Customer Reviews

Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock Wireless Bundle - PS2

5 star:		(80)
4 star:		(47)
3 star:		(9)
2 star:		(5)
1 star:		(5)

 

 

The gameplay is GHIII is fantastic (The Boss Battles in career mode are a little silly, but they are thankfully optional). The track list is awesome and the songs are extremely well implemented and fun to play.

The wireless controller included in this PS2 bundle, however, is a big step backwards from the wired SG controllers bundled with GH I and II. I have experienced several random drops in response from the green and yellow buttons (not due to proximity from the receiver, I was less than four feet from the console). The buttons just stopped working. Also, the whammy bar is much closer to the strum bar, and my fingers on my strumming hand kept getting caught in it. Finally, the tilt sensor on my controller only worked intermittently, which was doubly frustrating because they moved to start and pause buttons directly behind the whammy bar, so the alternate method of triggering "Star Power" (hitting the start button) is almost impossible because you have to take your strumming hand off of the strum bar and bring it up and over the whammy bar. I'm returning the bundle and buying the stand-alone GHIII game, and I'm ordering a wired GH2-style controller directly from Red Octane.

Neversoft's first take on the Guitar Hero franchise really doesn't make any changes to the formula Harmonix created with GH1 and GH2. This isn't really a bad thing since the GH1 and GH2 formulas are so great, but it would have really been nice to see something new for the series. Here's a breakdown of the game:

Graphics:
The graphics on the PS2 version of the game are really nice and definitely have more detail and flair than with the previous Guitar Heroes. Unfortunately, the frame rate drops and the song slows down and gets a little choppy when you use star power. This is really too bad because I usually try to use star power on the parts of songs that I find difficult and this really messes me up even more than I would regularly.

Gameplay/Guitar:
The gameplay pretty much follows the old GH formula, except for the fact that the window of time that you can a play a note in has been extended a little bit. This isn't such a bad thing because some of the later levels in the game would be nearly impossible without this small change. The Gibson Kramer guitar that comes bundled with GH3 is the first stab at a wireless controller for the GH franchise and unfortunately it didn't work to well. The first guitar I got was defective and wouldn't connect to the wireless adapter so I had to return it and get a second one, which did work. Since then my new controller has worked pretty well, but once I had to restart my PS2 to get the controller to work.

Set list:
This is where GH3 really shines. This is definitely the best set list yet. It includes songs like Paint it Black by The Rolling Stones, Welcome to the Jungle by Guns and Roses, and One by Metallica. Nearly all the songs are originals and they all sound really great. This is the best Guitar Hero set list yet. Unfortunately, there are a couple songs which you can only unlock in co-op, so if you don't have a second guitar you'll have to either attempt to play with a regular PS2 controller, or just forget about playing these songs. These co-op only songs aren't small songs either, a couple of them like Suck my Kiss and Sabotage are actually advertised as some of the top songs in the game on the box.

Career/Co-op Career:
The regular career is exactly the same as the past GH game except for the addition of some little cartoons after every set and three boss battles placed throughout the sets. The cartoons are cute but really add nothing to the game. The boss battles are quite fun and challenging, but since there are only three they don't really make up a big part of the career. Also the songs that you play during the boss battles are only playable in single-player career, so as awesome as it sounds to battle your friend to either Tom Morello or Slash's solo filled battle song, sorry, but you can't. The co-op career is really good and it's really fun to be able to play through the career with a friend.

Overall:
Guitar Hero 3 is basically the same as GH1 and GH2, it has the best songs of all the GH games, and the controller is flawed but it is nice to be able to play wirelessly. It's too bad that there's nearly nothing new, but it still includes all the fun of the other guitar hero games.

I had to return the GH III bundle I bought because the yellow and orange frets did not work at all. I just thought that I had bad luck and got a bad apple in the bunch. So, I was happy that all of the buttons on the second guitar worked. That is, until a few minutes into the game, the neck popped out a little bit from the body of the guitar and none of the buttons worked. In fact, I couldn't figure out why the buttons wouldn't work for a while. Anyway, after fixing that by popping it back in, I played for about an hour. Tilting the guitar to set off star power doesn't work! I had to shake violently and even then, it would only set off star power intermittently.

Not crazy about the set list. But I guess opinions can differ on that. But the pop-up note streak thing (i.e. the pop up that indicates that you have hit a 50-note streak, 100-note streak, etc.) is more distracting than helpful.

The battles with the "bosses" are really stupid. My addiction to the game is largely due to the fact that you get to listen to great music while you play a game. But these stupid battles made the game...childish. And it's just frustrating to have to waste my time on something that doesn't really require GH skills.

