Guitar Hero 5 starts the party on September 1
by JC Fletcher 
{ May 27th 2009 at 11:15AM } 
If you'd like more info on this inevitable purchase, Gamespot posted, in addition to some new screens and brief footage, some details on the game's new "Party Play" mode. This feature is designed to allow total flexibility in social situations. Party Play allows you to start the game with no players, using a playlist of Guitar Hero music as a sort of jukebox. When people decide they want to play a song, they can pick up an instrument, push a button, and begin playing immediately.
This is also where the game's instrument flexibility comes in. Party Play is designed to allow any combination of instruments, in case you want to play Barbershop Quartet Hero.
Gallery: Guitar Hero 5
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
Geist @ May 27th 2009 11:22AM
What. When did GH4 come out? Why are they coming out with another? What music is there left to play?
Remember when Guitar Hero first came out, and it was an exciting and novel concept, not a tired and over-done IP? Yeah. I miss those days.
Nap @ May 27th 2009 11:29AM
You're like the 932nd person to complain about the frequent releases. If you don't want them, don't buy them. I have money, and I love playing and finding new music. So I will be buying this one along with the 17 other games that come out this year.
You are 110% correct though about them milking the franchise. But I doubt they would be doing it if it didn't sell. So there must be some other people like me out there buying these
berval @ May 27th 2009 11:29AM
It came out yesterday. Are you living under a rock or what?
David @ May 27th 2009 12:33PM
Please no mooooreeeeee sequelsssssss...
KeenCommander @ May 27th 2009 1:40PM
I'll take sequels, just some innovation please! It's pretty bad when the games have gotten worse over the course of time, though I'll give them that GH: Metallica was at least a good game (unlike World Tour IMO).
ToRo @ May 27th 2009 2:24PM
Hey Nap, if you like playing and finding new music there is this thing called DLC. But hey if you had Rock Band, you would already know that.
Jeremiah Moon @ May 27th 2009 11:25AM
Party play sounds intriguing, especially with the big library of downloadable songs. I may have to pick this up if I get a 360.
Bagels: Commander in Chief of the lolcat sarcasm alert force. @ May 27th 2009 11:45AM
What big library? You mean all the songs you disc swap for? That barely counts as a library.
Hafkie @ May 27th 2009 3:01PM
All of the World Tour DLC....... You forgot that they have been releasing that weekly, haven't you?
Robert Maynard @ May 27th 2009 9:38PM
Oh come on Hafkie, there's been about 120ish songs released since September last year for World Tour, which will combine with at least 85 tracks on Guitar Hero 5 for a grand total of... about 205 songs. At the current rate of DLC release (about 12 song a month), they will have added another 36 (:O) to their library by September.. so out of the box it'll have a maximum library of about 240. Look out!
Meanwhile there are over 500 songs available as Rock Band DLC --today--, plus 84 on Rock Band 2, plus 55 out of Rock Band 1's 58 tracks (plus 18 if you get the AC/DC pack). So what's that ..about.. 650.
But who's keeping score, right? Certainly not consumers. :D
squeevi @ May 27th 2009 11:23AM
Party Play seems like a really neat idea. I assumes you could jump out just as easily in the middle of a song?
Hafkie @ May 27th 2009 2:57PM
The gamespot video shows it in action.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cJF3csEI4cY
Really nice feature! The band Star Power is now individual, and it isn't even little light bulbs anymore. There is now a vocal bar that fills up as you sing, showing progress (like the pie in RB), and Vocal and Drum Freeforms now give no points (they ruined the leaderboards and competition) It seems that vocal freeforms give Star Power, but no direct points.
The band fail system has also changed. Instead of being 4 members directly effecting one massive rock meter, everyone has their own individual rock meters. If one fails, they are revived by the other players working together to fill up a "revival meter."
The new Rock Fest gameplay modes might be fun, but I am not too excited for them. I just want a better online system. GH3's online was PERFECT, as it actually had a LOBBY system. A Lobby system would be perfect for this kind of game, because you could see a list of bands with openings, and pick one. Hell, if you see they need a vocalist, you can switch over. This would have made the Battle of the Bands mode in WT useful, but the system in WT was flawed.
Given that WT DLC is also compatible, this is shaping up to be the best Neversoft-era GH yet.. The interface alone gives me confidence.
Swarley @ May 27th 2009 11:23AM
a x7 multiplier? I call shenanigans.
baby sea tuna @ May 27th 2009 11:54AM
Your avatar rules.
Danny @ May 27th 2009 1:56PM
The multiplier is 7 because it is the bands multiplayer. Its a sum of all the players multipliers.
