Guitar Hero 5

Guitar Hero 5 (originally called Guitar Hero V) is a rhythm game and the fifth installment of the Guitar Hero series. The game was developed by Neversoft and published by Activision. It was released internationally in September 2009 for the Xbox 360, PlayStation 2, 3 and Wii consoles. Similar to the previous title Guitar Hero World Tour, Guitar Hero 5 is focused on playing in a four-person band, including lead and bass guitar, drums and vocals. The game is available as a standalone title where players can use their existing compatible instrument controllers, and as a bundle that includes those controllers. Guitar Hero 5 adds several new features, such as drop-in/drop-out play, bands made up of any combination of available instruments, a Rockfest competition mode with different scoring mechanics, and both song-based and general challenges to unlock new avatars, clothing, and other in-game extras. Many of these changes have been made to make the game a more social experience, where players of different abilities can play cooperatively and competitively against each other both locally and online. Guitar Hero 5's track list includes 85 songs from 83 different artists. As with previous Guitar Hero games, several musicians whose works appear in the game have been modeled through motion capture for playable characters in the game, including Johnny Cash, Carlos Santana, Shirley Manson, Matthew Bellamy and Kurt Cobain. Players can also create their own character and instrument to play with. The game continues to support the user-created music studio introduced in World Tour via GHTunes, and additional downloadable content has been made available for the game. A majority of the downloadable tracks from World Tour are compatible with Guitar Hero 5, as are select tracks from World Tour and Guitar Hero Smash Hits. In addition, songs from the game can be exported for a fee to be played in the sequel Guitar Hero: Warriors of Rock and the spin-off game Band Hero. The game was well received by critics. They praised the game's improved accessibility, which allowed players to get started immediately without spending a lot of time in the game's menus. The game also sold well, though with 1.2 million copies sold across all platforms, it achieved less than 50 percent of the sales figures of Guitar Hero: World Tour. Improvements to the career and competitive multiplayer modes were other highlights of the game. However, the game's track list was considered too extensive, and there was controversy over the ability to perform with Kurt Cobain's avatar in every other song in the game.