If you were worried by the news that the Guitar Hero franchise has been handed off to a new developer (Neversoft, of Tony Hawk fame), don’t be. The songs are new, the visuals are a lot prettier and the guitar-duels are a lot fiercer, but underneath it all, the gameplay doesn't look to have changed much, if at all. It also rocks as hard as ever, as a few Neversoft reps demonstrated by shaking one of the new levels - a huge desert music festival with hundreds of revelers - with a thundering run through "Lay Down" by hard rock act Priestess.
"People are hardcore about [Guitar Hero], they want it to stay the same," said Alan Flores, Guitar Hero III's lead designer. "We really wanted to retain what was Guitar Hero, what people loved about it. … It has to evolve somewhat, but we really didn't want to mess up that experience."
Hit him (or her) at just the right moment, and he'll suddenly have to play left-handed for a little while, or at a higher difficulty level. You can also break one of his strings - forcing him to jam on that string's button to tamp it back down before he can play it - overload his amp, double the number of notes he has to play or make him constantly jam on the whammy bar while playing. Another attack even enables you to steal your opponent's Battle Power and use it against him.
