Customer Reviews

Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock - PS2

5 star:		(32)
4 star:		(17)
3 star:		(15)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(5)

 

 

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.

As the wife of the above, I had to edit my review of this game after playing it for a couple of weeks now. I LOVE it. I hated it at first and was really frustrated at the gameplay. I wasn't sure I liked the battle modes or the song list. Also, being new to the "Guitar Hero" games probably didn't help. With the help of my son I figured out the gameplay and I am now on hard. I think if I could figure out where the orange fret is I'd do better. The songs become more real as you progress through the levels as more notes are given.

BUT, this game rocks after I gave it some more time. It's my favorite of all the games now and I can't stop playing it. The battle mode is great and gives you more incentive to work harder. My son and I battled it out one night and we had a great time. He obviously won but it was time well spent together. It's not often there are video games that everyone can play regardless of age. All of my kids love the "Guitar Hero" games.

My husband and I started a band in the Co-Op Career mode and made it through Easy. We ended up buying the "Guitar Hero II" bundle for another guitar. I wish there was a way to get a wired guitar without having to buy the bundle.

I really don't care about the graphics since you can't see them while you are playing. But as I was watching my kids play I realized the character is really playing all the notes to the song. The attention to details like that really impressed me. I loved the new girl, Casey, as she was sexy without looking stupid.

I really don't like the flashing lights that pop up in some of the gameplay as I have epilepsy. Not enough to cause a seizure, but I did find myself twitching some. It's distracting and hard to find notes because you are blinded by the lights. I wasn't sure I liked the songs as I'm probably the wrong gender and demograhic, but they started to grow on me.

I really didn't give this game a chance when I first reviewed it. If you aren't sure you like it, give it some time. I'm glad I did.

I've been a GH player since the first one came out and this one is not as much fun as the others. Mainly I don't like the choice of songs. The interface has changed, but that didn't bother me as I was able to breeze right through all the songs on Hard my first time out. (I'm pretty much an Expert class GH player) So playability wasn't an issue, in fact this one felt easier than the previous 3 GH releases but that could be due to the fact that I've been playing for a couple years now. What really turned me off were the songs. They weren't necessarily bad songs, for example if I heard them on the radio I wouldn't change the channel in disgust. They just didn't translate well to this game, they lacked energy. I really liked KISS, Poison, The Killers, Black Sabbath and Heir Kommt Alex as they are all fun groups to listen and play along to. As well as the song Cliffs Of Dover, so much fun to play. But the others just left me feeling bored and uninterested. I'm a GH fan for life and this of course is just my opinion, mostly about the selection of songs, not the actual game play itself as it was good if not improved.. However I don't like the new look power meter, too hard to tell what's going on at a glance with that, so they should go back to the original version. The new cartoons and characters... I could care less, I buy GH games in order to pretend that I'm jamming to songs in a rock group. They could have no cartoons and only one stick figure looking graphic up there for all I care and I'd still think this game rocked. Looking forward to the next release and hopefully some songs that I will find interesting and fun to play.

My friends and I have now spent a few hours playing the PS2 version of this, and my overall take is: don't spend money on it. While there are some really good songs in the lineup (Black Magic Woman, La Grange, Holiday In Cambodia), overall the sound is mushy, making it often very difficult to follow the music.

I've only played a handful of the tunes on Hard so far, but several of the Medium-difficulty guitar and bass parts don't match the rhythm of the music well at all (the mushy sound could be a factor here).

That's pretty much the worst of it: low-fi sound and poorly-synced guitar parts. But in general, this feels like even more of a toss-off than the "Rocks The 80's" version did.

Somewhat less importantly, the avatar and venue animations are goofy (Midori... GACK), and feel cheap and sloppy compared to previous versions, which is a low bar to begin with. The biggest lose here is that the hammer-ons and pull-offs are for some reason SUPER BRIGHT compared to the other notes on the fretboard, which confused me at first.

It might be just that the PS2 port is crappy, possibly deliberately so. Another clue here is that GHIII takes at least twice as long to do an auto-save than any of the previous versions, and its memory footprint is about the same, so it's not like it's doing any more. I know that the gaming world is even more aggressive about forced obsolescence than the PC or consumer electronics worlds, but this seems like killing the golden goose, especially considering the unprecedented appeal of this game outside of the typical gameboy demographic.

