Guitar Hero coming to the PC/Mac

[Boogahz]

http://www.statesman.com/news/content/b ... aspyr.html

Aspyr lands deal to bring 'Guitar Hero' to PC, Mac
Austin company will adapt popular console game for personal computers.

Austin-based video game company Aspyr Media Inc. will bring the enormously successful "Guitar Hero" franchise to the PC and Mac for the first time this fall.

The game, played with a mock miniature guitar, is like a guitar version of karaoke. First released in 2005 in the United States, it was a surprise hit and has since become enormously successful, with knock-off versions of the game and even tournaments where players compete.

A second installation came a year later and a third is expected later this year.

But up until now, the game has been played only on consoles, such as the Playstation 2 and Xbox 360.

Aspyr's development deal, in partnership with publisher Activision Inc., isn't expected to result in any big changes, although the guitar could be slightly different and players will be able to use the keyboard.

This deal is a high-profile score for the Austin company, which employs about 150 people. The game will be released around the same time as the console and Wii versions of "Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock," and will have the same menu of songs and similar multiplayer capabilities.

"Aspyr's expertise in developing and publishing for these platforms means that we will deliver a game that wails just as hard as it does on consoles but feels natural on this audience's chosen platform," said Ted Staloch, executive vice president for Aspyr.

In its 11th year, Aspyr began by developing games for the Mac, a niche market that it quickly dominated. Aspyr then expanded into games for PCs, Xbox and handheld devices.

Instead of developing its own games, Aspyr shifts games from the development of one platform to another. That is essentially what Aspyr is doing with "Guitar Hero."

[Leonaerd]

Aaaaaawesome. I can't wait to beat some punks online.

[Hesten]

Cool, i like it on my PS2, could be fun on the PC too, can let family borrow it then

[Funkmasterr]

Aaaaaawesome. I can't wait to beat some punks online.

There is no online multiplayer capability in GH 1 or 2, that will be new with 3! But when it does come to the pc I will be waiting to put a whooping (or at least try! haha) on anyone that wants to step up!

[Aslanna]

Must have mean you improved in the past 5 months

Anybody have any pointers for advanced techniques in this game before I go trade it in? Really the difficulty on this game was set way too high and I am insulted by the trouble I am having even at medium.

When I pay 90 dollars for a game, I expect a pretty damn easy 1000 achievment points, end of story.

[Funkmasterr]

Must have mean you improved in the past 5 months

Anybody have any pointers for advanced techniques in this game before I go trade it in? Really the difficulty on this game was set way too high and I am insulted by the trouble I am having even at medium.

When I pay 90 dollars for a game, I expect a pretty damn easy 1000 achievment points, end of story.

Wow, I'm blushing.

And FYI, yes I have. I am about half way through on expert, can't remember what song I'm stuck on.

[Leonaerd]

I will bet my avatar for a year that I can beat anybody on this forum in any song.

[Hesten]

Hehe, you can beat me at least .
I can 5 star around 1/3 of the songs on medium (the rest i dont really like, hard to play screaming heavy metal songs you dont like to listen to ), but when the game introduce the 5th fret it just goes wrong .
Anyone got any good tips on how to handle the 5th?

[Leonaerd]

Hehe, you can beat me at least .
I can 5 star around 1/3 of the songs on medium (the rest i dont really like, hard to play screaming heavy metal songs you dont like to listen to ), but when the game introduce the 5th fret it just goes wrong .
Anyone got any good tips on how to handle the 5th?

Practice the intro to Sweet Child of Mine (hard or expert) on slowest, slower, slow, then regular speed. It will become natural as you practice, so there's really no strategy other than to be exposed to the technique a billion times.

[Funkmasterr]

I think I might be willing to take you on in that challenge sir. I think it's janx that is a fucking god at that game though, he had beat the game on expert like the day after it came out for the 360, so I'd like to see the outcome of that battle (assuming it's janx im thinking about).

