Guitar Hero Metallica - PS3

Despite what you may think of them as individuals, Metallica as a whole is a phenomenal rock band, a bunch of scruffy herberts from the Bay Area thrash scene of the early to mid 1980's made (better than) good. Metallica 'arrived' a long time ago (Master of Puppets really did it for us, if you're asking) but made it overground - so to speak - in the early 1990's with the release of the self-titled 'black' album, the one that included 'Enter Sandman', 'Nothing Else Matters' and 'Wherever I May Roam' among others, all included on Guitar Hero: Metallica (GHM).

This dedicated variation on the GH formula features oodles of Metalli-tracks of course, but also includes a whole bunch of guest artists chosen by Messrs Hetfield, Ulrich, Hammett and Trujillo, all listed at the end of this summary. Building upon the foundations laid by 2008's critically-acclaimed Guitar Hero World Tour, GHM provides the full band experience of vocals, guitar, bass guitar and drums so that you can rock out as Metallica, Queen, Corrosion of Conformity, Slayer, Alice in Chains, Diamond Head and more. No Megadeth, however...

As well as 'joining' the band in Career mode, there are a few more tweaks and extras in store for GHM players. After nailing a song, you can test your Metallica know-how by replaying the song with Metalli-facts Trivia pop-up mode, in which you can unlock venues, songs, commentary, videos and behind the scenes footage. Plus, GHM cranks up all the great features, gameplay and fun of Guitar Hero World Tour to a new level with updates to the music studio featuring real guitar samples from James Hetfield. Online modes enable gamers to see who's top of the pops in Battle of the Bands and Battle modes, along with Face-off and Pro Face-off modes. To make things even more challenging for the aspiring Lars in all of us, there's even a facility for a second bass drum pedal. Think 'Dyer's Eve', think the closing minutes of 'One'...like we said, challenging.

Here's the full list of Metallica songs included:

'All Nightmare Long'
'Battery'
'Creeping Death'
'Disposable Heroes'
'Dyers Eve'
'Enter Sandman'
'Fade To Black'
'Fight Fire With Fire'
'For Whom The Bell Tolls'
'Frantic'
'Fuel'
'Hit The Lights'
'King Nothing'
'Master of Puppets'
'Mercyful Fate'
'No Leaf Clover'
'Nothing Else Matters'
'One'
'Orion'
'Sad But True'
'Seek And Destroy'
'The Memory Remains'
'The Shortest Straw'
'The Thing That Should Not Be'
'The Unforgiven'
'Welcome Home (Sanitarium)'
'Wherever I May Roam'
'Whiplash'

And the guest stars:

Alice In Chains - 'No Excuses'
Bob Seger - 'Turn The Page (Live)'
Corrosion of Conformity - 'Albatross'
Diamond Head - 'Am I Evil?'
Foo Fighters - 'Stacked Actors'
Judas Priest - 'Hell Bent For Leather'
Kyuss - 'Demon Cleaner'
Lynyrd Skynyrd - 'Tuesdays Gone'
Machine Head - 'Beautiful Mourning'
Mastodon - 'Blood And Thunder'
Mercyful Fate - 'Evil'
Michael Schenker Group - 'Armed and Ready'
Motörhead - 'Ace of Spades'
Queen - 'Stone Cold Crazy'
Samhain - 'Mother of Mercy'
Slayer - 'War Ensemble'
Social Distortion - 'Mommy's Little Monster (Live)'
Suicidal Tendencies - 'War Inside My Head'
System of a Down - 'Toxicity'
The Sword - 'Black River'
Thin Lizzy - 'The Boys Are Back in Town'

Go on, Cliff 'em all! (RIP) more