Great video Sage. I think I'm just going to stick with Rock Band and buy DLC.

Or buy the Beatles game. Its pretty awesome from what I've played.

This is what World Tour should've been. I'm loving this game.

You and me both, Braeden. I WOULD get Kryptonite but it isn't worth it. So, time to save up some Nintendo points and download some good songs!

Good review!

Great review sage, yeah th songs on this edition are a festering pile pf mediocrity

I'm actually happy they included Shirley Manson though, I love that woman

I mean, I was originally fired up for Feel Good Inc., but then Rock Band 2 released DLC for that, and so that lowered 6 to 5 songs I wanted, and that just clinched it. No Guitar Hero 5 for me, however I cannot wait for Guitar Hero Van Halen which I hear might be coming out, IF wikipedia is to be trusted, unless I have to buy Guitar Hero 5 for it. I need to do more research.

when i knew about the playlist, i got principally attracted to the King Crimson song "21th century schizoid man". That song rocks

Spot on review, Sage. Everything that you said about the game is 100% right. Guitar Hero 5's set-up is as perfect as can be, but the song list is so ugly, so repulsive, so downright pathetic that it ruins the game. I am a HUGE Coldplay fan, and I agree with you that them being on Guitar Hero makes about as much sense as Jason Mraz being on Guitar Hero.

PERSONAL RANT

I honestly think that the Guitar Hero / rhythm game franchise started going downhill when they added an entire band as opposed to just guitars (hence the reason the last rhythm game I played was GH: Aerosmith.) It seemed too gimmicky to me originally, and it still does. The Beatles: Rock Band may change that notion for me, but I still think that Guitar Hero would be much better if it was JUST guitars. And eventually, I think people will get tired of spending upwards of $100 on these add-on controllers and will just ignore them, starting with DJ Hero and Tony Hawk Ride. Besides, I hear that neither of those games are that great, either.

PERSONAL RANT

Anyway, epic review, Sage. Fall and winter is always big for VGs, so I can't wait for more reviews!

Thankfully, I like a good deal of these songs, so it's not too much of a waste.

To the guy who said that Guitar Hero would be better without a full band, I disagree.
People would be whining even more about the series going stale than they do now if all you could do was play stupid guitars.

You'd think that because they're now making a separate "Band Hero" series that they'd AT LEAST try to focus more on the Guitar element. Like picking songs that they'd have chosen for the series BEFORE they added the full band element. Treat it AS IF it were a guitar-only game, but throw in the other instruments for good measure. With the feature of being able to have multiple people playing the same instrument you don't even really NEED to have every track using every instrument even.
I'm a bit torn between Guitar Hero and Rock Band as a medium-difficulty player. Guitar Hero seems to hit just the RIGHT amount of challenge regardless of what difficultly level you're playing and it makes you feel like you're actually playing the songs. Rock Band on the other hand seems to really water down the charting at lower difficulties which irritates me quite a bit sometimes.
If Guitar Hero could get its act together DLC-wise I think it would easily overtake Rock Band 2 as my favorite rhythm game-but as it stands Rock Band 2 has a better selection of songs and a much more interesting "career mode".

That's a great review, Sage.

I agree that a game like Guitar Hero should be focused on the use of the guitar.

Songs that don't have enough of it shouldn't be on the list, regardless of personal tastes.

They should really make the songs downloadable instead of having a fixed list.

I didn't know there was a GH5....man to me that franchise was dead with the 3rd game; when harmonix left.

great review!

Sticking with RB2.. really hoping for a Plug in Baby DLC release though!

Nice A/V sync btw?

Another great review from another great reviewer,keep em coming sage.im not a HUGE fan of guitar hero/rockband but i am gunna hold out to try Dj hero.

I can't help but agree with everything mentioned here, except for the bit about having the real life inclusions. They picked the wrong people to put into this game, but I like having them show up to play their songs(or tap your normal character on the shoulder, and kick him offstage)...and putting Johnny Cash in for a Metal song and watching him headbang around is worth a giggle to me.

Meh, Guitar hero is overrated as well as over saturated...

Good review--in short, it's fun, but review the song list before you buy. If you don't like it, don't get it.

Also it begs the question as to what 11 songs Sage likes.

All too true.

I can't agree more about the rock star avatars. Kurt Cobain is rolling in his grave.

Still, I have to say I like GH5. Though the track list has a lot of duds on it, there are gems to be found. Most of the time, I will skip songs because I never heard of them, but when I give them a chance and play I wind up liking them a lot.

In World Tour, I thought the list was garbage for the most part, until I gave a lot of the songs a chance and wound up finding some new bands I really like.

An easy way to fix the tracklist problem is the great accessibility to the older games. For the cost of a 3 track DLC pack, you can import 35 songs from World Tour and 21 from Smash Hits. That, combined with the free patch to use all your World Tour DLC, can give you a really great amount of songs to choose from without having to switch disks all the time.

The gameplay tweaks and user interface are really really good, probably the best you will find in any rhythm game. Sure, it ripped a lot off Rock Band, but I think it made it a lot better.

