Guitar Hero Van Halen | Review

Troy Benedict Says "Who are these metrosexual rock stars on my TV, and what have they done with Van Halen??!"

Those were my first words as the digital representations of Van Halen took the stage in Guitar Hero Van Halen.

It was an awkward first impression, especially for a casual Van Halen fan like me who last saw photographs and videos of David Lee Roth and Eddie Van Halen many years ago. I totally expected Neversoft, the game's developer, to be overly kind with regards to the band's appearance, but when Eddie took the stage he very well could have been some young, hip guitarist from a teen drama on the CW. In other words, Van Halen, as a group looked like "Young Van Halen" as if they somehow time traveled from the late 70s, met up with a stylist from 2009, but had the vocal stylings and talents of "classic Van Halen" complete with with Diamond Dave's signature high-pitched shriek and Eddie's guitar thrashings.

However, as the classic saying goes, "Don't judge a book by it's cover." Regardless of what I think about "Young Van Halen's" overly youthful appearances, the Van Halen tracks are pure rock awesomeness and are a blast to play!

Outside of the exclusive Van Halen tracks and their digital on-stage representations, Guitar Hero Van Halen is pretty much your standard run-of-the-mill Guitar Hero game. It also features support for full band kits: guitar, bass, drums, and microphone.

The track list for GHVH consists of a little more than 25 David Lee Roth-helmed tracks, primarily from the late 70s and early 80s, like Panama, Jump, and Hot for Teacher. The rest of the lineup, consisting of about 20 songs, is a medley of other "Guest Acts" like Queen, Judas Priest, Weezer, Deep Purple, Blink-182, and Billy Idol.

Being a casual fan of Van Halen, I found myself enjoying or at least recognizing a majority of the songs offered, and couldn't help but smile when rocking out to some of Van Halen's best music. I even thought that a great deal of attention was put into squeezing David Lee Roth's body language and personality into the on-screen character, so much, in fact, that I couldn't help but laugh seeing Diamond Dave's mannerisms, out of the corner of my eye, while playing songs like "Jump" and "Hot for Teacher."

While I felt that the majority of Van Halen songs were strong and fun to play, the guest act songs felt like nothing more than audio filler. Maybe it's just me, but I have issues with songs from the last couple of years being featured alongside classic rock songs. Maybe it's just me being out of touch with today's young, hip acts, but I think there should be a 5-10 year waiting period before a song can be included in a Guitar Hero/Rock Band game. The way that Guitar Hero is structured, I'm pretty sure that it's possible to focus on playing only Van Halen songs and never once have to play as a guest act.

Achieving a certain number of stars for playing songs will unlock a new venue. Unlocked venues feature about 5 to 6 songs, and alternate between clumps of Van Halen tracks and guest act tracks. The number of required stars to access a new venue is usually easily acquired. If you're a competent Guitar Hero/Rock Band player, two 5-star performances is all you need to access a new batch of songs.

Other Guitar Hero and Rock Band games have let you customize your rock star, but doing so in Guitar Hero Van Halen is pretty much a waste of time, as you'll never see your rock star on stage unless you are playing as one of the 19 guest act's songs. When Van Halen takes the stage, the member of the band that corresponds to your instrument will be featured regardless of the guitarist you selected/customized at the start of the game. I actually commend Neversoft for not allowing you to replace somebody like David Lee Roth or Eddie Van Halen with some horribly created Glam Viking rock star.

After all the ribbing I gave Neversoft in the opening paragraphs, I was pleased to see that Van Halen's final act features "Classic Van Halen" avatars as you may remember them from the music videos and concerts from the late 70s and early 80s.

In addition to the exclusive Van Halen tracks, there is also a Van Halen sound board that you can access, that will fire off some tasty Eddie Van Halen guitar licks with the press of a few face button combinations. An extra feature is unlocked once you've completed a song that plays back the performance and gives you behind-the-music information about the song's history. It reminded me of VH1's Pop-Up Video, but without the "Pop-Up Video" personality.

The game took me less than 3 hours to earn enough stars to access Guitar Hero Van Halen's full track list. I played through the career mode on solo, focusing on the guitar as my instrument of choice, but as always the game supports multiplayer.

As much as I found myself enjoying Guitar Hero Van Halen, I couldn't help but feel that the game would have been so much better if some of Sammy Hagar's 11-years of contribution to Van Halen could have been featured as well. Whether or not it was a political reason, the exclusion of Hagar, and even Gary Cherone, felt like somebody just tried to rewrite history. I understand that the game is supposed to be based (roughly) around the recently reunited Roth-helmed Van Halen, but writing off 11+ years of Van Halen hits just seems wrong.

It would be nice to see a Sammy Hagar DLC pack in the future, perhaps also featuring a way-too-youthful-looking digital avatar of The Red Rocker himself on the mic. That being said, I would have much rather had a mix of Roth and Hagar, than the rather unimpressive filler tracks of guest acts.

Guitar Hero Van Halen doesn't hit retail shelves until December 22nd. As much as I enjoyed the game for its classic Van Halen goodness, I can't recommend paying the suggested retail price of $60 for this game. If it's not too late, go out and pick up Guitar Hero 5 and get your free copy through the mail like I did.

Don't get caught paying full price for this one. It's good, but it's not THAT good.

Guitar Hero Van Halen | First Impressions

Troy Benedict Says Guitar Hero Van Halen isn't scheduled for retail sale until December, but if you purchased a qualifying copy of Guitar Hero 5, you could receive a copy of the game for free today. I was lucky enough to take advantage of this deal. I had no idea that I’d actually receive it well before its scheduled December 22nd release date.

