I hope this doesn't start a middle school flame war in here, but after not ever being able to track down a legacy bundle version of RB4, I decided to refund my digital RB4 purchase and just follow through with my GCU pre-order of Guitar Hero Live...and I have to say, I'm actually really, really liking the game so far
(Sorry this is so long. It's basically my Guitar Hero Live review, haha)
Where RB4 seemed to very much play it safe and follow the "if it ain't broke..." approach, GHL is a pretty freaking ballsy game. Starting with the guitar controller...I LOVE it. Maybe it's being a musician and playing guitar in real life, but this controller is challenging on a whole new level. In some ways, I actually think it might be harder than really playing guitar, lol...but getting your brain to accept that going left/right quickly is no longer the skill...and that it's up/down now...and the various combinations that can be made from that, is a total mind

.
It's exactly what they said it is. It can be super simple just hopping from one button to the next, but when they throw in barre chords and stuff that is like power chords, but inverting and mirroring for each string, it gets so hard and confusing, haha.
I'm also loving GHTV. It's fantastic. It's MTV when MTV was MTV...except you can play Guitar Hero over it. People have been trying to criticize it as pay to play, but that's not it at all. Yes, you have "play tokens" that you can buy (though I've already earned 20 in like an hour) but those only count if you want to select a specific song. If you're cool with doing random stuff (which for me, has become more fun anyway...even in RB), you can pick between two different channels that basically have music "shows" all day long, and play "for free".
These shows can be 30 minutes or one hour long and just continuously play videos that you can jump in or jump out of at any time. Yes, you can't pause the track. If you put the controller down, the music keeps going...and you just get whatever score you get. As an example, right now the show on channel 1 is "Incredible Hits" and is currently playing Boston's "More Than A Feeling". Channel 2 is "Pop Hour" and is currently playing Ed Sheeran's "Sing". (and they just finished up a Metal show and "2000-2010 Hits").
I think the thing I love about it the most is how unlike any previous Guitar Hero game this feels like. It just feels like a controller and a music service that I can jam to any time I want. Yeah, there's no full band. But it feels innovative in its simplicity. It's almost the exact opposite of where RB4 went, and so far, I think I might like it more. Time will tell how repetitive GHTV will get...but if they can add music to it regularly, it could be an incredible alternative to DLC.
I'm honestly shocked how enjoyable this game is so far. I think Activision finally got it right.