Hafkie @ May 27th 2009 2:45PM
The band multiplier comes from Band Moments.
Although RB fanboys called them ripoffs of Unison bonuses, they are actually completely different scoring-wise. If you hit band moments together, it adds to your band multiplier. Hitting these in succession can raise the multiplier up to 11, resulting and very, very high scores.
Chris D.(PSN: Aggie_CEO | XBL:The Aggie CEO | Steam: Aggie_CEO @ May 27th 2009 11:23AM
Dear Lord man....I JUST got GH4...lol
MystileArmor @ May 27th 2009 11:44AM
That's what I was saying before. A $250,- investment to something that will be outdated by the end of the year, wonderfull.
Although, to be fair the reason I went with Guitar Hero instead of the Rockband bundle is cause I liked the drumkit a tiny bit more, and I HAD to have GH cause of the fact it has the complete latest album from Oasis as DLC.
This one, I won't be getting. Rockband 2 fills my music-rhythm game needs.
The Beatles: Rockband, however, that's a different story.
Magresda @ May 27th 2009 11:24AM
These new "features" just isn't enough to justify another purchase for me. With the amazing library that Rock Band 2 has at the moment, I'm all good on the music game front. Except for the Beatles game, naturally. I want that.
bongoes @ May 27th 2009 2:59PM
I feel the exact same way.
Matt B @ May 27th 2009 8:26PM
Are you kidding? The party play mode is enough by itself to by this game. I never understood why they made the whole band fail if on player is sucking. It totally ruins it. Just let them drop out and everybody can still play. It innovations like this that show Neversoft is still ahead of Harminox.
darkwater124 @ May 27th 2009 11:18PM
@ Matt B
There is no "one person fails everyone fails" here. No someone can fail but be brought back. Sound familiar?
phobic99 @ May 27th 2009 11:24AM
Sweet. My dreams of seeing a Guitar Hero: Soulja Boy may come true at the rate they're pumping these out.
Troy Powers (PSN: TroyPowers) @ May 27th 2009 11:43AM
Can I get a "YOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO"
Jrinswand @ May 27th 2009 12:42PM
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LK8kgK-TAnE
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ScottG13 @ May 27th 2009 11:25AM
Party play sounds interesting.
Otherwise, I couldn't care less, though. Its just another in the long continuous flood of GH products that have not been releveant for my parties since GH3.
RB is still the product to have for parties until its made clear otherwise. RB: Beatles is coming around soonish, though...
PR0F3TA @ May 27th 2009 11:26AM
yesterday i went to an the arcades, i saw a cabinet playing familiar music, i turned around and saw GUITAR HERO ARCADE. *sigh*
thats right, Activision charges you 2.00 to play a song in a game which you prob have in your house right now. sad.
Look at that screen shot, WTF are they doing anymore?
GewurztraminerX @ May 27th 2009 12:32PM
I saw one of those the other day and I had to try it. What a waste.
The guitars are super heavy (theft-deterrent i'm sure) and the audio-video was out of sync / not calibrated.
I'm better off at home with GH3 and RB2.
False @ May 27th 2009 11:32AM
I'm just happy that Joystiq already confirmed that World Tour DLC would carry over. The rest of it is icing on the cake. The graphics already look like an improvement over World Tour.
I'm also intrigued by the idea of Party Play. The "jukebox" concept is a good one and one I wish Rock Band or Guitar Hero had rolled out a while ago.
Troy Powers (PSN: TroyPowers) @ May 27th 2009 11:46AM
I just found out you can create your own jukebox mode on RB2 if you 1) have a microphone plugged in, 2) enable the no chart cheat, and 3) enable the no-fail cheat. A little bit of a pain, but it works.
dark_inchworm (on Steam!) dark inchworm (on XBL!) @ May 27th 2009 11:47AM
The jukebox idea was supposed to make it into RB2, but for one reason or another, it was canned maybe days before RB2 actually went to the pressers. Hmm.
dark_inchworm (on Steam!) dark inchworm (on XBL!) @ May 27th 2009 11:47AM
But yeah, what he said works.
jason @ May 27th 2009 11:49AM
This was a feature that was supposed to be in Rock Band 2, but was omitted at the last minute, probably due to licensing.
Taken from Rock Band forums -
"Lastly, some folks have been asking about the status of the previously discussed Jukebox Mode. This mode was removed from Rock Band 2 in the final stages of development. We have no immediate plans to bring this feature back to the platform in the future."
pairorat @ May 27th 2009 11:33AM
This may be a secondary issue for a rhythm game, but the lack of ANY focal depth or atmosphere in the GH has always bugged the hell out of me. I've never been to a show with that little smoke or that much light. That's something that RB hit on the mark, was the feeling that you're actually at a show.
