25 year old male from near London, involved in the web industry.
I'm a bit of a geek and a huge m...
25 year old male from near London, involved in the web industry.
I'm a bit of a geek and a huge music fan, so generally my reviews will fall into one of those categories.
Member since:15.07.2006
Reviews:25
If you've been living under a rock for the last few years, you may not know what "Guitar Hero" is. I, too, was ignorant to the ways of Guitar Hero until I (rather unfortunately) discovered a friend playing it. I was at that moment, immediately hooked.
Guitar Hero is similar to "Dance, Dance, Revolution" in that you listen to music and button sequences fly past the screen. You have to hit the buttons in order, and at the right time, in order to rack up the points. Admittedly this doesn't sound very good, but when you consider that your controller in this instance is a Les Gibson plastic guitar controller , and the music is a bad ass rock track that you're probably more than familiar with, it makes it hugely entertaining! With the guitar controller, not only do you have to press the corresponding button at the correct time, you also have to "strum" using the plastic strummer on the guitar. Hit a long note? You can even use the "whammy" bar to create distortion and sustain on those long notes! The way Guitar Hero is developed, as you hit the notes they are indeed "played" on your console. If you miss the notes, no sound is played, therefore the song begins to slowly fall apart. If you miss too many notes, you will displease the crowd, and your "rock meter" will fall into the red - ending the game.
There are some special notes that appear sometimes, called "star power" notes. If you hit all the notes in the star power sequences in time, without a mistake, you generate star power. Get enough star power, and if you pull your guitar up into the air, the crowd will go wild and you can rock out to double points for a brief period of time.
Ultimately, the more accurate and "in time" you are when hitting the notes, the more points you'll get and the happier the crowd will be. In career mode, the better you are the more money you will earn, too.
Guitar Hero allows YOU to become a Rock Guitar God without leaving the comfort of your home, and without actually needing any guitar lessons. It won't teach you how to play the guitar (as the notes don't correspond at all) but it's a hugely entertaining game that will most definitely improve hand-eye co-ordination, which is important for children. It will also, no doubt, develop a level of music appreciation which I tool feel is important.
The great thing about the Guitar Hero series is that there are 4 different difficulty levels; Easy, Medium, Hard and Expert. This allows the games to be playable by pretty much anyone who can pick up the guitar. I've seen 6 year olds play the game on Easy, and I've seen 30 year olds attempt to give themselves a heart-attack by trying to keep up wi th the guitar solo's on experts. It's literally a game for anyone with a love of music, not just necessarily "old" rock music. Due to the way the increased difficulties add an extra 'note' to the sequences,
there is quite an excellent learning curve on the game. It's literally a case of once you've cracked one difficulty, move onto another and spend 3-4 weeks trying to perfect that. If you haven't sprained your wrist by then, you're well on your way to perfection. With such varied difficulties, it's a game the kids and grandpa could play.
So, now we know what Guitar Hero is, what does Guitar Hero 3 bring to the table?
New Guitar: In GH3 you now have the option to use a wireless guitar - by getting one with the game. Unfortunately there's not really much to say about the guitar, except It's.... wireless! It's a different model this time around, being the Gibson Les Paul, but it has the same standard controls. Though being wireless may be more convenient for some, and will allow you to now run around your bedroom pretending to be Freddie Mercury, instead of being forced to sit/stand fairly stationary in front of the TV, it's the battery life that concerns me. Guitar Hero is not really the kind of game you want your batteries to die during. You could be in the middle of a complex 500+ note guitar solo and wham.... batteries gone, you gotta start over again. Fortunately, you get plenty of warning with the Xbox 360 so this is rarely a problem. Just make sure you have plenty of battery packs at the ready. In addition to being wireless, the new guitar also has a detachable neck, to provide easier storage and transportation. This is a great feature, because I can now get the guitar into a backpack, woohoo! I can't tell you how many strange looks I've received walking down the road with a plastic guitar. Anyway, the guitar is of the usual high quality you'd expect from this series, and it can seriously take a beating. The detachable neck does cause a few technical issues, if you're unlucky, so make sure it's connectors are clean when you attach it!
