Guitar Hero 3 - Legends of Rock

I've been playing Guitar Hero 3 - Legends of Rock for the Xbox 360 pretty much non-stop since the minute I brought it home on release day. I even play in my sleep sometimes (at least that's what my fiancee claims). Whether playing through the career mode, practicing a tricky solo, being my shy and awkward self on Xbox Live or mastering co-op mode with a friend - GH3 pretty much kicks ass.

The song list is amazing, with songs like Kaiser Chief's Ruby, The Strokes' Reptilia, The Beastie Boys' Sabotage, Bloc Party's Helicopter and Rage Against the Machine's Bulls On Parade. My only beef with the list is how lame most of the "bonus" tracks are, hopefully the downloadable songs will be better.

Bulls On Parade is my absolute favorite track so far. On the "Hard" difficulty setting, it's very easy to play a lot of the song without looking at the screen for long periods of time (provided you know the song), allowing you to dance around like a moron while playing. This is exactly what I've been waiting for from a Guitar Hero game: the ability to intuitively play a song from memory and feel like you're really doing something vaguely similar to making music. It's deeply satisfying.

The new boss battles are a cool addition and don't come off feeling like a pointless add-on as I had initially feared. They can be a bit maddening in the higher levels of difficulty, but you feel accomplished once you advance. Red Octane has successfully managed to add a meaningful new layer to the Guitar Hero experience.

The new wireless Les Paul controller is a work of art. The design looks great, you can easily swap faceplates, the neck is collapsible for easy storage/transportation and did I mention it's wireless? The best part is that everything is built right in: Xbox navigator button, D-Pad and even the headset jack. Going back to my old PS2 SG controller feels like a huge step backwards.

Overall, I'm massively impressed with this release and happy knowing that Guitar Hero still feels fresh years later.

Oh, and good luck with the achievements...

Check out my Guitar Hero collection at iTaggit.com