Product ReviewsGuitar Hero 5 (Sony PlayStation 3, 2009)

Great additions but trophy demands 2 high

This is a fine upgrade from guitar heros of past but what it lacks is a realistic trophy system. In order to get all of the trophies you need way to much equipment and alot of people helping you which short changes the most important aspect of this game...THE GUITAR! This is guitar hero not band hero not rockband its GUITAR hero. I understand the excitement and joy four must feel after completing a song with 3 friends but with other games already dedicated to this why not just keep this to the shredders. Overall its a great game expectedly similar to the others the slight visual upgrades and obviously new tracks that really werent as good as some of the others. Worth the buy if you get a deal.Read full review...

Guitar Hero 5 (Playstation 3)

One of the best things that Neversoft has done with Guitar Hero 5 is to make it just as easy to navigate the menus as it is to enjoy the game itself. This may not seem like such a big deal, but in practice it makes everything about the game more enjoyable. A layer of frustration has been stripped away from nearly every aspect of this game. Not only will your parents be able to understand how to play the game, now they'll be figure out how to get into the game, too.
This is most noticeable in the all-new Party Play mode. Everyone who has thrown a party with Rock Band or Guitar Hero World Tour has at least one memory of new players having trouble logging in, choosing instruments, and making sure they've selected the right difficulty for their skill level. We've all been there and it isn't any fun. Party Play does away with this in a most agreeable way. As soon as you turn Guitar Hero 5 on, the game simply starts playing through your library of tunes. It acts like a jukebox of sorts. If any song catches your ear, all you have to do is pick up an instrument and hit a button to start playing. You can change difficulties, drop in or out, add other players, or even skip to another song without the music ever stopping.

If somebody is already playing guitar and you don't want to be stuck with bass, no worries. Any combination of instruments can be used. Set up your own guitar army or get everyone in the room singing harmonies -- it's your call. Party Play and letting people use what instrument they want sound like such simple concepts you'll start wondering why it took this long to get these features in. But hey, they're here now and they really do add a lot to the fun.
The Career mode has received a similar makeover in the name of accessibility. It's hardly even a career anymore. There's no more money to earn or tour to take part in and there isn't any story to speak of. Instead, you'll simply work your way through a few lists of songs, unlocking new gigs and other goodies along the way. There are no separate careers for each instrument or difficulty. It's all in one place and it's based around earning stars. To add a bit more depth, every gig has its own bonus challenge that enables you to earn a few extra stars.

This layout does several good things. Most importantly, it allows you to switch difficulty settings, instruments or band members without restarting your career. You won't reach the end of the Career on Expert, realize you simply can't beat it, and then have to go back and replay through the whole shebang again on Hard. The challenges also give you reason to go back and replay an old song to complete various objectives. Challenges include things like strumming up as many times as you can, using the whammy bar as much as possible, or hitting a certain score with a full band. Each song has one, and you'll earn the stars and unlock the bonus associated with it if anybody in your group meets the requirements -- so you can work through the game with an online band playing only guitar and still get everything.Read full review...

Not there best but GH Mix makes up for that

Why I bought it... Because of the free GH: Van Halen offer. Had it not have had that I would have just waited until the price dropped To me the setlist is bad and I figured GH:Mix would do the same thing the others did.

I didn't think it would be any better than Guitar Hero World Tour GH:WT and definitely not as good as GH Metallica GH:M. I was right, again the song list had the worst choice of songs with the exception of 3 Doors Down, Iron, Maiden, and Bon Jovi.

As for the graphics there quite a bite better than any of the others. The create a rocker is almost the same as in the past. Lot's of custimazation but very few decent hair choices. The chothes all all the same, might and I stress might be 2 or 3 new peices. But overall same old same old..

The competitive games are ok if you can play someone as good as you are you will have a blast. But for me it still gets old fast.

I haven't tried the online portion of the game so I will not judge how that is.

