I've been able to play GH:WT quite a bit so far and have a good idea what I'm in store for.

Here are my initial thoughts as primarily a RB player.

Instruments
GH:WT comes with higher quality instruments than RB or RB2. The drum kit is much smaller than RB's kit and the legs and stand are metal. The legs feel a bit too close together which makes the whole kit to seem slightly wobbly.

Even with just a few hours of game play under my belt, I can already say that I like the GH:WT drums more. The two extra cymbals provide an awesome effect. I thought the cymbals would be GH's way of providing that extra level of "impossibleness" but it turns out that they only make the songs feel more real and even more fun. (I played a number of songs that are in both games and enjoyed them on GH:WT more than on RB)

The guitar is good. Both games are going the route of more realistic plastic instruments. Just beneath the strum bar is the biggest button on the guitar which is "back" and for activating star power. This is a much appreciated addition as I HATE tilting upward to activate.

Back to drums for a sec. Activating Star Power is done by hitting both of the cymbals at the same time. To sum it up, this sucks. It's nearly impossible to activate star power in the middle of a beat without losing your streak. It's maddening really.

Music Creator

This is the feature that they're counting on to set them apart from RB. I played around with it for about an hour and discovered a few things.

1. There's a simplified version with pre-selected beats that you can go into and create songs. There are TONS of options and it wouldn't take too long to make some original songs. I did this but the song didn't feel like my own. It was all put together by the game and I didn't feel any ownership.

2. There is an advanced mode that is exactly how I thought it would be. It puts you 100% in control and gives you so much customization it hurts. Really...my brain hurt just looking at it. The advanced mode is so deep that I would never ever sit down and actually make a full song....It would take HOURS to make a good one and I'm just not going to invest that time.

3. After discovering the advanced mode, I immediately knew that there would be talented gamers around the world creating great songs. Sadly, with no vocals even the best songs will feel a bit empty.

My overall feelings on the music creator is that it will be better than I expected but still fall short of being a game changer.


Career Mode
Rock Band has them beat on this. The career mode in GH:WT does NOT feel as immersive as RB2. I'm a sucker for a game that can make me feel I'm actually inside of the game instead of playing a game. RB makes me feel this way and GH:WT doesn't.


Overall, GH:WT gets the job done. However, if I were to only buy one band game it would be, without hesitation, be Rock Band.

Number 1 reason? DLC. Rock Band has proven that they are dedicated to a constant stream of new songs to download.

Those are my scattered thoughts. I'll likely have more input after some more time with GH:WT.

Anyone else have thoughts on this? :thumbsup:

I will be getting my 360 very soon and I've decided Rock Band 2 is where I'll be living out my rockstar dreams.

I was all for Rock Band... until i heard that WT has "The Joker" By Steve Miller Band.. the greatest song ever.

Quick update....The GHtunes service is up (that's where you DL user created content.) It's GOOD. Very easy to use and the songs download fast!

I downloaded the theme to Super Mario Bros. and Zelda. Very fun.

My 2 year old son was sitting with me as I browsed the song list and we found a twinkle twinkle little star song. That's one of his favorite songs so I downloaded it (took about 4 seconds) and we were rocking out to it!

BIG THUMBS UP to that feature! I can't wait to see what some of these crazy people create.

I'm going for the GH bundle mostly for the drums... It might not seem important to some people but having cymbals won me over entirely. The guitar looks a bit more interesting with the touch thing going on (Although I see it as mostly gimmicky, not sure it will really enhance the gameplay but a nice addition). Lastly I can really see people getting creative with the Create-a-song... I don't think vocals are necessarily needed and I can live without.

I've heard that all the GH peripherals are compatible with rock band... so I might consider buying RB2 but more as an expansion pack. For now, I imagine that GH:WT will satisfy me. I think I've made the right decision.

The only thing I haven't really looked at is the layout... GH3 looked ugly on the screen to me. The star meter bar was ambiguous which really got on my nerves. It's a small point but can still make a difference.I don't care about that background much because let's face it... who looks at that?

The only thing I haven't really looked at is the layout... GH3 looked ugly on the screen to me. The star meter bar was ambiguous which really got on my nerves. It's a small point but can still make a difference.I don't care about that background much because let's face it... who looks at that?

bad news if you hated GH3....GH:WT looks exactly the same as GH3. :undecided: