Game Overview
Guitar Hero 2 was a huge hit all over the world, with it's addictive and different gameplay, the use of a wired peripheral was unheard of on the 360 and not something that has really ever been that popular, but Guitar Hero 2 was a massive success, so it was inevitable that 3 would be along sooner or later, and here it is. Guitar Hero 3 Legends of Rock!

The soundtrack, as you can imagine is stunning, there are newer tracks from bands such as The Gallows, Kaiser Chiefs, AFI, Slipknot, Rise Against and Muse and then there is the older "classic" tunes such as Kiss, Alice Cooper, ZZ Top, Black Sabbath, Rolling Stones and Metallica. If you like rock music then you are bound to find something within Guitar Hero 3's lineup of songs. Guitar hero 2 had some great songs on it (Foo Fighters, Guns 'n' Roses, Rage Against The Machine but the fact that most of them were covers and unknown songs Guitar Hero 3 definitely wins the battle of the best soundtrack..

This year Guitar Hero has been developed by Neversoft rather than Harmonix who made last years release. There isn't that much of a change and Neversoft seem to have stuck to the same formula almost the whole way through, why fix something that isn't broken? With a risk of ruining a much anticipated game, Neversoft have kept it simple and not tinkered with too much which we are very happy with as Guitar Hero 3 is excellent.

The difficulty of the game game is going to wind a few people up as sometimes it is almost impossible to hit the notes due to the speed they come at you. For us, easy is doable once you get used to the game, we have moved on to medium and seem to be coping ok but as soon as we flick the difficulty over to Hard or Expert it becomes impossible. People who play the guitar may find it a little easier due to them having the movement in their fingers already but for people who can't play guitar (like us) it'll take a little while to get the hang of moving your fingers in the correct way, and quickly!

Battles, spice up the action this year with Legends challenging you to a riff dual. You'll be required to play a string of notes and occasionally you'll pick up a power up. This power up could be something like an amp overload or a broken string which you fire at your opponent by flicking the top of the guitar upwards, they struggle playing the notes and their rock rating lowers. Your task is to get them to fail by the end of the song, first one to fail loses. It'll take you a couple of attempts to get the hang of and we would recommend having a look at the tutorial to get an idea of what you are doing.

Online allows jamming sessions and battles with people over Xbox Live and then of course you can get hold of a second wireless (did we mention that this year the guitar is wireless? No? Well we have now!) guitar, get your neighbour round and have a jamming session with them. Very very enjoyable indeed!

Our Conclusions
The achievement points available on Guitar Hero 3 are very very difficult to get and require you to be an expert at the game. Maybe we are just rubbish at the game but i think we managed a whole 20 points after completing the game! It's still as good as ever, there really isn't much of a difference over Guitar Hero 2 except the wireless guitar and a far superior soundtrack. An excellent Christmas present and a game we're sure will get plenty of console time over the festive period.

Overall Score: 9/10

Thanks to Activision and BHPR