Absolutely incredible.

If you haven't played Guitar Hero since the days of "Through the Fire and the Flames," well, things have come a long way. Modding communities have sprung up and developed new, incredible, seemingly insurmountable challenges??. And the only thing better than an impossible challenge is seeing someone thrash it.

Clone Hero competitive player and streamer "CarnyJared" has been working on nailing a 100% Full Combo, or FC, of a custom track called "Soulless 6." It's part of the "Soulless" series of charts, and well, once you see him start p??laying it, you'll get why it appeared impossible.

It has been tech FC'd before—basically, playing Full Combo'ing it in segments—by another player, though t??hat took not just break?ing it up into individual pieces, but swapping guitars and stances. Jared's run is one straight go of it, start to finish.

Though the era of plastic instruments might have faded, it's clear there are still players out there ready to push these guitars and charts to their absolute limits. You can find CarnyJared's Twitch channel, where he livestreamed the FC run and more, here.

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GHAddict sets a new world record

I still remember where I was when I played Guitar Hero for the first time in 2005. I was with my wife (then girlfriend),?? and a family member? had bought it for us as a gift.

Sitting down in our living room we rocked out to two guitars, and I picked it up right away. An hour later I was shredding on expert, and for the next several years, I'd compete in local tournaments. Although Rock Band was a fun party game and a great competitor, nothing it offered came close to the pure thrill the original trilogy of Guitar Hero games offered.

Each Guitar Hero game seemed to offer a collection of the most triumphant and rewarding songs imaginable. For the first iteration, Bark at the Moon was my jam. In Guitar Hero 2, it was Hangar 18. But in Guitar Hero 3, Neversoft went above and beyond with the unlockable song Through the Fire and Flames, which is touted as one of th??e ?most difficult tracks in guitar-rhythm history. I can't tell you how many hours I spent competing with friends with that song.

Content creator GHAddict (who is in a real band) shares that same passion for the third iteration, and just set a new world record for Through the Fire and Flames, which?? you can watch above. The realization that he managed to hit it (NSFW la??nguage) at roughly four and a half minutes in is priceless. Watch the part at 3:08 and beyond where he has to pilot the buttons with both hands! In the end, GHAddict finished the song with a score of 970,058: full combo, of course, at 165% speed.

The post Finally, an excuse to talk about how great Guit?ar Hero 3 is appeared first on Destructoid.

Rhythm racing? Rad!

Today's contest features Xbox One keys for Music Racer!

You guys should have this locked down by now -- anything that features neon colors, bumpin' synth music, and an overall '80s aesthetic is going to catch my eye pretty much immediately. Now I'm not a huge fan of racing games, but how could Music Racer not appeal to me? I'm nothing if not predictable??.

So, if you're anything like me then you'?re in luck -- we've got some Xbox One keys available for you to try it out for yourself!

Here's the gist: This is a rhythm-based racer absolutely effing drenched in style. As the headline states, we're looking at a definite Guitar Hero-meets-Drive vibe, which obviously is awesome in every way. Race your way thro??ugh the tracks as they change to the music, morph to the composition, and pivot with the mood. Key features include:

• 14 levels
• 25 customizable cars
• Neon-soaked retrowave graphics
• 4 different game modes
• Music library

This seems like t??he sort of thing to really sit down and unwind with after a long day. Or after taking in some...uh...fun enha?ncers!

To enter to win, use the widget below to leave your name and e??mail address. You can enter daily. F??or bonus entries, mess around in the widget, yo.

We have seven Xbox One keys to split between Dtoid and Xbox Enthusiast -- winners will be drawn Wednesday, February 5.

Music Racer is available now for Xbox One, and across other platforms.

Contest: Guitar Hero meets Drive in Music Racer

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Song library removed from GHTV

Activision has begun a voluntary refund programme for customers who purchased Guitar Hero Live within the last two years. This has been instigated after the sudden closure of Guitar Hero TV, an online service that provided an entir??e ??library of tracks for the rhythm-action title.

Players who purchased Guitar Hero Live between December 1, 2017 and January 1, 2019 can get a refund on their purchase, covering the base game and/or initial bundle purchased. A claim form - which you can find right here - must be completed and filed before May 1, 2019. Proof of purchase, either a receipt of a credit card statement isn't necessary but will strongly be in favour of yo?ur claim, which must be verified by Activision before the refund is issued.