[Leonaerd]

I'll beat any man.

[Hesten]

Hehe, you can beat me at least .
I can 5 star around 1/3 of the songs on medium (the rest i dont really like, hard to play screaming heavy metal songs you dont like to listen to ), but when the game introduce the 5th fret it just goes wrong .
Anyone got any good tips on how to handle the 5th?

Practice the intro to Sweet Child of Mine (hard or expert) on slowest, slower, slow, then regular speed. It will become natural as you practice, so there's really no strategy other than to be exposed to the technique a billion times.

Hehe, i totallly forgot you could slow stuff down, i just started the normal songs, then lost fast . I guess ill try that tonight

[Janx]

Muahaha.

5 Stared Freebird the other night (fuck jordan..seriously). Jordon's only song I havent beat on expert =(.

[Leonaerd]

I got to 90% on Jordan once. It's retarded though.

5 stars on Freebird? Some competition.

[Funkmasterr]

You guys are crazy, I don't think I'll ever be that good. The furthest I have been able to get into Jordan is like 43%. I see all this talk made you want to play some guitar hero janx! haha!

[Leonaerd]

I just hope the PC's guitar isn't as terrible as Xbox's. I really am a die-hard fan of the corded PS2 guitar.

[Funkmasterr]

I just hope the PC's guitar isn't as terrible as Xbox's. I really am a die-hard fan of the corded PS2 guitar.

Funny, cause I have tried both and I find the 360 "controller" way easier to use.

[Animalor]

I was proud of myself when I 3-starred Billion Dollar Baby on Hard

[Janx]

Being able to hit hte button on the ps2 for star power >>>> xbox360's POS button position/size (and seriously screw tilting).

The GH3 controller will be both wireless (woot) and have the old style buttons thank god.

[Gamei]

Awesome news, hope it turns out well.

Jordan is also the only song I can't beat on expert in any of the GH games(including 80s.) I get to about 64-66% fairly regularly and then I'm done. I have most of expert 5 starred, with only a few songs I can't quite put together a solid 2.8x+ average on. I loves me some guitar hero, and can't wait for both rock band and gh3 to be available.

[vn_Tanc]

I'm a recent convert to the church of Guitar Hero. So far I've 5* all of Easy and Medium but I'm stuck on Mother. Bastard Tier 2 on Hard. Oh and I gave myself tendonitis as well so I've had to lay off and just play Blue Dragon.

I knew I was buying GH3 on launch day when I saw Number Of The Beast One Paint It Black Paranoid all in a row.

[Leonaerd]

Paint it black??? oooooooooooooo

[Winnow]

Found this interesting while scanning the 360 newsgroups:

Someone modified Guitar Hero 2 for the 360 with the songs listed below. I like a lot of them better than what GH2 came with.

With GH2 coming to the PC, this song modding stuff will be easier.

SL-X brings you the first FULLY customized Guitar Hero II iso for the X-Box 360. All 74 songs have been replaced.
This disc is not recommended for anyone that has difficulty playing songs on the "Hard" difficulty level although
most songs have multiple difficulty levels. Most if not all songs should include Face-off and Pro Face-off modes.
Those marked also support Co-op play. Enjoy!!!

Tier 1
Metallica - Unforgiven Surrender E,M,H,X
Red Hot Chili Peppers - Stadium Arcadium Possum Kingdom E,M,H,X COOP
Motley Crue - Dr. Feelgood Heart-Shaped Box M,H,X COOP
Avenged Sevenfold - Bat Country Salvation X
Dead or Alive - You Spin Me Right Round Strutter E,M,H,X
Incubus - Wish You Were Here Shout at the Devil E,M,H,X COOP

Tier 2
Papa Roach - Last Resort Mother E,M,H,X
My Chemical Romance - I'm Not Okay Life Wasted E,M,H,X
Ill Nino - How Can I Live Cherry Pie X
Buckcherry - Crazy Bitch Woman X
All That Remains - The Air I Breathe You Really Got Me E,M,H,X
HIM - Wings of a Butterfly Tonight I'm Gonna Rock You Tonight E,M,H,X