Sadly, the suckage doesn't end there. The Bonus tunes, rather than being chosen by a contest, or the personal friendships and/or quirky tastes of the developers, are transparently driven by promotional considerations alone, which turns out about as you'd expect. In prior versions, I've really enjoyed discovering songs I liked from unknown acts like Shaimus, Brian Kahanek, and Bang Camaro. There's nothing like that in GHIII. All of the bonus songs I listened to were bland and forgettable ("Hey! These guys sound just like Nickelback!").

The development team clearly threw a lot of time and effort into the new "Battle" mode, but it's just not any fun to play. I watched a friend take multiple stabs at beating Tom Morello, but I couldn't really even comprehend the game, let alone devise a strategy for winning it.

Overall, it feels like they added a bunch of dumb, useless features; screwed up the ones that made the game fun in the first place; and somehow also managed to punish me for not buying a new console. I've spent $50 before now on something I enjoyed less, certainly, but I won't be buying any more Neversoft GH games. Since they're most likely abandoning the PS2 platform from here out anyway, it may be moot.

After the relatively weak showing from the spinoff Rocks the 80's venture, its nice to get back to the fundamentals of Guitar Hero with a welcome evolutionary step for the series. Now in the hands of the developers from Neversoft, it was quite rewarding to see that they didn't attempt to reinvent the wheel, but stuck with much of the gameplay format that has already worked and cemented Guitar Hero as one of the most successful series of titles in recent gaming history.

Let me get my mild peeves about GHIII:Legends of Rock out of the way first so I can work to laud its many accomplishments, something people seem to be neglecting in their reviews. Unlockables are a bit of a mixed bag: extra characters range from ridiculous to phenomenal. The new guitars are pretty cool, but nothing remarkable really. The bonus songs on the whole still consist of mostly underground material...being the 4th title in the series, it doesn't fit that they'd have to tap the tracks of relatively unknown C & D List bands.

Maybe that's because the better portion of B Listers made it into the actual game set list; unlike the first two entries, where the tracklist was abundantly solid with a plethora of easily recognizable tunes, GHIII varies very sharply here. The main setlist ranges from incredible anthems of hard and classic rock history to highly dubious entries from the last several years or so.

But enough whining; let us focus on the positives of that setlist, because when it flexes its muscle it is VERY impressive, with such monstrous heavy hitters as Living Colour's "Cult of Personality", Black Sabbath's "Paranoid", Pearl Jam's "Even Flow", Carlos Santana's "Black Magic Woman", ZZ Top's "La Grange", and a finishing set that includes a Trident of Metal Divinity: Slayer, Iron Maiden, and some band called Metallica, playing this song called "One", its not too shabby, they might become successful off of it. Sarcasm aside, finally getting to play Metallica, to immerse yourself in one of the definitive compositions of the premier metal ambassadors of the last 3 decades marks an arrival to the Guitar Hero universe that has been heavily anticipated since the series took off.

GHI had the face off mode, GHII brought about the much needed Co-Op mode, what can GHIII offer to multiplaying enjoyment? How about a wicked little BATTLE mode? I know a lot of people overlook this mode with a shrug, but I think its great. I'm a gamer first, metal lover second, so attention to making innovating gameplay goes far with me, and I like this addition quite a bit. It smacks of one of my favorite titles of yesteryear, Super Mario Kart, and it provides a means of upping the dueling potential of Guitar Hero immensely.

But wait folks, that's not all! Who doth adorn the cover of this latest GH masterpiece? Hard Rock Guitar Shredding Icon of the 80's and 90's and current axe grinder with revival rock super group Velvet Revolver, Its SLASH! Both Slash and Rage Against the Machine's Tom Morello come to challenge you upstarts, armed with completely original compositions to tackle in this all new battle mode. Show them your worth by causing them to flounder, and they'll not only jam with you on some of their most recognized tracks (Welcome to the Jungle and Bulls on Parade respectively), you'll be able to purchase them as extra characters.

A note on the challenge level....I myself am an average GH player. I hold it down strong on Medium level, 5 starring most tracks with ease, but I can't seem to make the jump to that cursed orange button on Hard, so I leave it alone. These are certainly the most challenging medium tracks I've played since Cowboys from Hell and Bark at the Moon, the type of challenge that keeps you coming back for more. I'm glad they raised the bar enough to put me to work.

Finally, all due apologies to the whiny punks out there, but the finale to Guitar Hero III is easily the greatest one to date. Not only is the final battle an unexpected delight, its very well DONE, and then the closing credits.....well, you'll see, but they rule.

