Guitar Hero: Metallica Slated For 2009
The game has been hinted at for months, including several not-so-subtle hints from Metallica drummer Lars Ulrich. But the above teaser video was revealed in Guitar Hero World Tour and has now made its way as an unofficial announcement. The game has been discussed in Activision board meetings and such, but no official press release or statement has been made regarding the game's specific release date or platforms.
Metallica has improved their reputation with their album, Death Magnetic as well as trying to embrace the web community after the fallout from the Napster incident. Some fans still refuse to be swayed, citing the band's greed overpowering the love and passion for the music and its fans. Metallica has since divorced itself from Harmonix and Rock Band, going exclusive with Activision's Guitar Hero franchise. The reviews for Guitar Hero World Tour show the game is a little rough around the edges, but it still provides that full-band fun. If this new game is anything like World Tour, it should be a blast. The argument of DLC vs. single band titles can be disputed, but Guitar Hero: Metallica should be big.
I still think Activision has a long way to go to catch up with Harmonix in terms of content, note charts, and overall presentation. I have yet to play GHWT, but many critics cite Rock Band as having a better grasp of the genre despite both being great games. Harmonix is also partnering with AC/DC and Wal-Mart to put out an exclusive band game of its own, entitled AC/DC Live: Rock Band Track Pack. With Konami's Rock Revolution panned as a failure, the competition for plastic instrument supremacy continues on.
4 comments:
Metallica could be a great game if done right. Guitar Hero is looks much better than that shooting jeep game Metallica advertised a few years back that was supposed to have their name and music. I don't think that game was ever released.
If they focus on the right catalog of music, this could be really great. I would say anything between Load and St. Anger needs to be out. Playing live versions from the S&M concert could be really fun as well.
Andrew, you're destroying everything good I've said about you with your comment about them needing everything between Load and St. Anger. The correct statement is everything between Kill 'Em All and ...And Justice for All, with the addition of S&M, and Garage Incorporated.
Black, Load, and Reload are the worst albums they ever made, thanks to Bob Rock and the death of their former bassist, Cliff Burton. Garage Inc. is debatable, because really it's just covers, but the songs are still great. St. Anger is terrible, but I think they're /starting/ to come back with Death Magnetic. It has some really great songs, but some parts feel like they're trying to hold on to the same crap they've been doing since the Black album. I don't want to be too critical of the band, because they are trying to bounce back from their downfall on Napster by embracing the Internet a little more and they seem to be taking their music back in the direction that their older albums were going.
I'm really glad to hear the return of Kirk Hammett, as his solos were completely absent from St. Anger. Epic solos were some of my favorite things from the first 4 albums that set them apart from Metallica's later works. The songs after Justice grew shorter and less emotional, being only about 1/4 or 1/2 the length of songs on previous albums. With Death Magnetic, I'm happy to see the return of songs with substance, rather than music that's no different from all of the other pop rock out there today.
I'm sad to see that Metallica isn't embracing Rock Band as well as Guitar Hero, mainly because I don't want to spend more money on another band game, but with the songs that have come out so far, they tend to be ones that I'm not really interested in anyways. When I see songs like Creeping Death on the setlist, I'll be upset.
Actually, I worded that a little ambiguously. I meant that everything between Load and St. Anger should not be in the game. I actually think Black is not a bad album, but they just took more strides to be a little more mainstream and change their style since Cliff Burton was gone. I will agree about S&M, but I haven't really heard much from Garage, Inc.
I'm not going to beat a dead horse about Metallica, but I will agree with your assessment of the band. Given the brief teaser trailer, they will most definitely focus more on their older stuff. They know their recent stuff, save Death Magnetic is not well-liked. I just hope they do more for the game than the cheap cash-in of Aerosmith.
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