A nice surprise having Guitar Hero released for the PC, but the release comes with its fair share of technical issues.
Without gamespot's search listings, I would've never known the port even existed. And judging by the available stock of Guitar Hero 3 for the PC at game stores, I'm definitely not alone in my surprise.
After hearing about the series for some time and playing the latest game on the PS3 at a friend's, I bought the game for PC hoping for a similar experience.
I was half right.
The game is part for part exactly like the console version, and comes with the same guitar released to the XBOX 360 version.
One of the first issues you'll encounter is, even on a hefty system, the game's requirements never seem to be met and you end up with performance issues. In some games, performance issues are tolerable, sometimes even unnoticeable. But with Guitar Hero, if you aren't getting consistent performance, then you won't be doing well in the game at all. And Guitar Hero 3 for the PC has giant performance issues.
Patch v1.1 for the PC was supposed to correct some of these issues, but does very little in the end. Turn off crowds and crank the quality of the game back -- that's really the only way to cope on a mid-range system.
One of the more serious issues with the game is really not with the game at all, but with the company in charge of the PC version and that's Aspyr. Their online area has a special section labeled "Downloadable Content" and without much surprise, the area has been "coming soon" since the game's release. Subsequently, the company has stated that they will not be releasing any downloadable content AT ALL -- another franchise ignoring their PC fanbase.
It's a little disappointing considering the numerous song packs released to both PS3 and XBOX versions of the game.
Fans of the game won't be disappointed playing this, but don't expect to get anymore than the songs that are already included in the game. It's fun, but it's replay value will continue to drop dramatically without any support from Aspyr.
It's disappointing to think Aspyr is doing themselves a favour by not spending the resources to take care of their users, and it certainly isn't doing much for their reputation among gamers. It's easy to say that there isn't a market for PC gamers in this genre, but it's because of the people in charge like EA and Aspyr who continue to alienate their PC users that causes a drop in sales and interest for their PC products.