WAP, Vol. 88
Weekly Asian Post, Vol. 88
It's become apparent to me that my name has become synonymous amongst those I know with the video game Guitar Hero. When I get people who I've barely talked to in weeks or months asking me about the game, I am aware of the implication. Yes, it's true that I speak of it very highly, and perhaps too often. I write this not as a complaint but as a preface to this week's WAP, as it will be dedicated entirely to my review of Guitar Hero III, which came out this past Sunday for many game systems.
It took me until about Monday to beat, which is a complaint that I will address shortly, but because I've played every song, I can tell you that Guitar Hero III is a very VERY good game. I know, you'd expect nothing less to come out of my mouth, but let me explain myself. All of you who have talked to me in the last couple months know how much I hated Guitar Hero: Rocks the 80's. This collection of 30 songs was an almost worthless purchase, as only three or four songs brought forth any excitement for anybody. The most important part of the Guitar Hero games is clearly the song selection, a department where the newest edition to the series has done a solid job. The folks at Activision brilliantly put very recognizable songs into the first set of songs in career mode, including Foghat's "Slow Ride" and "Hit Me With Your Best Shot" by Pat Benatar. As you progress through the game, you will come upon some weaker selections that are not very well-known. Overall, though, Guitar Hero III has done the best job of all of the games in capturing variety of song styles. For those who love crashing and thrashing metal music, there are a good number of those songs in the setlist. On the other end of the spectrum are more Alternative Rock songs, such as Weezer's "My Name is Jonas". Also slipped in are some timeless classics, like "Welcome to the Jungle", one of my personal favorites to play.
Now to go over what is wrong. Activision made the mistake of removing co-op quickplay, meaning that all co-op play must be done in co-op Career mode. The bigger problem is that to play on each level, the career for that level must be beaten. For instance, my friends and I have beaten co-op career mode on Expert-Expert (both players on Expert), so if anyone wants to play on anything below Expert, they have to go through the process of earning all of the songs on that level. A true pain in the ass if you're looking to play one specific song with a friend and the career on that level has not been beaten. Besides the co-op faults, the single-player mode on Expert was disappointing at the end. The last song in single-player is a boss battle against "Lou" (Lucifer, pretty much) on a version of "The Devil Went Down to Georgia". Because of the way that they decided to implement this battle, I've read various opinions on forums and heard from friends the exact same sentiment: it is all luck. The song is so hard, not to mention dealing with the special effects of Battling, that victory in the battle depends entirely on nailing certain notes to get a certain powerup that only has a 1 in 6 chance of showing up. Just by how I explained it, you can tell how aggravated I am that I had to play the song probably 25-30 times to beat it.
Both of these things are faults that can be eliminated, as eventually co-op career will be beaten on every level for me and I have gotten past Lou in the single-player mode and beaten the game. With that in consideration, there's very little to complain about in Guitar Hero III.
To close, I will just give you the name of some songs I found to be very fun that you may want to try if you get the chance to play the game. Also, I will post the Wikipedia page including the names of all of the songs in Guitar Hero III. Enjoy, and thanks for tuning in.
My Favorite Songs:
- "The Metal" by Tenacious D
- "My Name Is Jonas" by Weezer
- "Cliffs of Dover" by Eric Johnson
- "3's and 7's" by Queens of the Stone Age
- "Bulls on Parade" by Rage Against the Machine (boring Bass part)
- "Through the Fire and Flames" by DragonForce (haven't beaten it yet, SICKLY hard)
- "Welcome to the Jungle" by Guns N' Roses
- "Sabotage" by the Beastie Boys
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_songs_in_Guitar_Hero_III:_Legends_of_Rock
It's become apparent to me that my name has become synonymous amongst those I know with the video game Guitar Hero. When I get people who I've barely talked to in weeks or months asking me about the game, I am aware of the implication. Yes, it's true that I speak of it very highly, and perhaps too often. I write this not as a complaint but as a preface to this week's WAP, as it will be dedicated entirely to my review of Guitar Hero III, which came out this past Sunday for many game systems.
It took me until about Monday to beat, which is a complaint that I will address shortly, but because I've played every song, I can tell you that Guitar Hero III is a very VERY good game. I know, you'd expect nothing less to come out of my mouth, but let me explain myself. All of you who have talked to me in the last couple months know how much I hated Guitar Hero: Rocks the 80's. This collection of 30 songs was an almost worthless purchase, as only three or four songs brought forth any excitement for anybody. The most important part of the Guitar Hero games is clearly the song selection, a department where the newest edition to the series has done a solid job. The folks at Activision brilliantly put very recognizable songs into the first set of songs in career mode, including Foghat's "Slow Ride" and "Hit Me With Your Best Shot" by Pat Benatar. As you progress through the game, you will come upon some weaker selections that are not very well-known. Overall, though, Guitar Hero III has done the best job of all of the games in capturing variety of song styles. For those who love crashing and thrashing metal music, there are a good number of those songs in the setlist. On the other end of the spectrum are more Alternative Rock songs, such as Weezer's "My Name is Jonas". Also slipped in are some timeless classics, like "Welcome to the Jungle", one of my personal favorites to play.
Now to go over what is wrong. Activision made the mistake of removing co-op quickplay, meaning that all co-op play must be done in co-op Career mode. The bigger problem is that to play on each level, the career for that level must be beaten. For instance, my friends and I have beaten co-op career mode on Expert-Expert (both players on Expert), so if anyone wants to play on anything below Expert, they have to go through the process of earning all of the songs on that level. A true pain in the ass if you're looking to play one specific song with a friend and the career on that level has not been beaten. Besides the co-op faults, the single-player mode on Expert was disappointing at the end. The last song in single-player is a boss battle against "Lou" (Lucifer, pretty much) on a version of "The Devil Went Down to Georgia". Because of the way that they decided to implement this battle, I've read various opinions on forums and heard from friends the exact same sentiment: it is all luck. The song is so hard, not to mention dealing with the special effects of Battling, that victory in the battle depends entirely on nailing certain notes to get a certain powerup that only has a 1 in 6 chance of showing up. Just by how I explained it, you can tell how aggravated I am that I had to play the song probably 25-30 times to beat it.
Both of these things are faults that can be eliminated, as eventually co-op career will be beaten on every level for me and I have gotten past Lou in the single-player mode and beaten the game. With that in consideration, there's very little to complain about in Guitar Hero III.
To close, I will just give you the name of some songs I found to be very fun that you may want to try if you get the chance to play the game. Also, I will post the Wikipedia page including the names of all of the songs in Guitar Hero III. Enjoy, and thanks for tuning in.
My Favorite Songs:
- "The Metal" by Tenacious D
- "My Name Is Jonas" by Weezer
- "Cliffs of Dover" by Eric Johnson
- "3's and 7's" by Queens of the Stone Age
- "Bulls on Parade" by Rage Against the Machine (boring Bass part)
- "Through the Fire and Flames" by DragonForce (haven't beaten it yet, SICKLY hard)
- "Welcome to the Jungle" by Guns N' Roses
- "Sabotage" by the Beastie Boys
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_songs_in_Guitar_Hero_III:_Legends_of_Rock