GH3 - Through the Fire and Flames - Expert

Animalor · Post by **Animalor** » November 9, 2007, 11:19 am

There's no words to describe how crazy this is.
http://youtube.com/watch?v=F2xS1Yeh0Ac

Dregor Thule · Post by **Dregor Thule** » November 10, 2007, 8:36 pm

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cOv7S_bST-4&NR=1

The intro is nuts, and the freak only plays with 3 fingers!

Animalor · Post by **Animalor** » November 11, 2007, 9:36 am

Gezus. Have you seen the length of this guy's fingers?

Dregor Thule · Post by **Dregor Thule** » November 12, 2007, 1:21 am

Yeah, he's a mutant.

Truant · Post by **Truant** » November 12, 2007, 2:14 am

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nYN9LDkykWI

Just for Shits and Giggles. This came on the dvd of an issue last year when this song kinda broke through to become known to the masses.

Just in case you want to see how they play it!

Boogahz · Post by **Boogahz** » November 12, 2007, 9:27 am

now you can go play it with your friends!

haha, insane

Ryuda_69 · Post by **Ryuda_69** » November 12, 2007, 11:26 am

i just finished GH3 on hard... phew that was some work... but i can't nail down dragonforce for the life of me hehe. maybe after a full month of practicing it slow. i swear... it's like you have to be mildly autistic to beat that damn song.

Fash · Post by **Fash** » November 14, 2007, 3:55 pm

Just had my first experience with guitar hero last night... I played the demo on 360 using the regular 360 controller (triggers and rb/lb)

I enjoyed myself, and completely forgot about everything that was bothering me while playing it. I may just pick this game up afterall (even after seeing the new southpark episode 'guitar queer-o' which was omgrofl)

Animalor · Post by **Animalor** » November 14, 2007, 4:05 pm

Ryuda_69 wrote:i just finished GH3 on hard... phew that was some work... but i can't nail down dragonforce for the life of me hehe. maybe after a full month of practicing it slow. i swear... it's like you have to be mildly autistic to beat that damn song.

There's a lot of inconsistancies with the difficulty on GH3. Most of the songs I get 3 stars on hard however every now and again I nail and 5-star a song. Tom Morello was a complete bitch to beat as well. The game actually asked me if I wanted to wuss out and keep playing. I declined and beat him in the next attempt or two.

Funkmasterr · Post by **Funkmasterr** » November 14, 2007, 4:10 pm

Fash wrote:Just had my first experience with guitar hero last night... I played the demo on 360 using the regular 360 controller (triggers and rb/lb)

I enjoyed myself, and completely forgot about everything that was bothering me while playing it. I may just pick this game up afterall (even after seeing the new southpark episode 'guitar queer-o' which was omgrofl)

LOL.

"You have earned 1,000,00 points and ulocked rock stardom. Congratulations.. You're a FAG!!"

holy shit did that ever make me lol.

I totally agree on the inconsistencies ani.. I played through hard and beat damn near every song on my first try, and now I can't beat raining blood for the life of me. I also played through on expert to about the 6th set with no issues, and all of the sudden the difficulty multiplied by about 50 and I got stopped dead in my tracks.. I personally think that they are too defensive about maintaining the difficulty of the game, I think it could stand to be toned down a bit.

I am guessing that the majority of people that play the game will never beat it on expert, and not because they don't try/don't practice enough, they just plain can't do it. I don't feel that any game should ever have a difficulty that any significant percentage of it's players can't complete.

Fash · Post by **Fash** » November 14, 2007, 4:36 pm

Funkmasterr wrote:I don't feel that any game should ever have a difficulty that any significant percentage of it's players can't complete.

I do. Not everyone needs to be able to play every difficulty and complete everything, and the people who are really good need something to shoot for, even if they never reach it.

MMO's and other games all subscribe to this... I'd love to know the percentage of EQ/EQ2/WOW/etc players that made it to and completed the highest tier content.

Funkmasterr · Post by **Funkmasterr** » November 14, 2007, 4:40 pm

Fash wrote:
Funkmasterr wrote:I don't feel that any game should ever have a difficulty that any significant percentage of it's players can't complete.
I do. Not everyone needs to be able to play every difficulty and complete everything, and the people who are really good need something to shoot for, even if they never reach it.

MMO's and other games all subscribe to this... I'd love to know the percentage of EQ/EQ2/WOW/etc players that made it to and completed the highest tier content.