Guitar Hero Live, which originally launched in 2015, switched up the concept of the series by having players "play along" with an FMV band and audience which I, frankly, thought was a terrible idea. GHTV was a streaming service that provided a ton of licensed tracks, complete with music video, for players to jam along to. The closure of this service is a massive blow to Guitar Hero Live's appeal, hence the refund programme.

This is actually a good call, and even given the closure of GHTV, I'm still genuinely surprised the publisher is offering refunds, consider?ing the wealth of T&Cs we sign for? today's games, most of which often boil down to "Buyer Beware" in this digital age of gaming.

Guitar Hero Live refund claim form [Official]

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Requiem for a Dying Song

Activision has quietly announced that Guitar Hero Live's online video service, GHTV, will be shutting down on December 1, 2018. This will see the termination of any semblance of DLC the game once had (since no content packs were ever released for the title). The ability to purchase more "Hero Coins" actually ended a few days ago (on June 1, 2018) along with the iOS version of Live (which is now uncerem??oniously gone from the App store).

Activision's support site says that all players will be able to use their banked hero cash and extra items until the service is shut down, after which you'll lo?se out on anything saved over. The rest of the game will operate like normal, though the iOS version may become inoperable in future iOS updates.

At one point in time, the Guitar Hero franchise was one of the biggest in gaming. It was almost a decade ago that the series and its rival, Rock Band, were put out to pasture after rhythm games started to flood the market. Both major games attempted comebacks with Guitar Hero Live and Rock Band 4, but neither one could reignite the spark their predecessors had. I can attest to this as much since I was? a huge fan of both games before putting my plastic instruments into storage forever more.

Guitar Hero Live – GHTV Sunset [Activision Support]

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Despite the fact that they're obviously grilled

I've seen some weird custom creations when it comes to rhythm games, but this one really made me smile. Found on expnand banana's YouTube, this custom song for Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock deals with the classic skit featuring superintendent Chalmers and principal Skinner from The Simpsons.

Yes, the "song" is the skit -- wh?ich features bits and pieces of actual music (and a theme song!) alongside of dialogue. It's oddly mesmerizing, a lot like the northern ?lights.

Mmmmm steamed hams!

The post Steamed Hams is my jam appeared first on Destructoid.

Promoted from our Community Blogs

_{[LaTerry straps on his dancing shoes, and gives us a peek into his evolution from a total stiff to a rhythm-obsessed fanatic! This stuff is pure, unadulterated fun. Resistance is futile. I see that head bobbing. Don’t stop shakin’ those hips just yet because it’s time to learn how LaTerry got his groove back, baby! – Kevin]}

Rhythm games have had a few waves of popularity. The first that I remember was the DDR wave. DDR was huge for a while. I remember pl??aying it back then and having fun but getting frustrated with the dance pad. The one that we had for it was pretty cheap and slid?? across the floor, making playing the game more of a chore than anything else.

The only song that I remember from DDR.

After DDR waned in popularity, Guitar Hero took up the reigns of rhythm games. Guitar Hero, and soon Rock Band, were everywhere. The games were coming out nonstop and people just kept buying them. I had a Guitar Hero game, and, while I thought it was a lot of fun, I didn’t much care for the music sel??ection. It worked for what it was, but I never really connected with any of the songs. That problem persisted through basically ??every game of the series that came out.

The best song Guitar Hero ever included.

It didn’t take long before the world got burnt out on giant plastic peripherals, and Guitar Hero died. Rhythm games have never been as popular as they were back in the heyday of Guitar Hero and Rock Band, and I didn’t gi??ve them much thought after they left the spotlight. Little did I know that there was a??nother wave of rhythm happening, but it was contained mostly in Japan for a while.

If you had asked me before I played my next rhythm game what I thought of the genre, I would have told you that I didn’t care for it. I would have said that it was a dead genre that no one cared about anymore. All those instrument controllers and dance pads were long forgotten in attics and landfills, so it makes sense that when Theatrhythm Final Fantasy came out, I initially ignored it. Final Fantasy games are supposed to be epic adventures not silly little dancing games. Then one day I had a bit of extra cash to spend, found myself browsing some used games, and I saw Theatrhythm on the shelf. I’m not sure what finally compelled me to pick it up and buy it. The Final Fantasy brand was and still is a huge draw for me. It was cheap too. Under ??$20 if I remember correctly. Whatever the reason, the stars aligned and I bought the game.

