Los Angeles Diary #4 - Hands on With Guitar Hero 3 and Rock Band

Since I'm ditching E3 a day early I made a point to get my grubby mitts on Rock Band and Guitar Hero III. I already dig Rock Band better and not because they threw such a fresh party. It just feels like they "get it" much better than Guitar Hero's new keepers. That said, Guitar Hero III was perfectly adequate. I played the Beastie Boys' "Sabotage" and "My Name is Jonas" by Weezer. Both were reasonably fun to play.

Rock Band, on the other hand kicked my ass. I started out with the drums. We tried to play "Paranoid" by Black Sabbath, but the upbeat rhythm was a bit tough to grasp for a first-timer. The monitor was also on the ground and to the left of me. I'm not making excuses, really. Just saying. The second song, Nirvana's "In Bloom" was a little easier to handle. I nailed the two left drums pretty frequently, but was sloppy with the right side cymbals. I'm not exactly sure if I was landing the kick drum hits properly. I only scored in 60% range, but it was tons of fun. Playing this set is way harder than Taiko Drum Master, but it's also much more satisfying. Finally, I agreed to sing in front of a room full of game journalists, public relations folks and game developers. Most were busy with their own business, but that didn't stop be from getting the shakes. I picked "Dead or Alive" because I've howled the Bon Jovi song at least a dozen times at Karaoke. Afterwards they said I nailed it, but they had to be lying. I've got the death sentence in 12 systems for my tone-deaf crooning.