Guitar Hero is finally facing some tough competition this year due to Rock Band, and the behind-the-scenes maneuvering between companies is probably pretty confusing to most music game fans.

The creators of Guitar Hero may have moved on to develop Rock Band, but the GH license is still going strong with big-name contributors and more addicting guitar gameplay. We talked with Activision’s Alex Ortiz, who is Guitar Hero 3’s production coordinator, about how the legal and licensing changes have affected this popular series.

Q: What was the transition like from Harmonix to Neversoft?
A: I joined the team later in development. As far as working with Neversoft on this title, it seems like Neversoft knew what exactly what they were getting in to. They’re a really great developer who pulled off a really good game in GH3. They pretty much proved they can take over Harmonix crown and still preserve what Guitar Hero is.

Q: Did you use the same engine and interface as the previous two Guitar Heroes?
A: They have their own engine. We couldn’t use what Harmonix developed, but overall users who are familiar with GH1 and 2 will pretty much feel right at home with GH3 and see that not much was changed. Obviously the menu and everything is completely different. It’s more of the Neversoft style of things, but it’s a really good change, to be honest.

Q: What were Red Octane and Activision’s response to EA buying out Harmonix?
A: It was one of those buyouts that takes everyone by surprise. It wasn’t really expected, but we weren’t really surprised that a great developer like Harmonix was eventually bought by another company.

Q: What sets Neversoft apart from Harmonix?
A: I think what really sets it apart is our own unique style. When you look at the two games, Rock Band and Guitar Hero, there’s not a whole lot you can do as far as changing up the prep board too much. They’re almost going to look the same, it’s just what each developer going to bring to the table art and style-wise that’s going to differentiate the two.

Q: What’s in store for online play?
A: Online play is available right out the gate on PS3, Xbox 360 and the Wii. PS2 does not have online.

Q: What can you do online?
A: Basically it’s what you can do offline. Co-op mode is available online and competitive online play is there. You can pretty much go head-to-head against anyone in the world and prove who the best GH player is.

Q: Rockband has MTV, what about GH?
A: GH has the fact that it’s a monster franchise and brand name that is so well known. Throngs of people know GH. People still don’t yet know that Rock Band name. It’s yet to prove itself to the wide consumer market. You know when most people hear GH they know what it is. Rock Band, they’re not sure what it is. Because GH is such monster of a franchise it’s actually easier now for us to get artists involved. Artists are more proactive about coming to us first and trying to get involved.

Sex Pistols came back and rerecorded “Anarchy in the U.K.” for us. That was a major, awesome accomplishment. We got the band Living Colour to also rerecord “Cult of Personality”, and they actually extended and added things to the solo in the song. It’s amazing.

We also have Slash and Tom Morello who came in and recorded new, exclusive music just for us.

Q: EA claims that their guitar and the GH guitar are interchangeable, are they?
A: That’s been the long-standing thing that Harmonix has said– that the Guitar Hero guitar will work with their game. I’m sure their controller will probably work with ours, but I’m pretty sure there’s going to be some compatibility issues. Each piece of hardware is different. How the pieces of software are going to react to a controller that wasn’t necessarily designed for it, that’s kind of up in the air.

One of the nicest surprises of last weekend’s E for All show was Konami’s booth, which was filled with promising games. Enough has been said about MGS4, but on the handheld front, Konami was making waves with original versions of four of their most popular franchises.

It seems like a perfect combination–Castlevania, Contra, Metal Gear Solid, and Silent Hill. All are established franchises, some even dating back to the days of the NES. But there’s nothing old about these remakes and original titles. In fact, this lineup represents one of the most refreshing collections of handheld nostalgia available this year.

With Silent Hill: Origins for the PSP, Konami has created an original backstory for the creepiest town ever to grace a videogame. We didn’t get to see too much plot, though, because the level we played was set in a dark, abandoned hospital, where Silent Hill’s trademark freaky nurses were trying their best to stab our trucker hero.

The locations, while familiar, did show of the game’s surprisingly good light and shadow effects, and a bit of hammer and scalpel combat made even the nurses a tough challenge. Origins also added a few new quick-time events, like tapping x repeatedly to avoid a nurse’s attack. The graphics are somewhere between PS1 and PS2, and hopefully the rest of the game looks and plays as well as this creepy hospital did.

Nearby on the PSP was Metal Gear Solid: Portable Ops Plus, an online-focused “special edition” of the last full-fledged portable MGS. Our hands-on time with this title was focused mainly on running around catwalks and hallways, targeting other players with Old Snake from MGS4 or Raiden from MGS2.

