'Tribute' #1 in the UK, #3 globally

FreeStyle Games has come out with a list of the most-played songs in Guitar Hero Live over th??e holidays and I can't be the only one who finds lists like this somewhat entertaini?ng.

Between December 24 and Januar?y 3, the most popular on-demand tracks in the UK were:

1. "Tribute" - Tenacious D
2. "American Idiot" - Green Day
3. "Sing" - Ed Sheeran
4. "The Lazy Song" - Bruno Mars
5. "All the Small Things" - Blink-182
6. "I Want to Break Free" - Queen
7. "Sex on Fire" - Kings of Leon
8. "B.Y.O.B." - System of a Down
9. "Let Her Go" - Passenger
10. "Nightmare (Live)" - Avenged Sevenfold
11. "Before I Forget" - Slipknot
12. "Hold Back the River" - James Bay
13. "Budapest" - George Ezra
14. "Eye of the Tiger" - Survivor
15. "Feel so Close" - Calvin Harris
16. "Stacy's Mom" - Fountains of Wayne
17. "Sugar, We're Goin Down" - Fall Out Boy
18. "Chop Suey!" - System of a Down
19. "Tears Don't Fall" - Bullet for My Valentine
20. "Seven Nation Army" - The White Stripes

Globally, the top songs across all of Gu?itar Hero TV were:

1. "I Gotsta Get Paid" - ZZ Top
2. "Best Day of My Life" - American Authors
3. "Tribute" - Tenacious D
4. "Epic" - Faith No More
5. "Rollin' and Tumblin'" - The Gaslight Anthem
6. "Jekyll and Hyde" - Five Finger Death Punch
7. "Diamond Eyes" - Deftones
8. "Break the Cycle" - Motionless in White
9. "Tears Don't Fall" - Bullet for my Valentine
10. "Broken Generation" - Of Mice & Men
11. "More Than A Feeling" - Boston
12. "Stacy's Mom" - Fountains of Wayne
13. "Cult of Personality" - Living Colour
14. "Eyes of a Stranger" - Queensrÿche
15. "Buddy Holly" - Weezer
16. "Cowboys from Hell" - Pantera
17. "The Lazy Song" - Bruno Mars
18. "Down with the Sickness" - Disturbed
19. "Time To Pretend" - MGMT
20. "Always with Me, Always with You" - Joe Satriani

A few random thoughts: first, I like how ZZ Top has more than one song about getting paid (there is also 1972's "Just Got Paid"). Second, it warms my heart to know people are still discovering and loving "Cult of Personality." What a great track! Lastly, I'm fairly sure Kyle does not own Guitar Hero Live, but I'm holding him personally accountable for "Stacy's Mom" makin?g the cut.

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Which will be aired this week

I'm still rocking out with Guitar Hero Live, mostly because of the constant free content that comes my way by way?? of Guitar Hero TV. Sure there are microtransactions under the surface, but for wee?ks now, I've played the TV function without paying, and I have over 100 free plays under my belt that I don't even use.

This week Activison is trying something a little different, as Ave?nged Sevenfold is hosting a live show that discusses and displays some of their favorite bands, like Pantera and Megadeth. You can find the sc?hedule below!

• Wednesday, Dec. 23^rd at 1:30am, 9:30am and 6:00pm Pacific
• Thursday, Dec. 24^th at 2:00am, 10:00am and 8:30pm Pacific
• Friday, Dec. 25^th at 4:30am, 12:30pm, 5:30pm and 9:30pm Pacific
• Saturday, Dec. 26^th at 5:30am, 9:30am, 7:30pm and 11:00pm Pacific
• Sunday, Dec. 27^th at 7:30am, 11:00am and 7:00pm Pacific
• Monday, Dec. 28^th at 3:00am, 11:00am and 5:30pm Pacific
• Tuesday, Dec. 29^th at 1:30am and 9:30am Pacific

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Plus some other minor changes to GHTV

When it comes to Guitar Hero Live, the one song I kick arse at is "Everybody Talks" by Neon Trees. I know it’s not considered “rock enough” for a Guitar Hero game by some people, but they’re obviously just jealous of how good I am at it.