Tier 3
Metallica - Wherever I May Roam Carry On Wayward Son M,H,X
Incubus - Stellar Search and Destroy E,M,H,X
Red Hot Chili Peppers - Otherside Message in a Bottle E,M,H,X COOP
Led Zeppelin - Heartbreaker Billion Dollar Babies M,H,X
All That Remains - Whispers (I Hear You) Them Bones E,M,H,X
Rush - Tom Sawyer War Pigs E,M,H,X

Tier 4
Guns N' Roses - Welcome to the Jungle Monkey Wrench E,M,H,X
Machine Head - Aesthetics of Hate Hush X
HIM - Wicked Game Girlfriend X
Def Leppard - Pour Some Sugar on Me Who Was in My Room Last Night E,M,H,X
Rob Thomas feat. Santana - Smooth Can't You Hear Me Knockin' X
Pantera - Cemetary Gates Sweet Child O' Mine E,M,H,X

Tier 5
Ozzy Osbourne - Crazy Train Rock and Roll Hoochie Koo M,H,X COOP
Audioslave - Show Me How to Live Tattooed Love Boys E,M,H,X
Lynyrd Skynyrd - Sweet Home Alabama John the Fisherman E,M,H,X
Metallica - Fade to Black Jessica E,M,H,X
Beatles - While My Guitar Gently Weeps Bad Reputation X
Machine Head - Now I Lay Thee Down Last Child X

Tier 6
Tenacious D - Wonderboy Crazy on You E,M,H,X
Daft Punk - Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger Trippin' On a Hole in a Paper Heart X COOP
Joe Satriani - Surfing With The Alien Dead! X
Tenacious D - Fuck Her Gently Killing in the Name H,X
Machine Head - Halo Freya X
Nirvana - Come As You Are Stop E,M,H,X COOP

Tier 7
Steve Vai - For the Love of God Madhouse X
JerryC - Canon Rock The Trooper X
Cream - White Room Rock This Town X
Red Hot Chili Peppers - By the Way Laid to Rest E,M,H,X
Bullet For My Valentine - All These Things Psychobilly Freakout E,M,H,X
Mudvayne - Happy YYZ E,M,H,X

Tier 8
Radiohead - Paranoid Android Beast and the Harlot E,M,H,X COOP
Guns N' Roses - Mr. Brownstone Carry Me Home E,M,H,X COOP
Mudvayne - Forget to Remember Institutionalized E,M,H,X
Blink 182 - What's My Age Again Misirlou X
Trivium - Dying in Your Arms Hangar 18 E,M,H,X
Buckethead - Soothsayer Free Bird X

Tier 9 (Bonus)
Buckethead - Nottingham Lace Raw Dog X
Atreyu - Becoming the Bull Arterial Black X
Bullet For My Valentine - Tears Don't Fall Collide E,M,H,X
Alice in Chains - Man in the Box Drink Up X
Jimi Hendrix - All Along the Watchtower Elephant Bones X
Trivium - Ascendancy Fall of Pangea E,M,H,X
Blink 182 - Adam's Song FTK E,M,H,X COOP
Lynyrd Skynyrd - Simple Man Gemini X
Machine Head - Old Kicked to the Curb X
Pearl Jam - Yellow Ledbetter Push Push (Lady Lightning) E,M,H,X
Ram Jam - Black Betty Laughtrack X
Red Hot Chili Peppers - Under the Bridge Less Talk More Rokk E,M,H,X COOP
Joe Satriani - Always With Me, Always With You Jordan M,H,X
Cream - Sunshine of Your Love Mr. Fix It X
Death Cab for Cutie - Title and Registration The New Black E,M,H,X COOP
Seether - Fine Again One for the Road E,M,H,X
Eric Johnson - Cliffs of Dover Parasite H,X
Gravity Kills - Personal Jesus Radium Eyes X
Guns N' Roses - Estranged Red Lottery E,M,H,X
Children of Bodom - Sixpounder Six E,M,H,X
Hoobastank - Crawling in the Dark Soy Bomb X
Metallica - Master of Puppets The Light That Blinds E,M,H,X
Cake - Short Skirt, Long Jacket Thunderhorse E,M,H,X COOP
Stevie Ray Vaughn - Scuttle Buttin' Trogdor E,M,H,X
Stone Temple Pilots - Sex Type Thing X-Stream E,M,H,X
Soundgarden - Black Hole Sun Yes We Can E,M,H,X COOP

