Guitar Hero Smash Hits brings out Guitar Hero’s Greatest Hits for your band. This one’s for the many GH: Would Tour fans of the series that have looked back at Guitar Hero, Guitar Hero II, Guitar Hero Encore: Rocks the 80s and Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock and thought man if only those tracks were out for the whole band! I’m really looking forward to my favorites from Blue Öyster Cult’s “Godzilla”, Queen’s “Killer Queen”, Heart’s “Barracuda” and Danzig’s “Mother”. Check out the full list of tracks to pick out your favorites after the jump. You can also visit the GH Smash Hits site to vote for Best Guitar Shred, Best Vocal, Best Bass Lick, Best Drum Fill and more.

While you’re out in stores grabbing GH Smash Hits make sure to pick up the new Guitar Hero On Tour: Modern Hits for your DS. There are 28 new tracks to be shared bringing the total to 75 for the GH On Tour series. Guitar Hero: never leave home without it.

Read the full article

WarCraft III: The Frozen Throne is debuting as the official game for World Cyber Games 2009. Gamers will battle one-on-one for the world of Azeroth in this real time strategy. WCG has announced the official tournament rules and regulations including changes for Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock, Starcraft: Brood War, TrackMania Nations Forever, and FIFA ‘09. This year’s Grand Final is scheduled for November 11-15, in Chengdu, China.
This year’s full lineup is listed in official press release following the break.

Read the full article

If you’re a Guitar Hero junkie from way back, then I’m sure you’ve looked back at some of the songs from the older games with envious eyes. After all, who wouldn’t like the idea of getting some of those great songs back, and having a whole band to play them? I know I would love to get my hands on tunes like Thunder Kiss ‘65 or Cowboys from Hell.

Well, all of us that share this wish found out a few weeks back that our wish was coming true…sort of…when Activision announced Guitar Hero Greatest Hits. The upcoming game will be a compilation of songs from all the Guitar Hero titles prior to World Tour. I was hoping that this material would be available as DLC, not a separate game. However, this does not mean that I will not be looking forward to getting some time with this game.

Activision has already revealed the tracks from Guitar Hero I & II that will appear in this compilation, and they’re letting you vote to decide what gets revealed next. You can head over to the official GH website and vote on whether you want to see the tracks from GH III or GH Rocks the 80’s revealed next.

If you like, you can also grab the widget to share on your social networking site of choice while you’re there. If you haven’t checked out the trailer yet, you can see it after the break.

Read the full article

Today, gamers logging into Xbox Live looking for some new tunes for Guitar Hero: World Tour are in for a treat with the Nirvana Track Pack. “Silver”, “Negative Creep”, and ” Your Know You’re Right” will individually run you 160 Microsoft Points ($2.00) each or 440 points ($5.50) for the track pack. If you are interested in bands that normally you would not have heard of over here in the States, Activison has also released some bands whose music is popular in different European countries.

German rock band Sportfreunde Stiller re-wrote their chart-topping hit “’54, ’74, ’90, 2006” in anticipation of a 2010 World Cup championship, and after loosing the World Cup, re-titled it “’54, ’74, ’90, 2010” and are bringing it to Guitar Hero World Tour as part of a three song Track Pack. Also included in the pack is the Italian rock band Negrita with “Mama Mae” and French rock band BB Brunes with “Dis Moi.”

Hailing from Sweden, the Backyard Babies, whose Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock on-disc track “Minus Celsius” saw an increase in digital audio downloads after appearing in the game, are back for an encore with “Degenerated” off their 2008 self-titled album. Joining the Backyard Babies in the second three-song Track Pack are Spanish rockers Fito Y Fitipaldis with “Por La Boca Vive El Pez” and Di-Rect who hail from the Netherlands with their track “Johnny.”

The two European Track Packs will be available on Xbox Live Microsoft for 440 and 160 Microsoft Points and on the PlayStation Store for $5.49 or $1.99 individually.

It’s been almost a year since we saw Yahtzee Croshaw fake-strumming his way through a music rhythm game, but now he’s picked up a newer plastic instrument for a bout with Guitar Hero World Tour. This time around around he has a bit of a grudge against Rock Band — which is understandable once you hear his explanation — but still finds plenty at fault with Activision’s take on the concept. Some strange design flaws, unresponsive instruments, and bizarre song choices abound in the game. I wish I could say a copy of Rock Band 2 could probably fix all those complaints, but you can still find some of the same issues over in Harmonix’s corner.

