Rock Band is really going to ROCK GH3

[Larkspeed]

Well thanks to a friend who works in a distribution company in the US I have just received my copy of GH3 a nearly week before US release :D

Anyway I have got to say it sucks big time so far and I'm sooooooooooo looking forward to Rock Band as it will rock GH3's socks off in every way possible.

RB's setlist is way better and given HMX's track record with rhythm games the playability will be way better as well not even taking into account the extra instruments in RB.

By no means is this a GH3 hate thread just my personal opinion after actualy having my hands on the game

[michaeld]

Just because you are on a RB site doesn't mean you have to bash GH because it might be the thing to do.

[parastroke7]

Truth is truth homie. The GH series is a dying breed, and the RB series is breeding like bees in a hive. He can't help being honest and stuff.

[LongDarkBlues]

Well thanks to a friend who works in a distribution company in the US I have just received my copy of GH3 a nearly week before US release :D
Anyway I have got to say it sucks big time so far and I'm sooooooooooo looking forward to Rock Band as it will rock GH3's socks off in every way possible.
RB's setlist is way better and given HMX's track record with rhythm games the playability will be way better as well not even taking into account the extra instruments in RB.
By no means is this a GH3 hate thread just my personal opinion after actualy having my hands on the game

Can you go into detail about what you don't like about GHIII? Most the stuff they've added I didn't care for, and I think the setlist is mostly lame (with a few sweet gems) but I'd be curious to hear more.

[jq71586]

Technically it's a little under 5 days but it's still a good thing to get anything early. I'm really only getting GH3 because the setlist feeds the metal head in me. It has a larger portion of metal and thats something Rock Band isn't going to provide right off the bat. It's also going to tide me over until Assassin's Creed, Uncharted and Rock Band hit on the 13th and 20th respectively for the PS3.

[Apples]

I would prefer that this not develop into a "GH suxorz" thread. The new dev shop is in an almost unwinnable position following up a true gaming masterpiece. It's like being the backup QB to Tom Brady... you're under a long shadow no matter how good/bad you are.

If this thread wants to continue, focus on specific areas that you did not care for. Was the art lousy? Did you not like the song selection? Was battle mode lame? Too difficult? Too easy? Random attack comments will only breed argument and get this thread locked.

[Reaper0563]

well, i played the demo, which is up on marketplace now, and I kinda liked the battle mode at first but then me and my friend got bored about 30 mins later, we were caught up in the novelty of using weapons against each other.

Problems i had with battle mode:

1) alot of the powers are visual modifiers, "lefty flip" " amp power failure" ( the notes blink)

therefore if you are playing on the same difficulty you can just look at your neighbors screen, which is cheating but how are you going to stop some one from doing that?

2) it became a race to get left flip and broken whammy bar combo, once we agreed to stop looking at each others screens a lefty flip power pretty much ended the game.

3) not very long, if you don't look at your neighbors screen to cheat the matchups can last less than 30 seconds sometime. Kind of pointless.

4) just to mess with my friend, i switched to easy while he played on expert and at one point i was bored so i strummed without holding notes and i couldn't run out of health, literally the game would not let my life run out. again, whats the point of choosing different skills if there is that much of a handicap.

5) just got boring after a while.

didn't have high hopes for battle mode looked kinda dumb, and even with these low expectations i was disappointed :(

[Larkspeed]

Right first off let me reiterate that I in no way intended this to be a GH3 hate thread.

The game is decent in it's own right but like I said in my opinion it does not stack up to HMX's offerings, actually it does not even come close.

You want specifics ok then.

Keep in mind this is the PS2 version of the game so game experience will probably be different on a next gen console but since I don't have one of those I can only comment on what I have.

The timing all felt wrong and unpolished. Sometimes I would "feel" like I should have hit a note yet I still missed it now I know this is not a very practical way of looking at it but it's the best way I can describe it.

From playing the HMX versions of GH I developed a certain style of play as I am sure everyone did. GH3 does not seem to mesh with that style of play so it feels all wrong.

The whole game in general felt rushed and unpolished like they should have worked on it a bit more.

The tracklist IMO so far has left me wanting with a lot of old songs with IMO uninspiring guitar tracks.

The challenges are much easier than I thought they would be I even beat slash first time on hard.

I can't comment on the multiplayer side of things as I have not tried any of that yet.

It's very hard to go into specifics with such a broad range of things to think about.

