Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock

The Good
Let me say that I compile this brief review from the perspective of having never played any other game of this type. I've never played any other GH installment, Rockband, or even DDR. For me, Guitar Hero 3 is my first experience with this type of game.

I was very hesitant to purchase this game for the PC mainly on the grounds that there are several reviews which claim that the PC version is flawed in that there is a ridiculous amount of stutter, lag, and the like making it less enjoyable than its console counterparts. Well, I did my homework and went on YouTube and found quite a few recordings of the game in action. Truth be told, there were a LOT of videos showing the lag and choppiness of the game. However, I did notice that most of these examples were played out on machines that were borderline to system requirements and such (which are themselves quite steep).

I endeavored to put off playing, until I played the xbox 360 version at a department store and decided that I had to have it. Well, being that I’ve committed to wait for a Wii (none are available right now), the only way I could play TODAY would be to buy the PC version. What the heck I took a chance.

I was delighted to see that none of the criticisms about lagginess or unplayability were present when I took my first go at the game. My machine however, is a bit above the specifications for those that drew issue with the game. Running on an Athlon 64 x2 5200+ with 2GB RAM, Windows XP sp2, and 256MB 8600GT x2 (in SLI) mode, I have zero technical issues.

The game is just plain fun, and like other guitar hero installments there are a wide variety of popular songs that are fun to jam out to. I quickly found that being completely new, any difficulty setting above “easy” was a waste of time on me. Like a real guitar hero, I needed to practice and build my skills before moving on to bigger and faster riffs. For the really serious player, you can also practice sections of songs at reduced speed, so that you can learn the proper keys and chords without having them thrown at you at light speed.

Playing the guitar actually produces an effect. If you’re hitting the notes, you can hear the guitar prominently represented in the song. Miss notes, and it sounds like crap. This gives one the feel of really playing a guitar.

The career mode is of course the meat and potatoes of the experience. You start off by picking a character, playing a few gigs, and working your way up the ladder of fame. At one point, I had Tom Morello of “Rage Against the Machine” challenge me to a guitar battle. The way to win was to get power-ups by hitting the right notes at the proper time and then tilting the neck of the guitar upwards (the controller detects being tilted) which makes you hit Tom and messes up his playing. Beat him down enough, and you can be a guitar loser and still win. Seems silly, but adds to the variety and I like it. Once he’s defeated, you can play “Bulls On Parade” with him. Nice.

Multiplayer is present, but you aren’t missing a whole lot if you pass on it. Really this is the kind of game that one can really get into all alone, or can appreciate an audience of people watching you jam out. Multiplayer just mainly allows for you to compete against another player’s skills, but so much of the game is based on competing against oneself and one’s own abilities that it seems silly to involve other people.

The PC version was a full $20 cheaper than the other versions where I live!

The Bad
Some of the flaws are inexcusable here. For example, nothing that you buy for your characters really does anything. All of the upgrades in the world won’t make you a better player, or allow you to really do anything that you can’t at the start of your career. What’s the point of allotting me cash if nothing I buy with it makes any difference?

Some of the songs are too long and just plain annoying. I understand that there are a variety of tracks in an effort to appease just about every kind of guitar fan, but it amazes me how some of these ever made it into the game. For example, why do we have “Story of My Life” from Social Distortion in there, where I can hit the same key over and over for what, 6 or 7 minutes? Not fun. Some songs just don’t translate well to Guitar Hero as they just aren’t fun to play. I was disappointed to see that some songs I really liked are absolutely no fun at all to play, while others that I don’t really care for work out much better.

I got to thinking, how does the guitar controller detect when it’s tilted? I can only think of one answer; a mercury switch. While it’s probably pretty safe under normal circumstances, a mercury switch could pose a problem should the kiddos decide to take apart their guitar, or worse even, a drunk friend smashes the toy guitar against the ground after an encore performance, potentially scattering highly toxic material over your entire house.

I must comment on the technical issues of this game even though I have experienced none, simply because there is an overwhelming crowd of highly dissatisfied gamers that experience trouble with the game running smoothly. Make sure that if you want to enjoy smooth play here that you have a high end machine. A dual core processor is required at minimum. You’ll want to be well above recommended specs and probably running SLI to avoid problems. For this reason, if you have an alternative (such as an xbox 360 or Wii), go with that and avoid the PC version.

The Bottom Line
Guitar Hero 3 is so much fun, I feel that I wasted time writing a review when I could have been playing, “Even Flow” by Pearl Jam. Go for the game on other platforms if you can, but if you do have a high end PC and no alternative, this version will work out for you.

The Good
The king (or at least, the first) of the music videogames satisfies again the players that enjoy playing their plastic guitars instead of real guitars! Guitar Hero series created an empire of frustrated musicians that wasn't good enough playing their real instruments and now they feel like gods with their self realization completed.

Beside that, there are many other kind of players for this game, like those who enjoy playing it as well as playing their real instruments. I usually play the electric guitar (oh well, I should clarify that I just try), and I have a good time playing this one, I don't know where's the problem, because here comes the other kind of people who says that they're so "true" that they hate games like that, because they have their own real guitars and they don't need to waste their times with toys, you know...