While Metal Gear isn’t best known for its fun multiplayer deathmatch, Ops Plus seems like good practice for when Metal Gear Online hits the PS3 next year. The graphics are surprisingly good for a PSP title, showing that Konami really knows its stuff when working with Sony hardware.

Rounding out the intellectual property bonanza on PSP was Castlevania: The Dracula X Chronicles. As a remake of a PC Engine game that was never released in the U.S., this collection of one remake and two unchanged titles (Rondo of Blood and Symphony of the Night) is one of the best Christmas gifts for Castlevania nuts that Konami could have made.

The remake of Rondo, which is the only game unlocked from the start, is a slick-looking 3d throwback with some interesting boss-intro cutscenes and classic 2d gameplay. Even though Richter Belmont moves a bit slowly, the smooth animation and candle-whipping mechanics are really enjoyable. If you have any love for Castlevania, this is a must-play.

And finally, the DS will become the home to yet another beloved franchise–Contra 4, a return to form for a series that has been sidetracked with boring action-movie macho for too long. The original Contra was about one thing only–avoiding little glowing dots while wasting every pixely bad guy in sight.

Utilizing both screens but no touch-control, Contra 4 is standard stuff for those who remember the NES original. Bonus unlockables like a “museum” of old Contra games (don’t get too excited, they’re just screenshots and brief descriptions) and a new grapple hook move round out this highly enjoyable throwback.

It’s looking like a great holiday for old-school gaming, and if you consider yourself a gaming enthusiast there’s got to be at least one game in this lineup that interests you. Or if you’re like most hardcore gamers, every one of these titles holds an undeniably compelling appeal. For taking gaming back to its roots, we salute Konami’s legendary handheld lineup for this winter.

More than a decade ago Nintendo introduced the N64, and with it came controllers equipped with a rumble feature, For the first time gamers were able to feel the impact of their games. That feature spread like wildfire and eventually made it’s way into the peripherals of other consoles and PC devices.

Gaming peripherals continued to evolve, and now a Washington based company by the name of TN Games has introduced a product called 3rd Space Vest. The product looks to take gamers well beyond the world of sight and sound, allowing them for the first time to feel the pressure of a bullet wound or the intense g-force associated with flying a fighter jet over enemy territory.

The vest is powered by an air compression system that fires pneumatic cells. There are eight contact points that delivers 10 pounds of force, each of which are arranged on the vest for first-person shooters, while a 10-cell version is specifically designed to deliver 360 degrees of pressure in racing games and flight simulators.

“It’s a perfect place to start because if you’re playing a shooter game there’s a lot of action that can be applied to the torso, and in terms of a driving game — that’s where all the action is,” said Mark Ombrellaro, Founder and President of TN Games.

The idea sounds great. Imagine playing Call of Duty on your PC, you sprint across the terrain only to be shot by a sniper, instantly feeling the pressure in your chest from the impact.

Ombrellaro’s stated that his goal is to raise the bar in terms of player game interaction, and apparently the vest is just the beginning, as he fully hopes to expand on the technology in the near future.

“What we’re going with is basically an entire suit,” Ombrellaro said. “Obviously, the vest is a start and then at CES we will be showing the arms, legs and the helmet that will go with it.”

So far, the list of supported PC games is at five, two will be playable instantly, while the other three will require a patch available via download at www.tngames.com for free. Incursion, a TN Games developed futuristic “kill the aliens” first-person shooter, as well as Activision’s extremely popular Call of Duty II game will both be supported out of the box and best of all, they will be included for free with the purchase of the vest itself. In addition, Quake 3 and 4, as well as Doom 3 (all purchased separately) will be supported with the update.

Look for TN games to aggressively seek out other titles both on and off the PC as Ombrellaro made it clear that he hopes to gain access to console games and other genres including MMORPG’s.

The vest is scheduled to be released on Nov. 21, and with a price tag of $189, the first blow you’ll feel, will be to your wallet.

Two days is the amount of time we’ve spent here at E for All and frankly, that is more than enough time to view and play all the games at this expo. The Electronic Arts demo booth had plenty of playable video games, but when asked for some press material we were told, “ … we didn’t bring any because we thought the press wasn’t going to come here,” said an EA employee.

That was pretty harsh. The expo is for the consumers to play video games before they come out, but that just doesn’t seem like a valid enough excuse to NOT have any material ready for the media, and it wasn’t just EA that came unprepared, other companies also seemed to care less about the press in attendance.

