monitorTHIS! - December 2008/January 2009 - (Page 23)

INSTRUMENTS/GEAR: The guitar from Rock Band 2 is essentially the same Fender Strat with an improved look and strum bar, whereas World Tour’s guitar is larger—almost lifelike— and features a killer touch bar for tapping and note sliding. It’s a sturdier peripheral. Rock Band 2 sports an improved drumset. Quieter. More responsive. The metal kick pedal rules, too. The kits for both games operate similarly. Yet Activision’s set is superior. Designed by professional drummers (Travis Barker, Chad Smith, Stewart Copeland), the velocity sensor, quieter pads, elevated cymbals and closer head assembly are geared towards a more accurate drum experience than Rock Band 2’s newcomer-oriented kit. Both games support “instruments” from previous versions. Whether or not they’ll be swappable between games and systems is unknown. Winner: Guitar Hero World Tour * For $300, plus $50 for an extra cymbal, you could go “premium” with the Ion Drum Rocker for Rock Band 2. The kit is ultra-real, but pricey and geared towards actual drummers rather virtual skinbashers. DIFFICULTY: Rock Band had difficulty issues. In fact, the bass and drums lines were mindlessly easy, presumably for newcomers. Rock Band 2 ups the difficulty level—the inclusion of a No Fail mode is an indicator—but World Tour is by far the more challenging game out of the gate. Of course, both games feature necessary “fun” songs— can’t imagine mom conquering Rock Band 2’s “Painkiller” or Guitar Hero World Tour’s “One Armed Scissor.” Winner: Guitar Hero World Tour NOTE HIGHWAYS: Both games use the same note highway construct. Three parallel highways for guitar, bass and drums on the bottom and one perpendicular highway on top for vocals. Differences are minor, but do affect the overall fun factor. World Tour has a longer note highway than Rock Band 2. This could translate to easier gameplay. It doesn’t. For example, Motörhead’s “Overkill” is “note crowded,” so the steady stream of colored “note buttons” is more reactionary than anticipatory. The negatives, however, affect the two games equally. Note transcriptions aren’t accurate. Notes are oddly missed. Notes are unnecessarily added. Presumably the omissions and inclusions are for solely for impact, but musicians looking for accurate transcriptions could get frustrated. Additionally, the vocals aren’t too sensitive to pitch. Injured seals— think American Idol contestants—easily get by with 90% in both games. Winner: Guitar Hero World Tour ONLINE: Both World Tour and Rock Band 2 support online play. There’s a difference, however. Rock Band 2’s Tour Mode is kinda rad, but we’re left wondering why online play is limited to a career rather than head-to-head—think FPSstyle play—competition. This is where World Tour rocks. You can assemble bands (up to four players), go online and battle. Winner: Guitar Hero World Tour BAND MODE: World Tour is more linear than its competitor. Gigs are of two or more songs and then it’s onto the next venue. In Rock Band 2, challenges come in similar form (gigging), but there are additional non-linear adventures in Tour Challenge to round out the experience. Winner: Rock Band 2 ORIGINALITY: This is a moot point. Both World Tour and Rock Band 2 stem from companies working together rather than against. Harmonix was the first to add drums and vocals to the mix. However, World Tour features better “instruments” thanks to RedOctane’s peripherals experience. Winner: None END RESULT: Rock Band 2 certainly has an edge in key areas (song selection!), but World Tour is a more complete package. The game plays better, the peripherals are sturdier, off/ online battles are supremo and customization (Music Studio and GHTunes, for example) is nearly limitless. Winner: Guitar Hero World Tour rock band 2 is available now for X360, PS3, PS2 and Wii from Harmonix. Guitar Hero World Tour is available now for X360, PS3, PS2 and Wii from Activision. [ dec 08 / jan 09 + monitorthis! + 23 ]

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