| Frodaddyg said: The difference I see is this: Neversoft is a game developer. Harmonix is a MUSIC game developer. The Harmonix team has a definite feel for what makes a music game great, and then more specifically, what kind of songs fit that mold well. Neversoft inherited a powerhouse franchise, and hasn't really done much to make it their own. They put out an unremarkable sequel in GH3, and then Aerosmith, which may be better, but I really have no interest in owning or playing a primarily Aerosmith-oriented game. Now, they're basically "borrowing" the gameplay (to put it kindly) from Harmonix again, but haven't addressed the issues I would have focused on, which would first and foremost be making the songs feel like they play correctly. As I said, I've only played on song that overlapped between the games, but the GH:WT version didn't seem nearly as in sync with the tune of the song as I played it. That isn't really an "extra", that's a core mechanic of the gameplay, and it very well may not match up to the standards of the Rock Band games. The way it feels to me, when I'm playing the Rock Band games, I feel like I'm playing the songs. When I've played Neversoft's Guitar Hero 3, I just felt like I was playing a game. I'm not sure if GH:WT has done a whole lot to change that feeling I get, but I'll know for sure when I pick it up in the next day or two. The Metroid comparison doesn't really hold much water. If there was a different game called Betroid Mime that played similarly, came out a year before MP2, and improved and expanded on everything from the original MP, then yes, there would be a comparison. If MP2 didn't match up to the additions of that imaginary game, then a harsh scoring would be completely justified. But, as it turns out, MP2 really only had MP1 as a point of comparison, as opposed to GH:WT and Rock Band, where one is basically mimicking the other step for step. Neversoft saw the huge problems people had with the first Rock Band, and could have avoided many of them, like the flubby band management, and didn't do so. That's either a result of trying to do too much, or just not noticing an obvious problem. Either way, it can hurt the end product. |
For the drums, I feel the opposite. The fills in GH:WT are far more satisfying because I feel like I'm doing real drum fills, not an approximation. The ergonomics on the GH:WT drum kit are so much better as well.
I think there are positives and negatives for each game. There are some things that really bug me in RB2 and likewise in GH:WT. For example, the practice mode in RB2 doesn't play the real music. But the practice mode in GH:WT doesn't give you as many slow down options. To be quite honest, both games kind of fail in the practice department since you can't specify specific measures to work on. It's quite frustrating to have a problem with two measures and you have to play an entire section just to practice a 2 second fill.
