Activision and Neversoft have taken over the Guitar Hero name and produced the third installment. This is my first on a next generation system, so while reading this, keep that in mind. Let's look at upgrades first.
Boss battles. There are three duels throughout career mode. In them you play a riff against the bosses and instead of the usual star power you get battle gems. These gems inflict "status effects" on your opponent like broken strings, whammy bar sticking, double notes required, lefty switches and increasing difficulty. If your string is broken you have to tap that fret button repeatedly and any notes that pass you by during that time come off your rock meter. The stuck whammy bar makes you wave it a bunch. Lefty switch switches your button for a left-handed guitar player. Etc. You can hold up to three of these weapons at a time and you tilt your guitar in the typical unleash star power way to get them started. To beat the boss you have to get them to fail the song before you reach the end, not just do better. It can get a little tricky.
Graphics. On 360 this looks amazing. The level of character detail, clarity of animation, camera views and everything is very impressive. Your lead singer's lips actually move with the words. Your drummer hits the drum that corresponds to the track. It's a beautiful thing.
Tracks. They obtained some master tracks, so instead of "Made famous by" you actually get "by" on a majority of tracks. I also like the addition of the year next to each song telling when it first became a hit. Everyone will find at least a few songs they like.
Story. There is a little animation sequence between each of the venues and that new set list. Adds a little humor and a little more depth to career mode. Otherwise career level progression stays the same as the original and II. Finish x/y songs to progress, and like II it has the hidden encore in each set.
Modes. There is an actual co-op campaign. Perhaps they are doing this to try and lessen a little of the blow from the up and coming Rock Band? Online versus and local co-op are available.
Guitar. I believe the different systems on which Guitar Hero III is available for purchase feature different guitars. The 360 came with a black Les Paul with detachable neck and a face plate for it that can be changed. The guitar seems really solid and the wireless connectivity is great.
Achievements. Of course on 360 there are achievements and they will definitely be achievements. A lot of them are online based, of which I don't do much. The rest are highly involved expert achievements which will take some time.
Overall, the songs are more difficult. I finished medium straight through only having to repeat one song for the five star ranking, but I do have some Guitar Hero experience under my belt. (I placed 586/50,000+ on the leader boards after one time through!) For a newbie or casual player I could see it being extremely difficult. They did however increase the input time per note so it gives far more grace for hitting a note early or late. Casually going through Hard now, and hit a wall that will probably keep me for a while with only 8 songs left to go.
They got rid of Pandora!! She was my girl and she's gone! There is still a fairly healthy selection of characters with 5 unlockable and then purchasable, but no Pandora! I was heart broken. Had to go with Judy Nails instead. There is a larger amount of color configurations and costumes than previous installments.
There is a section for downloadable content but as of this writing there is none available. I would imagine in an attempt to try and stay up with Rock Band they will constantly be expanding the song catalogue.
The game keeps getting better with each installment. It has become very mainstream now, for better and worse.
Character models have way more detail.
Venues have a lot more detail and
animations.
No Pandora!
Your singer's lips move almost
perfectly with the words.
There are a lot more camera views to
distract you while you play.
A cleaned up set list with the year the
song was originally famous.