My wife sent me an MMS message with a simple message, "It's here!" and a photograph of the Guitar Hero Van Halen cover. The pre-release copy of this game is nothing fancy, in fact it's in a cardboard sleeve, just large enough to fit the game disc. No manual, no box. We're talking barebones here. But hey, it's free!

The back of the “box” boasts that there are "25 epic Van Halen tracks, with 3 Eddie Van Halen signature solos." Also included are "19 scorching Guest Acts," such as artists like Queen, Billy Idol, Judas Priest, and Weezer.

I have to admit that I was a bit skeptical going into this game. For one, the game is being offered for free with a copy of Guitar Hero 5, and to me that seemed to imply a lack in confidence on Activision/Red Octane's behalf. Because it was being offered for free, I also was a bit skeptical if this would be a full-instrument game like the previous Rock Bands and Guitar Hero releases, or if this would quietly be a guitar-only game, riding on the interest of popular guitarist Eddie Van Halen.

Thankfully, the answer to that last bit of skepticism was answered right away, as GHVH's cover has a label clearly stating "play on guitar or with the whole band."

I fired up the game and immediately jumped into a solo Guitar career. The rocking out as Van Halen starts immediately upon pressing start. There are no menu selections as you’re introduced to Van Halen’s two-set introduction.

The game seems to take place with today’s Van Halen, but features a late 70s, early 80s Van Halen, with an exclusive set list of David Lee Roth stylings. Activision has been kind to the digital representation of Van Halen. None of the rock stars looked anything like classic Van Halen. My wife’s observation of the game was priceless: "The developers took 30+ years of drugs and alcohol abuse off of David Lee Roth." Current photos of the band do show that they have certainly taken a more youthful, metrosexual rockstar approach to 2009's classic Van Halen lineup, but this certainly didn’t look like Van Halen from the videos that I grew up watching on MTV.

After completing the 2-act introduction to Guitar Hero Van Halen, I was presented with a menu with which I could create my rockstar. Interestingly enough, your selected rockstar will only perform with the "Guest Acts." While I think this makes a lot of sense for consistency’s sake, I can’t imagine taking the time to customize my rock star if he’s not going to be featured on all of the songs! That being said, I would have been a bit unimpressed if my rockabilly rockstar took the stage in place of Eddie.

The set lists alternate between Guest Acts and Van Halen performances. None of them seem to overlap or cross paths in a weird choice of opening acts (would Queen actually open for Van Halen, or would it be the other way around?). While the Guest Acts are nothing more than filler tracks, I appreciate the decision to keep Van Halen and the other artists separate from one another.

Another interesting feature of Guitar Hero Van Halen is that after completing a song, you can then go back and access the song's “Extras,” which includes the lyrics and a non-interactive performance of the song featuring facts about the song. These extras seem to apply to Guest Acts and Van Halen songs alike. If you're a fan of VH1's Pop-Up Videos and the informative behind-the-scenes information they give about the songs, you might appreciate this feature (minus the Pop-Up-ness).

After playing the game for about an hour, I'm much more impressed with it than I was expecting. While it offers nothing really ground-breaking, when compared to previous Guitar Hero releases, the choice of classic Van Halen songs has not disappointed, and even choice of Guest Acts and their songs are fairly enjoyable.

For my final impressions of the game, check back soon for my full review.

What To Do With Your Aging Playstation 2

Erik Kubik Says So, you still have a Playstation 2 and are reluctant to acknowledge the next generation of consoles? Contrary to popular belief, there is nothing wrong with that! Although new releases for the PS2 have slowed down, Sony still makes sure publishers provide the PS2’s dedicated followers with games like Guitar Hero and a few RPGs throughout the year. And there are several older titles that boost a fair amount of playing time.

God of War

Two games come to mind when I think about lengthy gameplay, God of War and God of War II. The one-part action and one-part adventure features Kratos, who uses a variety of decapitating weapons to seek his revenge against the gods. Both God of War and II have some of the best action-based gameplay and graphics for the PS2, especially considering both games came out so late in the life of the PS2. Game play averages around 30 hours for both games. Together, the games have made Sony’s greatest hits list and are available on Goozex for 100 points (the first one) and 250 points (the sequel).

Grand Theft Auto San Andreas
Another game that is a favorite of mine, and has seen several releases on other consoles, is Grand Theft Auto San Andreas. Although it is five-years old and the graphics are showing their age, this action adventure game is lengthy coming in with at least 40 hours of fun. Welcome to taking control of the streets of southern California in the 1990s! Great music, a fairly interesting storyline and characters, tons of stuff to do on the side (racing, robberies, side missions, flying, etc); all of these elements create a must own game, whether you are a fan of the series or not. At 100 points on Goozex, this gamer does not have to tell you it is a steal.

Resident Evil 4
The fourth game—and what has to be my favorite game series of all time—is Resident Evil 4. For all of you who have never touched this game, this is the game that changed the Resident Evil series for the better. Moving away from the puzzles and slow movement, Resident Evil 4 stepped the franchise up to something a little more mainstream. This is “survival horror” at its finest, a compelling story with non-stop action, great characters, and an armory to make most armies jealous. The game does not end when you finish the game, a multitude of unlock able items and bonus features await players. The game has at least 30 hours of game play. What else can I say? Over 2 million copies sold worldwide for just this version of the game. At 100 points on Goozex you cannot go wrong.

If the Playstation 2 is still hanging around your house, show it some love and pick up some great games.