If it weren't bad enough that Activision shipped out Guitar Hero III with no offline co-op quickplay mode, a few careful listeners have noticed another thing they left out - a few channels of sound.

Audiophilic owners of Guitar Hero III for the Wii have noticed that not only does the game not support Dolby Pro Logic II surround sound systems (despite that feature being advertised), but it doesn't even output sound in stereo. As we all know, it's nearly impossible to pass "Cult of Personality" on Expert unless the manic shredding of Living Colour guitarist Vernon Reid washes over you from six different angles.

Apparently, Activision is looking into the problem, though they said in regards to a fix, "the time frame is still unknown." For the time being, we're afraid you're going to have to learn to rock out monaurally.

We got a lot of information on Guitar Hero III this week, we even got some solid time with Red Octane's wireless controllers, but what about the game? You can definitely tell Guitar Hero III, from a graphics perspective, was made by Neversoft instead of Harmonix (Guitar Hero I and II). The look is just "different" for better or for worse. For better is that the mouths actually move to the song now instead of just moving up and down, plus the game looks beautiful because it was designed for now-gen systems. For worse is that it just doesn't look like the first two, even the characters we've come to know and love look, um ... different.

But it's not all about the graphics in GH, it's about the gameplay and music. As for the gameplay, it's Guitar Hero, the look may have changed, but the feel is still the same. We were told that many more artists are looking to be featured on Guitar Hero now that it is such a big hit, so there are far less "as made famous by" and far more original master tracks. The most amazing of which is "Paint it Black" by the Rolling Stones. Also, "Cult of Personality" was actually re-recorded by the original band Living Colour to bring it a little bit more up-to-date for Guitar Hero III -- but it is still most definitely the original song. The tracks already revealed for Guitar Hero III show that the game won't be lacking in the rock department.

For fans of the series and for those who don't know all about the Guitar Hero vs. Rock Band kerfuffle, the transition should be relatively smooth. It is Guitar Hero after all and if you already have a guitar you'll be all set, or you can purchase a wireless one, available on all systems with the game, when it releases. The only thing that could resonate badly for the title is that one of the Joystiq crew came back to the room after playing Guitar Hero, having played Rock Band as well, and said, "It's great! It's just a little lonely." But as far as being a Guitar Hero game, Guitar Hero III looks and plays fine as a continuation of the series. Now we shall go seek red doors.

Do you live in Europe? Ready to rock out with Guitar Hero III? Well you don't have too long to wait. A representitive from Activision has confirmed to InsideGamer.nl that the game will be one shelves, for all consoles, on the 28th of October. It's a good thing it's coming out early. Just in time to keep us busy for a month or so before Rock Band gets released. Then it's "Guitar Hero who?"

It is still unknown when the US release is set for, though it will be sometime this autumn. We'll let you know as soon as we find out.

[Via N4G]

IGN has put a preview for Guitar Hero III up on Xbox Live Marketplace in all its HD glory. The video gives us a first look at the new Les Paul wireless guitar, as well as some other cool features. One thing that impresses us was their use of face capture to have the lead singer properly lip-synced to the songs lyrics, as opposed to the previous iterations generic lip service. The video also touches on some of the visual changes, in the HUD as well as the art direction. A solid watch, if you're a fan of the series.

When Neversoft took over the Guitar Hero franchise from Harmonix there were worries that the gameplay would change unrecognisably. While the interface of the game has remained largely the same (surely lumped into the "if it aint broke, don't fix it" category), there seem to be a couple of new features shown in this newest batch of Guitar Hero III vids.

The video above, showing Living Colour's "Cult of Personality", gives us some insight into the new additions to the battle mode. It's fairly widely accepted that the multiplayer mode in Guitar Hero I was pretty bad, but Guitar Hero II more than made up for it with its co-op and battle modes. Even then the battle mode could at times feel like little more than comparing scores. With the inclusion of power-ups in Guitar Hero III we will be able to directly affect our opponent's guitar playing abilites by making their markers blink, their fret board tremble or even increasing the difficulty level temporarily.