GH Mix: I thought for sure GH:M's GH Mix would not be beat. I am supprised to say I am wrong, for the most part. They almost out did them themselves on this. There needs to be more Metal tones, it's only got 2 good ones. I think there are way too many clean and oddball tones. They removed too many Keyboard tones as well. Back to the guitar though if you have GH:WT or GH:M I am sure you know what happens when you do quick power cord changes, you get that choppy cut sound. That was the only thing I had against GH:M's GH Mix and figured this one would be no different. I am very happy to say I was wrong. I tried everything I could to make it mess up but failed epicly. It isn't without problems though. After watching some videos on youtube of other peoples songs and thought that you could have power chords and lead on one chart, which would have been really cool. Sadly another dissapointment, all you can do is activate other notes so it just looks like you played the power chord. So that is an all but useless feature.

GHTunes... Is like grass that never gets mowed...

It would be half way neat if 99% of it wasn't crap... All you find on there is immpossible this or to hard that... GHTunes should have a "Remove it" feature where if the song gets enough of those votes it should be permemently removed from GHTunes... That would save alot of space and let all the good ones be heard.

And that’s pretty much it for my review of Guitar Hero 5. I’ll end it with an over all rating on some of the aspects. Scale is 1 to 5 with 5 as best.

Presentation: 3
Reminds me a lot of the older Guitar Heroes. Some new game modes but that’s it.

Graphics: 4
Very good graphic’s easily there best. The fret boards suck though. It‘s the same thing for all characters unlike the older GH’s which where different.

Gameplay: 2
Same old, same old, play each song once which is okay with me 96% of the songs I could only stand to play once anyway but it is getting old, Rock Band is far better.

Sound: 3
It’s only getting a 3 from me because it has Bon Jovi, Iron Maiden and 3 Doors Down on it. You can also play the DLC from GH:WT. Other than that this setlist should be balled up thrown in a rocket and shot into the sun.

Lasting Appeal: 2
For me it's an epic failure the only thing that will keep me playing which is once every other week is GH:Mix and DLC. If you like all of the songs then you’ll not get board.

Overall: 3.5
Only because of GH:Mix

Thanks for readingRead full review...

Great game!

I really like the new songs, they are great. I liked World tour a lot, because you could get the whole band together. I missed the old songs, but in this game you can import some songs from world tour and the newer greatest hits discs. The problem is though, at the time you can only import about half the songs. Activision blames licensing, but it kind of stinks when you pay $5 for songs that you already have, and don't even get them all.Read full review...

All in all, good game, good guitar bundle, I'm still playing it.

Pretty good game, even though I has to buy it on e-bay since its not made anymore :(

I wish it had a little more Metallica though, maybe some added white or Rob zombie.

The guitar that comes with the game is pretty adequate. I wish activision had made the guitar rechargable via USB cable, like the wire-less controllers....but eh... still ok.Read full review...

Just Starting Out

Just started playing this year. Bought it for my Grandson. Love the song's like the way you can join in or drop out while playing and no fail mode is Great. Love the Guitar except for the strum bar is a bit noisy have been told it will quite down after awhile of usage, hope so it is a bit distracting at times but then you can turn up the music and get to Jam min and not notice it at all.Read full review...

Fun

Really good. The graphics are a bit dated but that's what you would expect from a game from 2009

Verified purchase:  Yes | Condition: pre-owned | Sold by: gamerizm

great amount of good music. and fun to play with other

This game contain a great variety of best rock music. Is great to play with each other. another good thing i find about this game is that it is also compatible with GHWT instruments. the only issue i have is that my pedal doesn't work with the GH5.Read full review...

works, but not perfect.

the strum bar gets stuck constantlly making it difficult to play sometimes, but otherwise it works really well.

Verified purchase:  Yes | Condition: pre-owned | Sold by: usav_solutions

adequate, rock n roll

everything worked. only issue was dongle wire was slightly damaged. this was covered in brown electric tape and not mentioned in the post. shipped quick, otherwise good communication.

Verified purchase:  Yes | Condition: pre-owned | Sold by: cocald_6484