This was a consumer expo, and memo went out months ago, however the only companies that seemed like they got it were Nintendo and Konami. Excluding those two, the layouts for booths were terrible and the representation was more or less non-existent.

The first thing I did when I arrived was interview the President & CEO of TN Games, Mark Ombrellaro. The company developed an innovative peripheral 3rd Space Vest, which allows the player of a 1st person shooter or racing game to feel impact throughout his or her upper torso.

Our group then had an informal sit down with Metal Gear Solid 4 Assistant Producer Ryan Payton. Konami’s MGS4 looks to be Playstation 3’s most anticipated game of 2008, and its expo presence reinforced that. Ryan was great, and Konami from an overall standpoint impressed us as well, as they showcased their products and made information about their company and games easily accessible to consumers as well as the media.

Next up we made our way to EA’s Rock Band stage where Anthony Niven, Andrew Podolsky, and I got to finally rock out to Jet’s “Are You Gonna Be My Girl” and Nirvana’s “In Bloom.” Great game, but it will undoubtedly be one of the most cumbersome setups in your living room’s history.

THQ and Namco represented, but didn’t pick up as much of the crowd as Nintendo or Konami. There were plenty of other exhibitors like Intel and HP showcasing the latest computer technology, but it wasn’t enough to convince me that it was time for a $5,000 upgrade.

Overall, the expo didn’t seem to make much of an impact on consumers, and was definitely not worth the price of a 4-day pass, as it took us less than two days to see everything the 1st time expo had to offer.

In closing, it was a great opportunity for the smaller companies and start-ups of the world to gain exposure (assuming they came prepared) but the big players, outside of those mentioned here, just didn’t seem to give a rat’s ass.

We sit down with Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots’ Assistant Producer, Ryan Payton and pick his brain about his contributions to the long standing series, accessibility to newcomers, enhancements in gameplay, competition, the movie, and more. Have at it after the jump.

Q: What has your involvement been with the Metal Gear series?
A: My involvement in the Metal Gear series started with Portable Ops on PSP, where I helped design part of that game and helped with the script. That was my first title where I was actually involved with the design process, from inception to the time when we hand-carried it to Sony in time for Christmas. So that was a very hectic year… what was that, last year? Hard to believe.

So that’s where I really cut my teeth on game design and integrated a lot of Western game design ideas into the titles. For example, giving people multiple paths to get to their objectives, being able to recruit comrades and equip them with the items you want, create your own unique units, basically giving people more freedom to play it.

So I’m bringing some of that to the MGS4 development, with Metal Gear Online in particular, where we now allow players to equip their own skills, so everyone has their own unique skill set, and you can level up your characters with experience, so that as you get better your character gets better too.

Q: How did Konami take to your ideas?
They’re pretty receptive. Mr. Kojima recognizes that until now they’ve always had a 100% Japanese team. So it’s inherent that their game’s going to be more appealing to the Japanese, or feel better in terms of control and game balance. So that’s one of the reasons he brought me on two and a half years ago, to give the studio and the team a different perspective.

“… Mr. Kojima is receptive to it, so I think I’m going to keep my job.”

I’m lucky that he’s given me so much power and leeway in terms of what I want to do. As far as the control scheme in MGS4, I’ve been telling people that there are no sacred cows. We’ve been reworking the control scheme since the inception of the game. So no more bird’s eye view, the gunplay finally feels good, it’s never felt good in an MGS game. So we’re incorporating a lot of game ideas and I’m really lucky that Mr. Kojima is receptive to it, so I think I’m going to keep my job.

Q: Have you had any involvement with the story?
A: Yeah, I’ve been working on the story since day one, and I’m also in charge of editing the script and also directing the voice overs. We did six months of voice over work in Hollywood. So I helped direct that along with Kris Zimmerman, she’s been there since the beginning, we always hire her to direct our VO work.

That was a huge project, making sure that not only does it sound good, but it reads good. It’s the first Metal Gear, I think, that doesn’t read and sound like an anime. And that’s a good thing in my opinion. So making sure the story makes sense, getting people up to date with the story, because we have literally twenty years of fiction we have to cover.

Q: How are you making MGS4 accessible to newcomers?
A: That’s a tough challenge, because hardcore gamers have these expectations that they want us to fulfill. I get emails every day asking, is there going to be a European Extreme mode, is there going to be this and that. We’re working pretty hard to keep the hardcore happy, we’re including these flashback scenes in the cutscenes.

