Sorry, but just because you stank at a game you had taken objection to even before you started playing does not mean that all 'real' guitarists are the same.

I play the guitar just fine, and I can play Guitar Hero pretty good, too - the skill from one does not help much with the skill for the other, they are pretty much 2 seperate skill sets, but being able to do one does not mean you can't do the other.

I can play a good 30% of the songs in GH3 note perfect on a real guitar, and another 40% I can play fairly well just by ear, and I've got to say this article "hits the right note" (ba-doom-tish).

Rather like the "Dance Dance" style games, where the skill in the game is mechanical (land on mat sensor at right time, regardless of whether you actually danced it or just lumped your feet correctly), GH3 is - unlike playing the guitar - a bit of a spiritless affair.

That said, it's still great fun, and as a guitarist of 20-odd years, it sure as hell is a lot more fun than holding a standard gaming controller playing yet another FPS.

Also, the freeware clone "Frets on Fire" (which turns your keyboard into an axe - seriously) is a lot of fun too.

Heh heh ... I feel better now. I've played guitar for many years and Guitar Hero just completely baffles me, but I see, I'm not the only one!

OK, OK, someone tell me - how long do you have to keep plinking away until you get the BFG9k or the end-of-round boss? WHAT!?!? There's no EOB!?!?!? What kind of screwed up madness is this sh*t!??! Quick, load up Halo3 - ah, much better! Leave the stuffy PC world of "creative expressionism" and relax back into the real gamer's delirium of mindless violence....

I don't know why this reviewer expected this game to completely resemble playing a real guitar, if it did, what would be the point of it, you'd just pick up a real guitar.

Ok, we get it, you can play a guitar, well done. Now review the game based on the game, not on your desire to let everyone know through a game review that you learned the guitar.

Did I mention the guy can play a guitar?

...that because you did not get a grip of this simple game right away, you wanted to smash your living room up with the guitar? I see the Paris Hilton angle here - obviously written by a princess!

Much appreciated, I have just entered the foray into the world of PS2 (having been a PC gamer for years the price of the PS2 has finally come down to a viable level) and a guitarist for about 12 years I have been toying with the idea of getting this "Guitar Hero" game to play around with. The only real exposure I have had with it was the Snickers stage at the Download festival last year on Thursday nght with random members of the crowd going up on stage and trying to jam along to Megadeath and AC/DC and such like.

Needless to say the show was rubbish as all the players was doing was watching the screen monitor in front of them. (It took me about 15 minutes to figure out what was going on).

After reading this I am definately not going to consider such a game as I CAN play Megadeath and AC/DC on a real Marshall with my ESP and it rocks far more than a Playstation simulator could ever do.

Thanks

Guitar hero is nothing else but a bloody dancing game like "Dance Dance Revolution" on the Playstation or the freeware StepMania on the PC.

Use your favorite p2p app, download and watch:

South park - Season 11 - Guitar-queer-o

http://www.tv.com/south-park/guitar-queer-o/episode/1145118/summary.html?tag=ep_list;ep_title;12

I had a big big big laugh watching this episode.

"It's just a game!" While your commentary makes valid points, and I've felt the same way myself playing it, your review is like a fighter pilot whining about a video game experience not being the same as really being up there. I played GH III over the US Thanksgiving holiday, and while it's nothing like playing a guitar, it is addictive and fun--and what other game lets you listen to classics while participating to some degree--even if it is more like a glorified version of tapping your toes than actually playing... I think the ultimate satire can be found in the South Park episode where a talent scout recruits the boys to play Guitar Hero professionally.

Agreed that the time wasted on this game could be better spent learning to really play an instrument. As could time playing just about any video game be better spent on something more 'productive.'

As a mediocre guitarist myself - I can strum a few chords, play a few songs and occasionally manage a solo - I have to say I find Guitar Hero to be pretty easy. I have no idea whether my guitar 'skills' help this or whether I just 'get it' in the same way that I have no idea whether if I bothered to practice by real axemanship every day I would be the next Slash. I was playing it last night with a couple of musicians (an oboist and a trombonist) who didn't seem to manage at all well with it so I was assuming it was my guitar experience which was carrying me through.

