Filed under: Gaming, Hardware, Multimedia, Holidays
Guitar Hero III coming to the Mac this year
If you've never played Guitar Hero, you've been missing out. It's quite an experience - you play with a special guitar controller, and as notes fly towards you on the screen, you hit both fret buttons and a strum bar in time to real life rock music. I'm a huge fan of the series, having played the original on PS2, and Guitar Hero II on my Xbox 360. Now, Mac owners will can to take the stage: Aspyr Media has announced that they're bringing the series' third iteration to the Mac.Guitar Hero III is scheduled to be released in October on the consoles and PC. Aspyr will release a hybrid Windows/Mac box, complete with USB guitar. System requirements haven't been released yet, but I'd expect any PC version to have everything the console versions do. The complete setlist contains pretty much any kind of rock you're interested in, from Rage to Bloc Party to Kiss, and even the D and gamer favorite DragonForce.
Sounds awesome. Considering the guitar is just a USB device, how cool would it be to integrate it with Garageband? Here's hoping Aspyr stays on beat, and makes the PC/Mac version available shortly after the console release. Until then, you may always rock it out with Frets on Fire. Throw the horns!
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
scott said 8:19PM on 9-11-2007
FoF always freezes my iMac, therefore this is looking like a tempting purchase
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Tucker said 8:27PM on 9-11-2007
Considering the Xbox360 version of the guitar hero 2 controller is a USB device, I wonder if it'll be possible to buy just the software and use the 360 controller. Interesting.
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Eric said 8:42PM on 9-11-2007
How would it be cool to integrate with GarageBand? You can play four notes...
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ScotteusMaximus said 8:43PM on 9-11-2007
the most exciting part of this bit of news is the potential to add your own songs to the game like people have been doing with the PS2 version. who needs to be nickel and dimed to death over xbox live when you can do it for free yourself?
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Josh said 8:55PM on 9-11-2007
Why do I have this sneaking suspicion it's going to be Intel-only...
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mrpostal said 11:52PM on 9-11-2007
Hmm, this has got me thinking.
GH III is also being released on the wii, with special guitar with Wiimote dock.
Combine that with DarwiinRemote...
you've got yourself a fully functional, wireless Frets on Fire Controller.
:)
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Phil said 12:09AM on 9-12-2007
I was excited for the Wii version, now this puts a twist in things. Which one to get? The Wii version will probably win but a lot will depend on the online play for me I think. Or more importantly the ability to download new songs. That is the only thing I don't like about the game currently is the lack of new songs. I'd gladly shell out $20-30 now and then for a new disc full of new songs. Hell, it can't be that hard to just add more songs (minus the licensing I suppose)
what do i know anyway?
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Ben said 12:11AM on 9-12-2007
Why not just learn to play the guitar?
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Fred said 12:18AM on 9-12-2007
Heh, Ben, that's the typical response. It's valid, but Guitar Hero doesn't have the learning curve that real guitar has, and so it's more immediate fun. That said, I'm not sure that a Mac, or PC version of this game will really do that well. The fun of the game is getting in front of a decent sized TV with your buddies, and rocking out. At least to me. I dunno, it just seems like more of a console game than many others.
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Matteo said 2:48AM on 9-12-2007
How cool would it be if Apple would allow Aspyr to create Guitar Hero for the APPLE TV?!?
That would help boost sales of Apple TV. From a purely technical point of view it seams feasable, since Guitar Hero doesn't look like a 3D intensive game or a CPU intensive one. But I've never played so I cannot tell.
Anyway, why not release Guitar Hero for the APPLETV? Come on Apple, if ATV is a hobby, then treat it as such...
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boatofcar said 3:47AM on 9-12-2007
Matteo, I think Aspyr would port GHIII to the iPod before the Apple TV. Think about it, why waste time and energy on a port with such a small userbase? Of course, the same could be said for making a Mac port at all, but I digress...
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Matteo said 4:11AM on 9-12-2007
@boatofcar
I completely agree with you that the user base is small for the AppleTV. But theoretically it would make a lot of sense to play GHIII from the TV in the living room...
Apple would have to help Aspyr to port GHIII on the ATV to make it feasable.
I still maintain my opinion that games, software (Widgets for the ATV), on these platforms: iPhone, iPod Touch, Apple TV will be released when Leopard is out (because they actually are build aroud "versions" of Leopard and SDKs will be out for all devices together with Leopard.
So Aspyr and other developers will receive the Apple SDK for ALL Leopard devices at the same moment.
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Adam SE said 12:10PM on 9-17-2007
@Matteo
Is't the ATV just a scaled down mac with another frontend?
If I have understood that correctly you could just make a discimage of the GH dvd and start to play.
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AdamK said 5:16PM on 10-02-2007
To me, this will be a sweet addition to a 24-inch iMac.
I have a 20 inch and I will be purchasing this when it comes out, I could buy it for my Wii but I just love the idea of having something like that on my Mac. However, I couldn't imagine it on anything smaller then a 20-inch widescreen, and when I look around my college campus, I'm gonna assume that alot of Apple users that this game is aimed towards are carrying 14 inch iBooks. That said, I don't know how well this kind of game will do on mac, but other than Warcraft, what does?
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Danny said 3:19PM on 10-04-2007
Ben:
Instead of playing GTA, why not just turn into a REAL mass murderer?
Insterad of playing PES2008 etc. etc. etc.
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Matt said 8:33PM on 10-21-2007
What are the chances that Guitar Hero 3 will run on a 1.66 GHz Dual Core Mac Mini with integrated graphics? I was checking the system specs on Aspyr's site and it isn't looking too good. I have the Mini hooked up to my Plasma HDTV so it's the perfect set up for the game... just worried it is lacking the horse power.
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Oley said 5:46PM on 10-29-2007
I haven't seen any min system requirements yet for the mac verson even on aspyr's site. By any chance could you link me up?
Also, I saw there a comment that they were trying to make is as accessible to as many players as possible which I hope would mean that it wouldn't be intel only. I'd so freakin' cry because I want this so badly and my mac isn't an intel based one...
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