Anyway, the main burn for me is that the wireless guitar that comes with the bundle is AWFUL. AWFUL. I'm going to try to return the whole thing tomorrow.

I quick blitzed through the entire game yesterday just to catch which songs were included, and I found that, while there were some new features, by and large it's just more of the same -- which is alright. If you were expecting a revolution though, you might have to wait and see what "Rock Band" looks like.

Highlights:
1) For whatever reason, playing "Mississippi Queen", "One", and "Cherub Rock" elicited that old Guitar Hero feeling. Those were among my favorite track choices thusfar. Your miles may vary, but ultimately there are a wide variety of genres represented in GH3, so there really is a good chance that everyone will find a few tracks they enjoy.
2) I like that they tailored the songs to fit the arena that you're playing in slightly. It added a little bit of flair to each set.
3) As always, there are a few enjoyable songs hidden amongst the bonus tracks -- "Avalancha" just proves that everything is more fun in Spanish. (No one compares to Bang Camaro in GH2 yet, though.)
4) The graphics and the kitchy animations between gigs were improvements, although I guess not that important. They added to the career mode a bit though.
5) Using the visual effect to distinguish hammer-ons and pull-offs was a great idea. But, now it's actually a distraction as I find myself trying to hammer certain sections when I used to just play them. Still, all told, I think it's a good addition that forces you to try to be more precise.

Lowlights:
1) The cover of "Anarchy in the UK" is downright miserable; so much so that thinking about it is legitimately depressing. I actually like that song, but I will certainly not be playing it very often in this game due to the supremely annoying voice of the guy singing.
2) One other major area of concern is the assembly / sturdiness of the wireless controller. Three of my fret buttons spontaneously ceased to function in the middle of a song after playing for about 45 minutes -- Upon closer inspection, the neck of the guitar had become slightly dislodged from the body and was no longer making good contact. (And, I wasn't even playing too hard at that point in the game!) I contemplated returning the guitar, but I think it's just inherent to the design, and I'm not sure they're going to do anything about it since if you push the two pieces together solidly again, it does click into position...
3) The boss battles are okay, but kinda annoying when you just want to play. Probably would've been best for a different mode.
4) The smaller display / different display angle are frustrating, as well as the sometimes poorly chosen colors for the scrolling display causing notes to blend in too much with the backgrounds. Yeah, they put some thought into choosing those backgrounds, but rather than highlight it so much, it would've been nice to leave the contrast at the more appropriate levels of the previous games.

I guess, my summary would be that the frachise is showing just a little bit of age but is still a lot of fun. My only real concern is that the new wireless controller is going to have some serious durability problems -- but only time will tell.

UPDATE: I have not had any further issues with the controller this past week. Perhaps the previous concerns are exaggerated? I will update if anything develops down the road.

So after it took me about 20 minutes for the wireless controller to sync up, I was having an incredibly hard time nailing the timing and felt like a hack. I switched out controllers and used my SG from GH2 and was nailing almost everythng that came my way so I wonder if there is a latent lag in the wireless controller. I am going to give it another try later. Another thing I noticed was that surround sound was not available unlike all of the previous versions where I've played it through my receiver. Other than that, the songs seem great so far and look forward to getting further in the game.

I'm not sure why some people were having trouble with the wireless guitar. I hooked mine up and jumped right in. The guitar connected immediately, and I have had no lag problems at all. I would definetly reccomend this to others. The wireless factor is a major bonus for me, and the fact that I didn't have any problems setting it up makes it a no brainer for beginners.

Guitar hero III is a great sequel to to guitar hero I and II. The song list is pretty good and the boss battles although a bit tedious is quite exciting. I have to admit the wireless controller isn't all that great but with a new wired one it works perfectley. As for people's compaints of the sound quality, that is almost completely due to your t.v. I have a pretty up to date one and the sound and video quality of the game was just awesome. You can't actually expect great results on a t.v more than 3 years old. This aside, G.H III is probably the last great game for the playstation II system. I would recommend buying this one!

Playing Guitar Hero III is like watching that garage band you loved when they were nobodies sell out to commercial interests and lose all their personality in the process. Neversoft managed to take an amazing game and make it lackluster and bland.

Songs: The songs are a matter of personal preference, I guess. For the most part the set list is good, but once cannot help but get the feeling that they are trying to appeal to a much narrower audience than in past games. There could have been more diversity in the music and in choice of bands. There are very few females and ethnic minorities represented in the mix. The game would have been much more exciting if there had been more variation in the music. What I loved about the first game is that the songs in every set were very different from each other, so there was bound to be something you liked. Unfortunately in this game many of the songs have the same feel.

