So, I received the latest issue of Game Informer today with some indifference at first. After all, Game Informer really is hit-or-miss when it comes to their articles; half of the time I find myself simply skipping to the reviews to find out what is worth buying this month.

However, I was greatly excited (i.e. wet myself) when I found the feature article to be the exclusive look at Guitar Hero 4. On the cover was the announcement everyone has been holding their breath for: "Create Your Own Songs."

There are many very exciting changes that are happening to GH4, and not just the ctrl+c ctrl+v of Rock Band that everyone is expecting. Neversoft is really pushing forward on this project to take virtual rock stardom to the next level.

I won't cover everything in the article for those who have seen this issue. However there are so many exciting new things coming that this will most likely be a long post!


Hardware

(Edit: Much of this was covered last week in power-glove's blog entry. If you missed it, he also has a scan of the page in GI where the show the photo of the new drums.)

I think the major change in hardware is really in the drums. The new drum set will be (thank god) wireless. Instead of four pads on the same level, there are three drum pads and two elevated cymbal pads. Lefties will be happy with this because now, the high hat placement will make some sort of sense. This means the difficulty of drumming might have to be adjusted, since now there are five spots to hit PLUS the bass pedal.

Another (drum-related difference) is in the pads themselves. The pads will be touch sensitive and also supposedly quieter to hit than the Rock Band drums. This is certainly a welcome change as whenever I have personally played Rock Band, we make the drummer sit as far away from the TV as possible and crank the volume to hear over the drum sticks bashing into the pads.

There are going to be changes to the guitar controller as well, but apparently Activision is currently in the process of getting the patent for the new controller and therefore has not released any new details.

Game play

The really unique thing about this game is how Neversoft plans to set up the game play. It will not be like the linear play of Rock Band. Your band will be given several venues to start at with different set lists, and each one of these gigs will open a new "path" of locations that can be opened up. This way, in each difficultly level you won't have to play the game the exact same way 4 times.

Also, in regard to switching difficulty the rules have been changed. You can change the difficulty at any time during career mode without having to "start over." This is a welcome addition, especially for people like me who like to do vocals. I can totally rock "Maps" on expert, but I would fail a quarter of the way through "Gimme Shelter." You can also change the instrument that your character plays at any point without restarting the career. Hopefully these changes will make for more fluid game play.

Content

Neversoft boasts that they are getting as many master tracks as possible for this game. Some of the initial artist announcements are: Van Halen, Dream Theater, Linkin Park, The Eagles, and Sublime(!!!).

Zero Punctuation's Ben Croshaw will be happy to hear that rocker Clive Winston will be back in the line-up, along with Pandora. In addition to a Create-A-Rocker mode (similar to Rock Band) there will be a mode where you can dress up the pre-made rockers in whatever you desire.

Customization doesn't end there. You will be able to customize your axe like you wouldn't believe: from body shapes to fret inlays, every player's guitar will be uniquely their own. Drum sets are a little less detailed; you will be able to pick the color of your hardware and such, as well as be able to make a logo for your band and throw it on your bass drum (the band logo is apparently used for other things in the game as well?).

Of course, the big addition to the content is the user created content. Jam Over is the frist mode, in which you can pick a song from the GH4 library and just jam however you want with your band. You can choose to follow the original note pattern (which is displayed) however you can also freestyle however you wish--you can later access it in the Quick Play mode. "Whatever tracks aren't being played live will be streamed from the prerecorded track letting you learn how to play the song without the use of the note runway, or create your own riffs and chord progressions on the fly." (GI p. 57)

"Advanced Studio Mode" is really what is exciting. This is where you are able to really create your own music. You can do this through live playing, or through placing the notes on the grid one by one. The program will automatically make corrections when a note is offbeat to the nearest quarter, 8th, or 16th notes. You are also giving the option of copying and pasting patterns to make loops (so you don't have to re-write the same drum beat 8 times in a row). Due to legal and memory issues, vocals cannot be directly recorded. Vocal melodies can be made with a "keyboard" instrument. Since you only have to match the pitch for a vocal track anyway, the only question is whether you can enter timed lyrics in the vocal track. This doesn't seem to be addressed anywhere in the article. There will be different distortion options for guitars, customizable scales (you can change the octave by tilting the guitar?) and different types of percussion sounds. As earlier stated, the drum pads are pressure sensitive, and will recognize the difference between a tap and a smash and play back the sounds accordingly (allowing for drum roll crescendos!).

In addition, these user made tracks can be uploaded online to share with other users. Leaderboards will show which songs are most popular, highest rated, etc. Each user can only post 5 tracks at once, however if a particular user has consistently ranked highly in with their music, they will become "signed" and be able to release an "album." Virtual rock stardom has never been so real.

Overall, if this project goes well it could blow Rock Band out of the water. It doesn't look like a release date has been formally set yet.

Think of this potentially strange legal situation: What if a real rock band stole a user-created Guitar Hero song and made money off of it? Would the user be protected or not? I wonder if Activision and Neversoft will take this into consideration when launching the online music-sharing aspect of this game.

As I said there are many more details in the GI article, however it is a very large feature and I tried my best to highlight the "best of" for those who haven't seen this news yet. This game looks like it could really change both the video game and music industries.