

Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock is the fourth Guitar Hero game and third main entry in the Guitar Hero series, released on October 28, 2007 in North America, on November 7, 2007 in Australia, and on November 23, 2007 in Europe. It is the first game in the series to be developed by Neversoft , as previous Guitar Hero games were created by Harmonix before they handed the series over to Neversoft and Vicarious Visions.

Gameplay

Guitar Hero III uses much of the same gameplay as the previous titles in the series. The game features a more realisitic guitar controller.

Some changes have been made to gameplay from previous titles. The timing for hitting notes has been increased meaning players can be less accurate and still hit notes.

Controllers

All console versions (excluding PC and Mac) feature wireless controllers. The PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 versions both use a black Gibson Les Paul controller, but some Xbox 360 versions included Guitar Hero II's X-Plorer controller. The Wii version controller is a white Gibson Les Paul, and it features a slot for the Wiimote and utilizes the remote's internal speaker and rumble feature. The PlayStation 2 version of the game comes bundled with a Kramer Striker controller. The PC and Mac versions can be played with either the keyboard or the Xbox 360 X-Plorer, since the latter utilizes wired USB capability.

Battle Mode

Main article: Battle Mode

Battle Mode is a new head-to-head multiplayer game starting in this game. Unlike Face-Off and Pro Face-Off, each player in Battle Mode has their own Rock Meter. Players can choose their own difficulty level on Battle Mode like Face-Off Mode. Star Power in Battle Mode is replaced by Battle Power-Ups. Activating Battle Power-Ups is done the same way as activating Star Power, except Battle Power-Ups are intended to negatively affect the opponent's performance. The goal of Battle Mode is to make the opponent's performance suffer until their Rock Meter goes down completely and they fail the song. The player whose Rock Meter reaches the bottom first loses, and the song ends immediately. If no players lose and if the song ends, the song starts over and goes into Sudden Death mode. In Sudden Death mode, both players' rock meter and current Battle Power-Ups stays the same; however, all Battle Power-Ups gained during Sudden Death mode are replaced by the Death Drain power-up, which unavoidably makes the opponent's Rock Meter drain. The list of available powerups are:

Amp Overload - Notes flash, making them harder to see.

Broken String - The player must repeatedly press the "broken" string's button to repair it.

Death Drain (Sudden Death only) - The rock meter steadily drains. Hitting notes can help slow down the effect, but not get rid of it.

Difficulty Up - Increases the difficulty level for the player. If a player is facing someone who is playing on Expert, they will not get this power up.

Double Notes - One note is added to each note. (Single notes become double note chords, double notes become triple notes, etc. Triple notes do not become quad notes, however.)

Lefty/Righty Flip - Reverses the dexterity of the strike line (similar to Lefty Flip Mode).

Steal Power-Up - Steals the opponent's powerups.

Whammy Bar - A whammy bar symbol appears on the screen, and no notes can be played until the player uses the whammy bar to remove it.

In Career Mode, there are three boss battles: Tom Morello, Slash, and Lou. These special battles will happen before the encore of their respective venue, with the exception of Lou, whose battle is slightly different. If the player manages to survive the whole song but cannot defeat the boss, Sudden Death mode will activate, and the player will lose. When the player defeats a boss, they will play an encore with said boss. The exception to this is Lou, who must be "finished off" upon defeat. During this time, Lou will be unable to play, and the player must play the end of "The Devil Went Down to Georgia".

Characters

Neversoft lead developer Alan Flores revealed that Guitar Hero III has a cast of thirteen characters. Characters returning from previous titles are Johnny Napalm, Judy Nails, Axel Steel, Izzy Sparks, Casey Lynch, Lars Ümlaüt, and Xavier Stone; Midori is an original playable character who can be selected. Additionally, each version of the game has two additional playable characters who can be unlocked: the Wii and PlayStation 2 versions include Metalhead and Elroy Budvis, while the PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, PC, and Mac versions include the God of Rock and the Grim Ripper.

In addition, the player can unlock three bonus characters through Career mode boss battles: Tom Morello, Slash and Lou the Devil. Bret Michaels appears in the game and sings specific songs, but he is not a playable character in the game without the use of a cheat code (Exclusive to the Playstation 3 and Xbox 360 Versions.). Michaels is only present when playingTalk Dirty to Me or Go That Far on all versions of the game, replacing the traditional vocalist. With the use of a cheat code, however, he can also sing any other song in the game on all consoles except the PS2 and Wii.

Venues

Solo Venues

Co-op Venues

Setlist

Main article: Setlist in Guitar Hero III

Errors

The real-life singers for Bloc Party ("Helicopter") and Living Colour ("Cult of Personality") are both African-American, but The Male Singer (who is white) still sings on these songs.

Achievements

The achievements for the Xbox 360 version of the game can be viewed here



