Things I hate about Guitar Hero 3

1) The fucking star power meter looks fucking mince and it now harder to at-a-glance see how much you have. Where is my throbbing light?!?!?

2) The shape of the controller is irritating as hell.

3) The in-between sections animations.

4) Fuck it, most of the animations actually. The lead singer bloke is just plain distracting.

5) That BASTARD streak thing "You have 50 notes" or "You have 100 notes". Cheers cunts that cut right across where I was looking, distracting me with it's gay bounce and now I have cocked up again.

6) The notes counter, give me back my nice yellow lights bitches.

7) Activating star power is now nearly impossible, cheap sensors apparently. Cheaper game? Of course not.

8) Even when star power is now activated THE WHOLE BASTARD CONTROLLER shakes.

Things I like about Guitar Hero 3:

1) Bulls on Parade is not a cover and therefore actually really good.

Comments

Hmm.. cheers for the first look Chris. Sounds like a lot of the problems can be avoided by using an old controller...

byrn's picture

It may just be the Wii controller, I am pretty sure it's the only one that vibrates. The star power thing is by far the worst aspect though... To be fair I don't *really* hate the game, but all the changes that have been made are for the worse IMO.

Nibbles's picture

Real Bulls on Parade? FANTASTIC. I'm sold, sod the irritations. Also, it's got Pearl Jam on it so I might just be beaten to death if I don't get it at some point.

brainwipe's picture

You can turn the vibrate off...just press Home, and goto the Wiimote options at the bottom...

babychaos's picture

The reviews I've been seeing seem to suggest that Rock band just blows Guitar hero out of the water, if you can stomach the price.

Evilmatt's picture

I have to admit the standard of the songs is much, much better than in GH2... Having a Rage song that hasn't been mutilated beyond recognition is very pleasent. Never the less I stand by my slanging! The game just doesn't feel polished for reasons highlighted above, they have fixed things that were never broken.

I will reserve being too optimistic about Rock Band as I am not sure if it'll be worth me buying it.

Nibbles's picture

A colleague was telling me that the wii version of GH3 is in mono, at least the music is the twang noises and the crowd noises are stereo just the underlying music track is mono. Not a huge down side but for a thing that's all about the music you would expect stereo at least, the 360 and ps3 versions are all in stereo.

Evilmatt's picture

Got this last night. My thoughts:

1. The GUI is very, very different. The notes are smaller, in fact the whole fretboard is new graphics. Wether its just the graphical changes or something else, it feels different to play. Took some getting used to.

The star power meter, with this yellow tubes until active, is damn annoying. I can never tell if I have some star power already or not. Might get used to it.

2. Bought the cheapass controller-less edition, so no controller issues for me. Apart from it starting to dissolve with age and use...

3. I don't find the in between section animations too irritating, but I've not been playing long.

4. The lead singer is indeed a bit distracting. The guy with the malformed jaw of hugeness stolen from a dinosaur badly synced up to the lyrics is a bit off putting.

5. The streak thing isn't really in my way. I guess I don't look as far ahead ;)

6. The combo meter is a little harder to read at a glance, but this is mainly down to unfamiliarity. For me.

7&8, I'll keep my old controller thanks.

Got home about half ten last night, started playing it and didn't stop till half one or so. Its damn good. Songs I particularly enjoyed so far (for no clear reason, vaguely remembered) were Sunshine of Your Love and Black Magic Woman.

byrn's picture

I find the notes disappear when you do star power. The background of the fretboard isn't dark enough, there's no contrast and it all disappears. Damn irritating. Kate will say "Star Power" and I can only reply "God no".

brainwipe's picture

Hm... not really found that. In 2 and 1 the fretboard depended on the character... have you tried playing as someone else?

byrn's picture

It happens to Kate too. I normally always play as Lars Umlaut. All the fizzy whizzy and lack of contrast makes the notes disappear.

brainwipe's picture

I'll see if I can spot that tonight. I may have lumped it in with "looks different/odd" in my brain.

byrn's picture

"What the fuck happened to Clive Winston?"

Pleased you seem to be enjoying it more than me! I have more or less stopped playing it now, haven't had that much time of late. Have played online a couple of times now and that is actually a bit of a laugh... Never the less all of my previous irritations survive intact. Oh and I quite like the Muse song.

Nibbles's picture

I can join in on this one as it's not about graphics cards! :-)

I've got it on the Nintendo Wii - I think pluging the remote into the controller is pretty cool, but the whammy bar on the guitar I have is a bit limp!

I've played both previous versions on the PS2, plus that crappy 80s version, with wired and wireless guitars and there's not that much difference in the gameplay IMHO, but the cosmetic differences do hinder play somewhat.

Have to agree with Chris (or was it Byrn) on the Star Power, it's damn annoying and hard to see whether you have it or not, and I'm not sure whether you can still build up Star Power on the Star Notes by using the whammy bar as you could in GH2. The songs are by far the best, although I miss Freebird and only having a Wii cannot get it ever! :-(

Apart from the stuff you guys have already mentioned, nothing else to report. Haven't played online yet due to a lack of broadbean, or comms of any sort into my gaff at the moment!

Rude!

rudei's picture

When you get teh internets let me know your friend code and then you can wup me online.

Trying hard on GH2 at the minute... One thing I can say about that game is that hard, really, really is hard.

Nibbles's picture

Will do, although I think you'll probably kick my ass at it rather than vice versa!

You're right, the gulf of difficulty between medium and hard on that game is enormous!

Rude!

rudei's picture

OK, I just tried Raining Blood. twice.

What. The. Fuck.

Definately one of Yahtzee's finer calls, it is ridiculously hard. Truly stupendously so. Let's put it this way, I've finished all the other songs in that set. A couple took two tries, but not too bad. I just failed Raining blood at the (no doubt first) series of ridiculous hammer ons, a mighty 36% of the way through. It is so much harder than the rest of this game mode it is silly.

Oh, BTW Rob, had a good look at the notes under star power, look pretty easy to spot to me. Maybe the telly needs its contrast turning up?

rudei, what did you think of Rocks the 80s? I went all skinflint when it came out and didn't get it...

byrn's picture

I'd just like to say, I really like Cliffs of Dover

byrn's picture