Although it has been a decade since the original Guitar Hero made its debut, Activision will reprise the instrument-based video game in the fall with Guitar Hero Live. It will feature, among other bands, The Rolling Stones, Green Day and Fall Out Boy.
FreeStyleGames, the same designers from DJ Hero, developed the $99.99 game, reports Rolling Stone. In the latest update, users are introduced to a new, 24-hour music video network, GHTV, and will be able to play in a first-person point of view.
Activision declared GHTV "the world's first playable music video network," giving players the option to challenge users worldwide and to play along to official music videos.
Departing from the 2005, third-person point of view, Guitar Hero Live puts the player in the studded shoes of the rock star. This adjustment places players in front of the audience, allowing them to boo you when you miss a few notes while your band mates shoot nasty looks in your direction.
Furthermore, the game is designed to monitor the player in relation to the band on stage and the crowd straight ahead. The closer you move to the crowd, the less you will hear the drums.
The track list length remains unknown, but songs will update automatically and feature a cluster of hit artists including The Black Keys and My Chemical Romance. Further information on artists will be released at the Electronic Entertainment Expo in June.
Adjustments on the guitar controller have been made to better suit skill levels and stray from the horizontal color-coded buttons. Fully equipped with two parallel rows of three buttons, beginners will use the bottom three buttons, medium-level players will use both rows to create chord combinations and experts will master complex finger arrangements.
Behold the new guitar controller for #GuitarHeroLive! Two rows, three buttons — easier to play, harder to master. pic.twitter.com/lpbfsfYFz5
— Guitar Hero (@GuitarHero) April 14, 2015
"We were giving you too much information that you didn't actually need, because your fingers are always in position. We were making your brain compute a color that it didn't need to," said creative director Jamie Jackson, notes Wired.
Guitar Hero Live will make its mobile device debut and be available across multiple consoles including the PlayStation 3 and 4, Xbox One and 360 and Nintendo Wii.