According to some of the comments, the songs aren't sync'd very well. Nice effort though!

These guys also released a version of the original Guitar Hero combined with the 80's expansion on on DVD:

After the positive reception to the first custom Guitar Hero release, SL-X now brings you the original Guitar Hero
and the expansion Guitar Hero: Rocks the 80's in a single DVD compilation. That's right, ALL 60 songs from both games'
career paths have been converted for use on the X-Box 360. Due to the editing contstraints of the Guitar Hero II X-Box
360 ISO, these songs are in no particular order based off tiers. We did not bother with the bonus tracks from the original
Guitar Hero and the developers were too lazy to include any bonus tracks on the 80's disc anyway. All song support all
difficulty levels. All songs include Face-off and Pro Face-off multiplayer modes. All songs from Guitar Hero: Rocks
the 80's contain bass tracks for multiplayer co-op. Throw out your Playstation 2 and enjoy this hot SL-X release!!!

Tier 1
The Exies - Hey You Surrender GH 1 E,M,H,X
Deep Purple - Smoke on the Water Possum Kingdom GH 1 E,M,H,X
.38 Special - Hold on Loosely Heart-Shaped Box GH 80s E,M,H,X
Red Hot Chili Peppers - Higher Ground Salvation GH 1 E,M,H,X
Joan Jett - I Love Rock & Roll Strutter GH 1 E,M,H,X
Shout at the Devil Shout at the Devil E,M,H,X

Tier 2
Extreme - Play With Me Mother GH 80s E,M,H,X
Ozzy Osbourne - Bark at the Moon Life Wasted GH 1 E,M,H,X
White Zombie - Thunderkiss '65 Cherry Pie GH 1 E,M,H,X
Woman Woman E,M,H,X
Incubus - Stellar You Really Got Me GH 1 E,M,H,X
Limozeen - Because It's Midnite Tonight I'm Gonna Rock You Tonight GH 80s E,M,H,X

Tier 3
Stevie Ray Vaughn - Texas Flood Carry On Wayward Son GH 1 E,M,H,X
Blue Oyster Cult - Godzilla Search and Destroy GH 1 E,M,H,X
Dio - Holy Diver Message in a Bottle GH 80s E,M,H,X
Queens of the Stone Age - No One Knows Billion Dollar Babies GH 1 E,M,H,X
The Donnas - Take It Off Them Bones GH 1 E,M,H,X
White Lion - Radar Love War Pigs GH 80s E,M,H,X

Tier 4
Bad Religion - Infected Monkey Wrench GH 1 E,M,H,X
Twisted Sister - I Wanna Rock Hush GH 80s E,M,H,X
Motorhead - Ace of Spades Girlfriend GH 1 E,M,H,X
The Ramones - I Wanna Be Sedated Who Was in My Room Last Night GH 1 E,M,H,X
Can't You Hear Me Knockin' Can't You Hear Me Knockin' E,M,H,X
Flock of Seagulss - I Ran (So Far Away) Sweet Child O' Mine GH 80s E,M,H,X

