"Ah, the Rhythm Action genre. Bashing away on a fake, plastic instrument or leaping around like a loon on a bunch of arrows while a banging track plays in the background. Do it well and you’re a rock god on stage in front of thousands or the very ghost of Timberlake himself, throwing down some awesome shapes. For some people, this is escapism at its height. For others, well, they just don’t ‘get’ it."

"It's hard to say if the last week of the Olympics gave Segas' Beijing 2008 - The Official Video Game of the Olympic Games a boost, but that hasn't stopped the PlayStation 3 version of the game moving up four spots from the previous week, into sixth spot. The Xbox 360 version of Beijing 2008 also made it into the charts, though at the much lower position of number 10. Nintendo's Brain Training series are regular contenders in the charts, with Dr Kawashima's Brain Training: How Old Is Your Brai..."

"

[Eric] Really put some care into this. You can see that he wanted this to be something he could actually use and show off. The integration of the FM transmitter into the unit was very well done. The transmitter is controlled through the controller's start and select buttons and powered from the controller's battery compartment. He mounted the transmitter's display into the controller as well.

This modification fits nicely in the Guitar Hero hacking tradition. We've seen several before ..."

"Blake Peebles, a 16-year-old in Raleigh, N.C., whose parents have let him drop out of school so that he can focus on a professional gaming career via Guitar Hero.

Blake convinced his folks (that is, "We couldn't take the complaining anymore," said his mom) to let him drop out last September. They hired in-home tutors to continue his education there, at least, but there's no doubt priority number one is Guitar Hero. There's a vaguely defined goal of Blake playing it professionally, either t..."

The NPD Group has released their hardware and software numbers for the month of July, representing sales for the United States for the four week period of July 6th to August 2nd

This month, there were three notables:

• 360's price drop has no effect
• Metal Gear Solid 4 PS3 bump is gone; game has fell out of top ten
• Five new releases in the top five, in the form of three separate games

Hardware numbers:
NDS: 608k (152k per week)
WII: 555k (138.75k per week)
PS3: 225k (56.25k per week)
PS...

"Warner Music Chief Executive Edgar Bronfman says "The amount being paid to the music industry, even though their games are entirely dependent on the content we own and control, is far too small.""

"Tired of plastic toys? The Peavey® AG RiffMaster™ Guitar Controller is a real Peavey Guitar that’s sure to quench your thirst for the authentic rock star feeling.

LIMITED EDITION! If you want the prestige of owning this piece of gaming history, you better hurry and get your hands on some real wood! With hot designs from legendary bands such as Kiss and Pantera, your Peavey AG RiffMaster™ Guitar Controller will impress all who set foot on your rock stage.

Controllers are currently availa..."

The NPD Group's hardware and software numbers for the month of June has been released, representing sales for the United States in the five week period of June 1st to July 5th.

This month, there are three notable happenings:

• Wii overtakes 360 in the United States in Lifetime to Date sales, with 666.7k units sold vs. 219.8k units sold for the 360, bring the Wii's total to 10.9 million units sold in the United States in its 20 months of release.
• Metal Gear Solid 4, being the only major rel...

"

We've seen a lot of Guitar Hero bots in our time, but we're pretty certain that Mechanized Rock's take on shredding automatons is something special. The system -- dubbed DeepNote -- actually watches the on-screen action with "eyes" that it uses to analyze notes, which the bot then plays in real-time. Using photodiodes aimed at the screen, the components pick up changes in light within eight nanoseconds, then convert that information to brazen, parent-shocking, full-throttle rock n' roll. ..."

"There's little doubt that the artist line-up for Rock Band 2 is shaping up nicely. Guitar Hero is getting some nice exclusives as well. With Journey, Boston, Metallica, The Who and other top tier acts lending their tunes to the dominant rhythm games, there aren't many superstars left to cross off the list.

One of the artists that continues to elude both Activision and Harmonix is Led Zeppelin. It's been chalked up to a lengthy licensing process, but a recent write-up from the Wall Street J..."

"I’m not going to defend Guitar Hero: On Tour as a stand-alone: if you want the absolute Guitar Hero experience you really should grab the real deal for whatever console you may have. It’s a lot cooler and more social to jam out with full-sized guitars. But even though Guitar Hero: On Tour might not feel like playing guitar, it definitely feels like playing Guitar Hero: it’s an excellent portable representation of the full experience, and it’s incredibly hard to think of any way to do it bette..."

"Here’s the 24 songs list from Guitar Hero: On Tour. The Nintendo DS music-rhythm game will launch in America on June 22nd, in Australia on June 26th, and in Europe on July 17th, 2008.

Here’s the list including videos for each song:

Tier 1: Subway
1. All The Small Things by Blink 182;
2. Are You Gonna Be My Girl by Jet;
3. Do What You Want by OK Go;
4. Spiderwebs by No Doubt;
5. We’re Not Gonna Take It by Twisted Sister;

Tier 2: Rooftop
6. All Star by Smash Mouth;
7. Breed by N..."

"The official website is now live, with general information on how it works on the DS with the little grippy thing, track samples and - best of all - watch videos of ’cool’ indie kids messing about on their DS’s, including, unrealistically, a pretty girl. As if."

