Vash

I was lucky enough to grab an early copy of Guitar Hero 5 and I thought I'd hit up my blog with a few impressions. Unfortunately, at the time of writing this, the music store and online play haven't launched yet. They do tease you on your regular playlist this time around. You will see songs you haven't downloaded from the music store right in your playlist as if you already have them. You'll even hear samples of the tracks. Of course this is only available if you're connected online. There's one song called smash hits theme and it looks like one of the greatest Guitar Hero songs I've ever heard. Again, I can't download it until the game launches in a few days. It's truly unfortunate. When you look at the main menu, you'll immediately see a ton of enhancements. In the background you'll see a full gameplay stage with crowd and band members jumping around like a show is going on. You'll notice immense visual enhancements over previous Wii efforts. Vicarious Visions stated the game uses a completely revamped engine with all new lighting. You can definitely tell. Before I jump into gameplay, though, I'd like to talk about all of the modes this game has to offer. No more will you be jumping into an online "section" to find people to play. You will just go to a mode called competitive and you will be given the option for anybody locally to join and then you can hit a button to find people online. From the minute you turn the game on, you're online. It feels very much like an Xbox 360 game. There have been major improvements to Mii Freestyle mode as well. It's much easier to keep the beat with friends this time around. It's always fun to jam with your friends. You can even connect a Nintendo DS and be the stage manager. Speaking of the Nintendo DS, there's a brand new mode that I think will make GH5 on the Wii the absolute best version of the game! It's called Roadie Battle. You can connect 2 DS systems, and have 2 people (friends or computer opponents) rocking the guitars on the big screen. The DS is where all of the action happens, though. You will be taken through such tasks as fixing audio levels, rewiring a guitar, and other roadie efforts. What will this get you? Well, powerups on the big screen. It's very much like the battle mode from past GH efforts, but the guitar players are dependant upon their DS partners. Play this with a few friends and you'll find everybody screaming and laughing so loud, the music and the notes on the TV will almost be ignored entirely. It's one of the best Guitar Hero additions they've made yet! So, we've covered the constant online connection, the new playlist DLC integration, Mii Freestyle additions, and the awesome new Roadie Battle. That's about 10% of the overall game. Music Studio has seen some improvements over the last Guitar Hero game. I won't get into that much, as I haven't had enough time with it to make any impressions. The actual gameplay is visually crisp, pleasing, and incredibly smooth. The meters have all been integrated onto the guitar neck/note trail (where the multiplier was located in World Tour). Personally, I think this works well. I don't ever have to look away from the notes to see how well I'm doing or how much star power I have. The rumble of star power is still in there. Again, one of my favorite features of the franchise only found on Wii. One thing I feel really needs to be emphasized about the actual gameplay in Guitar Hero 5 is the note window. It feels much more like Guitar Hero 2, in that you must actually hit the note for it to register. The note windows appear to have been tightened up a very large amount for this game. In the previous few iterations you could hit a new made a half a second late and it would still register. No more. It's back to the roots with the note window and I must say I am very pleased. It's about time! This may or may not be true, but it's just something I noticed in my time with the game. Let me know how you guys feel about it on release day. Judging by the actual song content (since that's really all that matters), I must say I'm a little disappointed so far. I've been through 2 venues so far and I've only known maybe 4 or 5 of the songs (playing around 10 to 12). Don't get me wrong, in quick play you will see the entire set list and it is an impressive one, but I haven't been blown away in career yet. The difficulty seems about par with the last couple games. I haven't failed anything yet, but I'm sure this game has a couple of tough songs. At the end of each venue you will have 2 or 3 "special" songs that you get to play. As an example, I played a Rolling Stones song as one of these "specials" and it was actually very pleasing. There was a little intro action at the venue (like in past games), and then you go into the song. The crowd reacts differently based on the style of the song, and you will notice differences when using star power as well. No more are they mindless clappers when it's not appropriate. Overall, this game kicks a whole lot of *** and I really hope everybody, even multi-console owners, checks out the Wii version of this game because it is without a doubt the version to own!

That's my little preview. Make sure you guys pick up this one!