This was everything I wanted.

I absolutely adored it. Final Fantasy music has always been some of my favorite and playing along with it was a lot of fun. This rhythm game solved all the problems? that I’d had with all the others. There wasn’t an annoying, large controller that I had to buy just to play it, and I loved the music. The game included a lot of my favorite tracks from the series, and I played them over and over again. I soon learned that the sequel had already been announced and that it was coming out soon. I bought it as soon as I could and played it as well. The sequel improved upon the original in so many ways that I couldn’t believe it. I wanted more games like this. These were amazing. Why hadn’t I heard of these before?

It even has The World Ends With You songs as DLC!

Somehow or another, I saw an advertisement for another rhythm game. It looked… really weird. It had these obnoxiously cute chibi girls on the cover. It looked like it was being marketed towards girls, so I was hesitant to try it. Thankfully, a demo was released on the eShop, and I gave it a go. The Project Mirai DX demo had two songs. Two songs that remain favorites to this day. One was "LOL -Lots of Laugh-" and the other was "Senbonzakura." I had heard that so??ng title before. One of my favorite musicians, Lindsey Stirling, had done a cover of "Senbonzakura" on her YouTube channel relatively recently. Could ??it have possibly been based on this song from this weird little video game?

Is too cute.

They were the same song. I had already been a vocaloid fan, and I didn’t even know it. I loved the demo and bought the full game as soon as I had the funds. I had caught the rhythm fever. I had no idea that these games were a thing. They were a huge deal in Japan apparently, and I had been missing out. Before, I had scoffed at the idea of something like Persona 4: Dancing All Night. Now, I was pre-ordering it. I learned that I had missed out on a lot of Hatsune Miku games and one was coming out soon called Project Diva X. I pre-ordered that as well. I could????n’t get enough of these games that finally matched my odd taste in music. I had found my rhythm, and my rhythm was Japanese.

Very Japanese.

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They're now Ubisoft Leamington

Guitar Hero Live was a fantastic rhyhtm game that breathed new life into the genre for me after nearly a decade of safe plays from developers like Harmonix. But a lot of things were going against it -- the "live" gimmick was off-putting for some, you had to buy all new hardware (something Harmonix is still dealing with), it had microtransactions, and the Guitar Hero name had already been dragged so far through the mud it ??was tough to come back.

But come back the developer shall, as they've been pulled into an all new publisher. Ubisoft has announced that they've acquired developer FreeStyleGames, and they don't even have to move house, as the Leamington, UK based studio is now "Ubisoft Leamington." My guess? Guitar Hero is gone for good, but Ubisoft's own Rocksmith IP has a long life ahead of it.

Richa?rd Blenkinsop heads up Reflections and new ??Leamington Studio [Ubisoft]

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RIP Hero World

Before Activision put the Guitar Hero series on ice in 2011, it was app??arently working on an MMO.

According to Unseen 64 contributor Liam Robertson, who claims to have spoken with (and obtained footage from) developers on the now-canceled project, the publisher conscripted Dutch studio Virtual Fairground in 2010 to create a browser-based tie-in for the Guitar Hero franchise called Hero World.

Robertson says the concept was conceived by Freestyle Games (DJ Hero, Guitar Hero Live), but it was a tad too ambitious? for the British studio. Virtual Fairground was then brought in, as the c??ompany had an existing engine from a similar project that could be tailored to fit Freestyle's idea.

Unfortunately for Virtual Fairground, Activision killed off the series (and Hero World along with it) in 2011 after oversaturating the market with more than two dozen Hero games in just five years.

Since the project was never completed, Robertson says Virtual Fairground received a? reduced fee from Activision, which, along w??ith some unrelated bad luck, contributed to the developer's demise.

Virtual Fairground was forced to file for ban??kruptcy in 2011.

Activision attempted to revive the franchise last year with Guitar Hero Live, but the game failed to meet the publisher's expectations. As a result, the company laid off an unspecified number of employees at Freestyle Games earlier this month and relegated the studio to a ??diminished role.

Guitar Hero/DJ Hero's Cancelled MMO - Unseen64 [Liam Robertson]

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Moving from full-scale development to a support role

Activision Blizzard is shedding staff at Guitar Hero Live developer Freestyle Games.

After announcing layoffs at multiple internal studios in a open call to investors back in February, the publisher confirmed Freestyle was among those affected in a recent statement with Game Informer.

