Music is the Weapon
February 15th, 2008 at 2:37 pm
Now that Guitar Hero: Aerosmith has been officially announced, I was going to officially write about how I think it’s an officially awful idea. But these guys already took care of that.
So, the short version. If you don’t like Aerosmith, you probably won’t buy this game. But if they sprinkled the good Aerosmith songs in with other stuff in a full-fledged GH game, you’d probably buy it either way. It’s too divisive, even taking into account the considerable popularity Aerosmith has with old people and Alicia Silverstone fans.
Be sure to read the terrific quotes attributed to Steven Tyler and Joe Perry for some extra excitement. It hits up the kind of rush that I got from the Korn/Haze press release that Ubi put out awhile back.
February 15th, 2008 at 3:02 pm
I cant’t wait for the “Guitar Hero: Korn” press release to come out.
February 15th, 2008 at 3:02 pm
Can’t do it. Need more variety. Can’t hear Steven Tyler over and over again. Keep up the good work.
February 15th, 2008 at 3:03 pm
I don’t like Aerosmith. =(
February 15th, 2008 at 3:05 pm
not only is song writing a bitch, but then it goes and has puppies
sold
February 15th, 2008 at 3:10 pm
Seems like that cuts out more Aerosmith from Rock Band for the forseeable future. Not that I care but still.
February 15th, 2008 at 3:15 pm
Bleh. “Expansions” like these should just be downloadable content. Either that, or make them cost around 15$ and do it for a lot of bands. Maybe their new albums in GH format?
A release like this is just awful. Even if I liked Aerosmith it would still be awful. Narrowing the content down to a select user group is a huge step backwards.
February 15th, 2008 at 3:20 pm
“It’s up to you now to find our car, and stop the New Order”
Regardless of whether or not you like Aerosmith, Revolution X was cheesy fun.
If this were the announcement of Revolution X2 I’d be much more excited.
February 15th, 2008 at 3:21 pm
Oh man, the Jon Davis quote. Thank you for bringing that back.
February 15th, 2008 at 3:34 pm
Jeff, Ryan and Alex; the trio addressing the same topic at the same time. I suggest that the three of you use a single website for all your blogs and then, maybe, this will lead to something bigger, a kick ass gaming website for example.
February 15th, 2008 at 4:02 pm
Get’n jiggy wit it! Nah nah nah nah nah nah nah nah nah nah nah nah nah nah nah nah nah nah nah nah nah nah! Get’n jiggy wit it!
February 15th, 2008 at 4:08 pm
Wow, haden’t heard about that Korn/Haze press release. Wonder if they got that idea from Megadeth and Gears of War?
February 15th, 2008 at 4:18 pm
Disappointing. Why couldn’t they have made Guitar Hero: Reggae and Bluegrass Edition? That’d be ten times better than the bile they’re about to unleash. On another note, I got my copy of Audiosurf from Steam. Completely doesn’t work. Can’t even get the menu to show up. And the forums on the website are flooded with complaints about bugs. Jeff, I thought you vouched for this game? Seriously though, I’m disappointed, I was really excited about it. And, its completely unplayable. Oh, and GHIII needs some more DLC love.
February 15th, 2008 at 4:25 pm
Imagine that, the four of us… Oh wait I guess I didn’t get the memo.
I think nearly everyone, excluding Activision of course, will agree that this makes better DLC than a complete stand-alone package.
Musicians and movie stars getting involved with video games is nearly as awkward as a Quentin Tarantino cameo in any Robert Rodriguez movie.
February 15th, 2008 at 4:35 pm
Yes, sux, but will it have “Walk this way” with Run DMC?
That alone would make it worth the money.
February 15th, 2008 at 4:46 pm
Great post Jeff. I really think that this game should just be a downloadable patch and not a full fledged retain deal, but whatever.
Oh yeah and Haze is the sh(*1up sound*)
February 15th, 2008 at 4:49 pm
Audiosurf works great here…I guess I’m lucky? Either way, here’s a question for you Jeff: What music do you find best for Audiosurf?
