Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock (Xbox 360)

...Rock?...'''

==It's Guitar Hero 3...Legends of Rock==

===Introduction===

''''Guitar hero 3 Legends of Rock'''' is the 3rd game in the _'Guitar Hero'_ franchise and undoubtedly the best, as expected. It was released on the 23rd of November in 2007 and was met with high expectations after their success with previous games.

In my opinion this game really doesn't disappoint, it provides you with ...
...being the one this games guitar is based upon. Also 2 other game characters are found either side of him those being _'Judy Nails'_ holding a 'Gibson SG' and _'Lars Ümlaüt'_ holding a 'Flying V' all of which can be bought during the game.

This cover really does paint the picture of Rock! Each of the characters on the front are presented well, _'Slash'_ with his signature top hat and dark shades giving him his usual rockish look, whilst ... more

Are You Ready To Rock?...

It's Guitar Hero 3...Legends of Rock

Introduction

'Guitar hero 3 Legends of Rock' is the 3rd game in the 'Guitar Hero' franchise and undoubtedly the best, as expected. It was released on the 23rd of November in 2007 and was met with high expectations after their success with previous games.

In my opinion this game really doesn't disappoint, it provides you with hours of delightful gameplay and defiantly the game for a party with a few mates. Also they now have the new 'Aerosmith' version of the game which I wish I could buy, but since I'm on a tight budget I think I'll leave it and just wait for 'Guitar Hero 4.'

Case

The case for 'Guitar Hero 3' is a very bold and bright one, the game title is printed at the top of the case and below are 3 of the games characters, the central one being 'Slash' holding his 'Gibson Les Paul' guitar, that being the one this games guitar is based upon. Also 2 other game characters are found either side of him those being 'Judy Nails' holding a 'Gibson SG' and 'Lars Ümlaüt' holding a 'Flying V' all of which can be bought during the game.

This cover really does paint the picture of Rock! Each of the characters on the front are presented well, 'Slash' with his signature top hat and dark shades giving him his usual rockish look, whilst the other 2 remain in an aggressive pose and ready to Rock!

On the back the usual game details are found, including some of the song titles, game features and the games capabilities with multiplayer features and such. Basically all that you would expect to find on a case back cover.

Guitar

The guitar used in this game is the 'Les Paul wireless controller'. Finally its wireless! Now you can really rock, you can jump around the room; do twists and slides across the room, just what we've always wanted!

On first glance the guitar looks dull and boring but then you realise that you have stickers! Now you can customise the look of your guitar and really make it look good.

Also covers for the guitar can be bought and used in the same way as face plates for the 'Xbox 360.' there are 4 covers that I have found but I am sure there are more, the ones I have found are the following:

1. 'Union Jack'
2. 'French Flames'
3. 'Roberto'
4. 'Backyard Babies''

These can be found on play.com and bought for £9.99 each, quite cheap and an effective way of making your guitar stand out and suit your style of rock.I have found one problem with the guitar and it is one that has recently begun to really annoy me. Occasionally either the green or the red button will fail to work correctly, when I press it, it does not come up on the screen. This will com and go and doesn't usually last very long, maybe a few seconds, but you can imagine the frustration in that happening whilst playing in a close, online battle when my button fails to work so I get 'death drained' instead. This has been the only fault with the guitar, otherwise it works fine.

Difficulties

There are 4 difficulties in the game, these are:

1. Easy
2. Medium
3. Hard
4. Expert

Easy

If you are new to the whole 'Guitar Hero' games then this is the difficulty for you. This difficulty involves only using the first three buttons, 'Green, Red and Yellow.' But after you have gotten used to it then Easy will become extremely boring as most of the guitar parts are missed out in order to make it easy.

You may find some slight challenges when it comes to the last 4 songs but there shouldn't be any real problems as it takes a lot of missed notes to actually fail.

Medium

This is a much more satisfying difficulty as now the 'Blue' note is also used meaning all 4 fingers are now in use. Medium also introduces more chords to play and the songs become much more challenging and interesting than easy.