So, the verdict for Guitar Hero III is as follows: on par with the first entry, slightly less impressive than the paragon of Guitar Hero II, and a wonderful retribution from the negligible Rocks the 80's debacle. I'd rank it a 9.1/10, and for Amazon that equates to a 5 star vote. Its not without certain flaws, but its definitely a rockin ride no Guitar Hero should miss.

I was eagerly anticipating for this game to come out. I own the other versions and I can truly say that this one really blew me away. The game play is more challenging and the songs are awesome. I was having a hard time at first adjusting to the small differences, but once you get the hang of it, it's on. I like how all the venues are different and how it shows your bands transgression through the levels. I really don't focus on the background when I play, but I do like the graphics and the characters aren't as cheesy as they used to be. I absolutely love the "Challenge the famous guitarist" levels...there's nothing like smoking Tom Morello's a$$ and then having him play a set with you...LOL! As far as pros and cons go, these are the only things I could come up with:

Pros
1. Increased difficulty...making the game more challenging than its predecesors.
2. Note streaks...this makes me work harder at trying to get a longer streak.
3. Graphics...more defined characters and options at the store
4. Incorporating newer artists such as the Killers, Muse, etc.

Cons
1. They should make the Guitar challenge a bit more difficult
2. They should put more famous guitarists in the game at say every 2 sets you finish...ultimately facing Jimi Hendrix at the end
3. Some of the songs on the playlist are just awkward and I didn't feel fit the game.
4. The load speed has slowed down tremedously

All in all, this is a phenominal game and has definitely broken the mold of the older versions. This has set the bar high for any other GH game that will preceed it. You will love it and be hooked...and no song on the radio will ever sound the same, you will start hearing the hook and in your mind try to figure out the sequence, red, blue green....

My sons love this game, ages 14 & 16, my husband loves this game, age 37, my dad loves this game (even though video games are from the devil and killing children's imaginations), age 69, and every child within a 5 mile radius of my house loves this game. If it only came with a maid to clean up the messes they make having everyone over to play.
OK, confession: I have to admit to playing it myself when no one else is around ; )
Mom, age 36

Guitar Hero III doesn't do much different than the last installment did, but what it does offer is by far the best track list to be seen in a Guitar Hero game yet. Featuring spectacular songs like the Rolling Stones' "Paint It Black" and Metallica's "One"; Guitar Hero III also features selections from Santana, ZZ Top, Pearl Jam, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Smashing Pumpkins, Dead Kennedys, The Killers, Social Distortion, Iron Maiden, Slayer, Dragon Force, and the Sex Pistols among others; helping make this installment of the game be all the more memorable. What hurts Guitar Hero III though is that the third time around, the game doesn't feel fresh anymore, and Activision and Harmonix haven't really done enough to make it all that different from Guitar Hero II. There's higher difficulty this time around for experienced players, but getting there is a different story that casual gamers won't come close to getting towards. Not to mention that the battle modes and boss battles aren't all that interesting or fun either. It should also be noted that there is a heavy load of in-game advertising this time around too, nor is there any online play. While online play would have been a great addition for the PS2 version of Guitar Hero III, it was pretty much expected not to be included here. Negatives aside, Guitar Hero III is still a very fun installment of the popular rhythm series, and this version has the best track list yet. Let's just hope that next time around Harmonix and Activision do enough to spice up the formula.

After releasing a rather lackluster sequel, Red Octane redeemed themselves (and just in time too as Rock Star is around the corner) and presented the long awaited third installment in the Guitar Hero series, Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock. Don't get me wrong, its not that Guitar Hero II was a complete flop, it just didn't feel as inspired as the original Guitar Hero; most of the songs were re-makes, and some of them were pretty lazy ones at that. I know quite a few Guitar Hero fans who were quite disappointed with the second installment, and I have to admit that Guitar Hero II had half the magic that Guitar Hero one had.

Well, there's a new Guitar Hero in town, and this one is bigger and better than the rest of 'em. Guitar Hero III boasts over 70 tracks including such hits as "Bulls on Parade" - by Rage Against the Machine, "Black Magic Woman" by Santana, "When you were young" by the Killers, "Suck My Kiss" by the Red Hot Chili Peppers, "Pride and Joy" by Stevie Ray Vaughn and many more. A much better set list makes Guitar Hero III easily the best iteration yet, but the greatness doesn't stop there.

Guitar Hero III introduces the much anticipated and long overdue online play. Go head to head against a stranger in the new Battle Mode, or team up with a fellow rocker in online co-op. The great thing about it is that there is minimal wait times; there is almost always someone ready to play either in battle match or the co-op.

