So I played Guitar Hero 3 today and....

I Snix I · 09-02-2007

this is what I would say if I actually played it today:

Quote:

That's right, I got to play Guitar Hero 3 for three and a half hours today at the RedOctane offices. Why was I allowed into the RedOctane offices and handed a Les Paul controller? Did I look especially pathetic standing outside with my face pressed against the glass? Well, not exactly, but what really happened is almost as pathetic.

I was invited to go down to Neversoft with the rest of the ScoreHero crew, long story short, I missed my flight

.Yeah, it sucked, shut up.

So Jordan Dodge, the PR guy that hooked us up with the trip, felt bad and said he'd invite me down to RedOctane at a later date to check out the game, which would be easy since I live only an hour away from RedOctane. That is exactly what I did yesterday, jumped in my car and drove down to sunny... Sunnyvale, and ran inside, eager to get my hands on the game.

When I got there, Jordan showed me around a bit and introduced me to some of the movers and shakers of the place. I was introduced to Charles Huang, COO and Co-Founder, talked a bit about the game, the hardware involved, and bad-mouthed the British a bit. Very cool guy. Later on, I got to meet the other Co-Founder and President, Kai Huang, who kept up with the rest of the company and was also a very cool guy.

I was also introduced to some gents working in the hardware side of things, they showed off the Les Paul that's going to be used at demo kiosks across America, better not try and steal the faceplates or neck off those

Almost time to get a hold of the game, but the conference room I was supposed to play in was occupied with a meeting.

No worries, they set me up near the hardware guys, gave me a prototype Les Paul and popped in the retail version of the game. That's right, the full, retail version of the game that we are all going to be shoveling our money towards sometime in October (near the end, around the 28th or so would be a good bet

).

So I loaded up the game, watched the super sweet cinematics, and perused the set-list before settling on my first song, which I can't tell you about. At all. Sorry.

I played a few more tracks, started getting used to the new HOPO system, oh yeah, about that new HOPO system. HOPOs are no longer done auto-magically by the engine, the note-trackers at Neversoft manually place the HOPO notes, which takes some getting used to. At first, I didn't care for it, but after awhile, it felt more natural and more realistic. For example, in some songs I noticed being able to HOPO from one long sustain to another, which might seem weird, but you don't hear the note being strummed in the song so it makes sense.

Then the conference room I was supposed to be playing in opened up, so I was able to go into there and play on a sweet entertainment setup. I also got to get a hold of the final spec Les Paul guitars, thats right, plural... as in all of the guitars associated with Guitar Hero 3. I only got to play with the Xbox 360 version, but I did get to check out the PS3, Wii and PS2 controllers. I'm not gonna say much about them, I imagine they are just like the 360 Les Paul, speaking of which...

The Guitar

This piece of equipment is very sexy, looks great, feels great, plays great. The only "flaw" I could maybe pick out is that the tilt was more sensitive than the PS2 SG's, but less sensitive than that prototype guitar I played with first. The frets feel awesome, my fingers slide across them like butter, and the strum even somehow feels better, I don't know how to explain it, but I was nailing solos and shredding fast strum sections that I would never be able to hit in Guitar Hero 2 with my SG.

Also, don't try and play the guitar without a faceplate on, the ridge around the edge of the controller sits uncomfortably against the wrist that way.

The Songs

So I can't announce any new songs, yet, but I can still give my impression of the ones I played. The first couple of songs I played I actually didn't care for too much, my fault really for picking songs I didn't like prior though. Every other song I played (around 30 or so) was awesome sprinkled with awesome-sauce. There were some personal favorites I saw on the list that were extremely fun to play, and I had to play some of them more than once. I didn't pass a couple of the songs I played, and thankfully, they've been announced so I can talk about them. Through the Fire and Flames, of course, kicked my ass. I only attempted it a few times before throwing in the towel, that song is just ridiculous. The other song, which I refer to as the new Free Bird, was One by Metallica. I swear I fell asleep during the first half of the song and that's why the solo killed me, but it is a pretty wicked solo.

The rest of the final tier got totally owned by me though, 3 stars all around baby! A couple of the final tier songs have already been announced, like Raining Blood and Number of the Beast, both pretty fun, but my all-time favorite Guitar Hero 3 track is an unannounced final tier song.

The Cheat System

Undoubtedly the most surprising thing I saw is actually something I can talk about! Yay! Inputting cheat codes may not seem like something worth talking about, but no longer will we be sitting at the title screen hammering frets until the words "Cheat Enabled" pop up. You first go into the options menu, then select the Cheats option. The cheat menu comes up now, and the first thing you will likely notice is the 8 or so slots full of question marks. That's right, when you unlock a cheat by entering the correct combination of notes, it stays unlocked and all you have to do is select and activate it. No more memorizing OBOYOBOY to enable Hyperspeed!

