Let's get the pleasantries out of the way first. Guitar Hero, under new developer Neversoft, is still the same Guitar Hero we all know and love. To all but the harshest critics, the songs and note charts are just as good as any of the previous entries created by former developer Harmonix, a feat not to be understated considering they had to start from scratch. Hammer-ons and pull-offs are more identifiable this time around, and online play and co-op career are excellent additions. In my personal opinion, the song list is a mixed bag, like usual. But, as always, I am surprised by the songs I wouldn't typically like to listen to yet are very fun to play in Guitar Hero. I must commend the team on the acquisition of numerous master tracks. The difference is night and day from hearing Zach and Rage Against the Machine on this song list as opposed to the cover band that handled Killing in the Name on GH II.

There's plenty more to love, but nothing else that hasn't been said in past reviews for GH I and GH II. So, on to the things that are holding this title back from a glowing score. For starters, I feel like we're getting charged full price for a 70+ song pack (including bonus tracks), which isn't terribly surprising considering what they think an individual song is worth in downloadable content (from GH II). Characters and outfits are mostly the same. Two new characters along with Tom Morello and Slash have been added as well as some palette swapped outfit colors. All the stages have been replaced with new ones, but the pattern in which you unlock them and play through the song tiers is exactly the same.

They've taken the whole "band sponsorship" thing to a new level. Stages are unceremoniously decked out with in-game advertising, even an Axe Body Spray guitar for sale in the shop. Amps and speakers are all labeled on stage and one video shoot setting has Pontiac emblazoned on the top of the set. I know this is a sore spot with a lot of people that feel like the savings should be passed on to the consumer. It's particularly annoying when it already feels like a full price expansion pack in the first place.

The new battle mode is a real mood killer. In an unwanted attempt to turn a music game into a video game, a battle mode was not only added for multiplayer, it is forced down your throat in the single player career mode. In battle mode you play mostly solo jams against your opponent, all the while acquiring "power-ups" that you can throw over to your opponent in an effort to mess them up. The first person to fail the song loses. The negative abilities are things like broken strings, where you have to mash a button to make it functional again, double notes, difficulty increase, and lefty flip. The power-ups are acquired and used just like star power in the regular mode. The culmination of this atrocious idea is a one on one battle with Lou the Devil over a remixed version of Devil Went Down to Georgia. On Hard and Expert, this "battle" is near impossible. The note chart alone is insane only to be outdone by the fact that Lou gets the first power, which makes you miss your first chance at a power just about every time. Starting off (after 2 minutes just to get to the first power) with lefty flip or double notes is just an instant reset. Not only do you have to survive, you have to make the computer fail, a not so easy task considering that it's…well, the computer!

Not only are the battles a joke, but you can't even play the songs outside of that mode. That goes for other songs too. There are co-op songs that are only playable in co-op, a total downer for people that only have one guitar and even those of us that want to play songs like Sabotage by ourselves. Even I have to either figure out a way past Lou on the higher difficulties or go back and sleep my way through Medium to unlock the Dragonforce song. What a downer not being able to play every song on the disc. You even have to play through co-op career to unlock songs for co-op, you can't just access them from Quick Play.

Online mode is a welcome addition, but connections can be finicky. Over the span of three nights, I had a bit of difficulty connecting with people online. Either the matches would hang around stale, meaning they were already off playing yet still in the list, or I couldn't make a connection to them. I immediately tested a couple of other games like Eye of Judgment and Forza 2 just to check my connection and both were fine. I suspect that the requirements for connection lag are just very high considering the nature of the timing in this game. When I did make a connection, things ran very smoothly. Face off and co-op play were both very welcome when it's hard to find competition or someone to play with in person.

All in all, just a good effort for the third game in the series. The new Les Paul wireless controller is by far the best of the GH guitars, that's only if you needed a new one in the first place. Connection on the PS3 with the dongle was a little less straightforward than it should have been. The differences between GH III and GH II don't exactly make it feel like the next game in the series, and the addition of battle mode and keeping some songs away from quick play mode were just asinine. The note charts, which everyone was the most worried about with a new developer, were surprisingly well done and most importantly fun to play. I do think that there are some instances of placing extra notes just for the sake of difficulty, but that's just a niggling issue that doesn't occur in all songs.

Reviewer's Note: This review is a little delayed because of issues with the PS3 version of Guitar Hero III. I actually started with the PS3 version instead of the 360, and I immediately had problems with songs even on the first tier. It occurred to me soon after that there was a timing issue in effect. The audio on the PS3 version lags behind the video, making songs very hard to play on higher difficulties. You're either forced to block out the music and sight read the notes or manually change the lag to account for the audio making it more difficult to sight read the notes. I tried everything with my A/V equipment (mind you it's the same equipment that works perfectly with the 360 version) to try to get rid of the lag, but ultimately with only a way to calibrate video lag in the options (which on my TV calibrates to 0ms lag) and no way to separately calibrate the audio, it was quite broken. After a while your mind helps you fill in that lag and with practice the game was playable near to the level of the 360, but my scores on both system are still decidedly different in favor of the 360. There is plenty of discussion about this issue on the net, as I dug around to make sure that I wasn't the only one with the problem. Also, perhaps as a spiteful move against Harmonix, the PS3 Les Paul controller will not work with Guitar Hero I or II from the PS2, bogus.