Sounds like a great update to us. Once all the songs are unlocked, multiplayer really is where it's at with the Guitar Hero series, so it's good to see Neversoft are doing their best to improve on it. As for the single player, there's not much there to improve. Unless, maybe, you included a couple of other instruments? Maybe a singer? Oh wait, nevermind. Be sure to watch the rest of the vids after the jump.

Unfortunately, the videos of Guitar Hero III we showed you at the end of May are no longer available on YouTube. Gametrailers fortunately came to the rescue and put up the first minute or so of Foghat's "Slow Ride" on Expert difficulty. It definitely looks pretty and leaves us only wanting more. Hopefully we're get more details on the song list, possible online multiplayer, or when the wireless Les Paul will be available. Where does this stand on your holiday wishlist?

We love videos as much as the next person, so when we stumbled upon these Guitar Hero 3 videos (and by stumbled we mean directed towards by a helpful tip), we thought it would be great to share them with you guys. First up is for the song My Name Is Jonas -- it's cool. After the jump, you can check out the video for Slow Ride. We just don't want to overload you unless you really want to see both. Rumors are these are from the Xbox 360 build, but it's kind of moot since we're sure the game will be about the same for every system. Enjoy and get ready to rock. That will be the most over-used line ever regarding these games. Guaranteed.

[via Arrogantics]

Yup, these are videos of Guitar Hero III. Yup, they look pretty much like Guitar Hero II (and Guitar Hero I for that matter). Of course, no one really cares do they? It's Guitar Hero! With that said, there are some small differences worth noting. First of all, the character models look like they've received some new-gen love and are more detailed. The HUD has some slight graphical tweaks as well, though none of them seem to affect gameplay. The star power meter has been replaced with a series of light bulbs. As you fill the meter, more of them light up. They slowly fade out once star power is activated. In addition to displaying your current multiplier, the left side of the HUD now keeps track of how many notes you've hit consecutively. Frankly, we'd like the ability to turn that feature off, as it could add undue stress to achieving those perfect runs. You'll find another video embedded after the break. Check it out and tell us what you think.

The crew over at IGN received an exclusive look at Guitar Hero III's new guitar the Les Paul and walked away very impressed. One of the biggest improvements added to the Les Paul guitar controller is that it will feature wireless technology, which will be the first time Microsoft has allowed a third party peripheral maker to do so. They've also added removable faceplates, made the neck detachable, kept the same color fret buttons, and even added a third strap knob for even more customizability. It looks like GHIII's Les Paul guitar is shaping up to be one solid controller to rock out with. But fear not GHII owners, because your X-plorer guitar will work with GHIII and vice versa. How very convenient.

As we're still struggling to crank out perfect scores on Hard difficulty in Guitar Hero II, Activision goes and announces a whole slew of new tracks coming to Guitar Hero III. Seriously, just look at all these damned tracks (which we have politely lifted from Joystiq)!

• "Paint It Black" (by The Rolling Stones)
• "Cherub Rock" (by Smashing Pumpkins)
• "Sabotage" (by Beastie Boys)
• "The Metal" (by Tenacious D)
• "My Name is Jonas" (by Weezer)
• "Knights of Cydonia" (by Muse)
• "Rock And Roll All Nite" (as made famous by Kiss)
• "School's Out" (as made famous by Alice Cooper)
• "Slow Ride" (as made famous by Foghat)
• "Cult of Personality" (by Living Colour)
• "Barracuda" (as made famous by Heart)

First thing's first, please recognize the distinction between "by" and "as made famous by" in that list. You'll notice that a full 7 of those tracks appear to be recorded by the artist themselves. That's worth throwing up the horns right there. In some more exciting news, Activision has announced that Guitar Hero III's guitar controller will be modeled after the Gibson Les Paul, and will feature customizable faceplates. Furthermore, there will be wireless controllers available for the game, though it is unclear if said guitars will be included with the game or if they will be separate purchases. There is one troubling note in the press release, though: the new guitars will feature a new "button color design" in order to create a more authentic experience. Hopefully, this doesn't hinder the performance of the (very expensive) guitars we've all purchased for Guitar Hero II.