Yes, yes, older guitars will indeed work with Guitar Hero 3 - so don't fret (pun intended).
Songs: We have a lot of new tracks, most of which are intended to be based upon "rock legends" as the title of the game suggests. Unfortunately, perhaps it's just me, but I don't really class a lot of these tracks as legendary. They could have certainly picked more well-known tracks. Let's take a look at what we have:
1. Starting Out Small
* "Slow Ride" - Foghat * "Talk Dirty to Me" - Poison † (Vocals re-recorded by Bret Michaels) * "Hit Me with Your Best Shot" - Pat Benatar * "Story of My Life" - Social Distortion * "Rock and Roll All Nite" - Kiss (Encore)
2. Your First Real Gig
* "Mississippi Queen" - Mountain * "School's Out" - Alice Cooper * "Sunshine of Your Love" - Cream * "Barracuda" - Heart * Guitar Battle vs. Tom Morello (Original Composition) * "Bulls on Parade" - Rage Against the Machine (Encore played with Tom Morello)
3. Making the Video
* "When You Were Young" - The Killers * "Miss Murder" - AFI * "The Seeker" - The Who * "Lay Down" - Priestess * "Paint It, Black" - The Rolling Stones (Encore)
4. European Invasion
* "Paranoid" - Black Sabbath * "Anarchy in the U.K." - Sex Pistols † * "Kool Thing" - Sonic Youth * "My Name Is Jonas" - Weezer * "Even Flow" - Pearl Jam (Encore)
5. Bighouse Blues
* "Holiday in Cambodia" - Dead Kennedys * "Rock You Like a Hurricane" - Scorpions * "Same Old Song and Dance" - Aerosmith * "La Grange" - ZZ Top * Guitar Battle vs. Slash (Original Composition) * "Welcome to the Jungle" - Guns N' Roses (Encore played with Slash)
6. The Hottest Band on Earth
* "Black Magic Woman" - Santana * "Cherub Rock" - The Smashing Pumpkins * "Black Sunshine" - White Zombie * "The Metal" - Tenacious D * "Pride and Joy" - Stevie Ray Vaughan (Encore)
7. Live in Japan
* "Before I Forget" - Slipknot * "Stricken" - Disturbed * "3's & 7's" - Queens of the Stone Age * "Knights of Cydonia" - Muse * "Cult of Personality" - Living Colour † (Encore)
8. Battle for Your Soul
* "Raining Blood" - Slayer * "Cliffs of Dover" - Eric Johnson * "The Number of the Beast" - Iron Maiden * "One" - Metallica * Guitar Battle vs. Lou (The Devil Went Down to Georgia - Steve Ouimette) (Inspired by the Charlie Daniels Band)
See, looking at that list, I'm really not impressed. Yes, there's some excellent guitar work on those tracks, but a lot of those songs will be unfamiliar to anyone but the fans of those bands. Fortunately, with Guitar Hero, this is a short-term problem. Once you're familiar with the song then the tracks become easier to play, because you're aware of the timing of the notes. When you refer to your product as "Legends of Rock", though, I'd expect a much better track list.
New Modes: As you may be able to see, there is now a "Guitar Battle" mode. What this essentially means is that a rock legend will take the stage and challenge you to a battle. You will both take turns in playing parts of a specially created "Guitar Battle" song written by the legend you're competing with. During the sequences you are playing, there are power-ups laid out which you can use to your opponents disadvantage. The idea is to get your opponents "rock" bar into the red and force them off the stage, only then can you win. There is one small catch, though.... you need to do it before your opponent gets to the final parts of the track. If they make it this far, they automatically force a "Death Drain" on you which as the name suggests... will force you to lose by sucking your rock bar all the way to the red.
You can store up to 4 "power-ups" at any one time, and unleash all of them simultaneously if you wish. Be warned, though, your opponent can do the same! What power-ups are there?
