RSS Feeds
|
US Edition
Babblebaby
|
Defamer
|
Gizmodo
|
Kotaku
|
Lifehacker
This reminds me a little of that bit Billy Crystal used to do about getting old, when his teenage daughter asks, "Dad, is it true Paul McCartney was in another band before Wings?"
No, 50 Cent: Blood On The Sand isn't dead, dead, dead. It's alive! The game, orphaned by Activision Blizzard, has indeed been picked up by publisher THQ, according to a rating by Australia's Office of Film and Literature Classification board. That's the part we did get right when we reexamined 50's fate. Honestly, though our interest in 50's music begins and ends at "In Da Club" we can't help but be warmed over by the ridiculousness of Blood On The Sand's debut trailer. It's brilliant.
Looks like Activision will have some competition in the turntablism music niche - Scratch: Ultimate DJ is a new contender from 7 Studios, produced with the help of Quincy Jones III (not that one, his son - still good, though).
In Patapon you controlled an assortment of highly stylized characters by tapping out music on the four face buttons of the Playstation Portable. I was a big fan of the game, but found over time that unless I gave it 100 percent of my attention I would often lose the beat.
DICE are extremely pleased with the theme song to their upcoming free-action running delivering shooting things game Mirror's Edge, Swedish pop star Lisa Miskovsky's "Still Alive" (no relation). So pleased, in fact, that they've gathered the original song plus five remixes together on a special album to be digitally released on November 11th. Top remixers like Junkie XL, Teddybears, and Paul van Dyk all deliver their own unique spin on Lisa's original track.
"A groundbreaking videogame demands an equally provocative theme song," said Steve Schnur, Worldwide Executive of Music and Marketing for EA. "We've taken an unprecedented approach to this track, bringing together several of the world's top remixers to create an album that will not only cross genres and borders, but also redefine how great new music can be delivered to the world."
Saint's Row 2 is just around the corner, and in order to whet fans' appetites even further, THQ has released the full track listings for the in-game radio stations. There are 11 different stations, 6 of which are music focused, with stations ranging from rap to funk, alternative to 80's. It's a rather lengthy list, and almost completely unfamiliar to me until you hit Avenged Sevenfold about halfway down the page, which is sad, because that comes after funk, and I am all about the funk.
First off when I heard about Guitar Hero: On Tour, I was to say the least, skeptical. Then at E3 I got to try Fahey's copy of it and I must say, honestly, it really wasn't as bad as I thought it would be. I looked ridicules while playing it, but it was actually fun. Speaking of which we got some new screens for Activision's next iteration of the game.
No, I will not let this topic drop. There can be no real winner in the Guitar Hero / Rock Band war until one song...just one, little song appears in one of the two, and that song is "The Touch" by Stan Bush. Originally appearing on the soundtrack to the Transformers animated movie in the 80's, the song made countless little boys believe that they could do absolutely anything, no matter how many Decepticons got in their way.
Lots of people on the Rock Band forums are complaining of a pretty heinous multiplayer glitch in Rock Band 2, which seems to only affect the 360 version. In a nutshell, it strikes bands with Live Enabled gamers as the primary account, and non-Live enabled as the secondary. The glitch wipes out your band in tour mode, and forces you to start over. Particularly aggravating is that it seems to wait until you're a ways into the game.
Sifting through a 15-page thread I can't seem to find any response from Harmonix on this, as to whether the glitch is known, what the problem is, if there's a workaround, if a patch is coming, what. Now, I don't have a direct line to Harmonix -- I don't even have the game here -- and besides, it's a Saturday anyway. But yeah, if this problem is as people describe it, that's pretty goddamn aggravating and they're owed an explanation, or at least an acknowledgment of the issue. So how about it, Harmonix.
Email from a tipster explaining the glitch is on the jump.
Need one more (or a) reason to get the AC/DC Rock Band expansion, achievement whores? You got one. The disc will be shipping with its own set of "unique" achievements, as well as - according to Harmonix - "several that are song specific". PS3 owners, same story, you'll get trophies. Presumably (hopefully?) one of them will be for nailing the piggish "oi! oi! oi!" in TNT.
