In an interview with Digital Spy, Kai Huang, president and cofounder of RedOctane, said the studio has “definitely been evaluating Microsoft’s Natal technology, along with a lot of other different technologies”.

Natal is very interesting because there’s so many different things you can do with it, whether it’s the motion detecting, maybe sensing how you’re playing, or the ability to use it for interactivity purposes and taking advantage of it for party purposes. I think the technology is very exciting. We’re evaluating it, and I think it’s likely that sometime in the future we’ll have those technologies integrated into our games.

Rock Band also is considering Natal, saying they’d look at the technology for inclusion in Rock Band 3.

Guitar Hero May Use Natal Technology [Digital Spy]

The drums themselves look a lot like the old drums except for one key feature: the cymbals, which now look normal, as opposed to something you’d find on an electronic kit from 1986. Course, other people will say they look less like normal drums and more like Rock Band drums, but hey, to each their own.

As far as the 24 new tracks go, it’s an eclectic mix, elevated in this writer’s humble opinion solely by the inclusion of “Maiden, Mother & Crone”. (The Stones and Screaming Trees for me – AU Ed.)

Attack! Attack! UK – “You And Me”
Bon Jovi – “You Give Love A Bad Name”
Darker My Love – “Blue Day”
The Duke Spirit – “Send A Little Love Token”
Elton John – “Saturday Night’s Alright (For Fighting)”
Face To Face – “Disconnected”
Garbage – “Only Happy When It Rains”
Kaiser Chiefs – “Never Miss A Beat”
Kiss – “Shout It Out Loud”
Love and Rockets – “Mirror People”
My Morning Jacket – “One Big Holiday”
Nirvana – “Lithium (Live)”
The Police – “So Lonely”
Rammstein – “Du Hast”
The Rolling Stones – “Sympathy For The Devil”
Sonic Youth – “Incinerate”
Screaming Trees – “Nearly Lost You”
Sublime – “What I Got”
The Sword – “Maiden, Mother & Crone”
Thin Lizzy – “Jailbreak”
Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers – “American Girl”
The White Stripes – “Blue Orchid”

Guitar Hero 5 Official Track List [IGN]
The Official Store Blog » Blog Archive » Guitar Hero 5 Drums Pictures [Red Octane]

Activision and RedOctane have thrown up an official web site for their upcoming music mixing rhythm game DJ Hero, complete with two turntables and a cheering Flash crowd.

It’s more of a teaser website than anything else, with no sign of a logo and no information whatsoever. You’ve got your turntables situated in front of a cheering crowd, and should you touch said turntables the crowd cheers louder, making the whole thing a testament to the importance of having a sound off button on your website. Adding to the interactivity is a sign up box, where you can submit your information in order to be the first to know when new information is released about the game.

If you’re interested, I would suggest turning down your speakers, hopping over to http://djhero.com/, submitting your information, and then fleeing as soon as humanly possible.

To interface with your drum kit, however, you will need a midi to USB cable, which you most likely don’t have. RedOctane provides a link in their support centre article where you can submit a ticket for information on how to receive said cable. Not quite as good as having all peripherals work out of the box, but at least they’re trying.

Guitar Hero World Tour Drum Tuning Kit [RedOctane - Thanks Nick!]

The PS3, Wii and 360 bundles will set you back $US 189.99. The PS2 bundle is 10 bones less, $US 179.99. Presumably these all include the game, guitar, drums and a mike. Gamestop just put the info up on its website, and Gaming Bits caught the scoop, noting that the bundle is $US 20 more than the Rock Band Special Edition bundle.

If you want to buy just the guitar and the game, you can get those for $US 99.99 and $US 59.99/$US 49.99 respectively. The release date is Oct. 27, 2008.

Guitar Hero: World Tour Priced at Gamestop [Gaming Bits]

…we’re working closely with Nintendo for an online solution, though at the moment we’re unable to confirm the status of the online multi-player.

Following up with Lam, BBPS reports that this also applies to downloadable content. Shame. That doesn’t sound promising at all, and would leave the Wii version looking more than a little gimped.
Guitar Hero III may be online, but will it be “Nintendo” online? [BBPS]

We’re exploring a lot of things. We’re hoping to really bring the experience to the DS and to do some very, very different approaches. We’re working through a lot of engineering issues with Nintendo. I actually came from a set of meetings with them last week about this. While the technical path hasn’t been set yet, we intend for this to be a very unique experience just like Guitar Hero was on consoles. This will play probably unlike any other DS game that has come out, and at this stage, that’s all I’m afraid we can talk about until we have the engineering paths laid out with Nintendo.

The GameSpot interview also touches on the possibility of a custom peripheral for the DS version, Huang saying they’re looking into it, and are keeping in mind the DS is played in more areas than your living room and needs to be a lot cheaper than the console versions. All good, all good, just promise me we’ll get some cute little frets and a cute little whammy bar. Promise me.

Q&A: RedOctane cofounder Charles Huang [Gamespot]