* Broken string: One fret button on the opponent's guitar will not work until it is fixed (by rapidly tapping the button). * Difficulty up: The opponent will play the song on an increased difficulty for a short duration of time (except for expert difficulty). * Amp overload: The fret board will shake and cause the notes to blink, making the scrolling notes difficult to read. * Whammy bar: The opponent will have to use the whammy bar repeatedly before he/she can play notes again. * Steal power: This will steal your opponent's power-up (this will be lost if used when the opponent has no power-up). * Double notes: The opponent will have to play any single note as a two-button chord, and any two-button chord as a three-button chord for a short amount of time. * Lefty/Righty flip: The fret board will be mirrored, requiring the attacked player to change his or her handedness. * Death Drain: After the players go into Sudden Death mode, all Battle Powers turn into unstoppable Death Drain attacks. When Death Drain is unleashed upon the opponent, a figure resembling a winged Grim Reaper will appear to have a constant negative influence on their opponent's rock meter. Every mistake the player makes accelerates their rock meter drain, and eventually the Grim Reaper will block the player's view of the frets and thus the player will fail, since their Rock Meter will be put past the failing red range.
The Guitar Battles can be very entertaining if there are 2 of you who are fairly experienced with Guitar Hero. I have no doubt that this will be the cause of many a fight at home. Prepare your children. After winning the Guitar Battle, in career mode you can then play an encore with the legend you've just opened a can on. This character will then become "unlocked" and purchasable in the store. Want to play as Slash from Guns 'n Roses? No problem, you just have to beat him first! Bwuahahaha.
There is also now a co-op career mode, which contains many unique co-op songs. This is a great idea, and allows you to play lead guitar, and a friend to play either ryhthm or bass guitar! Now 2 of you can get heavily involved in the game. Co-op mode has it's own achievements and rewards (tracks), so it's worth doing if you can. This leads me to one very annoying key point of Guitar Hero 3: some of the tracks can ONLY be played/unlocked in co-op career mode. There's no way to purchase them with career money, or unlock them through other means. This is very disappointing, as some of the co-op tracks are excellent and would be great to play on my own. Shame on you.
With around 30 tracks to purchase in the career store, there's certainly plenty to keep you busy in Guitar Hero 3. Tons more downloadable content has been rumoured, so this proves for a potentially very exciting release.
In a nutshell, this is a sequel that stands strongly in the series, and contains all of the usual features you'd expect with the additional of a couple of fresh novelties. There is nothing groundbreakingly different here, which is a positive thing, because it's difficult to improve on an already winning formula. I am disappointed with the track listing, but with the addition of downloadable content, things may improve in the future.
If you're new to Guitar Hero, you will definitely enjoy this game. I would recommend starting with Guitar Hero 2 instead, to become more acquainted with it, but it's accessible to everyone. If you're a Guitar Hero fan, you will love this for the handful of new characters and the 70+ new tracks. It's time to retrieve the spandex from your wardrobe and prepare to rock!
How helpful would this review be to a person making a buying decision? Rating guidelines
Nice review, but you say that its called 'Legends of Rock' and there isn't many good songs, but look at the bands there: Aerosmith (legends), Metallica, Iron Maiden, The Rolling Stones, Slayer, Scorpions, ZZ top, Black sabbath and Guns N' Roses. So some really famous, legendary rock/metal bands. Personaly i love the track list, but it's your opinion. Nice review tho
John_Connor 14.04.2008 13:35
good review but you didn't list like half of the songs :( (the extra ones you buy with money in career mode) other than that great!
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Advantages: Great fun, You will like it even if you don't like Guitars, Good multiplayer laughs Disadvantages: Expensive, Have to unlock Co - Op songs in Co - Op mode
Advantages: Great fun, You will like it even if you don't like Guitars, Good multiplayer laughs Disadvantages: Expensive, Have to unlock Co - Op songs in Co - Op mode
Nov 9th, 2007
exceptional by (5%):
very helpful by (95%):
![Guitar Hero 3: Legends Of Rock [Software Only] Xbox 360](http://picnica.ciao.com/uk/100413834.jpg)