Like I said decent game but a very distant second the the HMX series of GH games and thats why I said if HMX's track record is anything to go by and GH3 is the competition then:

Rock band is going to rock my socks off

[KingofQUEEN48]

And you just thought this now? i knew this 4 months ago!

[TheRocker]

Tell me something i dont know , Of course RockBand is going to Rock.. now let me go back to the fridge im freezing myself.

[MartyMcFly]

The timing all felt wrong and unpolished. Sometimes I would "feel" like I should have hit a note yet I still missed it now I know this is not a very practical way of looking at it but it's the best way I can describe it.


That's probably going to be the biggest compaint. I thought it was just because of people using the GH2 Xplorer's for the Xbox 360. But if this is happening on other systems, then they must have really messed up.

I've been playing the demo for almost a week now. I've played all GH's to death, so I definitely have the experience. Yet, I still can't get comfortable playing GHIII, maybe I don't know the songs?

But just like Lark said, he swore he hit notes, but it would still be a miss.

Actually, one thing that I did notice, was this. In, at least, GH2 and Rock the 80's, you can accidentally press a fret button (without strumming) in between notes, but it wouldn't count that as long as you hit the correct one right away.

Now, the problem with GH3 is, it seems that when you might accidentally press a fret in between notes, it counts it right away. I really think this is what is causing problems for me at least. Even though they say the window for timing is open, it's TOO open, because it's registering button pushes from too long ago.

[stunner1210]

I'm not too fond of GH 3 so far. I've played the demo for a while but I don't know if I can really gauge how it is until I would get used to it. But from playing GH 2 on both systems, I can honestly say it feels a tad too different to my liking. The timing is the big thing with me, I know I've hit notes that didn't register. Either way, I just don't like GH 3 compared to what I've seen from Rock Band. That's just me though.

[Jimmik]

The lead singer looks like kermit the frog if he took a lot of drugs and forgot to shave. And I always have to strum too early.....And battle mode sucks - whose idea was it to put a mode where you purposefully cause your opponent to miss notes so you can't even hear the song being played and just finishes the song immediately after someone "wins"? It's not even a music experience anymore.

That said, I will be renting the full version via Gamefly and immediately blasting through the campaign so I can play Welcome to the Jungle and Number of the Beast, imagining a whole band next to me while I play *single tear*

[Electric_Zen]

I was planning on getting GH3, but after playing the demo I may pass on it. They've got the technical issues covered, but the fun factor wasn't really there for me.

[HeXcoda]

May as well chuck in my .02. These are impressions from videos, the playable demo, etc. And I'll actually hit real points, not just "GH SUX".

ART STYLE: Not a fan of it. It's too gaudy and color-blasted, completely over the top and down the other side. I know it's finally a true high def GH (not like GH2 360, which was a polished port) but there is such a thing as excessive graphical flair. The character designs are hideous... the originals were cartoony enough, but they've gone and made them MORE cartoony. I really prefer how RB dialed back the exaggeration, to make cartoons that have a slightly more serious tone to them.

NOTES (Demo Only): The only one that really worked for me was Evenflow, and I suspect that's my early 90s roots showing since I already knew every scrap of timing and wobble in the original guitar. The Metal's another I'm very familiar with but at times it felt like it was being made artificially difficult; a simple section could be insane-o with layered / skewed chord layouts. The others ranged from blah to bleh.

COVERS: Gh3 has way more covers... and if their flat, dull cover of RYLAH was any indicator, hooboy. The vocalist lacked all the emotion, the snarl, the passion of the original. Yes, it's cheese metal, but that's the point -- it's CHEESE METAL and it needs to sound like it. This guy was phoning it in and it really watered the track down.

WE'RE GAMERS, NOT MUSICIANS: I got the feel from the art style to the interface to the load screen tips to the emphasis on silliness in stages and characters that Neversoft are gamers making games, not musicians making games. It lacks that authentic music feel and just becomes a game where you push buttons and listen to sounds. It's hard to describe, but the footage seen of RB so far and the developer posts indicate they want to simulate the experience -- and they've succeeded. GH is way too wacky to be a simulation of anything to any degree.

What did I like, then..?

Well, Evenflow was a distinct moment of awesome. It flowed, felt right, and having a non-cover really, really helped after dealing with the pain that is Kurt Fauxbain.

And... um...

It's a guitar game? Those are fun by default. The trappings may not be the best but if you throw enough tracks at the wall, eventually enough will stick to keep you coming back. It's not like I adored every aspect of GH2 or allt he songs there, either.

