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Guitar Hero 3 Hands-On Preview!
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ImaCarrot  





Joined: 06 Mar 2006
Posts: 2687

PostPosted: Tue Oct 02, 2007 4:26 pm    Post subject: Guitar Hero 3 Hands-On Preview! Reply with quote

Guitar Hero 3 Hands-On Preview
10-05-07 by Andrew Dovichi
-----------------------------------------------------------



The Introduction:

Well, it's official, RedOctane more or less considers ScoreHero staff a part of the videogame media world. We're even on the mailing list for Activision/RedOctane press releases now. This also means that we will be invited to various press events that impact the world that Guitar Hero built.

I got invited to go to one such press event this past Monday where I was promised a chance to play Guitar Hero 3 for about 4 hours. A quick run-down of what happened at the event; the Xbox 360, Playstation 3 and Nintendo Wii versions of the game were all on display, the Xbox 360 version was available to play online against other people in the event, I have now played pretty much every song in the game between this event and my prior event.

It probably wouldn't do to just up and leave this report at that would it? Lucky for you guys I tend to get carried away when I write, start reading below for more of my impressions of the game, as well as tidbits of new info here and there and some brand new images from the Nintendo Wii version. Just so you know, if you are reading this, that means that the gaming press is allowed to finally talk about everything in the game except for the final tier and the songs contained.


Midori is awesome.

The Guitars:

All guitars now have an accelerometer for the tilting star power activation and not just a simple switch like they used to be. What this means for tilt sensitivity? We'll find out when we actually get the game in our hands on the 28th now won't we? Tilt sensitivity has always been something that varied from guitar to guitar, some that I picked up were too sensitive while others were just fine. Now let's get into the specifics that make each guitar for the respective systems unique and special.

Xbox 360: Still just as solid and great to play as it was the last time I checked it out. Really nothing new to talk about, tilt was still a bit sensitive for my liking, but the frets were very smooth on each of the 7 or 8 guitars I played on. Things that did vary from each guitar were strum-bar looseness and whammy bar stiffness.

Playstation 3: Very similar to the 360 guitar, but the frets on every guitar I picked up were a bit stiffer, made playing a tad tougher, nothing I couldn't get used to, but not as enjoyable as the 360's frets. An interesting thing to note, an exclusive to the PS3, if you will, is the addition of a dongle that you must insert into your PS3's USB port in order to use your wireless guitar. This guitar is also the only one that has labels on the side of the neck by the frets that tell you what the corresponding controller button each fret is. No longer will you need to guess which fret acts as the X button, or the L1 button.

Nintendo Wii: Just as good as the 360 guitar, the weight balance is a touch off because of the Wii Remote, again, nothing you can't get used to. The Wii Remote acts as the tilt sensor by using the internal accelerometer. The Remote also rumbles whenever you get star power, something more useful than it sounds. And finally, the missed note plinks come out of the Remotes speaker, a neat idea, but I didn't really get to check it out much because of how loud it was in the room.

The guitar has a thumb-stick on it to use for navigating the Home menus, it works well enough but could take a little getting used to. You don't have access to the B button at all, so you have to use the Home button to back out of the menus, which is different, but manageable.

The Online:


This shot is the Online menu for the Nintendo Wii version, the other console versions have slight differences, but look pretty much the same.

I got to take the Xbox 360 online and play against other people in the room on different stations. I played pro face-off only, but all of the multiplayer modes available offline, with the exception of Co-op Campaign, are available online. So we get to play Face-off, Pro Face-off, Coop quickplay and Battle mode online.

There was no lag whatsoever, you could argue that's just because we were all on the same connection, but the Neversoft guys [need names, ask Jordan] assured me that you shouldn't ever see lag while playing. The game uses that method made famous by Halo 2. While playing, the screen looked just like it does if both people are playing on the same machine, I could see my opponents fretboard, score, star power, everything, just like I could see mine. They really pulled it off, I'm very impressed.

Another, side effect, of having your system online is the inclusion of Dynamic Advertisements. That's right, no longer will we be forced to look at the same 5 Gum ad in one of the venues until the end of time, periodically, some fresh advertisements will be sent down the pipe and into our game for us to feast upon like mana from heaven. Some may say that this so called flavor of the week would help make the game seem more dynamic and alive. I see it as another cash-grab, plain and simple. As long as the fretboards don't start trying to recruit me into the armed forces or something, the in-game ads don't really bother me.