Stay tuned after the usual review for look at Deus Ex’s theme song with lyrics.

UPDATE: Hmm, the usual embed code seems to be broken, so you’ll have to go to The Escapist to watch the video.

BringIt is setting up a service with a secure site where gamers can compete for cash online 24/7. Any game platform with Internet connectivity can get in on the action.

“BringIt is going to transform the videogame landscape by allowing individuals to compete online for bragging rights and real money through skill-based gaming,” said BringIt CEO and founder Woody Levin. “Gamers have shown great interest and support for competitive gaming, so we are pleased to offer BringIt as a player-driven service that quickly connects gamers, allowing them to play legally for cash while getting a more intense competitive rush.”

Some of the titles in the service during the beta period are Madden NFL 2009, Gears of War 2, FIFA 2009, Halo 3, Guitar Hero 3: Legends of Rock, Rock Band 2, Super Smash Bros. Brawl and Mario Kart. BringIt will accept PayPal and major credit cards for bets between $1 and $100,000. Read more about the terms and conditions from the press release after the break.

I should think that mixing videogames and betting will seriously up the danger factor for gamers with addictive personalities. It should also make BringIt a lot of money.
Read the full article

As we pointed out in yesterday’s story on the October NPDs, perhaps the biggest title to not make the list was Guitar Hero World Tour. It did come out in the last week of the month, but Guitar Hero III released a day later and still managed to claim four spots on the top ten charts despite going up against the likes of Halo 3, The Orange Box, Ratchet & Clank Future, and the impossible-to-kill Wii Play.

We contacted Activision to find out what their reaction was to the news and see how they’d spin it. An Activision representative told us, “Guitar Hero was the #1 game across all platforms on a dollar basis and the #2 title on a unit basis.” The dollar figure isn’t surprising, given that the biggest seller of the bunch was likely the full band kits which retail for $190 on Xbox 360, Wii, and PlayStation 3. And given the number of consoles the game was released on — the three aforementioned plus the PlayStation 2 (although the rep pointed out that the PS2 bundle has yet to release) — that would explain to a certain extent both why no single console made the top ten and how the game could be the #2 overall seller without any individual SKU making the top ten.

In addition to the PS2 bundle not releasing until November, the Activision rep claimed, “The biggest difference between this year’s launch and last [year's] is that our initial launch quantities were limited due to early supply constraints,” before reassuring us, “However, we will be steadily replenishing the supply throughout the quarter.”

Guitar Hero 3 was a mainstay in the charts following release, with at least two SKUs camping there for five consecutive months, from October 2007 – February 2008. The November NPDs should prove to be very interesting as both Rock Band 2 and World Tour seek to make the list after both failing in October. There are any number of reasons that could account for this — were gamers unaware they would be able to use their older instruments with World Tour and Rock Band 2, putting them off from purchasing it? Have people finally gotten tired of paying a premium price for music games, particularly in this economic climate? Or was the competition simply too much to overcome? Hopefully we’ll get some indication next month.

The September edition of Qore may have been released last week, but Sony today released the MotorStorm: Pacific Rift demo to annual Qore subscribers and those who purchased the fourth episode of the advertisement-laced digital magazine. The download is now available under the latest episode’s download center.

This week’s lone downloadable PS3 game is Jeopardy which, as reported earlier, will run you $15 and includes the all-important online support that should prove to make the game a must-buy for many folks. On the PlayStation Store for PC, PlayStation Portable owners can now find the competent Advance Wars wannabe Field Commander which was received fairly well when it was reviewed by 1UP and EGM. Like Jeopardy, it costs $15 — falling right in line with the price of a used copy at either Amazon or GameStop.

New Rock Band tracks — including Stephen Colbert’s “Charlene” — are now available, with Guitar Hero III getting Metallica’s “Death Magnetic” album tomorrow for $18. The album will also be compatible with Guitar Hero World Tour, which should make it much easier for Guitar Hero fans to justify purchasing.

