That’s not to say anyone can’t play and enjoy being a virtual DJ here. The game caters to all skill levels, but to really get the most out of the mix table peripheral, you’ll need to master the higher skill settings. Regardless of which difficulty level, DJ Hero is amazingly fun.  Almost 100 mix tracks come with the game and it’s the first music game since Dance Dance Revolution to especially appeal to the techno crowd. The mixes cover the musical spectrum though—plenty of rap, hip hop, Motown, and pop from the last 30 years. But the magic is how the game mixes two tracks together to create something new.

Nowhere else could you hear Marvin Gaye crossed with the Gorillaz, the Beastie Boys and Queen, the Killers vs. Rihanna, David Bowie and 50 Cent, and an impressive and entertaining number of other great mixes. It’s not a stretch to say that this eclectic, dance-centric line-up is the best yet for a Hero game and it makes the color-coded button pressing gameplay feel more distinctive than ever.

The mix table controller is a cool new addition to any gamer’s stash. The main focus is on the turntable, which both spins and has three colored buttons. On the medium difficulty level and below, this is all you’ll really need, and the game plays just like any of the Hero/Rock Band games. Color-coded circles stream down three trails on the screen and the object is to hit the appropriate button at exactly the right time. At times, you’ll have to spin the turntable up or down based on the onscreen cues. The concept is simple, the execution is fun, and the presentation is bright, colorful, and quirky.

Once you get comfortable with the basic gameplay and switch to a higher level, the crossfader becomes a major part of the game. This slider bar is at home in the center, but at times, you’ll have to slide it right and left in time with the music trail, while keeping pace with the button presses and spins. The crossfade bar adds an interesting level of challenge in general, and adds some great variation to the music. On the downside, it can be a bit unruly. Despite have a bit of feedback, when the game is in high gear, paying attention to the current position of the bar without having to actually look at it can be frustrating.

There’s little in the way of onscreen prompts to keep track of the slider’s position as well, making the learning curve a bit steeper than it could have been. Another feature that is great in concept, but still in need of some work is the overlap with Guitar Hero. Some of the tracks allow for a guitarist, yet few of them felt particularly optimized for this feature. Usually the guitar tracks end up being painfully repetitive. Still, it’s a nice bonus feature that could use improvement in the sequel.

The overall presentation is much like other music game, with the moving gameplay tracks taking up most of the screen acreage, and stylized graphics of your on-stage DJ, the crowd, dancers—all reacting to how well you’re doing. The pumping soundtrack is especially awesome for home theater-equipped systems, but as expected, it sounds great in general.

Blast Factor: Without a doubt, DJ Hero is the most distinctive and original music game on the market. While the game is enjoyable for all skill levels, it takes on a whole new level coordination for the hardcore crowd. The packed soundtrack is phenomenal and mix table controller is responsive and fun to use. The  main problem for DJ Hero is the steep asking price. $119 is a lot to spend on one game with only a single controller. If you don’t mind the cover charge though, this is the coolest virtual rave in town.

Another Take — Bradley Ouellette

Activision’s latest Music game is an interesting new twist. They have taken the well-known style of the Guitar Hero franchise, and instead of playing a guitar, the player spins a record, and acts like a DJ mixing tunes. The Music in the game always consists of two pieces that the player has to mix together, fading between the two pieces and adding other effects including scratching, freestyling, and cross fading.

The game plays similar to any other Guitar Hero style game, moving the cross fader to select the track, scratching, or pressing the buttons to cause different effects to the music. When the player gets all of a lit up section correct the game gives a charge to the Euphoria button–this is the same as star power.

The scoring in DJ Hero feels different than the scoring in Guitar Hero also. The multipliers earned from rows of correct notes is very important since if you don’t hit 4x multiplier for a while in the game, you pretty much can’t score more than 3 stars. So hitting an extra note that isn’t there can kill your rating. Also if the player gets enough notes correct in a row, there is a rewind button that will show up in the display. This looks like the regular rewind button on a remote. When that’s on the screen, spinning the turntable back one full turn will rewind the song, and let the player replay a section to increase their score. This can be especially fun, if in Emode, when there is a bunch of cross fading back and forth, since it will allow the player to get a huge score with little effort. That being said, the rewind mode can also kill the score, since while it rewinds it’s easy to mess up a note and lose the multiplier.

Over all, I loved the game. I thought it was a neat new twist in the music genre; whereas the guitar band games haven’t had as much innovation lately, this was completely new. I found that game played smoothly, except for the cross fader. Even with the issues of the cross fader, loved the game, and will highly
recommend it if you generally like music games.

DJ Hero is available on the Wii, Xbox 360 and the Playstation 3, and retails for $119.99. A copy of the game was given to us by the publisher for reviewing purposes.

Well, Modern Warfare 2 ended up being extremely well reviewed, even by us, and, as Activision reports today, set a new five-day sales record and took in approximately $550 million in that time.

Here’s some impressive stats to wow your friends/family/dog with. Enjoy.

Modern Warfare 2 toppled the following:

– The largest reported five-day opening worldwide box office gross

figures, held by Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince ($394 million)

– The largest reported five-day opening domestic box office gross figures,

held by The Dark Knight ($203.8 million)

– The largest reported five-day worldwide video game sales record,

previously held by Grand Theft Auto IV (6 million units, $500 million)

– The largest reported opening first-day domestic box office gross

figures, held by The Dark Knight ($66.4 million)

– The largest reported first-day book sales in dollars, held by Harry

Potter & The Deathly Hallows ($220 million)

– The largest reported first-day worldwide video game sales record,

previously held by Grand Theft Auto IV (3.6 million units, $310 million)

Additionally, MW2 set some extreme Xbox Live records.

More than 2.2 million unique gamers logged over 5.2 million multiplayer hours on day-one and unlocked a staggering 11 million Achievements that day as well.

   --  More than 5.2 million multiplayer hours were logged playing Call of

        Duty: Modern Warfare 2 on the first day alone.

    --  More than 2.2 million unique gamers played Call of Duty: Modern Warfare

        2 in one day on November 10th. A new one-day record for Xbox LIVE.

    --  More than 11 million achievements were unlocked on Call of Duty: Modern

        Warfare 2 on the first day.

Today Activision made that decision for you and released the Call of Duty: World at War Zombies App for iPhone/iPod Touch.

What is it? First off, “Zombies” is a full-on 3D-rendered game, located in the original zombie map “Nacht der Untoten” (Night of the Undead) that features both single player and frenzied multiplayer for up to four gamers to participate in. And the best part? It looks damn fine.

“This is a great opportunity for fans of Call of Duty: World at War to take the fight against the Zombie masses wherever they are,” said Mark Lamia, Studio Head of Treyarch. “Zombies is a single player and co-op gameplay mode that people from all over the world have enjoyed playing and have spent countless hours conquering limitless waves of Zombies.”

The App will you $9.99 and if you’re sold by these words alone, follow this link to start your download..like right now.

Band Hero is Activision’s answer to LEGO: Rock Band and aims to corral and persuade the pop-loving, teen masses into grabbing a plastic instrument and rocking out with friends. The game features tunes from uber-mainstream acts such as Jesse McCartney, Taylor Swift, The Spice Girls, and loads more songs you likely never imagined you’d play in a Guitar Hero game.

There isn’t a heck of a lot about Band Hero that wasn’t covered in our hands-on preview, but now that I’ve jumped into the game for hours instead of minutes, there’s a little more to talk about.

First off, don’t expect anything different or significantly improved in the visuals department. Band Hero looks exactly like Guitar Hero 5. But this is not a detriment whatsoever. Guitar Hero 5 was the most phenomenal looking Hero title we’ve ever seen, and the minor tweaks Band Hero adds, only bring out the power of the engine that much more.

Band Hero’s menus are decorated with pink, popping, sparkly visual effects, and these adjustments clearly distinguish Band Hero from Guitar Hero 5. From a presentation standpoint, Band Hero just feels happier, if a video game could have emotions.

The game features every game-mode found in GH5, but has one significant addition- Sing Along. In this mode, Band Hero essentially morphs into a gorgeously rendered karaoke machine where up to four participants can simply sing along to any of the game’s tracks. The best part? Only one microphone is needed. Now, for me personally, this addition didn’t add anything. But, fill a room with little girls, and turn on “Love Story” by Taylor Swift, and well, it’ll be a different scenario.

The meat, however, of Band Hero, as with any music-game, is in its song list, and on this account, Band Hero excels. There are 65 on-disc tracks and all the downloadable content you’ve got on your hard drive also works in the game. For me it was rather comical seeing tunes from Metallica next to those of Dashboard Confessional, but hey, it works!

The tunes (here’s all 65), as previously noted, include radio friendly cuts from artists like Hilary Duff, Taylor Swift, The Spice Girls, Jesse McCartney and Fallout Boy. But the game also incorporates classics like “American Pie,” in all its nine-minute glory and “ABC’s” from the Jackson 5.

Personally, I feel that Band Hero is a “guilty pleasure” music game. It’s hard for me to admit I enjoy listening to Taylor Swift, but when I’m actually actively playing along to her tunes, it’s a little different. Maybe you wouldn’t openly admit to enjoying these songs per se, but when they’re wrapped into a video game, something changes, and they become very much alright.

Of note: What I’ve always found interesting when comparing the Rock Band and Guitar Hero franchises are the differences in note charts of the same songs in both games. For instance, Dashboard Confessional’s “Hands Down” is in both Rock Band and Band Hero. However, the song plays far more simply in Band Hero, and speaks to Activision’s determined effort of accessibility over genuine (as as much as can be expected) musicianship, a gameplay facet that Harmonix tirelessly works to effectively recreate in its game.

