Seriously, it's something this industry has no concept of and, really, puts gaming in an almost similar position (no pun intended) to the pron industry. Activision have just announced Guitar Hero: Aerosmith. Yep, you read right, Guitar Hero: Aerosmith. We all love the franchise, and last year's GHIII proved Harmonix didn't need to exclusively be at the helm for it to work, but this is just taking it a little far. Due for release in June this year, Guitar Hero: Aerosmith will give players an opportunity to 'relive' the life of this aging band from their first gig to super-stardom. But honestly, who cares? The band do, that's for sure:

"Having a game built around Aerosmith has been a huge honour and really a great experience for us," says Joe Perry. "We've put a lot of ideas into the game so that fans can have fun interacting with our music, getting inside our body of work and learning about the band's history."

Steven Tyler says, "Any band that can go from 'Don’t Want to Miss A Thing' (Aerosmith's #1 smash hit) to the ass-kicking 'Sweet Emotion' to the cheekiness of 'Love in an Elevator,' to the classic ballad 'Dream On' shows why Activision chose us to headline this game based on the diversity of the Aerosmith catalogue. Not only is songwriting a bitch, but then it goes and has puppies."

Perry adds, "On a larger scale, it's cool for us to be pioneers helping to rebuild the music industry through a format like video games. It's great for rock since the record companies are struggling to make sense of how things are changing. Fans want to get and experience music in new formats--and there are going to be some of them who will play the game, then pick up the guitar for real and start bands. It's what's happening now, and it's only going to build more momentum in the future. It's a massive change for the music business."

The real test will be the price-tag on this sucker and if you'll need to buy any extra peripherals to play it (if playing only Aerosmith songs is your idea of a great version of Guitar Hero anyway).

Wow, way to grind the series into the ground. Whats next? Flute Hero: Kenny G?

Fans want to get and experience music in new formats--and there are going to be some of them who will play the game, then pick up the guitar for real and start bands.

... but not really.

It's a fun game, but in the end, I would hope most people pick up a real guitar.

One of my friends completed a Dragonforce song on Expert, close to 100% perfect the other day... yet he won't buy a REAL guitar to learn on.

Guitar Hero is weird, if you're going to dedicate serious hours to a game, you may as well learn the basics of the real instrument.

I think is a better way to get people into bands: http://www.ellaways.com.au/smevents.php?loc=warriors

if they made guitar hero: red hot chili peppers, i'd but it in a flash

just a s*** band aerosmith

Guitar Hero is weird, if you're going to dedicate serious hours to a game, you may as well learn the basics of the real instrument.

I totally agree, i find it a bit weird like that as well.. I don't mind playing it every now and then, but if i was going to play it hours on end, i'd much prefer to be playing the real thing.

Also, if they were going to follow one bands lifetime, i just think something like the Beatles would have been better. But that's my opinion.. and i still don't think its a great idea.

people probably don't start out thinking "this will take as much time as it would to get into real guitar" though do they?

I'd have thought it'd start out like any other game, but then some people get right into it to the point where maybe they have spent enough time getting good at it that they might've been able to make decent strides into learning guitar in the same time

of course, a lot of people don't want to play real guitar, they're happy to play a game

also it will take a phenomenal amount of time to get awesome at playing a real guitar than it would at Guitar Hero.

I don't see why people are comparing the 2... they are 2 totally different things.

also it will take a phenomenal amount of time to get awesome at playing a real guitar than it would at Guitar Hero.

Given two people who practise the two from scratch for the same duration. One will be able to play the real guitar to some extent, while the other would be owning in a game.

Guess which will get laid? (Hint: not the gamer)

I don't see why people are comparing the 2... they are 2 totally different things.

I don't see why people try to separate the two. They are different yes, but not "totally different". The similarities include GUITAR-LIKE INSTRUMENT, music, timing, coordination. The differences are what fuel the "why not learn a real guitar?" arguments.

last edited by parabol at 16:02:29 18/Feb/08

they are almost totally different
a car is like a guitar too, it has some electrical circuits and some metal components

like dan said in some other thread where this silly discussion took place, guitar hero is closer to whack-a-mole than playing guitar

they are almost totally different

Totally different would be cucumber vs guitar.

a car is like a guitar too, it has some electrical circuits and some metal components

Failed car sarcasm-analogy. A car is not designed, shaped nor meant to represent a musical instrument.

guitar hero is closer to whack-a-mole than playing guitar

I guess if you have fat fingers then it would be :)

Totally different would be cucumber vs guitar.

guitars and cucumbers are both comprised of atoms

Failed car sarcasm-analogy. A car is not designed, shaped nor meant to represent a musical instrument.

guitar-shaped cars are.
it's not failed at all. shaping something like a guitar doesn't make it any more similar in the sense you are implying.

bottom line is it's stupid to say "I don't see why people try to separate the two" when it's completely and utterly obvious.

jims humour surpasses me

I dunno why people spend so much time practising Tekken, you could just go learn martial arts instead. Makes no sense to me at all, the two are pretty much the same thing.

last edited by Khel at 17:37:43 18/Feb/08

You fail Kkel.

I dunno why people spend so much time practising Tekken, you could just go learn martial arts instead. Makes no sense to me at all, the two are pretty much the same thing.

Well that doesn't work Khel. Mashing the pad doesn't take much effort compared to haduken-backward-ninja-flips for realz.

While bashing out a guitarhero takes slightly less exercise then learning the real thing. Also chicks dig dudes who can play the real thing ;)

Pfffttt Guitar Hero has got nothing on Quest for Fame.. First and bestest Aerosmith inspired electronic guitar mimicking game ever! (lol)

shaping something like a guitar doesn't make it any more similar in the sense you are implying.