We’re actually tying up every loose end in the story in MGS4, going back to Portable Ops, and Snake Eater, MGS1 and MGS2. Pretty much everything you’re wondering about and you might have complained before about Mr. Kojima’s script, that this doesn’t make sense. Why doesn’t Vamp die, or why is Raiden like this, or who is Naomi, really, why is she double crossing and triple crossing people. All of that stuff is answered in MGS4.

In that sense it’s going to keep the hardcore happy, but on the other hand I realize that this is a mainstream title, and I’m not interested in just selling 800,000 units to the hardcore, I want this to sell 3-4 million copies worldwide. Which is why we’re giving players the option to explore the backstory, you know we have these flashback scenes, if you want to watch them it’s your choice.

We also have an encyclopedia in the game, if you want you can bring it up and go into the history, if you want to, but it’s not required. You can just watch the story from start to finish. There’s a clear villain-it’s Liquid Ocelot, there’s a clear objective. So even for people who haven’t played any Metal Gears up to this point, I think they’ll get a lot out of it.

Q: Do you think the gameplay is moving more towards Ghost Recon or Rainbow Six gameplay style, or is it still Metal Gear?
A: Not really. We call it “Tactical Espionage Action”, but I don’t think it’s that tactical still. Ghost Recon, they do a great job in that genre, and we’re not looking to intrude on them at all, because they do great at what they do. Our gameplay is not so much that strategic element of moving around your unit. Snake’s solo, he’s on a solo sneaking mission, you don’t have to worry about giving other people commands.

“…with this demo … gameplay feels so good and the aiming feels so fun, that people just kill everything in sight.”

And that’s one thing we’ve run into with this demo, and the demo at TGS, is that the gun gameplay feels so good and the aiming feels so fun, that people just kill everything in sight. And that’s not really a Metal Gear Solid game, because if they keep killing people, obviously we’re going to keep throwing enemies at them until Snake’s dead, or Snake hides, and then it goes back to normal mode.

With that said, we’re also opening up the gameplay to these warzones, these battlefield areas. So how I like to describe it is a waveform gameplay. The beginning is a sneaking section, and obviously you have to get to your point, like rendezvous with Otacon for example, that’s a sneaking part. But then we lead you onto the battlefield, where you can use these cool weapons without worry about being found. So you can unload on the PMCs, you can join with the militia men, you can kind of change the tide of war to how you see fit.

So that’s a cool way of releasing all that tension that you built up during all the sneaking parts. Then we take you back to a sneaking part, then back to a battlefield. It’s a way of keeping the player’s attention. So obviously that’s different from what Rainbow Six and Ghost Recon does.

Q: This is a very cinematic game. How much of the time is spent watching cutscenes?
A: At first, Hideo and I were talking about keeping the cinematics pretty short for MGS4. Because we felt pressure, complaints that the cinematics were too long. But I think that’s only a very vocal minority. I think people actually enjoy the cutscenes, just based on how popular the trailers are. And so what ended up happening was, we kept adding more and more cool scenes til we got to the point where I know we’re going longer than Snake Eater in terms of cinematics, and that game had four hours of cinematics.

I won’t say how many hours of cinematics we have in MGS4, but I will say it’s impressive. If people don’t want to watch they can skip it, so we’re giving people that option. Using our next-gen graphics engine, really incredible sound… I hate to sound cocky, but I think we’re going to win awards for our sound design this time. It’s really incredible. And people are going to be missing out if they skip those cutscenes.

Like I said, the script actually sounds cool. Maybe that was a problem before, is that the story was so convoluted and it sounded like it was coming from Japan, literally translated into English, and this time it feels like a Hollywood movie. It’s entertaining, the dialogue is witty. So yeah, you might be putting down your controller and watching some cinematics, but it’s going to be entertaining, I guarantee it.

Q: You guys have one of the biggest games at E for All. When did you make the decision to attend, and has it paid off in terms of fan reaction?
A: We made this decision without really knowing how many other vendors were going to be here. We like the idea of having a consumer-only event. We always support big shows like this, we’ve visited Leipzig and GDC, TGS, E3, even GO3 in Australia. So we’re very supportive of these consumer and press shows.

But with that said, are we happy we showed up? Of course. We’ve filled every seat we’ve had since we opened the doors on Thursday. We have literally hundreds of people playing the game every day. Some people are giving this show a Doomsday prophecy, like it’s not going to be around next year, that this is the first and last E for All. But I beg to differ, and I’m not just saying this because I’m here at the show and I want people to come.

