Guitar Hero 3: The Boss Matches Suck, the Rest Rocks

[Dren]

I'm up to the Lou battle on medium now (Wii.)  I took a ton of time off since I beat Easy over xmas.  I only tried Lou twice and gave up because I was playing too long anyway.  My hands hurt.   I didn't get below 90 on any song before that, but somehow didn't even get past One the first time.  I got it the second time at 86% or something.  Man, that one is hard.

My two oldest kids now walk around singing Slow Ride over and over.  It drives my wife crazy because they play that song over and over.  They haven't gotten past it yet.  My daughter (9) is close though.  My oldest son (7) is at least getting something out of this game.  His sense of rythm and ability to hold a beat was just terrible at the beginning.  Now he's getting the hang of it.

His cousin of the same age was over at our house over the weekend and he couldn't even figure out how to strum and hold a button down at the same time.  My son kicked his ass at least.

Hey, I thought I read that we won't be able to download new songs for the Wii.  Can somebody confirm that?  That just sucks.  Plus, I want to get an extra guitar, but am told that isn't available either.

[Azazel]

Fuckin' kids. Neal Schon is a great guitarist (Do you like classic Santana? That's mostly Neal, and Black Magic Woman was a Peter Green song). Those are all big guitar rock songs. How do you not know them by name?

Ah, well. Is any of that coming to the PC? Not that I care, I donated mine to the library. Fuck that game, I gots real guitar to be playin!

Kids? We're probably the same age.    My "classic rock" listening as I grew up was more in the vein of Dylan, Doors, Floyd, The Animals, Hendrix, Deep Purple, Sabbath, Moody Blues, Beatles, Lennon, Creedence, Neil Young, Springsteen, etc.

Also, Foreigner. Cold as Ice? I Wanna Know What Love is? Waiting for a Girl Like You? Fuck, they're the definition of daggy.

[Margalis]

I'm bumping because we are having a GH3 night at work this week. Tonight I did a test run. This is my first time playing a GH game, on medium made it up to the first boss without losing, lost to him and quit. Hard kicked my ass though. I could certainly use a level between medium and hard, but maybe if I played all the way through on medium first I wouldn't say that.

[schild]

You wouldn't say that if you played through medium. I quit halfway through hard the on the first one and went to expert. Hard is missing notable notes from songs, makes you suffer through the beginning of expert. Imo, easy, medium, expert is the way to go.

[Driakos]

I would say screw medium and easy, and just start on hard.  Just to avoid the "extra button" at each phase.  Jump right in on orange and blue.

[Morfiend]

I would say screw medium and easy, and just start on hard.  Just to avoid the "extra button" at each phase.  Jump right in on orange and blue.

I would say no way if you never played the game before, hard will just be way to frustrating. It almost broke me. The only reason I didnt totally ditch the game when I tried to play hard was because of some stubborn streak of "since I cant do it, now I have to" type thing.

Hell, being my first time ever picking up one of those guitar controllers, even medium was pretty hard for me. Some one never playing a GH game before, starting on hard will be insanity.

[Sky]

Yeah, as a newbie it was a pain in the balls coping with the controller, mostly because of the fifth button. That was pretty unintuitive imo. Hard is the best from a purely musical vantage point, because you're getting more of the feel of the guitar line.

Easy and medium are easier from a 'grappling with the controller' standpoint, but they do odd things with the guitar line.

So I'd say Hard is mentally easier while the easy and medium are physically easier, if you follow.

[Phildo]

Easy felt more like an extra percussion part rather than guitar, but it's definitely necessary for getting used to the controller and reading the notes on-screen.

[Margalis]

Bah, I was blowing through medium first time playing. Guess I'm a gh podigy.

[Jain Zar]

I only have fun at easy.  3 buttons is more than enough to worry about.

[WayAbvPar]

So I'd say Hard is mentally easier while the easy and medium are physically easier, if you follow.

I think I can see that. I definitely make mistakes on Easy and Medium that are more due to me listening to the song and expecting a note than anything else. I would imagine Hard and Expert are closer to 1 note on screen = 1 note in song.

[Morfiend]

So I'd say Hard is mentally easier while the easy and medium are physically easier, if you follow.

I think I can see that. I definitely make mistakes on Easy and Medium that are more due to me listening to the song and expecting a note than anything else. I would imagine Hard and Expert are closer to 1 note on screen = 1 note in song.