Additionally, if you can’t deal with censors and omitted vocal phrases, you might have a problem with Band Hero. In Fall Out Boy’s “Sugar We’re Going Down,” the line should that should read “I’m just a notch in your bedpost, but you’re just a line in a song” is sung in the game like this: “I’m just a notch…but you’re just a line in a song”

Good job Activision, you prevented some kid asking his or her parent “What’s a notch in a bedpost mean?”

Blast Factor: Band Hero is a phenomenally fun music-game. It doesn’t add a heck of a lot to the genre, but it remains cemented in excellence in gameplay, and the addition of Sing Along mode is gem hidden in the game that Activision simply did not hype enough. The 65 on-disc tunes are very surprisingly varied and altogether comprise a very wholesome attack from Activision at creating more than just a “kiddy” Guitar Hero title. In-game appearances by Taylor Swift and Maroon 5’s Adam Levine add a level of “whoa cool” to the game.

Band Hero is available for the PS3, Xbox 360, Wii and Playstation 2. A copy of the game was given to us by the publisher for reviewing purposes.

The DLC lets players experience the superhero civil war in an entirely new way with five brand new playable characters Carnage, Psylocke, Magneto, and Black Panther.

Additionally, according to the press-release issued this morning, Activision packed four new challenge missions, new boss encounters, dangerous gauntlets and more into the downloadable content.

The DLC will run you 800 MS Points on Xbox Live and $9.99 over the PlayStation Network, but don’t worry, they’re equivalent amounts.

What’s more, a demo for the game, which allows gamers access to the Washington D.C. mission where they can play as the pro-registration or anti-registration team, released today. Sadly, the demo is for Xbox Live gamers only.

And if all this is still not enough for you, Activision released the Juggernaut character today, and is available as a separate purchase for $1.99 over the PSN and 160 MS Points on Xbox Live.

Oddly, all the DLC will only be available through Dec. 31, so reach into your digital wallets today to join in the superhero madness!

Marvel Ultimate Alliance 2 DLC @ Xbox.com

My confusion stems from the feel of the story and plot, which is strictly low-quality, Saturday morning cartoon level filler.� You play as a youth who, uh, loves this card battling game that features creatures popping out of balls.� Think Pokemon, but with a bit of a technological and alien bent as opposed to animals.� Your youth is plucky, with a whole cast of stereotypes to help you out � A super cool dude who serves as a tag team partner, an obvious bully and a lackey to fight against, several girls that are cute but have no personalities of their own, and a nerdy kid who is obviously very nerdy because of his nerdy kid glasses.

Although all of the characters are definitely stock, straight from central casting, the voiceover work is done pretty well.� Likewise, the graphics are Saturday morning cartoon, but in the good way � Crisp, colorful backgrounds and good animation on the actual battlefields.� While the voiceover and graphics aren’t selling points, they do not actively take away from the experience.

If you are reading this and under the age of 18, then the above characters and presentation might appeal to you greatly.� If you are not, then you will have to rely on the gameplay, which is so-so.� While there are some fun aspects here and there, the basic gameplay is rather unrefined.

Bakugan is essentially a �monster battling� game, similar to the aforementioned Pokemon.� You create a deck of cards, compromised of three attacking monsters, three base cards and three power-up cards.� At the start of combat, you are transported to an arena, and you have to place down a base card.� You then use the Wiimote to �throw� a ball � one of your attacking monsters � on to one of the base cards placed by you or your opponent.� The control pad can be used to �steer� the ball in the air, and also after it lands.� You opponent then throws, followed by you again.

The goal is to win three gate cards.� If you can land two of your monsters on a single gate card, then you can claim it.� However, the main combat occurs when you and an enemy land on the card, which initiates a battle.� Each monster has a �power� level � think hit points � that can be amplified depending on the base card the fight takes place on.� For example, a Holy powered monster might get an extra 50 points for fighting on a Holy battlefield.

There are a few other wrinkles from here.� First, you can use power-up cards to give yourself some extra points.� And second, each battle features one of three mini-games � a rhythm timing game, a shooting game with the Wiimote pointer or a masturbatory shaking � in order to further increase the power level. Whoever has the higher number wins.� There are also power-ups your monster can collect while rolling around the arena as well, to raise or increase the power level, and to debilitate your opponents with annoying status effects.

It’s simpler than it seems, and unfortunately, you don’t need a lot of the extra options, like the movement or even doing well on the mini-games.� For the most part, I was able to accurately throw the balls on to cards with little trouble, with the computer’s success rate was about 50 percent.� I was able to win most of the game’s battles within three to five turns.

This lack of challenge and generally unoriginal gameplay creates a sense of �meh� while playing Bakugan.� It is kind of fun, but my old fogey mind kept thinking back to Pokemon, and how much better that was, even though its prevalent color was an odd sort of green and I played it on the original, chunky Game Boy that now doubles as a paperweight for me.

There are some attempts here and there to prolong the Bakugan experience.� For example, you can purchase new monsters at a store, and like every game of this type, there is an emphasis on collecting every monster, gate card and power-up card.� This will probably only appeal to the few ensnared enough by the game to continue with it though, and it’s not really a drawing point if you don’t like the basic gameplay.� Likewise, tag team, battle royal and multiplayer matches are available, but they’re all just more of the same.

Blast Factor: Bakugan has a very narrow niche in my mind � Boys who aren’t trying to get laid yet.� If you have one of these in your household, then this is a good game to forestall that hellish part of their life (also known medically as �The Rest of Their Life�) for another month or so.� If you don’t fall into this group though, Bakugan isn’t worth its price tag.� Just plow through the game in a quick renting if you think it’s your cup of tea.

Bakugan is available on the Wii, DS, Xbox 360, Playstation 3 and Playstation 2. A copy of this game was given to us by the publisher for reviewing purposes.

In the past two months alone music-gamers have had The Beatles: Rock Band, Guitar Hero 5, Guitar Hero: Van Halen, and now Band Hero to possibly enjoy, depending on their musical preferences.

Band Hero, the epitome of accessibility, as evidenced in our hands, feet, and mouth-on preview, is a fun as heck game, and if you’ve got children in the house, or want to play along to some Taylor Swift with your girlfriend, now you can!

We’d have a review up already but Kanye West interrupted and said his music was better.

Watch and listen to Taylor Swift praise the game.

According to Kotaku, who broke the story, these scenes are full skippable, even though the game already claims an M for mature rating.

The full statement from an Infinity Ward spokesperson is quoted below.

“Infinity Ward’s Modern Warfare 2 features a deep and gripping storyline in which players face off against a terrorist threat dedicated to bringing the world to the brink of collapse. The game includes a plot involving a mission carried out by a Russian villain who wants to trigger a global war. In order to defeat him, the player infiltrates his inner circle. The scene is designed to evoke the atrocities of terrorism.”

“At the beginning of the game, players encounter a mandatory “checkpoint” in which they are warned that an upcoming segment may contain disturbing elements and they can choose not to engage in the gameplay that involves this scene. Consistent with its content, the game has been given an “M” for Mature by the Entertainment Software Ratings Board. The rating is prominently displayed on the front and back of the packaging, as well as in all advertising.”

As they say; any attention is good attention. Not that a game with as much swirling hype as Modern Warfare 2 needs more attention, but this news will likely linger in the minds of gamers giddy with excitement as to what these scenes actually depict.

Also, prepare yourselves for a possible media blitz crying foul at such scenes. We’re looking at you Fox News.

We’re less than 2 weeks out from MW 2’s Nov. 10 launch. Stay strong faithful, stay strong!

Source: Kotaku

Anyway, don’t let my horribly corny jokes dissuade you from checking out Van Halen’s edition of Guitar Hero.  It offers much more depth than you’d expect from an installment of Guitar Hero that is more of a side project, and it totally shames the Rock Band offering of The Beatles, at least in this humble reviewer’s opinion.  While it clearly isn’t as polished or as much of a value as Guitar Hero 5, if you love Van Halen or need more Guitar Hero fun, it is a clear “must buy” for you.

As you can imagine from the premise of the title, Guitar Hero: Van Halen focuses primarily on the band.  Almost every significant single is included, from the pure arena rock nature of “Jump” to the… uh, other arena rock songs, like “Hot For Teacher” and “Jamie’s Crying.”  Happily though, some deeper tracks are included, such as the ultimate shredding song, “Eruption,” which is as ridiculously difficult as you would expect.

A note right up front about the song selection – The game only features songs and avatars of the current  lineup of Van Halen.  Given the band’s notoriously challenged relationship with past contributors, this probably isn’t shocking to most of you reading that actually enjoy Van Halen.  Almost every David Lee Roth song of significance is included in the 25 Van Halen tracks, and the avatars are of Roth, Eddie Van Halen, Alex Van Halen and Wolfgang Van Halen.

When it comes to the other 19 tracks, they were picked out by the 18-year-old Wolfgang, the son of Eddie, and it shows.  Weezer, Foo Fighters, Blink-182, Jimmy Eat World and Fountains of Wayne are artists you would normally associate more with modern rock, but I’d argue that they have more in common with Van Halen than, say, Twisted Sister, or some other hair band from Van Halen’s era.  Case in point – While era contemporary The Clash have a song on the game, “Safe European Home” is more gritty punk than the refined, arena rock sound of Van Halen.

The difficulty of Guitar Hero: Van Halen is definitely a tick up from the most recent rhythm game releases, Guitar Hero 5 and Rock Band: The Beatles.  Then again, that is probably to be expected with the tracks featured.  The guitar and bass portions feature lots and lots of notes, especially if you’re trying to segue from The Beatles, who feature fairly simple transitions and chords.

