Guitar Hero II coming to Xbox 360

News article from Lik Sang

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RedOctane suprised everyone (not Lik-Sang though) with displaying a Xbox 360 version of Guitar Hero II at the X06 showfloor recently. At the Microsoft event in Barcelona, Spain, the game was already fully playable with an unfinished gray and white Gibson X-plorer prototype guitar controller! Targeted at an early 2007 release, Guitar Hero II for Xbox 360 will apparently include all content from the PlayStation 2 version plus some neat extras on top. Downloadable content has been generally announced, without going into much detail at this point. There might be additional characters, backgrounds and guitars offered for free. Activision said that the game will also pack Achievements, but again, no further info on that just now. There also seems a good chance that online play might find its way into the game. Custom soundtracks seem unlikely, as RedOctane mentioned before that they won't permit downloadable songs, as not to compromise gameplay quality.



Still, exclusive extra songs that will be made available for download on Xbox Live Marketplace have apparently been confirmed. The guitar prototype seems rather unadorned yet, but the Gibson X-plorer shape sure is a winner. Early hopes for a wireless controller bit the dust already, RedOctane mentioned they'll go for a wired guitar only. Expect higher-res textures, some new characters (e.g. King Kendall and Judy Nails) and some online fluff for this Xbox 360 incarnation of Guitar Hero II.

Rock your PC good: Freetar Hero

Man, you just gotta love homebrew efforts. Particularly so, if it means you get a totally fresh additional features set and can play at absolutely no cost, as in the case of Anton Struyk's Freetar Hero project. Let us give you the glorious gist of it: the author relied on Java coding to expand on the Guitar Hero experience and bring it all to the PC. Taking this to the next level, Freetar comes in two parts: a game portion that's Java webbased and a powerful editor that allows players to create, edit and playback button timings for any song they have on their computer with any gamepad-like device they have connected to their PC. Yes, you heard that right! Supporting file formats MIDI, WAV, OGG, MP3 and WMV currently, you can play, pause, seek and slow down your songs in real-time while you edit, easily create songs, even record tracks! The game portion of Freetar gives you the opportunity to play user-created songs similarly to Guitar Hero. Anton seems in the process now of going the open source route for Freetar, which sure should speed up further improvements to an already fantastic achievement. Please check out the official Freetar Hero site for more info, free downloads and a lively user forum.

As with all rythm games, Freetar Hero is played best if you've got the right tools for the job. All you need to hook up your Guitar Hero SG controller to your PC is the (user recommended) SmartJoy Plus adapter, the perfect solution if you are looking for a high-quality PS/PS2 to USB connection. The affordable Rock Guitar for PS2 works great in combination with the SmartJoy Plus as well, in case you don't own an original SG. Get creative and strive to beat your own high scores on all your favorite songs!

More details at Link above