Guitar Hero III

[Berek]

While this game has been out for a few months now, I haven't had a chance to pick it up here in China and play it (a good excuse is that I need an Xbox 360 here first, and I still haven't picked that up either).

One of the interesting changes I'm looking to check out is the "theme" of the songs. This time around we're looking at more of a variety of songs instead of the exclusive classical rock selection provided by GTH 1 & 2, even though those are still included as well.

I can't say anything bad about GTH, except the control had some button problems, and the Xbox360 version for GH2 did not have a wireless controller (updated for GH3!).

Surprisingly, there isn't a thread really discussing the game compared to its predecessors. So, is it worth picking up? I've read the Gamespot review and they basically give it thumbs up, but I was hoping a more professional unbiased opinion and technical review here, especially concerning the Xbox360 version. All the previous Guitar Hero games, IMO, were best suited for the Xbox360.

 

[mrcorbo]

While this game has been out for a few months now, I haven't had a chance to pick it up here in China and play it (a good excuse is that I need an Xbox 360 here first, and I still haven't picked that up either).

One of the interesting changes I'm looking to check out is the "theme" of the songs. This time around we're looking at more of a variety of songs instead of the exclusive classical rock selection provided by GTH 1 & 2, even though those are still included as well.

I can't say anything bad about GTH, except the control had some button problems, and the Xbox360 version for GH2 did not have a wireless controller (updated for GH3!).

Surprisingly, there isn't a thread really discussing the game compared to its predecessors. So, is it worth picking up? I've read the Gamespot review and they basically give it thumbs up, but I was hoping a more professional unbiased opinion and technical review here, especially concerning the Xbox360 version. All the previous Guitar Hero games, IMO, were best suited for the Xbox360.

It's worth picking up.

• Song selection is pretty good.
• I don't like the note tracking that Neversoft did as much as I liked and still like Harmonix's.
• Boss battles are gimmicky.
• "Raining Blood" sucks (or I do ).

• DLC has been pretty poor so far, especially compared to Rock Band releasing at least 3 new tracks each week.
• Character designs are weird. The male lead singer may have the most enormous chin ever seen in a video game.

In short, If you liked GH and GHII then GHIII is not going to be a disappointment, but it won't blow you away either.

 

[Arwin]

My perspective as a European is going to be a little different, because Rock Band is not an option here and won't be for quite a while yet.

I've recently been playing this game some more again this time in co-op, as a cousin of my wife from New York came over, and when she noticed I had a Playstation she asked if I happened to have Guitar Hero, because she really liked that game. So we played that and then we started playing co-op, with me doing the base on the DS3, and altogether we played about 6 hours worth I think over two nights, had great fun (basically RSI from tapping the L and R buttons stopped me eventually ).

Huge advantage of playing co-op is that you skip the boss-battles, which really aren't well done. They are first of all way too hard compared to the rest of the game, and it really all comes down to getting the right 'attacks' and piling them up until you have three of them, and then unleashing all of them at the right time. Also, which is actually a bit strange, you get different bonus tracks unlocked, strange, because you don't get them in any other way and the first two are actually really good.

I also agree that the dlc is disappointing, even more so in Europe.

The main difference between the 360 and the PS3 really comes down to not being able to pick a friend when playing online - instead, you'll get a random opponent. For the rest, they are basically identical. When it comes down to choosing them, it all comes down to whether that matters to you more than for instance the sound quality (PS3 being nice and quiet so you get a good sound), and that will partly depend of course on whether or not you have a Gold subscription - if you don't, then the PS3 online is actually better. I suspect that most people, given the choice and having a Gold subscription, would go for the 360 version.

The wireless guitar is really, really good - that's by far the biggest boon of GH3. The online website that tracks your progress in detail, has online high-scores, friends, and so on, cross platform, is quite good too, though I don't use it that much.

I think that particularly for the US audience, the song-selection is great. My cousin liked a lot more of the songs than I did. But most of them are fun to play regardless, and playing the bass part is most of the time much more fun than I expected. Co-op is really great, which is probably why Rock Band is such a success.

In terms of pure gameplay, the charts are pretty good. Some people have complained about sections where you play both the rhythm and the solo parts and they blend into each other during the song too often, which is a bit confusing. But this is not that common and partly depends on the level you are playing at. Other than that, the hammer ons and charts in general seem really well done. Black Magic Woman is a bit of a triumph in that area and really makes you feel like playing a real guitar. It's my favorite by far, even though Santana would be too smooth for me in other contexts, in terms of playing this game and the note-charts, that song is a real triumph.

 

[AlNom]

Enjoy

Song choice is all to people's different tastes, but I enjoyed most of the songs. The note charts can sometimes be repetitive with the same notes being played over and over, but I suppose that's why they call those parts refrains. The bass on higher difficulties can be more of an endurance test! I didn't mind that they mixed/blended rhythm & solo sections. It just made things more interesting to play. It's not like you're playing a real guitar anyway.