However, while the game is incredible at its core goal – Roth-era Van Halen excellence – it doesn’t incorporate some of the features from Guitar Hero 5.  I suspect that development on this game began far before the completion of Guitar Hero 5, which might explain why some of the new tweaks weren’t incorporated.  (It might also explain why there is a Foo Fighters song present, even though Dave Grohl got pissed that his former band mate was a playable character in Guitar Hero 5.)  For example, there is no drop-in play, and while you can chose or create an avatar to play as, you can’t swap out other members of the band.  On the plus side, the crowd sings along during certain choruses.

One other sticking point is the price – $50 for the Wii edition.  Eech.  For practically the same amount, Guitar Hero 5 is a much better bargain, since it provides almost double the amount of songs: 85 to 45.  Although Guitar Hero: Van Halen was a throw-in for purchasing Guitar Hero 5 early and features half the songs, this is not reflected in the price at all.

Blast Factor: Your enjoyment of this game though, as with any of these band-specific rhythm games, hinges on your enjoyment of the track list.  I love Van Halen, so I loved this game.  If you love Van Halen, the higher price tag will probably not dissuade.  In addition, if you love modern rock and alternative, this is definitely the best track list next to Guitar Hero: Modern Hits for the Nintendo DS.

Guitar Hero: Van Halen is available on the Wii, Xbox 360 and Playstation 3 systems, at a cost of $49.99 and $59.99 respectively. This review concerns the Wii version. A copy of this game was redeemed via the Guitar Hero 5 offer for review purposes; the official retail version is not available until December 22.

When Activision first unveiled Band Hero, I nearly punched my hand through a wall, thinking the setlist would be brimming full of Jonas Brothers, Britney Spears, and Miley Cyrus, but now that I’ve seen the final track list, and played the game, I’m, dare I say it, excited for this game? Yes, I am.

• 3 Doors Down – “When I’m Gone”
• The Airborne Toxic Event – “Gasoline”
• The All American Rejects – “Dirty Little Secret”
• Alphabeat – “Fascination”
• Aly and AJ – “Like Whoa”
• Angels & Airwaves – “The Adventure”
• Ben Harper and the Innocent Criminals – “Steal My Kisses”
• Big Country – “In a Big Country”
• The Bravery – “Believe”
• Carl Douglas – “Kung Fu Fighting”
• Cheap Trick – “I Want You To Want Me (live)”
• Cold War Kids – “Hang Me Up To Dry”
• Corinne Bailey Rae – “Put Your Records On”
• Counting Crows – “Angels of the Silences”
• Culture Club – “Do You Really Want To Hurt Me”
• Dashboard Confessional – “Hands Down”
• David Bowie – “Let’s Dance”
• Devo – “Whip It”
• Don McLean – “American Pie”
• Duffy – “Warwick Avenue”
• Duran Duran – “Rio”
• Evanescence – “Bring Me To Life”
• Everclear – “Santa Monica (Watch The World Die)”
• Fall Out Boy – “Sugar, We’re Goin’ Down”
• Filter – “Take A Picture”
• Finger Eleven – “Paralyzer”
• The Go-Go’s – “Our Lips Are Sealed”
• Hilary Duff – “So Yesterday”
• Hinder – “Lips Of An Angel”
• Jackson 5 – “ABC”
• Janet Jackson – “Black Cat”
• Jesse McCartney – “Beautiful Soul”
• Joan Jett – “Bad Reputation”
• Joss Stone – “You Had Me”
• Katrina and The Waves – “Walking On Sunshine”
• The Kooks – “Naive”
• KT Tunstall – “Black Horse and the Cherry Tree”
• The Last Goodnight – “Pictures Of You”
• Lily Allen – “Take What You Take”
• Maroon 5 – “She Will Be Loved”
• Marvin Gaye – “I Heard It Through The Grapevine”
• Mighty Mighty Bosstones – “The Impression That I Get”
• Nelly Furtado – “Turn Off The Light”
• N.E.R.D. – “Rockstar”
• No Doubt – “Just A Girl”
• No Doubt – “Don’t Speak”
• OK Go – “A Million Ways”
• Papa Roach – “Lifeline”
• Parachute – “Back Again”
• Pat Benatar – “Love Is A Battlefield”
• Poison – “Every Rose Has Its Thorn”
• Robbie Williams and Kylie Minogue – “Kids”
• The Rolling Stones – “Honky Tonk Women”
• Roy Orbison – “Oh Pretty Woman”
• Santigold – “L.E.S. Artistes”
• Snow Patrol – “Take Back the City”
• Spice Girls – “Wannabe”
• Styx – “Mr. Roboto”
• Taylor Swift – “Love Story”
• Taylor Swift – “Picture To Burn”
• Taylor Swift – “You Belong With Me”
• Tonic – “If You Could Only See”
• The Turtles – “Happy Together”
• Village People – “YMCA”
• Yellowcard – “Ocean Avenue”

• The All-American Rejects – “Believe”
• Avril Lavigne – “Girlfriend”
• Black Eyed Peas – “Let’s Get It Started”
• Blink-182 – “First Date”
• Boys Like Girls – “The Great Escape”
• Duran Duran – “Hungry Like The Wolf”
• Eagles of Death Metal – “Wannabe In L.A.”
• Evanescence – “Call Me When You’re Sober”
• Fall Out Boy – “Thnks Fr Th Mmrs”
• Foo Fighters – “Monkey Wrench”
• Kaiser Chiefs – “I Predict A Riot”
• The Killers – “Spaceman”
• Kings of Leon – “Manhattan”
• KT Tunstall – “Suddenly I See”
• Lacuna Coil – “Our Truth”
• No Doubt – “Excuse Me Mr.”
• Pink – “So What”
• The Presidents of the United States of America – “Lump”
• The Pretenders – “Boots of Chinese Plastic”
• Queen – “Crazy Little Thing Called Love”
• Queens of the Stone Age – “No One Knows”
• The Red Jumpsuit Apparatus – “You Better Pray”
• The Rolling Stones – “Under My Thumb (live)”
• Spin Doctors – “Two Princes”
• Sublime – “All You Need”
• Sum 41 – “In Too Deep”
• Ugly Kid Joe – “Everything About You”
• Vampire Weekend – “A-Punk”
• The Vines – “Get Free”
• Weezer – “Troublemaker”

Source: Joystiq, and they have more juicy details. Hop on over there to enjoy.

The demo weighs in at 533 MB and features Finger Eleven’s “Paralyzer”, Katrina & The Waves “Walking on Sunshine,” Taylor Swift’s “Picture to Burn,” and includes Party Play and the brand new Sing-Along mode.

Say what you will about Activision and milking the franchise for every last drop, but the full song-list for Band Hero is actually very appealing.

We’ll have a hands-on preview of Band Hero this evening, once we’re through playing the crap out of the demo.

Band Hero demo now available on Xbox Live via Major Nelson

For more on the game visit BandHero.com

Activision, publisher of all things Guitar Hero knows this and speaking with GI.biz, Guitar Hero Business CEO Dan Rosenweig said:

“We have a sophisticated way, in our music team around the world who work with the studios to really… once it’s determined what the focus of the game is about, what would be the kinds of songs that go in there. Then you do a scientific analysis of the popularity of that song, how you group the songs together, how many songs should be in there.

And then you do the magic part which they’re focused on, which is the stuff statistics can’t tell you. Some of it is factual – who’s going on tour, who’s interested in promoting, but really they blend the science and the art together.

Then the last component goes to the studio, which is, is it fun to play? If it’s not fun as hell to play, it’s not going to make the game. That’s the common element, and the reviews have been spectacular on it. To say there aren’t legendary songs today… there are – it’s just different themes.”

I’ve always had my minor gripes with every Guitar Hero game Activision puts out, but that’s based on personal issues with songs. Guitar Hero 5, the subject of the interview, had the most varied setlist to date. The result?

Rosenweig left with a scathing remark regarding sales of Guitar Hero 5 versus The Beatles: Rock Band in the UK.

“We’re pretty happy, and as you look at the European sales and our ability to outsell The Beatles: Rock Band 2-to-1 on their home field… that would suggest it was a good decision.”

IGN revealed today that the Wii version of Tony Hawk’s latest foray in the game-world, will allow you to use your Mii as a playable, skateable character and that two Wii-exclusive maps will be in the final product.

Additionally, Mii versions of professional skateboarders including Paul Rodriguez and Steve Nesser are in the game, if their actual character models just don’t do it for you.

“One of the big wins for us is that you can skate as your Miis,” said Yale Miller, Tony Hawk: Ride’s producer. “We kept asking to get this feature in, and Nintendo liked what they saw.”

Buzz Monkey, developer of the Wii version of RIDE, also built two levels exclusive to the game. It’s likely not enough for a multiple system owner to jump to the Wii version, but at least it’s something.

Full story at IGN

Well, today Activision named every song in the latest Tony Hawk entry, RIDE. The list is 50 songs deep and hit on just about every genre, something Tony Hawk soundtracks have always done.

The soundtrack includes selections from Green Day, Chevelle, MGMT, Modest Mouse, NOFX and many more. But you can read, check out the full list below.

Tony Hawk: RIDE hits November 17 for $119, and that’s with the skateboard peripheral.

