Licks and Clicks

Win a Custom Guitar Hero Guitar for Xbox 360

Xbox.com, along with Toyota and Peavey, are holding a contest as a part of Xbox's upcoming All-Nighter gaming marathon April 26th-27th.  24 winners will receive one of these custom, life-size Peavey guitars that have been modified to play "guitar-based music video games".

To enter, all you have to do is download the "Toyota Matrix Xbox All-Nighter Registration Gamer Picture" from the Xbox LIVE Marketplace before 5:59AM Pacific Time April 27, 2008.

Xbox then wants to hear about your all night Guitar Hero session, and encourages you to send in your photos for the chance to have your crew featured on Xbox.com.  You can get all the details after the break.

Continue reading "Toyota Matrix Xbox Guitar Hero III All-Nighter"...

Cure Cancer? Nah, Study Guitar Hero Instead

Assistant Professor of Music at Brown University Kiri Miller is curious about Guitar Hero and Rock Band.

Specifically Miller, who is an ethnomusicologist, is studying the emotions that music game players feel when they play their favorite rhythm games.  She's been conducting a survey of players to determine if they feel creative or not when they play the game.  Surprisingly, 30% of those who've responded to the survey say yes, they do feel creative.  It's the 30% that fascinates Miller.

She plans to ask students to play the games in her office so she can study their reactions.  Good thing this is a college survey because if it was being done in high school there would be red flags going up all over the place.

Continue reading "Prof. listening up for Guitar Hero's meaning"...

Guitar Hero Aerosmith Bundles Ready for Pre-Order

The time that we can walk Aerosmith's way on our video game consoles rapidly approaches, and Activision has announced that Guitar Hero: Aerosmith bundles are now available for pre-order.  These are your options:

• $99 for Xbox 360, PS3 and Wii
• $89 for PS2 (wireless)
• $109 for a wired PS2 two-guitar bundle that comes with a black and silver guitar

Some of the bundle details are still a little sketchy.  For example, one site lists that the Xbox 360 version comes with a wireless guitar.  Other sites say differently.  I'll keep checking on that.

In addition to the game and guitars, each bundle comes with an Aerosmith faceplate and an Aerosmith tour book.  You can find a list of retailers who have the bundles ready to pre-order here.

First In-Game Guitar Hero Aerosmith Footage

The folks over at Gearlog got the chance to spend some hands-on time with Guitar Hero: Aerosmith and for whatever reason they sent the worst Guitar Hero player ever to cover it.  This two minute video featuring actual gameplay would only be half as long if Sweet Emotion didn't have such a long portion at the beginning where you're not playing any notes.

Again, my invitation to the event must have been swiped by my mail carrier.

UPDATE: Rock Band 360 Gets 3 Months Exclusivity in UK

Buried deep within a EA press release, archaeologists discovered a secret code which revealed the release dates for the PS2, PS3 and Nintendo Wii versions of Rock Band in the UK.

See if you can decipher the code.  It reads: August 29th.

That will give the Xbox 360 version of the game over three months of exclusivity in the UK.  No word yet on if you'll still have to sell your body on the streets to earn enough money to buy the thing.

UPDATE: Whoops, scratch that!  EA is now backtracking, according to several internet sources, saying that the information that went out yesterday was incorrect.  There remains no firm release date for the PS2, PS3 and Wii versions of Rock Band, and that's that.  At least until they update us again.

Guitar Hero Aerosmith - Wii Boxart

Here's the box art for the upcoming Guitar Hero: Aerosmith game.  This artwork is for the Wii, obviously, but expect other versions to look the same.

Guitar Hero DS Impressions

Activision gave select journalists an "eyes-on" look at their new Nintendo DS title Guitar Hero: On Tour last week.  My invitation must have been lost in the mail.

Anyway, Australian site Vooks has an incredibly detailed write up about what they saw and heard at the event.  Included in the info are the first five tracks in the game:

• Ok Go – Do What You Want
• No Doubt – Spiderwebs
• Jet – Are You Gonna Be my Girl
• Blink 182 – All the Small Things
• Twisted Sister – We’re Not Gonna Take it

Vooks has a ton more information about this release after the break.

Continue reading "Guitar Hero: On Tour 'Eyes-on' Preview + New Screens"...

Motley Crue Single to Debut in Rock Band

Saints of Los Angeles, the first single from Motley Crue's upcoming album, will be released as a downloadable Rock Band track for the discounted price of 99 cents.  Best of all, it will be available TODAY on Xbox 360 (and Thursday on the Playstation Network).

Who knows if the track is good or not, but hey... it's cheap and it's new!

Rock Band Wii's Bonus Tracks Revealed

The five mystery bonus songs available on the Wii version of Rock Band have been revealed.  Those of us with either the Xbox 360 or PS3 versions have nothing to worry about, as these have been available as DLC for some time now.

• "Dirty Little Secret" - The All American Rejects
• "Roam" - The B-52's
• "Don't Look Back in Anger" - Oasis
• "Roxanne" - The Police
• "Rockaway Beach" - The Ramones

Rock Band Wii is still on track to be released on June 22nd.

New Third Party Guitar Hero and Rock Band Instruments

Playstation Beyond has the news about the upcoming release of new 3rd party peripherals from The Ant Commandos for Guitar Hero and Rock Band.  Yes I wasn't sure if The Ant Commandos was an actual company or not either, but they do seem to exist.

The "Double Range Guitar" will retail for $49.99 and will be available in flame red, electric blue and jet black.  Like the Rock Band pack-in, it features the five extra solo buttons and a five-way effects switch.  There's also the "Widow Maker Bass Guitar", which sells for $59.99.

But the big news is the PS2 to PS3 Adaptor.  This should allow you to finally use your PS2 guitars on the PS3.  We can only hope this thing works.

Despite their existence, The Ant Commandos have yet to be bothered to actually update their own website with this news, so for the time being, trust in Playstation Beyond for the scoop.

Continue reading "Third-party Rock Band and Guitar Hero instruments revealed"...