The online interface is simple yet effective; you have a choice between Ranked and Player matches (ranked matches track your stats while player matches are for fun). The Player matches consist of Face-Off, Pro-Face Off, Co-OP and Battle. while Ranked has all but the Co-op.

You can do a search for the first available match or you can create your own match. The "join a quick match" makes match finding easy, but you can also be nit-picky if you choose and set filters (difficulty, number of songs, type of match, ranked or player) for the search.

Like Guitar Hero II, when you are in a mutliplayer match with either a physical buddy or an online one, you can choose whether you want to play Bass guitar or Lead Guitar (and sometimes you get to pick Rhythm Guitar), and like Guitar Hero II you can each select your own difficulty (this especially comes in handy if you happen face off against someone who is a master of the Expert difficulty.

The control and star power are exactly the same as the last Guitar Hero, but for battle mode Red Octane has devised a cool gimmick. Instead of star power during a multiplayer battle ( or a boss battle, yes you get to battle "bosses" at the end of certain stages, like Slash from Guns N Roses and Tom Morello from Rage Against the Machine), you can earn power-ups that you can use against your foe. You can break their guitar strings, force them to use their whammy bar, up their difficulty, wreck their amplifier or block the view of their fretboard, making it near impossible to see the notes for a small period of time. You can also force them to play left-handed (this just reverses the button order).

I picked up Guitar Hero III on Saturday and I have been playing it non-stop. Tracks like "One" by Metallica and "Striken" by Disturbed are strangely addicting; I've played through medium, most of hard and the beginning of Expert. Online competitive play encourages me to keep my practice up and gives me more than enough reasons to keep hoisting your trusty old axe atop your shoulders for "one more go". Oh, and there are achievements galore, and they are HARD! Some of the achievements are standard fare (score this many points, or beat this difficulty), but others are darn complicated; one achievement requires you to beat "Through the Fire and Flames" by Dragonforce on Expert. For those of you who do not know this song, it is probably one of the most complex and THE most fastest guitar shredding song in the world. There are over 1500 notes in that song alone, and they whiz by in a flurry of blinding speed.

Like the other Guitar Hero's before it, III has a store where you can upgrade your guitars, buy new guitars, buy new characters, songs, videos and a download link to Xbox Live (no downloadable content yet, but there will be soon).

My only gripe with this game is the over saturation of in-game advertising; familiar brand names and logos litter the environments. Lets see, Pontiac, Red Bull, Zabian, Guitar Center and Axe body spray, just to name a few. I guess its not all bad though, because most of the songs on Guitar Hero III are the actual song and not a re-make. I have a feeling that the in-game advertising and the profits from Guitar Hero I and II helped with that.

If you enjoy rhythm games, do yourself a favor and pick this up. You will LOVE it, not to mention how fun it is to rock out to some really great tunes.

When it comes to the game systems from the last generation, the Playstation 2 has really delivered to hard core gamers young and old alike. Surprisingly, though one of the best video game franchises might have seen its final light for the PS2. With the success of Guitar Hero, many gamers have been able to really rock out loud into the night and the heart of the day. But, the last rendidition, Guitar Hero Encore: Rock's the 80's, it really didn't do the job at enticing die hard fans of the game series. Still, many gamers have been eagerly awaiting the so-called 3rd installment for the Playstation 2 and the final version for this great system of Guitar Hero. Now it is here, and here it will rock you.

Guitar Hero III for the Playstation 2 is the latest game in the successful music game franchise. The gameplay brings in some new tricks from boss battles, and some new great tracks that make you wanna rock out like the Beastie Boys rap classic Sabatoge, Heart's standard classic Barracuda, and the classic Kiss party anthem Rock N' Roll All Night. The graphics are really great and the gameplay still remains as addictive to where Guitar Hero II really did leave off. The game is fun and addictive to new gamers, and die hard fans alike. Still, there are a few disadvantages to the game. One them is that I wish there could've been more boss battles than just 3. Although it is a great addition, it just could've had more. There are a few add-ons though that make up for it, including online gaming, where you now battle against your foes through the PS2 online, and new venues to rock out loud too.

All in all, Guitar Hero III is a great game for new gamers for the Playstation 2. Sadly, with the end of the PS2 era, this might be the last time gamers will be able to rock on this great system, and have to get the PS3 for the next rendition of Guitar Hero IV. I still think it is a great game though, but gamers could've had more to rock with.

Graphics: B

Sound: B+

Price: B

Fun & Enjoyment: B- for solo play; B+ for multiplayer action

Overall: B-