Now I can prove my cheesy pop-rock dominance, as FreeStyle Games has introduced Rival Challenges to Guitar Hero TV, the microtransaction-driven music channel portion of ??the game.

If you’re at least level 10, you’ll now be pitted against similarly-skilled opponents in a one-on-one battle. Twice during every 30-minute slot on a Guitar Hero TV channel you and another player will see each other?’s profile? cards and note highways side-by-side on the screen, much like the main game’s battle mode. The winner of the challenge will net an extra 100 XP, which is a pretty decent amount.

It seems like a nice way to mix up Guitar Hero TV, which can feel a bit repetitive after the fifth song or so. However, I would’ve much preferred the abil??ity to choose the songs for myself. Being thrown against another player on a song you don’t like or haven’t heard before would be incredibly frustrating.

Another new feature is that once per day if you log in with zero ‘plays’ (the controversial currency used to play Guitar Hero TV songs on-demand), you&?r??squo;ll be given three of them for free.

Three free songs isn't really all that generous, making this a transparent ploy to get you to buy more plays when you’re done, but it’s better than nothing. Considering I don’t play GHTV that much and I have almost 60 plays, I don’t see ??this being a problem that affects too many people.

You can read more about the update on the Guitar Hero community blog.

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100,000 videos generated

I'm generally not a fan of lip-sync videos, but it looks like Activision managed to round up quite a few people into their newest scheme for Guitar Hero Live. The gist is that people are tasked wit??h creating a video for Ed Sheeran's "Sing," and over 100,000 fans participated.

The final product includes Stephen Curry, Shaquille O'Neal, Erin Andrews, and "Vine Star" King Bach (the world is moving so fast, g??uys). The best part is that it's actually playable in-game starting today, and the video was edited by Alan Chimenti, who worked on Katy Perry's?? "Roar."

Haha, what a weird world we live in. 

The post Activision reveals crowd-sourced music video results for Guitar? Hero Live appeared first on Destructoid.

Including 'Jerry Was a Race Car Driver'

At this point, Guitar Hero Live's GHTV function will have 300 songs to choose from this weekend, with 34 new tracks?? dropping tomorrow. The full list is below, but the obvious highlights include Judas Priest, Tenaci??ous D, Huey Lewis and the News, and Rush.

Activision has done right so far by Guitar Hero. There's a ton of fresh tracks to choose from, and again, I love the curation scheme with the cycling "TV" schedule, a??nd the fact that every track has an accompanying music video. It's amazing to see the history of a song both visually and audibly.

Full list of songs:

• Judas Priest – Living After Midnight  
• Amaranthe – Drop Dead Cynical  
• Primus – Jerry Was a Race Car Driver  
• Robert Palmer – Addicted To Love 
• Chevelle – Face To The Floor
• Rage Against the Machine – Killing In The Name
• Godsmack – 1000hp
• Jack White – Sixteen Saltines
• Sleeping With Sirens – If You Can’t Hang
• Tenacious D – Rize of the Fenix
• Walk The Moon – Shut Up And Dance
• Scott Weiland & The Wildabouts – Modzilla
• Audioslave – Like A Stone
• Five Finger Death Punch – The House of the Rising Sun
• Heart – What About Love?
• Huey Lewis and the News – Heart and Soul
• Great White – Rock Me
• The Outfield – Your Love
• Cinderella – Shake Me
• Lower Than Atlantis – Here We Go
• Neon Trees – I Love You (But I Hate Your Friends)
• Rush – Fly By Night
• Sammy Hagar – I Can’t Drive 55
• The Amazing Snakeheads – Here It Comes Again
• Jake Bugg – Slumville Sunrise
• Kings of Leon – Supersoaker
• R.E.M. – Shiny Happy People
• "The Glitch Mob – Can’t Kill Us"

New Premium Show Tracks

Dance Meets Rock

• Zedd – Stache
• The Prodigy – Nasty
• Knife Party – Centipede

On Tour 2015

• Escape the Fate – Issues
• Black Veil Brides – Heart of Fire
• Atreyu – So Others May Live

The post Guitar Hero TV is getting 34 new songs this week appeared first on Destructoid.

Including the guitar controller

We know Black Friday is around the corner, but retailers are trying their darnedest to bundle console offerings to offload inventory. Some are better than others. This PS4 One in particular is decent.

