God, I'd love to see a GH: Led Zeppelin - maybe they should just go ahead and make it, even without the permission of the band (considering how they "co-opted" quite a few songs themselves)

Agreed. I'll just keep getting both.

I don't think they did it to make it more difficult, they did it to make it more REALISTIC. I don't think the goal of these games is to be strictly a rhythm game, but a rhythm game that approximates actual guitar playing using color patterns and combinations.

As I said in my previous post, I disagree with your opinion that the ramped difficulty in GH3 is more "realistic". I base this on the types of chords used in game compared to the ones (generally basic power chords) used on a guitar. Simple slides on a guitar require finger changes or 2-3 chord changes ingame. "Slither" is a perfect example of this. I was excited when I heard it would be DLC, and after playing it, I hated it. What should have been simple changes (especially with the main riff) were more complex than necessary ingame. And that (again I say) makes the game (or at least that type of song) much less fun to play.

edited to add: Know that I'm not talking about EVERY song on GH3, but about 25% of them (including the DLC and bonus songs). Quite a few are just fine, but the change to the engine (I prefer a tighter one) and overall fun factor would have me second guessing any future GH purchases.

I love both games and will support future releases from both companies.

My opinion is this...GH3 seems to try to screw you up/make you struggle to survive. Rock Band on the other hand, seems to be easier, but you must work as a team to survive. RB doesn't take the "Yeah, well try to do this/You'll never be able to do this one" attitude like GH3, it makes everyone participate to succeed.

GH3, for some reason, lost the fun factor for me. I love alot of the songs on there, but even the ones I love (Rock/Hurricane, One, etc...) aren't fun to play (for me). GH2 was a blast, even playing the songs that I hated (before buying the game).

...But I do use the Les Paul for RB

Yeah man...the Les Paul is as solid as it gets. They really delivered on that one. It's a shame too, because the Rock Band Fender had so much potential because of it's size and layout, but the shoddy build quality just ruined it. It's one of those situations where I wish Harmonix and EA would have found a better damn manufacturer in China and charged $10 more for a product that simply delivered the experience and felt good.

The one complaint I have on the Les Paul - why couldn't they use the damn play/charge kit battery? It was okay though, as I've got a set of Sanyo Eneloops sitting here since I sold my Wii, and I'm using those, but it would have been nice just to slap my 360 battery pack right on it.

I'm thinking of customizing my Les Paul Faceplate by either painting it myself in the style of EVH's 5150 guitar, or getting someone to airbrush it like that. Or perhaps a Vic Rattlehead pic airbrushed on it.

Yeah, using the battery pack is a no brainer idea. Unfortunately they got greedy and felt the need to charge extra for a proprietary one off their site. I wonder how many of those they have actually sold? 15?

Except for the thousands of people that have had buttons stop working because the contacts between the neck and body are poorly designed

I uploaded my first GH3 video on youtube

Agreed. I enjoyed playing GH2. I enjoy playing RB. I hate playing GH3.

I don't hate GH3 (aside from the boss battles as a requirement for career, but that's a love it or hate it thing). I'll still play it once the new wears off of RB. I did realize quickly that the higher levels of Expert were just kind of a joyless endurance test. It removed any desire to attempt to beat Expert, or to even play anything above the 4th or 5th tier at all.

Then I was so excited to get the Foo and VR packs, only to find that they essentially made the Hard level charts Expert, creating nothing but agony and frustration. If I was paying per note, I got an unbelievable deal. I think that's what left a bad taste in my mouth, as I realized that fun wasn't really the main thing they were shooting for...Or in the case of those songs, it wasn't in the top 10 things they were shooting for.

And as annoyed as I am with some of those things and this whole RB patch fiasco (which doesn't affect me), I'll still give the next game(s) a shot since I just love the genre. And while it's not totally the shiz, I think NS proved they were capable of doing a great GH game once they take feedback into consideration.

Nice job rabbit.

Wow rabbitt. Very impressive. I am impressed epecially with the way your hand and fingers move so fluidly instead of maniacally like mine do.

Did you break a sweat near the end for that 100% or was there ever any doubt?

Thanks - I picked that song to try to tape first because it's my "go to" song that I use for tiebreakers in pro faceoff. I took about 8 or 9 attempts before I 100% it, I actually struggle through the bridge more than anything before hitting that last solo.

Stricken or Before I Forget is what I'll attempt next...

Holy shit man, that was awesome. I've been tooling around with GH3 for the past week or so but I think I'm going to try to return it back to Bestbuy as I can't see ever getting past medium or some of the hard songs let alone expert.

That was awesome rabbit. I am impressed that even 10% of that video is even humanly possible.

I have had GH3 for PS3 for a few days now and even before seeing how insane your video is I knew that I never want to be that good as I think I would lose my mind and, like others have said before, that it would cease being fun. I am having fun right now on Medium trying to 5 star everything there, but I am worried that I am just going to be able to limp across on Hard and that will be it for me before I just start to despise it. I am really enjoying it right now though so I think I will probably pick up any future editions knowing that I don't have to beat expert to have fun with it.

Wish I could make it look as easy as you did, then I might still be able to have fun on Expert

I'm going through Rock Band on Hard right now before going back to GHIII. It has really helped getting me acquainted with the Orange button. GHIII just throws you into the middle of it while RB gradually teaches you.

I hope to go back and 5 star my remaining Medium songs (last tier) and maybe finish hard in GHIII.

I agree with Rock Band helping to get accustomed to the orange button in hard. Before Rock Band, I could only do up to medium on GH3. Now, while I'm taking a break from RB, I've started working through Hard. GH3 just pretty much says "Here's the orange button, and now be prepared for it to kick your ass."

Holy hell, rabbit, that's impressive. I'm just a sucky "medium" player and it's hard for me to even comprehend being that good!

I just got GHIII. I'm a little surprised with the overlap of songs between this and RB. I count at least four songs shared (Mississippi Queen, When You Were Young, Sabotage, Cherub Rock), and there may be others. How does that happen? Certainly that Killers song is far from a guitar anthem and the Beasties, while awesome, aren't exactly guitar legends. I just found that surprising.

Yeah, so I've heard. But it definitely feels like a quality piece. The Strat for RB had such the opportunity to be the best damn guitar peripheral yet, and it just fell flat with all the strumming issues right out of the box. Thankfully, my Les Paul worked right from the outset, which is more than I could say for the first 3 Xplorers I had, or the first 5 or so Strats I saw. I watched the guys set up the demo RB unit at best buy a few months back, and was the second person to play it after the BB employee tested it, and the down-strum was fucked immediately.

Quality control is going to all hell in the rush to get these games out, eh?

You should check out the Zero Punctuation Review...heheh. I tend to agree as well - I'm no killers hater, nor a fan, but how they are a "legend of rock" is beyond me. Perhaps they should have chosen a different sub-title for the game.

The Queens of the Stone Age song is also in Rock Band as well.

Paranoid too.

At least it's a different cover

Seriously, it's not like there are just a handful of rock songs to choose from here. How can there be so much overlap?