The Romantics (You know, that band who had a hit with that shit hole song “What I Like About You”) are suing Activision over the re-recording of their bread and butter song claiming that it’s “virtually indistinguishable from the authentic version” and that consumers will be confused and think that The Romantics actually endorsed the video game “Guitar Hero Rocks The 80s”.

Imagine that. A band agrees to have their song licensed for the game but they don’t want to actually have someone do justice to it and make it sound decent. Oh, but they’ll gladly take the licensing fee.

Fuck off you assholes. Go climb back into your hole of shitty 80s music. Know what the hell you’re getting into before you decide to take someone’s money.

[Billboard]

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Ok, so it’s the Wal-Mart version of GHIII with the X-plorer packed in - but does it really matter? The fine folks over at Will it Blend do to Guitar Hero what most of us here on staff would agree Neversoft did, with fantastic results.

Many thanks to regular reader MC for passing this one along to us (and thanks for the Transmundanity award this week, too!)

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While a few of the writers here aren’t feeling Guitar Hero 3 but at least we can all agree that this game would be awesome.
[Destructoid]

I feared the worst when Guitar Hero III development duties went to Neversoft (makers of Tony Hawk 1-8 and Gun). They’ve existed simply to pump out a new Tony Hawk every holiday season for what seems like forever. I let myself believe that they wouldn’t ruin the game Harmonix crafted once they started releasing the song list. There were too many good songs for the game to suck. The battle mode seemed weird but I was willing to look past it. I shouldn’t have. Guitar Hero III isn’t anywhere near the other two in terms of execution, or more importantly…. fun.

I know this might make me unpopular with both readers and a few of our writers, but I honestly believe it. Read on to find out why. Continue Reading »

It may have taken me a little longer than most, but I finally got around to finishing up Guitar Hero III last night. While I enjoyed the game, I couldn’t help but shake my head at how the end credits were cluttered with some kind of cosmic irony.

A few of our readers may be too young to remember this, but there was a time when developers weren’t given any recognition for the hard work they’d put in. Back in the early days of Atari there was a small war waged between the big A and it’s employees, the end result being the formation of gamings first independent third-party publisher, Activision.

If you want to learn more about the early days of Activision, our very own Dan has written a fantastic post about it that you can find here.

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So where oh where is that irony I mentioned? If you check out the clip above you’ll notice that as the credits roll a brand new song is unlocked for your gaming pleasure — a brand new song that you play through all seven minutes of the credits.

Maybe it’s just me, but it kinda seems like Activision has lost sight of its roots when a company founded on the principle of artist recognition goes out of its way to completely distract you from the names of the people involved. Or maybe I’m just nit-picky, you decide.

Hmm, seems like abusing people via microtransactions isn’t enough these days. If you want all the Guitar Hero 3 songs when the game launches next week, you won’t be able to buy them via download over XBL, you’re going to have to buy the GH3 companion pack (fancy name for soundtrack). In said soundtrack there’ll be a code to download 3 new tracks over Xbox live (nothing for PS3 or Wii, yet.)

• “Carcinogen Crush” from AFI
• “Tina” from Flyleaf
• “Putting Holes In Happiness” by Marilyn Manson’s

So what’s this mean exactly? Since I don’t think those bands are any good, it means nothing to me. But the precedent sucks. 2 bucks a song over XBL was one thing, but now they’re shoving a 10-15 dollar soundtrack on us if we want to play the songs? Ugh, this is going to get ugly. They might as well get it over with and just release “Rape Me” from Nirvana.

Interscope Records is releasing the soundtrack on October 23rd. Full press release after the jump Continue Reading »

I live by the mantra that the more “Who” music you have in your life, the better. So even though we’ll be getting full albums in Rock Band, I’m glad to see some more Who pop up over here in Guitar Hero III. Since GH and RB are fighting for attention of game players, one of these announcements is usually followed by one from the other camp. Rock Band… your response?

• Same Old Song and Dance (by Aerosmith)
• Helicopter (by Bloc Party)
• Stricken (by Disturbed)
• Monsters (by Matchbook Romance)
• Before I Forget (by Slipknot)
• Kool Thing (by Sonic Youth)
• When You Were Young (by The Killers)
• Devil Went Down to Georgia (as made famous by Charlie Daniels Band)
• Sunshine of Your Love (as made famous by Cream)
• Holiday in Cambodia (as made famous by Dead Kennedys)
• Cliffs of Dover (as made famous by Eric Johnson)
• Hit Me with Your Best Shot (as made famous by Pat Benetar)
• Black Magic Woman (as made famous by Santana)
• Story of My Life (as made famous by Social Distortion)
• Pride and Joy (as made famous by Stevie Ray Vaughn)
• The Seeker (as made famous by The Who)
• Black Sunshine (as made famous by White Zombie)

Already announced tracks after the break…
Continue Reading »