Back in the day, Sega tried to milk every game with the word “Virtua” in the title dryer than a cactus on Mars — case in point, Virtua Racing. It appeared not only in the arcades, but in home ports on the Genesis, 32X, Saturn and eventually, Playstation 2.

Over at Racketboy they’ve put together a fascinating look at the visuals of all five versions. Definitely a fun little comparison for a Tuesday morning. Check it out here.

First, the good stuff…scratch that, the AWESOMEST PARTIAL SONG LIST EVA:

• Paint It Black (by The Rolling Stones)
• Cherub Rock (by Smashing Pumpkins)
• Sabotage (by Beastie Boys)
• The Metal (by Tenacious D)
• My Name is Jonas (by Weezer)
• Knights of Cydonia (by Muse)
• Rock And Roll All Nite (as made famous by Kiss)
• School’s Out (as made famous by Alice Cooper)
• Slow Ride (as made famous by Fog Hat)
• Cult of Personality (by Living Colour)
• Barracuda (as made famous by Heart)

Look at how many of those are ORIGINAL RECORDINGS. If this is just the first batch of songs they’ve announced and knowing that there’s always better stuff waiting in the wings…I might just die right now.

The press release definitively confirms that the game will be released for Xbox 360, PS2, PS3 and Wii.

Here’s the most special deetz:

• Wireless controllers for ALL sytems
• Boss battles
• More songs than ever before
• Gibson Les Paul and Kramer model guitars on the PS2 (Les Paul? YES!!!)
• Removable, customizable faceplates for the guitars along with a new button color scheme (rut-ro shaggy!)
• Expanded online multiplayer (head to head)
• “Major aces in the hole…” (AC/DC, Metallica, Zeppelin?)

Full press release after the jump. Continue Reading »

Ugh, it’s kinda on the ugly side. I know I said this during our earlier post about the 80’s song list for the Guitar Hero sequel, but I’m less interested each time I see a new element of the game. I understand the box doesn’t mean jack when it comes to gameplay but that dude on the cover is freaking me out. Of course I’m not buying it on PS2 so I won’t really have to worry about this when buying the (inevitable) 360 download.

Draining the proverbial lizard is all well and good, but even the kids on my Elmo’s Potty Time DVD know “I make piddles in bathroom.” Somehow that logic slipped the minds of some university students in Wyoming, and they paid the price. From FoxNews.com;

I did a story today on a group of kids from the University of Wyoming who got together to have fun with a new PlayStation 3. The owner of the game decided they should destroy the old PlayStation 2 because he wouldn’t need it anymore. One of his friends thought he would be funny and began to urinate on the game, but guess what…it was still plugged into the wall! He fell to the floor unconscious, but came to in about ten seconds and was rushed to the hospital.

Well that’s one way to make sure it burns when you pee. As diverse as the PS2 library is, the one thing I always thought it was lacking was more games about urination. I’m glad to see these kids have it covered. I believe this is a perfect example of what my eighth grade science teacher would call “natural selection.” If you’re dumb enough to pee on a plugged-in electrical device, I’m mean enough to laugh.

[via Media Bytes]

Finally, months after the initial announcement of a coming 80’s edition of Guitar Hero II we finally have some songs to (maybe?) look forward to. Here’s what we get so far:

• I Wanna Rock (by Twisted Sister)
• I Ran (by Flock of Seagulls)
• Round and Round (as made famous by Ratt)
• I Want Candy (as made famous by Bow Wow Wow)
• Metal Health (as made famous by Quiet Riot)
• Holy Diver (as made famous by Dio)
• Heat Of The Moment (as made famous by Asia)

Those with a keen eye will probably guess that “I Wanna Rock” and “I Ran” are most likely master recordings, since there’s no “as made famous by” tagline.

I gotta admit so far this list is kinda… meh. With the exception of Twister Sister of course. And how can you include Quiet Riot and not use “Cmon feel the noize”?

Now the bad news, the press release says this game is going to be a PS2 exclusive! BOO! Of course we all know why, this way they can sell the songs to us 360 owners piecemeal and charge a few bucks a song. Activision, please say it ain’t so.

It’s turning into a big day! Not only is Dan not around and I get to post all this big news, but there’s big news to post!

It looks like Wii and PS3 owners will be getting in on the fun fo sho this time around when Red Octane releases Guitar Hero III for the PS2, PS3, Xbox 360 and Wii this fall.

Cubed3 was digging around the Red Octane site and came across this in their knowledge base:

When is Guitar Hero 2 (II) Coming? Will there be GH 2 for Wii, PS3, XBox, Xbox 360, etc?

Guitar Hero 3 for the Playstation 2, PS3, Xbox 360 and Wii are currently scheduled for release in the United States in Fall of 2007.

Will Any RedOctane Products Support XBox 360, Playstation 3, Wii?

Guitar Hero II from RedOctane currently supports PlayStation 2 and Xbox 360. Products for Sony Playstation 3 and Nintendo Wii will be out in Fall of 2007.

[Cubed3 via Kotaku]

Quite a while ago I made up a wish list of songs for the upcoming 80’s Edition of Guitar Hero. This time I’m making list of new features I’d love to see in the next iteration of one of my all-time favorite games.

Make The Tremelo Bar Mean Something

Sure, it can boost your star power quicker on certain notes, but the rest of the time it doesn’t do squat except make the notes sound different. I think they should make it required on some of the long notes. This is a simple thing that could up the difficulty without adding a flurry of notes, and add to the “realism”.

Fret Slides

I find myself doing this anyway, just to try and keep up, but again I think it’s something that should be occasionally required. Take a song like Freebird or almost any song where the guitarist is using a slide technique. You should have to slide your finger from one button to the next when the song calls for it, like running your fingers down the strings on a real guitar. Just another little thing that could make it feel even more real. Continue Reading »