Well, in case you haven’t heard, Guitar Hero: World Tour finally hit stores last night. However, some very lucky players managed to get their hands on copies even earlier, and one of them has already posted video previews of the expert guitar charts for (as far as I can tell) every song in the game.

Before now, we’ve heard many hands on previews, from people in the industry, as well as independent groups, but as they say, a picture is worth a thousand words, and it’s great to actually see the new additions to the game in action.

So, my thoughts:

-Some of these songs would be almost at GH3’s level of ridiculous difficulty if it wasn’t for the touch-sensitive bar on the new guitar model. Many of the extremely fast trills, triplets, and arpeggios that would’ve been charted like One are now connected by that purple line. When you see strings of notes that feature that line, you can slide your hand up and down and the touch strip instead of tapping the notes on the regular fret buttons. I’ve heard mention that it’s a little tough to get the hang of, but the person playing in these videos seems to be able to get through the sections in question without too much difficulty.

Examples: Hot for Teacher, Purple Haze (at about 0:38)

-I mentioned in an earlier post detailing a preview of this game that some songs feature notes that are played while sustaining another note. This doesn’t seem to be something randomly thrown in to deliberately increase the difficulty, as far as I can tell, it only occurs when it would be accurate in real life. Like using the touch strip, it might take a little getting used to, but I think it’s a neat addition to the charts.

Examples: Prisoner of Society (at about the 2:20 mark during the bridge), Weapon of Choice (0:42 mark. Yellow and orange notes while sustaining Green. Fun.)

-The use of open notes in bass sections has also been revealed, and again, it’s only used when it would be appropriate in real life. Nothing too special here, it just adds a bit of difficulty to the bass parts. And yes, there is apparently a bass career mode.

Examples: Schism bass line (1:25 mark, during the chorus), BYOB bass line (this is probably the hardest song on bass in the game. o.O)

-You can now earn star power while it’s activated, like in Rock Band. Not sure if this has been brought up before, I don’t remember hearing about it.

And finally, the hardest songs for guitar in the game, as determined by me:
Scream, Aim, Fire
Hot for Teacher
Trapped Under Ice
Satch Boogie
Crazy Train
B.Y.O.B.
Stranglehold

EDIT: If you want more GHWT goodness, this guy's got a good start on full-comboing the setlist, as well as run-throughs of a few other songs that aren't found under the user I linked to earlier.