So, what's your favorite song on the list?

Today RedOctane have released some new details about Guitar Hero 3. Perhaps most excitingly, they have revealed that controllers for the next gen consoles will be wireless. Great news for everyone who kept getting tangled up whilst rocking out to the previous two games. The controller itself will be in the shape of a Gibson Les Paul (pictured) for the PlayStation 3. The Playstation 2, however, will have a Gibson Kramer shaped controller instead. Presumably this is due to the PS2's lack of bluetooth, so expect it to be either wired or to include some kind of USB plug-in.

Other announcements for the game include 'a new multiplayer action-inspired battle mode, grueling boss battles, a bevy of exclusive unlockable content and authentic rock venues', as well as online play. The game will take advantage of RedOctane's partnership with MTV by including a large number of original tracks, rather than covers. Hopefully this will reduce the production time for downloadable songs. Speaking of tracks, below are a few names to get your juices flowing. Let us know what you think of them. Expect the game out before the end of the year.

• Paint It Black (by The Rolling Stones)
• Cherub Rock (by Smashing Pumpkins)
• Sabotage (by Beastie Boys)
• The Metal (by Tenacious D)
• My Name is Jonas (by Weezer)
• Knights of Cydonia (by Muse)
• Rock And Roll All Nite (as made famous by Kiss)
• School's Out (as made famous by Alice Cooper)
• Slow Ride (as made famous by Fog Hat)
• Cult of Personality (by Living Colour)
• Barracuda (as made famous by Heart)

Tina Turner be damned, you're getting a new Guitar Hero game every year. In a Eurogamer interview, RedOctane co-founder and president, Kai Huang, reveals that every guitar freak's favorite franchise will soon have something in common with large men tossing balls and slamming into each other. "I think that fans can definitely expect that we're going to have one major release a year," says Kai. Following that, the peripheral manufacturer plans to "release update packs and content packs so there's more songs."

And what about the controversial pricing of already released song packs? The pricing's "competitive," says Huang, though his comment may have been slightly garbled due to the degradation of interplanetary transmissions. "We've done a lot of evaluation on the pricing and the costs for each of the songs and how they work for each of the packs, and we think that they're priced competitively, but certainly we listen to the fans and we take that feedback, and if that's something we'll need to evaluate we'll do that."

An annual release of Guitar Hero is hardly something we'd consider to be terrible news, but one caveat certainly needs to be heard -- not many franchises keep their sparkle on a yearly release schedule. Even fellow music maniac, Dance Dance Revolution, has taken a few bad steps in its rapid-fire career. We cringe at the thought of seeing a great franchise doing a power slide... down a set of stairs.

Red Octane's boss Kai Huang had an interview with Pro-G recently that hasn't yet been released. Whoop-de-doo, right? Wrong. In the interview, it seems Huang went ahead and confirmed the dream of many rockers who were too embarassed to take their show on the road... or in front of friends: online multiplayer with Guitar Hero 3. Yes, you can now show off your mad skillz without showing off your crazy drooling problem you get whilst playing that Black Sabbath solo.

We don't know exactly what the online multiplayer feature offers, but if it's more than just a leaderboard, we'd be pumped. Sure, lag would seem to be a problem unless the whole song is pre-loaded before the multiplayer gets underway or something (thank you, PS3 hard drive?), but it could just be a score comparison between two players. This is sort of a test run for the inevitable multiplayer bound for the gigantic ambition known as Rock Band. What do you think this multiplayer will consist of?

[via Joystiq]

Recently announced Guitar Hero III will be sporting something we wish Guitar Hero II would have included ... online multiplayer. In an interview with Red Octane president Kai Huang, Pro-G confirmed that GH III would indeed include an online component. So fanboys, does this mean that a rumored future GH II update to include online multiplayer will never see the light of day? Well, it doesn't sound overly promising seeing that they'll probably use "Super Duper Online Multiplayer" as a new feature and bullet point for their third installment. Oh well, we still love you GH II and will wait to see if you'll grace us with online play later this year.

[Via Joystiq]