The UK-based studio is only now parting ways with employees due to British labor laws, which mandate a consult??ation period to allow workers time to find new opportunities.

While?? Activision is being secretive about how many employees it's letting go, it appears the publisher is dropping a significant portion of the Freestyle team. Consultation periods are only necessary when companies cut ties with 20 or more workers, a figure that, at minimum, would represent a significant portion of the developer's hundred or so employees.

Moreover, Activision is transitioning Freestyle from large-scale game development to a support role that involves supporting Guitar Hero Live with updates, which also suggests a m??assive reduction in staff.

The move comes after Activision casual games, like Guitar Hero Live and Skylanders: SuperChargers, performed far worse than company had forecast for its holiday e?arnings?? period.

Freestyle Games was founded in 2002 by former Codemasters and Rare staff. The studio was acquired by Activision in 2008, after which time it's worked on DJ Hero, Sing Party, and Call of Duty Online.

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But Activision won't confirm

Following last week's investors' report, it seems as if Activision has laid off an undisclosed number of employees. These layoffs may be, in part, due to the fact that Activision says both Skylanders and Guitar Hero under-performed.

News of the layoffs was reported by Game Informer, who was tipped off via this Twitter exchange. In it, the significant other of an Activision employee says that the publisher "decided to shut down the Minneapolis office." She elaborates that the move came with about "two weeks of mou?nting suspicion."

Activision confirmed to Game Informer that layoffs had occurred, but wouldn't say much more. "As announced on our earnings call, our ga??mes for core audiences did extremely well, but the casual audience has not yet emerged on next gen consoles. So we are refocusing to better align with Activision's long-term priorities because, as always, our strategy evolves to keep us ahead of a rapidly-changing industry. We are working with those impacted by the changes to offer outplacement services and support," an Activision representative said to Game Informer.

Although Activision never confirmed the closing of the Minneapolis office, it didn't deny it either. According to this business profile, that location staffed between 20 and 49 people. For what it's worth, the Activision careers website has no listings for? positions at the seemingly affected Minneapolis office.

There's also the possibility that the layoffs may have not been confined to the Minneapolis branch; they cou?ld have also impacted people at other locations, as well. In the event that Activision clears this up, we'll update this story. In the meantime, we hope all affected people land on their feet quickly.

Layoffs Hit Activision Following Weaker Guitar Hero?, Skylanders Performan?ce [Game Informer]

The post Activision has a round of layoffs, entire Minneapolis?? location may have closed appeared first on Destructoid.

For a five-song expert marathon event

Activision has been steadily supporting Guitar Hero Live's TV element for months now, adding constant new content to the game. Although it has microtransactions the system is more than fair, and allows for a ton of songs to be added in, free from the tethers of price "per track" DLC. Having used it since launch, I vastly prefer it to Rock Band's model, especially with the free special ev?ents that have been peppered throughout. I had a chance to talk to Nathan Coppard, Senior Game Designer at FreeStyleGames about an upcoming GHTV event, and it's one of the coolest sounding ones yet.

In short, it's a five-track celebration event for some of Guitar Hero's toughest songs -- and they're kicking it off by bringing back "Through the Fire and Flames" by DragonForce, one of the most in??famous songs in the series' history after i??t debuted in the third iteration.

As explained by Coppard, "veterans have risen to the challenge so far which everything we'v?e thrown at them, so bringing this song back is the next natural step. We found that with this challenge, the tracks we've identified as 'difficult' are on the level. We'll be surprised to see full combos for these songs back-to-back, but we know p?eople are going to do it." With the "Rivals" leaderboard feature enabled throughout the challenge, you're also constantly going head to head with other people through this gauntlet.

The rest of the event includes Hangar 18, Strife, Ghost Walking, and Cry of Achilles. When asked how the team builds these tracks (particularly the madness of Fire and Flames), Coppard noted that they "start from the top, then work their way down." He says ??once they have all the notes they need for Expert level, they can then start simplifying it further.

But for Guitar Hero Live they had to add in a few new elements, which Coppard says will weed out a lot of players right off the bat. "First off, if you couldn't play the intro to Fire and Flames, you were kicked out, full stop. It's like a right of passage. Now we're using open strums and the six-button layout that wasn't in the original, so it adds a whole new dimension to the song." He calls it the "final boss of all of Guitar Hero."