Over at Antonline's eBay outlet, they're selling a PS4 with Uncharted: The Nathan Drake Collection and Guitar Hero Live (including the guitar controller) for only $370. That's a savings of $80, provided you want Guitar Hero Live... if not, offload it for $70-$??80 to a friend and you'll have yourself a PS4 for under $300.

Now the big money question is this: will you be seeing under $300 PS4s this holiday season? Unlike the Xbox One, we don't think this is very likely, and if such deals are available, they will probably be in supremely limited quantity (online or off). Snagging a unit will require a?? Satanic ritual, sacrificing your neighborhood deals robot.

Meh to that, we say.

FYI: Shipping is free and sales tax is imposed in California and Georgia. Antonline is an authorized Sony retailer, so this comes with a full warranty.

Update: OOS at 500 units sold.

The post There’s a $370 PS4 bundle with Uncharted, Guitar Hero Live appeared first on Destructoid.

An axe to grind

As I've said many times in the past, I was a Guitar Hero man all the way up until I first laid eyes on that beautiful keyboard for Rock Band 3. The Hero series was stale, iterating a??nnually (sometimes multiple times in a year), and assisted in the great plastic market crash a few years back. Meanwhile, Harmonix cleverly used its game as ??a unified platform, and stuck to providing DLC support.

Years later though things have changed. While Rock Band 4 is content with giving you more of the same, Guitar Hero Live completely reinvents itself, for the better??.

Guitar Hero Live (PS3, PS4, Wii U, Xbox 360, Xbox One [reviewed])
Developer: FreeStyleGames
Publisher: Activision
MSRP: $99.99 (Game + guitar), $149.99 (Game + two guitars)
Released: October 23, 2015

The first thing you'll notice about Guitar Hero Live is that the controller itself has been reworked. Now, instead of the typical color-coded five button setup, you'll find two rows of three buttons -- one row is white, and the other, black. I didn't realize this until later on, b?ut it's actually easier for newcomers to pick up since you don't have to use your pinky finger at all, but tougher for veterans who are used to a 10-year institution of the same old setup.

Honestly, I loved having to relearn everything I knew. While I was rocking it out to expert-level songs in Rock Band 4 immediately after years of retirement, it took me multiple days to get a basic grasp on Guitar Hero Live. It recreated that unique feeling of picking up a plastic guitar for the first time. It also helps that Live has five difficulty levels (basic, casual, regular, advanced, and expert), that all ramp up p??erfectly dependi??ng on your skillset. It's especially important to note that the former settings only require you to use one row of buttons, which will help you slowly acclimate to the new setup.

As time went on and I started jacking up the difficulty, the game gets crazy tough. There's a major focus on one-finger vertical cords, as well as split cords with multiple combinations, and open strumming cues with no buttons. It's far from a realistic guitar simulator, but I really dug the increased emphasis on chords and fancy finger-work. It may feel like a step down at first glance, but there's a lot of depth found in these six buttons. The chief reason why FreeStyleGames was able to seemingly perfect this aspect of the game is because Live is guitar-centric again.

Yep, there's no drums, no keyboard, no "bass" ensemble -- both players play lead guitar. There is the option to hook up a USB microphone to sing vocals, but they are absolutely ancillary to the experience, and I wouldn't recommend picking up the game for singing in the slightest. Technically, vocals add in support for the third player, but Live is definitely focused on the same one or two-person jam session that the original brought to the table in 2005. Again, I'm totally okay with this, as the series started to get stale when it tried to be too much like Rock Band.

There's also a fundamental shift with the story mode, which no longer displays lifeless uncanny valley avatars strumming along to the song. Instead, the developers have recorded live footage with real bands playing each song with a live crowd, and strapped a camera to the lead guitarist to simulate a first-person view. Yes, it's FMV, but the end result is done so well that it blows past the Mad Dog McCrees of old.

For each set (three songs), your character will start backstage. Here you'll get a bit of setup, perhaps some light drama, a quick chat with a stagehand, and on occasion, a visit from a makeup artist. It helps set the scene and gives you the basic gist of what it feels like to walk out onto a stage in front of thousands of people. As the song progresses, the camera will dip and dive across the stage with your character. ??Now here's the neat part -- depending on how well you play, the FMV will shift in a surrealist fashion to suit the situation.

