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Computer Times
Editors' Choice Game Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock for PC Reviewed by Angie Kibiloski
Guitar Hero is one of the most popular games on the market today, previously available on game consoles only. For the first time, with Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock (Retail $69.99), this awesome game can be played on your PC! Thank you to all of the lovely folks at Activision and Aspyr Media for this! Nevermore will owners of PCs only have to gaze covetously at their friends' XBOX, PS3, or Wii; they can bring home a Guitar Hero version for their very own. And, not only can they rock out at home on their PC, but they can take the game with them on a laptop without having to cart along the giant guitar controller. The game, though best played with the guitar, can be controlled using the mouse and keyboard, so a player can discreetly get their groove on in an airplane, a hotel room, or sitting in the back of a boring business meeting. This game kicks some major butt!
Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock is the best yet, with over 70 of the best rock tracks ever made. These include Welcome to the Jungle, Rock and Roll All Nite, Hit Me With Your Best Shot, and so many more. You can rock alone, together with friends, or in online tournaments. Battle it out with some of Rock's greatest legends to become the best rocker on the planet. With so many different ways to play, the hours of fun to be had with this game are endless.
If you are one of the deprived people of the world who have never played, or seen anyone else playing, Guitar Hero is for you and here is how it is played. Your guitar shaped controller consists, basically, of 5 colored fret buttons on the neck of the guitar, and a strum bar on the body. As the colored notes come scrolling down the screen in the game, you must press the corresponding fret button and strum bar at the same time. If you successfully hit the notes, you score points. There is, in addition to your score, the Rock Meter, to show you how well you are performing. If you are hitting every note and totally rockin' the house, it will be green. Yellow means that you're mediocre and not thrilling the audience, but they aren't ready to throw their beers at you quite yet. Red means you pretty much suck, and good luck finding a place to book you in the future. If the meter is flashing red, you'd better watch out, the audience is ready to revolt and physically remove you from their sight. Getting applause and feeling confident? On long notes, you can use your whammy bar to add your own flare. Play well and fill your Star Power meter. By activating this, you can truly 'wow' your audience and get mega points. Doesn't this sound cool? Don't you want to play right now? Well there's more.
In Career mode, you work your way to fame by playing and mastering songs. Along the way, you unlock new songs, venues, and earn cash. With this hard earned dosh, you can buy more songs, characters, guitars, and more in the in-game store, to add excitement and glamour to your career. Another option is Co-op Career mode. This works the same way as single Career mode, but you must work together to achieve a great score. One player is lead guitar, while the other is bass or rhythm, and each player can choose his own difficulty level, so if you are playing as an Expert lead, your Beginner bassist partner won't hold you back from glory.
If you're not in the mood to put time into your budding career, and just feel like cranking out some casual tunes, you can jam in Quick Play mode. This allows you to get right into playing without affecting your career score. You can play any song that you have previously earned, unlocked, or downloaded. If you have never played in Career mode, there are only a small handful of songs available in Quick Play mode, so hurry up and get that career moving, so you can add more tracks to your repertoire.
If you aren't so co-operative with your friends, and are a bit more combative, Multiplayer mode will suit you well. Compete against them for the best score. There are 3 ways to play Multiplayer mode. Face-Off allows players to alternately play the same song, at their own difficulty level. Pro Face-Off lets you go up against each other on the same song, same difficulty level, simultaneously! Try to out-shred your opponent for total bragging rights. This mode can only be played after finishing the Medium, Hard, or Expert levels in Career mode. Finally, Battle is the ultimate head-on competition. Like Pro Face-Off, you play at the same time, but with Battle, as you play well, you earn power-ups that you can use to disrupt, sabotage, and frustrate your opponent. Not only can you compete against your friends at home, if you have a broadband internet connection, take your talents into cyberspace and compete against fellow rockers all over the world. First time rocker? Tentative on the combo note sequences? Don't sweat it; all you need is some training. In the Training mode, you can follow along with helpful tutorials that will really get you into the flow of the game. Both beginners and experienced players can benefit from this. Here you can also practice on any song that you have unlocked, slowing the song down if necessary, to perfect those tricky sections.
Come one now, you can't tell me that this is not an awesome game. The first time I played it I was hooked! The fact that it is now available for PC is very thrilling. Of course, Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock is also available on XBOX, PS3, and Wii as well. With so many different modes of play, with new songs to shred, with super new characters, in-game guitars, and venues to play, this game is an absolute must have for any rock and roll fan. Don't miss out, get Guitar Hero III; Legends of Rock for the PC now, and start jamming your heart out! Click on link below for more information about this great product.
Guitar Hero III Bundle w/ Guitar Controller DVD (PC/MAC-DVD)
System Requirements: PC Minimum:
This product does not support Windows 98/ME/2000/NT/XP x64/Vista x64. Notice: Some Mobile and Desktop 3D accelerator cards with the chipset listed here may not be compatible with the 3D acceleration features utilized by Guitar Hero 3. Please refer to your hardware manufacturer for 100% DirectX compatibility. Notice: This game contains technology intended to prevent copying that may conflict with some disk and virtual disk drives. Supported Desktop Chipsets: ATI Radeon X800 ATI Radeon X1600 ATI Radeon X1800 ATI Radeon X1900 ATI Radeon X1950 ATI Radeon HD 2400 ATI Radeon HD 2600 Nvidia Geforce 7600 Nvidia Geforce 7800 Nvidia Geforce 7900 Nvidia Geforce 8400 Nvidia Geforce 8500 Nvidia Geforce 8800
Notice: The Nvidia Geforce 8400 and 8500 cards have known issues on Vista machines with AMD CPUs. Supported Mobile Chipsets: Nvidia Geforce Go 7600 (XP Only) Nvidia Geforce Go 7800 Nvidia Geforce Go 7900 Nvidia Geforce Go 8400 Nvidia Geforce Go 8700
MAC Minimum:
Supported Chipsets: Nvidia Geforce 7300, 7600, 8600 Nvidia Quadro FX 4500 ATI Radeon X1600, X1900, HD 2400, HD 2600 NOTICE: Intel integrated video chipsets are not supported.
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