I figured I'd end this Guitar Hero blog with one of my favorite videos I found of GH! Enjoy!
Monday, May 17, 2010
Sales
Reception and sales
Game Metacritic score
Guitar Hero 91/100 (PS2)[88]
Guitar Hero II 92/100 (PS2)[89]
Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock 85/100 (360)[90]
Guitar Hero World Tour 85/100 (360)[91]
Guitar Hero 5 86/100 (360)[92]
Guitar Hero Encore: Rocks the 80s 69/100 (PS2)[93]
Guitar Hero: Aerosmith 70/100 (360)[94]
Guitar Hero: Metallica 84/100 (360)[95]
Guitar Hero Smash Hits 71/100 (PS2)[96]
Guitar Hero: Van Halen 64/100 (360)[97]
Guitar Hero: On Tour 71/100 (DS)[98]
Guitar Hero On Tour: Decades 72/100 (DS)[99]
Guitar Hero On Tour: Modern Hits 70/100 (DS)[100]
Games in the Guitar Hero series have been generally well received by critics. The initial games were highly praised by reviewers. The transition from Harmonix to Neversoft was seen, initially, detrimental to the series; notably, Neversoft's first entry to the series Guitar Hero III was seen as being too difficult, with many difficult songs presenting players with "walls of notes" that the developers have since acknowledged was a problem.[105][106][107] Subsequent efforts in Guitar Hero: Aerosmith and Guitar Hero World Tour were seen to have some improvements, with Guitar Hero: Metallica considered to be a well-polished title and, at that time, the best Guitar Hero title Neversoft has produced.[108][109] Guitar Hero 5's improvements toward social gameplay were complemented by reviewers and considered a further improvement upon the series. Entertainment Weekly put it on its end-of-the-decade, "best-of" list, saying, "An addictive videogame provides the illusion of musical mastery for even the least gifted:. How do you get to Carnegie Hall? Tap, tap, tap."[110]
Upon release, the first game was seen as an unexpected hit, earning over $45 million with about 1.5 million copies sold. Guitar Hero II was significantly more successful, with over 1.3 million copies sold and sales over $200 million.Guitar Hero III, according to Activision, was the first single video game to sell more than $1 billion, with nearly 3.5 million copies sold during the first seven months of 2008. World Tour continued the series' high sales records with 3.4 million units sold in the United States during 2008. More than 60 million downloadable tracks have been purchases across the series as of February 2010.
Overall, the Guitar Hero series has sold more than 25 million units worldwide, earning US$2 billion at retail. The series is claimed by Activision to be the 3rd largest game franchise after the Mario and Madden NFL franchises, even though sales figures show Pokémon and Final Fantasy as 2 and 3, respectively, and Mario at 1.
Game Metacritic score
Guitar Hero 91/100 (PS2)[88]
Guitar Hero II 92/100 (PS2)[89]
Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock 85/100 (360)[90]
Guitar Hero World Tour 85/100 (360)[91]
Guitar Hero 5 86/100 (360)[92]
Guitar Hero Encore: Rocks the 80s 69/100 (PS2)[93]
Guitar Hero: Aerosmith 70/100 (360)[94]
Guitar Hero: Metallica 84/100 (360)[95]
Guitar Hero Smash Hits 71/100 (PS2)[96]
Guitar Hero: Van Halen 64/100 (360)[97]
Guitar Hero: On Tour 71/100 (DS)[98]
Guitar Hero On Tour: Decades 72/100 (DS)[99]
Guitar Hero On Tour: Modern Hits 70/100 (DS)[100]
Games in the Guitar Hero series have been generally well received by critics. The initial games were highly praised by reviewers. The transition from Harmonix to Neversoft was seen, initially, detrimental to the series; notably, Neversoft's first entry to the series Guitar Hero III was seen as being too difficult, with many difficult songs presenting players with "walls of notes" that the developers have since acknowledged was a problem.[105][106][107] Subsequent efforts in Guitar Hero: Aerosmith and Guitar Hero World Tour were seen to have some improvements, with Guitar Hero: Metallica considered to be a well-polished title and, at that time, the best Guitar Hero title Neversoft has produced.[108][109] Guitar Hero 5's improvements toward social gameplay were complemented by reviewers and considered a further improvement upon the series. Entertainment Weekly put it on its end-of-the-decade, "best-of" list, saying, "An addictive videogame provides the illusion of musical mastery for even the least gifted:. How do you get to Carnegie Hall? Tap, tap, tap."[110]
Upon release, the first game was seen as an unexpected hit, earning over $45 million with about 1.5 million copies sold. Guitar Hero II was significantly more successful, with over 1.3 million copies sold and sales over $200 million.Guitar Hero III, according to Activision, was the first single video game to sell more than $1 billion, with nearly 3.5 million copies sold during the first seven months of 2008. World Tour continued the series' high sales records with 3.4 million units sold in the United States during 2008. More than 60 million downloadable tracks have been purchases across the series as of February 2010.
