A better look at Guitar Hero: Metallica

by Randy Nelson { Dec 22nd 2008 at 4:21PM }

Last week, Metallica posted the first trailer for ~~Buy Another Guitar Hero: This Time With Metallica Songs~~ Guitar Hero: Metallica on its official site. The quality was dubious but the message was suitably loud and clear: you will "ride the lightning" in 2009. And, by "ride the lightning," we of course mean "press buttons on a plastic guitar and Metallica songs will happen."

Activision-Blizzard, having evidently accepted the game's existence at long last, today released a more watchable version of the teaser. That's what you'll see when you press "play" above. What you won't see is much of the game outside of some in-engine concert footage of the band performing and looking all ... Metallica-ic.

Tags: activision, activision-blizzard, guitar-hero, guitar-hero-metallica, metallica, neversoft

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)

Eric @ Dec 22nd 2008 4:28PM

Ehhh. I will stick with Rock Band. GHWT was a big let down. Very inferior to Rock band in just about every way.

Haggard @ Dec 22nd 2008 4:35PM

Was the trailer on Friday really that low-quality?

LeMuRfArT @ Dec 22nd 2008 4:38PM

as much as i love master of puppets.

that game gets a big meh. im done buying guitar hero type games.

more DL songs, less plastic instruments

Kelly @ Dec 22nd 2008 4:39PM

If only there was some way of downloading songs onto my console. Then i would never have to buy a disc again.........

OTAM @ Dec 22nd 2008 10:47PM

If only there was an option for people who don't have a hard drive,or even possibly an internet connection.

Oh snaaaaaaaaap! There is!

If you're paying $50 for DLC and a disc,it comes down to sheer laziness.

BadassSailor @ Dec 23rd 2008 6:08AM

I know!!! It's like those assholes who want to pick up a piece of plastic and talk to people instead of walking to their house and have a face to face conversation...

Lazy fuckers.

Sora @ Dec 22nd 2008 4:43PM

Meh, we all know Metallica's gonna cash out and let Harmonix release a few of their albums as DLC for Rock Band. As long as one of those isn't St. Anger....I'm fine with that.

Moptimus Slime @ Dec 22nd 2008 4:44PM

No. And ActiBlizzision should burn in hell for even trying to pull the shit they are trying (and will) get away with while EA continues down the enlightened path of new IPs

False @ Dec 22nd 2008 4:56PM

Wait...EA...the same EA who churns out shittier versions of Madden every year, a new Tiger Woods, FIFA, NBA, NASCAR, Skate, Rock Band (and you're kidding yourselves if you think a new one of THESE games isn't coming every year), and literally drove the Need for Speed and Fight Night franchises into the ground is suddenly a bastion of new IP's?

I'm not saying ActiBlizzard has a boatload of new IP's, but even I find that comment mind-boggling.

Steve @ Dec 22nd 2008 5:41PM

I think he's speaking of Dead Space and Mirror's Edge in terms of new IPs (although both of those games were clearly made with the intent of creating new franchises). I'll commend them for what they chose to do with Burnout Paradise and taking risks on Mirror's Edge in particular, but EA still enjoys "exploiting" franchises. We'll probably see another pointless Rock Band disc next year when they could just put out a $20 upgrade on XBLM/PSN.

Also, shit on EA Sports all you'd like, but Madden '09 is the first next gen Madden, IMO. Took 'em three years to get there, but it's a hell of a game.

Anyways, it sounds like EA is going to have amend the way it goes about Sports games based on their performance overall this year (outside of Madden) and what they've done with Fifa Online.

aristokrat @ Dec 24th 2008 3:05PM

It's too bad hockey isn't more popular, because then more people would appreciate the awesomeness that has been the next-gen NHL series. Totally awesome game with the new controls and features.

ScottG13 @ Dec 22nd 2008 4:45PM

Crappy DS versions.

Crappy band exclusive GH.

And, the crown jewel, a botched released of a mediocre Rock Band clone.

Way to drive a once great franchise into the ground!

slycooper_rocker [anti-panda death murder squadron force five] @ Dec 22nd 2008 4:55PM

the franchise was history when they gave it to activision. it seems like call of duty is the only quality thing they've released in quite a while. damn whores.

Dr Jeckyl and Mr ESC. @ Dec 22nd 2008 4:57PM

To be honest the DS game was good but releasing a sequel to it every 6 to 8 months sucks so hard.