Tier 5
Eric Clapton - Crossroads Rock and Roll Hoochie Koo GH 1 E,M,H,X
Queen - Killer Queen Tattooed Love Boys GH 1 E,M,H,X
Poison - Ain't Nothin' but a Good Time John the Fisherman GH 80s E,M,H,X
Anthrax - Caught in a Mosh Jessica GH 80s E,M,H,X
The Go-Go's - We Got the Beat Bad Reputation GH 80s E,M,H,X
Megadeth - Symphony of Destruction Last Child GH 80s E,M,H,X

Tier 6
Asia - Heat of the Moment Crazy on You GH 80s E,M,H,X
Trippin' On a Hole in a Paper Heart Trippin' On a Hole in a Paper Heart E,M,H,X
Faster Pussycat - Bathroom Wall Dead! GH 80s E,M,H,X
Scandel - The Warrior Killing in the Name GH 80s E,M,H,X
Boston - More Than a Feeling Freya GH 1 E,M,H,X
Dead Kennedys - Police Truck Stop GH 80s E,M,H,X

Tier 7
Krokus - Ballroom Blitz Madhouse GH 80s E,M,H,X
Skid Row - 18 and Life The Trooper GH 80s E,M,H,X
Iron Maiden - Wrathchild Rock This Town GH 80s E,M,H,X
Helmet - Unsung Laid to Rest GH 1 E,M,H,X
Psychobilly Freakout Psychobilly Freakout E,M,H,X
The Vapors - Turning Japanese YYZ GH 80s E,M,H,X

Tier 8
Judas Priest - Electric Eye Beast and the Harlot GH 80s E,M,H,X
Pantera - Cowboys From Hell Carry Me Home GH 1 E,M,H,X
Burning Brides - Heart Full of Black Institutionalized GH 1 E,M,H,X
Misirlou Misirlou E,M,H,X
Accept - Balls to the Wall Hangar 18 GH 80s E,M,H,X
The Police - Synchonicity II Free Bird GH 80s E,M,H,X

Tier 9 (Bonus)
Black Sabbath - Ironman Raw Dog GH 1 E,M,H,X
Arterial Black Arterial Black E,M,H,X
Jimi Hendrix - Spanish Castle Magic Collide GH 1 E,M,H,X
Sum41 - Fat Lip Drink Up GH 1 E,M,H,X
Eddie Money - Shakin' Elephant Bones GH 80s E,M,H,X
Ratt - Round and Round Fall of Pangea GH 80s E,M,H,X
FTK FTK E,M,H,X
ZZ Top - Sharp-Dressed Man Gemini GH 1 E,M,H,X
David Bowie - Ziggy Stardust Kicked to the Curb GH 1 E,M,H,X
Franz Ferdinand - Take Me Out Push Push (Lady Lightning) GH 1 E,M,H,X
Laughtrack Laughtrack E,M,H,X
Billy Squier - Lonely is the Night Less Talk More Rokk GH 80s E,M,H,X
The Romantics - What I Like About You Jordan GH 80s E,M,H,X
Mr. Fix It Mr. Fix It E,M,H,X
The New Black The New Black E,M,H,X
Scorpions - No One Like You One for the Road GH 80s E,M,H,X
Parasite Parasite E,M,H,X
Edgar Winter Group - Frankenstein Radium Eyes GH 1 E,M,H,X
Quiet Riot - Bang Your Head Red Lottery GH 80s E,M,H,X
X - Los Angeles Six GH 80s E,M,H,X
Soy Bomb Soy Bomb E,M,H,X
Oingo Boingo - Only a Lad The Light That Blinds GH 80s E,M,H,X
Audioslave - Cochise Thunderhorse GH 1 E,M,H,X
Trogdor Trogdor E,M,H,X
Warrant - Seventeen X-Stream GH 80s E,M,H,X
Judas Priest - You Got Another Thing Comin' Yes We Can GH 1 E,M,H,X

[Aabidano]

Out of curiosity, not trying to be a troll, why not spend the time learning to play a real guitar?

