Activision has finally come out of the closet and announced its full slate of titles in its "Band" line up for the second half of 2009, and some all of it might sound familiar.
Fans of music and plastic instruments can expect to see the previously announced Guitar Hero: Smash Hits, Guitar Hero Van Halen, Guitar Hero 5, announced DJ Hero, and the new extension to the brand, Band Hero, by year’s end.
More details after the jump.
According to Activision, Guitar Hero 5 will feature the ability to drop in and out of songs, change band members, instruments and difficulty levels on the fly. Band Hero will be the franchise's first E10+ offering, designed to appeal to a "family audience" by featuring top-40 hits; the guitar, drums, bass, and microphone set up will remain.
Activision is only releasing a few details about Guitar Hero Van Halen, saying that the title will feature the band’s “greatest hits,” along with music from guest acts (hand-selected by Van Halen) such as Queen, Weezer, blink-182, Queens of the Stone Age, and more. The game is slated for release in the second half of the year, which many retailers apparently consider to be August. We hope to get more information about the title soon. In the meantime, don’t miss our story about the game’s rumored achievements, which revealed unconfirmed info beyond the basics Activision is willing to share at this time.
If you’re feeling a strange sense of déjà vu, it’s understandable – this entire line-up had previously been leaked, down to the inclusion of the mysterious Band Hero.
We should have more details on each of these games when E3 kicks off in early June.
cant.... speak at normal..... rate....
As for switching difficulty and band members on the fly, that could be cool if they implement it right. I just hope the music choice isn't so shit this time round
...I'm confused.
@ZombiePlatypus
I too grabbed GH: Metallica. Enjoyed it for a bit, but eventually gravitated back to Rock Band.
AND I REALLY HOPE DJ HERO DON'T SUCK! but i always will love beatmania <3
Don't forget about the 2-4 DS games
Christ. Too many GH games.
I don't have the room for Rock Band, but I'm starting to think that wouldn't be a bad idea...
And Activision is trying to follow Nintendo to world domination via video games. I hope it doesn't work out for them.
on-topic: WTF Activision?! I seldom get upset with companies, but are they even trying anymore? all they do is release Guitar Hero after Guitar Hero after Guitar Hero and it actually makes me miss the days of them releasing Tony Hawk games.
I'm not really too sure why I'm angry, though. I've never really cared for Activision as they've never been that good a company tbh. I guess milking something this desperately just makes me cry for no reason.
D/Ling 666 songs doesnt mean much when you play the same 10 songs over and over again.
Bob Activisionmarketingman: Greg I've got it! We'll put out literally rows on rows of titles, grandmas and kids won't be able to tell the difference. They just want that "guitar game" and won't buy that better band game. It worked for Petz and imagine it'll work for us!
Both: Brilliant!
Still, RB for life.
The first titles were great and all, but repeating the same concept over and over and over makes you look bad and us, it will bore us to the death.
Not to mention the whole play mechanics were pretty much copied from earlier BEMANI titles like "Drummania", "Beatmania", "GuitarFreaks" and such. Konami did well with those titles but they made with japanese tastes and mind (Not to bash them anyway, 'cause I still think they had some interesting songs and stuff). So what we have here on the end, it's copied play mechanics from the past, new and old music playing over and over again but no innovation were it's most due.
Here are my two cents, use them as you please.
There will be twenty-one.
Jesus, Activision. Calm down, already.
Or what happens when your hard drive gets full? Then what?
DLC is foolish, I would much rather have a disc that is tangible. That way if I should want to play at a friends house I can grab the disc and go.
Sure they are saturating the market, it's capitalism. The way I see it it just means more choices, more songs.
To those who complain about having to change disc, I thought it was possible to copy games to your hard drive with a 360.
So sick of people complaining about "Too many GAMES!!!" No such thing.