ScottG13 @ Dec 23rd 2008 8:51AM

Was it good? Reviews painted it to be hand cramping boredom. Are people really that desperate for musical rhythm games? For me, they're only good with friends and drinks.

Rollins @ Dec 22nd 2008 4:50PM

I wish GH:WT had the same drum layout as Rock band. I'm just not buying another drum set to work with their configuration.

That said, does anyone have any experience using the Rock Band drums with GH? How well does the note chart adapt?

False @ Dec 22nd 2008 4:58PM

The note tracks automatically adjust for Rock Band drums. They're tracked for four buttons and a bass pedal whenever a Rock Band kit is plugged in.

Shagittarius @ Dec 22nd 2008 5:09PM

Problem is it assigns some of the hi-hat intensive stuff to the wrong pads.

For Example, in Crazy train the hi-hat is tracked as the yellow pad while the red pad is still the snare. This causes you to have to play it kinda 'Backwards' with your left hand coming off the hi-hat to hit the snare instead of the usual way.

This is an obvious problem, A lot more common but less obvious problem is when they chart the extra cymbals to a single pad, it doesn't play very well, your ear tells you you should be playing a different drum but the charted note never switches even though the type of drum played has.

I would give the conversion process a 3/5, it can work if your not into playing expert, but if your looking for accurracy you really need the drums that come with the game.

Haggard @ Dec 22nd 2008 5:12PM

Thanks Shag... was wondering how the drums would work out.

My friends and I play Rock Band a lot (like every week) - how much by comparison do you think we'd enjoy playing GH:WT (given that we love the song list) using my RB drums?

Haggard @ Dec 22nd 2008 5:30PM

*we all play expert drums

Shagittarius @ Dec 22nd 2008 6:38PM

I don't think you'd like it after a certain point. Not only are there technical problems with using the Rock Band drums but on at least one occasion GH has some really sloppy or lazy transcriptions.

American Woman on RB is a very interesting song to play, the rhythms change subtley allowing for slight variations in the basic beat until culminating in a full-out drum line that hits on practically even beat.

The same song in GH has only the final (All cylinders firing) drum beat throughout the entire song. Its just looks like they didn't have time to finish the drum transcription so they fudged it.

Also the interface for GH itself sucks, it might not sound like a lot but the fact that the notes are round makes it much harder to tell if notes are hit simultaneously or just slightly offset on the drums. You have to watch much lower on the scrolling chart so the separation between the notes is more apparent, thus giving you less 'read-ahead' time while your playing.

I bought GH:WT and played it to the point where I encountered all of the things I mentioned above, I think pretty close to 90%. I felt like it was so badly messing with my skills that I turned it off and haven't touched it since.

In my opinion I'd rather wait and hope for the songs I like to come out as DLC than play the GH versions. Thats just my opinion though...

Dr Jeckyl and Mr ESC. @ Dec 22nd 2008 4:53PM

“A better look at Guitar Hero: Metallica”

You press a button every time a “Note” (which is a colored circle) passes over the bigger colored circle while Metallica music plays in the background except for the guitar part. When you press the corresponding colored button at the moment the note passes over the bigger colored circle it makes a sound that corresponds to the music playing in the background.

The objective of the game is to press colored buttons in a correct succession to play the complete song.

Amirite?

Sizer @ Dec 22nd 2008 4:57PM

I think it's pretty telling they're promoting this game exclusively with the older songs even though it's heavily loaded up with the newer crap (at the band's insistence I guess, since nobody else wants it).

David Hildreth @ Dec 22nd 2008 5:08PM

fuck Metallica, the internet hasn't forgotten.

Dr Jeckyl and Mr ESC. @ Dec 22nd 2008 5:15PM

No U but yeah I think I'll pass on this game as well.

I mean I’m a fan of Aerosmith and I never bought the Aerosmith version, after playing GH2 I realized that as fun as it was the selection of songs of every GH and RB is so poor I end playing 6 songs and after playing Sweet child 0´mine in practice on hard I got a headache after hearing the same song so many times to the point that I never wanted to beat the game in something higher than medium.

Is already tedious to practice the songs you already like for over an hour, practicing the songs you don’t like bleh. I think the only time I beat GH in hard was on the Ds version because I didn’t have anything better to do at the moment.

SteveM @ Dec 23rd 2008 4:39AM

Okay, I'll bite. What, exactly, has the internet not forgiven Metallica for? Defending their copyright? Protecting their means of earning a living? Actually persuing legal action against a service that was being used almost exclusivley for stealing music (at that time anyway)?

