If you like to play virtual dress up, and don’t mind pissing away five bucks on a character you pretty much only see when starting up your console, the Assassin’s Creed II avatar costume is now available on the Xbox LIVE Marketplace as a part of a new update which includes some nifty DJ Hero virtual garments as well.

I’ll race you there. On three …

It’s obviously not the full song, and to be honest it’s not likely to be the best one, but damn it, it’s Daft Punk, and it’s new. Even beside the fact that the game is looking surprisingly entertaining, DJ Hero is taunting Daft Punk fans everywhere into wanting the game- new tracks, heavy focus, even silly things like the Alive 2007 stage.

Anyone remember this post I made back in May? In it, I made threats to attack Activision if Daft Punk wasn’t in the game(I was joking, Mr. Activision lawyer). Obviously, they took this the way I meant them to take it and promptly added them into the game, making me and many others very cheerful about it. No need to thank me, honestly. Anyone would have done the same thing.

When DJ Hero was first hinted at a year ago, I was kind of looking forward to it. I assumed it be a series of scratching to a bunch of hip-hop remixes, but I was completely wrong. Of course, you’ve already heard me complaing about the songs mixed for the game, but seeing as how we now have the first official footage of a song on the highest difficulty in the game, I feel like I can give a somewhat solid impression on the game.

It looks kind of boring.

Now, I say looks because I haven’t gotten any hands on time with the game yet, but as soon as I do, I plan to post more impressions here. But the fact of the matter is that the game looks like it moves very slowly. I’m sure this isn’t the case, since working the controller must be much more difficult than it looks here, but all I have is the 30 seconds of footage to go off of as of now.

The song above is “KRS-1’s Jack of Spades (DJ Shadow Mix) vs David Bowie’s Lets Dance” and the mix isn’t too bad.

Look, this isn’t a music blog. I have no intentions of telling you what music is good and what music is bad, but there are just some artists that have established themselves well enough to be proclaimed universally as good. Of course, it’s easy to ruin their songs- just mash them up with songs people have never heard, or have no intention of ever hearing again. I assume this is the premise for DJ Hero, because with all my cynicism, I don’t think that the partial setlist Game Informer recently revealed could turn out well.

At all.

But aside from a set list of crazy mash-ups, Game Informer also stated that the controller we saw earlier isn’t the entire thing. There’s also a separate component, with a cross fader, effects dial, and a “Euphoria” (star power) button. While it might seem simple, Kotaku reports that the simplicity comes from the fact that the cross fader also has to be in the right position when tapping the buttons, and arrows that tell you which way to scratch. If you’re sick of my opinion on the game, you can hit the jump for hte partial setlist, and form your own opinion.
“Feel Good Inc.” (Gorillaz) vs “I Heard It Through the Grapevine” (Marvin Gaye)
“Jayou” (Jurassic 5) vs “Rockit” (Herbie Hancock)
“Bustin’ Loose” (Chuck Brown) vs “Time of the Season” (The Zombies, DJ Shadow Mix)
“All Apologies” (Nirvana) vs “Give It to Me Baby” (Rick James, DJ Shadow Mix)
“Let’s Dance” (David Bowie) vs “Jack of Spades” (KRS One, DJ Shadow Mix)
“Shout” (Tears for Fears) vs “Pjanoo” (Eric Prydz)

It seems nowadays that everytime I write up a post, I end up complaining about Activision and their cash cow known colloquially as Guitar Hero- and this post will unfortunately be no different. Because today, Activision announced three, yes three, more games for the Guitar Hero franchise, all of which are coming out this year.

Though there were already 4 confirmed Guitar Hero games in the works for 2009 alone, Activision today confirmed that three more ____ Hero games would be released this fall, namely Band Hero, Guitar Hero V, and DJ Hero. The idea of DJ Hero was leaked a while ago, but Guitar Hero V and Band Hero are news as far as news goes.

According to the press release, Guitar Hero: Van Halen will feature Van Halen’s greatest hits, along with some songs from other artists, selected by Van Halen themselves. Band Hero will be the franchise’s first E10+ game, and will be focused more on a “family-friendly experience”, and DJ Hero will be a scratching game with a turntable controller (as you see above) with which you can remix songs in the game. DJ Hero seems the most interesting to me, but I’d have to see it myself before making any judgement.

Hit the jump for the press release, straight from the horse’s Activision’s mouth.