Overall, the Guitar Hero series has sold more than 25 million units worldwide, earning US$2 billion at retail. The series is claimed by Activision to be the 3rd largest game franchise after the Mario and Madden NFL franchises, even though sales figures show Pokémon and Final Fantasy as 2 and 3, respectively, and Mario at 1.
Cultural Impact
The Guitar Hero series has made a significant cultural impact, becoming a "cultural phenomenon". The series has helped to rekindle music education in children, influenced changes in both the video game and music industry, has found use in health and treatment of recovering patients, and has become part of the popular culture vernacular. Several journalists, including 1UP.com, Wired, G4TV, the San Jose Mercury News, Inc., The Guardian, and Advertising Age, considered Guitar Hero to be one of the most influential products of the first decade of the 21st century, attributing it as the spark leading to the growth of the rhythm game market, for boosting music sales for both new and old artists, for introducing more social gaming concepts to the video game market, and, in conjunction with the Wii, for improving interactivity with gaming consoles.
The History
Guess this one should have been my very first blog lol
Guitar Hero was created from a partnership between RedOctane, then their own company that produced specialized gaming controllers, and Harmonix Music Systems, a music video game development company who had previously produced Frequency, Amplitude and Karaoke Revolution. RedOctane was seeking to bring in a GuitarFreaks-like game, highly popular at the time in Japan, into the Western markets, and approached Harmonix about helping them to develop a music game around a guitar controller. Both companies agreed to it, and went on to produce Guitar Hero in 2005. The title was highly successful, leading to the development of its successful sequel Guitar Hero II in 2006.
Both RedOctane and Harmonix were experiencing changes in 2006. RedOctane was bought by Activision in June—who spent $100 million to acquire the Guitar Hero franchise—while it was announced in October that Harmonix would be purchased by MTV Networks. As a result of the two purchases, Harmonix would no longer develop future games in the Guitar Hero series. Instead, developing would go to Neversoft, a subsidiary of Activision known for developing the Tony Hawk's series of skateboarding games. Neversoft was chosen to helm the Guitar Hero series after Neversoft founder, Joel Jewett, admitted to the RedOctane founders, Kai and Charles Huang, that his development team for Tony Hawk's Project 8 went to work on weekends just to play Guitar Hero. Activision CEO Bobby Kotick believed that Neversoft would help them bring great games to the series, but on reflection, regretted their decision to not explore Harmonix further as a continued developer for the series. In addition, Activision began seeking other markets for the game; a Nintendo DS version of the series was developed by Vicarious Visions, while a Guitar Hero Mobile series was created for mobile phones. The company also began considering the expansion of the series to band-specific titles with Guitar Hero: Aerosmith. Later, in November 2008, Activision acquired Budcat Creations, another development studio that had helped with the PlayStation 2 versions of Guitar Hero III and World Tour, announcing that they will be helping to develop another game in the Guitar Hero series.
In 2007, Harmonix and MTV Games released a new music title through rival publisher Electronic Arts, called Rock Band. It expanded upon the gameplay popularized by the Guitar Hero series by adding drum and microphone instruments, allowing players to simulate playing songs as bands. Activision followed suit with the release of Guitar Hero World Tour in 2008 which supported multiple instruments. In 2009, Activision expected to triple its Guitar Hero offerings, and in addition to further continuation of the existing main series and expansions, introduced the titles Band Hero, geared towards more family-friendly pop music, and DJ Hero, a game based on turntablism and featuring a number of mixes. With the release of Guitar Hero 5, Activision has considered the series to move away from its heavy metal basis into a more rounded selection of music. Guitar Hero 5 is the first game in the series to use a new version of the series' logo. Previous logos for games used a font with sharper "points" on the letters, which was considered "idiosyncratic with a vengeance" to match the emphasis on heavy metal music that the previous games had. Activision used the services of the Pentagram design studio to refashion the game's logo. Pentagram developed a new font, removing some of the "aggressive odd" features to make the typeface more suitable and amendable to design feature incorporation to other games such as the upcoming Band Hero and DJ Hero.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guitar_Hero
Guitar Hero was created from a partnership between RedOctane, then their own company that produced specialized gaming controllers, and Harmonix Music Systems, a music video game development company who had previously produced Frequency, Amplitude and Karaoke Revolution. RedOctane was seeking to bring in a GuitarFreaks-like game, highly popular at the time in Japan, into the Western markets, and approached Harmonix about helping them to develop a music game around a guitar controller. Both companies agreed to it, and went on to produce Guitar Hero in 2005. The title was highly successful, leading to the development of its successful sequel Guitar Hero II in 2006.
