Guitar Hero has made the move to the Sony PlayStation 3 with the release of Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock.  Guitar Hero III brings forth a lot of new elements which fans of the franchise will likely grow fond of over time, along with a brand new killer set of songs as well as that same addictive game play.  With the third iteration though, is it getting old?  Or are we just getting started?

Making the jump to the PS3 from the PS2 you would expect a major graphical upgrade and you do get that here in just about every aspect.  The game looks very clean and colorful throughout, the band members are far more detailed, as is the crowd.  Still though the leaps and bounds are not all that great in the sense that it is still the same basic visuals.  The big difference is that the resolution has been bumped up greatly to make everything look much cleaner.  Overall though the visuals do look good on the PS3 and the most important thing is that everything is clear and smooth running throughout the entire game.

The audio also has received a big upgrade from the PS2 over to the PS3 as the audio tracks sound extremely clear in a nice surround set-up.  One thing which has to be mentioned is that the soundtrack to Guitar Hero III, to me personally, is the best soundtrack yet for this series.  There are over 70 songs and a lot of them have master recordings which make it even better.  Bands such as Aerosmith, Metallica, The Rolling Stones, Guns N’ Roses, and more are present and accounted for here.  Songs such as Welcome to the Jungle, Paint it Black and others will be sweet music to your ears throughout the game.

Another great addition to Guitar Hero III on the PS3 is the wireless controller that is packed in with the game.  A longer strum bar has been put in place as well as a detachable neck for easy portability and storage when not playing is a huge bonus. 

Where it is at with Guitar Hero III though beyond all of the audio and visual upgrades is with the game modes.  One big addition this year is the new Guitar Battle mode.  Here you will be going at it and dueling it out with computer bosses throughout the career mode as well as against friends online and offline.  I was a bit skeptical about the battles heading into playing Guitar Hero III.  Once you get the gist of how they work though you will quickly become addicted.  Some of the later boss battles in career mode can be quite challenging.