I guess Guitar Hero is to guitar what Dance Dance Revolution is to dancing. It's guitar music - the buttons you have to press change as the notes change, although granted not necessarily in the same way as the real world - but like DDR it's only guitar (or dancing) in the broadest sense of the term. What it is, though, is a lot of fun for a bunch of people with alcohol in their veins looking for a way to liven up a party and that's really all it ever pretended to be. It won't turn you into Slash - even if you beat him in the head-to-head - but it will give a you a certain amount of hand-eye and left-right coordination and help with pattern recognition and useful skills like that.

the authors got this about right - if you are a guitarist then it just 'doesnt work' as the skillsets dont match. if you are a bassist or drummer then it does match a little better (one facet of rock band is that the drumming can help you to become a drummer). however, you CAN play along with the music rather than the exact timing of the notes - you simply need to visit the preferences and change the timing - something store demos wouldnt be setup for. strangely GH also doesnt play as well as a party game - either people are put off by perceived requirements or nuances - singstar, dance dance revolution, mario party or Wii sports are far more favourable in a party session. (heck! even ISS pro or FIFA stand more chance of screentime than GH) - whether the same is true for a more inclusive game - Rock Band - is still to be seen by myself. however, I wouldnt be surprised if a more 'involved' guitar game that is evolved wont turn up - one that interfaces with a real guitar - the PS3 and xbox 260 both have the required power. would it be as successful as the 'Simon says, plastic gibson with 5 happy coloured buttons' gaming? I dont know.

but lets face it. the best games arent usually the ones with super realistic graphics that mimick the real world as best they can - a level of abstraction is required to make them more popular. plastic 5 buttons might just offer that abstraction....

I can't believe in this article you would go as far aa comparing this to a real guitar experience. I myself am a guiarist but I know that this game is aimed at a younger gaming audience. Would you try to compare the violent game Manhunt or Grand Theft Auto to real life? No, because it is a fantasy world. This game is based at kids and maybe adults just seeking to have fun. Not hardcore guitarists.

-Prem

Just the other day I stuck my Halo3 disk in my 360 and jumped straight in to a level on the campaign that I just can't get past. It's not that it's too difficult, it's just not 'real' enough. Every time Master Chief unleashes a barrage of pink death from a needler I'm just left feeling flat. Without the kick that you get from the real thing I just feel like an idiot pretending to save the world.

It was the same when I was playing Crackdown. There I was leaping from building to building high above the carnage I'd just created on the streets below and all I could think was what a shame it was that so little attention to detail had went into my reloading technique. I mean, the last time I reloaded a bazooka whilst perched atop a billboard I very nearly fell off and there was just none of that excitement in the game.

Oh, wait.. that's right... it was a game and I didn't really expect it to resemble real life.

It seems a little bizarre that the main complaint here seems to be that pushing the six plastic buttons on the scaled down, plastic guitar-shaped controller in Guitar Hero III isn't actually the same thing as playing a real guitar with its six strings and no buttons.

Just a thought.. Is it possible that the game could be a gateway into music? The South Park episode is pretty funny, but here's the deal, if the Moe and Rons of the world can make a case for violent games leading to violent real world behavior, then couldn't a guitar game of huge popularity lead to real world musicians? And what better way to keep classic rock alive than getting a whole new generation excited about the same songs and listening to them over and over again?

And if the Moe Rons are correct about violent games, then it is a great game just by virtue of keeping kids off the hardcore stuff... Of course, I have never hit anyone in anger... And I am all about the FPS, but what do I know?

The "musician" "journalist" had an opportunity to talk about how this game could be very positive in reviving music in a way that has been missing for quite some time in modern teenagers and blew it... Guess it is better to bash the game and have kids listening to (c)rap music instead.

You completely missed the point of the game didn't you.

Nobody ever claimed Silent Scope was meant to simulate being a police marksman did they?

It's a rhythm game (so yes it requires hand eye coordination) with a guitar shaped controller. That's it.

