$10.00

$44.95

Summary Even though it's aimed more toward the hardcore Guitar Hero players out there, any fan of the series will appreciate the 4th entry of the critically acclaimed music series for the PS2

Description Don't be fooled by the title, Guitar Hero III is actually the 4th entry of the series, the 3rd being Rocks the 80's. All of that aside, Guitar Hero III is a fun addition to the series, but still not quite as good as 2. Story: ROCK!!! Gameplay: You will immediately notice a higher level of difficulty as soon as you play the fourth entry of the series. In the previous Guitar Hero titles, the main goal of the game was to play some rock songs on a specially made guitar shaped controller, and to have some fun doing it. Now, it seems that the goal has been changed from playing a game, to seeing how much of a dork you are for playing vigorously enough to master the ridiculously insane songs ("One" by Metallica and "Raining Blood" by Slayer) on the highest difficulty. In 1, 2, and the 80's, you feel like a rock star if you happen to hit 98% of the notes, whereas now, if you hit 98% on the previously mentioned songs, your fingers will be bleeding and Carpal Tunnel Syndrome is in your near future. Needless to say, casual gamers won't get the same thrill from this installment as they did from the others, while the aforementioned dorks will probably cream their pants when they witness "Through the Fire and Flames" on expert and immediately master it. Aside from the heightened difficulty, the gameplay has remained almost identical to the others. Why fix what's not broken right? The only difference you'll notice is that the timing of the notes is a little more spot-on. This really is an improvement, however slight. It just takes a little bit more skill to nail all the notes, but not to the degree where it takes too much thrill away from the actual game. Some new gameplay features have been added, such as Battles and Multi-Player Co-op. Battles -- In a battle, 2 players play through a song where instead of getting Star Power, they are awarded with battle points. These battle points are used the same way as star power, but instead of increasing your note multiplier, they afflict the opponent with things such as broken strings (any one of the 5 fret buttons won't work until they fix it by pressing itrapidly, without strumming), whammy (no note can be played until you use the whammy bar enough to re-initiate the ability to use the frets), reverse (the fret layout is reversed; think about it like the green is switched with orange, red is switched with blue, yellow remains yellow, blue is switched with red, and orange is switched with green), and a few other devastating abilities. These abilities automatically cripple your opponent, and can even win the match within seconds. Needless to say, Battle mode isn't too fun. Multi-Player Co-op -- This is simply the option of playing through career mode with a friend. This helps out with earning $$$ to use in the store for new characters, songs, guitars, etc. Sound: Guitar Hero III has an excellent soundtrack, that sounds like it was ripped straight from a CD. This is unlike the previous titles in the sense that, before, they had a version (not by the actual artist) of most songs that were sung by a different singer. One song that is brought to mind is Mother (Danzig) from GH2. Sure, the song was still good, but it wasn't as good as the version actually sung by Glenn Danzig. Like I said before, you won't have that problem here. Every song from "Hit me With your Best Shot" to "Paint it Black" to "Through the Fire and Flames" are straight from the artist. This is a noticeable improvement over the past 3 titles. Graphics: You really won't notice any of the visual effects while engaged in actual gameplay, but I guess Hormonix... or Activision... or whoever made the game, figured that this isn't the field they should put their full effort into. For the most part, the character designs are slightly better, but as you will spend nearly 99% of the game looking at the 5 colored circles, it wouldn't matter if the character designs were noticeably worse. C is the best I could give the visuals. Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock is a solid entry to the music game series (now available on all major platforms), but you just still can't help but feel the sense of personal failure when you see yourself playing this game and not an actual guitar (which might just be easier to master). For the most hardcore GH players, you can't go wrong buying this game, but for everyone else, a rental is enough to render your complete left hand utterly useless. Other scores Guitar Hero III (PS2) received Game Informer -- 8.75 (out of 10) Electronic Gaming Monthly -- 25.5 (out of 30) IGN -- 8.0 (out of 10) GameSpy -- 4 (out of 5) GameSpot -- 7.5 (out of 10) Review Page Hits: 4 today (52 in the last 30 days) Create Your Own Review or