I'll still pick up Guitar Hero 3, since I happen to have a lot of cash right now and I would enjoy playing A Music Game in general, regardless of what it is. It doesn't suck. It's just not that great and it's obvious that Neversoft isn't "getting it". They've made a passable expansion pack which will be enjoyable to pound on for awhile, and that's it.

[JackBNimble]

Don't forget Neversoft is filling in where HMX left off.So in my opinion they don't have the EXP that HMX has in this genre.

[AdamBomb629]

Is it wrong that I am excited about GH III and don't really have any beef with the demo?

[sporkBrigade]

May as well chuck in my .02. These are impressions from videos, the playable demo, etc. And I'll actually hit real points, not just "GH SUX".

ART STYLE: Not a fan of it. It's too gaudy and color-blasted, completely over the top and down the other side. I know it's finally a true high def GH (not like GH2 360, which was a polished port) but there is such a thing as excessive graphical flair. The character designs are hideous... the originals were cartoony enough, but they've gone and made them MORE cartoony. I really prefer how RB dialed back the exaggeration, to make cartoons that have a slightly more serious tone to them.

NOTES (Demo Only): The only one that really worked for me was Evenflow, and I suspect that's my early 90s roots showing since I already knew every scrap of timing and wobble in the original guitar. The Metal's another I'm very familiar with but at times it felt like it was being made artificially difficult; a simple section could be insane-o with layered / skewed chord layouts. The others ranged from blah to bleh.

COVERS: Gh3 has way more covers... and if their flat, dull cover of RYLAH was any indicator, hooboy. The vocalist lacked all the emotion, the snarl, the passion of the original. Yes, it's cheese metal, but that's the point -- it's CHEESE METAL and it needs to sound like it. This guy was phoning it in and it really watered the track down.

WE'RE GAMERS, NOT MUSICIANS: I got the feel from the art style to the interface to the load screen tips to the emphasis on silliness in stages and characters that Neversoft are gamers making games, not musicians making games. It lacks that authentic music feel and just becomes a game where you push buttons and listen to sounds. It's hard to describe, but the footage seen of RB so far and the developer posts indicate they want to simulate the experience -- and they've succeeded. GH is way too wacky to be a simulation of anything to any degree.

What did I like, then..?

Well, Evenflow was a distinct moment of awesome. It flowed, felt right, and having a non-cover really, really helped after dealing with the pain that is Kurt Fauxbain.

And... um...

It's a guitar game? Those are fun by default. The trappings may not be the best but if you throw enough tracks at the wall, eventually enough will stick to keep you coming back. It's not like I adored every aspect of GH2 or allt he songs there, either.

I'll still pick up Guitar Hero 3, since I happen to have a lot of cash right now and I would enjoy playing A Music Game in general, regardless of what it is. It doesn't suck. It's just not that great and it's obvious that Neversoft isn't "getting it". They've made a passable expansion pack which will be enjoyable to pound on for awhile, and that's it.

I've yet to see anyone nail my initial impressions of the demo so well as you just did. The part I'm going to echo, because I think it's so incredibly true, is that Neversoft is a group of gamers making a music game. They'll make it passable, but they just can't re-create the magic.

[Spear_of_Destiny]

i agree with adambomb. i dont see much really wrong with gh3 and am picking it up next week to tide me over to rb's release.

taken for what it is, it will be fun. if you expect more from it than was intended, then you will be let down. youll find thats the secret to life in general.

[The_Vampire_Lestat]

I've played through the entire setlist of GH3.

IMO this is the best set list to date. There are a few songs I probably won't play much... but that was the same with GH 1 and 2.

The timing isn't "off" it's just different. Once you play a dozen or so songs and turn on hyperspeed 3x or 4x and it's like playing GH2 again.

[LongDarkBlues]

My take on the demo was that it was like a band's who'd guitar player died and the band pushed on with a replacement. It's almost all there on the surface, but the soul of the game seems gone. It's not that it's different, it's just that the new features just feel tacked on, and that it's trying to cash in on the Guitar Hero name and the name recognition of Slash.

I'm sure the good people at Neversoft were trying hard, but it already feels like a band missing original members that's just going through the motions. In relation to Rock Band, I guess I'm just not interested in playing though something identical to GHII with just a new setlist (and less than 10 I actually want to play) when I know there's more out there.

I was debating picking up the game to hold me over for Rock Band, but I'm just going to do the Achievements in GHII I'd missed and wait for Rock Band.

[bumbousdude25]

Right first off let me reiterate that I in no way intended this to be a GH3 hate thread.