Will the AC/DC disc come with Achievements/Trophies? [Rock Band]
The guys from UK site Gamer ran into Grammy-winning rapper Coolio in the elevator on the way to a Guitar Hero World Tour demo at a hotel recently. Of course they invited him along to check the game out.
After taking on La Bamba, Coolio was peer-pressured into taking a stab at Beat It and Gamer captured the whole thing on video. Wow, he really can't hit those Michael Jackson high notes. But he does trash talk the game after eeking by on medium.
And not just any Motley Crue album. It's Dr. Feelgood. The announcement comes not from Harmonix, and not from MTV, but from the Crue themselves (or, at least their publicists), with a small note on the band's imeem portal letting us know that the album most people will say is their crowning achievement will be available for the game starting October 14. For reference, this is the album with Kickstart My Heart on it. Not interested? You should be looking yourself in the mirror and wondering why you spent all that money on a game called Rock Band.
Win the entire catalogue and a signed copy of "The Dirt" [Imeem]
You know, some trailers we get are just a pleasure to watch and that goes for this new Fable 2 developer diary. A few members of the audio department over at Lionhead explain some of the music and sound choices that were made for the game. So if you've had a rough day at work or are just stressed out, sit back, relax and enjoy this one.
You may have noticed by the handy-dandy calendar on your computer screen that we have, in fact, left the month of September behind us and galloped full-speed into October.
Not only have the months proceeded in a timely fashion, but I have not posted the results of my Drum Trainer experiment. So here's the deal (Yes, an excuse is coming). A week after kicking off my grand experiment, my television went out. Then I had to fly to New York. Now I have to fly to Tokyo. I'm not pulling the plug on the experiment, nor am I changing the rules, really, but I am going to postpone posting the results. I'll still show you the progress of 30 days of training, but it's going to come later in October.
For now relish in the official training guide that John Drake over at Harmonix, a drummer himself, was kind enough to put together for me.
It's finally time, Rock Band 2 owners! The web page for the additional 20 downloadable tracks promised on the back of the manual is finally live and accepting registrations. Simply enter the registration code, fill out the short form, confirm your email, and those 20 free tracks are yours...eventually. What they're doing is getting people registered so when the tracks go live, they'll be able to snag them immediately, which I suppose is better than everyone trying to snag them at once.
Don't worry, there'll be ours eventually. Hell, we don't even know if we should look forward to them yet or not. I'm still holding out for a 20-song collection from Stan Bush of "The Touch" fame.
Rock Band 2 DLC Reg Page [Official Site]
While the world waits patiently for SingStar Queen, Sony have gone and done the next best thing, and released two Queen song packs onto the PS3's downloadable SingStore. The ten songs included across the two packs will most probably all be found on the standalone PS2 version, and from the look of them, it's a highlights reel, with Bohemian Rhapsody, One Vision, We Will Rock You, We Are The Champions and I Want It All included.
Oh, and Sony. Whoever made the call on the inclusion of Who Wants To Live Forever...thank you. From the bottom of my heart, thank you. Full tracklist follows.
The packs - available right now - include the following:
Ultimate Queen 1:
Bohemian Rhapsody
One Vision
Crazy Little Thing Called Love
Breakthru
Bicycle Race
Ultimate Queen 2:
We Will Rock You
Another One Bites The Dust
Who Wants To Live Forever
I Want It All
We Are The Champions
Between hearing the news, getting the press release then getting a follow-up, all the big questions we had about Rock Band's AC/DC expansion were answered. Doesn't mean all our questions were answered, though. We've still got plenty more. Like...how's online going to work? Is it true that AC/DC are now signed exclusively to Rock Band? And if so, does this mean Harmonix are big fat liars, and that exclusivity in these band games does matter?
There was a bit of confusion this morning when the official press release for AC/DC Live: Rock Band Track Pack hit. Unlike the New York Times story, which said the game was a Wal-Mart exclusive, there was no such mention of exclusivity in the press release.
We contacted Harmonix this morning for clarification and it turns out the New York Times got it right: AC/DC Live: Rock Band Track Pack will be released as a disc-only game exclusively at Wal-Mart.
