Guitar Hero

Don’t have the budget to buy both band video games and need a few tips on where your money should go? I wrote a detailed piece for Gizmag that might help you make that decision.

Guitar Hero World Tour vs Rock Band 2 [Gizmag]

• Lips: Microsoft and Elite Beat Agents developer iNiS take on SingStar
• Sony to unveil the next generation of SingStar at Leipzig
• Rock Band 2 allows you to import most of the songs from Rock Band disc
• Rock Band 2 features unlockable No Fail Mode for party-friendly play
• Peak announce full-size, hardwood bodied Starpex guitar for Guitar Hero & Rock Band
• ION Audio’s Drum Rocker/Premium Drum Kit for Rock Band 2
• Guitar Hero: Aerosmith patch adds Rock Band guitar compatibility on Xbox 360
• Amazon taking pre-orders for Rock Band 2
• ‘Hot For Teacher’ and ‘No Sleep ‘Til Brooklyn’ confirmed for Guitar Hero World Tour
• Guitar Hero World Tour will support all MIDI drum kits
• Rock Band hits seven more European countries on July 24
• Rock Band 2 E3 trailer reveals gameplay, psychedelia
• Metallica’s upcoming album “Death Magnetic” coming to Guitar Hero
• Rock Band 2 track list revealed - 84 songs, all master tracks
• Guitar Hero World Tour screenshots look awfully similar to Rock Band

Chris Chike, better known to thousands of you as YouTube user iamchris4life, has achieved the ultimate Guitar Hero III accolade - a “full combo” of Dragonforce’s “Through the Fire and Flames” on Expert.

Click through for the video, with NSFW victory remarks.

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Bad car analogies? John Mayer loves them. After being asked how he feels about “the whole Guitar Hero-game phenomenon” in a recent interview, he responded:

I don’t ever want to be the kind of guy who rails against whatever progress has taken place. But Guitar Hero was devised to bring the guitar-playing experience to the masses without them having to put anything into it. And having done both, there’s nothing like really playing guitar. I mean, what would you rather drive, a Ferrari or one of those amusement-park cars on a track?

I take it you laugh to yourself when you see kids with training wheels on their bike too, John?

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DISCLAIMER: I use, and love, Macs. I still found this funny.

Activision has released the Guitar Hero III Wii Double Pack in Australia, which includes two guitars and the remastered, stereo-capable version of the game. You should be able to pick it up now for under AUD$170.

Activision has announced their Guitar Hero franchise has sold over 14 million units in North America alone, resulting in US$1 billion in revenue. Activision acquired Red Octane six months after release of the first Guitar Hero for a paltry $100 million. It’s little wonder they were the most successful game company of last year.

via Wii Fanboy

Bits bytes pixels & sprites made me laugh this morning.

It’s that time of the week again, and this time Yahtzee is ripping into the soft flesh of the darling of the musical game world, Guitar Hero III. While the gaming public has gone Guitar Hero III crazy, Yahtzee is decidedly more subdued and proclaims that the change of developers “stopped Guitar Hero being fun.”

via The Escapist

Harmonix has publicly attacked Sony and Activision, claiming that their patch to use the Guitar Hero III controller on the PS3 in Rock Band was blocked. Harmonix claim they had the patch ready by December 4th but “continual objections” by Activision caused Sony to block its release. As a display of good will Harmonix have said that they “believe in an open standard philosophy of hardware and game compatibility” and that they “welcome all third party developers who wish to support our controllers and will provide any required support in order for them to do so.”

Its’ not really a big surprise that Sony would do this (we have all seen how they love their proprietary formats and devices), but I expected less selfish behavior from Activision.

Check after the jump for Harmonix’s statement.

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