's Rock Band with a different skin and a touch strip on the guitar instead of extra buttons.

Nice that the periphs will be cross compatible though.

A Pissed-off English Gamer @ Jul 16th 2008 5:56AM

Too many rhythm games and too many shooters make me something something.

MarkHawk @ Jul 16th 2008 5:58AM

There are 2... + Rock Revolution if that is in your taste.

SHAZAM! @ Jul 16th 2008 6:34AM

@MarkHawk

Well, if you only take in to account the Rhythm games bundled with tons of instruments, that's true. But there are a hell of a lot more out there...

Vcize @ Jul 16th 2008 10:57AM

And there are also a million other good games in all the other genres. Maybe you can't find anything but rhythm games and shooters because the only links you click on are the ones for rhythm games and shooters and the only games you buy are rhythm games and shooters?

You could, you know, play some of the other ones if you want. They're out there, and they're not hard to find. All you have to do is open your friggin eyes.

Boffo the Sock @ Jul 16th 2008 12:48PM

Go crazy?

http://www.cheapblueguitar.com/images/homer_shining.jpg

klitorisaurus @ Jul 16th 2008 5:58AM

Looks familiar.

theJoKell @ Jul 16th 2008 6:28AM

Since Activision will be allowing Rock Band instruments to work with this game I may just have to pick it up. But Rock Band 2 still looks so much better.

JJ Rooster @ Jul 16th 2008 9:38AM

Agreed. I will now get this game and use my RB instruments, but I still need to see a full setlist and I'm really skeptical of GH's ability to do weekly DLC and not make it in mandatory 3 packs.

Michael @ Jul 16th 2008 7:26AM

I don't know, doesn't seem like there's all that much to consider here. World Tour's for people who actually get excited by that ridiculous-ass note chart, as making the game ball-bustingly hard on Expert seems to be Neversoft's MO, while Rock Band's for everyone else.

Viridium @ Jul 16th 2008 7:52AM

That's what I thought when I saw it. That note chart looks crazy, and NOT FUN. No wonder I prefer Rock Band; it's much easier to have friends over and rock out.

Shadow El @ Jul 16th 2008 9:45AM

Translation: BAWWWWWWW Games are hard!

Vcize @ Jul 16th 2008 11:02AM

Holy crap, people are stupid.

Look, GH3 on hard = RB on Expert. They're the same difficulty.

GH3 on expert has no difficulty equivalent on Rock Band.

So, if you think expert is too hard, JUST PLAY ON HARD! It's the freaking same as Rock Band on expert, all the difficulties are scaled by one so this should really only affect you if you play Rock Band on easy. Think of GH's expert as a bonus difficulty that you DON'T HAVE TO USE.

It's like you're complaining about an extra difficult setting that's on Rock Band. If Rock Band suddently added a new difficulty setting via DLC called "Super-expert" that was the equivalent of GH3's expert would you quit playing Rock Band altogether? No, you'd just stick to playing on expert and ignore the other difficulty. Adding a new difficulty setting doesn't change the other ones that are already there.

It's perception, that's all. And yours is broken.

Young_Nastyman @ Jul 16th 2008 11:25AM

Shadow El, clearly you aren't fluent in the GH/RB languange, it actually translates into: HORRENDOUSLY AND UNNECESSARILY OVER-CHARTED

Young_Nastyman @ Jul 16th 2008 11:31AM

Vcize, Rock Band's expert is like guitar hero 2's expert. GH3+ are all completely over-chaarted now that they are in neversoft's hands

Young_Nastyman @ Jul 16th 2008 11:39AM

the expert difficulty has always been set up like this: you play the song for what it is, you play a chord when the song plays a chord and a single note when the song plays a single note, that all changed with GH3, thats why everyone complains, they chart chords for single notes just for the sake of making it more difficult than it should be

Amontoya15 @ Jul 16th 2008 7:27AM

Im very intrigued by the guitar for GH4. Looks very fun! The drums look amazing, and the song maker is cool, unique! I for one love both RB and GH, im hoping GH fixed the little mistakes that RB had which would make the game amazing. As long as they release new songs every week like RB then I will be happy! Most def buying both RB2 and GH4 lol. Going to be so much plastic in my living room.....atleast they are wireless now!

