Who’s The Winner?!

YOU DECIDE!

In this corner, we’ve got the upcoming Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock for the Playstation 2, Playstation 3, Xbox 360 and Wii:

And in this corner, for the Playstation 3, Xbox 360 and rumored appearance on the Wii at some unspecified point in time, Rock Band.

On the one hand, Guitar Hero III has scored a major coup in that they have Tenacious D’s The Metal. That song alone may be worth the price of admission for many, and it sure is a big hook for me. However, they also took out Pandora and Clive Winston, a couple of my favorite characters and there’s that worrying report about the ease of the game. And while I appreciate the addition of battling guitarists as a new feature, I don’t know how much I personally would use it and enjoy it as it strikes me as a bit too “video game-y” that you would actually be trying to beat another musician into submission like that. They’ve also included a “note counter” by the score meter that shows you how many notes per row you’re hitting. These additions are the kind of thing that are made by people thinking in terms of GAMES, not music, and it’s clear that the Neversoft team are trying to get Guitar Hero away from just the pure, fun, spirit of playing music and trying to ground it in the score-conscious, achievement oriented culture of gamers. It seems to go against the Spirit Of Rock. Plus, again, it’s made by skaters, not musicians.

Then on the other hand you’ve got the amazing string of good news that just keeps coming for Rock Band. It’s been confirmed that the entire album Who’s Next by the Who is going to be available for downloadable purchase which is an AMAZING coup for the Harmonix crew (GO TEAM!) and the Create-A-Rock-Star mode is a thing of beauty. If you’ve got a half hour with nothing to do, sit yourself down and watch this video, which is of Harmonix showing off Rock Band for Gamespot. I wanted the game before. I’m going to DIE now if I don’t get it.

‘Course I need an Xbox 360 or a PS3 to play it, so I think this video may have just decisively swung me…