Who could have forseen this one in a crystal ball?  The battle of the gaming bands coming at us from every direction.  This holiday season, you might be faced with the daunting task of choosing the right one.  Have no fear, here’s a little ray of light on the Guitar Hero: World Tour (GH:WT) part of your choice.

Activision was kind enough to invite us to have an early look at the game, and let me tell you it shaping up to be a party hit.  Now, I’ll be the first to admit that I’ve haven’t played Rock Band or Guitar Hero as much as most other gamers. Why?  Family and babies my friends, and the lack of real estate in my house.  But, none the less, I’ll do my very best to educate you on what sets Guitar Hero from the others.

When Spaceghost2K and I arrived at the event, this was set in what looked like a small bar with recording studios.  A bar with a recording studios?  I personally wasn’t sure about it either.  But, we were there to see GH:WT.  So, it didn't really matter.  We proceeded to hop from one recording studio to the other where they had various versions of the game setup.

Going though this event preview of GH:WT without mentioning Rock Band will be nearly impossible because one is like the other and it almost like they feed off one another.

At the event the various skus were present, the Nintendo Wii, PS3 and our well loved Xbox 360 version.  Let me first start off by saying they all look the same, and play the same.  With the small exception of the video quality of the Wii.  But, we all know that it just can’t complete visually.  It’s almost like they wanted your experience to be the same, whether you played it on a Xbox 360, PS2 or the Wii.

The instruments of GH:WT are completely new, except for the guitar (Why mess with perfection), it got another set of buttons near the strum bar for those kill solos.  The instrument that stood out were the drums, they are very different from Rock Band’s (old ones)  and a lot quitter, and they just seem more natural.  The overall package of GH:WT is well put together.

 

As we made our rounds to the various setups, familiar songs started to blast their way through the venue. Songs like.. Micheal Jackson’s “Beat it” (which was an event favorite), Bon Jovi’s “Living on a Prayer”.  Being a child of the 80’s these song were like an old high school dance.  Just without the pimples, and chicks saying "no"!  Other recognizable tracks included…

• Beastie Boys - “No Sleep Till Brooklyn”
• Billy Idol - “Rebel Yell”
• Blondie - “One Way or Another”
• The Cult - “Love Removal Machine”
• The Eagles - “Hotel California”
• Joe Satriani - “Satch Boogie”
• Survivor - “Eye of the Tiger”
• Ted Nugent - “Stranglehold”

The game will host a final count of 86 songs, and they are all master recordings in the final version of the game.

I personally think that GH:WT will smoke the competition by allowing player to create their own songs and share them with friends via Xbox Live.   Although I didn’t absorb the entire song creation process, from what I gathered it was going to be fairly easily.

Not only did the songs sound great. The developer Neversoft seemed to have taken the visuals to the next level by having real time renders of Ted Nugent and Sting!  On the song "Stranglehold", Ted Actually comes out on a bull, like he did back in the old days!  It will be the attention to details that will set this game apart from Rock Band.

As much I asked around for information on downloadable content for the game. Nobody could confirm what was gonna be released.  They did say there will be lots of it.  But, my guess is that if you look at the rate of stuff that’s available now for the GH2 and 3, you can pretty much guess they will release a crap-load of content on Martketplace.

Look for Guitar Hero: World Tour on October 26th, 2008!  And it should give Rock Band 2 a run for it’s money!