Video Game Vintage Title: Guitar Hero III: Legends Of Rock

Guitar Hero III: Legends Of Rock

Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock is a music rhythm game, the third main installment in the Guitar Hero series, and the fourth title overall. The game was published by Activision and distributed by RedOctane. It is the first game in the series to be developed by Neversoft after Activision's acquisition of RedOctane and MTV Games' purchase of Harmonix Music Systems, the previous development studio for the series. The game was released worldwide for the PlayStation 2, PlayStation 3, Wii and Xbox 360 in October 2007, with Budcat Creations assisting Neversoft on developing the PlayStation 2 port and Vicarious Visions solely developing on the Wii port respectively. Aspyr Media published the Microsoft Windows and Mac OS X versions of the game, releasing them later in 2007.

Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock retains the basic gameplay from previous games in the Guitar Hero series, where the player uses a guitar-shaped controller to simulate the playing of lead, bass, and rhythm guitar parts in rock songs by playing in time to scrolling notes on-screen. The game, in addition to existing single-player Career modes, includes a new Co-Op Career mode and competitive challenges that pit the player against in-game characters and other players. Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock is the first game in the series to include an online multiplayer feature, which is enabled in the PlayStation 3, Wii and Xbox 360 versions. Initially the game offers over 70 songs, most of which are master tracks. The PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 versions feature the ability to download additional songs. The musicians Tom Morello and Slash make appearances both as guitar battle opponents and playable characters in the game. The PlayStation 3, Xbox 360 and Microsoft Windows versions also include Bret Michaels as a non-playable character.

Critics were generally favorable towards the game, but reviewers noted a difference in the game's style compared to previous installments, associating it with it being Neversoft's first development attempt with the series. The game is often cited to be too difficult, creating "walls of notes" that are difficult to complete, and led to alterations in note placement for future games in the series were designed. According to Activision, Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock is the best-selling video game of 2007, both in terms of units sold and revenue earned, and that it is the first single retail video game to exceed one billion dollars in sales. The company also claimed that it is the second-best selling video game title since 1995, following Wii Play, and is one of the best-selling third-party games available for the Wii.

Reception
Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock generally received positive reviews, although it scored lower than its predecessors on review aggregator Metacritic. The Gibson Les Paul controller included with the game's bundled version received particular praise. GameSpy, in a review of the four console versions, favorable reviewed the new controllers, and called the Wii guitar the best guitar peripheral that they had seen, praising the vibration option.

Several reviews criticized the changes made to Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock compared to previous games in the Guitar Hero series. IGN's review of the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 versions considered the game a "pretty safe effort" from Neversoft, doing little to change the game due to it being their first time working on the series. They also criticized the lack of customizable characters. IGN's review of the Wii version described the game's presentation and art direction as feeling "forced", and, as a result, less visually appealing than previous installments. GameDaily questioned the "white boy soundtrack" and would have liked to seen more tracks from legends like Jimi Hendrix and Prince in the mix." GameSpy criticized some of the difficulty tweaks in the game. They stated that "Medium simply feels like Hard-minus-the-orange-button," and that the Star Power phrases were too long, comparing the overall game to a "trial by fire" in contrast to the previous games in the series. They were also critical of the dongle approach used for the PlayStation 3 controllers, and failings in the online support for the PlayStation 3 version. GameSpot criticized the game for its "heavy dose of in-game advertising." GameSpy stated that the PlayStation 2 version received "the short end of the stick" because of a lack of online play. Official Xbox Magazine also criticized the game for being "too competitive", a facet not readily found in the previous games. The PC version has been criticized for its high system requirements, and for lag and slowdown problems even on high-end systems.