I believe him, as the song caused a bunch of people in my play group in college to quit. The event kicks today, and will run through February 8 at 7AM PT. After the event, Fire and Flames w??ill b??e added into the normal rotation of GHTV.

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'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 the h??olidays and I can't be the only one who finds lists like this somewhat entertaining.

Between December 24 and January 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, t?he top songs across all of ?Guitar 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 accoun?table for "Stacy's Mom" making the cut.

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The People's Choice(es)

2015 was a divisive year -- tremendous in terms of media (TV like Master of None and The 100; movies like Spotlight and The Force Awakens; gam??es like...well, keep reading) and a garbage year in terms of my life. Entertainment became a personal necessity, even when the experiences in question were too "heavy" to be considered traditional escapism. As a result, I dabbled in a veritable cornucopia of video games this year, sampling genres I had not touched in years.

Out of the dozens of games I played this year, these were the ten that stuck with me. The best game of the year is The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt, let's be clear. But my heart is with these ten. This is Mike Cosimano's favorite games of the year, damnit.

(Honorable mentions: Ori and the Blind Forest, Volume, Star Wars Battlefront, Rocket League)

10. Yu-Gi-Oh: Legacy of the Duelist

I got back into Yu-Gi-Oh this year. Please don't ask why, because then I'd have to think of an answer. My local friends decided to join me in this endeavor, which was a true delight. You don't know happiness until you've seen a gaggle of college students playing a child's trading card game while pounding vodka shots like a sequel to Big that takes place entirely in the titular Animal House.

Actually, I might have found patient zero for this newfound cardboard addiction: Legacy of the Duelist, a Yu-Gi-Oh game that goes beyond what you would expect from a licensed title from Konami in the year 2015. It has a surprisingly robust campaign featuring every era of the anime to date, draft play, and multiplayer that would be a lot of fun if anyone was actually playing it. (See also: Titanfall.) Like many of the games on this list, Legacy of the Duelist is a Very?? Subjective Pick, so I understand if any of you want to rake me over the coals for this one. But also there's a character named Gong Strong, so...take that into consideration.

9. Guitar Hero Live

Ever since the first Guitar Hero, purveyors of plastic instruments sold their games on the concept of bringing rock stardom to living rooms across the world. We assumed this had basis in truth, having lived in a world before Guitar Hero Live. This was truly the year of full motion video, but no other d?eveloper used it to quite the same effect. The boos of the crowd feel all the more potent when they come from people we recognize as human, and not computer-generated puppets. And, for ?as realistic as Harmonix's initial guitar controllers may have felt at the time, adding two different rows of buttons makes the player one step closer to a genuine guitar player. Combine the FMV with the improved controller, and you're left with a potent musical simulation that I couldn't help but fall in love with. 

8. Assassin's Creed Syndicate

If a game provides room for improvisation, I am at least 75% more inclined to enjoy it. For example, Assassin's Creed Syndicate allows you to skip over a major part of its side objective routine, simply by following an earlier step to its logical conclusion. Over the course of your takeover of London, opposing gang lea??ders will often stop by and taunt you before throwing some goons in the mix and running away. It's meant to be an establishing character moment; a sliver of motivation so your eventual confrontation carries a modicum of we??ight.

Or, if you prefer, you can just chase the leader and kill them, skipping the final battle almost entirely. This design ethos continues into the major assassinations; framed as a choice between either a unique kill that requires setup on the player's part, or a hastily sketched-out plan strung together by a plethora of murder tools. Everything about Syndicate is the best possible version of this blindingly polished formula, which i??s no bad thing.

7. Super Mario Maker

I've seen people all across the games industry engage in level rivalries, I've watched game developers strip well-known design sensibilities to their very core, and I've driven a friend to madness -- all thanks to one game. Perhaps what I did to Myles Cox this past September crossed a line that even I found uncomfortable, because I've only messed around with Super Mario Maker since then, fully aware that I belong in an e-prison. That social element is what takes the game beyond the realm of level creation tool and into a whole other stratum. I had an inordinate amount of fun crafting a torture device for Myles and watching him struggle with the weight of my nightmare engine. Even my tinkering managed to bring a smile to my face, something LittleBigPlanet could certainly learn from.

(Myles, if you're reading this, we should go for Round Two. I want to make a real level this time.)