MMO's are a little different though.. To get to through the highest tier content you need to A-be a good player, B-In a guild with other good players, and C-spend a ton of time raiding. This isn't really the case with any console games, you don't have to depend on others, and you don't have to put much time into them.

I am an achievement whore, and the fact that 10+ achievements in GH3 require you to beat the game on expert kinda gets under my skin.

Animalor · Post by **Animalor** » November 14, 2007, 4:43 pm

I'll never beat this game on expert and I play on Hard for the challenge. It's the same as in CoD4 and Veteran mode. I'll probably never play it cause it's just too damned hard and the time required to get that good just isn't worth it in the grand scheme of things.

I barely beat the last mission on CoD4 when I had 1min 45secs to do it and when playing on veteran, you start out with 1 minute on the clock.

I do plan on playing GH3 through Hard though as a personal satisfaction thing.

Jice Virago · Post by **Jice Virago** » November 15, 2007, 5:30 pm

This is a "party game", one you replay a lot simply for dumb fun. Its certainly not any kind of MMO and comparing it to a typical "go from A to B" console game is silly, as well. My one major complaint about GH3 is that, somehow, it got changed from being a music game to being a video game. What I mean by that is, the hardest songs in GH2 (and that game had a poorly implemented difficulty curve) were at least fun to play and didn't make you want to saw your hand off. Sure, I got pissed when Carry Me Home spanked me over and over again, but once I got it down, I actually went back and played it because it was fun. I can reasonably say that I will never play One or Raining Blood again, once I beat them, because repititious killing of my hand is not fun in any manner. The predecessors were better, in terms of making the game feel like you were playing the songs and not boring you/destroying your fingers.

A good example of this is Before I Forget, which is retardedly easy to play on a Guitar (like three fucking chords?) but is just stupid hard in the game, especially compared to everything before it. That also illustrates the other major problem with this game, the difficulty scaling. In the past games, with a couple exceptions (GH2- Carry Me Home, GH80s- Los Angeles), the songs got gradually harder without suddenly hitting the brick wall of slam my dick in a car door hard dificulty. This game, though, the jump from Medium to Hard is retarded (and many songs on Expert are actually in some ways easier than their Hard counterparts) when compared to the difficulty change from Hard to Expert. Further, the level of challenge in the last two sets (especially Raining Blood and Before I Forget) is fucking retardedly high, compared to the first six sets. Many people will quit the game at that point (I nearly did) out of frustration.

Song Selection is the best its ever been, though. They really overdo the speed shredding, pulloff triplets, and orange/green finger busting, however. The game is meant to be fun, not kill my hand.

Funkmasterr · Post by **Funkmasterr** » November 15, 2007, 6:15 pm

Jice Virago wrote:This is a "party game", one you replay a lot simply for dumb fun. Its certainly not any kind of MMO and comparing it to a typical "go from A to B" console game is silly, as well. My one major complaint about GH3 is that, somehow, it got changed from being a music game to being a video game. What I mean by that is, the hardest songs in GH2 (and that game had a poorly implemented difficulty curve) were at least fun to play and didn't make you want to saw your hand off. Sure, I got pissed when Carry Me Home spanked me over and over again, but once I got it down, I actually went back and played it because it was fun. I can reasonably say that I will never play One or Raining Blood again, once I beat them, because repititious killing of my hand is not fun in any manner. The predecessors were better, in terms of making the game feel like you were playing the songs and not boring you/destroying your fingers.

A good example of this is Before I Forget, which is retardedly easy to play on a Guitar (like three fucking chords?) but is just stupid hard in the game, especially compared to everything before it. That also illustrates the other major problem with this game, the difficulty scaling. In the past games, with a couple exceptions (GH2- Carry Me Home, GH80s- Los Angeles), the songs got gradually harder without suddenly hitting the brick wall of slam my dick in a car door hard dificulty. This game, though, the jump from Medium to Hard is retarded (and many songs on Expert are actually in some ways easier than their Hard counterparts) when compared to the difficulty change from Hard to Expert. Further, the level of challenge in the last two sets (especially Raining Blood and Before I Forget) is fucking retardedly high, compared to the first six sets. Many people will quit the game at that point (I nearly did) out of frustration.

Song Selection is the best its ever been, though. They really overdo the speed shredding, pulloff triplets, and orange/green finger busting, however. The game is meant to be fun, not kill my hand.

