Review of Guitar Hero 3
I've been trying to write some reviews to jump-start my writing. If I can manage not to clog up the keyboard with too much blood, I'll try to get through my first review. Why are my fingers bleeding?
Guitar Hero III (XBOX 360)
Launching at special release parties and midnight sales all over the country Sunday, October 28, the latest game in the Guitar Hero franchise came to three different console systems (Nintendo Wii, Microsoft XBOX 360, and Sony Playstation 3). Activision/Red Octane and developer Neversoft's Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock promises fans of the series more freedom with new, wireless controllers, more tracks, more unlockables, and more shreddin' ecstasy. But is it more better, or just more of the same?
The new, black Gibson Les Paul wireless controller certainly delivers as promised. It's been redesigned and tweaked so it's easier to play and looks a bit more like a real guitar. Check out our full review immediately following this one.
One of the strengths of the Guitar Hero franchise has been the killer set lists that include something for music fans of every guitar-driven genre. The set list of Guitar Hero 3 reads like a who's who of rock, and feels like someone took all the wish lists that have been floating around since the first game and crammed them into one awesome list. This is good, in that again, most people will find something to love (with some songs covered by the consistently good studio artists and even more performed by the original artists), but sometimes it just feels like the designers took too many random wish lists to cram together. It would have been nice to have a little more consistency or coherency to the set lists. Still, difficulty ramps more evenly than in the past, and it's hard to stay mad while finally power-chording to a 5-star finish of Heart's "Barracuda" or gleefully slaughtering our second favorite Stevie Ray Vaughan song (our favorite was in the original game).
Single-player career mode is similar to previous games, with four songs to pick from per set, initially. Beat a certain number, and you'll unlock an encore song, and the next level. This time, though, you can play all the songs on each difficulty level in career mode.
Also new to this version are "guitar battles," where you get to face off against a legend of rock. If you collect and use enough power-ups to make them fail before the end of a song, they'll become available to purchase in the store, and you'll get to duet with them on a song that they made famous!
One of the nice changes was to the unlock/purchase system. Money you earn at each difficulty goes into a common pool for that career -- unlock and pay for everything once and access it from any difficulty. Guitars, guitar skins, unlockable characters, multiple outfits -- and different colors for each outfit -- are even more numerous now. The bonus songs available to purchase once again spotlight slightly less famous bands that you'll probably enjoy getting to know.
Multiplayer adds "battle mode," too, letting you face off against your friends. Career mode in multiplayer has been tweaked a little -- the song list isn't exactly the same as in single-player mode, but picks songs from that list that give both players something to do. No way for us to tell exactly how that works out, yet, as we still only have the one guitar. We'll try to post an update when we find out, and as we see how downloadable content unfolds.
In the mean time, we'll keep cursing our way to 5-star fame on "Easy" and "Medium" and beating our heads against the wall that is "Hard". If you want to unlock stuff for us on "Expert," let us know, as this is a game we'll probably be keeping for quite a while, but practice and sheer stubbornness can only make up for so much...
(5 out of 5)
Guitar Hero III (XBOX 360)
Launching at special release parties and midnight sales all over the country Sunday, October 28, the latest game in the Guitar Hero franchise came to three different console systems (Nintendo Wii, Microsoft XBOX 360, and Sony Playstation 3). Activision/Red Octane and developer Neversoft's Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock promises fans of the series more freedom with new, wireless controllers, more tracks, more unlockables, and more shreddin' ecstasy. But is it more better, or just more of the same?
The new, black Gibson Les Paul wireless controller certainly delivers as promised. It's been redesigned and tweaked so it's easier to play and looks a bit more like a real guitar. Check out our full review immediately following this one.
One of the strengths of the Guitar Hero franchise has been the killer set lists that include something for music fans of every guitar-driven genre. The set list of Guitar Hero 3 reads like a who's who of rock, and feels like someone took all the wish lists that have been floating around since the first game and crammed them into one awesome list. This is good, in that again, most people will find something to love (with some songs covered by the consistently good studio artists and even more performed by the original artists), but sometimes it just feels like the designers took too many random wish lists to cram together. It would have been nice to have a little more consistency or coherency to the set lists. Still, difficulty ramps more evenly than in the past, and it's hard to stay mad while finally power-chording to a 5-star finish of Heart's "Barracuda" or gleefully slaughtering our second favorite Stevie Ray Vaughan song (our favorite was in the original game).
Single-player career mode is similar to previous games, with four songs to pick from per set, initially. Beat a certain number, and you'll unlock an encore song, and the next level. This time, though, you can play all the songs on each difficulty level in career mode.
Also new to this version are "guitar battles," where you get to face off against a legend of rock. If you collect and use enough power-ups to make them fail before the end of a song, they'll become available to purchase in the store, and you'll get to duet with them on a song that they made famous!
One of the nice changes was to the unlock/purchase system. Money you earn at each difficulty goes into a common pool for that career -- unlock and pay for everything once and access it from any difficulty. Guitars, guitar skins, unlockable characters, multiple outfits -- and different colors for each outfit -- are even more numerous now. The bonus songs available to purchase once again spotlight slightly less famous bands that you'll probably enjoy getting to know.
Multiplayer adds "battle mode," too, letting you face off against your friends. Career mode in multiplayer has been tweaked a little -- the song list isn't exactly the same as in single-player mode, but picks songs from that list that give both players something to do. No way for us to tell exactly how that works out, yet, as we still only have the one guitar. We'll try to post an update when we find out, and as we see how downloadable content unfolds.
In the mean time, we'll keep cursing our way to 5-star fame on "Easy" and "Medium" and beating our heads against the wall that is "Hard". If you want to unlock stuff for us on "Expert," let us know, as this is a game we'll probably be keeping for quite a while, but practice and sheer stubbornness can only make up for so much...
(5 out of 5)