Yeah, they are. But a novice just wouldnt have the dexterity to handle the speed of GH3 on hard or expert. On Rock Band Icould see starting out on hard being much more doable. I would still recommend playing on Medium first. Skip easy though.

[KallDrexx]

I've been playing randomly for the past few weeks.  I can do medium great but I just can't get the damn 5th button down and end up failing on hard. 

Whenever I move my hand to work with the 5th button I lose my hand position and mess up.  I've only gotten through 2 songs on hard, and thats because they didn't use orange much.

Wish it had more hard songs that were just 4 buttons. 

[Margalis]

I think the difficulty scale is a bit off.

Adding the 4th button is not a big deal because it doesn't require hand movement. Meanwhile hard introduces hand movement and the songs are much denser. Were I doing it I would make hard add the 5th button but not much note density. Or something like that.

[KallDrexx]

I think the difficulty scale is a bit off.

Adding the 4th button is not a big deal because it doesn't require hand movement. Meanwhile hard introduces hand movement and the songs are much denser. Were I doing it I would make hard add the 4th button but not much note density. Or something like that.

Yeah that definitely makes sense and would make it easier to get use to the hand movement.  There's always expert for the combined difficulty.

[Sky]

But a novice just wouldnt have the dexterity to handle the speed of GH3 on hard or expert.

I disagree that it's dexterity. As I said, the controller has a learning curve, even if one has excellent manual dexterity. A curve I couldn't be assed to bother with. It's also the reason I urge people to try actual guitar rather than waste time learning a guitar controller. Basic guitar isn't all that tough once you mount the initial learning curve, whereas mounting the curve for the GH controller only allows you to play GH.

Anyway, old gripes aside it would be nice if they had added an easy mode with all five buttons to learn on.

[Morfiend]

I think the difficulty scale is a bit off.

Adding the 4th button is not a big deal because it doesn't require hand movement. Meanwhile hard introduces hand movement and the songs are much denser. Were I doing it I would make hard add the 5th button but not much note density. Or something like that.

Yeah, I thought about this a lot while trying to learn hard. I know a lot of casual gamers who love GH3, but they just crumble under the jump from medium to hard, and end up giving up on the game at that point.

[Margalis]

So we had our guitar hero night. I continued to own medium difficulty. I tried the DragonForce song on medium, didn't own that one though. I did make it to 41% on my first try, which seemed pretty good all things considered.

It's fun but as a real guitar player kind of weird. Obviously the fingerings don't make a whole lot of sense and trying to play along with the songs can give bad results. I tend to play too fast on some parts.

Hard to justify practicing too much when I have a real bass I could practice instead.

[Azazel]

Two new Guitar Hero III song packs
One now, one on St. Patrick's Day.

Activision have put yet another bunch of songs for the world-conquering Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock online.

The Modern Metal Pack, available today and metal in a relatively loose sense of the word, consists of three songs - 'Hole in the Earth' by the Deftones, 'Almost Easy' by Avenged Sevenfold, and Thrice's 'The Arsonist'.

This pack should be available right now on Xbox Live and the PlayStation Store.

But, that's not all. Activision have decided to team up with 'Celtic punk' band the Dropkick Murphys in order to mark the drinking festival that is St. Patrick's Day with a special track pack, consisting of three songs from the band's latest full length album, The Meanest of Times, which hit shelves late last year. The songs included in the park are 'Famous for Nothing', '(F)lannigan’s Ball' and 'Johnny, I Hardly Knew Ya'.

The best bit about this one? It's free. The worst bit? You'll have to wait until the middle of March to get it.

http://palgn.com.au/article.php?id=10642&title=Two+new+Guitar+Hero+III+song+packs

The "Modern Metal" pack holds no interest at all for me, but the Dropkick Murphys one looks good. The fact that it's free makes it even better.

[Sky]

Hmm...that Dragonforce song was just transcribed (18 PAGES) in my new guitar mag. I'm tempted to learn it, but my plate is too full for such silliness right now.

Oh - sold my PC copy to benefit the library. Woohoo!

[Phildo]

You know Sky, you could just buy the "Strategy Guide".  It's just a book of charts for all the songs in the game.

[Sky]

What? That is about the opposite of what I just posted.

Game sold. Real guitar good.

[Grand Design]

Real guitars are for old people.

[Special J]

What? That is about the opposite of what I just posted.

Game sold. Real guitar good.

Thanks for the update!

[Azazel]

What? That is about the opposite of what I just posted.

Game sold. Real guitar good.