More guitar parts are played into the songs and many more chords will be found. But at least at this difficulty you can use 4 fingers without moving your hand so there shouldn't be many real problems.

This is usually the difficulty I select whilst playing online as I can do all the songs comfortably and if I get annoyed then this is a nice difficulty to go back to.

Hard

This is where the game gets tough and you have to be an experienced 'Guitar Hero' player in order to complete the game on this difficulty. The songs towards the end of the career really become difficult and you will find your self having to practise some parts of songs before being able to complete it.

Also on Hard you will find all 5 notes being used and this can be a challenge for your little finger as you will find yourself sliding your hand down the guitar quite a lot as well as using a lot more 'Hammer-Ons' and 'Pull-Offs' and this really makes the mode a lot better as on some songs such as 'My Name Is Jonas' you will find yourself tapping more than plucking as the intro consists fully of hammer-ons and pull-offs and you could even try '2 Hand Tapping' a technique some say is required to do the intro to 'Through The Fire And Flames' on expert, which leads us onto the next difficulty.

Expert

Now if you're looking for a challenge and I mean a real challenge then Expert is the one for you. I can do some of the tracks, around 20 of them on expert, but completing the game will become an almost impossible task as my guitar hero skills aren't up to the requirements needed for expert.

You will find a lot more chords used in this and the fret board will move at a much faster pace giving you less time to react to the on-coming notes. There is one good point to expert and that is that you'll feel that you are playing the guitar parts as they should be played, with no notes being missed out, unlike on the other difficulties.

I believe if you can complete this on expert then you are a very good guitar heroer, if that is a usable term. If you have completed it, let me know!

Gameplay

If you've played one of the 'Guitar Hero' games before then you'll know that the gameplay is both simple and effective. When the song is selected and the game is loaded, you will see your guitarist you have selected along with the other band members, all of which can change but not by you.

Next the guitar fret board will appear on the screen, taking up most of the game visibility, leaving you and the rest of the band behind it to rock out. Notes will then slide down the screen and the idea is to hit them at the right time. This becomes increasingly difficult as you play at a high lever or more demanding songs.

As you continue to hit notes you will build up a note streak, this can result in several achievements such as, 'Bronze Streaker' which is get a 100 note streak and this continues until a 1000 note streak, which I have obtained doing the song Through The Fire And The Flames on easy.

As your note steak continues to build, you will also gain a multiplier bonus, this can go up to a x4 multiplier until you get something known as 'Star Power' this will double your multiplier and can pump it right up to x8! This can score you a high number of points very quickly but to get star power you have to hit special notes.

Star notes are shaped differently, instead of the traditional circle, you have them shaped like a star, as you would expect. You have to hit every one of the star notes in the sequence in order to obtain the power. Also whammying a held star note will give you more star power and the more you have the longer it will last when used.

Career Mode (Solo)

The career mode consists of the player completing 4 songs on each level and 8 levels make up the entire game, so a total of 32 songs have to be completed but once the 4 songs on a level are done an encore must be played in order to advance.

Occasionally you will have to verse someone in something that is new to Guitar Hero 3 called the 'Guitar Battle' this is where to players, in this case you and the computer, will complete a song against each in which you hope the other person fails.

You can help them to fail by collecting 'Battle Power' this works in the same way as star power but instead of getting a multiplier you will get a 'Battle Power' there are several battle powers, here they are:

'Broken String'

Breaks an opponent's string and makes them unable to play that note until that button has been pressed a certain amount of times, then it will remain active as normal.

'Difficulty Up'

Simply increases the difficulty by one stage, for example, from Hard to Expert.

'Whammy Bar'

The play must hit the whammy bar and continue to do so until they can continue to play notes as normal. This isn't a very effective one as it will go pretty quickly.

'Steal Power'

I don't see this one very often but I basically steals one of your opponent's battle powers, if they have one, if they do not then it would be a waste to use the power.

'Double Notes'

Doubles the amount of notes coming at an opponent turning everything into chords. This has to be the hardest one out of the lot, mainly if your opponent is soloing then the notes are doubled, that is something that I suffered whilst going up against the final boss on hard. The solo became impossible to my ability and I'd love to see someone else do it.