If you play guitar you should have the pluck+fret action down (which people can find hard when learning either GH or guitar), and your pinky will be more adept at blue and orange than mine, but if you can't follow the rhythm game convention of hit the shape when it touches the line, then you're going to suck.

It's more like playing scored air-guitar than anything else, you get to strum along with songs most people could never play and when you perfectly hit the solo, or the song hits a crescendo it feels good.

Rock band multiplies this up by making it a group experience.

What you could do (just had this idea), is produce a USB A/D converter which takes a guitar phono plug and have this produce on the fly midi tracks which are compared in the background to pre-recorded midi track sync'd to the original mp3 which you can hear. Then you could play Real Guitar Hero.

Well if you'll excuse me I have to go write a review of Track and Field where I complain that as an Olympic runner I expected to be better at it...

What a pathetic little dig at China. Would sir prefer a nice Jackson or Kramer? - ASSEMBLED in America during their heyday, but from wood sourced in developing countries and shaped and produced in Japan and Korea.

China rarely employs slave labour. China almost never employs slave labour in association with western companies, and Chinese woodworkers can be as good or better than any "western" craftsmen or manufacturers.

Epiphone's guitars are crap and built to a price; pay more and you get a better model, but personally I can't stand the size of the neck on Gibsons or Epiphones. I have a Chinese-made Lamaq, which is rather good (the designer is a reasonably well-known luthier and player, and designed but did not manufacture the guitar).

Differing local economy does NOT equal slave labour. If you look at the figures for iPod "slave labour" the workers are paid "relatively" on a similar level to people doing the same work in Western economies.

Adnim: The GR 707 is perfectly playable, and if you kicked it into electric mode there's no delay. Whilst you may have found it impossible, you'll find people like Andy Summers had no problems! It was, after all, a real guitar and very well designed. Many, many skilled guitarists have mucked about with mine (now sold) and been utterly impressed with the instrument as an electric guitar, if not the synth system. Also, the GR 707/GR700 wasn't available in 1983 so if you saw one then it was almost certainly not a "finished product".

For unplayable "guitar controllers" the horrible, plastic DG-20 and DG-10 (MIDIless) Casio, which used plastic strings and sensors on the fretboard, demonstrated a genuine attempt to much with the guitar paradigm. And also would be far more suited to an educational, updated Guitar-Hero type package, with tab appearing at the bottom of the screen and sounds depending on correct string/finger placement and timing.

Learn a REAL INSTRUMENT, play it correctly and then join or start a REAL band. So even if you just play at a skanky bar for tips .... you're STILL 100 Times more REAL then the absolute best Guitar Hero / Rock Band player who is STILL in Fantasy-land AND STILL A LOSER like their predecessors who could only play Air Guitar.

See THAT'S the difference between Gamers and those those that take real chances in life, create REAL adventures like rock climbing, fishing, sky diving, join a REAL Army, or play a REAL Instrument.

playing the guitar and reading music are also two separate skills. I play trumpet, piano, drums and other stuff. I also read music fairly well. I can play guitar hero just fine. Reading music tends to help you with the guitar hero skills because your hand-eye coordination tends to be a bit tighter. Playing guitar is a hand-hand skill. How many guitarists do you know that actually read music?

Just because you suck at a video game doesn't mean you need to bash the game.

I can fix a leak just fine but that doesn't automagically mean I can rescue a princess.

Get over yourself and stick to solitaire.

I sincerely hope that I am not like the reviewer, when I am fifty years old.

After a hard week of immoral salesmen, incompetent project managers, and incorrect products, I really need the soothing glow from a BFG round!

Slash? Who's Slash? There was this Guns 'N' Roses guitarist who was like a LEGEND, man, but no way would he ever sell out and put his name to some commercialised plastic guitar simulator....

If I find myself with some time on my hands, I certainly won't be wasting it on learning guitar, drums, piano, or any other musical instrument where it takes years of practice to become merely mediocre.

Instead, I'll be coding, riding my motorcycle, or hey, maybe playing a fun game with a couple of friends. And I won't be worrying over if it's a real guitar & drum set, or if there are actually aliens coming to invade the Earth. Imagine that.

you're kidding, right?