[Sky]

Listen, assholes. I made a post because they were talking about Dragonforce and the guitar tab is in my newest guitar magazine. The bit about selling my game was an aside. THen a comment was made about me playing more GH3, so I clarified. The dead horse is because you fuckers keep commenting on it.

Now I'm tempted to fuck up this thread by continuing to post about how guitar is better and I sold my copy.

Or you could just fucking ignore it and carry on talking about GH3.


Jesus.

[Big Gulp]

Now I'm tempted to fuck up this thread by continuing to post about how guitar is better and I sold my copy.

Hey, while you're at it why not post about the appalling lack of widescreen support?  That shit NEVER gets old!

[cmlancas]

Listen, assholes. I made a post because they were talking about Dragonforce and the guitar tab is in my newest guitar magazine. The bit about selling my game was an aside. THen a comment was made about me playing more GH3, so I clarified. The dead horse is because you fuckers keep commenting on it.

Now I'm tempted to fuck up this thread by continuing to post about how guitar is better and I sold my copy.

Or you could just fucking ignore it and carry on talking about GH3.


Jesus.

Real combat is better than COD4 because it is real. 

But you're so fun to troll Sky!

[Margalis]

GH is actually motivating me to practice bass so I can play the bass parts to the songs (on a real bass) while my friends play GH.

[caladein]

Now I'm tempted to fuck up this thread by continuing to post about how guitar is better and I sold my copy.

Hey, while you're at it why not post about the appalling lack of widescreen support?  That shit NEVER gets old!

Sixteen by ten or fight!

[Murgos]

Now I'm tempted to fuck up this thread by continuing to post about how guitar is better and I sold my copy.

You're already doing that.   For like, months.

[Phildo]

Apologies.  I assumed that since you were posting in the Guitar Hero thread that you meant your guitar magazine actually posted the tabs for the song IN GUITAR HERO.  Sorry about that.

[Bunk]

So I finally fucking succumbed. Got it home, set it all up, figured out how the hell to connect the controller - and in a fit of pure fucking idocy - I moved by 360 while the disc was spinning.

So I still have not played the game, and tomorrow get to find out if the $10 EB warranty covers a scratched disc...

[Velorath]

Details on Guitar Hero IV are starting to come out  In particular, they revealed info about the drum kit, character creation, and a music creation tool.

The kit looks similar to Rock Band's, with its bass drum pedal and primary-colored circular pads (there are only three in GHIV), but that's where the similarities end. Activision's set – which the company claims is built more sturdily than the competition's -- adds two raised, wedge-shaped cymbal pads (used to activate star power), and each pad on the kit is pressure-sensitive. Itching to freestyle on the Rock Band drums after playing Weezer's "Say it Ain't So" for the 75th time? The GHIV drum career mode will let you do your thing during encores.

Although Activision didn't reveal specific details, the publisher told GI the next Guitar Hero axe will feature a "totally new input mechanic" in addition to the standard buttons. The game will still support current GH controllers, however. All instruments in the game, including the drum set, will be wireless.

Guitar Hero IV will also feature an expanded character creation system similar to those found in the Tony Hawk and Tiger Woods games -- think facial sliders and customized outfits, accessories and even reaction animations. Instruments will be able to be personalized, too. Licensed guitars are out, drums will have different wood grains available, decals can be created and you'll even be able to slap your band's name on the bass drum head.

Activision and Neversoft also told GI they will release more downloadable songs for Guitar Hero IV than they have for Guitar Hero III and plan to introduce a new music-creation tool. The new Studio Mode will let users not only freely jam over songs in the game but also create and upload their own original tracks. Using a vertically-scrolling grid, you'll be able to record rhythm, lead, melody, bass and drums (sorry, no vocals) and create loops and effects.

[Samwise]

Although Activision didn't reveal specific details, the publisher told GI the next Guitar Hero axe will feature a "totally new input mechanic" in addition to the standard buttons.

 

Guitar Hero IV will also feature an expanded character creation system similar to those found in the Tony Hawk and Tiger Woods games -- think facial sliders and customized outfits, accessories and even reaction animations.

 

Activision and Neversoft also told GI they will release more downloadable songs for Guitar Hero IV than they have for Guitar Hero III and plan to introduce a new music-creation tool. The new Studio Mode will let users not only freely jam over songs in the game but also create and upload their own original tracks. Using a vertically-scrolling grid, you'll be able to record rhythm, lead, melody, bass and drums (sorry, no vocals) and create loops and effects.