With Rock Band delayed until Spring, this was an automatic purchase. The chance to rock out again with an oversized Fisher Price toy was too much to resist, especially because this year’s guitar was wireless.
Guitar Hero 3 carries on where GH and GH2 left off; you strum your way through your “career” unlocking songs and making money as you go. Why change a winning formula? For me, as long as I can continually unlock new tracks then I’m a happy bunny.
The new feature is boss battles where you must outplay an opponent, using power-ups to make them miss notes. The power-ups replace star power, so hitting a series of specified notes can cause your opponent to break a string, play twice the number of notes or make buttons reverse. Disappointingly, as they are a nice break, there are only three throughout career mode but it’s also available in multiplayer.
Whilst it is “same old, same old”, it’s still great but for one exception: they have made it harder, and for no apparent reason. Even on Easy they have raised the bar needlessly which has already put Ali and others off from ever touching the series again, despite them having a reasonable success with the previous two outings. For a game that is supposed to appeal to the casual gamer, this is a horrendous oversight.
Co-op career and it’s Live components saves GH3 for me, although I do hope the DLC helps severely expand the quality of songs available.
I make my living as a programmer at a British games developer. In my spare time I try and spread myself between writing, gaming, drumming, goalkeeping, rolling dice and keeping my hair blue. Somewhere around that my wife fits in.
Disclaimer: the views expressed are my own and do not neccessarily reflect those of my employer. "