In addition to the usual smattering of videos, themes and wallpapers, demos of both Guitar Hero: Aerosmith and FIFA 09 are both now available, as is a ton of DLC of PAIN — including PAIN Amusement Park, the first new environment the game has received since it was first released.

The full list of new content can be found over at PlayStation.Blog.

A friendly reminder from Activision-Blizzard arrived in our inboxes this morning regarding the new Dragonforce Track Pack for Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock.

As you may recall, DragonForce will ascend the virtual stage once again to unleash “Heroes of Our Time” – the debut single off their new album “Ultra Beatdown” – in a three-song track pack which will be available on August 21 (Thursday) giving gamers the opportunity to download and play “Heroes of Our Time” in advance of the album release.

Included in the track pack is  “Revolution Deathsquad” and “Operation Ground and Pound” from their third album “Inhuman Rampage”. The three-song DragonForce Track Pack will be available for download on Xbox LIVE Marketplace and PSN.

We will let you know when it is up and ready to make your fingers bleed.

Despite music executives and the labels they work for commending the recent popularity of music games giving sluggish music sales a boost, Warner Music Group’s Chief Executive Edgar Bronfman recently spoke out against what he feels is “far too small” of an amount to license songs for the ever growing content included within the games.

In defense of the music game genre, and Guitar Hero in general, Activision-Blizzard CEO Bobby Kotick fired back at Warner Music stating that the record companies are getting compensated very well, and that Warner Music is failing to see the bigger picture. Kotick also hinted that because of this slam from Edgar Bronfman, the record company may never get the opportunity to have their music featured in future Guitar Hero games again.

Kotick feels that the label’s “one-sided comments” fail to acknowledge the benefit of having songs from their catalog featured in the games. Bands that would not have reached certain audiences through the radio or other forms of media are now being showcased not only within an entirely new demographic, but within the industry as a whole.

According to MCV, during a recent interview with The Financial Times Kotick mused that Bronfman may think that the company should be compensated the same way they are when a song is downloaded via iTunes, but that with games, the technology is vastly complex and different.

Due to these growing tensions, Kotick went on to say that only record companies that appreciate the opportunity that the games provide will be courted in the future:

“We’re going to favor those publishers that recognize and appreciate how much we can add value to their artists.  We’re introducing a whole new group of artists to new audiences that is resulting in their iTunes downloads being exponentially higher than they would otherwise be, [as well as] new album sales and new merchandising opportunities.

We hope that our partners in the gaming space appreciate not only the value of their own contributions but also those of the recording artists, songwriters, record labels and music publishers on which their games are significantly based.”

Considering the fact that Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock has sold approximately 20 million units and has raked in over $1billion in sales, it would stand to reason that these sales would also have generated more revenue for the artists featured within the game as well as the downloadable content.  Many record companies have recently commended both Rock Band and the Guitar Hero franchise for boosting sales, and the proof, as they say, is in the pudding.

For example: during the week that Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock was released in October 2007, digital sales of The Strokes’ track “Reptilia” sold 127 percent more than the week before the game was released. Add to this the following week which saw sales for the track leap another 96 percent. Likewise, Slipknot’s “Before I Forget” soared to 75 percent the week the game debuted and took a 140 percent turn the following week.

Large record labels have been reputed in the past to be greedy, soulless, fat-cats, what with the horror stories told over the years of bands getting shafted by the big bad wolves of the music industry. Therefore it is no wonder that this latest comment from Warner’s CEO is being perceived as nothing more than a greedy record executive wanting a bigger piece of the pie. If they want more royalties for the benefit of the artists they represent, the public and even the gaming companies, would most likely be more understanding and supportive of the measures they were taking to protect their clients. However, with the negative publicity that the labels have gotten over the past few years, post Napster, it makes you wonder if they truly want more residuals for the right purpose or just to line their own pockets.

What each record company receives as far as licensing fees for songs contained in these games is not known. Yet, if they end up wanting an exorbitant amount of money to include the bands they represent within the games, it will only hurt the consumer in the long run. You cannot expect a company like Activison-Blizzard to pay out the nose in royalties and not try and recoup that investment from gamers. The price of the initial game disc could go up, and we could be paying larger amounts of money for downloadable content. If such a scenario should happen, not only will the games suffer, but in turn the gamer as well.