That's actually not too exciting is it? Good thing that's not the cool part. The cool part is how you actually enter the codes. Once you select the "Enter Cheat" option, a digital fretboard will slide onto the screen, hold a fret and strum on your axe, and enjoy the sound coming out of your speakers. Each fret and chord registers a different guitar sound, kinda like the free play part of the training session in Guitar Hero 1. So each cheat code is a certain combination of frets and chords, most of these cheats actually sound like a famous guitar riff or sound, like one of the cheats sounded like a riff from One.

I fully expect to see YouTube videos of people making music or playing totally sweet versions of famous riffs.

So, now that that's out of the way, what about the cheats? Well, I can talk about the new Hyperspeed, and that's about it. So Hyperspeed now has five, read it, five different settings. Setting it to 1 is a little slower than Guitar Hero 2 Hyperspeed, 2 seems about comparable, 5 is fucking nuts. I set it to 5 and played Paint It Black, I wouldn't see myself playing it that way normally, but it's fun to mess around in.

The Characters

I liked every character I played as, they all looked pretty damn cool and animated very well. I played in quickplay, so I got to play all of the characters at some point, and you know what, I didn't see one fretboard that I didn't like. There's a good chance that it could be because they are all much darker than they have been in past games, so dark that it's actually pretty hard to see the art on the board, but like I always say, gameplay before graphics. Also, every time you use star power, the fretboard gets a color overlay that makes it easier to see the notes regardless of what fretboard you use.

Other Things

Bret Michaels is in the game, everyone can quit bitching about it now, he is NOT one of the boss's. He steps in for the regular singer during Poison's Talk Dirty To Me song, and he's a welcome addition, the new singer freaks me out. Seriously, when the game gets up close on him to show off the lip syncing (which is very well done by the way) I get the feeling that he's going to devour my soul from within the game. Good thing there's a cheat that let's you toggle Bret Michaels in on any song.

The boss battles are pretty sweet, I enjoyed each and every battle song that I played, I'd say that Slash's song is actually my least favorite. The rumor's have been floating around for a bit now thanks to a leak, but I can confirm that Tom Morello is another boss in the game and the song he did for the game is awesome. Reminds me of Pac-Man for some reason.

The thing I don't like about the boss battles is that they play the song perfectly, until you hit them with an attack. It looks strange to see Slash nail an insane solo, then miss an easy chord because you hit him with the Double Notes attack. Beating the boss's isn't going to be easy, you're going to have to get most of the attacks and use them well.

The graphic presentation is awesome, I really dig the style that they came up with to present the menus and story. When you use star power, no longer do you have to worry about the splash effects making it hard to see the notes coming up, they completely got rid of it, and I thank them for it.

In conclusion, I had a blast playing the game and enjoyed meeting everyone there. Just like the guys that got to go down to Neversoft, I was sent home with some parting gifts. I got the T-Shirt that the rest of the guys got from Neversoft, but I did not get a hat. Instead they gave me this.

This guitar strap is super sexy, and ultra comfortable, sure beats the one that came with the guitar. Here's a shot of it attached to my guitar.
It was made by Paul Frank, and only 200 of them were made and given to RedOctane to hand out to employees back during the launch of Guitar Hero 2.

I can't wait for Guitar Hero 3 to come out, it's going to be epic.

Davesterio · 09-03-2007

yea saw this on scorehero this morning

CATER 4 Prezzz · 09-03-2007

Aw. Lucky guy.

Davesterio · 09-03-2007

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Originally Posted by CATER 4 Prezzz

Aw. Lucky guy.

Red octane lets active scorehero members fly to their studios and demo the game (then u get a free hat lol)

Lax · 09-03-2007

Expensive fall

Halo3, GH3, Skate, Cod4

Davesterio · 09-03-2007

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Originally Posted by Lax

Expensive fall

Halo3, GH3, Skate, Cod4

I have thoes preordered

EpSoNiight · 09-03-2007

good read, i wish i coulda played through fire and flames

FyousesGodly · 09-03-2007

i wish i can know what the last song is gonna be i hope stairway but thats bad ass how bret micheals can sing everysong im deff gonna do that posion rocks

I Snix I · 09-03-2007

Quote:

Originally Posted by FyousesGodly

i wish i can know what the last song is gonna be i hope stairway but thats bad ass how bret micheals can sing everysong im deff gonna do that posion rocks

It won't be stairway, it's a song noone has thought of, but it's supposed to be a rockin' one.

Lenny Emery · 09-03-2007

Lucky guy, hopefully it'll be good for when we get it.