The standalone game will include 18 classic live tracks from the band's live performances for more than 99 minutes of gameplay on each instrument. And, according to Harmonix, the game will not be available as DLC only as a disc.
If you buy the disc you can export the tracks from the pack to Rock Band or Rock Band 2 at no extra charge by entering a special export authentication code from the manual, though an online connection will be required. The $30 to $40 game will also be available for purchase at Sams Club in the U.S.
For those living in Europe, Australia and New Zealand the game will be available at most major retail outlets, but still not online.
In-game advertising company IGA Worldwide continues its streak of signing major console manufacturers and publishers to their network, announcing that they've signed a multi-year agreement with Activision to supply dynamic advertisements for the company's PlayStation 3 titles, beginning with Guitar Hero: World Tour.
"Our partnership with IGA will allow us to deliver dynamic in-game advertising to the growing PlayStation Network community for the first time," said Dave Anderson, head of business development at Activision Publishing. "By incorporating dynamic in-game advertising in our titles where it is appropriate, we can increase the realism of our games by presenting consumers with authentic environments in genuine settings, while also expanding a key growth opportunity for the company."
See? It's all about realism. I hate it when video games make me thirsty for a beverage or excited about a masculine hygiene product that doesn't actually exist. Thank goodness for realistic advertising!
Yuke's Company of America has big things in store for Nintendo's WiiWare program, and they're kicking things off with an innovative take on the racing genre with BPM Racing in early 2009. It combines racing with rhythm, with drivers gifted with greater speeds, increased handling, and score multipliers for keeping up with the rhythm of the music played as they drive.
"The racing genre is ripe for a new, innovative direction and increasing the aural experience seemed like an obvious choice." said Ken Koyama, Director of Business Development at YUKE'S Company of America. "BPM Racing will reinvent the relationship between a racing game and its soundtrack."
If done right, this could be a completely blissful experience. I can't drive without music. My car radio once broke and I spent a week making up my own songs while driving to keep myself from going insane while it was being repaired. If I had had a tape recorder with me I would have made millions (of people nauseous).
So Harmonix and MTV Games told the New York Times all about the upcoming AC/DC Live Rock Band track pack, but they omitted some important details, which the official press release is all-too happy to fill us in on. Details such as the release date, November 2nd for the Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, and PlayStation 2 in the States, November 16th for the Wii, running $39,98 for current gen and $29.98 for the good old PS2. Europe and the UK should be getting the pack sometime in early December. Note that the press release does not mention Wal-Mart exclusivity for the game, only the band's new album, Black Ice. Might just be an oversight, but there you go.
As for playing the songs from the standalone pack in Rock Band 1 and 2, 360 and PS3 owners will be able to enter a special export authentication code, copying the songs to the hard disk for play in either title. Me? Not spending $40 for 18 new tracks, though if they ever decide to put the album up as DLC later on down the line, sign me up. Hit the jump for the full skinny.
Hey, remember that AC/DC-themed version of Rock Band we told you about a few weeks ago? According to the NY Times, it's due to be formally unveiled by MTV tomorrow. And what's more, it's to be formally unveiled with a hefty caveat. Like, it's only going to be available at Wal-Mart. So Rock N Roll! Officially branded AC/DC Live: Rock Band Track Pack (most likely featuring tracks from their Castle Donington show), the expansion is (as we also told you a few weeks back) one piece in a massive marketing move by the band's label, Columbia Records, which will see special AC/DC "areas" set up in each of Wal-Mart's stores, selling not just the expansion, but AC/DC's new album and all kinds of merch.
Why the exclusivity? Surprise: it's all about the cash money. MTV's Van Toffler:
[AU: Hey, if it makes it to K-Mart out here, I'll be happy enough. --SB]
Folks are saying that the sound quality of the new Metallica album Death Magnetic is rotten. The Guitar Hero version, however? Much better. (In case you missed the comparison, feel free to judge for yourself here.) Metallica drummer Lars Ulrich has no clue what people are bitching and moaning about. Dude's been listening to the CD in his car, and it sounds "fuckin' smokin'". Continuing, Lars continues:
Hip Hop and Basketball - two great tastes that.. etc. etc.