6. Bloodborne

Is it sacrilegious to say that I didn't find Bloodborne egregiously challenging, and that I appreciated the restraint on display? Yeah, From Software's latest definitely has its moments (Father Gascoigne, Shadows of Yharnam, that one time a guy pops out from behind the corner), but there's a sense of equity to each unique encounter. If you get smashed to a pulp, that's likely because you skipped too many enemies and walked into a fight under-leveled, or perhaps you're still trying to play this game like Dark Souls. Don't pick up that shield, friend! It's a goof!

That pervasive feeling of fairness helped to balance out the perverse sense of dread slowly oozing from every corner of Yharnam like so much, well, blood. Few other worlds shown to us this year were quite as rich in atmosphere; a singular vision brought to life by a monkey's paw, twisted beyond recognition. The immensely satisfying combat (a one-game argument for bringing 'visceral' out of retirement) is certainly the game's hallmark, but the content on the periphery of Bloodborne is what makes it truly special.

5. Rise of the Tomb Raider

Rise of the Tomb Raider is the purest form of the AAA video game sequel. It's a rip-roaring adve??nture, featuring a slight open worl??d, a disconnect between story and gameplay, and improvements on the previous game's systems that sound enormous to Fans of the Genre. I am a sucker. I am part of the problem. When you squint at E3 and wonder how it got to this point, rest easy: your villain has been found.

This game is dope, alright? It is sick, it is rad, and the jury's still out vis a vis whether or not it is bodacious, but I'm optimistic. Rise of the Tomb Raider managed to outdo Uncharted, the series it liberally apes at every opportunity, with a more realized evil conspiracy, setpieces with legitimate thrills as opposed to flash-in-the-pan excitement, and a wide range of tools that are fun to use but just inconvenient enough to make the upgrade system worth your time. Tomb Raider'?s engaging moment-to-moment gameplay adds up to a title that is exactly the sum of its parts: the fifth best game of the year.

4. Fallout 4

This was the year people decided they were done with Bethesda's excuses. Not me, though! Keep feeding me these technically incompetent masterpieces, you monsters. Just shove it right down my gullet. Bathe me in rich world building, drown me in the part where important side characters get stuck on walls. I want to gorge myself on combat that still kinda sucks, all the while smacking my lips in anticipation of the compelling quests I will spend?? the next month thinking about. Give me a food metaphor, so that I may apply it t?o this bug report stained with my kisses.

3. The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt

Ha, you thought my little bit at the start of this article meant Wild Hunt wasn't going to make this list. No such luck! Consider this entry my mea culpa; a sort of apology for not putting Geralt's latest adventure at the top of my list, where it rightfully belongs. Every part of The Witcher 3 is beautifully crafted, from beginning to...uh, where I had to s??top because I was going hom??e for the holidays.

Nevertheless! The 20-odd hours I spent in The Witcher's miserable world felt like a master class in dark fantasy. The impending apocalypse was always slightly less important than the broken people who inhabit it. Arguably, the end of the world could even be a blessing in disguise for some of the monsters (literal and metaphorical) who make this sad realm their home. It's a game with a central thesis, a Wii Fit Trainer-esque rarity in the AAA development space. For that alone, Wild Hunt should be lauded -????- for succeeding, it deserves much more.

2. Tales from the Borderlands

This game is perhaps the epitome of putting your heart before your head when it comes to Game of the Year. The first couple episodes are kinda weak, it's got that apparently inescapable Telltale Jank (a billion people work at that company by now, somebody should maybe give the console ports a second pass every once in a while), and I do not give a sh-hi-it about Borderlands' lore.

And then, at some point, Tales from the Borderlands clicks. It's different for everyone, but the back half of that game is so good that it makes the first part excellent in retrospect. Telltale Games figured out choice-based, narrative-heavy gameplay a long time ago with undefeated champ The Walking Dead. Now, the studio has made good on The Wolf Among Us' promise -- it figured out style. I really c?ared about each and every one of these characters; a feat not unheard of in video games, or even for Telltale. At the same time, the needle drops that accompanied each title card were spot on, brilliantly choreographed character work set to killer music. It's like a symphony played entirely by your best friends, right? They're kinda messing up, but they're just going for it and it's almost over and you can feel yourself about to leap out o??f your seat and applaud.

Tales from the Borderlands is the true successor to The Walking Dead, picking up the torch from the profoundly disappointing Walking Dead Season Two and showing the games industry how to make people care about some god damned characters.

