Guitar Hero 5 Guitar Goes Digital, Gets Pick Guard 2009

By CJ Preece Jul 14th, 2009

Guitar Hero 5 is set for release this September, so it's only natural that "leaks" begin in earnest. You've probably already seen the drums; now it's time to check out the axe, baby! Wooooo!

First off, a white pick guard has been added, so now your shredding won't ruin the sunburst finish. Oh, about the finish, it's now a darker, richer, cherry...woodburst? Anyway, they've also made some changes to the buttons, adding relief pits to the top and bottom buttons as well as the middle yellow. The neck has colored dots so if you're cool enough to be able to look away from the screen for even a nanosecond you can see where your fingers should be.

Internal signaling has gone digital, in what Neversoft Project Director Brian Bright says is an effort to reduce latency. Bad news for those who liked the "purple rope" for tapping or sliding: it's gone bye-bye. I'm thankful for that, myself. It's annoying when people slide or even wammy for the entire song!

If your greasy strumming fingers got in the way of nailing the solo in GH:Metallica's Fade to Black, the strum bar has been given a bit more texture, so down those Cheetos with reckless abandon and by all means, gobble up those nachos while your friend does the bass intro to Orion. Other than that they've made internal improvements to the strum mechanism to improve reliability.

Hopefully we'll get some track lists soon, and I hope it's better than GH4's. Here's a pic of the new GH5 drums, in case you missed it. [Engadget]