'Amp Overload'

This causes the notes to disappear and reappear quite frequently making it hard for the play to see what notes are coming up.

'Lefty Flip'

Can also be righty flip, depending on your opponent's settings. This flips the notes and can cause a lot of confusion to you or your opponent.

'Death Drain'

This only happens in sudden death and causes a drain down the fret board that once it reaches the bottom, will finish you off. This is something I have yet to survive unless I have activated it before my opponent but basically a skull type image will slide down the fret board, like the notes, but usually much slower, depending on how well you play, until it reaches the bottom on which you will lose.

There is one main problem with the solo career, as you play through it, it does become quite repetitive in the sense that there is no real story to it, no speech amongst characters and the fact that the band can change members due to the vocalist in a certain song. They do attempt the create a story with cut-scenes after each level, but this contains no dialog and just shows your band either getting signed, being on the news, signing a deal to do a video or getting taken to hell to fight Satan himself.

If there was a real story behind it then you would become more compelled to play as you want to see what happens next, but instead you play song after song with just different places. This is especially bad if you don't know the songs as you won't feel much enthusiasm since you don't know the rhythm and may not even like it.

But even with this lack of story, the games story is still fun as I liked almost every song and the thing that kept me going was the fact that once I did the level I was on, more songs would be available meaning more fun.

Track List (Career)

1. Starting Out Small

1. "Slow Ride" - Foghat
2. "Talk Dirty to Me" - Poison † (Vocals re-recorded by Bret Michaels)
3. "Hit Me with Your Best Shot" - Pat Benatar
4. "Story of My Life" - Social Distortion
5. "Rock and Roll All Nite" - Kiss (Encore)

2. Your First Real Gig

1. "Mississippi Queen" - Mountain
2. "School's Out" - Alice Cooper
3. "Sunshine of Your Love" - Cream
4. "Barracuda" - Heart
5. Guitar Battle vs. Tom Morello (Original Composition)
6. "Bulls on Parade" - Rage Against the Machine (Encore played with Tom Morello)

3. Making the Video

1. "When You Were Young" - The Killers
2. "Miss Murder" - AFI
3. "The Seeker" - The Who
4. "Lay Down" - Priestess
5. "Paint It, Black" - The Rolling Stones (Encore)

4. European Invasion

1. "Paranoid" - Black Sabbath
2. "Anarchy in the U.K." - Sex Pistols †
3. "Kool Thing" - Sonic Youth
4. "My Name Is Jonas" - Weezer
5. "Even Flow" - Pearl Jam (Encore)

5. Bighouse Blues

1. "Holiday in Cambodia" - Dead Kennedys
2. "Rock You Like a Hurricane" - Scorpions
3. "Same Old Song and Dance" - Aerosmith
4. 'La Grange' - ZZ Top
5. Guitar Battle vs. Slash
6. "Welcome to the Jungle" - Guns N' Roses (Encore played with Slash)

6. The Hottest Band on Earth

1. "Black Magic Woman" - Santana
2. "Cherub Rock" - The Smashing Pumpkins
3. "Black Sunshine" - White Zombie
4. "The Metal" - Tenacious D
5. "Pride and Joy" - Stevie Ray Vaughan (Encore)

7. Live in Japan

1. "Before I Forget" - Slipknot
2. "Stricken" - Disturbed
3. '3's & 7's' - Queens of the Stone Age
4. "Knights of Cydonia" - Muse
5. "Cult of Personality" - Living Colour (Encore)

8. Battle for Your Soul

1. "Raining Blood"- Slayer
2. "Cliffs of Dover" - Eric Johnson
3. "The Number of the Beast" - Iron Maiden
4. 'One' - Metallica
5. Guitar Battle vs. Lou (The Devil Went Down to Georgia)

Co-op Career Mode

Co-op career works in a similar way to the solo one; basically you and a friend, either using a second guitar or a controller, will go through the same level system as on the solo career. This can be quite boring and repetitive as you don't have guitar battles; instead they use a different song to the encore after the battles on the solo mode.