One could also argue that there have been real world products advertised in Guitar Hero since the beginning of time and they would be right, but Neversoft really upped the ante with this installment. Take that as you will.

One thing I completely forgot to ask about was voice chat during play, seeing how this is a pretty major thing on the Xbox 360, I imagine that it will be possible, but I just don't know for sure.


Judy opens wide.

The Songs:

It has now been announced, the one tidbit of information that has pained me the most to keep secret since my last excursion into the depths of Guitar Hero 3, Cliffs of motherfucking Dover. A Grammy award winning piece by Eric Johnson, don't worry, I had never heard of him before playing the song in Guitar Hero 3 either. Once you survive the intro, this song is the one I have the most fun playing.

Do yourself a favor, if you haven't already and you don't know the song, don't spoil it for yourself. Resist the temptation to Google it, or watch a video on YouTube, and especially resist clicking those two links to the song that I just provided. Treat yourself by going into this song from a true sightread, both visually and aurally, you won't regret it.Did you like Freya? Did you like the part in Freya where it went for what seemed like forever? Well if you did, Guitar Hero 3 has a treat for you! Before I Forget by Slipknot, also known as the song that will cramp your hands into submission before it ends. I don't like this song, I don't like the band and I don't like this note chart. There, I said it, moving on.


Tom Morello in a guitar battle against Slash! o_O

The Devil Went Down to Georgia is amazingly fun to play and was a very pleasant surprise for me. The cover is done with a nice metal sound and all guitar, sadly we won't be required to raise our axes towards our neck to play this piece. I hear a lot of people talking shit on this song, with a fair minority valiantly trying to dissuade the masses from their ignorant stance, and this saddens me. If I were to rank the songs I've played from the game, and that number does reach near the top, then The Devil Went Down to Georgia would easily be at the top, outplayed only by Cliffs of Dover. The song is amazing, and the chart does it justice, please wait until you play the song before you start bashing it.

Let's talk about some of the songs found in the Bonus tier shall we?


Lars sportin' the rockers pose!

A surprising song for me, Go That Far by Bret Michaels Band was a pretty good tune with a fun chart. For some reason, people seem to despise the fact that Bret Michaels is in a game that uses Legends of Rock as a subtitle, could be because of his days with the glam metal band Poison, or something else far too recent. Whatever it is, it needs to stop, you are only forced to actually see him during a grand total of two songs in the entire game. Thankfully, for those like myself who have nightmares about the returning singer's monster chin, there is a cheat code that will enable Bret Michaels for every song.

This is getting rather long, time to wrap it up a bit with a more quick hit of some other tracks, some in the main list and some in bonus. The new solo in Cult of Personality is awesome, it snuck up on me while I was talking with Lee Guinchard (V.P. of Hardware with RedOctane) and completely kicked my ass. I finally beat Dragonforce's Through the Fire and the Flames (Pac-Man noise and all) on expert, though it was while playing Online Pro Face-Off against Randy Guillote (Assistant Producer at RedOctane), I totally won but doubt I'll ever actually beat it on my own.

Ruby by Kaiser Chiefs, I really wanted this one to be fun to play cause I actually kind of like the song and a lot of people have been bitching about it's inclusion as well, but it really isn't a fun song to play. I still have yet to have fun playing an Iron Maiden track in a Guitar Hero game, this is of course a comment directed towards Number of the Beast. I really had high hopes for this one, but I'm just not a fan of the types of chord changes it requires you to do. Perhaps it is more fun to play on Hard.

Out of these newly announced songs, I love Impulse by An Endless Sporadic, the song is awesome and the chart was fun and challenging. This song is from a house band, one of the Tony Hawk level designers is a member. I'm glad to see Neversoft continuing the trend of including indie bands that most people never would have heard of otherwise.

The Graphics:

We all already know what the Xbox 360 version looks like, and we can be certain that the Playstation 3 version will look very similar (which it does), what we don't really know about yet is what the Nintendo Wii verison will look like. Until now. All gameplay images located in this article are from the Nintendo Wii version of the game! Not too shabby, not too shabby at all. I can attest that the game looks better than Guitar Hero 2 on the Playstation 2 did, and it runs just as smooth as it needs to.


Judy and Casey tearin' it up.

