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| Judy Nails and a few of the backgrounds look good. Everything, not so much | Lars is by far the greatest rocker in the lineup, unless you like Death or Zeus more |
For those wondering whether to get GH3 because of the changed development team, put those fears aside. Publishers Activision and RedOctane retained most of the rights to the Guitar Hero franchise, meaning little has changed in terms of gameplay and format. In almost every way, GH3 is either the same or improved upon the previous games.
In almost every way, GH3 does exactly what GH2 did. Similar menu system, same controls, same gameplay. What is different are the graphics, which have more of the Neversoft feel. Suffice to say they are pitiful and actually worse in some cases than those found in GH2, but obviously the visuals aren’t what you look at when you play, so it’s a moot point. But when you see the drummer moving more like a robot than a human being, it isn’t because he’s a robot.
Guitar playing is exactly the same, with slight tweaks to enhance the experience. Notes still come down from the fret board at the speed of light on the harder difficulties, and far too slow when on easy. Playing multiple notes consecutively without strumming, called hammer-ons, has changed dramatically. Instead of the very stiff, perfectly timed note-hitting, previously required, it is now much more lenient meaning that it’s actually possible for someone to get the notes right without strumming every other note.
While some may question the validity in making it easier to do this based on the timing, it greatly enhances the playing experience. There’s nothing worse than hitting a line of notes and missing one because it was off by a fraction of a second when in reality most musicians cannot play their own music perfectly every time.
The new Gibson Les Paul guitar is similar to the GH2’s, though the fret buttons are shaped differently and the whammy has been improved and doesn’t sit in the way. The back button has also been moved so it can easily be used to activate star power instead of tilting the guitar. And finally, it’s wireless, so there’s never the chance of self-strangulation or tripping over the wire in the dark.
Following suit with GH2, GH3 uses cartoon animations for their introduction and sequences between moving from city to city. The animations are a great addition, giving just a bit of story behind all the gigs you play, but nothing so important that it’s worth thinking about. A quick laugh, and that’s all we need.
The track list is much more varied than GH2, with a lot of older and newer music, but not much in between. More often then not I felt out of place with the given song, mainly because it seemed like something I’d hear on an oldies station or because the guitar parts weren’t really meant to be played on a controller.
One example is Slipknot’s “Before I Forget.” The song itself is fine, one I personally like aplenty, but anything not part of the chorus is depressing to play. It simply isn’t music. Obviously, the parts make the whole, but GH3 is about guitar heroes, not band heroes. It may make a great song to listen to or to play in Rock Band with friends, but alone is very questionable.
A few songs fall into this category, though what’s more distressing is the huge difficulty gap between medium and hard. For anyone who managed to beat GH2 on hard and possibly half the songs on expert, that may not be enough to get through GH3 on hard mode. It is extremely difficult. Medium isn’t difficult at all with the mentioned experience, making hard that much more frustration when there’s one or two songs that you just can’t beat at the very end, but going through all of medium just to do it doesn’t seem worthwhile.
Cooperative play returns bigger than ever, now spanning through the ‘campaign’ as well, meaning a bassist/second guitarist can accompany you on your journey towards stardom. The differences aren’t huge between playing alone and with a friend, but it is certainly fun to yell at your buddy when he can’t play the game on easy while you rock out on hard or expert.
On top of the cooperative play is the new guitar battle mode, where you and a friend, online or locally, can duke it out to see who’s the better player. You can play it old school style, just testing who plays better and earns more points, or actually have a battle and take the other guy out. In that mode, instead of getting star power, there are power-ups that act as your weapons against the adversary. Seven in all, each has a specific and devastating function. One doubles the number of notes, another causes the frets to play in reverse, and yet another kills one fret button until you play it enough times.
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| The new Gibson Les Paul, a wireless guitar (finally), makes everything better | Everyone loves Bret Michaels. Beat the game and he'll sing a song for you |
Guitar Hero 3: Legends of Rock is the quintessential Guitar Hero game. It has everything the previous games had tweaked to peak performance, but it also carries the visuals of its PS2 brother and has a slightly weaker track list. However, the added battle mode, online play, and serious difficulty setting will do nothing but keep the hardcore fans rockin’ for days to come.
Top Game Moment:
TOP GAME MOMENT
Coming back to completely obliterate a friend in a battle, hands down humiliating him.