Anyway, great review as always Sage. Your reviews are so much better than anything you will find on IGN and the like.

Plain and simple: I bought the game to get Guitar Hero Van Halen free. Something you failed to mention in the review, Sage. If anything if you truly don't like this game then you can sell it early and get some money back on it so, basically its like you get a discounted Van Halen, but I digress.

But i may have bought it for that singular reason, I'll keep playing it because I like the songs and the mechanics. Now at first, i was really disappointed with most of the songs (I nearly brought the game back after playing Scars on Broadway YUCK!). But after a few tiers into career mode, I made some new friends, so to speak. I couldn't say I had ever heard of the raconteurs before playing this, and I went and bought their album after playing Steady as She Goes a few times. Same thing with Spacehog. Luckily i imported all the songs (that are available) from World Tour and Smash hits, so the library of songs I have to choose from is enormous. But most of these on disc songs sound like they should have either been DLC or listed as Bonus Songs. All the songs listed under Indie Rock were strangers to me. And I'll probably never like all the songs on the disc, but I am warming up to them, something I really shouldn't have to do, but it is a new experience.

But yesterday, I decided to try out party mode and invite some people over, and they seemed to gravitate to a lot of the tracks I had never heard of before. One girl just wanted to play A Punk over and over again. Party play is absolutely amazing in action. 3 people playing guitar and one person drumming on a setlist that you can drop in and out of as easy as pushing start.

I encourage everyone to go into the tracks with an open mind and not expect any of them to be dragonforce (although, spirit of radio and do you feel like I do are some real tough ones) Maybe you'll find something you never knew you liked before.

Plus how often do you get to see an 4 piece band of Johnny Cashs playing Children of Bodom?

Though I do agree about the lame songlist, filled with modern pop rock and indie tunes that should have no place in a game called Guitar Hero (Such a lack of quality metal and good rock), I will have to disagree that this is just the same 'ole game as before. I mean there isn't alot you can do with the music rhythm genre, but people should expect that with the game releases of GH and RB. None of them, not even Rock Band, will release a sequel that is so radically different from the previous incarnation.

I will say, that apart from the songlist (GH: Metallica had the best in my opinion), it's the best GH game in the series, and there is really no way to contest that. It's simply better all around in terms of graphics, gameplay, and style I think. And that goes for Rock Band also which only has DLC going for it. The engine is fine tuned to perfection and the gameplay additions really make playing more interesting.

Also you forgot about the ability to "import" the songs from Guitar Hero World Tour (DLC included) along with Smash Hits, and the upcoming GH: Van Halen and Band Hero games (Along with hopefully GH: Metallica eventually). And yes only part of both games have been released, but the rest of the songs are coming.

To those who might be turned away from the review, alot of people, barring the setlist which is playable, just not impressive, who hate World Tour, really loved GH5. They fixed alot of problems with the game which is the games continue to be released.

And I do agree the musicians are unnecessary (And just confusing to add like Kurt Cobain), they can add some fun to the song for being the actual musician for the song, or unexpected hilarity having them play a metal song. Not needed, but welcomed (Just not in this game where they were pretty weak compared to the last two games.)

Too bad that the song list destroys the game... There are some songs that fit but seriously... Coldplay? Again? But children of bodom is an great addition, but needled 24/7 would have fitted a GH game better.

I actually completely agree with most people who say "give the playlist a chance", because when I played Guitar Hero 2, I didn't know almost ANY of the songs.. but by the time I had made it through.. they had almost all grown on me.. of course most of the unlockable songs were trash, but Less Talk More Rokk, Arterial Black, Thunderhorse and Trogdor were gems.

I hadn't heard of Cult of Personality before I played GH3, and it was one of my favorite songs.

maybe you hate it all, and that's fine, taste and all, but try and go in with an open mind.

Nice review! I still think GH3 had the best playlist and i wish they will follow that track again someday.. *sigh*

I like Nirvana and Johnny Cash, but they dont need to be playable characters. A couple of songs I like, for example Sultans of swing of Dire Straits, but there are too few good songs. Maybe they should do more downloading content so I can play my GH2 or GH3 Songs without switching disks.

I will only jump on the Guitar Hero bandwagon when they make a Guitar Hero Queen edition with a Red Special guitar controller and Brian May afro wig.

Seems to me Harmonix has a better feeling for the Music industry than Neversoft does.

It's a shame the setlist is so bland what with all the improvements they made. I am surprised you didn't mention importing songs from Smash Hits and World Tour.

Good review as always, but I'm always thrown off by the non-exciting, non-emotional monotone voice you have ...its actually kinda funny. Keep up the good work.

Of course they do... This is NEVERSOFT we're talking about. What did Neversoft make before Guitar Hero games? Tony Hawk and Spiderman games. At best, they only have a finger on the pulse of skater/punk/emo music, which I think shows pretty well in their GH tracklists.

You forgot Gun.

I'd rather see them have another shot at a "Spider-Man" game than having them be slaves to two franchises.

well u complain about the music not being ur taste but then again thats sort of the case with all guitar hero games u have 2 like the songs and guitar hero to actually want 2 play the game