The videos have also changed and have a more co-op theme to it and the two of you are always seen as predetermined characters, the stories are slightly different, but again as with the solo career, the videos only quickly show how you got from one venue to another but you end up in the same predicaments in the end as in the solo career, you play in hell for Satan.

There is a lot more enjoyment playing this with a friend than alone as you have much more fun rocking out together, but one of you has to place bass and no one wants to play bass.

Online Play

Now if you're hooked up to 'Xbox Live' which most people are these days, then you have an extra option available to you.

When you go on 'Xbox Live' from the start menu of the game, you will see another menu with various options involving Xbox Live. You can play a game, either a quick player match or quick rank match and also you can create a specified game or search for that certain game you want. You can also look up the leaderboards to see where you rank against the rest of the world as well as download content for the game such as songs.

There are 4 game modes online, they are:

Co-op
Battle
Pro Face-Off
Face-Off

'Co-op'

This is where you can work on a song together over 'Xbox Live' instead of going against someone. This can gain you achievements and it is sometimes more fun to work with a friend than against them.

'Battle'

This is just like a 'Boss Battle' but instead against another person. Can prove to be quite fun and hard at times as battles provide you with sticky situations as different powers are used. Achievements are gained in this too, one in particular is get a 150 note streak whilst in the battle, this sounds easy but when your opponent keeps sending down attacks then it can prove quite tricky.

'Pro Face-Off'

This is like a mix between 'Battle' and the regular game. Instead of getting powers and trying to make your opponent mess up, you simply gain star power like usual and its just who ever does the best wins, as simple as that. Also since its Pro Face-Off the level has already been set by the host, so you can to do it at their level or not at all.

'Face-Off'

This is the same as the 'Pro Face-Off' but instead of having a predetermined difficulty, the players both select a level, one can do easy whilst the other does expert. Obviously you want to do the level that gains you the highest score, but this can be hard as you'll find a lot of good players who just do expert really easily and pick a song you struggle to do on hard.

The online play is basic yet very enjoyable, with many achievements getting you to win quite a few games in a row, both with the guitar and the controller. So if you're an achievement hunter then there are a few hours of gameplay for you to try and get all the achievements.

The Store

This is a place in the game where you can purchase things to enrich your gameplay and increase your level of enjoyment giving you more hours of excitement.

There are 8 categories of the store, those are the following:

1. 'Guitars'
2. 'Finishes'
3. 'Songs'
4. 'Characters'
5. 'Outfits'
6. 'Styles'
7. 'Videos'
8. 'Downloads'

Guitars

The number of guitars that can be bought in the game is quite phenomenal. There are several guitars that are unlocked by completing certain tasks or achievements, such as the 'Jolly Rodger' guitar that is unlocked once the achievement 'Rock Guru' is completed, this is just 5 star every song on Medium difficulty.

There are also special guitars that are unlocked once a character is bought. These guitars are often very weird and only really fit in with the character that it has been unlocked for, but they are still cool guitars to be used and does add a little more to the game.

Finishes

Now along with buying a brand new guitar, you can also buy finishes. This work in the same way as buying a faceplate for your real guitar, all it does is change the style or colour of your guitar. This is just a simple method of giving the game another special touch that makes it that little bit better.

There are various amounts of finishes, depending on the guitar you want a finish for. Personally I enjoy the normal guitars, such as the 'X-Plorer' with an Ebony finish, the 'Gibson SG', the 'Les Paul Custom' with a 'Zakk Wylde' finish and the 'V-Factor'.

