While Christmas shopping today I decided to not only treat my brother to a new jumper and my Dad to a DVD of The Dark Night, I indulged myself and bought a copy of Guitar Hero: World Tour. I hadn't really been paying much attention to this game previously as I hadn't been planning on buying it, but I felt spontaneous and I do love my rock.

Leads me to my first problem with GH:WT. I like rock, and expect it from what is traditionally a rock based game. What I do not expect is a lot of pop/indie/80's pseudo-cock rock. This is by far and away the poorest set list of any Guitar Hero game yet. The good:shit ratio is totally ridiculous. I kid you not, I can pick out a mere 27 songs off the track listing that I actually found entertaining to listen to. That leaves 59 songs of total monotonous crap! I don't think my music taste is particularly biased either, I enjoyed tunes from REM to System Of A Down, Bon Jovi to Metallica. Please reply to this if anybody out there actually likes Pat Benatar or The Smashing Pumpkins, because my survey of about 30 people has shown so far that you do not exist. Yet they still insist in putting these same, seemingly totally unliked artists in anyway. Maybe Pat is paying Activision to put her songs in the game, who knows.

I also have no problem with older songs, half my iTunes playlist is older than I am, but I think the people at GH may have their target audiences confused a little. A teeny tiny fraction of songs appear to be from just the last 10 years, strongly detracting from the appeal to the teenage and 18-25 age groups I'd imagine. It appears as if they are attempting to maybe make the game more family friendly by putting in some songs Mam and Dad like as well. Which is a problem because most parents don't give a crap about video games full stop, and no amount of 70s nostalgia would change that. They'd rather dig out the old record player, dust off a couple of vinyls and twist again. So it appears to me as if instead of appealing to a broader market, they are alienating their most likely customers.

The next annoyance that became apparent was the addition of the sliding sections. I will admit I did not buy the new guitar with the slider bar on it but that's because I already have the two guitars from the last two games and I'm not such an idiot as to fork out an extra £20 for a silly gimmick. I see no point to this design innovation as you can already slide your fingers between the normal fret buttons without much hassle rendering, in my view, this thing totally redundant. Also surely having to move your hand from the strum bar or fret buttons to the slider and back again is unnecessarily complicated and would result in more missed notes? But as I said my main problem was with the sliding sections themselves. Why bother putting them in? Really? They are only slightly different from hammer on sequences in that they are a little more awkward to do and are used in parts of songs where there is actually absolutely no sliding up or down frets of any kind in the actual song.

Slightly fed up with the compulsory crappy songs in the career mode, I decided to check out the online mode where people would hopefully have sense and choose the good songs available. I never got to find out. After a full 25 minutes of searching for the all new and much anticipated "Band Quick Practice" and "Band vs Band", I did not find a single match. I found this a problem on GH3 where it took a while to find a person to play along with, but I at least always got one eventually. 25 minutes that could have been spent so much more productively pressing coloured buttons to different sequences, wasted waiting for the terrible servers to bother themselves to find me a game. I simply gave up.

The only thing at this point that I could honestly say I thought was good or at least better than one of the previous games was the character customisation. When creating my first rocker I managed to get him looking the spitting image of Alexi Laiho from Children Of Bodom, clothes and all which I was very impressed with. I also fitted Alexi out with a new custom guitar I created (really a BC Rich I think). I was then treated to the sight of the Finnish Black Metal God get brutal to Love Me Two Times by The Doors. If that happened in real life I fear the universe would implode. The incredibly wide array of customisable clothing, tattoos, hair and to a lesser extent facial features, is so broad you will be able to create any type of musician your little heart could desire.

I unfortunately have not had time to try out the song creator yet but I doubt I will have much patience for it anyway. I did however stumble across one gem among the sea of UGC while having a quick browse. One genius out there has created the Zero Punctuation theme tune. Kudos to you whoever you are you did a better job at making a GH worthy song than Silversun Pickups...whoever the hell they are.

In an uncharacteristically brief conclusion because I'm tired, if you were thinking of buying World Tour, buy Rock Band 2 for the better set list or Guitar Hero 3 if you like the brand.

I like 1, one, and only one Smashing Pumpkins song. The only way I even found was watching T.V. at a friends house, we heard a commercial and the song sounded like a Manson song neither of us had ever heard. We became excited and rushed to the internet only to find it was smashing pumpkins. On that day I died a wee bit.

A wee bit more on topic, I liked the fact that we got Misery Business, Scream Aim Fire, and Re-education. Not many other songs that I loved though.

Siuss:
I like 1, one, and only one Smashing Pumpkins song. The only way I even found was watching T.V. at a friends house, we heard a commercial and the song sounded like a Manson song neither of us had ever heard. We became excited and rushed to the internet only to find it was smashing pumpkins. On that day I died a wee bit.

A wee bit more on topic, I liked the fact that we got Misery Business, Scream Aim Fire, and Re-education. Not many other songs that I loved though.

The good songs on there like those were great, don't get me wrong. Hot For Teacher, Crazy Train and Freak On Leash I absolutely adore, but their greatness was simply outweighed by the tedium of the rest.