I would be curious to see a ratio of attendees per booth compared to E3, compared to E for All, because we have people lined up around the booth to play MGS4. Smash Brothers has a huge line, and so does Galaxy. I’m wondering if publishers are regretting the fact that they didn’t show up, like Capcom, Sony, and Microsoft. I wouldn’t be surprised if the ratio of attendees is higher than it was at E3. So I’m hoping this is just the beginning of something really cool.

Q: How do you think you can sell millions of copies of MGS4 with all the competition?
A: I’m not worried about the competition, really. I think we’re the leading title coming out on PS3 next year. We’re not looking for a big bang, to sell a couple million copies in two weeks and then just trickle out throughout the year. I think we’re going to sell consistently, we’re going to own the majority of 2008 I think.

“I’m not worried about the competition … we’re going to own the majority of 2008…”

Especially with the online mode we’re including is going to keep people coming back. And we’re just going to keep updating Metal Gear Online. So I’m thinking we’re going to have steady sales all the way through to Christmas 2008. And maybe you think I’m being too bullish, or too cocky, but I have a lot of confidence that this game is going to be the system seller, that people have been looking forward to for the last year and a half.

Q: One last question, how about the Metal Gear movie?
A: The movie is still in pre-production. We’re having meetings next week. It’s still really early. I’m not as interested in the movie, I’m more interested in making games. I didn’t join this industry to make a Metal Gear movie, even though I know a lot of people are excited about it.

***

Check out our hands-on preview of the game here.

A long line of gamers eagerly waiting to play Metal Gear Solid 4, perhaps their only chance before the game comes out early next year, snaked around an elaborate barbed-wire bunker booth at E for All.

Once inside, seated on sandbags, these demo testers got a quick walkthrough on the slightly different control scheme. Besides the controls, which emphasized one button aiming (L1) and one button firing (R1), the other major change from Tokyo Game Show is that this game was in English, with Snake once again voiced by David Hayter.

The demo started about 5-10 minutes into the final retail version of the game, with Snake in a “Middle East” location (sorry, it doesn’t get more specific than that). Revolver Ocelot is in the area, and Snake contacts Otacon on the Codec to determine where to rendezvous. There’s some interesting talk about Lizards and Gekkos as well—are these a new type of super-soldier to rival the legendary Snake?

Snake begins sneaking around outside a deserted street—deserted, except for a unit of private military contractors rolling along in a tank-like vehicle called a “Striker”. The Striker not only has a mounted machine gun, but also a roaming camera which can spot Snake and call in reinforcements. It’s the same camera evasion from previous MGS games, but this time it’s on wheels.

Konami’s MGS4 Booth at E For All

Yet another shot of Konami’s barbed-wire booth

Snake’s “threat ring” helps him identify the general location of such adversaries, but it’s a replacement for the radar that used to indicate that direction enemies were generally moving. Reading it feels like identifying seismic activity—a bump in one direction means you need to take cover, activate camouflage, or just run for your life.

The enemies, once they spot you, will follow you relentlessly. Peering into dark corners or following you through a series of rooms, the enemy AI is meticulous about tracking you down. Stealth is obviously the best way to move through the game, because even though your throat-slashing technique has improved, you are still too outnumbered and outgunned to take the balls-out action approach.

Those lucky gamers who had 15 minutes to play through this early level were also asked for their feedback on the game, and we’d estimate that most people were so happy to get an early look that they’d have hardly any criticisms. But if we had to point out a few problems, the camera work was a little confusing at times, being very sensitive and not framing the action very well. Also, the enemy animations took some time to recognize that, say, their buddy was just opened up by an aging superspy with a gray mullet. The reaction times could be a bit quicker to give this game a livelier feel.

There are still a few elements we haven’t understood yet—like why do you need to know the temperature, humidity, and wind speed of your environment? It’s not like Snake’s trying to drive a golfball through town. Also, the camo indicator in the corner tells Snake how well he’s disguised with the Octo-Camo, but we’d end up using that more than a visual confirmation, just to make sure that we really are hidden in plain sight.

Overall we can’t wait to see more of MGS4, though, so this hands on was a great (but brief) chance to check out the way the game plays. But besides the unique Kojima vibe, Snake is looking more and more like his Tom Clancy companions and less like his old self. Whether this is going to sit well with long time fans of the series is the biggest question we have about Metal Gear Solid 4 at this point.