Now is the time when I talk about Guitar Hero 3.

First and foremost, I wasn't really all that excited about GH3. When I told this to Discostup, being the fine doctor that he is, he was concerned over my health and well being. Was I feeling all right?

The truth is, even since I learned that GH3 was being made by a NEW company, and the people who made GH1 and GH2 had moved on to Rock Band, I knew (or hoped) that Rock Band was going to be the next big thing. And I'm pretty sure I still believe that. I saw some demo footage of early GH3, and it looked awful. So I was dubious.

However, looking at the song list, there was enough on there to get me excited enough to give it a shot. So I picked it up the other day, and have gotten some opportunities to play it. I jumped right into the Expert career ('cause I ROCK).

The early songs were fun, but nothing too exciting. The first things I noticed about the game was that the Hammer On/Pull Off notes were very brightly lit. A nice touch, I think. It also appeared that the HOPO timing was greatly relaxed, which kind of translated into finger-mashing being an acceptable strategy. I found myself many times in the middle of a hard solo not knowing what I was really doing, just smashing buttons and strumming as best I could, and hitting a lot more notes than I expected. Kinda took away a little from the technical feel of it.

Another note: The lead singer is DAMN ugly. I have no idea what they were thinking.

They've also sexed the game up a bit. My girl Casey Lynch now has g-string panties that ride up over her pants. One of the venues, so far as I could tell, was an actual strip club, complete with (scantily clad, but still clad) go-go dancers. It felt a little too obvious and out of place.

After playing through the first couple sets, I got to my first "Boss Battle". GH3 introduced a new "battle" playmode, where you play against someone else. Instead of getting Star Power to increase your score, you get battle power. When you activate your battle power, it causes mayhem on the other player: their notes blink, or they get lefty-flipped for a while, or a button on their guitar doesn't work, or they have to hit the whammy bar a bunch before they can hit notes.

I was really, really hoping that this would remain a multiplayer option only, but alas, it wasn't to be. Sprinkled throughout the career mode, you have to face off against a computer controlled Boss. The object is to make them fail the song by using your Battle Power against them, and the do the same to you. It was dumb. It totally drew me out of the game. All I wanted to do was pass it and move on, which I eventually did with Boss #1 (Tom Morello from Rage Against the Machine). Boss #2 (Slash from G'n'R) kicked my butt repeatedly. Luckily, I found that if you fail a couple of times, you are given the option of "Wussing out" and skipping that boss. I took this option in a heartbeat. However, the song is still listed in the playlist, and it says "Wussed Out" next to it, so eventually I'm going to have to go back to it. Ugh.

The concept of turning Guitar Hero into a fighting game really bothers me to the core. I'm NOT a musician by any means, but music has always struck me as totally collaborative and synergistic. The music that is played in these duels is actually really cool two-part back and forth guitar parts, but it gets totally stomped on by the Battle Powers. It would be super fun to play it in a Cooperative mode, rather than a battle mode. I hope that's possible.

(Rock Band, as a contrast, I think really understands this. Playing with a full complement of singer, drummer, guitar and bass is going to be a really, really big deal. I can't wait to try it out with friends.)

And speaking of multiplayer, I was able to talk Diana into playing a song or two with me during some free time. I loaded up the game, and went to Multiplayer, and found there was no Co-op mode. Wha?! It turns out that there is a Co-op CAREER (which is cool) but what that means is that you need to play and unlock the songs like you do in a career. That's fine for me and Baditude, but Diana likes to pick and choose her songs. Forcing her to play through the entire set list isn't going to fly. I found it all pretty confusing.

There were some high points, though. Coming up on an encore, and finding it was "Even Flow" by Pearl Jam got me all sorts of excited. Playing "Welcome to the Jungle" is awesome. I recently heard a song on the radio and told Baditude that it would be a great song for Guitar Hero. Turns on the song was "La Grange" by ZZ Top, and it's included, and as awesome as I hoped. Finally, there's "Rock You Like a Hurricane". 'Nuff said.

So, there you have it. I give Guitar Hero 3 a big "meh". It has it's moments, but I think Baditude summed it up best: "Mostly, I found myself thinking that I'd rather just be playing Rock Band."

In other news, Allison is doing fine. :)