Rhandos @ Jul 16th 2008 7:39AM

I think it's called Rock Band.

plugstar @ Jul 16th 2008 7:43AM

i should really hold judgement until i play the game but it looks like they have tried too hard with this game and added too much into it.

imho the song creation utility looks way too complicated. Also it wouldve been nice to incorporate the digimask software and allow importing of your own faces into the game for character creation

Vcize @ Jul 16th 2008 11:06AM

You realize that the song creator still benefits you even if YOU personally don't use it, right?

You can download the created songs that were made by people who aren't scared of buttons. Given that people go through the effort of hacking their PS2 and building new songs from scratch (many of which are awesome and I wish I could download, just check out youtube), I'm guessing there will be plenty of folks willing to learn an in-game creator that was built to make it easier on them.

BlackTye @ Jul 16th 2008 7:49AM

Compared to the Rock Band drums, these look dinky. Even though they have cymbals.

I really hope people realize that Rock Band is the true successor to Guitar Hero. This being a gaming blog, I'm sure many of you are aware. But when Rock Band first came out, I heard people in the store wondering if it was a "Guitar Hero knockoff"

k04sm02 @ Jul 16th 2008 8:49AM

It's definitely a spacing thing, with the 3 pads so close together, I noticed that too. Having 4 drum pads, even if the "cymbals" arent on another plane right now (which they will be with the cymbal attachment, so that issue is solved) I feel like I would be knocking elbows with myself.

Demaar @ Jul 16th 2008 8:45AM

Hang a sec... you telling me they're still using one star power bar for all players? God damn... of all the things they DIDN'T copy Harmonix on.

mikewickham @ Jul 16th 2008 3:08PM

Maybe it's just me, but I think it's better that there's just one bar. I know dealing with greedy players will be a pain, but in a good band it could make a huge difference. Remember in Rock Band when the poor guitarist has to solo in GG&HT and the singer (with full overdrive) can't save him because of the stupid tambourine notes? Well, now any other player can use the star power he earned earlier in his place.

Cian @ Jul 16th 2008 9:42PM

I don't think that's the case. I think it will be like previous Guitar Heroes where you all have to activate at the same time... Which will make things even more difficult.

Cian @ Jul 16th 2008 11:45PM

Gah, should've watched the video closer. Sorry I was wrong.

>.<
>.<
>.<
>.

Wiinterfang @ Jul 16th 2008 9:09AM

That would have been exciting a year ago

irondentist @ Jul 16th 2008 9:18AM

I am getting both games. But I may stick to my RB guitar and buy the GH drums. I like its set up better than the RB ones and I dont hear any annoying clacks.

Jason @ Jul 16th 2008 9:20AM

So Rock Band with a slap of Guitar Hero paint?

To their credit, the song creation is intriguing and the setlist appears to be pretty hardcore. But I've already ponied up for Rock Band, even though everything but drums will probably at least work with GH:WT. I'll give it a rent, but Rock Band 2, for me at least, is a must buy.

MTigerV @ Jul 16th 2008 9:32AM

I guess this is what I should have expected 2 years after the harmonix/red octane split. Harmonix has arguably the better software platform while Red Octane is making the advances in peripherals. Song list for both looks like a wash depending on your tastes (though Hot for Teacher sells it for me).

With the announced compatibility, i think RB2 with peripherals and just picking up GH4 software looks like the way to go on 360 or ps3, but the DLC for wii (even though they still wont tell us how) makes it the easy choice on that platform and may make it the better selling of the 2 overall

andyg8180 @ Jul 16th 2008 11:10AM

they are two different games... its not "rockband with guitar hero paint" its Guitar Hero... Call of Duty isnt "Halo with different guns" Its Call of Duty...

Get over yourselves kids... dont like it? dont buy it...

zoltek @ Jul 16th 2008 1:34PM

comparing call of duty to halo is like comparing a banana to an orange.

comparing rock band and guitar hero world tour is like comparing a granny smith apple and a red delicious.

halo and cod are both shooters but completely different games, however rock band and guitar hero are the same game. just with different licensing and design.