That’s right after many Guitar Hero titles being released, Activision has driven the franchise into the ground and has now chosen to shutdown the Guitar Hero business.  With Activision trying to get as much out of the franchise as possible releasing as many games a year as they could added with the competition of the Rockband franchise, Guitar Hero which started it all is no more.  Along with the franchise, 7 Studios has also been closed down which was acquired by Activision in 2009 working on the DJ Hero titles.  Lawsuits have been made and it is a big but inevitable mess.  Next will be the Call of Duty franchise if I had to guess with now three different developers working on that franchise.  This has also lead to the discontinued support for any future DLC for Guitar Hero and DJ Hero after February.

Now, all the original characters are back, Axl Steele, Johnny Napalm and the rest of the crew. In addition, and my favorite, Xbox 360 gamers can import your Xbox Live Avatar and create a ‘all-avatar’ band to rock with. This in my opinion is great for comedic value as my avatar doesn’t do a whoe lot normally but play with a radio controlled warthog on my dashboard. So to see him shred the guitar or drop beats on the drums is a great plus to this game.

The first thing you notice that comes with each song is an additional challange. It can be a number of different tasks, specific to one instrument, or requires an entire band to complete. Each challange gives you the opprotunity to achiev  up to three additional stars for that songs, depending on the level of that chalange completed. They are ranked Gold, Platinum & Diamond, challanges can be anything  The cahllange can be anything from how many seconds the whammy bar is used, ‘up-strum’ only on the bass, or consecutive beats.notes hit in that song.

Party-Play has been improved this time around, when playing with others in a band setting, you’re not limited to just one, singer, guitarist, bassist or drummer. You can have all four bandmates playing guitar if you wish, or two drummers and two bass players – whatever combination you desire, so everyone can play the instrumen they’e most comfortable with. Also, jumping into a band during a song is flawless now with the ability to join at any time, without having to start over or pause.

The music studio has been revamped to make it much easier for those who wish to take the time to create your own playable tunes for the game. Now it’s not so simple that you can creat a song in just a few minutes, it still takes, time and patience to get it just right, but there just seems to be a little bit more assistance this time around than in the World Tour edition.

One of the biggest changes I noticed is the animations. In earlier GH editions, the on stage characters had too much of a ‘puppet’ thing going on. It was actually one of the biggest turn off’s for me personally. To me the those animations were best compared to the music video “Land of Confusion’ by the group Genesis. Those of you who are unfamiliar, I suggest searching ‘You Tube’ and check it out. Another option is to just imagine a poor cunstructed set for a high school musical or play. This improvement alone is well accepted, espacially when the likes of Shirly Manson, Santana, Kurt Cobain, and Johnny Cash take the stage.

The set list is the norm for the Guitar Hero franchise with e wide range of songs from different genres. Songs from A Perfect Circe and Iron Maiden, and expanding down to artist like David Bowie & Bob Dylan. Downloadable content from the World Tour edition is compatible with GH 5 to expand the set list.

Now the big bulet point – if you purchased GH5 from a Gamestop store, or online during the period of September 1st through September 30th, you are eligible to receive the currently unreleased Guitar Hero:Van Halen for free. If you missed out, don’t fret, the game is slated for regular retail release on December 22nd.  I personally have received confirmation that my copy has been processed and is being shipped, so check back later this month for a review/preview.

This game was reviewed on the Xbox 360.

“Natal is very interesting because there’s so many different things you can do with it, whether it’s the motion detecting, maybe sensing how you’re playing, or the ability to use it for interactivity purposes and taking advantage of it for party purposes.”

Looks like this one is following in the lines of Harmonixs Rock Band who recently confirmed that they will be using Natal in their games.

If you downloaded any songs to Guitar Hero: World Tour, you will be able to transfer them and play them on Guitar Hero 5, in fact you can use any type of song you downloaded to any Guitar Hero (III,Aerosmith,World Tour).

You will see new modes in Guitar Hero 5, such as “Party Play” and “RockFest”, which both offer new  head to head modes, offline or online,

So in “Party Play”, if you are alone at home and you are playing  a sertain song, and a friend of yours comes over, he can join in and play with you without restarting the song.

You will also be able to play with a combination of instruments , meaning if you want to change to a different instrument in game without qutting. There will be music from 86 bands with 30 bands making their first Guitar Hero debut, and all songs will be unlocked from the begining of the game (awesomeness.)

There is also a list of some songs, here they are:

The Rolling Stones: Sympathy for the Devil

Bob Dylan: All Along The Watchtower

The White Stripes: Blue Orchid

Santana: No One To Depend On (LIVE)

Vampire Weekend: A-Punk

Tom Petty: Runnin Down a Dream

Johnny Cash: Ring of Fire

Kings of Leon: Sex on Fire

Guitar Hero 5 is expected to release on Quarter 4 of 2009 for the Playstation 3, Xbox 360, Wii, and the Playstation 2.