Both RedOctane and Harmonix were experiencing changes in 2006. RedOctane was bought by Activision in June—who spent $100 million to acquire the Guitar Hero franchise—while it was announced in October that Harmonix would be purchased by MTV Networks. As a result of the two purchases, Harmonix would no longer develop future games in the Guitar Hero series. Instead, developing would go to Neversoft, a subsidiary of Activision known for developing the Tony Hawk's series of skateboarding games. Neversoft was chosen to helm the Guitar Hero series after Neversoft founder, Joel Jewett, admitted to the RedOctane founders, Kai and Charles Huang, that his development team for Tony Hawk's Project 8 went to work on weekends just to play Guitar Hero. Activision CEO Bobby Kotick believed that Neversoft would help them bring great games to the series, but on reflection, regretted their decision to not explore Harmonix further as a continued developer for the series. In addition, Activision began seeking other markets for the game; a Nintendo DS version of the series was developed by Vicarious Visions, while a Guitar Hero Mobile series was created for mobile phones. The company also began considering the expansion of the series to band-specific titles with Guitar Hero: Aerosmith. Later, in November 2008, Activision acquired Budcat Creations, another development studio that had helped with the PlayStation 2 versions of Guitar Hero III and World Tour, announcing that they will be helping to develop another game in the Guitar Hero series.
In 2007, Harmonix and MTV Games released a new music title through rival publisher Electronic Arts, called Rock Band. It expanded upon the gameplay popularized by the Guitar Hero series by adding drum and microphone instruments, allowing players to simulate playing songs as bands. Activision followed suit with the release of Guitar Hero World Tour in 2008 which supported multiple instruments. In 2009, Activision expected to triple its Guitar Hero offerings, and in addition to further continuation of the existing main series and expansions, introduced the titles Band Hero, geared towards more family-friendly pop music, and DJ Hero, a game based on turntablism and featuring a number of mixes. With the release of Guitar Hero 5, Activision has considered the series to move away from its heavy metal basis into a more rounded selection of music. Guitar Hero 5 is the first game in the series to use a new version of the series' logo. Previous logos for games used a font with sharper "points" on the letters, which was considered "idiosyncratic with a vengeance" to match the emphasis on heavy metal music that the previous games had. Activision used the services of the Pentagram design studio to refashion the game's logo. Pentagram developed a new font, removing some of the "aggressive odd" features to make the typeface more suitable and amendable to design feature incorporation to other games such as the upcoming Band Hero and DJ Hero.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guitar_Hero
Sunday, May 16, 2010
Tournaments
Certain festivals hold their very own Guitar Hero Tournaments such as the Greenville Riverrock Festival!
Guitar Hero Tournament
Guitar Hero Tournament
* Time: All-Day
* Location: Guitar Hero Tournament Tent
* Sign-Up Info: Registration is NOW OPEN! Click Here For Sign-Up Information
If you think you can wield a mean axe, prove it. Sign up for the RiverRock Guitar Hero Tournament and enter an elimination contest to find out who is the True Guitar Hero of RiverRock 2007.
Even Robots Play!
Gadget Lab Hardware News and Reviews
Guitar Hero Robot Plays Videogame With Electronic Precision
* By Priya Ganapati Email Author
* November 21, 2008 |
* 1:58 pm |
* Categories: Uncategorized
Guitar_hero_challenge
Guitar Hero kicking your butt after one too many beers? Maybe it’s time to automate your gameplay — with a robot guitar god, the Cythbot.
The Cythbot combines a camera with a vision processing system and pneumatic fingers to create a robot that can play the popular Guitar Hero videogame by itself.
The Cythbot is not a humanoid robot but instead a collection of components cleverly patched together to create an automated device that can read the notes flowing on a screen and play them — mimicking what a gamer would do with the game.