• Adam Tensta – “My Cool”
• Band of Skulls – “Patterns”
• Beatsteaks – “Run Run”
• Beck – “Gamma Ray”
• Bill Withers – “Lovely Day”
• The Black Keys – “I Got Mine”
• The Bronx – “Minutes in Night”
• Chevelle – “Jars”
• Children Collide – “Social Currency”
• Coconut Records – “West Coast”
• The Commodores – “Machine Gun”
• Darker My Love – “Two Ways Out”
• Dead End Road – “Sin City”
• Disbelievers – “Bad Storm”
• The Duke Spirit – “Into The Fold”
• The Faint – “The Geeks Were Right”
• The Fold – “Neverender”
• Gray Matter – “Fill A Void”
• Green Day – “Murder City”
• Half Astro – “Cellular”
• Helen Earth Band – “Shake N Cut”
• Kenny Rogers & First Edition – “Just Dropped In (To See What Condition My Condition Was In)”
• Kram – “Blitzkreig Bop”
• KRS-One w/ Buckshot – “Robot “
• Living With Lions – “She’s A Hack”
• The Meters – “Cissy Strut“
• MGMT – “Electric Feel”
• Modey Lemon – “Become A Monk”
• Modest Mouse  – “Satellite Skin”
• Morning After Girls – “Death Processions”
• Murs feat. will.i.am – “Lookin’ Fly”
• Nico Vega – “Burn Burn”
• Nitzer Ebb – “Kiss Kiss Bang Bang”
• NOFX – “Just the Flu”
• Norma Jean – “Robots 3 Humans 0”
• Patchwork – “Ping Pong”
• The Pinkertones – “Electrobumbao”
• Queens of Stone Age – “The Lost Art of Keeping A Secret”
• The Raconteurs  – “Consoler of the Lonely”
• The Replacements –“Takin’ A Ride”
• Revolution Mother – “Night Ride”
• Rose Hill Drive – “Showdown”
• Russian Circles – “Death Rides A Horse”
• Santigold – “L.E.S. Artistes”
• Shiny Toy Guns – “Ricochet”
• Spinnerette – “All Babes Are Wolves”
• The Stooges – “I Got A Right”
• Superchunk – “Punch Me Harder”
• The Temper Trap – “Hearts”
• This Drama – “She Had A Knife”
• TSOL  – “Dance With Me”
• Turbotito – “Losing Their Head”
• TV On The Radio – “Dancing Choose”
• We Are Scientists – “After Hours”
• Willowz – “Ulcer Soul”
• Wolfmother – “Joker & The Thief”
• Yeah Yeah Yeahs – “Zero“

Unlike Activision’s breadwinner franchise, Guitar Hero, the playable songs in DJ Hero are exclusive to the game, meaning you’ll need to buy the game to experience the songs.

The list is extremely varied and includes mixes of tunes from popular artists ranging from Gwen Stefani to JAY-Z and Eminem, to even The Killers, Foreigner, Queen, and Motorhead. Have a look at the full list detailed alphabetically below. And look for the game, and its Renegade Edition, October 27.

·        2Pac – “All Eyez On Me” vs. The Aranbee Pop Orchestra – “Bittersweet Symphony (Instrumental)”

·        50 Cent – “Disco Inferno” vs. David Bowie – “Let’s Dance”

·        50 Cent – “Disco Inferno” vs. InDeep – “Last Night A DJ Saved My Life”

·        Afrika Bambaataa – “Zulu Nation Throwdown” vs. Freedom Express – “Get Down”

·        Beastie Boys – “Here’s A Little Somethin’ For Ya” vs. DJ Shadow – “The Number Song (2009 Version)” (Produced and mixed by DJ Shadow)

·        Beastie Boys – “Intergalactic” vs. Blondie – “Rapture”

·        Beastie Boys – “Lee Majors Come Again” vs. Daft Punk – “Da Funk” (Produced and mixed by Cut Chemist)

·        Beck – “Where It’s At” vs. DJ Shadow – “Six Days (Remix ft. Mos Def)”

·        Bell Biv DeVoe – “Poison” Beat Juggle

·        Bell Biv DeVoe – “Poison” vs. Beastie Boys – “Intergalactic”  (Produced and mixed by DJ AM)

·        Bell Biv DeVoe – “Poison” vs. Cameo – “Word Up!”

·        Benny Benassi – “Satisfaction” vs. Tiësto – “Elements Of Life”

·        Billy Squier – “The Big Beat” vs. N.E.R.D. – “Lapdance” (DJ-Guitar mix)

·        Black Eyed Peas – “Boom Boom Pow” vs. Benny Benassi – “Satisfaction”

·        Bobby “Blue” Bland – “Ain’t No Love In The Heart Of The City” vs. 2Pac – “How Do You Want It”

·        Bobby “Blue” Bland – “Ain’t No Love In The Heart Of The City” vs. Connie Price & The Keystones – “Fuzz And Them”

·        Boogie Down Productions – “Jack Of Spades” vs. David Bowie – “Let’s Dance” (Produced and mixed by DJ Shadow)

·        Chuck Brown & The Soul Searchers – “Bustin’ Loose” vs. The Zombies – “Time Of The Season” (Produced and mixed by DJ Shadow)

·        Chuck Brown & The Soul Searchers – “Bustin’ Loose” vs. Young MC – “Bust A Move”

·        Common – “Universal Mind Control (U.M.C.)” vs. Masta Ace – “Jeep A** Gutter (Aaron LaCrate & Debonair Samir RMX)” (Produced and mixed by The Scratch Perverts)

·        Cypress Hill – “Insane In The Brain” vs. Classics IV – “Spooky”

·        Cypress Hill – “Insane In The Brain” vs. David Axelrod – “The Edge”

·        Daft Punk – “Around The World” vs. Young MC – “Bust A Move”

·        Daft Punk – “Da Funk” vs. N.A.S.A. – “Strange Enough ft. Karen O, ODB & Fatlip”

·        Daft Punk – “Megamix 1”

·        Daft Punk – “Megamix 2”

·        Daft Punk – “Robot Rock” vs. Hashim – “Al Naafyish (The Soul)” (Produced and mixed by The Scratch Perverts)

·        Daft Punk – “Robot Rock” vs. Queen – “We Will Rock You”

·        Daft Punk – “Short Circuit” vs. Boogie Down Productions – “Jack Of Spades”

·        Daft Punk – “Technologic” vs. Gary Numan – “Cars”

·        Daft Punk – “Television Rules the Nation” vs. No Doubt – “Hella Good”

·        David Axelrod – “The Edge” vs. Eric B. & Rakim – “Eric B. Is President”

·        Dizzee Rascal – “Fix Up, Look Sharp” vs. DJ Shadow – “Organ Donor (Extended Overhaul)”

·        Dizzee Rascal – “Fix Up, Look Sharp” vs. Justice – “Genesis”

·        DJ Shadow – “Six Days (Remix ft. Mos Def)” vs. D-Code – “Annie’s Horn”

·        Eminem – “My Name Is” vs. Beck – “Loser”

·        Fedde Le Grand – “Put Your Hands Up For Detroit” vs. Sandy Rivera and David Penn – “I Can’t Stop (David Penn Remix)”

·        Foo Fighters – “Monkey Wrench” vs. Beastie Boys – “Sabotage” (DJ-Guitar mix)

·        Foreigner – “Juke Box Hero” vs. DJ Z-Trip ft. Murs – “DJ Hero” (Produced and mixed by DJ Z-Trip)

·        Foreigner – “Juke Box Hero” vs. DJ Z-Trip ft. Murs – “DJ Hero” (DJ-Guitar mix, produced and mixed by DJ Z-Trip)

·        Gang Starr – “Just To Get A Rep” vs. Mobb Deep – “Shook Ones, Pt 2” (Produced and mixed by J. Period)

·        Gorillaz – “Feel Good Inc.” vs. Blondie – “Atomic”

·        Grandmaster Flash’s – “Boom” vs. “Tap” (Produced and mixed by Grandmaster Flash)

·        Grandmaster Flash, DJ Kool, DJ Demo – “Here Comes My DJ” vs. Gary Numan – “Cars” (Produced and mixed by Grandmaster Flash)

·        Gwen Stefani – “Hollaback Girl” vs. Gorillaz – “Feel Good Inc.”

·        Gwen Stefani – “Hollaback Girl” vs. InDeep “Last Night A DJ Saved My Life” (Produced and mixed by DJ AM)

·        Gwen Stefani – “Hollaback Girl” vs. Rick James – “Give It To Me”

·        Herbie Hancock – “Rockit” Beat Juggle

·        Herbie Hancock – “Rockit” vs. N.E.R.D. – “Lapdance” (Produced and mixed by Grandmaster Flash)

·        InDeep – “Last Night A DJ Saved My Life” vs. Cameo – “Word Up!”

·        Jackson 5 – “I Want You Back” vs. Gang Starr – “Just To Get A Rep” (Produced and mixed by DJ Yoda)

·        Jackson 5 – “I Want You Back” vs. Third Eye Blind – “Semi-Charmed Life” (DJ-Guitar mix)

·        Jackson 5 – “I Want You Back” vs. Third Eye Blind – “Semi-Charmed Life”

·        JAY-Z feat. Pharrell – “Change Clothes” vs. 2Pac – “All Eyez on Me”

·        JAY-Z – “Izzo (H.O.V.A.)” vs. Eminem – “My Name Is”

·        JAY-Z – “Izzo (H.O.V.A.)” vs. Jackson 5 – “I Want You Back”

·        JAY-Z – “Excuse Me Miss” vs. Rick James – “Give It To Me”

·        Jean Knight – “Mr. Big Stuff” vs. Masta Ace – “Born To Roll”

·        Jurassic 5 – “Jayou” vs. Billy Squier – “The Big Beat”

·        Jurassic 5 – “Jayou” vs. Herbie Hancock – “Rockit”

·        Kid Cudi – “Day ‘N’ Nite” vs. Black Eyed Peas – “Boom Boom Pow”

·        Kool Moe Dee  – “How Ya Like Me Now” vs. Reel 2 Real featuring The Mad Stuntman – “I Like To Move It”

·        Little Richard – “Tutti Frutti” vs. Shlomo – “Beats” (Produced and mixed by DJ Yoda)

·        M.I.A. – “Paper Planes” vs. Eric B. & Rakim – “Eric B. Is President” (Produced and mixed by The Scratch Perverts)

·        M.I.A. – “Paper Planes” vs. Wale – “Lookin’ At Me”

·        Marvin Gaye – “I Heard It Through The Grapevine” vs. David Bowie – “Let’s Dance”

·        Marvin Gaye – “I Heard It Through The Grapevine” vs. Gorillaz – “Feel Good Inc.”