For instance, playing well will net you a cheering crowd and lots of smiles from your fellow bandmates. Playing poorly will shift the FMV into a negative state, with shaking heads and plenty of boos from the audience. It's such a little thing, but the band itself will start giving you a hard time vocally as well, which is jarring and motivating at the same time. I'm not going to act like this system elicits any kind of actual emotional response, but it's very cool to watch and it's seamlessly done. I'm genuinely surprised they went thro?ugh the effort of essentially recording two entire concerts for each set of songs.

The included setlist itself is rather diverse, consisting of classic rock songs from Queen, The Who,?? and The Rolling Stones, alongside of more modern groups like Green Day and Fall Out Boy, all the way up to Skrillex ("Bangarang" works better than you'd think) and a recent Eminem song ("Berzerk"). It has something for everyone, with a good spread of indie hits, folk music, and top 100 joints. While the actual story mode is only playable solo, there is a freeplay mode with all 42 on-disc tracks that you can enjoy with a partner, which also features the FMV setup.

So that's the first half of Guitar Hero.

Next up is the other half: Guitar Hero TV (GHTV). As ?you may have heard, this concept is going to be rather controversial in nature, as it features microtransactions, and a "stream-centric" DLC model where you can't actually buy songs, but play them on-demand. I fully expected to hat??e it based on concept alone, but to my surprise, it's probably one of my favorite modes in any rhythm game to date.

Let me explain a bit -- GHTV is a multi-faceted affair. At its core is the "channel" system, which currently hosts two playlists. These shift every half hour with new tracks and genres, and quite literally follow the traditional television model, where everyone is playing the exact same thing at the same time, complete with leaderboards. In other words, if you boot it up, you may be jumping in mid-song into a competition. This aspect of Live is devoid of microtransactions. You can play both channels for free without paying Tokens (more o??n that later) as long as you want.

And that's just what I did for days on end. During one of my testing sessions, I played the channel system for three hours straight, earning Tokens for on-demand plays along the way. Since this system is curated, I stepped out of my comfort zone, and discovered new bands, or played songs that? I wouldn't normally play from bands I already knew about. It broke the typical rhythm rut where I'd only play my favorite tracks, and it's a really cool feeling.

GHTV also has the added benefit of hosting music videos for every single available song. As someone who grew up with MTV, it was a joy to watch them all over again, especially classics like Tenacious D's "Tribute." It's also a lot more fun to watch music videos as a spectator compared to the afo??rementioned uncanny avatars. Since the channels are going to be constantly updated over time, I'm excited to see what the future holds. ??;

The other side of GHTV is on-demand and features microtransactions. Here's how it works: for each tr??ack played, you'll earn Tokens. If you do poorly, you'll earn roughly 100-130 Tokens on average. If you do well, you'll net close to 200. You can also earn daily rewards for logging into the game and bonuses for ranking up. One on-demand play ??is about 600 Tokens, and there's also the option to buy cosmetic bits like new note highways and player cards. Finally, there's a "Party Pass" for $5.99 that grants you access to the entire TV catalog (hundreds of songs) for 24 hours.

Here's the good news -- you can basically ignore ?all of this nonsense if ?you play the channels. Personally, I put in over 20 hours into GHTV and haven't felt compelled to spend a cent, with 70 spare freeplay sessions banked. You might not feel the same if you hate the principle of not owning content, but as a regular subscriber to streaming services such as Netflix and Hulu, it's not a difficult concept to grasp. While GHTV has the potential to turn a lot of people off, I would be satisfied just playing channels for the immediate future. Both the channels and on-demand support two players.

Guitar Hero Live completely took me be surprise. I love the new controller design, the FMV portions ?work far better than they should, and Guitar Hero TV hooked me with its channel concept. Going forward, I'm hoping that the model further reinvents itself by introducing the world to new music.

_{[This review is based on a retail buil??d of the game provided by the publisher, specifically, the dual guitar package.]}

The post Review: Guitar Hero Live appeared first on Destructoid.

