The 3rd installment has a nearly perfect playlist, with jaw dropping graphics and great online play, nearly a Legend...
Theres a small story to the campaign mode, basically you start off as a small band (which you name as your save file) and you start your gigs at a backyard party, eventually working your way up to being Legends of Rock. There are Guitar Battles on the way, which allows you to use items to make the opponent either lose their whammy, meaning they can't press any of the notes until the whammy is down, or a lose note, which they'll have to constantly press and get it down so they can use it. The bosses included Tom Morello, Slash and the devil Lou. There songs are unique to the game, especially Lou's, which is a cover of The Charlie Daniel Band-Devil Went Down To Georgia, but in a metal mix, so electric guitars.
The gameplay is very addictive, although you feel like there could have been more "Rock" tracks in it. Later in the game you have to play Disturbed's Stricken, Slayer's Raining Blood, Metallica's One and more. Those are really classed as Metal, however the actually rock songs are quite good, and the score for them is dead on.
The variety is slightly unbalanced, as well as some of the songs Activision decided to put in. Such ones like Kaiser Chief's Ruby are extremely easy, whilst Prototype's The Way It Ends are extremely hard on the higher difficulties. There are 4 difficulties, Easy which only has you hitting 3 notes which are Green Red and Yellow. Normal has you hitting 4 notes which are the same as easy and Blue. Hard has you hitting all 5 notes, so all of the above with Orange. Expert has it at a much more faster pace, with more notes than Hard. All difficulties have different amounts of notes, and some are harder to hit than others. With the money you get after performing a song you can purchase characters, costumes, guitars, interviews and bonus songs. This adds to the replay value a lot, although you won't really buy the interviews to last, as you can find them on video sites most of the time. There are quite a lot of guitars to get, some are classed as "Special" whilst others might be classed under "Bass" or "Lead", either way it doesn't really matter which ones you buy, as they don't effect your gameplay or give you more Star Power. Star Power is a multiplier in GH3, once activated by hitting all the notes in a star shape, and having 3 bulbs lit up, it will double your multiplier, so if it was 4X it would go to 8X. You need to know when to use it though, as you could activate it and find out there are no notes for about 6-7 seconds, by that time you have very little left. There is also a Co-Op mode, where 1 player will be lead guitarist and the other bass guitarist, this splits the song up, and forces you to work together, Star Power and all. There are songs you can ONLY get in Co-Op mode, like Suck My Kiss by Red Hot Chili Peppers. It's always good to play with a friend, and this adds a lot more to it's replay value, ontop of the online multiplayer you can spend hours upon hours on 1 song. There is also DLC, featuring more Dragonforce, Linkin Park, Foo Fighters, Avenged Sevenfold and more. Of course you have to pay for most of them, and there are some cool freebies, like The End Begins (To Rock) for PS3.
The graphics are simply outstanding, considering Gutiar Hero 2 only came to the 360 a couple of months before Guitar Hero 3's release. The lighting and shadows are fantastic, and you sometimes have yourself looking at the background rather than at the notes.
Theres only one problem with this game, and it's the playlist, don't get me wrong the songs are all good, but considering the title "Legends of Rock" it's more like "Legends of Variety". This doesn't really put it down at all, but some of you may find that getting a PC version and adding custom songs is the better option.
Overall Guitar Hero 3 Legends of Rock is a superb start to the next-gen audience, lets just hope that Guitar Hero 4 ups the pressure on their rivals Rock Band.