Be undead

The Hushed Casket was founded in 2002 shortly after the launch of the XBOX console. Today the Hushed Casket is a thriving community of gamers, playing together and publishing news and stories that have appeared in major media properties like Newsweek, G4TV, USA Today, and Penny Arcade. Some game developers have even referenced our guides and news to support their gamers. We don't play Halo. We LAN Halo.

User login

the Hushed Casket

Unseal the hushed casket of my soul...

Guitar Hero III Quick Impressions (360)

Submitted by Oculus on Mon, 10/29/2007 - 12:00pm.

It felt like Christmas Sunday morning when both my wife and I woke up to finally open up Guitar Hero III which we had picked up at 12:00 midnight whilst returning from the HaloWeen BYOS LAN. After being up so late and sleeping in, we didn't get to start wailing on it until around lunchtime.

Upon opening the box 47after remarked how cool it was to be able to separate the neck of the guitar and how she liked the idea of removable faceplates. The new guitar is slightly heavier, and slightly longer than the old version. This is a plus in my book making it feel (just a bit) more like a real guitar. The only negative I would have to add would be that it appears that the only way to power this thing is with 2 AA batteries. No battery pack looks like it would fit anywhere on the guitar. But it gets the job done.. now it's time to rock.

All the previous reviews are right: It's Guitar Hero, except a bit better graphics and new songs. We started on the co-op campaign mode using both the new guitar and the old GHII guitar for the 360. Coop was a blast to play only that we noticed that it appears most of the achievements were only going to player 1. That's fine as long as you know what is happening before playing through half or the full co-op career.

After playing through a few set lists I convinced 47 to jump onto Xbox Live and play some Face Off. Personally, this turns out to be the most fun in GH I've had so far. 47after was able to get 100% on a couple of songs in this mode, wiping away the competition who felt it necessary to play on expert or hard mode (these guys were very good, however couldn't rack up the points as a 100% x4 multiplier run on medium).

We tried battle mode, but the powerups turned out to be more of a nuisance than a benefit to gameplay in my opinion. The Quick Match feature wasn't working for us though... it seemed the best way to get in a multiplayer match was to search for customs or host your own game and wait, which I am fine with.

We haven't completed it yet, but so far we're enjoying GHIII a lot. If anything, the wireless guitar and new songs are definitely worth purchase price.

‹ CoD4 SinglePlayer = 5-6hrs. BioShock Reviews ›
Midnight's picture

BattleItch and I have also

Submitted by Midnight on Mon, 10/29/2007 - 3:08pm.

BattleItch and I have also been enjoying GH III. We also came to the horrid realization that coop completion achievements are only credited to player 1 (the player whose band you're playing under). So I'm just a tool that plays guitar that player one gets to use for unlocking achievements? That really sucks (for me, player 2).

Haven't tried any other mode besides career and coop career, but I have played co-op all the way through on easy. Well, BB was on easy and I was on medium, but it credits it to the lowest difficulty. The setlist is mediocre, IMO. There are some tracks on there I really like: One by Metallica, Stricken by Disturbed, Black Sunshine by White Zombie, Welcome to the Jungle by G&R. However, there are also some real stinkers: Helicopter by Bloc Party, Kool Thing by Sonic Youth, Holiday in Cambodia by Dead Kennedys, The Story of My Life by Social Distortion.

I'm sure that will provoke some thoughtful comments from fans of those bands. :)

The new guitar feels good but I'm not quite used to it yet. The strum bar feels slightly more accurate than the Xplorer controller, and the buttons seem to have slightly more resistance.

trigger119's picture

I saw a few of you playing

Submitted by trigger119 on Mon, 10/29/2007 - 3:22pm.

I saw a few of you playing this, sounds great. Once I'm done buying some other things(namely mah new mac os, Leopard), I'll probably hop on the bandwagon and rock out.

I love Bloc Party but I

Submitted by n00by mc n00b n00b (not verified) on Mon, 10/29/2007 - 3:35pm.

I love Bloc Party but I don't necessarily think their music is good for guitar hero

goku2057's picture

The Wii version doesn't need

Submitted by goku2057 on Mon, 10/29/2007 - 3:44pm.

The Wii version doesn't need batteries for the guitar, because it just uses your Wiimote. and it vibrates. It's le cool.

No downloadable content, though. yet, anyway.

Mintz's picture

I bought mine for PS2. While

Submitted by Mintz on Mon, 10/29/2007 - 4:15pm.

