Here is our attempt at tackling a Guitar Hero 5 review as a group. Its like a podcast, only you read it!

Jeff: So how would you rate Guitar Hero 5 overall among the other games? To the Rock Band series?

Zack: I’ve been stewing over this very thought since I got GH5 exactly a week ago. And I really have to be honest, this is the best music game I’ve played thus far.

Jeff: Hmm. I’d tend to agree, I think it’s the strongest of the series for sure, both in terms of the track list as well as the features.

Zack: It’s taken away all the annoying frustrations of any of the previous games, and added some awesome new features (band moments, easy menus, party play, etc.)

Jeff: That is one the of reasons why I wanted to review this before I get Beatles Rock Band, and while I have no doubt Guitar Hero 5 will be the stronger game feature-wise, I think the Beatles is tough to beat as a tracklist.

Zack: Let’s talk about some of the new features.

Jeff: I thought party play was so cool. Let’s talk about that a bit. It took me a few minutes to figure out how to do it, I remembered reading about the drop-in drop-out feature, but I couldn’t find it in the game, until I realized that all you need to do is hit the yellow button at the menu and start playing. The fact that I could decide halfway through a song that I wanted to switch to bass, or hop on the drums, felt pretty empowering.

Zack: I know! It’s so relieving to be able to pick up and play without having to sign in and “check for downloadable content” and all that stuff.

Jeff: Well especially when you compare GH5 to, Rock Band 2 for example, the game just takes all the annoyance out of playing with a group. I HATED in Rock Band that if you set up a playlist and couldn’t beat one of the songs, you had to completely quit out of the game to choose a new song.

Zack: That was just ridiculous.

Jeff: It just felt like poor design to me. GH5 is now the ultimate party game; there is literally no annoyance with trading around with a huge group of people, I just tried it this past weekend. Plus it’s refreshing that people don’t have to fight over the guitar like we used to do.

Zack: I really liked the inclusion of avatars in game. I just get a kick out of seeing some doofy looking guy singing Sublime’s “What I Got.” They just feel so out of place in the game that it has some kitsch value, I think. I think the free band play is the best new feature in GH 5, but I’m just throwing the avatars feature out there. James Cameron needs some love too.

Jeff: Yeah, I think the avatars will be a feature we will see in more and more games. Also I saw what you did there, I just chose to be the bigger man and ignore it.

Jeff: How did you feel about the difficulty level of songs?

Zack: For the most part, I would say the difficulty level of this game is just about on par with Guitar Hero 3. I can blaze through nearly all the songs on Expert, but there are a few near the end of the career that still give me headaches. How would you say the difficulty compares?

Jeff: I have an easy time on most of the songs in Gh5 on expert (for guitar), though there are a few that are just rough. I think the difficulty level is more balanced than Guitar Hero III. The songs don’t feel frustratingly hard, just challenging, though that is probably somewhat affected by the whole band experience.  I mean, I think the hardest of the games is GH III, quite a few of those songs still give me trouble. But World Tour was a breeze for the most part, so GH 5′s difficulty feels just right.

Zack: I agree. It’s a great middle ground between impossibly difficult and a fun challenge.

Jeff: Did you do the song import from Guitar Hero World Tour?

Zack: Yes. And I honestly don’t really care if all the songs don’t import. That’s why I own both games. I wasn’t expecting to be able to play GH:WT songs in GH5 anyways.

Jeff: Well yeah, I did the import too, it was like $2 to do, but I am actually a little annoyed that only some of the songs import. Sure, the import has MOST of the good songs, but no Hotel California? Come on.

Zack: Oh it cost money?! I had no idea. That explains those points I thought I had disappearing…

Jeff: I guess this is one of the areas that the Guitar Hero team really needs to learn from Harmonix. I mean Rock Band has over 1000 songs between its two titles. I don’t think Guitar hero, in the 9 or 10 installments its had has reached that. Granted, most of the Rock Band DLC is crap, but it’s not like the Guitar Hero DLC is groundbreaking either.

Zack: What do you think about the achievements in Guitar Hero 5?

Jeff: I don’t know about you, but Guitar Hero has never been an achievement goldmine for me. Sure I may snag a few over the course of unlocking modes and features, but I doubt I’ll actively chase them down.

Zack: I’m gonna try and get a few more. But you’re right. The fact that I have under 200 Gamerscore on GH3 is saying something, and we played that game to death.

Jeff: Well that’s because all the Guitar Hero III achievements are like “Get exactly 93% on the second solo in Through the Fire and the Flames”. Who has time for that, except for that 8 year old kid…

Zack: Hahaha! Maybe we should just go play on the Ellen show. He did and look what it got him. Achievements.

Zack: Tell me about the new guitar.

Jeff: Oh it’s basically the same as the World Tour one. A bit nicer buttons and strum bar, a different finish, fake chrome tuning knobs and a touch pad with lumps on it so you know what color your finger is on. Not worth buying to upgrade though, the World Tour guitar is just fine. Oh, and the strap doesn’t slide off at the slightest wind like the world tour guitar does.

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Well that’s it. I’d say we pretty well covered it. Do you have something to add? Leave a comment!