BTW GHIII on the wii rocks!

The game is about rhythm not notes. So, although he is right to note that you don't need to listen to the music and can look at the screen - as he also noted when he tried to play the game and couldn't, that doesn't actually work very well as a strategy.

To play the hardest pieces on the highest level won't be achieved by watching the screen and trying to press the buttons as the coloured circles fly past the bottom. If he tried to do that no wonder he struggled.

You need to learn the buttons and play them in rhythm, which is a question of listening to the music as you play. If you play in a band you must have played in time with the others? You still need to be able to see of course - because you need to learn the "notes" - but once you've learnt them - and most of the pieces are rock, so it's the usual intro, verse, chorus, verse, solo, ending repetitive stuff, it's not random button presses like a dance mat, you can play without looking...I suspect most will be somewhere inbetween, they'll know the piece well enough that a glance at the screen will remind them of a much larger section than "which button is about to reach the bottom?" but they might not remember the piece without any visual cue at all.

If you play in time, play relaxed and know the song, there's no sense of rushing or of trying to anticipate when and what to press next - at which point what looks incredibly complicated and would have someone with lesser skills frantically struggling to "keep up" and hit the correct buttons, becomes easy and you start to notice that, far from having to rush, you have more time than you imagine. Some aspects of that are the same as playing real music on a real instrument.

Of course, GH3 doesn't ask that you play the notes well, there's no tone to worry about and there isn't a variety of technique either.

It seems that the author, [and several of the guitarists commenting] merely hoped that they might excel at GH because they played guitar and then, when that fails, decide that it's not the same skill set - moreso when the author decides his guitar training make him suck more than most at GH3.

Talk about making an excuse for not being able to do something :) "It's because I'm too good you see...if I wasn't I'd be much better" <g>

I wonder if there's some green-eyed envy here too. When the article starts with the suggestion that the players should all be embarrassed playing in public. I note folk that can play the hardest pieces on GH3 seem to get some positive attention when they play in stores or at xbox events [not the least from people who have played it and see that it requires skill to do well]

The kind of attention that an average run-of-the-mill guitarists probably won't get. [although guitarists with chops still do....a pity then if the author's training in the blues scale now make playing like Steve Vai and Dragonforce much more difficult than for a non guitarist like the ones you get shredding on youtube? <g>]

The idea behind the game is to allow people to go through the motions of playing along with their favourite songs. I'm sure if it were so realistic that a guitarist of 40 years would find their real-life skills utilised, the rest of the non-musician population would be alienated.

I play the guitar, have done for 7 years. I also play the drums. I had a go on the drum version of the game in the US and lo and behold, being a drummer gave me no head start on the 8 year old who tried it out after me in the shop. And that's exactly how it should be: it's a game.

Do you need to be a racing driver to play Gran Turismo? Do you need to have been in the SAS to appreciate Call of Duty? No. The purpose of computer games is to give you the experience of some activity without actually exposing you to all the (often) gory details. If the author of this article would prefer a game with the challenge "hit all the notes in the aeolian mode to continue!" then he should write one, and see how it fares against GH3; not well, I'll bet.

In any case, don't worry that your guitar skills aren't immediately transferrable to this game. I'm sure that by following the same logic, you can also immediately play the bass, banjo, sitar, ukulele, or kantele. Go for it.

I been to more than a few party's in the last month and all have had a version or other of this game. The girls DO wait for a turn, along with the boys.

Myself I haven't tried it, not my sort of game, I watch for a while but think if I turned the music off looks like a shooting aliens game.

blip blip blip blip whooo whooo

What a stupid article. Well I've got news for you, no game is like the real thing be it Guitars, Racing, or War. Playing Colin McRae Dirt is not like driving a rally car around a forest track. Playing F1 is not like racing around silverstone, playing Manhunt is not like running around a street with an axe. Playing Guitar Hero III is not like playing a guitar..

That doesn't prevent any of them from being entertaining, and just because its not a real guitar doesnt make it any more ridiculous than playing any other game with a plastic controller.