Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock Review

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(More customer reviews)As an big fan of the Guitar Hero games and owner of the previous three installments on the PSXII I was VERY excited for GH3.HOWEVER, after playing for a few days now I am very sad to say I'm rather disappointed as I have mixed feelings over GH3.

First off is the aesthetics looks; obviously Activision made a great effort to appeal to contemporary audiences and, from a marketing standpoint, this is very understandable.However, I feel as though the Guitar Hero franchise is now becoming a marketing tool for new bands and songs instead of following the formula of playing great songs both old and new.Granted there were many songs from the 1980s on back, but in many instances songs were from the past year or so; some were even being initially produced during production of Guitar Hero 3, which reinforces my theory.

To be fair, there were many songs I was very pleased to see make the final cut such as Welcome to the Jungle and La Grange.I'm a big classic rock fan and it was a blast playing Rock Ya Like a Hurricane.I would've chosen some different songs for say Aerosmith, Cream and The Who but you win some, ya lose some.I should also be fair in saying I did enjoy some of the contemporary works such as Priestess, I actually went out and bought their CD because I fell in love with the song they used... but that's where my love for the new songs end.They also butchered some songs, most notably The Devil Went Down to Georgia; I was skeptical at first because it's a fiddle song and my fears were confirmed as I noticed it became a death metal song.*le sigh*

Then there's the severe lack of diversity in the songs.It appears to be half death metal, half classic rock; almost all from primarily white bands.I've seen better diversity at a Trent Lott Christmas party.No Hendrix, no Stevie Wonder, no Michael Jackson, no Prince, no Rick James ("I'm Rick James!"), no Vandross, no nothing.Carlos Santana seemed to be the token minority group in the entire game, granted they did an excellent job doing Black Magic Woman and that one is probably my personal favorite to play.

The bonus songs, to me, were all worthless.It's almost all one genre; garage bands.Granted this is primarily the basis of the bonus songs in previous Guitar Hero games, however, at least Red Octane placed songs everyone could enjoy such as Dethklok and even Strong Bad.This time around, I did not find one bonus song I liked.

Then there's the layout; it's waay too contemporary for my taste.It seems to be marketed entirely to heavy metal, death metal and (dare I say) emo fans.Aside from glam rock character Izzy and Motown Xavier (which they only had one song contributing to) the characters, arenas and styles all reflected contemporary rock themes.The British Invasion is subtlety hinted although they use Weezer as an example when other songs would've personified this much better since Weezer is 30 years late.I just wish there would've been more balance between contemporary and classic.The only arena I liked was the prison, which I thought was nice.

I also thought way too much emphasis was placed on aesthetics than actual game play.The stages were beautifully done and some of the characters looked considerably better than before... but, then again, most of the time our focus is on the fret board and not what is in the background.It also made it very difficult to read points and, more importantly, star power.I had considerable trouble discerning my star power level given the new layout.The old layout from the first three installments was considerably easier to read on the fly.

Then there's the versus boss mode... which I think is the most worthless feature they included, which you are forced to do if you wish to proceed.Despite being a seasoned player, it took me several trial and error sessions to beat each boss especially the final boss Lou.It was literally a toss of the coin as half the time the boss would strike back and the other half he would not.Not to mention you have to cause the boss to fail before the music stops; you could have triple the points the boss has and still lose which is hardly how a guitar battle should be engaged.If anything, the battle should be based on points at the end of the song, which would've been great with The Devil Went Down to Georgia.I just wanted to rock dangit!!

The difficulty also seemed to be considerably off.I thought I'd start small on medium and played through the game.I noticed the first few songs were super easy, then towards it the end it got considerably harder than usual.Songs on medium seemed to be hard but without the orange button, especially on the last two genres.Particularly in the song One by Metallica, the song goes into a long solo of run-offs similar to hard if not expert songs on previous installments.While this made me a better player in the long run, it will deter casual players.

And perhaps it is just me but others and myself have noticed the screen appears smaller.I checked my screen settings and even put on widescreen mode to see what was the deal and, sure enough, the fret buttons and screen was condensed to allow the player to see the stage, characters and background better... which is kind of pointless since you're supposed to be focused on playing the game, not admiring the scenery.This made it REALLY hard to do harder songs since I had to scoot up to the screen and squint my eyes.

Lastly, there's the loading time.It is considerably longer than before due to the large emphasis on backgrounds, characters and animations instead of gameplay.For previous Guitar Hero fans this will prove to be cumbersome as you will be tempted to hit the green button thinking the game is waiting for your input when, in reality, it's still loading.

However, there are some pros.I really enjoyed the co-op career mode since I typically play Guitar Hero games with friends and this allows us to move towards an attainable goal.

All in all, Guitar Hero III could've been done a LOT better.Activision and the four million contributing companies with rock intros strayed heavily from the formula and will disillusion many long-term fans.I strongly recommend you rent this first and try Guitar Hero 2 if you really want it; the second installment is much better executed with all the features you'll really need with a diverse soundtrack.

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Product Description:
Unleash your inner rock legend with Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock. Face off against guitar icon Slash, from Guns N' Roses, and others in insane boss battles featuring original tracks recorded exclusively for Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock. Defeat opponents to achieve legendary status in head-to-head competition including the all-new Guitar Battle or share the glory with a friend in the new Co-op Career Mode. Realize a true rock concert experience with all new venues, incredible lighting effects, authentic instruments and sick character moves. And since rock is all about the music, Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock features over 70 of the biggest and loudest songs ever compiled in a single game disc.

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