Here's my problem with this: When all is said and done... Metallica were RIGHT to do what they did. Those that bitch and whine about it seem to forget they don't have a right to take whatever they want. Quite frankly I wonder if some of those that write on this subject now were even involved when this happened? You may not like that someone stood up for themselves and protected work that they'd put years of their lives into but they're well within their rights to do so.

And the frustrating part is that, right now, Metallica are one of the leaders in using the Internet to provide more services to their fans. EVERY concert they do is available to purchase on-line within a few weeks of the show for a reasonable price ($10 I think) and in good quality. There's a load of free tracks available from live shows stretching back to the 80's, many of 'em bootlegs. I honestly wish that every band did something like this, far better than buying a t-shirt at a gig. And yet they're still considered the devil by some people who, frankly, need to grow up a bit and stop thinking they have a right to everything they want in life for free.

Christian @ Dec 22nd 2008 5:13PM

I really think the big mistake here was not having a major track release for Rock Band since that's what everyone is playing these days. Guitar Hero WT is just a poor copy of Rock Band and no one but the GH fanboys bought it.

Brett @ Dec 22nd 2008 5:28PM

Ahahahahaha. You're joking, right?

xFenixKnightx @ Dec 22nd 2008 5:52PM

I got both. My bday was this past Friday and my wifey was extra sweet this year :) RB2 full kit and GHWT w/guitar only. That way I have both games, 2 guitars, drums, and a mic. I'm new to the whole plastic instrument fake music playing games scene and I'm enjoying both equally.

I like how there is this war between Rock band and Guitar Hero fanboys, and to think I never clicked on any of these posts because I was never into these kinds of games. I've been missing out on these new type of flamewars :P

I guess you could say I like RB2 more and thats why I decided to go with their full kit over GHWTs.

Fx.Dr @ Dec 22nd 2008 6:11PM

@Fenix

If you want to see an all-out shitstorm, ask this:

Which one is better: a Catholic with a PS3 playing Rock Band, or a Protestant on a 360 playing GH:WT?

::ducks::

GrossGreg @ Dec 22nd 2008 6:31PM

@Fenix: In two months, GH: WT will be collecting dust as RB 2 continues to climb as one of your favorite games.

I've been there...

VaultICEE @ Dec 22nd 2008 5:20PM

Even if everyone on the internet hates Guitar Hero and Metallica, you know that the game will still sell thousands of copies due to the poor kids who see the Guitar Hero logo and beg their parents for the game.

Seriously, the week GH: Aerosmith came out I saw kids left and right getting into the checkout line at Best Buy with a copy of it. And the sad thing was, I didn't see one kid that looked older than 10 pick it up. I know its good that they'll be able to listen to something other than teh fallz out boiz and rap but still...

Well, Activision got what they wanted I guess. Gazillions of dollars.

Dr Jeckyl and Mr ESC. @ Dec 22nd 2008 5:28PM

And still the bastards won't develop another Mech Warrior.

Brett @ Dec 22nd 2008 5:26PM

I can't tell if some of you guys are joking or just retarded. GHWT outsold RB2 within a few weeks of its release, even though RB2 had a huge head start. GHWT is the more successful game, and will always be the more successful series, just because of brand name.

Now, I also prefer the game itself to RB2. It's better in essentially every way aside from DLC, but Neversoft seems like they're so far doing a great job with it. To my knowledge, they've done at least three songs every week so far.

Anyway, on the topic of GH:Metallica, I'll probably get it because it will be challenging on guitar and so far, neither new GH or RB release has challenged me at all aside from Snow ((Hey Oh)). Also, it has Tuesday's Gone on it. Awesome.

Finally: holy fuck, is Metallica really that ugly?

Dr Jeckyl and Mr ESC. @ Dec 22nd 2008 5:34PM

“I can't tell if some of you guys are joking or just retarded”.

I think everyone here is bashing GH franchise and you are bashing it as well it seems you didn’t read none of the comments above so that’s one of the most stupid ways to start a comment also that at the end you are defending this game but anyway.

“Finally: holy fuck, is Metallica really that ugly?”

Kid do you even know how old are they?