February 15th, 2008 at 5:15 pm
This is kind of stupid, I don’t see the point in making a separate guitar hero for one artist, just release a huge $30 Aerosmith song pack/character pack and save yourself and your consumers some money. Guitar hero is going to evolve into one of those series’ that just can’t seem to stop making more sequels. Not that it’s a horrible thing, but I don’t want to have to say guitar hero 10 in the near future, I’m just lazy like that…
February 15th, 2008 at 5:42 pm
Yeah Audiosurf works fine exept for some bugs
A question: What do you use in AudioSurf a mouse, keyboard or gamepad ?
February 15th, 2008 at 5:46 pm
Didn’t take long for Activision to ruin the Guitar Hero franchise.
February 15th, 2008 at 6:31 pm
Just like i said over at Alex’s blog…
It’s obvious why Aerosmith gets the fist band-Only Guitar Hero license…
They plan to do things alphabetically.
and thus, ACDC is next.
…duh
February 15th, 2008 at 6:33 pm
It seems that Guitar Hero is starting to come apart after rock band
February 15th, 2008 at 7:02 pm
Hope it’s not a waste of time but Aerosmith, so thats cool right? Playing dude looks like a lady at three o’ clock in the morning followed by Janie’s got a gun. Thats totally appealing. But I know if I buy it ill take it home, open it and then be like why the hell did I buy this I have a gamefly account. O well. should be a decent game…….?
February 15th, 2008 at 7:46 pm
Erik, Aerosmith is alphabetically AFTER ACDC.
February 15th, 2008 at 7:57 pm
meh
February 15th, 2008 at 8:38 pm
Why not do this for a band that people still like? Even then, one game dedicated to a single group would get old fast. Most people prefer variety.
February 15th, 2008 at 9:54 pm
[...] Unfortunately for Bob, his glowing enthusiasm for the newly announced title is not shared by members of the gaming community, myself included. I wrote an animated reply back to him which I’ll [...]
February 15th, 2008 at 10:37 pm
JEFF. You must discribe what kind of ska you were into back in the day. What bands did you like? What do you think is the current state of the genre? It would be super interesting to know what you think. (hopfully it’s not too off topic) I am a super big fan of all your blog writings. Everything is very insightful and entertaining to read. Good luck with your future projects. I’m really looking forward to see what time brings.
February 15th, 2008 at 11:00 pm
Nothing against aerosmith, but I’m really not diggin what activision is doing to the guitar hero franchise. 1 and 2 were great, they were all about the hardcore rock music fan. Now it’s like a major sell out.
February 15th, 2008 at 11:16 pm
I don’t get people dogging Guitar Hero 3’s music. It has great artists, Rolling Stones, Cream and Foghat…how do you beat that? I mean sure it had some really out of place songs on there(Miss Murder oh god please never again) but you mean to tell me three or four songs being bad on a list of 70 ruins the entire list? To be honest I think Guitar Hero 2 had more bad songs than three.
February 16th, 2008 at 1:57 am
My short version: Even if you like Aerosmith, you won’t like this game.
February 16th, 2008 at 2:26 am
I think when done right this whole one band Guitar Hero game could be cool… I just don’t care about the aerosmith..
I’ll wait till GH: Nine Inch Nails, or red hot chilli pepers, or Metallica or Foo Fighters, or Marilyn Manson
February 16th, 2008 at 2:59 am
Why would activision publish a game geared solely towards aerosmith fans? seriously, how many aerosmith fans do you know?!? it must be MUCH cheaper to produce these titles than i thought.
February 16th, 2008 at 4:17 am
Meh im not into music games. anyway just came to say i got your back jeff on what ever comes next. if you guys start a new gaming site or something can i be the forum mod?
February 16th, 2008 at 4:25 am
Whether you like the music or not is irrelevant. The medium on which music is published changes over time. Now is the time of interactive music. You wouldn’t have criticized the Beatles for releasing the white album on CD would you?