[Funkmasterr]

Out of curiosity, not trying to be a troll, why not spend the time learning to play a real guitar?

I have no interest in learning to play a real guitar tbh. I don't see any reason to learn to play an instrument unless you are going to try and make some kind of a career out of it.

GH is just fun to play, and good music to listen to.

[Aslanna]

A real instrument is fun to play as well. It's relaxing and a good way to express creativity.

However I am able to see the appeal of GH as well. No reason not to do both!

[vn_Tanc]

Out of curiosity, not trying to be a troll, why not spend the time learning to play a real guitar?

Do I get gamerpoints for that? HMM?

I used to play bass. This is more fun and less noisy. And I don't have to hump a damn heavy amp around.

[Fairweather Pure]

Out of curiosity, not trying to be a troll, why not spend the time learning to play a real guitar?

I always wondered that myself. At least with DDR you get one hell of a workout.

[cadalano]

you might as well ask someone who plays EQ or Halo why they don't go learn how to play a guitar. Its just where you invest your time.. one is a video game, one is a guitar.


biggest reason not to learn guitar is that you have to take it somewhat seriously. GH you can learn in a matter of days and its always fun (well, until everyone else goes home and its 3 AM and youre still trying to get through the first 30 seconds of Institutionalized on expert)



as far as "no reason to learn an instrument other than to make a career out of it".. lol at more overkill defensiveness from funk. man you are gold

[Aabidano]

I don't play guitar (yet, considering it) and have never seen guitar hero except in a couple pictures. I assumed there was at least a passing similarity between the two.

[cadalano]

i played guitar for a number of years before picking up GH2 (made a post similar to the one i'm about to write)

the only real advantage I had was flexibility and an already somewhat natural feel for hammers and pulls. My girlfriend still cannot reach the 5th button and refuses to play any songs that use it, but I had no problems at all reaching it from the getgo. The 5th button is about the same level of stretching that I have to do on my guitar to move up maybe 6 bars, which was something I originally had a great deal of difficulty with when I was starting out.

arguably you could be learning muscle rythm etc, but i really dont see it. There's a big difference between flipping a switch up and down and plucking a string up and down.. a big difference between moving your fingers in 1 dimension to push giant playschool buttons which represent "this note is higher than the last one you played" or "this note is lower than the last one you played!" and pressing down strings against a fretboard that produce actual tones

as for considering picking up guitar, go for it! get a nylon string acoustic that will be soft on your fingers and find some tablature of your favorite songs... start with the easy fun stuff.

[Hesten]

I have seen a number of PS2 GH mods, the main problem with almost all of them (apart from a few with some seriously wierd music, the stuff that make you praise the Rock The 80'es for its track selection) are that theyre almost all only for Hard and Expert. For us people who are musically challenged (read, got less rhythm than a dead frog), getting addons with good music dont help if we cant play it
I have seen a good number of quality numbers for Frets on Fire, so the PC already got an active modding community, as soon as it come to the PC, its gonna be a modfest, that does NOT require a new GH2 CD burn with a limited number of tracks .

As for why not play guitar, i suck at music. Not sure what its called in the US, but here in denmark there is a theory called the 7 intellgences (edit, found wiki entry, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Theory_of_ ... es#Musical), the non-mensa way of looking at intelligence, where there are 7 areas of our brain specialized in various stuff. I got a small test as a part of a teaching seminar i was on, and i got a nice big 0 on the musical intellect.
Guitar Hero on the other hand, i can play numbers i like, i can actually play (if you give me a guitar, ill guarantee you it will sound like hell), and i can play with friends and have fun, instead of a "lets spend XXXXX hours alone at home and try to play this same number over and over again before anyone who listens in can even recoginze the number

[Leonaerd]

Guitar hero II is actually what inspired me to pick up guitar. I play at least an hour every day and I'm getting pretty good. Plus, it's made me better at guitar hero, and in college, that's what really matters.