Not long after I started playing, I noticed the lanes on certain parts of the sensor failing to register, or others flashing in and out of existence even though my finger was firmly planted on the spot. Yes, much like the drums, the guitar is a victim of faulty construction as well, with some major issues arising in the touch neck. It's a cool innovation, and one that had potential to be great, if not for hardware issues mucking it up once again. This innovation is great for mimicking slides up and down the strings, as well as allowing gamers to finger-tap through those impossibly hard solos in later songs. Those playing lead will now notice a series of ghosted notes that appear during sections of some songs, indicating that you can play the notes using the new touch pad situated on the guitar's neck, just below the regular fret buttons. While I appreciate any steps taken to help gamers solve a problem short of sending the whole set back in and awaiting a replacement, it would be far better if the instruments worked out of the box like they were supposed to.Īside from the vocals and drums, World Tour also features the guitar and bass parts we've all come to know and love from the franchise. I managed to tune my kit to a respectable level, though the set is still, as a whole, faulty. Red Octane will provide one free of charge, but you'll have to wait on it, and in the meantime some might find the drums near unplayable. Unfortunately, in order for the changes to take effect, users need a MIDI USB cable to transfer the data, not something most folks have lying around the house. Soon after the game was launched, the company announced the creation of a PC app that would allow you to tune the sensitivity of each pad independently, meant to alleviate issues such as mine. Thankfully, Red Octane has provided a method to somewhat fix the issues, but it is both cumbersome and anything but foolproof. The kit I used for review had a lot of sensitivity issues, with the red pad barely registering any hits at all and the yellow cymbal reacting to the pounding of any pad on the whole kit. While the design of the drums is great, their function is sorely lacking. It's really quite impressive how a seemingly inconsequential design tweak can make the whole experience that much more immersive. It's a simple change (and one that Rock Band will be copying soon), but the inclusion of cymbals in a two-tiered drum set go a long way toward enhancing the overall experience. Even better, the kit is divided into three pads on the main body, and two "cymbals" elevated above the rest of the rig. The World Tour drum set features five pads (plus a bass pedal), as opposed to Rock Band's four. The drums are something else entirely, offering a new twist on what we've come to expect from plastic instruments and kicking the whole thing up to 11. The mic is nothing special, just your standard USB unit that tracks pitch and translates your dulcet tones on-screen. The good news is that the gameplay innovations really could have paid off in spades however, the bad news is that all of these great new ideas are held back by shoddy hardware, which is prone to failure and underwhelming performance.įirst up, since this is meant to be a full band experience, World Tour has opted to include a microphone and drum set for the first time. The only problem is, Harmonix, the progenitors of the genre, have already surpassed Activision and Neversoft with Rock Band, and try as it might, Guitar Hero just can't seem to close the gap.īy now pretty much everyone is already familiar with the basics behind the game, so the bigger question is what's new, and how does it affect the overall experience? The answer, as it turns out, is that quite a lot has changed since last time, both in the instruments themselves and how the game functions overall. Now, three years later, the series is gearing up for its latest run in the form of Guitar Hero World Tour, finally bringing the full band experience to the franchise. For all we knew, Guitar Hero would just be another underappreciated game that would gain a small cult following but never achieve mainstream success. After all, developer Harmonix had already made two tremendous rhythm games in the form of Frequency and Amplitude, yet no one noticed. When the IP launched in 2005, many hoped it would be the next big thing, but few were convinced. It's hard to believe how far the Guitar Hero franchise has come in only a few short years.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |