Genre: Music
Age: 12
Release: October
Platforms: 360, PS3, Windows, Wii
Players: 1 / 2
In 2007 alone we've already seen Guitar Hero 2 release on Xbox 360 and Guitar Hero Encore: Rocks the '80s on PS2, but that hasn't stopped the demand for more. Enter Guitar Hero 3, the first in the franchise made by development studio Neversoft after the former team, Harmonix, was snatched up by MTV Games. You can toss out any fears you might have had about a new developer ruining your favorite franchise right now. Guitar Hero 3 is another great reason to slip into some tight leather pants and rock out with your friends.
For music rhythm games, it often begins and ends with the soundtrack. Guitar Hero 3 has nothing to worry about. From top to bottom, this is easily the best lineup yet. Metallica, The Rolling Stones, Slayer, Iron Maiden, Aerosmith and more are all in with master recordings no less. Activision even got the Sex Pistols to re-record Anarchy in the UK just for the game. The same goes for Living Colour's Cult of Personality. The songs that were performed by cover bands, as usual, don't live up to the originals but there are less of them than ever before. This time, when you start up a Guns n' Roses track (Welcome to the Jungle), it will be Axl Rose belting out the words to accompany your shredding. And that makes all the difference in the world.
Unlike Rocks the '80s, this is indeed a full sequel. The list of additions reads like a wishlist compiled from fans across the world. A full cooperative career has finally been added, complete with its own songs picked specifically for their great bass or rhythm guitar parts. A battle mode is in as well, inspired in part by the Ralph Macchio movie Crossroads, where players duel against each other by throwing attacks at each other in an attempt to make one another miss notes and fail out. We've had a great deal of fun with this new way to go head to head with a friend. It may sound a bit odd, but don't write it off.
For the first time, the franchise goes online with co-op, face-off, pro face-off and battle mode up for play with a friend or stranger around the world. The PS3 version doesn't have any option to invite a friend into a game, so if you go with that version you'll probably wind up playing with more strangers than anything else. Still, the online game runs smoothly on both PS3 and Xbox 360 and is a fantastic addition to the franchise. Even better, the PS3, 360 and Wii versions are all linked together online through a community site that compiles stats, manages tournaments and clans and even has a little metagame of its own. Guitar Hero has already become something of cultural phenomenon and this is only going to push it further along.
Perhaps the best addition is the new Les Paul wireless controller. This is by far the best guitar peripheral yet. It's so good, in fact, that it actually makes the game a great deal more enjoyable than when you play it with anything else. This is the guitar to own and since it works with Guitar Hero 2 on Xbox 360, it makes the purchase a no brainer for anybody that has even a passing interest in guitar rhythm games. The only downside to it is that it won't work with the PS2 versions of Guitar Hero 1 or 2 when you put them in your PS3.
Then there are the licensed legends. Slash, of Guns n' Roses fame, is in the game as a playable character. So is Tom Morello and a few other imaginary avatars, but we'll say it again: You can play as Slash in Guitar Hero 3. If you don't think that's cool then there is something wrong with you.
Guitar Hero 3 was built from the ground up by Neversoft without access to any of the code from the first two games. The work done to ensure the game plays like its predecessors is admirable, but this title does play a tad different than what you're probably used to if you've been following the series closely. For starters, the window of time in which you can successfully hit a note has been extended by quite a bit. Guitar Hero experts may see this as blasphemy because of how much easier it makes the game, but this was actually a great move by Neversoft. The difficulty on the lower tier songs has been reduced, making the game much more accessible to new players. It also makes it so that intermediate players can feel like a rock star right from the get go, a feeling that really is the entire point of playing the game.
- Good wrote:
- Way better graphic than previous Guitar Hero Games.
A total list of 71 songs, +DLC (DownLoaded Content) gives the player some variety.
Good Les Paul Controller.
- Bad wrote:
- The game doesn't support surround sound, which makes having surround set useless.
Reviewers rating: 9/10
Why? This game is almost perfect, with almost no fails.
Buy this game if you get attracted to it, but remember to buy with the guitar included.
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