"Nintendo and RecOctane have confirmed the release date for Guiar Hero On Tour in Europe, the Nintendo DS spin-off of the popular home console rhythm/music title. In addition, there’ll also be a limited edition bundle, including a Guitar Hero: On Tour-branded DS.

Including the game, Guitar Grip accessory and console), the bundle will be available across the continent on July 18:"

"The company recently decided to celebrate the fact that a couple of Guitar Hero performances would take place at this year’s Isle of Wight Festival, an event partly known for featuring one of Jimi Hendrix’s last performances before his tragic death. So how does one celebrate a fake guitar performance? By vandalizing a tribute to a real guitar legend, it seems. Activision decided to deck out a bronze statue of Hendrix to make it look like he was holding a Guitar Hero controller instead of an a..."

"He tells Rolling Stone: "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?""

"With the recent announcement of Guitar Hero World Tour, not to mention hints towards a Rock Band sequel, music-based games are undoubtedly more popular than they were a few years ago. One need only look at the recent slate of rereleases like the XBLA port of Rez or Samba de Amigo for the Wii - hardcore faves that weren’t commercial successes - to understand the value of music games on the market today.

We've charted their popularity and placement in today’s gaming world, and now we present..."

"Though Nintendo and Activision have yet to send photos of the bundle through the news media, apparently either Nintendo or Activision's sales department have already done that duty with at least one retailer. Toys 'r Us yesterday updated its website with the first shot of the bundle which reveals the new silver/black hybrid Nintendo DS color. It also features a Guitar Hero logo on the lid -- it is unclear whether this is an optional sticker a la the Mario Kart DS bundle released more than two..."

"No one asked Vicarious Visions to make Guitar Hero for the Nintendo DS. No one at studio owner Activision, fellow Activision subsidiary RedOctane, or Nintendo believed it was even possible.

"People thought it was ludicrous," Vicarious CEO Karthik Bala told me at a Guitar Hero event earlier this week. "It was never in the plan to do that."

As Bala puts it, the whole thing came out of the Vicarious staff playing around to "see if it was even possible to do a really good music rhythm game ..."

"As rumoured earlier on in the year, Guitar Hero: World Tour follows Electronic Arts’ lead with Rock Band, allowing players to jam along to tunes with drums and a microphone, in addition to the guitars.

Activision reveals that the game will deliver the largest on-disc set list of any music-rhythm game to date, including master recordings from the likes of Van Halen, Linkin Park, The Eagles, Sublime, and many more. In addition, localised downloadable content will be made available, as well a..."

"Activision has revealed that the next true sequel in the Guitar Hero franchise will introduce new instruments. A preview of Guitar Hero 4 in the latest issue of GameInformer has now shed some light on that and revealed that GH4 will introduce drums, bass, and vocals.

The preview also reveals a new gameplay element. Apparently, Guitar Hero 4 will feature custom made tracks. Players will be able to create tracks, name them, create cover art, and upload it all online for others to enjoy. Due ..."

"April 30, 2008 - The latest Nintendo Power has the scoop on at least some of the songs that will appear in Guitar Hero: On Tour for the Nintendo DS. Because we eyeballed the list back at the Nintendo Press Conference three weeks ago but swore ourselves to secrecy, we can confirm that most of these songs are indeed in the game."

"- Do What You Want - OK Go
- All The Small Things - Blink 182
- Spiderwebs - No Doubt
- Are You Gona Be My Girl - Jet
- We’re Not Gonna Take It - Twisted Sister
- All Star - Smash Mouth
- Breed - Nirvana
- Jessie’s Girl - Rick Springfield
- Hit Me With Your Best Shot - Pat Benatar
- This Love - Maroon 5
- Heaven - Los Lonely Boys
- Helicopter - Bloc Party
- China Grove - The Doobie Brothers
- Rock and Roll All Nite - KISS (cover by Line 6)
- What I Want - Daughtry"

"The trademark refers to "computer game software and related instruction manual sold together as a unit; interactive video game programs; computer game discs; downloadable software for use in connection with computer games; video game controllers; interactive video game comprised of a CD or DVD sold as a unit with a video game controller." It looks like your guitar is going to get a friend."

"It’s been known for a while now that more instruments would eventually be incorporated into the Guitar Hero brand. The question is whether that means bringing drums into the mix and totally ripping off Rock Band, or creating a whole new game in the Guitar Hero universe with different toys to rock out with. The developers are currently figuring out how to move the series beyond the standard guitar and bass repertoire, as the CEO of Activision Bobby Kotick recently said, “We’ll include a lot of..."

"When Guitar Hero 3 launched last year it was an immediate success, selling out at a fairly quick pace throughout the holiday season. Following just behind it was Rock Band, selling very well, but not nearly as quickly as Guitar Hero. So far, all versions of Guitar Hero III have sold about 9.1M copies, versus just roughly 1.5M for Rock Band. Of course, part of the discrepancy lies in the fact that Rock Band launched on two platforms while Guitar Hero 3 launched on four, but that is about to be..."