Hence the rest of my sentence:

"A car is not designed, shaped nor meant to represent a musical instrument."

A guitar-shaped car is just a guitar-shaped car. It's not pretending to be an instrument in any way and there's no actual music involved. Analogy fail.

And tekken, haha. If it had a proper nunchuck controller and punch/glove controllers, then yes you might as well do real martial arts, yes.

I think I'll leave it there. The trolls will get too fat if I continue feeding them.

Guitar-shaped cars are definitely pretending to be an instrument - a guitar. And unless they don't have a stereo there's always music involved even if you don't count the wonderful, wonderful music of their engine.

I think I'll leave it there. The trolls will get too fat if I continue feeding them.

I think it's best if you leave it there too, even if you are dishonest about your reasons - since trying to suggest it's unreasonable to seperate playing real guitars from playing guitarhero, isn't very clever at all.

I dunno why people spend so much time practising Tekken, you could just go learn martial arts instead. Makes no sense to me at all, the two are pretty much the same thing.

Worked for Hunter ... oh wait.

A guitar is a string instrument, the guitar heroes controller uses buttons that send electrical impulses to a machine. Very similar to the untrained eye, but if you look carefully you will see this subtle difference.

Nope, even tried putting them side by side but I'm still not seeing the difference.

Also chicks dig dudes who can play the real thing ;)

Tis true, listen to this man.

Also chicks dig dudes who can play the real thing ;)

Not really :(

I got laid once when I played the Jeff Buckley arrangment of Hallelujah in grade 8, beyond that chicks haven't really fall for the accoustic.

I still pull out the Tears in Heaven for the drunken acccoustic jam, but at best it gets is an "ahhhhh, you're so cute/hot"...

Maybe I'm just ugly :)

last edited by CHUB at 19:59:14 18/Feb/08

well the difference is you can play guitar hero and its fun and easy and it kinda seems like you're making the music.

real guitar takes at least weeks of intense practice n frustration before you can make something that is remotely pleasing to the ear and even then, youve got years before ur good

guitar hero has all these songs people know and love and can easily pick up and f*** with.

Maybe I'm just ugly :)

It could be because you're a dole bludger too.

Just throwing the possibility out there.

guitar hero has all these songs people know and love and can easily pick up and f*** up.

I fixed that for you reload.

with the guitar hero guitar, you can hack it up to become a midi controller... even if it's for s***s and giggles... speaking of, i think i should go give it a try.

i only play guitar hero cos im so f***ing good at it

i dont find it fun at all

got laid once when I played the Jeff Buckley arrangment of Hallelujah in grade 8

yeah priests love their gospel tunes

i don't see why people would play a game imitating aerosmith, why wouldn't they just get collogen injections into both lips & a frontal labotomy do it fo' reals yo. :D

not really a die hard aerosmith fan but i still claim one of the defining moments of my life was seing them live in hydepark

I wish Rock Band was out. God damn we always have to wait ages for stuff to get released here.

At first I thought Aerosmith was a pretty dud pick too, but thinking more about it, I really can't think of any other one band that would be any more appropriate.

-Aerosmith have a massive catalog and history that spans almost 40 years.
-They're still together and touring today with all original key members.
-They have a good variety of different songs.
-They're a guitar driven rock band, kinda important for Guitar Hero.

I'm not much of a fan but I at least appreciate their longevity.

I think it would have been better to pick four or so bands from different rock genres rather than just one, but hey they probably got a sweet deal from Aerosmith for the tunes as it's a massive promotion for them and asif it won't be budget priced like GH 80s was.

Also, caught an interview with Steven Tyler on a recent ep of Henry Rollins' show. The guy's a champ and quite obviously still loves making music, even if a little eccentric.

onya for typing all that out dan, all thoughts that went flying through my head but I'm too lazy to collate them into coherent sentences

real guitar takes at least weeks of intense practice n frustration before you can make something that is remotely pleasing to the ear and even then, youve got years before ur good

False. If you put as much time into it as people do with Guitar Hero, AND if you had someone teaching you as effectively as Guitar Hero teaches you to push buttons, it'd take just hours to play something pleasing to the ear.

I think a Piano Hero game would be fkn awesome, and would most likely end up being an exact replica of playing a real piano so people would learn piano at the same time.

Piano is much easier than guitar.

But you cant whip out a piano around a camp fire and impress the chickies.

haha... totally. Also, air piano looks pretty silly.

I think a Piano Hero game would be fkn awesome, and would most likely end up being an exact replica of playing a real piano so people would learn piano at the same time.

Then people would say playing piano hero is wack a mole with your fingers on keys with timing and has nothing to do with playing a real piano... oh wait

They already have a piano hero type game. Beatmania. Controller it uses is pretty much 7 spaced out piano keys with a DJ style record scratch pad on the side. Hard game too.

EDIT - Offtopic but here is what I mean


last edited by DM at 13:07:13 19/Feb/08

If you had this and a laptop you could easily impress the girls around the campfire

http://www.members.optushome.com.au/gpahl/piano01.jpg http://www.members.optushome.com.au/gpahl/piano02.jpg
http://www.members.optushome.com.au/gpahl/piano03.jpg http://www.members.optushome.com.au/gpahl/piano04.jpg

http://img145.imageshack.us/img145/7376/rockbandfr0.png

rev what's the name of that? You got any links to how much they cost? I could definitely see myself using that at home for recordings...

Also, air piano looks pretty silly.

I BEG TO DIFFER.. a few weekends ago one of my mates got a video of me busting out air piano.. So i refuse to think that i looked silly

So i refuse to think that i looked silly

Post the video and let us be the judge of that.