Legion of Gloom

A lot of dumb things happened in football this weekend. Michigan decided it would like Michigan State to continue its recent domination of the intrastate rivalry, so the Wolverines did this -- a not very good football play. The Indianapolis Colts unleashed one of the most hilarious plays in NFL history. The ball was probably?? never supposed to be snapped, but it was, and I hope Santa Claus brings me a clip of this play every year forever.

One of the dumb things took place without teams on the turf, however. Macklemore played Guitar Hero Live at midfield during halftime of the Seahawks game yesterday. The stunt was?? an Activision promotion of its music game series, and a Seat??tle promotion of the rapper it continues to love while the rest of the world got annoyed with.

Not coincidentally (probably), the Seahawks lost the game to the Carolina Panthers. When you have a two win, four loss team, I guess it's those Macklemore Guitar Hero performances that you really have to cling onto.

@GuitarHero [Twitter]

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Good god! That's CM Punk's music!

You know what they say about saving the best for last. Well, I guess they just say to do it. ??It's a good idea. Then ev??eryone's like "Wow, we doubted you, but some real nice stuff happened at the end."

That's Guitar Hero Live's legacy for the two weeks until the game releases. Up until now, the newly-added tracks have been a fair number of songs we don't know and then some that you kind of know. That changes this week. Most every one of these tracks enjoyed some sort of fame and popularity, and most have been included in previous Guitar Hero games.

Given the proximity to Guitar Hero Live's launch, we have to be close to the end of these song reveals. M?aybe Activision has one more set up its sleeve, but this would be a perfectly acceptable note to go out on.

Guitar Hero Live releases on October 20. He??re are ?the 12 new songs added to the tracklist:

• Living Colour - Cult of Personality
• Pat Benatar - Hit Me With Your Best Shot (Live)
• Ratt - Round and Round
• Slipknot - Before I Forget
• AFI - Girl's Not Grey
• Warrant - Cherry Pie
• Incubus - Drive
• Faith No More - Epic
• Audioslave - Cochise 
• Survivor - Eye of the Tiger
• Queen - We Are The Champions
• Disturbed - Down With The Sickness

The post You will know (and love) most of Guitar Hero Live’s newest songs appeared first on Destructoid.

Hangar 18 is on there

With Guitar Hero Live only a few weeks away, developer Freestyle Games is sharing its opinions on the most difficult songs in the game, to give players a heads-up of sorts. Said list includes "Hangar 18" (Megadeth), "Cry of Achilles" (Alter Bridge), and "Ghost Walking" (Lamb of God).

I'm not a big fan of Lamb of God, but Ghost Walking sounds fun enough to play guitar-wise. My first eureka moment for a tough song was probably the original Guitar Hero's "Bark at the ?Moon" by Ozzy. I played it constantly so I could learn some new?? tactics at higher-level play, and once I mastered it, I moved on to everything else.

??The Hardest Songs in Guitar Hero Live, as Named by Freestyle Games [Guitar Hero Live]

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Streaming instead of ownership

FreeStyleGames, the developer of Guitar Hero Live, has posted its plans for the Guitar Hero TV (GHTV) portion of the game, and it's intriguing to say the le?ast. Basically, instead of buying songs piecemeal for $2 or so, you're going to be streaming them by way of GHTV, and buying the temporary rights to play certain tracks with tokens.

Now, this concept was unveiled weeks back, but now it is confirming for sure that there's no hard DLC involved. You'll earn tokens through playing tracks that are chosen for you on the game's TV channels, and said tokens can be used to play what you want. This is not only indicative of our streaming culture right now, but it's also a clever way to keep the gam??e constantly fresh.

I know for a fact that many of you out there aren't a fan of this model outright. There's definitely some skepticism involved here, but as a rule, I'm actually interested in seeing it in action. I like the idea of constantly curating new music to disco?ver, as most people tend to just buy DLC for songs they really like anyway.

I assume that if the game fails GHTV will go away, but if Activision actually sti?cks by the model for years without forcing people to buy a new guitar or iteration, it could ??be really great. Of course, a full on-disc song selection and campaign still exists.

A brand new direction for Guitar Hero [Freestyle Games]

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I felt like a badass for about 5 seconds

Back in my mid-teens I played drum?s in a hastily thrown together rock band. We mainly played pretty bad covers of other people's songs, occasionally writing our own tracks that went on far too long and were excessively simplistic. Still, we felt pretty damn cool.