Yeah I pretty much agree.. They have taken a lot of criticism about the difficulty of the game and for some reason they are just absurdly stubborn about it and refuse to budge.. And I think that what they did with GH3 was kinda like them getting in the last word...

What the developers should come to realize is that their creative vision for the game means less than they think. If a good majority of the people playing it are very frustrated with the difficulty, you need to listen and not just say "sorry but thats the way we want our game." After all, we are the ones paying lots of money for these games which allows them to continue to develop them, aka, keep their jobs.

Funkmasterr · Post by **Funkmasterr** » November 15, 2007, 11:48 pm

Thought I would let people know that they released a FREE track pack today, which consists of the boss battle songs. I kinda figured they would do that at some point because a lot of people were complaining you couldn't play the songs the normal way.

Fash · Post by **Fash** » November 19, 2007, 5:02 pm

After playing the demo heavily... I had the impulse yesterday to go out and buy the real deal. It took a while to get used to using the guitar, but I beat easy and i'm halfway through on medium. I had trouble beating Tom on easy, but I kicked his ass on medium.

I never thought I'd get into guitar hero, but I'm totally addicted (this week)

Funkmasterr · Post by **Funkmasterr** » November 19, 2007, 7:06 pm

I would like to say that the boss battle against Lou on hard is infact impossible, and I want the developers to die slowly. That is all.

Hesten · Post by **Hesten** » November 20, 2007, 4:16 pm

I can still only play it on medium. I suck, and i got no sense of rhythm, so im excused

. but im still having fun, especially when playing with friends or family.
And btw, my mother are totally hooked on Frets of Fire by now

Gave her all the GH3 songs now too

Fash · Post by **Fash** » November 20, 2007, 4:23 pm

I got to Lou on medium last night but couldn't beat him... I started hard, but could only get through 3 of the first 4. I've only had it for 2 days and never played guitar hero before so I think I'm doing ok.

When I saw the south park episode and the kids playing with their tongues out, I was amused... When I caught myself doing it, and biting, i was not amused. I can feel the teeth marks inside my upper lip, and they hurt like canker sores.

Funkmasterr · Post by **Funkmasterr** » November 20, 2007, 5:12 pm

Fash wrote:I got to Lou on medium last night but couldn't beat him... I started hard, but could only get through 3 of the first 4. I've only had it for 2 days and never played guitar hero before so I think I'm doing ok.

When I saw the south park episode and the kids playing with their tongues out, I was amused... When I caught myself doing it, and biting, i was not amused. I can feel the teeth marks inside my upper lip, and they hurt like canker sores.

hah, this made me lol... I do some funny shit when I'm playing too, especially when I'm drunk. I will have to play a few songs with you soon, especially since you are learning so quick! I have nearly no one that I can play on hard or expert with.

Boogahz · Post by **Boogahz** » November 20, 2007, 5:51 pm

can't it be set up for different difficulties for each person, or is that just in certain modes?

Funkmasterr · Post by **Funkmasterr** » November 20, 2007, 6:13 pm

Boogahz wrote:can't it be set up for different difficulties for each person, or is that just in certain modes?

Yeah, but for face offs, or for campaign mode (I am hoping they add this online) you can't. I need someone to play through the hard campaign with me and there is no one !

Boogahz · Post by **Boogahz** » November 20, 2007, 6:19 pm

I don't think I could even make it past medium

Fash · Post by **Fash** » November 20, 2007, 6:19 pm

Funkmasterr wrote:
Boogahz wrote:can't it be set up for different difficulties for each person, or is that just in certain modes?
Yeah, but for face offs, or for campaign mode (I am hoping they add this online) you can't. I need someone to play through the hard campaign with me and there is no one !

I need some more practice, but I should be online tonight... I'm hooked.

Fash · Post by **Fash** » November 21, 2007, 3:10 am

i beat lou on medium tonight and finished 19 more (now 22) on hard. the time just disappeared. my hand hurts.

Chidoro · Post by **Chidoro** » November 21, 2007, 11:28 am

anyone take the plunge on Rock Band yet? Still don't have a 360 yet but it will be on my short list if it turns out as good as it sounds

Funkmasterr · Post by **Funkmasterr** » November 21, 2007, 12:00 pm

Chidoro wrote:anyone take the plunge on Rock Band yet? Still don't have a 360 yet but it will be on my short list if it turns out as good as it sounds

I'm droppin the $175 on Friday, they have already released a ton of tracks for download on XBL and I just cannot resist myself. Only problem is going to be deciding whether I should play that or Mass Effect.

