Guitar Hero II on PlayStation 2

***wraggster*** · October 9th, 2006, 20:34

News article from Lik Sang

Ready for that explosive encore? You sure owe it to your audience, who is still waiting for you to return to the stage, bang your head like a heli on a spiral down and make that guitar scream wildly. After the massive success of Guitar Hero in 2005, a music game where the controller resembles a real Gibson and you follow on-screen icons in rythm to spot-on covers of licensed, legendary rock songs, you can now dedicate yourself to a career in the rockstar biz once more. Guitar Hero II, up for a release on November 7th, features a totally new and expanded track list of over 55 tunes, more venues and fresh modes. There's multiplayer co-op for example, which allows gamers to opt for either lead, rythm or bass this time, taking on different sections of the song simultaneously. Again, you'll start your rock career playing small clubs and bars, but if you play well you will soon work your way up to stadiums and arenas. If the promise of livin' a rock dude's life out loud, with all the sheer attitude, charisma and stage presence action that entails, means anything at all to you, then better treat yourself to Guitar Hero II; it's sweet, and by that we mean totally awesome. Hell yeah.

Guitar Hero II is on track for a November 7th release, in just about a month from now. Up for pre-order are two versions, the bundle pack, which includes a new red version of the original SG guitar controller, shipping for just US$ 79.90 and a game-only copy for US$ 59.90 (this version qualifies for our Free Shipping Worldwide offer). If you've got the SG from the prequel still lying around, you will be pleased to know that it works of course fine with Guitar Hero II as well. For those who would like to get their mates together for some hot band action (co-op lead, rythm and bass guitar), we offer the cool Rock Guitar for only US$ 28.90, which does a perfect job just like the RedOctane one. The whammy bar comes off as a bit less springy here, while the controller feels solid, with tight, smooth buttons and also includes an adjustable strap.

Guitar Hero: A Music Title to Excite the Masses

Guitar Hero can rightfully be called a gaming phenomenon. According to John Tam (executive producer at RecOctane), in the beginning of development there were just 8-bit visuals, where you hit a note to score a point, still they knew from the start that they were on to something big. Teaming up with Harmonix, who committed all the Karaoke Revolution for Konami, as well as other music games for Sony Computer Entertainment of America (including Frequency and Amplitude), was the next step. Pretty soon after the first Guitar Hero hit the streets, the game took off and still enjoys an immense popularity with gamers, that should only grow with the imminent sequel. The game has been swamped with awards, from IGN's "Best Music Game of The Year" and "Best Licensed Soundtrack" to "Outstanding Innovation in Gaming" and "Outstanding Achievement in Game Design" given to the developers at the D.I.C.E. Summit's Interactive Achievement Awards in Las Vegas, to only name a few. Even just last week, a prestigious BAFTA award was scooped in Britain.

In order to see how widespread the excitement gets, you could just search the video network YouTube with the keywords "Guitar Hero". A testimony about what the game experience can do to your real life might be just this video, which shows that playing Guitar Hero helps you score with the ladies alright.

If you wondered what after-hours at Lik Sang look like, here it goes. Long Guitar Hero sessions built up our confidence before to a level where we didn't shy away from showing the world that we love to rock (and sport the hair for the job as well!). In case you missed that display of outright guitar-strangling fun, we dare you to watch the following footage of relentless controller and work space abuse:

Guitar Hero II on PlayStation 2: Features

Thank Hendrix, RedOctane and Harmonix are again using famed recording studio WaveGroup for its music production. The huge track list embraces all forms of rock/metal including classic rock, "hair metal", heavy metal, modern rock and alternative. Find perfect covers of Guns 'n' Roses "Sweet Child o'mine", Rage Against the Machine's "Killing in the Name of", "Strutter" by Kiss, Anthrax' "Madhouse", Butthole Surfers' "Who Was In My Room Last Night", Van Halen's version of "You Really Got Me" and Black Sabbath's "War Pigs" for example (for the latest and most accurate tentative list published so far, head to SPOnG). In-game you choose from multiple rock characters and jam at concert venues that grow in size as your rock career progresses. Multiplayer modes are cooperative, pro-face off, and face off, letting two Guitar Heroes conduct their own symphonies of destruction. Dual Shredding sounds like an instant classic: while playing lead is still the main drive of the game probably, having a go at rythm and bass guitar (all on separate tracks) is sure to be a blast! To help get you on the way, a new addition is a practice mode, handy if you wanna get some training before your next stage appearance. Called Shred School, this mode gives you a chance to hone your skills on looped sections.

If there's a game that lets being "in the zone" become overly rewarding, it's Guitar Hero II. Back are several difficulty levels, expanded now with the introduction of three-button chords. These generally appear at very powerful and lasting chords and thankfully there are not that many in any given song. Still, hitting these notes right, will render you a hint of what it feels like to be one of the rock gods. Even more so in cooperative mode, there's nothing like nailing your section right, while your buddy is rocking his part: it honestly feels like playing in a band, the best teamwork could ever feel, believe us. Rocking in unison works just like the single-player experience in that you'll fail the song if your performance meter drops too low. Here, you can assign separate difficulty levels for each player. Therefore you can still rock together if one person e.g. plays on Expert and the other on Easy.

Of course you'll have less notes to hit on Easy and you won't score that high, but both players are nevertheless influencing the Rock Meter all the time, being able to help each other through difficult sections of a track. The same holds true for Star Power, where both need to lift their guitars simultaneously to trigger it. Notes from both players go into increasing the score multiplier on top, which resets if someone messes up. Sound plays of course a major part (duh), but let us just emphasize how crisp, deep and flat-out clear guitar magic and all tracks come off. Compared to the impressive prequel, Guitar Hero II delivers a wholesome tribute to what it means to wield a guitar and thunder across the stage, working yourself into a true rockstar frenzy. It's obviously the next best thing to hack at strings in front of freaked-out masses for real. After all orders will be done for the day, November 7th will be a long night of shredding the SG guitar hard at Lik Sang offices for sure.