The idea of getting that band to play a show for an audience was always our driving force. We felt cool, and surely having people watch? us and cheer would create an even stronger emotional hi??gh.

While our band never ended up playing a single live show, playing Guitar Hero Live at EGX made me feel pretty thankful about that.

On a gameplay level, Guitar Hero Live f?eels pretty new. Gone is the old five-button single row layout, replaced with two rows of three buttons placed next to each other. On screen you've got three note tracks scrolling, which will either show a white pick pointing down or a black pick pointing up to denote if you should play that note on the top or bottom row. It's a switch up that slightly more closely resembles guitar fingerings, and it feels like a new, manageable challenge to learn.

However, what had a far bigger impact on my experience with GH Live at EGX was the impre?ssive integr?ation of full motion video, which is both a blessing and a curse when it comes to living out your teenage rock god fantasies.

Firstly, my fears abou?t modern implementations of full motion video were instantly allayed when actually playing the game. I can logically tell which camera pans are likely being used to mask transitions between videos as your performance rises and falls, but try as I might I could not actually see the seams. We seem to have reach??ed a point where smooth transitions in full motion video gameplay are totally possible, and that's really reassuring to see.

When I was doing well at Guitar Hero Live, I? felt like a guitar shredding legend. The crowd went wild, the pit jumped, the crowd fought to lock eyes with me and everything felt amazing. It's amazing how much difference the switch from computer animated crowds to real human faces can make, but seeing actual people respond well to your performance felt awesome.

We have not crossed the uncanny valley, and real human faces in video games have a special power to elicit an emotion. The scary thing about GH Live? It can invoke powerful negative emotions too.

Toward the end of my time with the demo, I decided to see how far I could push the limits of the game. I slowly performed worse and worse as the song ?went on, and my god it got uncomfortable.

First the audienc??e began to lo?ok mildly confused. Then, they looked upset, personally let down by me. I glance at the bassist and he's trying to ask what's going wrong.

I do worse.

The audience grows upset, confused and angry. I glance at the drummer and she's freaking out. Mascara is running down her face as she mouths obscenities at me. The singer moti??ons to have the stage hands pull me off ??stage.

At this point, I quit the track I was playing. I felt terrible. My failure felt real. The anxiety related to letting down fans, th??e disappointment and the anger resting on my shoulders. I felt it all.

My time playing Guitar Hero Live at EGX convin?ced me primarily of two things. If you're doing well, this game is going to be awesome. If you screw up, you are going to be made to suffer for your sins on the guitar.

I think that's pretty damn exciting.

The post Guitar Hero Live left me af??raid to ever try playing?? live music appeared first on Destructoid.

And too many Crazyfists

It seems like just yesterday that it was announced, but we're getting dangerously close to Guitar Hero Live's October 20 release. It's basically fall -- the weather's cooling down, the kids are back in school, and this game is almost on shelves. That mean??s that the setlist is also filling out nicely.

Today's ten track assortment comes courtesy of Billboard. Pearl Jam's the biggest name here, but don't have your hopes up for a classic. Guitar Hero Live will feature "Sirens," which is a?? song from 2013.

Also on the bill are thrash metal rockers Lamb of God. "Ghost Walking," the lead single off their 2012 album, is included. Additionally, Gerard Way makes an appearance without My Chemical Romance ??with "No Shows," which is part of his solo catalog.

And, there's a band called 36 Crazyfists. That's too many Crazyfists. Why are there so many Craz??yfists? The broch??ure said there'd only be a few.

Guitar Her?o Live Adds Pearl Jam, Haim & Lamb of God to Tracklist: Exclusive [Billboard]

Newly-announced tracks:

• 36 Crazyfists -- "Also Am I"
• Gerard Way -- "No Shows"
• Haim -- "The Wire"
• Lamb of God -- "Ghost Walking"
• Orianthi -- "According to You"
• Passenger -- "Let Her Go"
• Pearl Jam -- "Sirens"
• Surfer Blood -- "Demon Dance"
• Tonight Alive -- "The Ocean"
• Wavves -- "Demon to Lean On"

The post Guitar Hero Live expan??ds its ??setlist with Pearl Jam and Lamb of God appeared first on Destructoid.