The Conclusion:

Don't worry ScoreHero, you were well represented at this press event, it really amazed me how everyone there I talked to knew of our community, even if I hadn't exactly ever heard of the site they were from. The majority of the people there were playing on Easy and Medium, with a scant few trekking up to the tireless peaks of the Hard and Expert difficulties, so they were quite impressed to see someone tearing it up on the Expert tracks. I kept asking people if they wanted to play me, even on just regular old co-op, but only one would rise to the challenge. The aforementioned Randy Guillote from RedOctane was an Expert player as well, so we pro face-offed a number of tracks. He claimed victory from me only on Cities on Flame with Rock and Roll by Blue Oyster Cult, and believe that it was only by a small margin.

It also amazes me how much a story gets around, when introduced to various people from RedOctane and Neversoft, the ice wasn't truly broken until it was established that I was the guy that missed his flight, at which point a friendly group chuckle was exhausted at my expense.

On behalf of the ScoreHero staff, myself and the entire ScoreHero community, I would like to thank everyone from RedOctane and Neversoft at this event. Kai Huang, Charles Huang, Jeff Matsushita, Pat Bowman, Lee Guinchard, Ryh-Ming Poon, Bryan Lam and of course, Jordan Dodge. Also Randy Guillote from Neversoft for taking the time to answer my questions and giving me a chance to play some multiplayer.

Enjoy a newly released video, this one showcases Paint it Black by Rolling Stones, as well as Co-op clips of Slow Ride by Fog Hat and School's Out by Alice Cooper. All are being played on Expert, and by someone with admirable skill, i.e. not someone from IGN (4:08).

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Last edited by ImaCarrot on Mon Oct 22, 2007 5:09 pm; edited 2 times in total
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Eronamanthius  





Joined: 18 Apr 2007
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PostPosted: Fri Oct 05, 2007 4:08 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Awesome! Can't wait!

(edit) "Cliffs of motherfucking Dover" Well said! One of my favorite songs
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Skatterd  





Joined: 04 Jan 2007
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PostPosted: Fri Oct 05, 2007 4:12 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

awesomeness
i guess this pretty much settles everything then
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buMf00d  





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PostPosted: Fri Oct 05, 2007 4:12 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

awesome to read this carrot very very nice
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toymachine  





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PostPosted: Fri Oct 05, 2007 4:14 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

great read
glad to hear Slipknot sucks
I was scared that I might actually like playing it

do not want
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Hibbleton  





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PostPosted: Fri Oct 05, 2007 4:16 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

That is awesome, thanks for the update! I'm also glad to see some new Wii images, I'm hoping Vicarious Visions didn't mess with the game much.
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kevguev  





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PostPosted: Fri Oct 05, 2007 4:17 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

are you serious no co-op online
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Danterion  





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PostPosted: Fri Oct 05, 2007 4:17 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Anything about the PS2 version?
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ptitnico  





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PostPosted: Fri Oct 05, 2007 4:18 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

F*** the version is out on 23rd november in my country ( France)...
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Graf  





Joined: 08 Aug 2007
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PostPosted: Fri Oct 05, 2007 4:19 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Sweet!

I cant wait to play it!
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CleverConveyence  





Joined: 28 Jul 2007
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PostPosted: Fri Oct 05, 2007 4:19 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Way to shut up the haters on DWDTG. I know that it's gonna rock.

2 random questions

I figured Slipknot sucked, but did Disturbed suck, too?
And could you describe the Morello battle?

Also, your write-up is heavily appreciated.


Last edited by CleverConveyence on Fri Oct 05, 2007 5:09 pm; edited 1 time in total
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underoath87  





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PostPosted: Fri Oct 05, 2007 4:20 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

so jealous
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ImaCarrot  





Joined: 06 Mar 2006
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PostPosted: Fri Oct 05, 2007 4:21 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

kevguev wrote:
are you serious no co-op online


No Co-op campaign online, you can still play co-op online through quickplay.

The PS2 and PC versions were not there. Interestingly enough, Vicarious Visions isn't listed as doing the PS2 version, a company called Budcat is listed in the fact sheet RedOctane gave out. Budcat confirms this themselves on their site, way back in July apparently.
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Sixen  





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PostPosted: Fri Oct 05, 2007 4:22 pm    Post subject: nice Reply with quote

Lucky you. I cant wait for cliffs of dover!
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FrankieB  





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PostPosted: Fri Oct 05, 2007 4:26 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Carrot, this is great stuff man. I really appreciate the update and some comments regarding the game. I am disappointed to hear that Before I Forget is a finger rape session, but I am glad to hear that Devil Went Down to Georgia isn't some country song fiasco Guitar Hero 3 finale song.

Can you give us any information regarding Lou? I would also like to hear how Stricken plays by Disturbed.

Again, thanks a bunch brother!
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