Boogahz · Post by **Boogahz** » November 21, 2007, 2:50 pm

http://dealnews.com/Rock-Band-Special-E ... 98051.html

$149
Rock Band Special Edition for Xbox 360 or PS3
In stores only, Sam's Club offers its members Harmonix's Rock Band Special Edition for Xbox 360 (pictured) or PlayStation 3 for $149.46. (Stock varies by ZIP.) That's the lowest total price we could find by $28. Sales tax is added where applicable. This bundle includes the game, guitar, drum kit, and microphone peripherals.
Posted 6 minutes ago

Ryuda_69 · Post by **Ryuda_69** » November 21, 2007, 4:48 pm

I'm curious if anyone here bought rockband yet. I was on the cusp of plopping down the money for it, but i started thinking about it really really hard... either 169$ for one game... or that same 169$ for the games that i ended up buying (assassins creed, mass effect

, the orange box). Quantity over quality was my final deciding factor (although all the games mentioned are all high quality...so its not to say that one is better than the other), and since i already have guitar hero 3 which is a party/rhythm based game i opted for the more story oriented titles. I figured i'd not spend the money for the bundle pack since all i care about is having the drums because i already have a guitar, and i could care less about the mic since i dont sing... unless i wanna bust out phil collins style haha... OH SHIT... i just thought of a good use for the mic now =D.

oh well... so far i'm hearing great things about it, and am hoping to get my hands on the drums at least so i could tear down the house to "blackened" by metallica. i figured my neighbors don't let me play my real drumkit in the house... so this is the next best thing when i'm jonsing to get behind a kit.

Boogahz · Post by **Boogahz** » November 21, 2007, 5:20 pm

I haven't seen prices for the drums alone, but I am kind of in the same boat. I wouldn't mind the "better" guitar, but I have no interest at all in the microphone.

Animalor · Post by **Animalor** » November 21, 2007, 5:42 pm

I've heard of 2 people on another forum that have had issues with the strat already. The first's strum bar stopped registering upwards strums and the other's buttons no longer register as being held in.

Hopefully this is a very bad coincidence however you may want to read official forums to see if more stories like this crop up before buying.

Funkmasterr · Post by **Funkmasterr** » November 21, 2007, 11:59 pm

Janx has it, looks like he is liking the drums too!

If you are wanting to get the drums only, what I have been told by the people at gamestop (same guys I have talked to there forever, usually very knowledgeable) said that it could be as late as feb or march before they start shipping the drums or mic seperate, and if you want to buy the whole kit, I would do it in the next few days because those are supposed to be pretty scarce too.

I was at sams club today and saw the 149.99 price, thought about getting it but they only had two left, I can't buy it till friday, and I already have 25 down at gamestop

I am pretty damn excited though, already downloaded all three track packs and fortunate son.

Funkmasterr · Post by **Funkmasterr** » November 22, 2007, 12:11 am

Another thing - I was poking around in the menu's for GH3 today and noticed the cheats section, I wasn't aware there were any so I looked online to see what there was.

There are actually a ton of things that you can do with cheats that you can't do otherwise (hyperspeed mode w/ 5 different settings for people like janx, precision mode, performance mode, blah blah blah, getting bret michaels to be the singer for all songs.)

One of them was to unlock all of the stuff in the shop, and since I have excepted that there is no possibility I will ever beat this game on expert, I decided to do this because I wanted the guitar with the alien fetus on it. so I entered it, and went back to trying to get 200k on cult of personality on expert, and failed again (failed the song).

Next thing I know the "Enlightened Guitarist" achievement unlocks, and I am wondering wtf is going on because I haven't gold starred a single song on expert, let alone 20. So I poke around online again to see if maybe I am mis interpreting the achievement, and find out that if you do the cheat I did, then fail a song on expert it glitches and unlocks that achievement, lol!

Figured I would toss that out there for anyone that might care. Also if you beat the game on hard or expert, let it save, turn off the console, log back in with the guitar disconnected and a regular controller connected then go to the character select screen you will unlock the achievement for playing through the game with a standard controller.

I am an achievement whore, it's a terrible addiction.. I can't help it. Actually the first game I have used any codes or cheats for though, so I don't feel bad

Dregor Thule · Post by **Dregor Thule** » November 22, 2007, 9:58 pm

I wish Bret Michaels sang on the ps2 version

Also don't have God of Rock or Grim Ripper, SIGH!

