Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock

Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock is the fourth game (counting spinoffs) in the Guitar Hero series. It was released on October 28, 2007 in North America, on November 7, 2007 in Australia, and on November 23, 2007 in Europe. Guitar Hero III was the first in the series to feature mostly master tracks, as opposed to all or nearly all covers in the two previous games, Guitar Hero and Guitar Hero II. A sequel to Guitar Hero III, World Tour, was released October 26, 2008.

Controllers
The Wii, Xbox 360, and PlayStation 3 versions of the game come with a Gibson Les Paul controller. The Wii controller features a slot for the Wii Remote to plug into. The PlayStation 2 version comes with the Kramer controller.

Gameplay
The gameplay remains very similar to previous entries in the series. Players must still use a guitar-shaped peripheral to play notes that scroll down the screen. The timing window for hammer ons and pull offs has been increased substantially, making for easier hammer on sequences.

Game Modes
Career Mode is still the main mode of playing Guitar Hero. In career, players must successfully complete every song in a tier of 4 to 6 songs. The tiers are connected by a story told through short, cartoon-like cutscenes that follow the band the player is the guitarist for. In the second, fifth, and eighth tier, players must defeat a boss in battle mode. The second tier boss is Grammy award winning guitarist Tom Morello. The fifth tier boss is former Guns N' Roses guitarist Slash, and the final boss is Lou, a devil like character. In battle mode, players try to make their opponent fail before they do by using "attacks", such as a broken string or an overloading amplifier. Once all tiers are complete, the player has finished career mode.

Cooperative Career is a new gameplay mode in Guitar Hero III. In cooperative, two players, one on guitar and the other on bass guitar, play through six tiers with a unique encore song at the end of every tier. The story for co-op career is different from the solo career, but many of the venues are reused.

Another mode is Quick Play. In Quick Play, a player simply picks which song they wish to play, what difficulty, and immediately plays that song. Multiplayer modes are Face-Off, Pro Face-Off, Cooperative Mode, and the new Battle Mode. In Face-Off, players take turns playing sections of songs. The player with the highest score at the end of the song is the winner. Pro Face-Off is the same as Face-Off, except both players play the entire song in this mode. Battle Mode can be played against other people, as well as the in-game bosses. The player that fails first loses in battle mode. Cooperative Mode is the only non-competitive multiplayer mode. In this mode, one player plays the lead guitar while the other player plays the bass or rhythm guitar part. This is the only multiplayer mode in which a player can fail a song.

Practice Mode allows players to play songs or sections of songs without the possibility of failing. The player can also play the bass or rhythm parts of songs. The songs can also be slowed down.

Online Play
Guitar Hero III was the first in the series to feature online play. The Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, and Wii versions of the game feature online play from their respective online services, while the PlayStation 2 version does not have online play. Online modes are Co-op, Pro Face-Off, Face-Off, and Battle Mode. Online leaderboards are displayed for high scores on individual songs, career scores, Battle Mode wins, and Pro Face-Off wins.

Soundtrack
Guitar Hero III had the largest set list of any Guitar Hero game when it was released. The game featured 74 songs at release, with over 40 songs available for download on the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 versions. The set list is as follows:

Tier 1

 * Slow Ride - Foghat
 * Talk Dirty to Me - Poison
 * Hit Me With Your Best Shot - Pat Benatar
 * Story of my Life - Social Distortion
 * Rock and Roll All Nite - Kiss

Tier 2

 * Mississippi Queen - Mountain
 * School's Out - Alice Cooper
 * Sunshine of your Love - Cream
 * Barracuda - Heart
 * Guitar Battle vs. Tom Morello
 * Bulls on Parade

Tier 3

 * When You Were Young - The Killers
 * Miss Murder - AFI
 * The Seeker - The Who
 * Lay Down - Priestess
 * Paint it Black - The Rolling Stones

Tier 4

 * Paranoid - Black Sabbath
 * Anarchy in the U.K. - The Sex Pistols
 * Kool Thing - Sonic Youth
 * My Name is Jonas - Weezer
 * Even Flow - Pearl Jam

Tier 5

 * Holiday in Cambodia - The Dead Kennedys
 * Rock You Like a Hurricane - The Scorpions
 * Same Old Song and Dance - Aerosmith
 * La Grange - ZZ Top
 * Guitar Battle vs. Slash
 * Welcome to the Jungle - Guns N' Roses

Tier 6

 * Black Magic Woman - Santana
 * Cherub Rock - The Smashing Pumpkins
 * Black Sunshine - White Zombie
 * The Metal - Tenacious D
 * Pride and Joy - Stevie Ray Vaughan

Tier 7

 * Before I Forget - Slipknot
 * Stricken - Disturbed
 * 3's and 7's - Queens of the Stone Age
 * Knights of Cydonia - Muse
 * Cult of Personality - Living Colour

Tier 8

 * Raining Blood - Slayer
 * Cliffs of Dover - Eric Johnson
 * The Number of the Beast - Iron Maiden
 * One - Metallica
 * Guitar Battle vs. Lou

Bonus Songs

 * Avalancha - Heroes del Silencio
 * Can't be Saved - Senses Fail
 * Closer - Lacuna Coil
 * Don't Hold Back - The Sleeping
 * Down n Dirty - LA Slum Lords
 * F.C.P.R.E.M.I.X - The Fall of Troy
 * Generation Rock - Revolverhead
 * Go That Far - Bret Michaels Band
 * Hier kommt Alex - Die Toten Hosen
 * I'm in the Band - The Hellacopters
 * Impulse - An Endless Sporadic
 * In Love - Scouts of St. Sebastian
 * In the Belly of a Shark - Gallows
 * Mauvais Garcon - NAAST
 * Metal Heavy Lady - Lions
 * Minus Celsius - Backyard Babies
 * My Curse - Killswitch Engage
 * Nothing for me Here - Dope
 * Prayer of the Refugee - Rise Against
 * Radio Song - Superbus
 * Ruby - Kaiser Chiefs
 * She Bangs the Drums - The Stone Roses
 * Take this Life - In Flames
 * The Way it Ends - Prototype
 * Through the Fire and Flames - Dragonforce

Downloadable content is also available. So far, over 40 songs have been released for download, but only a few are free, such as "We Three Kings" and "Top Gun Anthem."

Reception
Guitar Hero III was well received by critics, but scored generally lower than its predecessors. It holds an 86% on Game Rankings. Some of the game's reviews are as follows:

IGN 8.9

Gamespot 8.0

Team Xbox 8.9

1UP A

Related Games

 * Guitar Hero
 * Guitar Hero II
 * Guitar Hero: World Tour
 * Guitar Hero: Aerosmith