·        Motörhead – “Ace Of Spades” vs. Noisia – “Groundhog” (DJ-Guitar mix)

·        N.A.S.A. – “Strange Enough ft. Karen O, ODB & Fatlip” vs. Isaac Hayes – “Theme From Shaft”

·        Noisia – “Groundhog” Beat Juggle (Produced and mixed by The Scratch Perverts)

·        Paul van Dyk – “Nothing But You” vs. Sandy Rivera and David Penn – “I Can’t Stop (David Penn Remix)”

·        Public Enemy – “Shut ‘Em Down” vs. Beck – “Where It’s At”

·        Public Enemy ft. Zakk Wylde – “Bring The Noise 20XX” vs. Justice – “Genesis” (Produced and mixed by DJ Z-Trip)

·        Public Enemy featuring Zakk Wylde – “Bring The Noise 20XX” (DJ-Guitar mix)

·        Q-Tip – “Good Thang” vs. Billy Squier – “The Big Beat” (Produced and mixed by J. Period)

·        Queen – “Another One Bites The Dust” vs. Beastie Boys – “Brass Monkey” (Produced and mixed by DJ Z-Trip)

·        Queen – “Another One Bites The Dust” vs. Daft Punk – “Da Funk”

·        Rihanna – “Disturbia” vs. Kid Sister – “Control”

·        Rihanna – “Disturbia” vs. The Killers – “Somebody Told Me” (DJ-Guitar mix)

·        Rihanna – “Disturbia” vs. The Trammps – “Disco Inferno”

·        Shlomo  – “Beats” vs. Billy Squier  – “The Big Beat”

·        Street Sweeper Social Club – “Fight! Smash! Win!” vs. Beastie Boys – “Intergalactic” (DJ-Guitar mix)

·        Tears For Fears – “Shout” vs. DJ Shadow – “Six Days (Remix ft. Mos Def)”

·        Tears For Fears – “Shout” vs. Eric B. & Rakim – “Eric B. Is President” (Produced and mixed by DJ Jazzy Jeff)

·        Tears For Fears – “Shout” vs. Eric Prydz – “Pjanoo”

·        The Aranbee Pop Orchestra – “Bittersweet Symphony (Instrumental)” vs. LL Cool J – “Rock The Bells” (Produced and mixed by DJ Jazzy Jeff)

·        The Scratch Perverts Beats and Pieces (Produced and mixed by The Scratch Perverts)

·        The Killers – “Somebody Told Me” vs. Eric Prydz – “Pjanoo”

·        Vanilla Ice – “Ice Ice Baby” vs. MC Hammer – “U Can’t Touch This”

·        Vanilla Ice – “Ice Ice Baby” vs. Paula Abdul – “Straight Up”

·        Wale – “Lookin’ At Me” vs. Black Eyed Peas ft. Tippa Irie – “Hey Mama”

·        Weezer – “Beverly Hills” vs. Evidence, The Alchemist, Aceyalone, Rakaa & 88 Keys – “Fresh Rhymes And Videotape” (DJ-Guitar mix)

·        Wild Cherry – “Play That Funky Music” vs. Gang Starr – “Just To Get A Rep” (DJ-Guitar mix)

Don’t believe it? Believe it! It’s true. Band Hero from Activision, however you measure it, has the most varied setlist in a music-game we’ve ever seen or ever hope to see.

Taylor Swift

Apart from Duff and McCartney and a few others I’m really liking the tracklist thus far, what about you? Any gems on the list?

Available for Band Hero Console:

The Airborne Toxic Event – “Gasoline”
Big Country – “In a Big Country”
The Bravery – “Believe”
Cold War Kids – “Hang Me Up To Dry”
Counting Crows – “Angels of the Silences”
Dashboard Confessional – “Hands Down”
David Bowie – “Let’s Dance”
Devo – “Whip It”
Evanescence – “Bring Me To Life”
Fall Out Boy – “Sugar, We’re Goin’ Down”
The Go-Go’s – “Our Lips Are Sealed”
Hilary Duff – “So Yesterday”
Jesse McCartney – “Beautiful Soul”
The Kooks – “Naive”
Marvin Gaye – “I Heard It Through The Grapevine”
Mighty Mighty Bosstones – “Impression That I Get”
OK Go – “A Million Ways”
Pat Benatar – “Love Is A Battlefield”
Robbie Williams and Kylie Minogue – “Kids”
Styx – “Mr. Roboto”
Yellowcard – “Ocean Avenue”

Available for Band Hero for Nintendo DS Lite:

The All-American Rejects – “Believe”
Boys Like Girls – “The Great Escape”
Foo Fighters – “Monkey Wrench”
Lacuna Coil – “Our Truth”
The Pretenders – “Boots of Chinese Plastic”
The Red Jumpsuit Apparatus – “You Better Pray”
Sublime – “All You Need”
Sum 41 – “In Too Deep”
The Vines – “Get Free”

Previously announced tracks include:

Band Hero Console:

The All-American Rejects – “Dirty Little Secret”
Alphabeat – “Fascination”
Aly and AJ – “Like Whoa”
Carl Douglas – “Kung Fu Fighting”
Cheap Trick – “I Want You To Want Me” (Live)
Don McLean – “American Pie”
Duran Duran – “Rio”
Jackson 5 – “ABC”
Janet Jackson – “Black Cat”
Katrina and The Waves – “Walking On Sunshine”
Lily Allen – “Take What You Take”
Maroon 5 – “She Will Be Loved”
No Doubt – “Just A Girl”
Roy Orbison – “Oh Pretty Woman”
Snow Patrol – “Take Back the City”
Taylor Swift – “Love Story”
Taylor Swift – “Picture to Burn”
Taylor Swift – “You Belong With Me”
Tonic – “If You Could Only See”
Village People – “YMCA”

Band Hero for Nintendo DS Lite:

Avril Lavigne – “Girlfriend”
Blink-182 – “First Date”
Evanescence – “Call Me When You’re Sober”
Fall Out Boy – “Thnks Fr Th Mmrs”
Kaiser Chiefs – “I Predict A Riot”
The Killers – “Spaceman”
KT Tunstall – “Suddenly I See”
No Doubt – “Excuse Me Mr.”
P!nk – “So What”
Queen – “Crazy Little Thing Called Love”
Queens Of The Stone Age – “No One Knows”
Spin Doctors – “Two Princes”

DJ Hero is due out later this month but Activision already sees money in the series and according to GamesIndustryBiz, FreeStyleGames, makers of DJ Hero, are currently speaking with “at least one independent UK games developer” for work on DJ Hero 2.

Additionally, Qbert, a popular DJ (apparently) is already being approached for the sequel.

DJ Hero might fail, no one might buy it, and perhaps a sequel won’t happen. Or maybe it will. What do you think?

The reason? No, the development team didn’t get the pork flu, rather multiplayer is to blame.

In today’s press release, Activision cited “more time to enhance the game’s innovative and distinctive online multiplayer gameplay” as the reason for delay.

“We are committed to making Blur a great new racing franchise, and we are very encouraged by the game’s design,” stated Mike Griffith, President and CEO, Activision Publishing. “The additional time will allow the studio to fully optimize the vision they set out to create for Blur including a distinctive and groundbreaking multiplayer mode that will appeal to a broad audience.”

We don’t  mind this news, as long as the final product is where it should be. However, 2010 contains a full 12 months and Activision didn’t specify what half, quarter, month or day the game is to be available, so we could be in for the long haul.

If you don’t count the Metallica, Aerosmith, and Smash Hits departures from core installments, Activision has plugged the franchise for five major rehashes since its inception, culminating today, with the release of Guitar Hero 5.

Does this latest revision strike a resonating chord with fans of living-room rock or does it continue to fall behind Harmonix and Rock Band on the music-game scene?

First, and most importantly, Guitar Hero 5 was built with totally accessibility in mind. Gone are the confusing and finicky menu screens of World Tour in favor of simple, manageable options, all leading to getting you in the game rocking out as fast as possible.

There is zero story in Guitar Hero 5. No longer do you have to sit through drawn-out and nonsensical cartoony plots. That said however, the game’s “career” mode lives on, and actually works quite well. As you’d expect, you can create a rocker, name your band, customize your logo and can even utilize your Avatar as a playable character (they look hilarious next to Judy Nails and Co.) You progress through a series of “gigs” where most songs need be completed to move on to the next. So to finish the game, not every song need be beaten. This is a welcome game tweak because, as with any music game, there are songs what you just don’t want to play. I mean some of us like Bon Jovi, but not everyone.

Beyond the career mode lives the familiar “Quickplay” option, where, thankfully, all 85 songs by 83 artists are available from the game’s onset. You want to play Weezer’s “Why Bother” right now? No problem, because you can. As with World Tour, the option to select multiple tunes to play in sequence without reaching back to the menu, returns in GH5. This time however, each song’s length is displayed and when you select multiple tunes, will give you a running count of time to-be elapsed.

The track-list in Guitar Hero 5 is definitively the most varied to date. One minute you’ll be playing Bob Dylan’s melodic and heartfelt “All Along the Watchtower” and the next you’ll get funky with “Feel Good Inc.” by the Gorillaz. The tracklist hits nearly every genre. Children of Bodom, the Finnish metal act, have their face-meltingly difficult “Done with Everything, Die for Nothing” in the game but right next to it is the radio friendly and poppy “Sex on Fire” by the Kings of Leon. Guitar Hero 5 is like my iPod on shuffle, you never know what you’re going to get, but you love (nearly) every song regardless. Moreover, in an awesomely fantastic move, Rammstein’s “Du Hast” made the cut, and is balls-out fun to play.

