Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock [X360]

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The big news about Guitar Hero III has been that it's got a new developer. The folks at Harmonix left to make Rock Band, so for the latest installment in the hardest rocking series known to gaming, the Tony Hawk creators at Neversoft are in the developer's seat. The good news is that you'd never notice. Guitar Hero III is even more of the hard rocking goodness you've come to love.

The first thing you'll want to know about Guitar Hero III is that the song list won't disappoint. It's a diverse soundtrack with something for everyone. Some Guitar Hero regulars return with their most seminal songs, and some absent groups are finally showing up for the first time. There are more original recordings than ever, so you won't have to put up with iffy sound-a-likes mangling your favorite vocals. You'll even get a few songs remixed by the original artists. This is arguably a better song list than any of the previous games, although it's a shame there's no way to work in some sort of backwards compatibility with the previous games. This probably points to Activision recycling some of the old content for download in the near future, but hopefully there will be some new music as well.

The interface includes several nice improvements. Star power doesn't jerk the fret when you activate it, a feature that is instead reserved for when you mess up, as it should be. Hammer-ons and pull-offs are much more brightly lit, making it easier to pick up these important moves on the fly. There are new messages when you hit 50- and 100-note streaks. These are good not just to keep you up to date, but also to ratchet up the tension.

The campaign has a bit of a story, slightly weirder than the last and with a somewhat tedious conclusion, but with all the encores and changes of venue you'd expect. There's even a separate campaign built for co-operative play, with one person on guitar and the other on bass. The tutorial and training modes are mostly the same as the previous games, but there's a new section to introduce the multiplayer battle mode. There are also new voiceovers from God and the devil. There's nothing like ultimate good and evil to teach you the basics of rocking.