GUITAR HERO® ANNOUNCES FALL LINEUP FEATURING GROUNDBREAKING
DJ HERO™ TITLE AND NEW GUITAR HERO® 5 AND BAND HERO™ GAMES

Innovative DJ Hero Game Expected To Transform

How Consumers Engage with Music

New Guitar Hero 5, DJ Hero and Band Hero Expand the Category with Fun-to-Play Experiences and Innovative New Technologies and Features

Fall Slate Delivers Largest Variety of Music and Hottest Artists

Santa Monica, CA – May 7, 2009 – Activision Publishing, Inc. (Nasdaq: ATVI) is set to once again revolutionize how consumers interact with music by releasing three new titles this fall – DJ Hero™, Guitar Hero® 5 and Band Hero™ – that will redefine the company’s popular music gaming platform. The slate will transform the way consumers enjoy and engage with music by offering the largest variety of music genres, innovative technologies and new social entertainment experiences for existing fans and millions of new consumers who previously have not joined Guitar Hero’s global community of fans.

· The company’s groundbreaking DJ Hero expands Guitar Hero’s signature social gaming to all-new consumers with the addition of diverse music genres including hip-hop, R&B, Motown, electronica and dance. Introducing an all-new innovative turntable controller, DJ Hero transforms players into DJs who rule the club scene by creating original mixes of popular songs and music from the world’s most exciting artists and DJs.

· Letting fans continue to fulfill their rock fantasies, Guitar Hero 5 features the hottest rock and roll artists today as well as classic rock bands and gives players an unprecedented level of control over the way they play the game with the ability to drop in and out of songs and change band members, instruments and difficulty levels on the fly.

· The franchises’ first E10+ rated console game, Band Hero delivers an exciting music collection featuring top-40 hits designed to expand the experience to a new genre and appeal to a broad family audience who can play together on the guitar, drums, bass and microphone. The game builds upon Guitar Hero’s easy-to-play, difficult-to-master signature gameplay and allows novice players and expert fans to join together on their favorite songs.

“Guitar Hero has made music social again and has become one of the most popular ways to experience music,” said Dan Rosensweig, President and Chief Executive Officer of the Guitar Hero franchise. “Today’s fans enjoy a variety of music and are looking for more ways to engage with their favorite songs, artists and fellow fans. These games will let them listen, participate and socialize with music in ways they have never been able to before.”

What you see before you is one of two renderings posted by DJHero on Twitter. Don’t worry, they’ve also been confirmed by Activision by way of a press release, in case you had any suspicions that the Twitter account might be false. They’re not really a surprising design; the only think that strikes me is the lack of yellow and orange buttons (unless they’re on another unit, or on the side). Now what remains for the game is the song list- if there’s no Daft Punk, I’ll go right to Activision HQ and punch every single person there.

Actually, I’ll do something that’ll hurt them even more. I’ll complain on the internet. They’ll never survive that!

In an interview with Joystiq, Brian Bright, project director of Guitar Hero: World Tour, confirmed that Activision are working on DJ Hero. From Joystiq:

JS: Didn’t you say you’re already working on another music game?

BB: Activision’s doing a DJ Hero game, and I can’t comment on what we’re doing. But… we’re working on the future and next gen.

After some convincing rumours, it’s good to hear that the market will eventually have music games that don’t involve instruments from rock bands. It’s certainly a good descision for Activision; surely the only market that hasn’t been taken over by Guitar Hero is those people who don’t enjoy rock music? With DJ Hero, Activision will most likely become richer than Richie Rich on payday who has also just found a $700 billion cheque on the street. Anyway, what do you think? Good or bad idea? Do people want to keep buying more plastic instruments? Let us know in the comments.

Activision look to be expanding their current collection of video games which use plastic instrument peripherals with their recent filing for a patent on the name DJ Hero.

The patent, filed on Feb 8th, describes an “Interactive video game comprised of a CD or DVD sold as a unit with a video game controller”, which although not a new idea, might be one seeing a mini-revival in the coming years.

Activision aren’t the only ones interested in the idea, with PlayPen Studios currently working on their latest game, Skillz. A game described as a “music and rhythm game that puts you behind the turntables as an up-and-coming DJ” which will come with a turn-table controller. Remind you of anything?

Whether Activision are simply protecting their franchise, or actively starting development on the game remains to be seen. My prediction? Keep your eyes peeled for Trombone Hero, and just remember who called it first.

Source: Trademork