Songs

These songs can be bought from the shop in the song section. Most of these tracks are ones I have never heard of, but they do have the occasional recognised track such as My Curse by Killswitch Engage. These songs are quite cheap, sorry I can't remember the actual price but I have bought them all and I remember doing it early on so it isn't that much, only around £250 per song, so not that bad. Here are all the bonus songs:

'Avalancha' - Héroes del Silencio
'Can't Be Saved' - Senses Fail
'Closer' - Lacuna Coil
'Don't Hold Back' - The Sleeping
'Down N' Dirty' - LA Sum Lords
'F.C.P.R.E.M.I.X' - The Fall of Troy
'Generation Rock' - Revolverheld
'Go That Far' - Bret Michaels Band
'Heir Kommt Alex' - Die Toten Hosen
'I'm In The Band' - Hellacopters
'Impulse' - An Endless Sporadic
'In Love' - Scouts of St. Sebastian
'In The Belly of a Shark' - Gallows
'Mauvais Garçon' - Naast
'Metal Heavy Lady' - Lions
'Minus Celsius' - Backyard Babies
'My Curse' - Killswitch Engage
'Nothing For Me Here' - Dope
'Prayer of the Refugee' - Rise Against
'Radio Song' - Suerbus
'Ruby' - Kaiser Chiefs
'She Bangs the Drums' - The Stone Roses
'Take This Life' - In Flames
'The Way It Ends' - Prototype
'Through the Fire and Flames' - DragonForce

Characters

There are 8 characters in the game to begin with, these are the following:

1. 'Johnny Napalm'
2. 'Judy Nails'
3. 'Axel Steel'
4. 'Izzy Sparks'
5. 'Casey Lynch'
6. 'Lars Ümlaüt'
7. 'Xavier Stone'
8. 'Midori'

Also 5 other characters can be purchased but these have to be unlocked before they can be bought. 'Slash',''''Tom Morello'''' and 'Lou the Devil' are unlocked as you beat them in guitar battles, whilst other characters such as 'The God of Rock' and 'The Grim Reaper' are unlocked through other means, but I fail to remember how.

Each of these characters can cost between £10,000 and £20,000 which is a fair price considering the amount that you earn through all of the career modes, providing you can actually do most of Hard and Expert.

My personal favourite is Izzy Sparks in his Zebra outfit with a James Hetfeild style guitar with the Ebony finish, just brilliant, how can you not enjoy doing the song 'One' when your guitar looks like James Hetfeild's.

Outfits

Ever felt your character has the right bases for a good image but just doesn't quite cut it for you. Well maybe you need some style. This, to me, is one of the best parts to the shop, guitars being the best of course. This allows you to change your character from a rocker to a peacock and go for the glam metal approach.

By allowing players to customise their character more it opens a new level of gaming enjoyment as you don't find yourself looking at the same dude for each gig you play at. Instead you may fancy going with 'Slash' or even 'The God of Rock' or sometimes simply changing the style to a heavier, meaner approach, really the possibilities are vast so enjoy this one.

Styles

Style is similar to 'Outfits' but consists of minor alterations to a certain outfit, instead of creating a whole new one. This simply means a colour change to the characters look, like with my guy 'Izzy' I have selected 'The Rockstar' look but I don't like the standard 'Leopard' design, so I bought the 'Zebra' one and now my guy is dressed in black and white and goes much better with my guitar.

This again gives the player more options and increases the enjoyment level as well as the total amount of time you will play on this game as you can almost have a new look for your guy for each gig.

Videos

These really do give the game an added bonus especially if you are a fan of 'Guns N' Roses' with 'Slash' or 'Rage Against the Machine' star 'Tom Morello.' These videos give an insight to the games creation, with the motion capture suits along with an interview with 'The Sex Pistols.'

The videos are relatively cheap, can't remember how much, but I don't remember paying a great deal for them and they are defiantly worth the price. All in all though these videos just make this game that touch bit better.

Downloads

This is where you can access downloadable tracks from the 'Xbox Live Marketplace', these songs usually come at a price but occasionally you'll get the odd song that is free, that being '_The Halo Theme_', things like the guitar battles from 'Slash' and 'Tom Morello.'

The ones that are charged for normally come in a pack of 3 such as the 'Modern Metal Pack'; this consists of 'Almost Easy' by 'Avenged Sevenfold', 'Hole in the Earth' by 'Deftones' and 'The Arsonist' by 'Thrice.'