I bought mine for PS2. While I'm missing out on achievements and online play, I'm NOT missing out on $40, which is a win in my book :)

CynEater's picture

So is this guitar hero still

Submitted by CynEater on Mon, 10/29/2007 - 7:20pm.

So is this guitar hero still done by red octane?
___________
Did you know you can donate one or all of your vital organs to the Aperture Science Self Esteem Fund for Girls? It’s true!

Mintz's picture

I think Red Octane just

Submitted by Mintz on Mon, 10/29/2007 - 8:02pm.

I think Red Octane just handles the guitar peripheral. Harmonix originally developed Guitar Hero I & II before moving on to Rock Band with MTV. Neversoft developed and Activision published Guitar Hero III.

Oculus's picture

Things I wish GHIII had, and

Submitted by Oculus on Mon, 10/29/2007 - 8:03pm.

Things I wish GHIII had, and after talking with my wife today at lunch, she concurred:

-A party system, even though you can only play against 1 person at a time, it looked as if you couldn't stay in a lobby with that person after playing your games. She resorted to the XBL Chat feature to keep in touch while using the XBL features of GHIII and this seemed to work fine.

It'd be nice if you could even have a party where more than 2 people could play the song, or at least have a party so that people can be matched up and return to the lobby with all friends after the song is complete. The social aspect of this game seems a bit un-tapped, and that's 80% of the reason I play GH.

-The XBL Leaderboards feature is a bit of a pain to use.

----------------------------
"Oculus is just this guy, you know?"

Ciguatera's picture

Was going to get GH3 but

Submitted by Ciguatera on Mon, 10/29/2007 - 9:59pm.

Was going to get GH3 but after some thought I'm going to go with Rock Band. The drums are going to be awesome and will change things up a bit.

ps3tag.com

Oculus's picture

No doubt the drums will be

Submitted by Oculus on Mon, 10/29/2007 - 11:30pm.

No doubt the drums will be pretty cool. I'm looking forward to making a fool of myself trying the expert mode in that.

(on that note, in GHIII we noticed that the drummer is exceptionally lacking in pep. Really, take a look next time your playing. He seems like he's constantly playing something off of your local easy listening station, even if he's "rocking" out to some Rob Zombie. Not that it really matters, just something that I can't get out of my head)

----------------------------
"Oculus is just this guy, you know?"

Javaman's picture

Well, I'm personally loving

Submitted by Javaman on Mon, 10/29/2007 - 11:57pm.

Well, I'm personally loving GH III. It's got an awesome soundtrack. However, I'm still getting the Quick match: Ranked bug where I can't seem to get in a game.
I'm Playing currently on hard and stuck on the one song by Slayer, and One by Metallica. Other than that nothing's been frustrating me about it=D

Comment viewing options

Select your preferred way to display the comments and click "Save settings" to activate your changes.

Post new comment

The content of this field is kept private and will not be shown publicly.
  • Allowed HTML tags: <a> <em> <strong> <cite> <code> <ul> <ol> <li> <dl> <dt> <dd><s><img><i><b>
  • Lines and paragraphs break automatically.
  • Youtube and google video links are automatically converted into embedded videos.
  • Filtered words will be replaced with the filtered version of the word.
  • You may quote other posts using [quote] tags.
  • You can use BBCode tags in the text, URLs will automatically be converted to links.

More information about formatting options

Captcha
This question is for testing whether you are a human visitor and to prevent automated spam submissions.

Shout Box

CynEater: Maybe he'll show you for your birthday.... I wouldn't accept any invitations Mandy offers you today...
[05/13-12:13pm]
Slayer: Happy Birthday! Hope you get all things good.
[05/13-11:34am]
hubcap: And many more!
[05/13-09:33am]
rapture: Happy Berfday Midnight
[05/13-08:50am]
Midnight: Hey, I don't know him. I don't know what he's got. Perhaps he's got something to show me.
[05/13-04:23am]
hubcap: Idk how probable it would be that he has a downstairs mix-up. It would however explain his popularity with the men...
[05/12-05:03pm]
Slayer: What about the band times? You've seen my downstairs mixer.
[05/12-12:54pm]
Slayer: I'm Old Greg. I'm a scaly man-fish!
[05/12-12:42pm]
Midnight: What are the odds that Mancandy might possess a mangina?
[05/12-10:23am]
hubcap: Peer pressure.
[05/12-06:38am]
Login or register to post shouts

twitter logo

Get notified of game nights and important THX announcements via the hushedcasket Twitter account. You can get the messages on your cell phone, through email, Facebook, and many other ways. Here's how it goes down.

Recent comments