Additionally, Guitar Hero 5 allows you to import 152 of World Tour’s 158 (everything except Jimi Hendrix songs) downloadable songs into the game. And on top of that, 35 of the on-disc “World Tour” and 21 “Smash Hits” tracks can be imported into GH5 for a small licensing fee. When all was said and done, my Guitar Hero 5 complete song-list ballooned to over 150. Nice!

Visually, Guitar Hero 5 is stunning. Everything from the main screen, to the now wider note-chart, just bleeds aesthetic intensity. Notes raining down the digital fretboard glimmer and pop in a way they never did before. Character models, including the game’s real-life likenesses, Muse’s Matt Bellamy, Kurt Cobain, Johnny Cash, Carlos Santana, and Shirley Manson are presented in a freakishly perfect manner. Without doubt this is the best, and most appropriate looking Guitar Hero to date.

Carlos Santana

On top of Career and Quickplay gameplay options, Guitar Hero 5 added some competitive modes, some of which are actually quite fun. In “Momentum” you and your opponent start at the medium difficulty and as the song progresses, based on how well you’re doing in terms of note streaks etc, the level of difficulty will either ramp up or fall back, depending on your level of success/failure. Additionally, the “Streakers” mode pits you and your fellow rocker against one another vying to achieve the longest correct note streaks, with point values increasing with continued success.

Where Guitar Hero 5 reaches the epitome of accessibility is in its “Party Play” mode.  This game-mode allows for anyone, at anytime, to join in (or drop out), without stopping or halting the song already in progress. So if you don’t want to play the intro to a certain song, you don’t have to! Join in whenever you want. Likewise, if the phone rings and you have to answer it, simply drop out, while your bandmates continue at no score cost.

World Tour’s “Music Studio,”once pegged to be the next “Garageband,” appears in Guitar Hero 5, but really, we haven’t seen or heard a reason to mess around with it. It’s a fun time-waster, yes, but with the Rock Band Network soon to be front and center, GHTunes will want to crawl in a corner a die.

Blast Factor: Guitar Hero 5 is a phenomenally fun music/rhythm game. The combination of stellar graphics and extremely solid game-play make the title a wholly playable and deeply enjoyable experience for both the casual living-room rockers and the seasoned fan. The setlist hits every genre, with pure-fun tunes scattered throughout. And the ability to import on-disc and downloaded tunes from World Tour and Smash Hits, though now expected, is still great. Guitar Hero 5 is by far the best Guitar Hero game yet.

Guitar Hero 5 is available today for Xbox 360, PS3, Wii and PS2 for an MSRP of $59.99 and $49.99 on Wii and PS2. Review is concerning the Xbox 360 version.

What does this mean? Well, with the advancement and penetration rate of high-definition televisions, that is, those capable of 1080p streaming, the ability to plug your Guitar Hero game straight into your TV, without a system, is right around the corner.

Kotick also remarked about how, if the strategy is indeed employed, would open up an entirely new business model, namely in terms of additional song downloads, a sector the Guitar Hero brand has always paled in comparison to Rock Band.

“I think what the untethered Guitar Hero does is it maybe equals the playing field a little bit more and gives you leverage with first parties on downloadable content and the business model,” he said.

Whatever the future holds, we’re excited, and you should be too!

via IGN

“While we were aware of Kurt’s image being used with two Nirvana songs, we didn’t know players have the ability to unlock the character,” they said. “This feature allows the character to be used with any kind of song the player wants. We urge Activision to do the right thing in ‘re-locking’ Kurt’s character so that this won’t continue in the future.”

Activision quickly fired a statement back to the digruntled party stating they “secured the necessary licensing rights from the Cobain estate in a written agreement signed by Love to use the singer’s likeness as a fully playable character in “Guitar Hero 5,” which includes “Smells Like Teen Spirit” and “Lithium”

Looks to me like a situation of laxisdasical agreement without proper evaluation of the subject matter. What do you think?

Cobain’s likeness makes an appearance in Guitar Hero 5, and, as we all know, the man is d-e-a-d.

Via Twitter she stated:

“For the record this Guitar Hero shit is breach of contract on a Bullys part and there will be a proper addressing of this and retraction.”

And went on to vehemently promise an attack on Acitvision’s fortunes by saying:

“WE are going to sue the shit out of ACtivision we being the Trust the Estate the LLC the various LLCs Cobain Enterprises.”

Oh, it is on! Stay with Blast for updates as the drama unfolds.

Courtney Love’s Twitter account

Comment below with your thoughts and opinions!

In his first ever flirt with the video game world, Hans hopes to bring the excellence he crafted in “Gladiator,” “The Lion King,” “The Dark Knight,” “Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest,” and “Rain Man,” just to name a very few to the small screen and please us all as we jubilantly take part in Infinity Ward’s soon to be masterpiece.

Look for Modern Warfare 2 on shelves November 10.

In an interview with Yahoo! discussing the project and the motion-capture experience, Bellamy stated:

“It’s pretty bizarre, actually. I thought they made me look a little more muscley than in reality! But I’m sure that’s just part of the marketing or something. It was good fun to do, actually. I had to wear a sort of silly spandex costume with little weird ping-pong balls stuck all over my body, and basically just make a fool of myself in front of a room full of people. But it was all good, all good!”

Bellamy is joining the late Johnny Cash and Kurt Cobain, as well as the very well still alive and breathing Carlos Santana as characters making digital appearances in Activision’s latest. That’s some damn good company if you ask me. Congrats!

Guitar Hero 5 releases next Tuesday, September 1 across all major platforms and Muse’s “Plug-In Baby,” will surely test your fingers and fill your ears with sonorous enjoyment.

Interested? Comment below with your opinions.

The Scratch Perverts hail from the glorious United Kingdom and are comprised of Tony Vegas, DJ Primecuts, and Plus One, and lend the following mixes to the game.

• Common – “Universal Mind Control (UMC)” vs. Masta Ace – “Jeep A** Gutter”
• Eric B. & Rakim – “Eric B. Is President” vs. M.I.A. – “Paper Planes”
• Noisia – “Groundhog” (Beat Juggle)

DJ Yoda on the other hand, a “hip-hop turntablist” graces the game with these two cuts.

• The Jackson 5 – “I Want You Back” vs. Gang Starr – “Just to Get a Rep”
• Little Richard – “Tutti Frutti” vs. Shlomo – “Beats”

DJ Hero scratches onto home consoles this October for Xbox 360, PS3, and Nintendo Wii. And if you’ve got a burning desire and a fat wallet you may want to check out the $200 “Renegade Edition” of the game, it’s got a whole lot of perks.

According to Activision, 152 of World Tour’s 158 DLC tracks will play, after a minor patch, as fast as you can say “let’s rock!”, and “some” tracks from World Tour and Smash Hits will also make themselves available after a “a small charge to cover the licensing costs of using these songs from the original game.” Think the $5 fee Harmonix charged for the same service for Rock Band, only probably more, as we are talking about Activision here.

Oh, so I’ll just borrow World Tour and transfer all the songs to Guitar Hero 5!! Awesome! Hold on there, Activision is smarter than that. Straight from the gaping mouth of Activison: “To import the songs, you will need a 20 digit Unique Owner ID that is printed on the back of the manual of the game you are importing from.”

This news, coupled with the publisher’s even more flattering gift we revealed earlier today, are strong statements for where Activison hopes to take the Guitar Hero brand name into the future. Now we sit and wait for these endeavors to either fail, or rescue the game from the rocketing popularity of the Rock Band universe.

Guitar Hero 5 interview @ IGN

All you need do is purchase Guitar Hero 5 for your system of choice, hit up this deal-page, and get your free copy of the screaming-solo packed GH: Van Halen.

I must say, with Activision and the Guitar Hero brand name falling further and further behind storming Harmonix and Rock Band as of late, this deal, as it is very, very, alluring will for sure help the game in the PR department. Hell, it already has me psyched!

Guitar Hero Van Halen offer

The game begins with a fully-powered Alex Mercer rampaging around a New York  infested with zombies, infected with some kind of creeping tentacle mold and swarming with unfriendly soldiers from a branch of the military called Blackwatch. The commonality between all these bad guys is the subject of a conspiracy that drives the narrative of the whole campaign, but up front, the important thing is they’re all trying to kill you: is no mean feat given that you are powered by something very much like the tentacle creep that has infested the city, and can rip people in two, absorb them into yourself and take on their forms, and, naturally, ninja kick helicopters out of mid air.

The campaign is a series of flashbacks as Mercer recounts the events that lead up to an ominous final showdown and during which you grow progressively stronger, but the first level introduces you to the full range of powers Mercer possesses. you can hit things, run up buildings, hit things harder, and unleash huge blasts of tentacle creep that destroy all enemies over the space of a couple city blocks. These abilities are intensely fun to play around with, and the graphics and targeting system do a good job of keeping gameplay lucid and mostly believable, even in the midst of some of the more chaotic battles. The thing that really bugs me about  Mercer’s stock powers, however, is that I’ve seen them before. The Incredible Hulk: Ultimate Destruction for the old-timey Xbox  and PS2 is also from Radical Entertainment, and operates on a very similar (by which I mean pretty much identical) system of breaking things for points, and it’s pretty obvious that the developers didn’t change the power set a whole lot between the two games. Now, a next-gen version of Ultimate Destruction is hardly a bad thing, but the new stuff that Prototype has to offer, the stuff that would make it more worthwhile than last generation game you could get for a fraction of the cost, is just downright uninspiring.

