Look, I drink. I also get bored quite often, and have an affinity towards rocking out on plastic guitar. So when Guitar Hero 5 came out, I had to talk myself out of buying it several times. "I don't want to give Activision my money" I said. "I don't want to pay $60 for the same game I've been buying for years" I said. "I don't actually HAVE the money to get this" I said.

But you know what I did have? I had horrible games. Games that, even with my hoarding of games, would not make me miss a moment of sleep if I got rid of them. Three games, in fact, which I, much to my chagrin, traded in to Gamestop. Also, commas. Luckily Gamestop had a "Trade in 3 games and get 10% more" deal, which, along with my Edge card, netted me enough trade in to get Guitar Hero 5 for the low, low price of $1.41, and a copy of GH: Van Halen as soon as I mail in the damn order form. Seriously. Snail mail. WTF?

Anyway, I gave in to the dark side and picked up the horribly covered Guitar Hero 5, since I'm a dirty whore and was asking for it dressed like that, and you know what? It's probably the greatest Guitar Hero game Activision has put out. Actually, scratch that, it IS the greatest Guitar Hero game Activision has put out. And while that really isn't saying much, it IS saying that it is waaaaay better than the last two "efforts" put out by Moneyvision.

And you may ask yourself
How do I work this?
And you may ask yourself
Where is that large automobile?
And you may tell yourself
This is not my beautiful house!
And you may tell yourself
This is not my beautiful wife!

So why do I like this game so much, especially since there's a 5 in the title and Rock Band 2 is already out with updated DLC? Personally, I just like having one big disc full of music with songs I know and love in it along with songs I don't know but like after I play them. The note charts, on Expert, aren't as god-awful retarded as 3 and are on par with 2 for quality. The songs are all unlocked for play in Quickplay as soon as you start the game, so if you want you can get the game for a party and hop right into playing. The song choices are all pretty dang fun so far, and I've yet to find a song that I just hate for hating it. The character models are much better than anything Activision has thrown together over the last few outings, but it's really, really odd seeing an avatar in there with the GH characters. Speaking of which, seeing my little avatar rock out to the songs is AMAZING.

Also, In The Meantime is in the game. Fuck yeah.



So, as you can see, it's got some pretty awesome stuff in it. Another thing that they added that I think is quite spiffy are the new song challenges. For every song there is a challenge added to it, be it for one of the instruments, vocals, or band. There are three levels to each award, and an unlockable for one of the levels, which adds to the replay value of most of the songs. Unfortunantly some of the challenges I played really didn't do it for me, as "whammy every sustained note" really makes a song sound like ass, but for the most part they really make you try your best to play the song as well as possible, and also add up to three extra stars a song, which helps to unlock more songs/venues in the career mode. Speaking of the career mode, it's set up nicely with 5 or so songs for each venue, with two unlockable "encore" songs and an extra manufacturer challenge where you can choose your own song.

As for the multiplayer, there's FINALLY an option for more than one person to play an instrument, which is awesome. No more fighting over who's going to play guitar and who's going to have to go with bass. And four drummers at the same time sounds pretty amazing too. I haven't had a chance to play any of the other modes but quickplay, so I can't comment on them. The only gripe I had with it was that the leader has to choose the song to play, and there wasn't any way apparent to go through the songs faster, so everytime we picked a new song I had to slowly scroll down through all 85 songs. Weak.

The game isn't all beer and skittles though, and I do have a few minor gripes with it. The venues, while nice, have only minor changes for the encores, where in the past games the whole set would change and move and whatnot, this one has only one thing occur, and it's usually not that impressive. The career set lists are no longer in sets, and there's no option to set them up as so, so you have to individually go through each song to complete them. There's a "nominal" fee to import the other disc's songs, as well as any DLC you already have, but it shows the DLC in the song lists. So you can see them, but you can't play them. And either I've gotten ridiculously good at guitar in these games, or Guitar Hero 5 is EASY. Even on expert I'm having trouble getting any less than 95% on most songs first time through. Except for the ending to "Play That Funky Music". Fuck the end of that song.

The only other MAJOR gripe I have with Guitar Hero 5 is the fact that on a few songs you're not actually playing guitar with your plastic guitar. This is confusing and wrong. Sympathy for the Devil, while not having much guitar in it at all, is you playing piano for most of the song. Superstition is you playing big band instruments for half the song, and it just feels awkward. Keep your other instruments out of my guitar section, game.

Anyway, I'm enjoying this iteration of Guitar Hero immensely more than I have in a long, long time. It's good, quick fun, and with 85 songs it's got a lot of variety on it, so it'll be in the 360 for a while. I rate this game a "Read the damn article" out of "you lazy fuckers."