Now, talking about the game, it works as all the others. You play the correct frets by pressing the buttons in the right moment to play the song that you've chosen (or the one that you have to). There's a story mode in which you'll become a rock legend, playing in many different locations during the game and battling Slash and Tom Morello in some concrete points.

Fortunately, the main problem for a game like that is solved. A music game having synchronization problems could be the more frustrating thing on Earth (Elite Beat Agents had this problem as I've never seen), and this game hasn't.

There are four difficulty levels. The expert mode includes every single note (or just noise) in the song, as precise as hard it is. The game itself is not easy, but it's easier if you've played another games of the series and you know what's the game about. If you play this game for the first time you may have problems, but don't be impatient and try it till your fingers response to your brain orders (well, it's a good advice even for real guitar players).

There's also a funny co-operation mode. One of you will play the bass, which is usually easier, and the other one will play the guitar. The game uses the split screen for this mode. In some other songs one will play the lead guitar and the other one the rhythm. Co-operation mode is specially important because there are many songs that doesn't appear in the single player mode, not even in the practice mode, they're exclusive for that mode, so, play it.

You get points depending on your skills, with that points you can unlock new characters, clothes and guitars, and the most important thing, new songs. Not only a little pack of songs, there are a lot of songs available to be unlocked with the points (and they're cheap, so, don't doubt about unlocking them) to make the game longer. There are many songs in the whole game, nothing to reproach for this matter.

Guitar Hero III allows you to play the game with your mouse and keyboard as well as any controller (any gamepad). The game is made for the guitar, but it's a good point for the game that it allows it because they really don't have to. You can use your mouse (the two buttons to use the picking technique) as your pick, and moving it will take the same effect that the tremolo bar of a real guitar.

Some techniques of real guitars are here, like hammer on/pull of or the vibrato with the tremolo bar, but the game needs some kind of evolution. Instead of working abut that the developers tried another new concepts like DJ Hero or Band Hero.

The Bad
The worst thing is a consequence of the game, not something in the game itself. All the people thinking that they're the kings of metal because of their skills playing this game!

Guitar Hero III is the top of the series, only graphic and technical aspects could be improved because gameplay's at his top. You can't do it better, but there's a problem about that... the feeling that you've been playing the same old game since the first one, just with new songs and nothing more. Only the guitar duels are something new, but there are only three of them. You can't play that mode with a friend, it should've been funny.

I really miss more rock/metal songs. There are a lot of alternative rock songs, which I like too, but some of them looks the same. The selection of songs isn't so bad, there are songs from many different bands like Die Toten Hosen, Guns 'N Roses, Slayer or Iron Maiden, but there are many other from bands like Muse, Kaiser Chiefs or AFI (which are bands that I like, specially the first one). What I'm trying to say is that it looks strange to play Raining Blood by Slayer with your character from Hell and then play Ruby from Kaiser Chiefs with your same character. This game need some more powerful songs. Anyway, that's just a matter of taste, if you prefer that alternative metal style you'll enjoy this a lot.

As I said, I play the electric guitar, and I can say that there are many songs that are harder to play in Guitar Hero III than playing them in the real life! Another bad thing about the difficult is that it's progressive, you can start the game with a hard difficult because it looks that you feel comfortable with that level, bu once you progress the difficult rises and maybe you can't beat the incoming songs. You cannot change the difficult level then and you'll have to start all over again, so, be careful.

A bad point about the game that is a consequence of using the keyboard and mouse is the redefinition of the keys. If you leave them as default you'll have no problems, but it's possible that you redefine them to another keys, and then you have a big problem because sometimes you have to play chords which needs more than two keys, and the keyboard doesn't admit it. The standard procedure is to start the game with a normal difficulty level, and there you have no problems with that, but when you start playing the game in a harder level those chords will appear, and it's late to get used to the previous configuration again.

Another consequence of the use of the keyboard and mouse is that in the expert mode is impossible to play some songs, because you have to use the alternate picking technique with your mouse. It's possible with the guitar controller, but with the mouse it isn't because you have to use perfectly two fingers alternating them.

Graphics are good, but the characters some times are annoying or just out of place, specially the singer, which looks like a 80's hard rock singer that really suits with songs like Welcome to the Jungle but doesn't work in others like When You Were Young. Anyway the game doesn't need good graphics because it could detriment the gameplay (there are some problems with the frame rate in some concrete parts of the game).

Although it looks like the songs are really synchronized and that you need special agility with your fingers as well as a good sense of the rhythm, it's a big mistake to think that playing this game has something to do with playing a real guitar. Don't be mistaken.

The Bottom Line
Maybe if you don't have time to take some real guitar lessons you'll prefer playing this "simulation" of playing a guitar that really works as that. Far from being a revolutionary product, Guitar Hero III is the top of the experience of the series and a good game to be played alone or with someone in the co-operation mode, in spite of the fact that it's just like an update for the same game with new songs.