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controller freak

A screenshot from Activision's latest music game, Guitar Hero 5.

Overheard last night in my living room while playing Activision's latest volley in the highly competitive music game genre: "Guitar Hero is basically white trash Rock Band."

While I don't necessarily agree with (or even completely understand) this remark, which was spoken by my wife as we worked our way through a particularly tricky dozen song set in the recently released Guitar Hero 5, it does hit upon what seems to me to be an expanding divide in the world of music games.

Never mind the fact that the Rock Band and Guitar Hero franchises were originally conceived of and developed by the same studio (Harmonix), or that they feature, for all intents and purposes, nearly identical play mechanics. People are increasingly identifying themselves as either Rock Band devotees or Guitar Hero groupies.

Of course, there are a few notable differences between the two series.

Guitar Hero's visual aesthetic, for example, is more akin to the sort of over-the-top drawings one might find on 80s-era heavy metal albums, while Rock Band's look and feel is a bit more refined and polished-more U2 than Twisted Sister.

On the other hand, the Guitar Hero games tend to offer up more demanding challenges. Try playing similar songs in both series on the same difficulty setting and you will almost certainly find the Guitar Hero versions more taxing. This is especially true of the most recent Guitar Hero game-which, I think, might have been the motive for my wife's disparaging comment (she's used to scoring perfect marks for her vocal performances on Rock Band's hard setting, but had difficulty mustering more than 90 per cent playing Guitar Hero 5 on medium).

The real determinant ought to be the music, but both franchises offer enormous libraries of content on disc and via their online stores that do an impressive job of representing most rock genres and major artitsts through the years (Rock Band's online catalogue is larger, but unless you plan to charge up your credit card with pricey downloads-songs cost over two bucks a pop-it's not a major advantage). Neither library will wholly satisfy any one music lover's taste, but it's just as unlikely that one will wholly dissatisfy.

Of course, the Rock Band camp scored a major blow by nabbing the Fab Four for the soon-to-be-released The Beatles: Rock Band (look for my review in the Globe early next week), but it's a standalone title that's incompatible with music from earlier versions of the game. A one-off-and a costly one at that (the game disc has only half the tracks of previous Rock Band releases).



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But I suppose personal preference is unavoidable. All things being equal, I'd choose to play Rock Band over Guitar Hero. I like the idea of supporting Harmonix, the studio that originated the rock 'n' roll simulator and has brought to fore its most significant (and oft-copied) innovations, including drums, bass, vocals, and, most recently, three-part vocal harmonies. (Neversoft assumed Guitar Hero development duties when Harmonix was snatched up by MTV's gaming division a few years ago.)

That said, I've no aversion to giving Guitar Hero a go once in a while. I have just as much fun playing, and I enjoy the higher level of challenge once in a while.

Sadly, given my better half's preference, I usually find myself playing Guitar Hero gigs alone.

Follow me on Twitter: @ chadsapieha

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