1. Transformers: Devastation

Transformers is at its best when someone actually tries to do something with the idea of Transformers; exploring the lore beyond "Autobots hate Decepticons, and they're fighting over a MacGuffin." That's why there are so many awful Transformers things out there -- this franchise is not quite as fully formed as it appears. Michael Bay's first Transformers was a solid example of this because it framed the Autobots and Decepticons as part of a larger narrative, almost incomprehensible to the humans who suddenly found ?themselves in the deep end of the galactic pool; an extension of the b?asic story concepts seen in Generation 1.

Transformers Animated, conversely, scaled it down. It put a small, ragtag team (Optimus Prime wasn't even the leader of the Autobots -- he was in charge of an asteroid cleanup crew!) at the show's emotional and narrative core. They were a very small part of a larger story, but the humans were even smaller. So you have these failures and rejects suddenly thrust into the unenviable position of being the first and last lines of defense against Megatron and his reborn Decepticon army. They weren't just in the deep end, they were trying to keep a whole planet afloat. It's a Transformers series with an idea, even if that idea lacks any so?rt of larger t??hematic resonance.

That's where Transformers: Devastation comes in. It's not a great Transformers game because it goes back to the well, bringing the iconic G1 designs to the fore once again. It's spectacular because this is a Platinum Games Transformers game, not a Transformers game made by Platinum Games. There's scope to the boss fights, there's weight to the combat, there's style pouring out of every move the player makes. It's an action game made with? a propulsive sense of purpose, one that also stands ?as an argument for my well-documented love of this franchise.

Devastation works as a sort of counterpart to my beloved More Than Meets the Eye comic, a work similar in execution if not profoundly dissimilar in tone. This game belongs to Platinum, just as much as MTMTE belongs to James Roberts. In any year, a singular work like this deserves recognition. Consider it luck that the task of recognition falls to someone who adores this particular universe. Transformers Devastation is my profoundly subjective Game of the Year.

The post Mike Cosimano’s personal picks for Game of the Year 2015 appeared first on Destructoid.

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 weeks now, I've played the TV function without paying, and I have over 1??00 free plays under my belt that I don't even use.

This week ??Activison is trying something a little different, as Avenged Sevenfold is hosting a live show that discusses and displays some of their favorite bands, like Pantera and Megadeth. You can find the sched??ule 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

The post Avenged Sevenfold is hosting a show on Guitar Hero Live ??this week appeared first on Destructoid.

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 microtrans??action-dri??ven 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 pr??ofile cards and note highways side-by-side on the screen, muc??h 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 ca??n feel a bit repetitive after the fifth song or so. However, I would’ve much preferred the ability to choose the songs for myself. Being thrown against another player on a song you don’t like or haven’t heard before wou??ld 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-dem??and), you’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 bein??g a problem that affects too many people.

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

The post One-on-one rival batt??les? have come to Guitar Hero TV appeared first on Destructoid.

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 th??at people are tasked w?ith creating a video for Ed Sheeran's "Sing," and over 100,000 fans participated.

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

Haha, what a weird world we live in. 

The post Activision? reveals cro??wd-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 high?lights include Judas Priest, Tenacious 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, and the fact that every track has an acco??mpanying 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.

On GHTV

One of the coolest things about Guitar Hero Live's GHTV element is that Activision, in the near? future at least, is keen on supporting it with constant new content. That includes 70 new songs by the end of the year, and updated live concerts to play.

They already debuted with an Avenged Sevenfold concert, and now, they're?? looking to Rival Sons, who is currently ready to support Black Sabbath's world tou??r in 2016. Weezer and Grizfolk concerts are said to arrive before the end of the year.

I feel like at some point, Activision may just make the GHTV app available for eve??ryone to download for free, provided that you have a guitar controller.

The post Gui?tar Hero Live adds another live rock concert this week appeared first on Destructoid.

And not much else

I'm surprised at how much I'm still playing Guitar Hero Live. It's really easy f?or me to boot up the TV function and just play random songs, which cycle in new tracks on a constant basis. I have over a hundred "free plays" and I rarely use them -- I think the system really works.

Starting tomorrow, a few new songs (below) will be added to the game. The obvious highlights include The White Stripes and Iggy Pop, but I'm sure the rest will appeal to someone. I recently had a chance to chat with  the lead developer of Live, and he stated that "once a song was added to Guitar Hero TV, it stays there." So right now, t?he pl??an is to add to an ever-evolving catalog.

