It was built from he ground up for the Wii? It's not just a PS2 this time around? That's great, and definitely gives one hope for World Tour being much more impressive.

Any ideas of DLC?

Not in Aerosmith.  In World Tour.

Thanks James, it was probably there and I was just being a lazy bitch...

Wii owners haven't really missed out on much. Activision has barely even supported DLC with the versions of Guitar Hero III that are capable of it. They're too busy making ridiculous amounts of money off of those $70 guitar controllers to worry about kickbacks from additional songs.

I love GHIII and I'm desperate for new songs so I'm at least going to rent this one.

Does anyone really care about the improved graphics or animation of guitar hero?  I sincerely doubt it.  New playable characters mean dick in a game where YOU are the player.  All it needs on the screen is the basic frets coming at you with some kind of design to make it look snazzy.

It is all about the music, I wish they would just release the exact same game as the previous Guitar Hero with new songs.  No one will care about the graphics in this game, they should purposely be kept as simple as possible to keep the game price down (or to make more money).

Rant aside I think the new Guitar Heroes based entirely off huge bands is cool.  I'm not a big Aerosmith fan but I like the idea and the upcoming band titles that are sure to come.  This makes me think that in the future whenever you buy an album the songs will come with a video game version that will let you play it on whatever guitar game is the biggest.

Well, it'll be good if you're not looking at a blotchy band around your frets.

Which brings me to another point in that I won't mind some snazzy sprites replacing the 3D.

SixthAngel: I care about what the characters look like. To a further extent however, I'm much more excited about customizing characters in Guitar Hero: World Tour. Being able to connect with a character and make it your own is kind of the point of most video games, even ones with simple and repetitive gameplay like Guitar Hero.

The problem I have with these band-centric installments is that they'll grow stale quickly. There are plenty of songs that I dislike in every Guitar Hero, but with something like this you're going to get bored even if you love the band. There's just no real variety. Also, this kind of things should be DLC, not a separate title. For a game like Guitar Hero, it makes much more sense to nail the mechanics and then just release individual songs to integrate within. Nothing is different enough from game to game to warrant having to switch discs in and out. Now with World Tour, that's obviously different. I can only hope that they actually try supporting DLC (not just having it as a bullet point on the back of the box) when that time comes.

But in guitar hero you aren't controlling an on screen character like in other games.  In guitar hero you are playing the guitar, it is in your hand.  If I want to play the guitar over my head I hold the guitar over my head.  The onscreen character basically plays along while you are the real guitar player (hero) because you have a guitar that lets you do any of the moves or notes you want.  The characters onscreen are just there to give you a more exciting way to see how well YOU are playing.

I do think a band centric game can get old if you aren't a huge fan but it just makes me think of the future.  A cheap guitar game that holds MP3 like files that let you play along and make your own "play"lists.  You make your own playlist and then play through the songs as they come.

Last weekend I actually really enjoyed Guitar Hero for the first time.  Well actualy it was Rock Band but I was playing by myself with just the guitar so it's really the same thing.  Turns out the trick was to jump right into the harder songs.  Previously I had started on the easy ones and got bored.  But of course!  As a guitar player the fantasy element wasn't there because if I want to play a Ramones song I can learn it in five minutes.  But doing a note perfect Iron Maiden solo actually is a fantasy because it would take a lot of practice for me to do that.

So now I'm interested but there's a problem.  Looking through the song lists no one game will satisfy me.  No matter what I'll get some crap I never want to play.  Meanwhile however some awesome I want is only on the first game or Rocks the 80's which are only on the PS2.  But I want to play this on the Wii which only have Guitar Hero 3 and presumably all future titles.  And then of course there are the songs on Rock Band I like which requires a different game from a different company.

So they release these band specific expansions but really what I want is an iTunes kind of setup where I get to customize what I want with all the tracks from previous Guitar Hero games available.  So I can get all the Iron Maiden tracks but none of the Linkin Park.  Now they have DLC but that's not enough.  I want one Guitar Hero game that comes with 30 free downloadable tracks and I can pick whatever I want and then anything else you can charge me for.  Then instead of sequels there are just new tracks released to the store.

Really this is how TONS of games should work if the basic mechanics are such that sequels are just expansions with no new gameplay.  I want this kind of setup for DDR.  I think sports games should have this setup.  Something like Tony Hawk for example would benefit from being able to just download new courses as one sees fit.  And this doesn't have to be free.  This is World of Warcraft kind of money.  People will pay regularly to update their game.  It also will keep a game relevent for YEARS.  No need to develop a sequel when you can just add a few new songs every once in a while.

Now they'll probably abuse this.  But for something like Guitar Hero it's really the way to go.

Though if Activision releases Guitar Hero I and II on the Wii and the insturments for the upcoming World Tour are compatible with Rock Band then that will probably suit my needs enough.  But in the future this setup is perfect for any "ain't broke, don't fix it" game design that is so solid changing it will ruin it.

To be fair, I could probably learn a Ramones song in five minutes, and I've never held a real guitar in my life.

And this is why I never want to see Rock Band 2.
Rock Band (at least for 360 and PS3) has the potential to become that gaming platform that you dream of. Yes, you are stuck with the 58 on disc songs forever, but you can really customize what songs you want via DLC. Do you want one Jimmy Buffet song, an Iron Maiden song, Weezer and some Sabbath? So be it.

And although Activision has been (to my understanding) coy with their upcoming "GHTunes" for GHIV, I think they're thinking the same thing.

I doubt they make as much money off of DLC as they can by selling a sequel, or else they'd wouldn't bother with sequels.

DLC is a relatively new concept though for videogames.  A big reason why annual updates disguised as sequels are common is because for the first 25 years or so of console gaming that was the only option.  If both series just release sequels I'm sure the status quo will remain.  But if one of them introduces full downloadable custom song selection the other will be forced to follow.  Or if a third company introduces the same thing.  For a game like this it's really the ideal way to do it and it really just needs one game to do it and and it will be an expected feature.