The hammer-ons/pull-offs are a lot easier to do than Harmonix's implementation for prior GH games and Rock Band. I don't mind it.. it makes some songs from impossible to near-impossible.

Boss-battles.... ok on the lower difficulty levels. It kind of sucks that you are really just playing it over and over until you figure out when you get the power-ups and then when is the best time to unleash hell. I thought they broke up the flow of the game, which was nice, but they just need to refine the implementation.

One thing that I never understood was the choice of guitars in the career mode not affecting the actual fret board during gameplay; the fretboard is affected by the character you choose instead.

The learning curve is quite a bit steeper I would say. Hard can sometimes be on the level of Expert when compared to Harmonix games. And expert just requires some fairy fingers or something...something. That said, I thought Medium was a lot more fun than the prior games just because they throw more notes at you.

 

[Arwin]

Yeah, medium is the one I can enjoy most - hard is really, really quite hard at times. I'm just starting to work through it, though I haven't actually played all songs on medium yet, so there's still some work to do for completion sake - looks nice on your www.guitarhero.com account.

Speaking of which, have all you guys hooked up your account yet to an online guitarhero.com account? AlStrong, I have you in my friends list, but I don't get to see any of your rankings at all, so maybe they haven't really been hooked up yet?

 

[AlNom]

Speaking of which, have all you guys hooked up your account yet to an online guitarhero.com account? AlStrong, I have you in my friends list, but I don't get to see any of your rankings at all, so maybe they haven't really been hooked up yet?

I'll have to check again. There was some reason it wouldn't let me, but I suspect it's because I don't have a Gold account.

Edit: Oh right... I think it goes like this: I need to access the XBL in the main menu of GH3 in order to get some VIP passcode to input into the Community page, and I can't get that without a Gold subscription. The game just tells me that the account is invalid for accessing Live. So I can't link the scores. :|

 

[Arwin]

Ironic. That would make the 360 the only next-gen platform that can't do this. Surely though there is a way around?

EIDT: gah, after googling a little, it doesn't seem like it. Crap. Maybe next time you get a free one month subscription, you can do it then, and it will stay hooked up after that month has passed?

 

[AlNom]

Yeah, it's pretty silly, just for uploading a bloody score. I guess we'll see.

 

[Arwin]

Since my wife's cousin from New York was here, I've been picking this game up again. I completed all Medium songs, and finally made some first inroads into Hard. The main problem turned out to be the fifth song, which was harder for me then even the first song on Extreme (which I passed first try). Now I can just start working my way through hard and hope I don't get stuck too often. When I do, thankfully there is always quick play to resort to.
How I wish this game had as much and great downloadable stuff as Singstar or Rockband though! Oh well, the songs will last me a little while longer still anyway.

 

[Blade47167]

Since my wife's cousin from New York was here, I've been picking this game up again. I completed all Medium songs, and finally made some first inroads into Hard. The main problem turned out to be the fifth song, which was harder for me then even the first song on Extreme (which I passed first try). Now I can just start working my way through hard and hope I don't get stuck too often. When I do, thankfully there is always quick play to resort to.
How I wish this game had as much and great downloadable stuff as Singstar or Rockband though! Oh well, the songs will last me a little while longer still anyway.

Why resort to quick play? The practice mode is there for a reason . I've got like 2 songs left on hard... Raining Blood and One x_x. But I'm half way thru expert and still working on it. I'm honestly not sure which I like better between RB & GH. Rock band is awesome since I can plow thru more or less every song on expert but I hate not having the guitar click and the strum not always being 100% responsive. On the other hand my GH wireless guitar's neck has to be just right or my green button and yellow button stop going thru. I wish they would just get these damn things right and all would be good. I miss my PS2 GH guitars .

 

[Arwin]

I know, but I don't have that much time (often I have to trade with some sleep) and then I just prefer to play a whole song at regular speed. But you are right that it's very useful, practice mode.

 

[mrcorbo]

I've got like 2 songs left on hard... Raining Blood and One x_x. But I'm half way thru expert and still working on it. I'm honestly not sure which I like better between RB & GH. Rock band is awesome since I can plow thru more or less every song on expert but I hate not having the guitar click and the strum not always being 100% responsive. On the other hand my GH wireless guitar's neck has to be just right or my green button and yellow button stop going thru. I wish they would just get these damn things right and all would be good. I miss my PS2 GH guitars .

I may never actually finish Hard because of "Raining Blood" and that sucks. The song is just stupid hard, to the point where I'm sure I could do it eventually, but getting to that point would require so much effort (none of it fun) that I just don't think it's worth it. I thought "Carry Me Home" in GHII was bad....

I am fortunately able to use my GHII guitar in Rock Band, so I don't have to use the RB guitar regularly.

I will say that the mushy strum bar on the RB guitar did force me to learn how to up/down strum since I couldn't use the "thumb wack" method I used on the GH Xplorer up to that point and that actually made me better at both games, so I guess that's something.