The Guitar Hero games are strange. You see someone playing it and think “what a wally”, but you still want to try it yourself, and invariably do, enjoy it, and then you’re hooked. The idea is simple, it’s a basic rhythm action-type game that requires you to press fret buttons as well as a strum button in time with the on-screen scrolling prompts – sounds great doesn’t it? Guitar Hero’s BIG attention-grabber is obviously its new Les Paul guitar wireless controller, and although I know there are weirdoes out there that play with the standard controller (the same ones that played dance mat games without a mat presumably) it’s the guitar-wielding that elevates GH to a different plain. Thankfully you can also use the new guitar with Guitar Hero II, and naturally the Guitar Hero II guitar with III... Um... Got that? Ok, then I'll continue...

Everyone who’s ever ‘air guitared’ along to one of their favourite tunes will love this, and let’s face it, that’s most of us. The game has 4 difficulty settings and wide range of songs - nearly all originals this time I believe, including classics like;

Paint It Black - The Rolling Stones
Welcome to the Jungle – Guns N' Roses
Hit Me with Your Best Shot – Pat Benatar
Black Magic Woman – Santana
School's Out – Alice Cooper
Rock and Roll All Nite – Kiss
Even Flow – Pearl Jam
Anarchy in the U.K. - The Sex Pistols

…as well as more recent hits like When You Were Young – The Killers, 3's & 7's – Queens of the Stone Age, Knights of Cydonia – Muse and Ruby by the Kaiser Chiefs. This should mean that everyone who loves the sound of a rock guitar should be catered for, but unfortunately every soundtrack seems to have a stinker and Slayer’s Raining Blood is quite simply the worst piece of guitar-assisted aural vandalism I’ve ever heard. It’s one of the few rock guitar tracks that (to use the words of a man much wiser man than me) I’d ever describe as both sucking and blowing at the same time, and is SO damn bad that the only way I could complete it was to turn the volume right down and just concentrate on the screen – whilst humming something more tuneful to keep my spirits up (the theme from The Great Escape is good at times like these). When mentioning this you might think I'd worry about incurring Slayer fans' wrath, but I doubt either of them can read, or hear if anyone were to read this to them. You’ll also find great downloadable offerings available like The Foo Fighters The Pretender and Steve Vai’s Halo Theme MJOLNIR Mix – surely a must for all guitar-playing Spartans out there…

Despite hours of practice GH3’s overall difficulty level seems way too high to me, when attempting a ‘hard’ song for the first time I nearly gave my fingers a hernia. I’m reliably told by a guitarist of some note that playing along with a GH song is considerably harder than playing the real thing, so there you go. So if you ever see anyone playing GH3 on ‘Hard’ then keep hand on your wallet, your watch and your mobile phone too, because they are probably a master pickpocket. If they’re playing on ‘Expert’ then guard your soul, because they’re probably the Devil himself...