There are more kids listening to classic rock now than ever before and you can chalk that one up to Guitar hero.
February 16th, 2008 at 4:35 am
Its nice to see Alex and Ryan on top of this….God awful subject
February 16th, 2008 at 4:36 am
fuck this game and fuck steven tyler. People playing this game dont want to play as Aerosmith, christ. If you’re going to go RPG style and have us play as a band make it someone relevant in the past decade…
February 16th, 2008 at 4:47 am
I’d like to see, in Guitar Hero 4, the ability for players to create original music for other players to download. Pretty ambitious, but very web 2.0.
February 16th, 2008 at 5:56 am
Not too interested in another GH iteration at this point.
On a side note, I still find that quote by Jon Davis funny…and completely ridiculous: “Gaming for me is a religion, and Haze is the s***!”
Uh, wut?
Somehow I don’t completely believe him, or maybe it’s that his wording is a bit exaggerated (or stupid?). I don’t know, but either way the quote still gives me a chuckle.
February 16th, 2008 at 6:07 am
I remember that podcast where you talked about that Haze/Korn press release! “You know, sandwiches are like a religion to me, and Quiznos is the shit!”
February 16th, 2008 at 10:09 am
I think im gonna pick it up on the mobile.
February 16th, 2008 at 11:03 am
I think I’ll just stick with Rock Band.
February 16th, 2008 at 11:32 am
Guitar Hero for me is a religon, and Aerosmith is the shit!
February 16th, 2008 at 11:58 am
Music is a Religion to me, and Aerosmith is the Shit!!!
February 16th, 2008 at 7:30 pm
See, these are why Gamefly exists. Rent it, play through it, replay the good songs, then ship it back when you get sick of it. I did that with Guitar Hero 80s, and was able to enjoy it without the horrible price they charge. Now, I’ll rent this and be able to play Walk This Way without being ripped off.
It is just a stopgap game, though. You can skip it and wait for GH4, and you won’t miss much.
February 16th, 2008 at 10:01 pm
I just downloaded the free Aerosmith “Dream On” track, played it on Expert, found myself getting thumped by my mate because I had dosed off. Yep, it was that boring. It certainly isn’t the song which is going to make me go out and pre-order the game. Anyway, I went and saw Maiden last weekend for their Somewhere Back in Time tour. The set they ripped out would make a wicked Guitar Hero. Best show ever, period! It’d make perfect sense, they could have the whole Egyptian style theme with Eddie (can’t forget him), it would even be cool to play Steve Harris’ bass lines for co-op, not to mention the sweet guitar solos/harmonies of Dave Murray and Adrian Smith. What I’m ultimately getting to is, at least there wouldn’t be any boring ballads to play (yawn).
February 17th, 2008 at 5:46 pm
Audiosurf Name - Sushi Returns
February 18th, 2008 at 7:32 am
Juan G summed it up best.
“Music is a religion to me, and Aerosmith is the Shit!!!”
February 18th, 2008 at 1:39 pm
I like Aerosmith all right, but I think you’ve got to be a pretty hardcore fan to feel like you’d rather play a whole guitar hero game based around them rather than have a variety of tracks to play. The variety, in my opinion, is one of the best things about music games. I’ve even discovered bands I’d never heard of before that I now love. I really think this is a step in the wrong direction that will backfire on them. This is their way of competing with Rock Band: get a really famous, high profile band’s name on the game… but they are missing the whole point.
February 19th, 2008 at 7:42 pm
Personally, I hope that this game does well, even if it’s about 10 years too late to matter. My reason is simple, the next band to be featured is reportedly U2 and that would be a game I’d buy the day it came out and maybe even pay extra for to get it a few weeks earlier from eBay.
February 20th, 2008 at 3:35 am
Dudes, I know this has absolutely nothing related to the above and I apologise for using your blog , but I need to let off steam… ROCK BAND IS NOT OUT HERE IN AUSTRALIA UNTIL JUNE!!! What the #@%$? This is unbelievable. Where’s a bucket?