The Guitar Hero III "I've actually played it" Thread

Games
1

OK, so after conferring with that friend of mine who just finished the co-op campaign on hard in Guitar Hero III, s/he has some thoughts that I’d like to relay to you:

  1. The PS2 version of GH3 is really bad. Even by PS2 standards.

It’s very clear that the lead platform was next-gen, and it was crippled to fit it on the PS2. That new “gritty stylized realism” graphics technique does NOT translate well to the PS2. It’s odd, because GH1 and GH2 were great looking PS2 titles-- probably because the game originated on the PS2 and the art was scaled to the limitations of the PS2 platform. But in Guitar Hero III, the character models are scarily bad, and the animations are choppy as crap. It looks like emulsified ass. It’s really bad.

My friend saw the framerate dip a number of times during gameplay, and s/he would swear that the typical framerate is well under what GH1 and GH2 ran it. It’s like the core framerate dropped from 60fps to 30fps. It just feels… sloppy. Particularly after playing the glassy smooth Xbox 360 demo, and even in comparison to ye olde GH1 and GH2 on the PS2. It ain’t right.

  1. Hard is about the same. Expert got a shit-ton more difficult.

My friend swears that Expert tier 1 songs feel like tier 3 songs now. Which was quite a shock (there was a lot of “OMG, we’re actually playing a tier 1 expert song? Holy crap?”). It seems Expert got a solid bump in difficulty over GH2, but Hard remains about the same. More playtime is needed, but that’s the initial feeling.

  1. Co-op campaign can be played on any difficulty per-player.

Initially, my friend thought the co-op campaign was locked to a particular skill level, like the single-player campaign… but that’s not true. You can change the difficulty each time you enter, and the difficulty can be set at different levels for each player. All you have to do is complete the songs to move forward in the campaign. the money you earn is scaled to the difficulty. Once you finish the co-op campaign-- which, oddly, doesn’t include some of the standard songs in the single player campaign-- all the songs (as far as my friend can tell) are unlocked, including the solo encores as well as the co-op encores. So… buddy up!

EDIT: WARNING, co-op campaign unlocks are indeed specific to the MINIMUM of the two levels you play at. Playing expert/easy? Congrats, you just unlocked easy!

More impressions later, but I think the moral here is do not buy the PS2 version unless you have to. Ugh.

2

Seriously, what’s with you and the redundant threads?

3

Maybe some readers don’t want to wade through 13 pages of speculation from people who haven’t played the damn game?

Seriously, should there ever only be one thread for any topic, with umpteen zillion pages that nobody will ever bother to read? Is this really a problem? Do we have “too many” Guitar Hero III threads? I have half a mind to create another inane WoW thread just on principle.

4

As a rider to point 2) above. Even though the expert difficulty went up, the timings for hitting a note are super-relaxed now, which helps compensate. It’s the same phenomenon we noticed in the demo version.

Now, it’s almost a little comical how early/late you can hit a note and still get credit for it. Not that we’re complaining, mind you, but the massive timing envelope does feel a little bit cheat-y at times.

5

Geez, I was just asking because they were right beside one another.

6

Can we get a separate forum for the people making jokes about can we get a separate forum for people asking if we can get less threads bought Lionhead?

7

Thanks for the heads up on the asstastic performance on the PS2. My brother and I were gonna grab 3 for the PS2 up until… niaow.

8

Er… I just went to play coop with my wife (who plays Medium) and sure enough, we only had 4 songs to choose from. This appears to be determined by the minimum difficulty selected by the 2 players.

So, as claimed in the other thread, you must “unlock” coop songs at the difficulty you want to play. There is no free play mode for co-op. Multiplayer includes face off, pro face off, and battle-- no co-op! I guess all co-op play is campaign by default.

Definitely sort of a WTF. :(

My brother and I were gonna grab 3 for the PS2 up until… niaow.
Yeah, unless the PS2 is your only option (it is my only option at home; at work we have a 360), I’d definitely stick with the 360 or PS3 versions. Watching the drummer and his apparent 12 frames of animation is just… painful.

9

Comprehension failure here, I’m afraid. The minimum difficulty selected? So, uh… if you played through on Expert/Easy it’d unlock everything for every difficulty, or…?

10

Yeah, I just played the demo on 360 and went through four long Misirlou-style rapid strumming parts (which are definitely my greatest weakness) without missing a single note. It did feel cheat-y, but it also made me feel like a pimp.

11

Completed the co-op campaign on hard/hard. That apparenty unlocks “hard” (the minimum in this case is the same).

Played co-op campaign on hard/medium for the 1st time … nothing unlocked. Playing this way would unlock medium.

If you played co-op campaign on expert/easy I believe you would only unlock easy, the minimum of the two settings.

Very strange design decision, indeed.

12

Ah, I see. Cheers.

…

Gleeeeh.

13

Here is a comment from someone who works at Neversoft (although not on GHIII) from another board:

EDIT: Oh, I see it’s been ‘released’ by nefarious sources on PS2. That version isn’t our work… Judge the game by the 360/PS3 versions.

Looks like you are right and PS2 players will get a crippled experience anyway.

Wendelius

14

Thanks, Neversoft. We love you too.

I’ve seen a torrent of the 360 version going around too, though I’ve no idea whether or not it’s genuine.

15

I guess the fact that the PS2 version sucks ass is unfortunate for people who are still using the PS2 as their primary platform, but I’d much rather it be that way than the other way around with the PS2 version being good and the next-gen versions being simple upscales of the PS2 content.

6 or so years of multiplatform games that are hobbled on all platforms to shoehorn their way onto the crappy LCD PS2 hardware was quite enough, thanks.

16

HW Sales
Xbox 360 527.8K
Wii 501K
Nintendo DS 495.8K
PlayStation Portable 284.5K
PlayStation 2 215K
PlayStation 3 119.4K
Game Boy Advance 75K

Yes screw those 215.000 cheap ass gamers + all the other sales of the PS2 in 2007.

17

That would be extremely relevant if what they were selling were PS2 hardware units rather than game software. If you look at the recent PS2 new software sales charts, they are way way way down. So, yeah, screw the PS2 users, I want a good experience on my next-gen console.

18

Oh, I see it’s been ‘released’ by nefarious sources on PS2. That version isn’t our work… Judge the game by the 360/PS3 versions.

Nefarious sources? What. The. Fuck. Is he claiming that pirates magically hacked the game to be playable on a PS2, cause that’s what this (quote probably taken out of context) sounds like.

Fact is, the game is being published on the PS2 as well as the other major platforms. Maybe the publisher farmed out the PS2 version, but nefarious sources? Give me a fucking break.

19

It doesn’t sound like that at all, it sounds like he was simply responding to the idea that people are already playing the PS2 version (which…uh, isn’t officially out yet) by noting they must be using the warez release. As a separate issue he is then disclaiming any blame for the PS2 version since Neversoft didn’t work on it.

Reading is fundamental!

20

I also read “nefarious sources” as referring to the team doing the PS2 port. More context might make it clearer, because I suspect it’s putting those two points in a paragraph by themselves that implies a connection between them.