By making songs available on the marketplace this opens up a whole new level of Gameplay as many more songs can now be added and downloaded this is evident with the success of 'Rock Band' that now has fully downloadable albums, the first being 'Judas Priest' - 'Screaming For Vengeance' which, for the record, is an amazing album. Also 'Guitar Hero' lacks in what rivals 'Rock Band' provides as they don't even come close to the number of tracks 'Rock Band' has available to download despite being out longer.

Through The Fire And Flames

This is a song that becomes playable after you have completed the campaign on any difficulty. You will play the song through as the credits are shown and this is your first chance to practice it without being booed off stage.

This is, without doubt, the most challenging song on the game, hard enough that they even included an achievement for it called 'The Inhuman Achievement.' This basically asks the player to complete the song on expert. I have tried this but currently I fail after 2% of the song.

As of yet, know one has completed the song 100% on expert, but there are people with very high scores. There is also another achievement for his song called 'Star Mania' this is awarded when star power is activated 3 times on 'Through The Fire And Flames' on expert. Possibly the 3rd hardest achievement on the game, completing the game on expert being 2nd and actually completing the cong being 1st.

Conclusion

I presume all you Guitar Hero fans are looking forward to seeing if the rumours are true about the Metallica version after Guitar Hero 4. If the rumours become true then I believe we'll all be in for a treat.

So after playing this game since around March and I'm still enjoying it then you can see that it has hours of gameplay and well worth the value.

The graphics are good but it isn't the main part of the game as you are not concentrating on the characters in the background, unless watching someone else, so they are not really that important. Still the effort has been made and they are good enough and some of the moves the characters make with the guitar are enjoyable to watch. Slash and Tom Morello look realistic and they do give something else to the game since they are recognisable characters and people you really want to beat.

The games enjoyment level is very high as who doesn't enjoy playing their favourite tracks whilst jumping around the room, doing insane solos whilst sliding onto your knees in front of the TV or maybe just playing 'One' by 'Metallica' over and over again since it's the best song on the game. With stuff like this to do it has to be said it is a really enjoyable game and when you get 2 guitars and a few friends over then the game turns into a rockfest.

The games sound is good as if you miss a note or just strum nothing then the game makes a 'clang' noise like a regular guitar would if you messed up a note. Also the crowds cheering does make the game feel a little bit more live than just playing a normal track. The crowd still isn't as good as 'Rock Band' which has the crowd singing along o some parts of songs. On the menu you will hear some songs from the game such as 'Before I Forget' by 'Slipknot' whilst you are deciding what to do; this just gives you something nice to listen to.

Sound isn't really an issue with this game as you are not paying much attention to background noise as you are concentrating on the notes flying down the fret board.

If anything, this game really value you for money, it will probably cost you around £60 as you are buying a wireless guitar as well so it is worth the money. Also you get hours and hours of gameplay along with a guitar that can then be used for 'Rock band' and 'Guitar Hero 2' this is good since these games can be bought without their instruments therefore are cheaper and then you get another set of achievements along with a load more tracks to enjoy.

Overall this is a really enjoyable, satisfying game that does provide you with months of quality gameplay. You'll find yourself getting good in no time then you can move onto the next difficulty and if you're stuck there then there is always the online option which provides you with a few achievements and even more hours of gameplay with a variety of people.

Worth the money and I'd advise you to buy this game if you're a fan of the Guitar Hero games or are just interested in a game with a bit more pizzazz.

Rating

Gameplay - 9
Graphics - 8
Enjoyment - 8
Sound - 8
Value - 9

Total 42/50 = 84%

Sorry for writing so much, but this is what I like to call an in-depth, almost everything you need to know sort of review, although I doubt half of the people who have rated or commented this have read it but I do appreciate the rates and the comments, even though most will just say nice review. Sorry for ranting but this is what Ciao is becoming as more and more people only want their reviews read and don't care about other peoples reviews. Thanks none the less.

I may even do a video review on this soon, but don't worry, it wont be this long, I just think it would be easier to show people than to talk about it.

Rampant_Ross ™ 2008
Thanks Ciao! 

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