A better look at the in-game festivals

Guitar Hero Live could end up being a pretty neat experiment, and if Activision sticks to its word of not annua??lizing the franchise, I'll be happy. You can get a look at the in-game festivals (Rock the Block and SoundDial) in the video above, as well as ??more info on Guitar Hero TV.

Also, singing is confirmed now, if that's a thing you like to do. I prefer to stick to the guitar myself, though I do stray from time to time (RIP Rock Band's keyboard).

The post Singing confirmed for Guitar Hero Live appeared first on Destructoid.

Seriously though, Live looks pretty rad

The return of the battle of the plastic peripherals is almost upon us once more, with titans Guitar Hero Live and Rock Band 4 both throwing more and more songs at us in the hopes we’ll actually recogn?ise any of them.

This time around, the latest batch of Guitar Hero Live songs only has one thing I recognise, and that’s from a Weird A??l Parody. My ?music taste is awful though, so maybe that isn’t saying as much as I think it doe??s.

Anyhoo, the ‘new’ songs you can almost break yo?ur finger?s to are:

• OneRepublic - "Counting Stars"
• Paramore - "Now"
• The Mowgli's - "San Francisco"
• Cypress Hill ft. Tom Morello - "Rise Up"
• Asking Alexandria - "The Final Episode"
• The Vines - "Metal Zone"
• Wolf Alice - "Moaning Lisa Smile"
• Disturbed - "Down With the Sickness"
• TV On The Radio - "Lazerray"
• Foster the People - "Coming of Age"

So uh… come on and get d??own with the sick??ness when Guitar Hero Live releases on October 20 for PS4, PS3, Xbox One, Xbox 360, and Wii U, I guess?

Needs more Smash Mouth. I was ?a champion on th??at in Guitar Hero On Tour.

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For a change

After the initial reveal of Guitar Hero Live, Activision's been slowly unveiling ten songs a week to keep us interested. The only problem is that the vast majority of songs (and artists) are completely unknown ?to the majority of ?people. That's sort of a biggie when these games sell themselves on the appeal of the tracks.

This week, that changes! Well, sort of. Not completely, to be honest. There's still plenty of obscure stuff here, but at least you've heard of some of it. "Tie Your Mother Down" by Queen? Everyone loves Queen. "Buddy Holly" by Weezer? Not everyone loves Weezer, but I do -- so much so that a "W" has adorned my Twitter profile for six years.

Then there's a song fromWolfmother, who you probably only know because of "Woman" which was one of the first tracks on Guitar Hero II. Also, "Everybody Talks" by Neon Trees makes the cut, which I think was a really popular song. One time I got into a Twitter spat with the lead singer of Neon Trees because I tweeted that their album release ruined my birthday, and then the lead singer (who was searching f??or his band name) tweeted back saying that my birthday ruined his album release. That was a bad birthday.

Here's this week's Guitar Hero Live's underwhelming -- yet somehow st?ill better than usual -- set of tracks:

• Alice in Chains - "Stone"
• Angus & Julia Stone - "A Heartbreak"
• Bullet For My Valentine - "Temper Temper"
• Catfish and the Bottlemen - "Kathleen"
• Deap Vally - "Lies"
• Neon Trees - "Everybody Talks"
• New Politics - "Harlem"
• Queen - "Tie Your Mother Down"
• Weezer - "Buddy Holly"
• Wolfmother - "Sundial"

Previously announced tracks:

