Talking about Activision makes me bitter. First of all, we all know about their “exploitation” business model by now, and while it stifles innovation and ensures endless crappy sequels, they are still making money hand over fist. Secondly, they have taken a franchise that I used to be absolutely obsessed with—Guitar Hero—and pretty much milked it dry. Seriously, I used to go to work early at GameStop just so I could play the original GH demo on the PS2. I played the hell out of Guitar Hero II on the PS2 and 360. Somehow, though, it all went wrong after that, at least for me. Has that stopped people from buying Guitar Hero games? Hell no! Thus, we are getting about 20 Guitar Hero games a week for the foreseeable future.

Okay, that number might be a slight exaggeration, but not by much. One such planned Guitar Hero game? Guitar Hero Greatest Hits, which Activision announced on their financial conference call today. Greatest Hits will take songs from Guitar Hero, GHII, GHIII, and Guitar Hero Aerosmith, then re-release them and make them compatible with the band instruments for Guitar Hero World Tour. It’s actually not a bad idea, because there were so many good songs in the first two Guitar Hero games that have never appeared in a music game since (seriously, "Ziggy Stardust", where are you?). However, there is really no reason for this to be a full retail release and not DLC, other than Activision trying to squeeze a few more bucks out of their customers.

Honestly, if I thought for a minute that Activision would be able to recreate the magic of the first two Guitar Hero games with this rehash, I would probably consider getting it. However, if it’s anything like Aerosmith, it will be half as many songs and no DLC for the full $60 price tag. I think I’ll stick to my Rock Band DLC when I need something new.

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