My Problems With Guitar Hero 3

Guitar Hero 3 came out in October and brought in tons of sales, but for some reason it just doesn't capture the feel of the Harmonix developed titles. What went wrong with the game? I have a couple of personal things that I feel that went wrong with the game.

First, the difficulty curve is way outta wack. GH 1 and GH 2 did a good job of making sure that the game started  off easy and gradually ramped up difficulty just the right amount for each set while teaching you the skills needed in the higher level songs. The problem in GH 3 is that someone who has played and beaten the first two games on expert can blow through the first six sets of songs with almost always 5 stars. Then all of a sudden, the game hits you in the last two sets with a gigantic difficulty boost. For players on lower difficulties this becomes a problem because you are still trying to learn the concepts and you think you have them down, then the last two sets come in and destroy you.

Second, the people at Neversoft aren't really musicians. This is noticeable in the fact that both the song selection and audio levels are off. Now song selection is probably a more subjective problem but I feel that Rock Band has a better selection of songs because there is a larger variety of genres. Neversoft just chose to put in as much metal and hard rock as they could get, while Harmonix chose some country and pop songs to complement their rock songs. Audio balancing is another problem present in GH 3 but not Rock Band. In almost ever song in Guitar Hero there is an issue with one part of the song being too loud or quiet. A good example of this is "The Metal" where in some spots vocals are inaudible while in others they drown out the guitar part. Rock Band has it down perfect, almost out of necessity because of the fact that 4 different people need to hear their instruments.

Finally, and what I think is the biggest problem with the game is, the note charts are not fun at all. The charts feel like someone just put notes anywhere there was a beat in the song. Some notes seem like they were just added for challenge. GH 3 has many charts where, when they are compared to the Rock Band equivalent, have many inconsistencies from the song. The charts are just not fun to play in some cases (for example "Before I Forget" and Mosh 1 of "Raining Blood")

So I figure, why play GH 3 when Rock Band (which feels like the true sequel to GH 2) is out and it is better in most cases and offers a more compelling multi and single player career? In all honesty, I don't think there is any reason not to be playing the superior Rock Band when Guitar Hero 3 is just a pale imitator of its former self.

E for All is officially over! (for me at least)

Well it has been a fun three days (one of which involved a fight over swag, more on that later).

My final E for All wrap up.

Medal Of Honor Series: The Wii version which is called "Medal of Honor Heroes 2" was probably the most fun out of all of the games. It ran at a constant 60FPS and looked surprisingly good for a Wii game. The Wii remote did a good job of keeping up with fast movement, which made sharpshooting easy. 

The Xbox 360 version is called "Medal of Honor Airborne" and since it is already out I won't speak about it too much, but it was ok gameplay-wise but the graphics were lacking that next-gen polish.

Finally, I played the PSP version which is also called "Medal of Honor Heroes 2". It was the most surpising of the bunch. It had very good graphics, good controls, and ran at a steady framerate even with heavy action on screen.

Smarty Pants: EA's attempt at a quiz show style game, Smarty Pants was fun to play and had a good range of current and historical material in it's questions.

The Simpsons Game: While I didn't play much, I did get a chance to check out a level that I hadn't seen yet from the game. I got to play Co-op with one person as Lisa and one as Bart. The gameplay is basic beat em up style but the humor is what sells this one.

Battalion Wars 2: The sequel to the original "Battalion Wars" for the Gamecube is a lot of fun and builds upon the multiplayer from the first game. The online multiplayer is lag-free (at least from what I played) and super frantic. This will be a good game for the hardcore Wii crowd to get.

Day 4 Swag: Ok here is where it gets interesting, while I did get a few shirts as swag today, I also got two from the 1UP.com Member Meetup. I got a Guitar Hero III shirt I chose, but I had to fight for my RACE shirt I got. At the end of the giveaway there were still some prizes left so they had us rush to them, which in turn became a huge mosh pit for prizes. It was fun for sure though.

E for All Day 2 is finished!

I don't have too many pictures today (I got distracted by way too many games) but plenty of impressions.

NFL Tour: A lot like NFL Street (it is the same team who made it), this is a arcade football game. There are huge tackles, awesome slo-mo shots, and tons of big hits. If the full game is anything like what I played (a 2 month from being complete demo) then this will be one of the best football games of the year. An EA rep I talked to said they would like to get a demo out on XBLM before the game hits early next year.

Super Mario Galaxy: This was the second game I played today, thankfully there was no line so I just walked up and played. I tried two levels from the game, the first level was a small planet made up of blocks which you had to switch to yellow blocks by walking over them. The controls took a little getting used to (seeing as how I died 3 times :( ). The second level was a large area that looked a lot like your standard mario level, lots of platforming and lots of enemies. I got to try Marios "Bee Suit" which allows you to fly around. The demo timed out on me as I fought the boss so I can't speak too much about the boss fights, I can say that the graphics are amazing for a Wii game and shows that with a little work you CAN make a good looking Wii game.

Resident Evil: Umbrella Chronicles: This game kinda surprised me by how unpolished it was. There was a ton of slowdown, bad gesture detection, and was generally unfun to play. I played it with the Wii Zapper, which was comfortable and easy to use, just not for this game. In general, I was just disappointed.

Wrap-Up: Tons of swag and misc pics.

E for All Day 1 Complete!

Day one of E for All has come to a close for me! Here is a quick rundown of games!

Metal Gear Solid 4: One word, Awesome. The first game I lined up for and boy am I glad I did. By the time I left the line was enormous! The demo was a two part deal, unfortunately I couldn't take any pics but I will give you a wrap up. Part one was a 15 min presentation by Ryan Payton of Kojima Productions. We were put into a room decorated in army drab and they had us sit on sandbags while they gave us a quick overview of the new control system. After that, they let us loose on the game for 15 min, they had the new Sony Dualshock 3 controller for us to use while we played. The game was absolutely amazing and I will probably go back again.

Super Smash Bros Brawl: Over in the Nintendo booth they were having frequent Smash Bros Brawl tournaments. The game feels just as good, if not better than the Gamecube version. Unfortunately the only control style available was the Wii Remote only control, which while easy to pick up, didn't allow for much precision. This will definitely be one to get in February.

Rock Band: So far, this is my favorite game at the show. This game has made me not want Guitar Hero 3 at all. Playing a song with 3 other people all on a stage was a ton of fun, and an experience no one will want to miss.

Wrap-Up: I have a pic of the (4!) T-shirts I got and some other misc. swag

Were here! (finally)

We are finally in California after quite some time. Here are a couple of quickly taken pictures.

ETA 2:30 Hours

I am at the airport but it is still a little while until my flight goes out, updates later.

Alright, it begins!

Headed to Cali today, so I may take some pictures of the hotel and whatnot just so I can test posting pictures up here on the blog, but tomorrow the real fun starts!

Going to E for All soon

I will be updating my blog as much as I can over the next few days once E for All starts with pictures and impressions. Not really a live blog but more of a daily summary. Expect tons of pics of more high profile stuff such as Rock Band, MGS4, Guitar Hero 3, and whatever else catches my eye there.