Since its launch in 2005, video game publisher Activision’s Guitar Hero series has become a blockbuster hit. The game comes with a guitar-shaped peripheral that players have to strum in sync to the notes flowing on a screen. Players are judged based on the accuracy with which they hit the notes.
The Cythbot does the same. Here’s how Cyth Systems set up the robot:
First, a camera from Pixelink looks at a screen to analyze the notes that are flowing in.
It is also hooked up to a compact vision processing system, which is hooked up to a box called the Configurable Signal Conditioning Enclosure (CA-1000) from National Instruments. The CA-1000 is capable of digital signal processing and can increase the level of the input signal up to 24 volts. The stepped-up signal is used to operate the pneumatics for the guitar.
The pneumatic fingers hover over the Guitar Hero peripheral with an embedded Wiimote, which is housed in an aluminum box frame.
Two large displays connected to the system show the notes flowing through the screen from the game and indicates which ones are being hit.
Cyth Systems relied on the light intensity of the pixels, rather than the color of the five basic notes, to guide the device’s pneumatic fingers.
"If that light intensity value exceeds a predetermined threshold we know we need to hold down that key and actuate the strum bar after a predetermined delay," explains Ivan Gagne, systems engineer with Cyth Systems in this video, "while the note travels down the screen to the bottom play line."
The idea was to demonstrate Cyth Systems’ expertise in integrating different systems, says Andy Long, senior director for the company.
So far the Cythbot, which can play both in solo and compete mode, has been able to hit pretty high levels of accuracy of up to 98 percent, says Long, though typically it is in the 75 percent to the 80 percent range. "The reason we can’t get to 100 percent is that the pneumatics are not fast enough on certain notes," says Long.
Compare that to one of the best Guitar Hero players in the world, who has a 97 percent accuracy level.
That makes the Cythbot the Deep Blue of Guitar Hero — the ultimate system to beat. Deep Blue, a supercomputer from IBM, played the memorable 1997 chess match against then-world champion Garry Kasparov.
The Cythbot robotic system is on a world tour of its own. It’s a big attraction at many industry conferences focused on robotics and systems engineering and made its latest appearance earlier this week at the Robo developers conference in Santa Clara, California.
Read More http://www.wired.com/gadgetlab/2008/11/guitar-hero-rob/#ixzz0o7FdvMLl
Friday, May 14, 2010
Stuffed
Amidst her handmade menagerie of teddy bears, bunny rabbits and other cute critters, Delaware crafter Poisonholly created this seemingly out of place plush Guitar Hero 2 controller.
The hand crafted guitar bears more than a passing resemblance to the PS2’s cherry red Gibson SG, complete with colored fret “buttons” on the neck. It’s made from terrycloth, fleece and felt accents, then stuffed with poly fill and a dowel to keep it from flopping around.
This one is already spoken for over on Etsy, but if you’re a big fan of the popular game, maybe you can persuade the artist to make you one too.
http://technabob.com/blog/2007/09/08/guitar-hero-controller-gets-stuffed/
Touch Screen!
Apparently they have a new guitar that has a touch screen on it!
http://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://www.geekologie.com/2007/12/03/guitar-hero-touchscreen.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.geekologie.com/2007/12/guitar_hero_touchscreen_magnet.php&usg=__Nfit5ASyRVSYjIp7VfAhEg_mvfQ=&h=298&w=450&sz=31&hl=en&start=248&um=1&itbs=1&tbnid=ah42FBa6AWJK0M:&tbnh=84&tbnw=127&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dguitar%2Bhero%26start%3D240%26um%3D1%26hl%3Den%26sa%3DN%26ndsp%3D20%26tbs%3Disch:1
http://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://www.geekologie.com/2007/12/03/guitar-hero-touchscreen.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.geekologie.com/2007/12/guitar_hero_touchscreen_magnet.php&usg=__Nfit5ASyRVSYjIp7VfAhEg_mvfQ=&h=298&w=450&sz=31&hl=en&start=248&um=1&itbs=1&tbnid=ah42FBa6AWJK0M:&tbnh=84&tbnw=127&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dguitar%2Bhero%26start%3D240%26um%3D1%26hl%3Den%26sa%3DN%26ndsp%3D20%26tbs%3Disch:1
GH Change of Direction?
http://blastmagazine.com/the-magazine/gaming/gaming-news/2010/05/miley-cyrus-selena-gomez-demi-lovato-coming-to-guitar-hero/
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