I never thought I'd do it.

But I did.


























I bought Guitar Hero III.


I had played it a few times at various friends' houses, after work yesterday I finally broke down and decided to go get my own copy. I brought it home, stuck the batteries into my gleaming new guitar - I mean the controller - and proceeded to blast my way through the game rocking out to Foghat's 'Slow Ride', Rolling Stone's 'Paint it Black', Tenacious D's 'The Metal', and many other rock songs, new and old. After a few shaky moments I quickly got the hang of the game again, skillfully mastering each song, then forced the game into submission to become a ROCK LEGEND.


And by "skillfully mastering each song" I mean I did okay in the beginning, and by the end I was barely scraping by. Slayer's 'Raining Blood' nearly destroyed me.

And by "forced the game into submission" I mean I managed to beat it. On easy.

And by "rock legend" I mean that after I fumbled my way through the last song the game flashed a congratulatory "you're a rock legend" message at me. I know it what it was really saying: "Wow... you suck a LOT, so here's a conciliatory 'you beat the game' message... don't even TRY this on medium."


The game is way more fun that I had ever guessed it would be. Guitar Hero III was the first of the series I played. I was borderline scornful of the first game, ignoring the great reviews it got, and I completely ignored the release of the second game. I figured it wouldn't be something I would enjoy (give my penchant for RPGs and third person action), and I'm very glad that I gave the it a try.

It's simplistic enough at first - Push the color coded buttons and flick the clicker thingie (enjoying my technical terms?) on the guitar shaped controller. Playing it on easy is great for beginners, and it has a very gradual difficulty increase as you progress through the seven tiers of songs. It also has a fantastic track list.

When you bump the difficulty level up to medium, it becomes a whole new challenge, and I haven't even pretended to try on hard or expert yet. Once you get the hang of it though (I'm still working on that part) it's much more rewarding.

Bottom line? I love this game. I take back every mean thing I ever said about this series.