CTC XBL-supapaypamawio PSN-ctclaw @ Dec 22nd 2008 5:59PM

GH sucks. You can claim it's because people are just on some bash train, but there are clear reasons why Rock Band is better. First off the DLC is consistent with Rock Band, you're kidding yourself if you think it will be with GH. The biggest problem with GH though is that the song selection page is just a giant cluster fuck! I've never noticed any kind of sorting in the songs, they don't show any album art or any difficulty levels or anything else to help you out with picking the songs, it's just one giant list!

Brett @ Dec 22nd 2008 6:01PM

What the hell did you just say? I don't understand. I was defending GH.

Also, "kid?" Sure bro, whatever you say. I'll see you at happy hour.

Brett @ Dec 22nd 2008 6:07PM

CTC XBL-supapaypamawio PSN-ctclaw, I'm going to have to say that you're an idiot.

You say that you doubt GH will be consistent with DLC. So, you're basing your reasoning off of a guess? Great job. GH has released at least three songs per week so far (the same rate that RB did in the beginning, if I'm not mistaken). They also have the planned DLC listed all the way through the end of January.

Another reason you hate GH because of the song selection page? Really? First of all, you can set it in order of difficulty, just like RB. Second of all, who cares if it doesn't have album are? What difference does that make? Third, you can make your own setlists, which is an awesome idea that Rock Band will add in a patch if they're smart. Fourth and finally, the fact that a menu layout is one of your two main reasons for hating a game is pretty pathetic.

Try again.

TsuKata @ Dec 22nd 2008 6:19PM

I think comparing sales figures of GHWT, essentially a brand new game, to sales of RB2, a sequel with minimal changes to the original, is not a fair comparison. For a fair comparison, you really ought to compare sales of Rock Band to GHWT...in which case Rock Band beats it by a considerable margin, even factoring in time-in-market.

Also, if we're only going to judge a game by how well it sells, BioShock, GTA IV, and COD4 can all take a back seat to that awesomest of all awesome: Wii Sports.

I don't care how well GHWT sells, the arrangements of songs are not as good as Rock Band's arrangements. I don't like the instrument construction as much (even considering Rock Band's early instrument flaws). But most of all, GH as a franchise has convinced me that they are trying to sucker me out of money. I'm fine with giving gamemakers their due (and I've blown a pretty penny on Rock Band DLs), but there's a point where it becomes clear that you're ripping people off. GHWT: Metallica is a prime example. As many others have pointed out, this should be downloadable content, NOT a separate game. Making it a separate game is a sucker play.

CTC XBL-supapaypamawio PSN-ctclaw @ Dec 22nd 2008 6:23PM

You are completely retarded to put faith in them providing DLC consistently. I'm not going to take the time to find the quote from them saying they would provide constant DLC for GH3 (which they didn't), but after getting burned with the GH3 DLC they said they would consistently provide why trust them this time?

And yeah, the song selection might seem like a little thing, but when playing with big groups of people it factors in. GHWT song selection looks like shit in comparison.

chaos3346 @ Dec 22nd 2008 7:03PM

Guitar Hero World Tour can't effectively sort the few songs in the demo in any reasonable way, much less its whole, retail library. This is a real problem and complaint. The interface itself is ineffective, showing a lack of care and time put into the game. Every moment with a game counts, and if it's unpleasant to even choose your songs, that's more aggravation than I need. Rock Band 2 made it incredibly easy to sort through large song libraries. That's important.

The game itself is fairly fugly as well. The notes make it harder to play drums - they really, truly don't work. As much as I like the set itself, it's worthless when the game doesn't hold up. The fact that the graphics and models are hideous only detracts - a LOT - from the game. GH1 and 2 looked good because they were cartoony. In 3, Neversoft tried for a "realistic" look, but it looked bad, and looks even worse now. It doesn't work, but it's their "style."

GHWT is sloppy, and Activision is simply exploiting the GH name for money. Companies are supposed to make money, I understand, but releasing subpar games in rapid succession is the worst way to do it. They're cutting open the goose to get out the golden eggs. They don't care about quality or the consumer, only the consumers' wallets.

Also, you can make your own quickplay setlists in RB2. Have you tried it?

jorojoserojas @ Dec 22nd 2008 7:05PM

You can make setlists in Rock Band 2.

VaultICEE @ Dec 22nd 2008 8:33PM

Alright, do you want to know the reason why so many true gamers hate Guitar Hero? There's a couple...

- It looks fucking ugly. The way the entire screen is set up, the characters, the audience, the venues, and yes, even the song selection screen. I don't care how cartoony they're trying to make the game, the graphics could easily be improved on.