To begin with, Alex Mercer is the most emo superhero ever. Yes, even worse than Spider-Man 3. He walks around with his hoodie up all the time, only ever talks about revenge (with flat, only-for-exposition-purposes voice acting), and when he discovers that he can leap tall buildings in a single bound etc., his first instinct is to make the people responsible sorry, for no particularly well stated reason. He has lost his memory but he trusts his sister and ex-girlfriend unconditionally. He is mad at the evil corporation for infecting the city with the tentacle things, but he’s the one who set the zombie queen loose, and doesn’t seem to care if when he steals a tank it crushes a couple dozen civilians. He’s angry, un-compelling and really just an un-likeable character. And the rest of the narrative doesn’t fare any better, playing out a cliché government conspiracy cover-up type thing that is exactly the same as every disaster movie plot ever. The mood of the game is too dark, and really just takes itself too seriously. It would honestly be more fun if it just dispensed with premise entirely, left a lot of unanswered questions, and just encouraged you to wreck helicopters for no reason. I mean, it’s really what you wind up doing anyway.

Now, my favorite games of all time are open-world sandbox-style games much like Prototype. Saints Row 2, Mercenaries1&2, anything Spider-Man, and of course GTA hold places of honor on the shelf above my Xbox. The reason is that my attention span is directly proportional to the number of clever jokes, explosions or shiny objects right in front of my face, and open-world environments allow for hours of endless tooling around with no specific goal but plenty of entertaining stuff to come across. Prototype didn’t live up to my expectations on this front, even with all the blowing-things-up there is to do. I am not knocking Prototype’s combat system even a little bit. The powers are sweet, there is never any shortage of bad guys to toss around, and there is there is a powerful satisfaction that comes from your awareness meter dropping to “anonymous,” meaning there are no more baddies around because you crushed them all. The problem is that, if you stripped away the combat, there’s nothing interesting left.

Crazy combat is the definitely reason I bought the game in the first place, but the key to a good, engaging sandbox game is to have a rich environment to explore around all the carnage and helicopter-kicking. Sure, GTA IV is singular in its depth and the diversity of its NPCs and I certainly don’t expect every game to even come close to offering that level of variety, but they could at least try. In Ultimate Spider-Man, Spidey would crack jokes and race through Queens with the Human Torch. In Saints Row 2 there were more inside jokes than I could count, and the dialogue and premises for the missions were often laugh out loud funny. (Like stealing hos from one pimp to help another pimp. Hysterical.) The best Prototype has to offer is a dark, brooding, kind of confusing story about revenge or salvation or ….something, and a protagonist that is way too depressed given the crazy powers he has.

Blast Factor: Everybody can agree that if there are three things in the world that are fun to smash into the ground, they are zombies, evil SWAT teams and helicopters. Prototype does a beautiful job of making sure that you get plenty of opportunity to fight all three, usually at the same time. Once you get bored with the novelty of the battle system however, the game offers a moody, clichéd narrative that fails to set it apart from other sandbox games out there.

Prototype is available on Xbox 360, PS3 and PC for $49.99

I’ll let you make the assumptions regarding the selections I dubbed with the three adjectives above as you stare at the gargantuan list below.  That is all.

· 3 Doors Down – “Kryptonite”
· Arctic Monkeys – “Brianstorm”
· Blink-182 – “The Rock Show”
· Dire Straits – “Sultans Of Swing”
· Jimmy Eat World – “Bleed American”
· Johnny Cash – “Ring Of Fire”
· Megadeth – “Sweating Bullets”
· Mötley Crüe – “Looks That Kill”
· Muse – “Plug In Baby”
· Nirvana – “Smells Like Teen Spirit”
· Queen & David Bowie – “Under Pressure”
· Stevie Wonder – “Superstition”
· The Killers – “All The Pretty Faces”
· The Raconteurs – “Steady As She Goes”
· TV On The Radio – “Wolf Like Me”
· A Perfect Circle – “Judith”
· AFI – “Medicate”
· Attack! Attack! UK – “You And Me”
· Band Of Horses – “Cigarettes, Wedding Bands”
· Beastie Boys – “Gratitude”
· Beck – “Gamma Ray”
· Billy Idol – “Dancing With Myself”
· Billy Squier – “Lonely Is The Night”
· Blur – “Song 2″
· Bob Dylan – “All Along The Watchtower”
· Bon Jovi – “You Give Love A Bad Name”
· Brand New – “Sowing Season (Yeah)”
· The Bronx – “Six Days A Week”
· Bush – “Comedown”
· Children Of Bodom – “Done With Everything, Die For Nothing”
· Coldplay – “In My Place”
· Darker My Love – “Blue Day”
· Darkest Hour – “Demon(s)”
· David Bowie – “Fame”
· Deep Purple – “Woman From Tokyo (’99 Remix)”
· The Derek Trucks Band – “Younk Funk”
· The Duke Spirit – “Send A Little Love Token”
· Duran Duran – “Hungry Like The Wolf”
· Eagles Of Death Metal – “Wannabe In L.A.”
· Elliott Smith – “L.A.”
· Elton John – “Saturday Night’s Alright (For Fighting)”
· Face To Face – “Disconnected”
· Garbage – “Only Happy When It Rains”
· Gorillaz – “Feel Good Inc.”
· Gov’t Mule – “Streamline Woman”
· Grand Funk Railroad – “We’re An American Band”
· Iggy Pop – “Lust For Life (Live)”
· Iron Maiden – “2 Minutes To Midnight”
· Jeff Beck – “Scatterbrain (Live)”
· John Mellencamp – “Hurts So Good”
· Kaiser Chiefs – “Never Miss A Beat”
· King Crimson – “21st Century Schizoid Man”
· Kings Of Leon – “Sex On Fire”
· Kiss – “Shout It Out Loud”
· Love and Rockets – “Mirror People”
· My Morning Jacket – “One Big Holiday”
· Nirvana – “Lithium (Live)”
· No Doubt – “Ex-Girlfriend”
· Peter Frampton – “Do You Feel Like We Do? (Live)”
· The Police – “So Lonely”
· Public Enemy Featuring Zakk Wylde – “Bring the Noise 20XX”
· Queens Of The Stone Age – “Make It Wit Chu”
· Rammstein – “Du Hast”
· The Rolling Stones – “Sympathy For The Devil”
· Rose Hill Drive – “Sneak Out”
· Rush – “The Spirit Of Radio (Live)”
· Santana – “No One To Depend On (Live)”
· Scars On Broadway – “They Say”
· Screaming Trees – “Nearly Lost You”
· Smashing Pumpkins – “Bullet With Butterfly Wings”
· Sonic Youth – “Incinerate”
· Spacehog – “In The Meantime”
· Sublime – “What I Got”
· Sunny Day Real Estate – “Seven”
· T. Rex – “20th Century Boy”
· The Sword – “Maiden, Mother & Crone”
· Thin Lizzy – “Jailbreak”
· Thrice – “Deadbolt”
· Tom Petty – “Runnin’ Down A Dream”
· Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers – “American Girl”
· Vampire Weekend – “A-Punk”
· Weezer – “Why Bother?”
· The White Stripes – “Blue Orchid”
· Wild Cherry – “Play That Funky Music”
· Wolfmother – “Back Round”

There is a slight contradiction in the idea of a full band game filled solely with songs that were initially chosen for their prominent guitar parts, and because of the need to balance the fun across four controller parts instead of one, the songs that are on the game aren’t necessarily the most fun from Guitar Hero, but are all more or less the most fun for the most people. I was disappointed by the absence of songs like “My Name is Jonas” and “Cliffs of Dover,” (both from Guitar Hero III), which have fun parts specifically for the guitar, but would understandably be less fun on the full-band set up. I was particularly disappointed that “Sweet Child O’ Mine” was not on the Smash Hits play list, but to be fair I wouldn’t want to be in a room with somebody trying to sing like Axl Rose. The songs that did make it on to Smash Hits are some of the more well-known from the Guitar Hero repertoire, as well as some of the more challenging (expert-level “Through the Fire and the Flames” is still mind-blowingly impossible, even with the addition of the new neck-slider feature), and most of the songs are pretty well balanced across all four instruments (a notable exception is “YYZ,” which doesn’t have a vocal part, but is hella fun on every other count). Unfortunately, there is no downloadable content for Smash Hits to fill in any notable gaps that you might find in the set list, so read the back of the box before you pick it up so you make sure you know what you’re getting.

The game’s mechanics, graphics, and features are very much like a no-frills Guitar Hero World Tour, with comparable character customization, band creation and music studio features. Though the game’s tracks are all master recordings, there are no “celebrity appearances” or boss guitar battles as there have been in past iterations of the franchise (sadly, no Slash, but thankfully no Ted Nugent). Again, this is not the full Guitar Hero experience, just the major bullet points condensed into a single game. If you really want the CG chick from Paramore to play onstage with your Avatar, the other games are what you’re looking for. This game is for the Guitar Hero junkie (that is to say: me) who has “Killer Queen” and “Fire and the Flames” on his iPod and  really would like to try the vocal part for once.

With this in mind, Smash Hits does do us all a favor by dispensing with the trouble of unlocking all the songs in career mode before being able to play them casually in quickplay. All the songs are available in quickplay from the get-go, because Activision realizes if you buy this game, you just want to play with your rhythm game addict buddies and want to skip over the easy setting and pop songs and crank some Skynyrd on expert without all the hassle of having to think up a band name and play boring songs for an hour to get there. There is a career mode, but even that is streamlined; more complex set lists are unlocked according to a cumulative score from all available songs rather than just the last setlist you played. This means you can unlock a wider variety of songs through good performance on easier songs, and not just adequate performance on the hardest available setlist.

The gameplay itself the tried and true Guitar Hero model with no real differences. The songs have been updated with some of the more complex note patterns that appeared in World Tour, so there are some slight differences between these songs and their originals on the older Guitar Hero releases. The addition of a few neck-slider bars isn’t enough to make the experience of playing the same songs on a new game completely fresh and revolutionary, but it does keep things from getting boring, and the differences between songs are substantial enough that it shows that Activision didn’t just re-package some old games and try to sucker you in to buying them.

