Interviews// Guitar Hero: Warriors of Rock

For all of the game's additions, there are also a few removals - one particular change is the absence of real-life artists. Since Guitar Hero World Tour the franchise has been a means for karaoke rockers to 'become' some of the most well-known artists on stage.

Activision has caught criticism from some musicians – whilst being taken to court by others – over the fact that icons such as Gwen Stefani can be used to perform songs from other bands.

Brian told me that the removal of the celebrities had less to do with the legal action being taken against the publisher, and more the desire for the studio to have creative freedom over what they can do with the characters in the game.

Which, despite sounding curious, does make some sense – with the beastly transformations Neversoft intended for each warrior, it would have made rights management quite difficult. Zombie Kurt Cobain, anyone? Talk about controversy.

Speaking of which, Brian said of Activision's current situation; “For World Tour, we had Ozzy (Osbourne) and Jimi Hendrix and others, but the only person you couldn't play as was Jimi [due to contract obligations]. And for gamers that kind of sucked, because you couldn't play as him online, you couldn't make a setlist and pick Jimi... you could only play as him in that one song.

“So later on we said, as a studio, that we wanted to have the right to let gamers play as their favourite rock stars in the game. [We got that], and so the fact that some kid can put a Youtube video up of Kurt Cobain playing some song that Kurt Cobain may or may not have liked, and it pisses people off... you can't win. To get Kurt Cobain fans having a go at us, it's ridiculous. We have Johnny Cash in there, and I don't see people complaining about that.”

Rather than use their likenesses for play in the game, Neversoft are asking celebrities to lend their talents in other ways. The Quest mode is being narrated by KISS frontman Gene Simmons, while Megadeth shredder Dave Mustaine has worked with the studio to create a track called 'Sudden Death' especially for Warriors of Rock. I saw it being played on stage, and it's completely nuts – several solos leading into one another at full speed for several minutes will keep everyone in the band occupied throughout.

Ironically, when it came to asking Mustaine for his help in the game, he originally refused because he thought his contribution would involve signing his likeness away. “We showed Dave a bunch of concept art, gave him the script, told him about some of the songs we were going after, and he actually said 'I don't want to be in this game, it doesn't make any sense to be in this universe,'” Brian recalled.

“We told him 'No no, we don't want you in the game, we want you to write original music.' and he was like 'Hell yeah.' So he studied up and read the story we had, and he wrote the lyrics and the song and send it to us for feedback. The song's like a level, so we weren't telling him to change chord structure or anything like that – just ideas to make the level more fun, like extending a solo, creating new ones, tuning the editing, that sort of thing. He got the process from day one, and was totally cool about it.”

It seems strange to say it, but there's something of a spark to when I spoke to Brian this year than when I sat down with him in 2009 to talk about Guitar Hero 5. In refocusing its efforts, Neversoft has found a way to finally transform the aging format of the music series. With the fantastic artwork, excellent setlist (including Nine Inch Nails, Black Sabbath, Children of Bodom and – of course – Megadeth) and effort to include replayability in its huge back catalogue, it seems that the studio is finally able to call the franchise its own since taking Harmonix's place with World Tour.

Will there be a chance for internal celebration when it's complete? Now that I think of it, does the team get to hang out with the Activision top brass with Guitar Hero parties? “Yeah, every year Neversoft has a Christmas party in Las Vegas and Bobby [Kotick, Activision CEO]'s been out to a few of them. He's flown guys from our studio over on his private jet, which is really cool,” said Brian.

Bobby Kotick, eh? Knowing where the real story was, I asked if the cheery executive is much of a party animal. “I wouldn't like to say,” the spoilsport Brian said, before declaring, “but [Neversoft president] Joel Jewett sure is. One time we had a Christmas party - Bobby and Brian [Kelly, Activision co-chairman] were there – where everyone had wigs. It was one of those metal school play deals where everyone's in a cover band.

"And Joel got a little drunk, went on stage, took his wig off and put it between his legs shouting 'Anyone like my p***y!?' And Bobby's right there! We had a woman president at the time too and she was totally shocked. It was f*cking awesome.”

Nice to know that Activision suffers from the office party scandals just like the rest of us, although Joel Jewett might be having words with Brian now. “Yeah, I just spilled the beans on it,” he chuckles, “but it was a few years ago though, so it's alright.”