Right, time to review one of my favourite games of the moment, it’s Guitar Hero 3 Legends of Rock. I played the first one to death on the PS2, then the second one on PS2 and the 360 and now this one’s come out complete with optional wireless guitars and a few new twists to try and improve on the already fantastic format.
Once again you choose one of a few characters and work your way through a number of venues by playing four or five songs as well as you can. You don your guitar peripheral, hold down the coloured buttons and strum in time to the music. I’ve actually progressed to playing the game on hard mode now and let me tell you it gets quite challenging at the 7th venue. Songs are varied including ones from Pearl Jam, Muse, Foo Fighters, Guns ‘n’ Roses and some good Dad rock’s there too as well as some of the heavier stuff. There’s also some bonus tracks including Kaiser Chiefs and Stone Roses and some downloadable content which is a little bit disappointing. I downloaded the Foo Fighters pack for about 4 quid with three songs and they just weren’t very fun to play and the audio levels were all over the place.
New to this one is boss battles where you must play against Slash and Tom Morello before playing an Encore with them. In battle mode you play for battle power instead of star power and can throw spanners in the works of your other player like broked strings, double notes and even left-handed play. It’s fun, but even in multi-player it’s more fun playing a classic face off or a duet in career mode.
It sounds better this time around as most of the tracks are the originals and looks better too with the singers lip-synching to the words better than you used to see on Top of the Pops. In fact, it’s a massive leap in graphic quality when you compare it directly to Guitar Hero 2, with the fret board clearer and at a different angle which reduces motion sickness and that weird crawling sensation you get when you look away and stare at something still in the room.
It’s great fun and even my girlfriends loves playing it and she doesn’t even play the guitar.
It’s a great addition to a successful formula, I only worry that it may get blown out of the park by the impending Rock Band from EA. For now though, it gets an excellent 8 out of 10.