Perhaps the only new addition to the actual gameplay screen is a meter that tells you how many out of five stars you have earned so far in the course of gameplay, and how far you are to earning the next one. If this sounds familiar, it’s because Rock Band has had that feature from the beginning, though I don’t mind it when Guitar Hero tries to be more like Rock Band. There are some of the old Guitar Hero-related irritations like distracting designs on the note highway, or flashes of lightning when you gain star power, but these aren’t any better or worse than they were in World Tour, and have been greatly reduced in scale from earlier versions of the game.

Blast Factor: If you haven’t already decided whether or not you really want Guitar Hero: Smash Hits, you probably don’t. At a full $50 price tag, it costs probably about as much as a used collection of Guitar Hero I, II, and III, or a brand new Rock Band II or World Tour, all of which would offer a greater variety of songs and downloadable content, and would be better especially for newcomers to the rhythm genre. However, if you like what you see and have been dying to play some of these old songs with your rhythm game buddies, then by all means, grab it up, plug it in, and rock out.

Guitar Hero: Smash Hits is available on Xbox 360 and PS3 for $49.99, and on the Wii for $39.99

The 86 year old, and a higher up at comic book publisher Marvel, will lend his voice and likeness to a secret (for now) character who’s role, as Activision promises, will be “significant to the game’s storyline,” which is all about the superhero cival war.

“I am thrilled to be making my first onscreen videogame cameo in Marvel: Ultimate Alliance 2,” said Stan Lee, Publisher Emeritus, Marvel Comics. “It’s such a kick to see characters that I’ve helped create come to life in the game and now I’m a part of the Marvel videogame universe!”

Look for Marvel Ultimate Alliance 2 this September.

A deal inked with Legendary Pictures and Activision/Blizzard today confirmed the signing and Raimi had this to say:

“At its core, Warcraft is a fantastic, action-packed story, I am thrilled to work with such a dynamite production team to bring this project to the big screen.”

No mention was made concerning any of the plot, leading actors/actresses, or really anything relating to the actual film, but, if Raimi could take the already loved SpiderMan comic and turn it into a global phenomenon for non-geeks as well, just imagine what he’ll do in the Warcraft universe!

Rounding out the new 22 are “American Girl” by Tom Petty, “What I Got” by Sublime, and the powerful German hit “Du Hast” by Rammstein, but if you don’t relate to my personal interests, have a gander at the full list of known tracks for GH5 pleasantly listed below.

New Additions
Attack! Attack! UK — “You And Me”
Bon Jovi — “You Give Love A Bad Name”
Darker My Love — “Blue Day”
The Duke Spirit — “Send A Little Love Token”
Elton John — “Saturday Night’s Alright (For Fighting)”
Face To Face — “Disconnected”
Garbage — “Only Happy When It Rains”
Kaiser Chiefs — “Never Miss A Beat”
Kiss — “Shout It Out Loud”
Love and Rockets — “Mirror People”
My Morning Jacket — “One Big Holiday”
Nirvana — “Lithium (Live)”
The Police — “So Lonely”
Rammstein — “Du Hast”
The Rolling Stones — “Sympathy For The Devil”
Sonic Youth — “Incinerate”
Screaming Trees — “Nearly Lost You”
Sublime — “What I Got”
The Sword — “Maiden, Mother & Crone”
Thin Lizzy — “Jailbreak”
Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers — “American Girl”
The White Stripes — “Blue Orchid”

Previously Announced
Band Of Horses — “Cigarettes, Wedding Bands”
Beastie Boys — “Gratitude”
Beck — “Gamma Ray”
Billy Squier — “Lonely Is The Night”
Blur — “Song 2″
Bob Dylan — “All Along The Watchtower”
Children Of Bodom — “Done With Everything, Die For Nothing”
Coldplay — “In My Place”
Darkest Hour — “Demon(s)”
David Bowie — “Fame”
Deep Purple — “Woman From Tokyo (’99 Remix)”
Elliott Smith — “L.A.”
Iggy Pop — “Lust For Life (Live)”
Jeff Beck — “Scatterbrain (Live)”
John Mellencamp — “Hurts So Good”
Kings Of Leon — “Sex On Fire”
Queens Of The Stone Age — “Make It Wit Chu”
Rose Hill Drive — “Sneak Out”
Santana — “No One To Depend On (Live)”
The Bronx — “Six Days A Week”
Thrice — “Deadbolt”
Tom Petty — “Runnin’ Down A Dream”
Vampire Weekend — “A-Punk”
Wolfmother — “Back Round”

via IGN

When you fire up DJ Hero the first scratcher you’ll meet is the Flash, and he’ll serve as the game’s tutorial level teacher, and through his recognizable voice, and madd skills yo, you’ll be tearing up the club in no time.

However, the man is not simply lending his likeness to the game, rather two original and never-before released mixes from the Grandmaster will grace the final build of the game, which are assuredly awesome.

Enjoy these screens of the man below and hit up the game’s website for further details on the project.

Although the complexity is somewhat diminished – the console controller features five buttons vs. four on the DS – the difficulty is retained because the note pace is increased. I hover between 95 and 99 percent on normal on the console versions of Rock Band and Guitar Hero, and I had a similar mark on Modern Hits. The most diabolical songs will require you to quickly scratch out 10 notes, followed by a normal rhythm for a couple notes, followed by some quick-switching chords, and then back to a flurry of notes. To sound like Led Zeppelin, the scoring system remains the same in Modern Hits. You get a base score for hitting each note, and playing strings of notes without error multiples your score. Certain notes contain energy power for your guitar, and if you collect enough, you can unleash it and double your multiplier for a span of time. In a clever usage of the DS’s microphone, yelling at it starts the power-up, which is far easier than the console versions’ requirement of hitting a button or holding your guitar at a 90-degree angle while still trying to play notes. The higher your score, the more stars you receive for completing a stage.

The limitations of a handheld version of Guitar Hero are smoothed over pretty craftily by the programmers at Vicarious Visions and the content selection. While the graphics and animation are severely downgraded – there isn’t much real estate on the DS screen anyway – the sound quality is shockingly good. I thought it was slightly above the standard set by most cell phones. The content is also smartly confined to modern music, so the scratchiness to some of the songs actually helps. “Reptilia” and The Strokes in general just sound better with a bit of roughness. The same goes with most of the game’s roster: The Fratellis, Wolfmother, Weezer, Coldplay, The Kaiser Chiefs, Sum 41, Lenny Kravitz, Modest Mouse. That’s a solid range within the “modern rock” sphere, from strictly indy to pop rock and pop punk. I didn’t notice a distracting lack of sound quality at any point, and because all modern music is used, every song is the original master as opposed to a cover band version.

The only issue I had with Modern Hits was one of repetition. To unlock new songs, you typically have to beat the two or three songs at a venue, and then complete one, two or three “fan requests” at a venue. Fan requests are similar to the random challenges in the Rock Band games. For example, you might have to finish the bass part of a Strokes’ song above a certain percentage, or win a guitar duel. While this in itself isn’t bad, being forced to replay songs you’ve already beaten is somewhat annoying. I preferred the progression systems in World Tour (earn cash to unlock new venues) and Smash Hits (earn a certain amount of stars between all the game’s songs) to the one in Modern Hits, which forces a lot of backtracking. Still, this is a relatively minor quibble in the scheme of things.

Blast Factor: If the idea of playing Guitar Hero on your DS sounds great to you, then Modern Hits will be great to you. While it doesn’t really offer anything new from the console versions, Modern Hits doesn’t lose much in the transition thanks to some great song choices and its well-designed controlled adapter.

Guitar Hero On Tour: Modern Hits is available exclusively for the Nintendo DS, and is has a suggested price of $39.99

“PlayStation has tremendous momentum coming out of E3, and we are seeing positive growth with more than 350 titles slated to hit across all our platforms, including many anticipated games from our publishing partners,” Armour said. “We enjoy healthy business relationships with and greatly value our publishing partners and are working closely with them to deliver the best entertainment experience.”

We’ve got more questions into Armour and will post more as we get answers!

“I’m getting concerned about Sony; the PlayStation 3 is losing a bit of momentum and they don’t make it easy for me to support the platform. It’s expensive to develop for the console, and the Wii and the Xbox are just selling better. Games generate a better return on invested capital on the Xbox than on the PlayStation,” he says.

However, Kotick does forsee one possible move that he is urging Sony to make if they don’t want their ties cut with Activision, and yes, you probably already know what it is.

“They have to cut the price, because if they don’t, the attach rates (the number of games each console owner buys) are likely to slow. If we are being realistic, we might have to stop supporting Sony.”

If Activison does indeed sever their ties with Sony that would mean crazy-popular franchises including Guitar Hero, Call of Duty, and Tony Hawk, among others would become exclusive to Nintendo and Microsoft.

Maybe Kotick hasn’t heard of Sony’s 10 year plan (it CLEARLY worked for the PS2) or maybe he hates living in a $10 million dollar mansion instead of a $50 million home, but one thing’s for sure; it will be interesting to see how Sony reacts to this bold statement by the Activision boss.

Sony should beware–Activision Chief is not simply playing games.

Off the White Lies and Dark Times album, Ben Harper unleashes “Number With No Name,” “Shimmer & Shime,” and “Fly One Time” for your love of jam-on tunes.

If some is good, more, from the iconic Phish music act is certainly better. And a week later, on June 25 “Sample in a Jar,” “Down with Disease,” and “Chalk Dust Torture” will grace the game all in an exclusive live recorded fashion.

So throw on a tie die shirt, unravel your dreadlocks, get in the ’70’s spirit and rock out to these jam-on songs, I know I will.

via IGN