Guitar Hero: Metallica [PS2]

As mentioned, the game contains a huge amount of fan service by way of videos, images and more. One of the coolest elements here are the Metallifacts, bits of information that come up like VH1's Pop-Up Video as the game plays a virtual concert for you. After you finish a song that has Metallifacts assigned to it, you can then watch (but not play since you'll be reading) the game play the song for you with cinematic camera cuts and all that jazz. Information bubbles come up as the song plays, giving you insight into the lyrics, what the band was doing when it was recorded, inspiration notes and so on and so forth. For fans of the band, it gives you an inside and intimate look at the songs that you've probably never seen before.

Outside of that, you can also watch a number of behind-the-scenes videos that give you a glimpse at how the game was made, including looks at the band as they play tracks in motion capture suits. You'll also find scraps of papers containing notes from shows, lyric sheets, photos and lots more to peruse through. It's almost like a multimedia diary that you can browse through at your leisure. Very cool stuff indeed.

One thing about the game that I'm very happy with, especially after playing it for a number of hours, is the quality of the animation and attention to detail with regards to the band members. There's still a little bit of that signature exaggerated look going on, but there's no mistaking the four fellas for anyone but Metallica. The motion capture sessions that I mentioned above were implemented in the game beautifully, and anyone who has watched the band for an extended period of time will immediately recognize each members' movement nuances. From James' head tilts while singing softer segments to the way he can jump in and off the mic, to Kirk's posture during a blistering solo and even down to Lars' aggressive attack of the drums are here and shown off beautifully. Really, the guys at Neversoft seem to have spent a ton of time getting this right, and it really shows.

One last notable thing I want to mention so that you know to look for it in the retail release is the Drum Over option. Drum Over allows you to play a song, on the drums obviously, without any assigned notes to play. You can play whatever you want without having to worry about failing, which is awesome. The game uses samples from the original track, so if you play "For Whom the Bell Tolls", the drums will sound like they did on Ride the Lightning. Here's the catch though: the option isn't available from the start. It's actually a cheat code that you need to enter. It was designed this way as whatever you score in the mode obviously doesn't jive with the leaderboards, so tucking it away as an unlockable mode was Neversoft's way of making sure people understood that and weren't confused. It remains to be seen how well known Neversoft makes this mode after release and if casual gamers will know to hunt down the code, but now you know at least.

Guitar Hero: Metallica ships in just over two weeks, hitting stores on Sunday, March 29th. Start getting ready now because you're going to need to be warmed up to tackle some of these tracks.

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