Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock

Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock- Set list

My Credentials: Guitar Hero III is the most recent game to my collection. As of now, I own every Guitar Hero title released. I have played and beaten every game on Hard, and am only two songs away, on average, from beating every game on Expert. (**Note: These reviews are of the PS2 version of the game**)

First off, a few things about the game. This time through, there are a lot more original recordings, making the game much more realistic. Most of the covers' vocals are fairly good. The Kiss, Alice Cooper, and Scorpions covers, for example are the worst and are actually done fairly well considering they are not Paul Stanley, Alice Cooper, or Klaus Meine. The one thing I did not like was the Poison song "Talk Dirty to Me". Yes, the cover was amazing, mainly because Bret Michaels re-recorded the vocals for it. But the reason I am disappointed is because its still listed as a cover. If Bret Michales was re-recording the vocals, why couldn't the rest of Poison get it together for a reunion?

The Game play is nice. The time window for hitting notes has increased slightly. Notes that can be hammered on and pulled off are much more noticeable. Also, I have noticed that a lot of sections in this game follow a pattern of "Strum one note- Hammer on and pull off a lot". Also some notes that should be hammer ons and pull offs aren't. This makes the game a bit less realistic at times, but makes for easy game play.

In Multi player mode, Co-Op was removed. In place, they put a Co-Op career mode in which you play about 1/2-3/4 of the songs with different encores.

Another introduction that I am sure everyone has heard of is battle mode. I only have one word to say: BRUTALITY. One can be mean when playing in battle mode. In place of Star Power, you get a random battle power that harms your opponent. It makes for fun play, but if you don't beat your opponent before the end of the song, you replay the song in Sudden Death Mode. In this mode, whoever gets Death Drain first wins. It is kind of randomized too. Countless times in battle did I have a much higher note accuracy but still lost because the opponent was randomly given death drain first. That is slightly unfair, not because I lost, but because of Note Accuracy. For Example. One time, I had a 98% note accuracy, but my opponent beat me with a 83%. To me, to be more realistic, the one with higher accuracy is obviously better, and should therefore get the death drain. But that's is my only beef about the battle system. My recommendation for fixing it? Beat your opponent the first time through (saving three battle powers and launching them in a row after the previous one runs out is a great way to win. That way they get a BIG section of disrupted notes.)

On the subject of Battle Mode, I should mention the Boss Battles. The first one is Tom Morello of Rage Against the Machine and Audioslave, the second is Slash of Guns N' Roses and Velvet Revolver. Their boss music was written by them for the game, so in each battle, not only do you face the guitarists, but you also get a taste of their play style. Tom Morello has a style that I cannot even place and uses alot of odd sounds. Slash has a bluesy style with a bit of Metal thrown in. The great part is after you beat them, you unlock them so you can buy them as a guitarist and then play with them in an Encore after you beat the battle ("Bulls on Parade" and "Welcome to the Jungle" respectively).

Lou is the final boss. Instead of playing solo material, you play Steve Ouimette's rendition of the Charlie Daniel's Band's "The Devil Went Down To Georgia". Once you beat Lou, you unlock the hardest song on Guitar Hero to date..

No, its not "Jordan". Not "Free Bird". Not "Play With Me".

Give Up?

Its "Through the Fire and Flames" by DragonForce.

There are some gripes I do have with the game, but not enough for me to hate it. I still love this game. The first gripe is that sometimes, the music feels off, but this is rare. Another gripe I have is in the song "One" by Metallica. In the beginning part, there is one lead guitar part that is covered up by the rhythm guitar part, making it hard to hear what your playing. A third gripe I have is that star power streaks are longer. No, not how long they last, but how many notes you have to hit to get star power. Speaking of star power, in older games, the notes turned blue and the energy emitted from beneath the fretboard. The same happens here, in addition to the fretboard turning a shade of blue also, making it harder to see. Then again, this is more realistic. If your showing off while performing, your going to have a greater chance of missing notes. The one thing I also noticed that there is less and less Rhythm guitar parts. Then again, this could also be the song selection (though "Number of the Beast", "Welcome to the Jungle" and "Rock You Like A Hurricane" should all have rhythm guitar parts and not bass parts...)

Some of my Favorite songs on the game:
*****Bold denotes original recording*****
"Talk Dirty to Me" – Poison
"When You Were Young" – The Killers
"Miss Murder" – AFI
"Paranoid" – Black Sabbath
"My Name Is Jonas" – Weezer
"Even Flow" – Pearl Jam
"Rock You Like a Hurricane" – Scorpions
"Welcome to the Jungle" – Guns N' Roses
"Before I Forget" – Slipknot
"Stricken" – Disturbed
"Knights of Cydonia" – Muse
"Cliffs of Dover" – Eric Johnson*
"The Number of the Beast" – Iron Maiden
"One" – Metallica
"Through the Fire and Flames" – DragonForce