I actually enjoy listening to the Pumpkins. Boy i sure hope the Zero Punctuation theme is still on the DLC

I actually really liked the setlist. Sure, there were a few songs on there that were crap, but overall, I enjoyed it more than Guitar Hero Aerosmith. Though I'm still waiting for RB and G to stop putting Beastie Boys in.

ThaBenMan:
I think Stillborn and the three Tool songs are worth the price of admission. Well, worth having me ask for it for Christmas, anyway.

I had not heard the three Tool songs on the game before so I wasn't sure what to expect. I now can't believe you had to pay game money to get them! I feel ripped off. I'm sorry but they were among some of the most dreary, lifeless and plain weird songs on there as far as I'm concerned.

I like The Pumpkins, and although they may not be the biggest band on the planet, it's still fun to play their songs.

Priestess was in the last Guitar Hero and until then I'd never heard of them, but now I think their album is brilliant (Hello Master, available at all good local music stores).

I haven't played the game yet, but I've seen the set list and all the 'emo' music like The Sleeping and Rise Against that was offered as Bonus Songs in GH3 were offered as the Set List in GHWT is a little disappointing for me.

I suppose it's the best alternative for everyone seeings as they have such a massive and varied audience. Chances are your tastes will be satisfied by the DLC if Activision keep their promise of releasing more content than Harmonix (which I believe they announced along with the biggest on-disc selection of music).

ThaBenMan:

wewontdie11:

ThaBenMan:
I think Stillborn and the three Tool songs are worth the price of admission. Well, worth having me ask for it for Christmas, anyway.

I had not heard the three Tool songs on the game before so I wasn't sure what to expect. I now can't believe you had to pay game money to get them! I feel ripped off. I'm sorry but they were among some of the most dreary, lifeless and plain weird songs on there as far as I'm concerned.

Fair enough if they're not to your taste. I'm a big Tool fan and I'm glad they've finally been included in one of these music games.

What do you think of Stillborn? And did I hear right that Zakk Wylde made a new piece for a Boss Duel? How is that?

I'm a fan of Zakk like. Stillborn isn't a bad song but it wasn't the Black Label tune I would have picked for the game. Would have had something like Bleed For Me or maybe Concrete Jungle.

And yes his boss battle is pretty good actually. The tune he wrote for it is pretty fun, much better than Ted Nugent's.

My dad likes Smashing Pumpkins O,o

Resurrecting to not make too many duplicate threads:

Obviously, the set list is very subjective. I've found a lot of songs that I really like on it, but I've also found a lot that I don't. Same goes for RB, though. To me it came down to 3 things.

1) I'm a big Tool fan.
2) The instruments. the WT guitars are far and away the best fake instruments I've used, and the drums are better than RB1 drums, at least (haven't used RB2 set). The big one, though, is that on the Wii, GH instruments work in RB2, but RB instruments don't work in GH.
3) I've always liked the GH style and difficulty better.

Criticisims:
1) The difficulty I liked is only there on a few songs, and I can get through most songs on Expert the first play through... (I couldn't beat 2 songs on Hard on GH III)
2) Here's the infuriating one for me. On the Wii (I have a PC instead of 360/PS3), the UI designer didn't do a lot of testing. The font size is just too small, so even on a large screen, the lyrics and streak counter is very difficult to read.

If you own a Wii, I'd pick up GH:WT first because of the instrument quality and compatability, and then buy the RB2 game only to round out the song list.

I think the song selection in the GH franchise has steadily gone downhill since Activision took over. I'm not so familiar with the RB selection, but my point is that the Harmonix team at least picks more songs that I find enjoyable even if it's my first time hearing them.

To the OP: Children of Bodom are not black metal. They're kind of power/thrash with vaguely black metal influenced vocals.

The "bonus" songs on GH3 make me sick. I think there are maybe 5 of them that I can stand to play through more than rarely, and most of them are completely forgettable. It seems too much like the Activision people are trying to get credibility by picking obscure and "quirky" indie bands while the Harmonix guys actually had credibility to begin with.

I like the smashing pumpkins, or at least most of their stuff.

ThaBenMan:
I think Stillborn and the three Tool songs are worth the price of admission. Well, worth having me ask for it for Christmas, anyway.

But Tool are infinitely better. However ive played Tool songs on FoF (pc GH clone) and i feel it really detracts from the music, i couldnt get immersed in any of them. Also the version of Jambi i played had enough notes to melt the keyboard to my hand, i refuse to play through that again..

To aid the OP in his complaint about GH4's poor choice of decade music, here's the breakdown of Rock Band 2's (GH4's competitor) song list by decade.

'60s - 2 (Pinball Wizard :) and Spirit in the Sky)
'70s - 17
'80s - 15
'90s - 22
'00s - 28 (including "bonus" songs)

Also, there are fewer "indie" songs (5) in Rock Band but there are more alternative songs (15-20), not really sure of the difference but whatever.

Nigh Invulnerable:

To the OP: Children of Bodom are not black metal. They're kind of power/thrash with vaguely black metal influenced vocals.