Funkmasterr · Post by **Funkmasterr** » November 23, 2007, 1:41 am

Dregor Thule wrote:I wish Bret Michaels sang on the ps2 version Also don't have God of Rock or Grim Ripper, SIGH!

The god of rock cracks me up, could be the most mellow song in the game and he is head banging like its a slayer song, lol!

Fash · Post by **Fash** » November 28, 2007, 3:06 am

my progress has slowed down, lol... i've got 34 done on hard now and 4 on expert. I may be at my limits. Time to shred some people online!

Gonzoie - Luclin · Post by **Gonzoie - Luclin** » November 28, 2007, 5:25 am

Funkmasterr wrote:
Fash wrote:I got to Lou on medium last night but couldn't beat him... I started hard, but could only get through 3 of the first 4. I've only had it for 2 days and never played guitar hero before so I think I'm doing ok.

When I saw the south park episode and the kids playing with their tongues out, I was amused... When I caught myself doing it, and biting, i was not amused. I can feel the teeth marks inside my upper lip, and they hurt like canker sores.
hah, this made me lol... I do some funny shit when I'm playing too, especially when I'm drunk. I will have to play a few songs with you soon, especially since you are learning so quick! I have nearly no one that I can play on hard or expert with.

Only 2 games make me do weird things when i play them.. Marvel Vs Capcom 2 and Guitar Hero.. I swear if any of my friends took a video of me playing those 2 games it'd be a hit on youtube.

GH 3 definitely has some tough songs, but ive been able to play through the majority of it on expert so far. I can almost beat Through the Fire and Flames on expert, but the beginning gets me every time. If i could get past that i tend to do well the rest of the song. Friends of mine started using rubber bands to hold down the green button while they play that part.. But i consider that cheating!

I enjoy the enormous amounts of shredding in this game tho.

Animalor · Post by **Animalor** » November 28, 2007, 11:47 am

I popped in Gh2 on a whim last night and played some hard last night and I noticed that as a result of the harder song in GH3, I've become significantly better at GH2. I'm not 5-starring any songs on hard yet but I beat 5-6 of em in a row on hard the first time I'd attempted them.

Progress is awesome! =)

Leonaerd · Post by **Leonaerd** » December 1, 2007, 1:52 am

BAM BITCH I BEAT IT

Aslanna · Post by **Aslanna** » December 1, 2007, 2:44 am

Grats on being mildly autistic.

Animalor · Post by **Animalor** » December 12, 2007, 11:55 am

I finished 5-starring all the song on Medium!
Take that Raining Blood!!!! =)

For shits and giggles afterwards I threw myself at Devil Went Down to Georgia DLC and Through the Fire and Flames at medium and got 3-stars on each. Ego is back in check now.

I never did bother 5-starring all medium on GH2. I think that will be my next goal.

Janx · Post by **Janx** » December 13, 2007, 5:55 am

http://files.filefront.com/TTFAF+818366 ... einfo.html

iamchris4life ftw.

Funkmasterr · Post by **Funkmasterr** » December 13, 2007, 11:29 am

Janx wrote:http://files.filefront.com/TTFAF+818366 ... einfo.html

iamchris4life ftw.

What the fuck. I want to actually see someone that can do that playing though, like see how they strum, etc. I can get through the song on hard, but the best I have been able to do playing it in practice mode on expert is like 58% notes hit...

Ryuda_69 · Post by **Ryuda_69** » December 18, 2007, 1:53 pm

AHAH... i got u sucka~

Finally beat TTFAF on expert. it took me about a week of practice, but i finally nailed it down... so i guess all i have to do now is try to 5 star it hehe.

looking back at this song in retrospect i have to say that it's not as hard as everyone thinks. the problem with this song is that it requires you to be really really good for really really long. i also noticed an extra set of notes here and there during the song in places where there shouldn't be any. there was one or two times during the song where the guitarists are doing a noisy slide on the guitar, but the game has you doing a ridiculous amount of hammer-ons and pull-offs to fill that gap... when they could have easily just made you hold down a chord. overall, as hard as this song looks it's not harder than Jordan on GH2... so now i gotta go tackle that one hehe.