• The White Stripes – Seven Nation Army
• Iggy Pop – Real Wild Child (Wild One)
• Leon Bridges – Coming Home
• Evanescence – Going Under
• Bully – Trying
• Lonely The Brave – Victory Line

The post Guitar Hero T??V adds Iggy Pop and Whit??e Stripes this week appeared first on Destructoid.

Every song is free to play this weekend

Guitar Hero Live was a pleasant surprise. After Activision milked that cow for so long, I didn't think it could introduce one of the freshest rhythm games in years, but it did. But this is just the start for Guitar Hero TV (GHTV), the new streaming music model implemented in Live.

In addition to over 200 songs at launch, the service is adding 70 new tracks by the end of the year, featuring artists like System of a Down, Alice in Chains, Wee??zer, Judas Priest, Iggy Pop, and St. Vincent. Additionally, a Black Veil Brides premium show will hit GHTV on Friday, which features footage from their concert DVD Alive and Burning.

For those of you who aren't awa??re, each song wil?l come complete with a music video, or in some cases, a live concert. It's a nice break from the avatar-laden screens of old, and a great way to get acquainted with the style of a band beyond just listening to the track.

Finally, you'll be able to access the en??tire song catalog this weekend for free without spending tokens, starting on Friday at 4AM PT.

The post Guitar Hero Live is adding 70 new songs to GHTV by the end of the yea?r 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-$8??0 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&nb??sp;series was stale, iterating annually (sometimes multiple times in a year), and ass?isted 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 th?e 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 set??up, you'll find two rows of three buttons -- one row is white, and the other, black. I ??didn't realize this until later on, but 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 h?as five difficulty levels (basic, casual, regular, advanced, and expert), that all ramp up perfectly depending 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 par?t -- 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 ch??eering 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 through 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 D?ay 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 1?00 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 hate it based on concept alone, but to my surprise, it's probably one of my favorite modes in any rhythm gam?e 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 withou?t paying Tokens (more on 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 band??s 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 aforementioned uncanny avatars. Since the channels are going to be constantly updated over time, I'm excit?ed to see what the future holds. 

The other side of GHTV is on-demand and features microtransactions. Here's how it works: for each track 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 owni??ng 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 complet??ely 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 r??etail build 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 forev??er.

One of the dumb things took place without teams on the turf, however. Macklemore played Guitar Hero Live&?nbsp;at midfield during halftime of the Seahawks game yesterday. The stunt was an Activision promotion of its music game series, and a Seattle 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 s??ay t??o do it. It's a good idea. Then everyone'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. Maybe 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. Here are the 12 new so??ngs 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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The game launches October 20

Activision is pretty good at getting celebrities to do comical commercials, and their latest bit involves James Franco and Lenny Kravitz promoting Guitar Hero Live. It showcases the live crowd aspect, which can boo you if you're doing terrible. Apparently it's terrifying.

I had a chance to see Lenny Kravitz live recently, and he's still got it. Also, ??I got to high-five him, so he's totally cool.

The post James Franco ?and Lenny Kravit??z touch butts in Guitar Hero Live trailer appeared first on Destructoid.

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 least. 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 pla?y 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 game constantly fresh.

I know for a fact that many of you out there aren't a fan of this model o?utright. There's definitely some skepticism involved here, but as a rule, I'm ac?tually interested in seeing it in action. I like the idea of constantly curating new music to discover, 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 stic?ks 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]

The post Guitar Hero Live is ??approaching DLC in a fairly controversial way appeared first on Destructoid.

I felt like a badass for about 5 seconds

Back in my mid-teens I played drums in a hastily thrown together rock ban?d. 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 alwa?ys our driving force. We felt cool, and surely having people watch us and cheer would create an even stronger emotional high.

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 feels 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 impr?essive integration of full motion video, which is both a blessing and a curse when it comes to living out your teenage rock god fanta??sies.

Firstly, my fears about 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 perform?ance rises and falls, but try as I might I could not a??ctually see the seams. We seem to have reached 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 g??od it got uncomfortable.

First the audience began to look 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 motions to have the stage hands pull me off stage.

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

My time playing Guitar Hero Live at EGX convinced 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 g??uitar.

I think that's pretty damn exciting.

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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 thi?s game is almost on shelves. That means 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 f??rom 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 Ch?emical 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 ar??e there so many Crazyfists? The brochure said there'd only be a few.

Guitar Hero Live Adds Pearl Jam, Haim & Lamb of Go?d 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"

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