#Wii u guitar hero live series

The camera darts about the stage, sometimes facing others in the band, sometimes up close and personal with the audience. FreeStyleGames hired actors to play as your band-mates and the people in the front rows of the crowd.

It's not like Krist Novoselic is on bass and Dave Grohl is on drums. On stage, you're performing in a real band in front of a real crowd that reacts in real time to how well or poorly you play.

Then, just before walking out on stage, a grizzled, long-haired sound man hands you your guitar with a knowing nod of approval. At one point a groupie wishes you good luck while provocatively biting her lip. Along the way your band-mates psych themselves - and you - up. Before you start a song there's a short prelude that sees you, as lead guitarist, nervously play with your plectrum before making your way to the stage, the cheers of the crowd an audible clue of what you're about to face. The live-action footage, shot by FreeStyle, makes up the entire game. Meanwhile, FreeStyleGames has ditched the third-person, caricature-styled video game graphics Guitar Hero fans are familiar with for live-action footage viewed from a first-person perspective. I want to have an experience of feeling like I've made my way to the top.' If I have a new game, I don't want to just go straight in at the top. And I hope they also see it will give them something to learn again. 'I hope the purists see there is a lot of fun there. Definitely, there were a few of us going, 'okay, we hope everyone loves it.' But that's the same with any game you make. We didn't want to just come out with the same stuff. 'There was a lot of head-scratching and prototyping and different variations that went into it. 'If you come at it from a purist's point of view, it's probably the biggest change,' FreeStyleGames creative director and studio head Jamie Jackson said of the button changes in an interview with Eurogamer. It'll be interesting, however, so see whether playing on higher difficulties presents a tougher challenge than the higher difficulties of previous Guitar Hero games, given you can now play sort-of bar chords with your forefinger pressing the left black and white buttons, with your other fingers pressing other buttons at the same time. After a short while, you just get used to it. So all you're left having to compute is whether you should be pressing the top row or the bottom row. Your fingers naturally rest on the three buttons at the bottom of the neck, and there's no need to worry about reaching for other buttons to the left or right any more. It feels like there's less information to process compared to previous games in the series, as the notes slot into just three positions and come in just two colours. I played a couple of songs in Guitar Hero Live on the medium difficulty and found the new system fiddly to start with, on account of my old-school Guitar Hero-forged muscle memory, but it wasn't long before I hit an 80-something per cent accuracy. And expert players can combine presses of buttons from both rows in what are Guitar Hero's version of real life chords. Medium-level players don't need to worry about moving their fingers up and down the guitar controller neck, which, according to FreeStyleGames, was a skill many players failed to master. At a basic level, Guitar Hero Live can be played with just the bottom three buttons. The idea is that newcomers have an easier time getting started with the game, while veterans have a new system to master. On the controller, the bottom row of three buttons represents white and the top row of buttons represents black. In Guitar Hero Live, notes fall in just three potential positions: left, middle and right, and come in two colours: black and white. Previous Guitar Hero games saw notes fall in five potential positions and corresponding colours. On screen, the classic Guitar Hero 'highway' is present and correct, with icons that tumble down to the point where the player should press the corresponding button on the guitar peripheral and 'strum'. Guitar Hero Live's controller ditches the brightly-coloured buttons of old for two rows of three more authentic-looking buttons placed on top of each other. It's due out this autumn for PlayStation 4, PS3, Xbox One, Xbox 360 and Wii U for £89.99.

#Wii u guitar hero live series

Two years ago, DJ Hero developer FreeStyleGames began work on reviving the Guitar Hero series for the post-Spotify world, and the result is Guitar Hero Live, a reboot of a franchise that was among the biggest gaming had to offer before it buckled under the weight of its own relentless release schedule. After a five-year hiatus, music rhythm game Guitar Hero has reformed with a new perspective: first-person.