At an event at the Best Buy theater in New York today, Activision announced the next game in the Guitar Hero series, Guitar Hero: Live .
Unlike Rock Band , which is building off the previous Rock Band and Guitar Hero formula, Guitar Hero: Live is a completely new game with a completely new peripheral. Instead of a guitar with five fret buttons on the neck, Guitar Hero: Live both simplifies and complicates the formula a bit. Now there are six fret buttons, but they are arranged in three rows of two. You never have to hit the same button on the same row, but you do have to frequently switch back and forth between the buttons of a row in a song. This means that, while the game essentially is only using three buttons, you get this feeling of bending your fingers to make chords that you didn’t in previous versions of Rock Band.
The game also changes up your perspective a bit. Instead of watching a band perform, you now experience the game in first person. If you do well, the audience and your band members will cheer you on. If you do poorly, your band members will get upset at you and tell you to get it together as the audience boos you.
The game will also take on downloadable content in a different way. Instead of downloading songs, instead you’ll tune in to music channels, always playing different songs at different times. You’ll play the song alongside everyone else online and can compare your performance to theirs. There will be some free channels and some premium channels, but pricing has not yet been revealed.
We will bring you more information about Guitar Hero Live as it becomes available.
Source: Guitar Hero Event