one thing that i definitely love about the guitar hero games is that they rekindled that love inside of me for playing instruments. i love music more than anything, and can't go through the day without having my ipod on... it's that serial hehe. however, as much as i love to listen to, and write music... i haven't had the same passion for actually playing my physical instrument for a while now. i guess this is due to the fact that i've been swamped with school work for the past year, have annoying neighbors that cry at the sound of a pin drop, and the fact that my friend got me hooked on using MAC programs etc to write music on a laptop which makes things more accessible for me. all these things, and other RL bullshit disconnected me from my passion of playing my instruments, but as of late i've been getting back into the swing of playing. i actually busted out my 6 string ibanez sdgr bass the other day and had a jam session with some old friends, and we jammed and drank beers while reminiscing about all the times we rocked the stage at CBGB's (rip).

playing guitar hero definitely rekindled that old flame inside me to want to play my instrument and continue to expand my knowledge on music theory, new chords etc. all i need now is a bit of time and 4 other band members

Fash · Post by **Fash** » December 18, 2007, 1:56 pm

I rarely go a day without playing with my instrument...

Funkmasterr · Post by **Funkmasterr** » December 19, 2007, 1:02 pm

I got done getting all my online achievement for rockband, so I might switch back to this and see if I can nail this song.

Asheran Mojomaster · December 21, 2007, 4:43 am

Yeah, through the fires and flames is crazy. I can get between 60 and 75% on 2 players but fail almost instantly if I try to quick play it. My fiancee and I made it through most of expert, but once we got to The Metal by Tenacious D we were pretty much stuck. Had a friend beat it for us, but then the next set she beat 1 song and we could not beat any others. Those last 2 sets are insane. We ended up putting in the cheat to unlock all songs so we could try all of the others. Metallica's "One" is awesome but hard as hell once you get to the guitar solo.

Gonzoie - Luclin · Post by **Gonzoie - Luclin** » December 25, 2007, 8:00 am

The Metal is my favorite song to play on GH 3 no doubt. 99% i miss the same 2 or 3 notes every time

TTFAF looks tough when you first start playing it, but i can 80% that song now assuming i can get through the beginning.

If you have GH 3 for the 360 i suggest downloading the Halo song and Devil Went Down to Georgia. Those are fun as hell to play

Truant · Post by **Truant** » January 7, 2008, 4:29 am

Jice Virago wrote:This is a "party game", one you replay a lot simply for dumb fun. Its certainly not any kind of MMO and comparing it to a typical "go from A to B" console game is silly, as well. My one major complaint about GH3 is that, somehow, it got changed from being a music game to being a video game. What I mean by that is, the hardest songs in GH2 (and that game had a poorly implemented difficulty curve) were at least fun to play and didn't make you want to saw your hand off. Sure, I got pissed when Carry Me Home spanked me over and over again, but once I got it down, I actually went back and played it because it was fun. I can reasonably say that I will never play One or Raining Blood again, once I beat them, because repititious killing of my hand is not fun in any manner. The predecessors were better, in terms of making the game feel like you were playing the songs and not boring you/destroying your fingers.

A good example of this is Before I Forget, which is retardedly easy to play on a Guitar (like three fucking chords?) but is just stupid hard in the game, especially compared to everything before it. That also illustrates the other major problem with this game, the difficulty scaling. In the past games, with a couple exceptions (GH2- Carry Me Home, GH80s- Los Angeles), the songs got gradually harder without suddenly hitting the brick wall of slam my dick in a car door hard dificulty. This game, though, the jump from Medium to Hard is retarded (and many songs on Expert are actually in some ways easier than their Hard counterparts) when compared to the difficulty change from Hard to Expert. Further, the level of challenge in the last two sets (especially Raining Blood and Before I Forget) is fucking retardedly high, compared to the first six sets. Many people will quit the game at that point (I nearly did) out of frustration.

Song Selection is the best its ever been, though. They really overdo the speed shredding, pulloff triplets, and orange/green finger busting, however. The game is meant to be fun, not kill my hand.

I played GH3 for the first time tonight and this post was popping into the back of my mind. Granted, I was only playing songs once, and not getting any practice, but the step in difficulty from medium to hard is pretty huge.
With Rock Band I was able to transition from the difficult songs on medium to the early songs on hard without falling on my face. I tried to do that with GH3 and failed the first song on Hard after pulling 90% or better on the difficult set on medium.
Other things of mention:
I made up my mind that I like the Rock Band strat controller better.
The animations on GH3 are horrible. The animations for Rock Band are far and away more accurate, and more enjoyable to watch.
Anyways, just thought I'd share.