Jon D @ May 27th 2009 2:17PM
that's because most of the folks at HMX played music professionally at some point in time if they're not doing it now whereas Red Octane has a history of ripping off great rhythm game ideas and just improving on them, not reinventing the genre/franchise. and Neversoft is notorious for milking franchises which is why they traded in Tony Hawk for Guitar Hero.
anyways, i'm not impressed. the music gaming franchise is starting to really lose it's luster for me personally. i'll stick to Rock Band, but you guys really hit the nail on the head with the "inevitable purchase" line.
Crayfish @ May 27th 2009 7:47PM
Wow I think you hit the nail on the head. There was always something off about the presentation that just didn't gell for me (beyond the ugly designs of WT), and that certainly sounds like it could be it. The Thunderbirds character animation doesn't help either.
Kaemon @ May 27th 2009 11:32AM
-_- GH just needs to die. They don't make good games anymore. They're just trash.
Same problems,, same ugly look, same crappy vocals. Same ugly art, same ugly animations. Same bad multiplayer. Its not gonna change.
False @ May 27th 2009 11:38AM
You obviously didn't notice the jump in quality between World Tour and Metallica. A lot of World Tour's problems were fixed, especially the shitty vocals system. This new game looks to be more about fixing what was wrong with World Tour. Kinda like how RB2 was more about fixing what was wrong with RB1. Cynicism is premature here.
Kaemon @ May 27th 2009 12:44PM
Nope! I bought Metallica! I bought GH2, Gh3, GH:A, GH:M, GHWT, GH:DS.
And.... I still say its a downward slope towards mediocrity! I know they "Improved" things with GH:M, but they didn't actually make it better, just changed crap to a different crap. (Don't belive I have the games? Kei Kaemon is my GT, look it up. I have all GH console games, all RB console games, and all that)
False @ May 28th 2009 5:49AM
So in one post, you talk about all the ills of Guitar Hero and why it needs to die, but in your response, you point out that you've bought every single entry in the series to date. You confuse me, sir. If it's so bad, don't buy it.
And good god, what could have possibly possessed you to buy Guitar Hero for the freakin' DS? Even I'm not that big a GH/RB fan.
Kaemon @ May 29th 2009 3:18PM
Ds GH seemed like a good idea at the time....
TalbainJ @ May 27th 2009 11:43AM
They're going to need a huge marketing blitz and a lot of improvement over World Tour if they want to outshine Beatles: RB, which comes out one week later.
Zack11190 @ May 27th 2009 11:45AM
I'll probably get downvoted for this considering how most people here are Rock Band fanboys, but this looks awesome. I think I'll buy (as long as the track list is decent).
Troy Powers (PSN: TroyPowers) @ May 27th 2009 12:04PM
I'm a hard-core RB fan, but this looks good. My main gripe with GH was always the silly looking characters. Now with that fixed, and this party play feature, I'd almost buy it. The only thing stopping me is not wanting my favorite songs split between games. "Oh, you wanna play Hotel California? We gotta switch to Guitar Hero. Drain You? No, that was back on Rock Band."
Zack11190 @ May 27th 2009 12:28PM
Downvoted. Just as I thought.
I really don't care what the characters look like. I'm too buys looking at the note chart to even care what is going on in the background. However, I do agree that songs should be transferable between Guitar Heroes.
Kaemon @ May 27th 2009 1:13PM
You get downvoted because you say you are. It makes people WANT to downvote you.
VaultICEE @ May 27th 2009 8:00PM
I won't downvote you. At least you seem to be able to give a valid reason as to why you like GH, which is unusual around the internetz.
Still though, this game doesn't look that great. I'd rather wait for GH to add something even newer and exciting. Playing the same instrument more than once per screen is not what I'd like to call innovative, nor is it a huge buying point.
I wouldn't count my chickens before the hatch. I'll wait for more details before judging any game, ESPECIALLY a Guitar Hero.
Captain Planet @ May 27th 2009 11:45AM
RockBand: The Beatles > GH5
GewurztraminerX @ May 27th 2009 1:15PM
Now by EIGHT DAYS, A WEEK (almost).
darkwater124 @ May 27th 2009 11:33PM
You do realize that all these GH releases were because of the Beatles, so allow me to fix your math equation...
The Beatles: Rock Band > GH: Metallica + GH: Smash Hits + GH: Van Halen + GH: crappy DS title + Band Hero + DJ Hero (obviously) + Guitar Hero 5: Actual Sequel.