April 11, 2007

First Guitar Hero 2 Downloads

The first song downloads for Guitar Hero 2 on the 360 have been announce and, as I expected, they're not sold individually, but in groups of three. As the article notes, while $2 per song isn't outrageous, if you wanted to buy all the songs from Guitar Hero 1 you'd end up spending nearly $100, which does seem pretty outrageous. Of course, I'm pretty sure that $100 figure is counting the unlockable songs, which weren't nearly as good in the first game as they are in the second. Still, I wouldn't be surprised if they released some mega pack with all the licensed songs from Guitar Hero 1 after they've all been released in the smaller bundles. I'll go ahead and bet the mega pack comes in somewhere between $35 and $45 when it's eventually offered. So Guitar Hero nerds, why not rank those song packs in the comments in the order that you'd buy them?

2 comments:

Unknown said...

Each pack has three good songs (and by "good songs" I mean "fun to play"), so it's tough. But my first choice would be Guitar Pack 3, because Higher Ground is totally awesome, and if GH2 adds in a playable bass part, then it's even better. Infected and Stellar aren't great, but they are solid second-tier tunes.

Next I'd go with Pack 1, just because I'm eager to try Bark at the Moon with the new and improved hammer-ons and pull-offs. That song is freaking impossible on Expert in the original game. I'm drawing a blank on Hey You, but Ace of Spades is big fun.

By process of elimination, that leaves Pack 2 for last, even though it's also got three really fun songs. Frankenstein loses points for non-guitar parts, of course, but it's still way cool. Take It Off is a great hi-energy tune, and Killer Queen is enormously fun.

Even if you've already played GH1 to death, every one of these song packs is worth the price if you ask me. But I am a little disappointed that these are all GH1 songs. I was hoping for some actual new songs, you know. Maybe next time.

MosBen said...

Well, I *think* they'll release some song packs including original songs down the line, but having already paid for the use of the Guitar Hero 1 songs, or at the very least already having the agreement in place which allows them to continue to use those songs, it makes sense that re-releasing tracks from the first game is both more profitable and easier than putting out new stuff. Still, there are, I believe, 47 or so songs in the first game if you include the unlockables, which means they can release one set of song packs per month for the next four months before they run out of material. Hopefully that means they'll still have time to release some new stuff.

Still, the general reaction to these song packs on the interwebs is that they're horribly overpriced. I read somewhere that if you bought Guitar Hero 1 today for $40 you'd get all the songs for roughly $.90 per song, while these download packs will run you roughly $2.00 per song. Like I said in the post, here's hoping they release some mega song pack for roughly the cost of buying the first game at retail.

And the tracks do add cooperative playing and the upgraded visuals from the second game to these tracks.