• Alt-J - "Left Hand Free"
• Alter Bridge - "Cry of Achilles"
• Anthrax - "Got the Time"
• Architects - "Gravedigger"
• Beartooth - "I Have a Problem"
• The Black Keys - "Gold on the Ceiling"
• Black Veil Brides - "In The End"
• Blitz Kids - "Sometimes"
• Bring me the Horizon - "Shadow Moses"
• Broken Bells - "Leave it Alone"
• Chevelle - "The Clincher"
• A Day to Remember - "Right Back at it Again"
• Deftones - "Diamond Eyes"
• Fall Out Boy - "My Songs Know What You Did in the Dark (Light Em Up)"
• Gary Clark Jr. - "Don't Owe You a Thang"
• Green Day - "Nuclear Family"
• Halestorm - "Love Bites (So do I)"
• Judas Priest - "Breaking the Law"
• The Killers - "When You Were Young"
• Killswitch Engage - "In Due Time"
• The Lumineers - "Ho Hey"
• Marilyn Manson - "Disposable Teens"
• Marmozets - "Move Shake Hide"
• Mastodon - "High Road"
• My Chemical Romance - "Na Na Na"
• Of Mice & Men - "Bones Exposed"
• Pantera - "Cowboys From Hell"
• Pearl Jam - "Mind Your Manners"
• Pierce the Veil - "King for a Day (feat. Kellin Quinn)"
• The Pretty Reckless - "Going to Hell"
• Rage Against the Machine - "Guerrilla Radio"
• Red Hot Chili Peppers - "Higher Ground"
• Rise Against - "Tragedy + Time"
• The Rolling Stones - "Paint it Black"
• Royal Blood - "Little Monster"
• Ed Sheeran - "Sing"
• Sleigh Bells - "Bitter Rivals"
• Skrillex - "Bangarang"
• Soundgarden - "Been Away too Long"
• System of a Down - "Chop Suey!"
• Tenacious D - "Tribute"
• Trivium - "Strife"
• Vista Chino - "Sweet Remain"
• The War on Drugs - "Under The Pressure"

The post Maybe you’ll actually recognize a few of this week’s Guitar Hero Live songs appeared first on Destructoid.

Ctrl-Q

The first 24 tracks in the Guitar Hero Live soundtrack have been announced, and we must face a dark truth: the latest entry in Activision's venerable rockstar simulation franchise sure does have a lot of tracks without hot licks or gnarly shreds. Look, I appreciate Alt-J's "Left Hand Free" as much as the next fella, but I do not sustain fantasies of killing that tune in front of a crowd. It's a cool song, practically made for driving along the coast in the dea??d of night.

Thankfully, there are a few bodacious rock ballads in the track list, including Pantera's "Cowboys From Hell" and Judas Priest's "Breaking the Law." "Bangarang" is an odd addition, though. I u?nderstand guitar is hard to come by in today's pop market, but there's good stuff out there! Get some Taylor Swift! Appeal to the kids!

Here's the unaltered track list on the ??off-chance you like that kind of ?thing.

Newly Announced Artists and Tracks:
Judas Priest - "Breaking the Law"
Pantera - "Cowboys From Hell"
Alter Bridge - "Cry of Achilles"
Rage Against the Machine - "Guerrilla Radio"
Red Hot Chili Peppers - "Higher Ground"
Sleigh Bells - "Bitter Rivals"
System of a Down - "Chop Suey!"
Black Veil Brides - "In The End"
The Pretty Reckless - "Going to Hell"
Broken Bells - "Leave it Alone"
Alt-J - "Left Hand Free"

Previously Announced Artists, Newly Announced Tracks:
The Rolling Stones - "Paint it Black"
My Chemical Romance - "Na Na Na"
Fa??ll Out Boy - "My Songs Know What You Did in the Dark (Light Em Up)"
Green Day - "Nuclear Family"
Pierce the Veil - "King for a Day (feat. Kellin Quinn??)"
Blitz Kids - "Sometimes"
The Black Keys - "Gold on the Ceiling"
The Killers - "When You Were Young"
Gary Clark Jr. - "Don't Owe You a Thang"
The War on Drugs - "Under The Pressure"
The Lumineers - "Ho Hey"
Ed Sheeran - "Sing"
Skrillex - "Bangarang"

(In fairness, if you gotta have Ed Sheeran in your guitar videogame, that's a sol??id ?pick.)

The post Guitar Hero ??Live adds tracks from Alt-J, Judas Pri??est, and more appeared first on Destructoid.

I'm still not sure I understand

Activision has just released a behind-the-scenes video for Guitar Hero Live, and it attempts to explain the confusing "live" aspect of the game. "Attempt" being the operative word here. FreeStyleGames seems excited for this new direction, which won't pull the annual release tactic that previously killed the franchise.

There's a lot of buzzwords and PR-speak being thrown about the video, but maybe after a few more we'll be able to piece together what makes up the "new Guitar Hero experience."

The post Get a better look at how Guita??r Hero Liv??e will work appeared first on Destructoid.