The game is decent in it's own right but like I said in my opinion it does not stack up to HMX's offerings, actually it does not even come close.

You want specifics ok then.

Keep in mind this is the PS2 version of the game so game experience will probably be different on a next gen console but since I don't have one of those I can only comment on what I have.

The timing all felt wrong and unpolished. Sometimes I would "feel" like I should have hit a note yet I still missed it now I know this is not a very practical way of looking at it but it's the best way I can describe it.

From playing the HMX versions of GH I developed a certain style of play as I am sure everyone did. GH3 does not seem to mesh with that style of play so it feels all wrong.

The whole game in general felt rushed and unpolished like they should have worked on it a bit more.

The tracklist IMO so far has left me wanting with a lot of old songs with IMO uninspiring guitar tracks.

The challenges are much easier than I thought they would be I even beat slash first time on hard.

I can't comment on the multiplayer side of things as I have not tried any of that yet.

It's very hard to go into specifics with such a broad range of things to think about.

Like I said decent game but a very distant second the the HMX series of GH games and thats why I said if HMX's track record is anything to go by and GH3 is the competition then:

Rock band is going to rock my socks off


well, i played the demo, which is up on marketplace now, and I kinda liked the battle mode at first but then me and my friend got bored about 30 mins later, we were caught up in the novelty of using weapons against each other.

Problems i had with battle mode:

1) alot of the powers are visual modifiers, "lefty flip" " amp power failure" ( the notes blink)

therefore if you are playing on the same difficulty you can just look at your neighbors screen, which is cheating but how are you going to stop some one from doing that?

2) it became a race to get left flip and broken whammy bar combo, once we agreed to stop looking at each others screens a lefty flip power pretty much ended the game.

3) not very long, if you don't look at your neighbors screen to cheat the matchups can last less than 30 seconds sometime. Kind of pointless.

4) just to mess with my friend, i switched to easy while he played on expert and at one point i was bored so i strummed without holding notes and i couldn't run out of health, literally the game would not let my life run out. again, whats the point of choosing different skills if there is that much of a handicap.

5) just got boring after a while.

didn't have high hopes for battle mode looked kinda dumb, and even with these low expectations i was disappointed :(

Yeah, I played the demo too, and I must say I totally agree with everything both of you just said. The whole game just feels unpolished and lacking that extra... something. It's not just because I'm so excited for RB, either. I was at least kind of looking forward to GH III, even though I knew Neversoft would ruin it. Now I'm certain I won't buy GH III.

Just as everyone else is saying, I didn't post on this thread to hate on GH III. I'm just stating my opinion from what I played in the demo (which doesn't have the best song choice anyway).

Btw, Larkspeed, have you played Through the Fire and the Flames yet? :D


EDIT: LongDarkBlues, that's some really good reasoning, and I must say I'd have to agree with you as well.

[HeXcoda]

Here's an interesting question for everyone...

If GH3 was, in its current shape and form and style, released by Harmonix / Red Octane / Activision and did not stray to a new developer... would you still dislike it? Keep all the flaws you're spotting in this one but take away the knowledge of who made it, assuming the original devs did.

In my case: yes. It's overwrought and silly. Kind of like the Matrix sequels, it gives us TOO MUCH of the trappings and not enough of the substance. Even if Harmonix was heading it up I'd still disagree with the decisions made by it.

However, I'd still buy it, like I'm buying Gh3... because music games are neat and I have enough money. :) Even a less than stellar one is welcome.

[Young_Nastyman]

The new dev shop is in an almost unwinnable position following up a true gaming masterpiece. It's like being the backup QB to Tom Brady... you're under a long shadow no matter how good/bad you are.

Yeah, but you can't really have any sympathy for them once they started trying to claim they were "Tom Brady"

[howsh_]

to answer heXcoda's question. i think we would all still buy it if harmonix did it, as long as their was no RB.

my big problem with GH3 is that it is too cartoony. but i only thought that once RB came along and i saw how more realistic that looked. with nothing to really compare guitar hero with, i think it would be harder to find flaws in the game. IMO

[Larkspeed]

Btw, Larkspeed, have you played Through the Fire and the Flames yet? :D

Not yet I did not have time to finish the game last night before I went to bed I only got as far as tier 5.

TFAF is not a career mode song as such you unlock it by completing career mode so I guess in effect it's a bonus song

---edit---

ok the move to general I understand as thats where it belongs but who edited my thread title to add GH3 to the end of it.

That makes it look like a hate thread and thats not what I wanted.