Guitar Hero 3
Preview
All would-be guitarists will surely jump in joy!
by Rook
previewed on X360
More fun for ex-air guitarists
The Guitar Hero phenomenon is once again on the edge of exploding back into the gaming world with the upcoming release of Guitar Hero 3: Legends of Rock. With this newest installment, Activision game studio Neversoft joins forces with a formidable cross section of the music industry from over the last few decades to bring us one of the most anticipated games of this year.
GH3 has received an amazing facelift from its predecessor. The signature Cartoon-rocker style of GH2 has been remodeled and refined. It still has its roots set firmly in the well-known art direction, but the rockers now have new crisp high resolution look to them. In addition to the new look, motion capture has been used to synch the mouths of the singers to accurately match the music. No more flappy mouths!
New tracks to pseudo-play
No matter how pretty the UI may look, it’s the music that matters. Confirmation of some of the tracks being featured include original master tracks "Cult of Personality" by Living Colour, "Paint it Black" by the Rolling Stones, "The Metal" by Tenacious D, and "Sabotage" by the Beastie Boys as well as cover tracks from Kiss, Alice Cooper and Heart.
Game modes revised
Gameplay has also undergone a makeover with the addition of a new multiplayer battle mode. In this head to head contest of superhuman finger dexterity, player will battle in a musical duel to the bitter end to find out exactly who has what it takes to be a Rock Legend. The combatants will attack and counter-attack with a series of "difficulty" modifiers. These attacks can range from everything between forcing your opponent to play with a lefty flip to destroying his sound equipment or even breaking a guitar string. In addition, GH3 will have full online multiplayer support, so you can take your frit shredding greatness and flex for the entire world to see, or at least until someone owns you in Battle mode.
The career mode, however, is not to be outdone by the new battle mode. The Career mode will now include a cooperative career mode where you and your friend can attempt to climb to rock star greatness together. Also added to career mode are so-called "boss" fights. Playing almost exactly like the multiplayer battle mode, the player will square off against this "musical icon" in order to be allowed to advance to the next venue. As it stands, it has been confirmed from E3 ’07 that one of the bosses you will have to face off with will be Slash from Guns ‘n’ Roses and more recently Velvet Revolver.
Unlockable content
Finally, once again, there's once again a lot of unlockable content to, well, unlock. Unlockable content is seemingly cramped into every corner of GH3. Everything from guitars (provided by Gibson, Epiphone, and Kramer) to finishes to songs that will be unlocked only in specific modes of play. For example, don’t expect to play "Sabotage" by the Beastie Boys anytime soon unless you have someone willing to team up with you to play the Cooperative Career mode.
Final words
With the anticipated release date said to be Q4 of this year, just in time for the holidays, GH3 will be released for the X360, PS2, PS3 and the Wii. If this "anticipated date" holds true, it may be good advice to pre-order when it becomes available. It is a sure bet that Guitar Hero 3 will be flying off the shelves as soon as they are with in reach of all of us would-be rock heroes out there.
