Rock Band vs. Guitar Hero

This week, during the JCR podcast, we decided that rather than a single review...it would be a better idea to compare two very similar games. I'm sure many people out there have invested many hours into one or the other, if not both. They are both certainly great games, yet people waste numerous hours debating over which is superior. It was our intention to see if there were any truth to these claims, or at least attempt to find what it comes down to. This week's Podcast review was on two video game series giants- considered by many to be legendary...Rock Band, vs Guitar Hero...


Guitar Hero:

Some would say that Guitar Hero was the Original. Created in 2005 by Harmonix (who would later create Rock Band in 2007) and Red Octane, it soon became a staple in Rhythm games. Though it may not have been the first to bring a whole band to the screen, it surely boasted its accuracy towards the instruments they mimic, which becomes increasingly apparent with each following release. A few examples of this are the open strum function, the slide function, and the tap function released in GH: World Tour, which was also the first of the series to allow an entire band to play, much like Rock Band. World Tour also released a drum set controller with much more realism than that of the competitor, and for those who are doubtful enough to pass on it, you can actually use a real electronic drum set with this game. The songs per Guitar Hero release vary on a wide array of genres and though they receive criticism for this, it guarantees a good time regardless of what type of music you listen to. The latest installments allow all four players to be whatever instruments they choose to be, whether they want a full band, or four vocalists. I personally have always wanted to watch four drummers go at it at once. With all these strengths, it's close to perfect. The only thing that the series lacks is the ingenuity within the vocals system. Guitar Hero is perfect if you like singing along, but if you wish to really be the singer, you have to go in a different direction...

Rock Band:

Though Rock Band may not specifically share every strength that Guitar Hero does - if any - it does certainly have an enormous strength which Guitar Hero does not. While Guitar Hero does allow you to sing with the singer, and it allows you to lower and raise the volume of both the singer and the vocalist independently, the player's voice will come through muffled at best, still easily overpowered by the vocalist - even with the vocalist's volume all the way down, and the singer's all the way up. Rock Band, however, allows the player to be the spotlight. Though you can't technically mute the vocalist, lowering the vocalist volume can get quiet the vocalist enough to basically hide the voice. Combining this with raising the singer's volume creates what I consider true karaoke because while the vocals are minimized while the singer is maximized...you can hear no other voice than yours. Though Rock Band doesn't have open strum, sliding or tapping, a wide selection of genres, or a realistic - not to mention quiet - drum set design, this karaoke effect raises Rock Band's greatness to equal that of Guitar Hero. So without a tie-breaker, who wins...?

Tie-Breaker:

Spoiler Alert: Guitar Hero Wins. This is because Guitar Hero has one more trick up its sleeve. It's true that Guitar Hero sells towards a huge demographic with massive realism, and diverse song selections, but with World Tour came a greater demographic...Composers - as myself.

JCR's music selection is written entirely by members of it's staff, including myself (For instance, I wrote the JCR podcast theme that plays at the beginning of every episode), so what could make a rhythm game more enjoyable for us than the opportunity to compose or arrange or own fully playable song, let alone track? This can be done in the GH Recording Studio, where you can record real time - which in my opinion, can be a little limiting. I myself prefer to use GHMix, which is program integrated within the game allowing you to write a song note by note, with greater detail. After you feel that you've completed your masterpiece, you have the option to upload it to GHTunes where others can download your song and try it for themselves.

Sadly, the only imperfection Guitar Hero suffers is the problem earlier written concerning the vocalist, disabling it from attaining a perfect score. Keep in mind that the views of this blog is that of the poster (me), and doesn't necessarily represent that of the entire JCR (though in this case, it mostly does), and may not meet your views in the least. This article is written based on experience and opinion. Also understand that none of us have played Rock Band 3 at all, so our views could completely change over night, but for the moment, this is where it stands. If you feel I've missed anything, be sure to make a comment stating your opinion.
                                                                                                         -Written by Jorge Quintanilla

CO, Gunz, Soldier Front

MMOs (Massive Multiplayer Online) are really starting to take over with games starting from Everquest, to the very popular World Of Warcraft. The only problem with these games is that they almost all cost money to buy and you find yourself having to pay hefty subscription fees, but don’t let that discourage you. There are a lot of free - that’s right, free - MMOs out there. Now I’m not talking about the ones on Facebook or other social sites. I’m talking about actual online games you can play with other people across the world, absolutely free.


Conquer Online

One such game is Conquer, an Asian-themed RPG similar to Diablo and Titan Quest. In conquer, there are 6 classes to choose from: the archer, taoist, monk/saint, warrior, ninja and the trojan. The archer is what you would expect an archer to be, a long range attacker that wears light armor. They can grow wings to avoid getting attacked. There's the taoist, which is the mage class of the game. They can either become a water taoist, the healer path, or a fire taoist, the damage dealing path. The warrior is the sword and shield class. They can take the most damage out of all the classes. On the other side of the spectrum is the trojan. They don't have as good of armor as warriors do but they make up for it with the damage they put out and they can duel wield weapons. The ninja has the lowest health and defence of all the classes, but they can use poison to weaken their foes before they strike with their katana, which only weapon they can use. The monk/saint is great at buffing themselves and their allies to deal better damage, while still being able to hold their own with martial combat.

When you reach level 120 you are allowed to reincarnate, which is like doing a new game plus. You can select a new class or keep the one you have already chosen. You get to keep all of your gear and skills and are overall much stronger. You are allowed to reincarnate as many times as you want, but you won't recieve any more attribute points after your second rebirth.


Gunz: The Duel

Another one is Gunz, a third person action game, where the whole point of the game is to just beat the other team with guns, grenades and melee weapons. There is more than one way to dodge in this game. Other then strafing and jumping, you can run on walls and dive in all directions. The more you win the more money you will earn, which you can then use to buy better armor and weapons including twin swords, daggers, rifles and rockets to beat your opponent.


Soldier Front

Solder Front is another free game that I found and it's your everyday first person shooter like Call of Duty, but this game has ZOMBIES! That's right. This game has a zombie mode where one of the players is made a zombie and the others have to try and survive for a set time. The longer you last, the more experience you will earn. Whenever a zombie kills another player they are turned in to a zombie themselves. You also earn points that you can spend on different avatars, weapons and looks for your avatar with each  match. Now I haven't played Solder Front for as long as the other two games mentioned above, but it was still a fun game.

You can find Gunz and Solder Front at ijji.com, but they aren't simply limited to those two games, They also have a ton of free games that are available for download and play, for free. You can find conquer at co.91.com. My name is Rob and hope you enjoyed reading my thoughts and reviews on free mmos and some of the games they include.

-Written by Robert Oftedahl