Wednesday 05 Sep 2007

Guitar Hero II. How much fun could it really be? All you do is strum and press the correct colour coded fret buttons. Don’t be fooled people! This is one game that will entice you to purchase an Xbox 360 for this game alone.

Fan-freakin-tastic

If you have absolutely no idea what Guitar Hero II is about then you must have lived under a rock for the past three years or so. Basically you are provided with a guitar (a Gibson X-Plorer) which is used as your instrument to rock your neighbours till the early hours of the morning by using five fret buttons, a strum and a whammy bar. Simply plug it into the USB port on your Xbox 360 and follow the instructions that are provided by a decent training system. After doing your training you are sent on a “Rock Tour” and have to play in front of a live audience.

The game plays similar to most rhythm games (like Amplitude) where the music scrolls towards you with five coloured circles. At the bottom you need to match up the five different colours with the colours of your fret buttons and strum when they match. There is also a little thing called “Star Power,” once activated by lifting your guitar vertically, you can earn double the points. It’s fan-freakin-tastic!

Don’t fret, rock on!

That, in a nutshell, is that. It is exceptionally rewarding. After taking some time to figure out the controls you start feeling like an actual Rockstar! You will start off with easy and try to achieve five stars for each song and then move on to the medium difficulty. The difference between levels like easy, medium and hard is that in the easier levels there are less fret button used, only three on easy and four on medium. In the later stages when you progress to hard it becomes five buttons…not just that but the speed that those little coloured circles travel at reaches much faster speeds, so, not only do you have more buttons to worry about, but you also need to do it at a frantic pace.

This game is all about sound and it is implemented so well with some excellent tracks at your disposal. Check the official track list out below. “Phew,” that’s enough tracks to keep you going for several years!

It is not about graphics and the chance of you wanting to look at the graphics while trying to hit the notes is not going to happen. The crowd and the band looks decent but I’m not even going to go in to this as it will detract from an amazing game which does not depend on graphics.

Rock with a friend

Guitar Hero II also provides you and a friend the chance to play together, with one person playing the lead and the other playing the bass guitar. This is a huge amount of fun and is a party game through and through.

What could be wrong with this game? Well, the Extreme difficulty setting is very-very difficult and can become tiresome which leads to giving up. Also, some of the downloadable content is a bit pricey. Other than those pathetic excuses it is perfection. Can’t wait for Guitar Hero III!

If you enjoy Rock music (or music overall) then this game must not be missed, you’ll be doing yourself a HUGE injustice. Go out and buy it now!

Pro’s: The guitar; the track list; awesome downloadable content; great with two players.
Con’s: Downloadable content is a bit expensive; can be very difficult in the later stages.

Official Track List

“Surrender” – Cheap Trick
“Possum Kingdom” – Toadies
“Heart-Shaped Box” – Nirvana
“Salvation” – Rancid
“Strutter” – Kiss
“Shout at the Devil” – Mötley Crüe Mother” – Danzig
“Life Wasted” – Pearl Jam
“Cherry Pie” – Warrant
“Woman” – Wolfmother
“You Really Got Me” – Van Halen
“Tonight I’m Gonna Rock You Tonight” – Spinal Tap
“Carry on Wayward Son” – Kansas
“Search and Destroy” – Iggy Pop and the Stooges
“Message in a Bottle” – The Police
“Billion Dollar Babies” – Alice Cooper
“Them Bones” – Alice in Chains
“War Pigs” – Black Sabbath
“Monkey Wrench” – Foo Fighters
“Hush” – Deep Purple
“Girlfriend” – Matthew Sweet
“Who Was in My Room Last Night?” – The Butthole Surfers
“Can’t You Hear Me Knockin’” – The Rolling Stones
“Sweet Child o’ Mine” – Guns N’ Roses
“Rock and Roll Hoochie Koo” – Rick Derringer
“Tattooed Love Boys” – The Pretenders
“John the Fisherman” – Primus
“Jessica” – The Allman Brothers Band
“Bad Reputation” – Thin Lizzy
“Last Child” – Aerosmith
“Crazy on You” – Heart
“Trippin’ on a Hole in a Paper Heart” – Stone Temple Pilots
“Dead!” – My Chemical Romance
“Killing in the Name” – Rage Against the Machine
“Freya” – The Sword
“Stop” – Jane’s Addiction
“Madhouse” – Anthrax
“The Trooper” – Iron Maiden
“Rock This Town” – Stray Cats
“Laid to Rest” – Lamb of God
“Psychobilly Freakout” – Reverend Horton Heat
“YYZ” – Rush
“Beast and the Harlot” – Avenged Sevenfold
“Carry Me Home” – The Living End
“Institutionalized” – Suicidal Tendencies †
“Misirlou” – Dick Dale
“Hangar 18” – Megadeth
“Free Bird” – Lynyrd Skynyrd

Bonus Tracks

“Raw Dog” – The Last Vegas
“Arterial Black” – Drist
“Collide” – Anarchy Club
“Drink Up” – Ounce of Self
“Elephant Bones” – That Handsome Devil
“Fall of Pangea” – Valient Thorr
“FTK” – Vagiant
“Gemini” – Brian Kahanek
“Laughtrack” – The Acro-brats
“Less Talk More Rokk” – Freezepop
“Jordan” – Buckethead
“Kicked to the Curb” – Noble Rot
“Mr. Fix It” – The Amazing Crowns
“The New Black” – Every Time I Die
“One for the Road” – The Breaking Wheel
“Parasite” – The Neighborhoods
“Push Push (Lady Lightning)” – Bang Camaro
“Radium Eyes” – Count Zero
“Red Lottery” – Megasus
“Six” – All That Remains
“Soy Bomb” – Honest Bob and the Factory-to-Dealer Incentives
“The Light That Blinds” – Shadows Fall
“Thunderhorse” – Dethklok
“Trogdor” – Strong Bad
“X-Stream” – Voivod
“Yes We Can” – Made in Mexico

Guitar Hero Track Pack 1 (Exclusive Xbox 360 Download Pack)

“Bark at the Moon” – Ozzy Osbourne
“Hey You” – The Exies
“Ace of Spades” – Motörhead

Guitar Hero Track Pack 2 (Exclusive Xbox 360 Download Pack)

“Killer Queen” – Queen
“Take It Off” – The Donnas
“Frankenstein” – The Edgar Winter Group
Guitar Hero Track Pack 3 (Exclusive Xbox 360 Download Pack)
“Higher Ground” – Red Hot Chili Peppers[4]
“Infected” – Bad Religion
“Stellar” – Incubus

Guitar Hero Track Pack 4 (Exclusive Xbox 360 Download Pack)

“I Wanna Be Sedated” – The Ramones
“Smoke on the Water” – Deep Purple
“You’ve Got Another Thing Comin’” – Judas Priest

My Chemical Romance Pack (Exclusive Xbox 360 Download Pack)

“Famous Last Words” – My Chemical Romance
“Teenagers” – My Chemical Romance
“This Is How I Disappear” – My Chemical Romance

Rating:
Contributor:	Dawid

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