If there's one thing every video game geek wants to be, it's a rock star. The money, the fame, the women who don't smell like your grandma or your blow-up friend Sally, all of it can be yours if you're in a band. Unfortunately though, most gamers lack the upper body strength to even lift a guitar, let alone devise complex rhythms and groovy chord structures that will melt faces. Thankfully, there is hope for all those who fear the sun, as Activision and Neversoft have graced us with the beauty that is Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock.

The Main Thing That We Do is Rock Your Socks Off

   One of the greatest things about the Guitar Hero franchise is the fact that it's simple to play, but incredibly difficult to master. The beauty of the game lies in the fact that you don't use a traditional controller, but rather a scale model guitar (a Gibson Les Paul for this outing) with colored buttons instead of strings, and a strum bar instead of a bridge. As you play a song, colored notes stream toward you, and you have to press the corresponding button on the neck of the guitar AND strum the note once it reaches the bottom of the screen. It sounds complicated, but it's really pretty easy to get the hang of it once you start playing. Also, there are four difficulty levels to choose from, so you can easily start small and work your way up to superstardom.

   Once you start nailing notes and wailing on solos the game really sucks you in and makes you believe that you are a true rock star. Granted, if you handed me a real guitar and told me to play Welcome to the Jungle the same way I did in the game, the rock gods would likely become so enraged as to break all the strings on my guitar and strangle me with them. (For THAT kind of gameplay, keep your fingers crossed for Tim Schafer's upcoming Brutal Legend). However, in the digital world, the game does a great job of making you think you're the greatest thing to happen to the axe since Hendrix.

   While it would have been easy to just leave the series as is, the developers saw fit to add a few new match options this time around. Battle mode will pit you and a competitor against one another in a fight to the (rock) death. Instead of star power, you gain attacks, which you can use to trip up your opponent. From broken stings to doubled notes, you go back and forth attacking one another until someone fails or breaks a nail. This is the only new mode to be implemented both in single player and multiplayer, with battles against some big name guitarists taking place as you play career mode, and honestly you'll either love it or hate it. I personally found it both fun and frustrating, but the positives of the new mode outweigh the negatives.

   In addition to Battle mode, the game also introduces a co-op career, as well as the long-awaited debut of online play. That's right friends, you can finally go online and take on other rockers in order to show, once and for all, who the true Guitar Hero really is. For some of you, this will inevitably mean a weepy trip back to Sally's blown-up shoulder, but for the rest, the online mode alone should be well worth the price of admission. Ultimately, the new modes are a most welcome addition, and can bring extra spice to a series that was just starting to grow a tad stale.

This Set List is Guaranteed to Melt Your Face Off

Rock Until Your Fingers Fall Off

   As previously mentioned, the developers have bundled a Gibson Les Paul controller with the game, and it plays like a dream. It's a beautiful piece of work, with a glossy face and slightly enlarged buttons, making the X-Plorer from Guitar Hero II look like a silly, angular mess. Furthermore, if you don't like the solid color guitar body, the faceplate is removable, allowing you to swap it out with seemingly limitless number of designs and styles. While before you could only customize your guitar with stickers (no, that is not a horse with a sword in its head, it's a unicorn, you do not rock!), now you can find faceplates of your favorite bands and anything else you can think of.

   The Les Paul also handles like a dream (please do NOT take that phrase out of context!), allowing for some of the most spot on control the series has ever seen. Oh, and by the way, the guitar is WIRELESS. Yeah, you can start drooling now, that's perfectly acceptable. In addition, the developers have slightly opened the window in which you can hit hammer-ons and pull-offs, making some of those complex solos a little easier.

   You'll need all the help you can get though, because this game is HARD on the higher difficulties. If you thought Freebird was tough in the last game, just wait until you hit the last couple of tiers of songs. Songs like Raining Blood and One exist simply to make you tear your hair out. If by some miracle you do make it through the game (the final song is about as wicked as it gets) you'll be rewarded with the utterly impossible song Through the Fire and the Flames by Dragonforce. If you're unfamiliar with the tune, look up the Guitar Hero III version on YouTube sometime, you will weep like the puny mortal that you are.

In Order to Dress the Part, You're Going to Need a Silk Shirt, Leather Pants, and Lots of Feather Boas

   Lest fans fear that all the work on the game has been done on the music alone, rejoice in knowing that the graphics have gotten an overhaul as well. Character models are larger and more detailed, and venues really come to life with stage effects and crowd reactions. Get ready for those giant rotten watermelons. Also, the developers finally saw it fit to make your lead singer's lips ACTUALLY sync up with the song. Why it took three games to implement this feature I'll never understand, but it's about time.

   While the game is a great step forward in the series, it does fall short of perfection in several ways. Firstly, there is an issue with in-game lag when there's a lot going on at once. For example, if you deploy your star power with a highly-detailed character, the strain of it all will sometimes make the game lag for a second or two. Normally, this wouldn't be that big a deal, but considering that this is a rhythm game and everything is about timing, little hiccups like this can really ruin the score multiplier you've worked so hard to build. The only advice I can give on dealing with this issue is to keep a jug of whiskey by your side. You know, for drowning your sorrow and stuff.

   Second, there is a very weird quirk to the co-op career mode that seems to be totally counterintuitive. The way the game works in co-op is that you and your partner select independent difficulty levels, but the game only allows you to gain the rewards of the lowest level player. So, for example, if you play on Expert difficulty but your friend plays on Easy, you will only gain the cash and unlocks as if you beat the whole game on Easy. This wouldn't be a huge deal, except every time you change difficulties, you have to replay all the songs in order again. Why you can't keep the songs once you've unlocked them makes no sense to me, and it really puts a damper on an otherwise fun co-op game.

   Finally, the game's online community has been underwhelming at best. The great plan for the game was to create a community where players could link their game account to www.guitarhero.com in the hopes of sharing their scores and achievements with the rest of the Guitar Hero community, join clans ("tour groups"), and participate in online tournaments and contests. At the time that I write this, there are major issues with users linking accounts on the website, and those who have haven't had their accounts updated since the first day they played. While this may all eventually be fixed and the online community becomes a thriving world unto itself, right now it is little more than a poorly planned and implemented marketing gimmick.

Come Back Out for the Encore

   In spite of its faults, Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock may very well still be the best entry into the entire franchise. The new songs, a cool controller, and an all-around improved experience mean that the series is definitely heading in the right direction. This is a game every wanna-be rock star simply has to play. Now, if you'll pardon me, there are some groupies outside, and I need to fulfill my rock duties.

       ... Brad