『 Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock 』

It must have been a hundred times already I said this, but I am going to say it again: Supermarket deals rock and there are no two ways about it. Not too long ago I was able to get Guitar Hero III: Aerosmith bundled with Les Paul controller fitted with a neat faceplate for only 299 Swedish kronas [about 38 US dollars]. This time, the very same supermarket decided to cut the price of "Legends of Rock" bundle.


After I spotted the ad, it didn't take too much time for me to decide I wanted this nice set. After all, you get a new game with tons of songs and another Les Paul, this time with a regular faceplate [shiny black surface, perfect for fingerprinting]. The "Legends of Rock" bundle had a bit higher pricetag but at 399 Swedish kronas [roughly 48 US dollars] it was still a bargain. The game by itself sells for more than that.


Like last time, the store had all possible versions on sale, but again I chose to go with the Xbox 360 one. Supposedly PlayStation 3 version has some controller issues, Wii version doesn't have downloadable content and on top of that if you're out of luck, you can buy the version with mono sound. I wasn't interested in PC or PlayStation 2 versions so the choice was obvious. Yet again, Microsoft's machine came out on top. Way to go.


So what's in the box this time? I could say "the usual" because the contents is very similar to the Aerosmith bundle. Again, we get the Les Paul controller, guitar belt, two sets of stickers to pimp your guitar with and of course the game. There's also a pink manual explaining how to sync your controller with the console but who needs a manual for that? Not me, because I'm awsome.


I really enjoyed the Aerosmith edition but it had one major problem: almost all of the songs came from band's discography which, if you're not a rabid Aerosmith fan, can be quite a drag. I guess I could say that I like Aerosmith enough to enjoy all of the songs they put on the game disc, but I would much rather go for diversity. Well, "Legends of Rock" is all about diversity. It features over 70 songs by various artists and if that's not enough for you, you're impossible to please.


What bands can we rock with this time? Slayer, Kiss, Tenacious D, Scorpions, The Smashing Pumpkins, Sex Pistols, Weezer, Muse, Alice Cooper, The Rolling Stones ... You name it. The list just goes on and on. After you've unlocked all of the songs in career mode, there's just as many waiting for you in the store. In case you don't know how this works, in Guitar Hero you earn money by playing concerts, the cash can later be spent on various things like new characters, clothes, new guitars and of course new songs. It's fairly easy to earn enough cash to unlock an impressive number of tracks and that is a huge plus.


Every Guitar Hero game comes with a bunch of characters for you to choose from and play as. Legends of Rock has the exact same lineup of standard characters as the Aerosmith bundle, which makes sense because it's a part of the GH3 line. The only thing that bugged me was the lack of official characters for the artists. There are only two real artist models in the game: Guns 'n Roses' Slash and Rage Against the Machine's Tom Morello. I don't know if it was a question of licenses and money, but I'd like to see more familiar faces.


After Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock came out, I read about the complaints many people had concerning the difficulty level. I thought the Aerosmith game was nicely balanced, but when I played Legends of Rock on normal setting, I instantly knew that this game meant business. I guess Neversoft tweaked the difficulty for Aerosmith and World Tour, so if you're getting Legends of Rock, know that it's not going to be easy to reach the expert mode.


Obviously, the game has some serious replay value and if you ever come across a nice, cheap bundle, no matter what the platform, I suggest you invest some money and later time in this game. It's a bucket of fun. And you might just get all jazzed up about starting to learn an instrument.


Before I finish this entry I wanted to include some videos so that you can get a clear picture of how things look and how it works. I'm sure most of you already knows this game well enough to pick up a controller anytime and start playing, but still, It's fun to watch someone else have go at a harder difficulty. Here's one of the coolest songs on the disc: Knights of Cydonia by Muse.


Knights of Cydonia is not only a kickass song, but it also has one of the coolest videos out there. Since I'm such a nice guy, I'll share the original music video with you aswell [simply because someone has already uploaded it and it doesn't require too much work to link it]. And that's the director's cut! Spot the difference between this one and the regular edition [which you'll have to find on your own, because I cant't be bothered].


That's it for today, good folks. I guess it's time let my fingers rest after they've done a magnificent job of beating the whole game on easy and half the way through on normal. Rock on!