As far as I know they are Death Melodic Metal.

And yes the track list on GH:WT is terrible. There are some good songs (Crazy Train, Trapped Under Ice, Beat It, etc.) but there are so many bad songs (Hey Man Nice Shot, Mountain Song, Assassin, Monsoon etc.).

Oh and thanks Red Octane (that's the developer right?) for including a stage with some lightning, the symbol of a thunder and no AC/DC song!

wewontdie11:

I haven't played the game yet, but I've seen the set list and all the 'emo' music like The Sleeping and Rise Against that was offered as Bonus Songs in GH3 were offered as the Set List in GHWT is a little disappointing for me.

Wait what?

Rise Against arn't emo...

The Tool tracks, while totally awesome and trippy, are tiring to play. I don't know if it's the song itself, the note positioning or a combination of both, but I found myself getting bored and tired playing them.

I found the game easy and boring to play. It's like they took the complaints about the difficulty curve from the last game on board, but took them too far, without fixing up the note placement. The drums are awkward when they work, the slider thing is pointless and the GH:WT guitar, while superior to play, can't stand up to the punishment required of it. I've only had it a month and already the strum bar is going.

Though it could well be the epic finishes from RB that did it.

Me and my friend went through the entire set list on the net to see whether we should bother paying that much money for it.
Short answer: no.
Long answer: almost all of the songs get old after almost a whole listening, though it does have some tracks to make me jump up and down with the excitement of a little boy being offered a lift home by a man with a beard in a big shiny van whilst its pouring rain and 4 degrees Celcius. Where was I?
ah yes; simply put the set list doesnt have the appeal of its predecessors, in which I fell in love with some new songs and bands (Symphony of Destruction sparked my love for Megadeth, Cowboys from hell got me hooked on Pantera, Carry on my wayward son Made me start listening to more genres of music, Impulse is one of the best tracks I had never heard until GH3 and I am currently hooked on Kool thing by sonic Youth)
But , in saying this, none of these set lists were perfect; Barracuda, Knights of Cydonia, the GH version of Laid to rest was God awful (and Im a pretty big LOG fan), Beast and the Harlot, fat lip and many more did not appeal to me. Thankfully it was always just a miniscule part of the set list, but looking at the new one, the only thing I said when my friend asked me was it worth it was
"Fuck that shit"
as for the RB list; never played RB1 more than once, whilst not entirely sober :]

I really should check up on my reviews more often...

Wow it's strange to see how many people actually do like the Pumpkins, guess my MSN contacts were just a bit of an erroneous initial sample to take. Is this a mainly American trend? Because, somebody correct me if I'm wrong, but as far as I'm aware they've never been particularly popular over in the UK.

D_987:

Wait what?

Rise Against arn't emo...

Nigh Invulnerable:

To the OP: Children of Bodom are not black metal. They're kind of power/thrash with vaguely black metal influenced vocals.

Label them what you wish but I find it hard to cope with every single band that comes along inventing their own specific genre, so I just put both bands nearest the main genre I felt appropriate.

Smashing pumpkins =[, I love smashing pumpkins.

Rise Against is punk rock. Not sure how thats close to emo.

Hate to be a minority, but I like the Smashing Pumpkins (I'm Irish). I do agree with your opinion of the song list, awaiting the Rock Band AC/DC myself.

It's impossible to give an unbiased review of Guitar Hero etc. by the genres nature: if you don't like the songs,no amount of clever design or whatever can save the game.. First review I've commented on, probably because it's so short..

sv93:

PumpItUp:
To aid the OP in his complaint about GH4's poor choice of decade music, here's the breakdown of Rock Band 2's (GH4's competitor) song list by decade.

'60s - 2 (Pinball Wizard :) and Spirit in the Sky)
'70s - 17
'80s - 15
'90s - 22
'00s - 28 (including "bonus" songs)

I'm not sure if you are complaning about this music or wether you like it? I personally love the new RB set list, much better than the original RB.

I'm actually doing neither, just pointing out the decade breakdown of RB's songlist. I've never played GH4 or the original Rock Band, so I'm neutral towards those games. But I do love Rock Band 2, or most of it. The "bonus" songs are mostly shit metal that nobody except hardcore fans want to play. Has anyone played Visions? It's atrocious!

Also, just noticed in your review you were looking for Pat Benatar or Smashing Pumpkins fans. Don't know about the latter, but me, my sister, my brother, and my mom all like Pat Benatar.

The first few sentences about the poor set list is completely true. Might as well just continue with frets on fire. Also, what's with all the emo/pop-rock bands in GH:WT? I want some damn Rolling Stones and Acca Dacca, not strange Reggae music or some pre-pubescent kid blurting about his emotions.

Saying the setlist is crap when you have The Doors, the Eagles, and Jimi Hendrix on there, either means

A. You don't like the same rock as I do (understandable)

or

B. You jumped to conclusions (doubtful)

but this has always been the case with all of the GH/RB games. For every great song on there there's like 5 crap or too obscure songs (even if they're from good bands).