- The way the characters act on the stage. In Rock Band, everybody's so fluent when moving or playing their instruments. In Guitar Hero, just take a look at it. From my point of view, they again didn't try nearly hard enough.

- Songs are STILL being undercharted/overcharted. Coming from a real guitarist, its really easy to tell what's being halfassed and what isn't. Just go look on YouTube.

- DLC isn't doing fantastic. I'll admit, they're doing okay when not compared to Rock Band, but when you see the competition which are you going to choose? Sure, there's the good (Hendrix, Eagles)... but then there's the bad (Nickelback? Seriously??). And at the amount of songs they're pumping out per week, this isn't a good sign.

- The drum track. I know its preference between the circle and square shaped notes, but even the bass line is just plain hard to read.

...I could go on, but that's what I could pull out of the top of my head. Rock Band 2, even if it doesn't bring a whole lot to the table, is still not only more fun, but you can tell there's love being put into the game. Guitar Hero... not so much.

/rant

Brett @ Dec 23rd 2008 12:21AM

I can't really argue with anything you said, because it's all opinion, and that's fine.

I totally disagree with the visual aspect. It may not have beautiful graphics, but the art-style is so far superior to Rock Band. In fact, I'm not sure if Rock Band 2 has an art style per se. It's more notable for a lack of an art style. The characters are all extremely plain and boring, and if it wasn't for the robust library of clothing choices, every other band member would be a clone with the same face.

I also have to plain old disagree with the on-stage presentation. I think that the GH "performers" (with the exception of the drummer) look so much more realistic as far as movements, especially the singer. In fact, I have a hard time believing that the RB singers even hold a candle to the ones in GH. They just seem so much more realistic.

I don't understand the complaint with the song list. You can set it to go from top to bottom in order of difficulty, just like Rock Band. I don't get your complaints.

I prefer circle notes, but that's just a matter of opinion.

The GH DLC is doing just as good as RB did when it first came out as far as quantity goes. For quality, you complain about GH releasing Nickelback. How about the massive list of diarrhea that RB has put up for download. I'm not going to list any in particular, because all you have to do is go on to the Wiki page and pick a song at random, and it's more than likely going to be awful.

I'm intrigued by what your definition of a "true gamer" is, because GH is the one clearly catering towards the hardcore audience with a grittier look, higher difficulty, and profound customization tools.

Finally, I play the real guitar as well, buddy, and I fail to see how either of them are more "true" to the music than the other. Last time I checked, they were both using five buttons to represents hundreds of different fingerings on a real guitar.

PS: I failed to mention the duckwalk in RB2, which wins my award for "Most Annoying Fucking Thing In Any Video Game Ever." Ninety-five percent of the time, it doesn't even fit in with the song, and one-hundred percent of the time it's fucking annoying, especially when it happens 3 times in a song. It sends me on an express train out of the "experience" at full speed.

GiggMan @ Dec 23rd 2008 8:35AM

@ Brett is GHWT really harder than RB2? I picked one up for my son for Christmas.

Brett @ Dec 23rd 2008 2:05PM

They both have their fair share of hard songs, but I would say that GH has a slight edge. However, you can always drop the difficulty down a level if the songs are too hard. Both games allow you to change difficulties in the middle of the single player campaign, which is great if you get stuck.

Hafk @ Dec 23rd 2008 2:42PM

@ CTC

It was consistant. Just not weekly.

Inspace2020 @ Dec 22nd 2008 6:57PM

You guys just don't get it...neither of these companies make ANY money from DLC (Penny's per song)...the only reason RB is providing DLC like they are is to gain market share in the genre...and that is really all they have going for them in my opinion...GH:WT is at least trying to bring new things to the genre (see: GHTunes) while RB2 is the same as RB pretty much...I'm not here to bash or defend either one but all the internet bashing GH is getting LAME...I personally like GH's guitars and drums WAY better than RB but I think RB is a good game as well its all personal preference...stop d*ck riding these corporations, cuz if EA was in Activision's shoes they would be doing the EXACT same thing...and probably will starting next year...the constant DLC is to gain a following...they HAVE to do it...

As far as Metallica getting its own game...yes it could be DLC but then you would get all the standard animations and layout of GH:WT which is FAR from metal...if I was a fan of Mettallica music I would prefer them to have their own game with characters, layout and all....just my opinion...