Gadgetory

this is Ross Miller with the verge and this is the future of guitar hero the acclaimed plastic instrument franchise of last generation is back with Guitar Hero live from the developer behind the more experimental DJ Hero we had a chance to spend some time with an early preview bill of the game set to launch this October and while it's still a Guitar Hero game through and through there are some pretty interesting changes we're talking about let's start with the guitar itself which is probably the most obvious change it feels familiar enough this guitars are want to do there's a neck a body way knee bar and a clicky thing to pluck and rhythm where Guitar Hero live changes things it's what's on the neck instead of the traditional five large buttons in a row Guitar Hero live lays it out in a three by two grid to put in a guitar parlance it's like playing with two strings and three frets if you're used to the older guitar hero or rock band games there's gonna be a bit of a learning curve here sure there's less traveling for your hand you don't have to use your pinky as much and it takes a few songs to adjust to the new style but it quickly become familiar the chords so to speak do feel more like chords but it took us several songs to learn just how to read the new on-screen highways there's now just three such highways instead of five but you now need to kind of keep an eye out for three icons representing the top row buttons the bottom row of buttons or sometimes both eventually it just feels like the same old Guitar Hero you listen to music you see the notes and you finger the controller accordingly Guitar Hero live has two modes there's the more traditional mode now play from a first-person live action onstage point of view thing and then there's Guitar Hero TV which is probably the biggest change here Guitar Hero TV is so important to the game if there's even a dedicated button on the controller itself Guitar Hero TV is a series of 24-hour music video channels yep kinda like the old M TV and you can kind of jump into whichever one whenever you want to play it's not something play local you're actually jumping into a live channel and playing along with other people in real time around the world scores and rankings are shown to the left of the highway over the music video and you can you can kind of jump in and out any time if you stop playing entirely all the kind of on-screen graphics go away and you're basically just left with a music video network while Qatari RTV will offer free channels there will be so-called premium channels that you can unlock either through beating challenges or paying real cash Taher lives reps tell us you'll be able to play most if not all content without having to pay but if you want to expedite your in-game collection there'll be an option to buy that all being said the business model Guitar Hero live like the rest of the game itself is still deep in development not for much longer though Guitar Hero live is coming out October 20th to most major consoles and even select mobile devices