Game play: It is as though Neversoft completely missed the point of the game. They focused so much on the rock legends background story that they took the emphasis off the game play and music. The battles were in interesting concept, but they run counter to the spirit of the game. The point of the game is to play the song as well as you can so that you actually feel like your playing. Battles, on the other hand, disrupt your playing no matter how well you're doing so that you never feel like you are playing the song. The idea of battling guitar legends like Slash is fun, but it would have been better if the attacks were saved for the multi-player battle mode. You have to play the battles in career mode, but at least you do not have to beat them to continue. Unfortunately, though, you cannot play the battle songs in quick play or cooperative, so if you want to play them you have to battle.

The essence of the game--the actual playing--does not meet up to the standards of the past versions. The music is not synced to the notes well enough and there is not much variation in note patterns. Consequently, playing often feels monotonous and repetitive. All of this makes it hard to get into and enjoy the game as much as with past versions.

Controller: A wireless controller enhances game play and increases portability. Unfortunately, the design of the wireless controller is flawed. The detachable neck does not fit into the head of the guitar as snugly as it should, allowing the contacts to become disconnected. The first time I tried out the Kramer controller, the buttons stopped working. I was able to fix it by using rubber bands to hold the neck in place. It has worked so far. Beware. If you buy any of GHIII controllers, you most likely will encounter some problems due to the inherently flawed design.

Furthermore, star power is harder to activate using the tilt. The sensor is not as sensitive as in the standard controller. If you use the select button, be forewarned that the start and select buttons have been relocated. Instead of being above the whammy bar, they are now under it which makes it a little harder to reach (depending on the position you keep your whammy bar in).

Characters/Venues: This is probably the saddest part for me. They destroyed my favorite character Judy Nails. No longer is she cute and quirky. With here triple breast enlargement and scanty clothes, she is now skanky. The new female character Midori does not make up for it either. With her cutesy, cartoonish depiction she is at best out of place in the game and at worst a racist, fetishistic depiction of Japanese girls. Considering the only other female available wears a bra for a top or a leather body suit, it seems that Neversoft felt compelled to objectify or demean every woman in the game. Seeing women dance around on stage in scanty clothing I find very alienating. As if that were not enough, some of the bonus guitars are disembodied female body parts. The chauvinistic tone underlying the whole game is sick.

The other characters did not fair much better, either. Pandora and the Grim Ripper were offed. The Grim Ripper was replaced with the Devil, the depiction of which features the grubby MTV-ish aspects of the game in all its glory. The singers look hideous (What did they do to their faces?!). The new bonus characters, excluding Slash and Tom Morello, are somewhat amusing but ultimately without substance unlike the bonus characters in the past.

I find the venues to be lackluster as well. There are 3 or 4 in the middle of the career that look almost exactly the same except the stage features a different centerpiece in each or them.

In sum, Neversoft got their hands on gold and turned it into a commercially crass and chauvinistic piece of junk. The premise of the series and the new songs might be enough to sustain a fan, but if you are just starting out go for Guitar Hero I or II.

Guitar Hero III continues the fun and accessibility established by the series, with a few subtle changes brought by new developer Neversoft.

Pros:
1) continues fun and addictive gameplay established by forerunners
2) best set list of any GH game
3) even more challenging than before
4) new gameplay mechanic designed to indicate notes that you can hammer-on and pull-off

Cons:
1) some graphical annoyances (pop-up note streak meter can be distracting)
2) hammer-on/pull-off note indicators can be confusing and counter-intuitive at first
3) notes that can be used for hammer-ons/pull-offs limited from previous games and not always logical or consistent
4) new wireless controller can be fussy--"clicky" fret buttons can be fickle, and at times response seems to be tempramental
5) boss battles are lame and don't feel as skill based

If you loved the other games, GH III continues in the same vein and offers the best song list to date. There are a few things that veterans will have to adjust to, but overall it's another great game in the series and is a blast to play.

I bought Guitar Hero III for my nephews during the last family get together but I were not sure how they would like it because they had mostly played fighting or shoot'em up games. It turned out to be a big hit with all of us. We stayed up late almost every nights playing it (2am once!) and had lot of fun.

There is a cheat code that you can enter to make most of the songs available for quick play and this is where a new comer can sample his/her favored songs and get a pretty good experience of the game. The song list is long and varied so that both old and young folks can find something to tryout. If you get booed out of the stage for playing badly, you can go into practice mode to play at a slower pace to learn the song a few sections at a time.

I want to point out that pulling up the guitar does activate "start power" even on the PS2 guitar. The PS2 wireless guitar controller works just fine in single player mode. In dual players mode, both controllers would hang occasionally. This is the only thing that prevent me from giving the game full 5 stars.

I have not played any of the other Guitar Hero series but his one is definitely a hit with me. I would recommend this game as a good family time activity.