Despite drummer Nick Mason’s comments that “It irritates [him] having watched [his] kids do it – if they spent as much time practising the guitar as learning how to press the buttons they’d be damn good by now,” he has expressed that the band could be interested in a Rock Band/Guitar Hero Pink Floyd game. “I think we’d consider it,” he told the BBC. “I think everyone’s looking at new ways of selling the music because the business of selling records has almost disappeared.”

Seems like he’s only in it for the record sales, but to be honest, I don’t care. A Pink Floyd Rock Band game would, to me, be one of the best music games possible. In fact, just a spin-off as simple as “Rock Band: Progressive Rock edition” would be brilliant. Nick Mason lives near to me, so if they say no to this I will go round to his house and give him a good talking-to. (this worked for Daft Punk in DJ Hero, there’s no reason why it can’t work twice).

Via Kotaku

I jump with joy any time that video games are brought up in a good light, and this is no exception. Deval Patrick, the Governor of Massachusetts, lobbied game publishers to relocate to his state in an effort to help his state’s economy. Now he’s brought the subject up again, this time bragging about it. Read more…

Another day, another Guitar Hero story, but this one is sure to have some of the franchise’s fans excited. USA Today announced some brand new features for Guitar Hero 5(Xbox 360, PS3, PS2, Wii) as well as a partial setlist featuring tracks by Tom Petty, White Stripes, Bob Dylan, Rolling Stones, Stevie Wonder, Johnny Cash, Santana, and Vampire Weekend. Now, regardless of how you feel about the franchise, you’ve got to admit- that is a fantastic setlist.

USA Today also announced the brand-new Fest mode that allows people to battle at home or online for scores. As always, 4 can compete at home, but with the inclusion of online battles, 8 players in total can compete online, for “momentum points”. Another mode they detailed was Party Play, which lets you join songs, switch instruments, or change the difficulty level-mid-game. Activision’s creative director says that GH5 will have a lot more variety, with more indie artists, classic rock, and heavy metal.

Call me a hypocrite if you want, but if the setlist continues to be this great, and the features keep rocking, this might be the first GH game I’ve picked up since Guitar Hero 2 back in ‘06. Plus, Vampire Weekend! I’ve been asking for their songs since Rock Band came out, but I guess Activision beat Harmonix to the punch. Hit the jump for the partial setlist.
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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. Read more…

I’ve made this point at least three times this year, but if all goes as planned, there will be 20 Guitar Hero games in existence at the end of 2009. Yes, twenty. But since RedOctane and Harmonix sold the series after three games, the other 17 seems to have come straight from Activision, even though they’ve only had the series for two and a half years. And now, with every possible sign, save for an outright announcement, proving the existence of Guitar Hero: Van Halen, it’s pretty safe to assume that this game is coming out. Unfortunately.

It’s no secret that I’m not too fond of Activision’s franchise exploiting, but it could definitely be a lot worse- and we can prove it. We here at Ripten dug deep into Activision’s trash and found a lengthy list of ideas that were cut from their lineup, but for the sake of time, we selected the best five, along with their box arts, and posted them after the jump.

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Every week, on CD 101 Columbus, Ohio’s premier Alternative Rock station, I pick which new game release people should buy, and which one they should stay the heck away from.

Guitar Hero Metallica is on the show today, but is it the Winner of the Week or the Loser? Click the link to find out if Metal heads will be eternally pissed off at me

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Activision has announced today that Guitar Hero fans will have a place to rock out and bob their heads in unison in Sony’s online service, PlayStation Home. The Guitar Hero room is called “Backstage with Guitar Hero”.

“Backstage with Guitar Hero” will grant VIP access to both a themed backstage lounge and massive concert venue where they can meet up, hang out, check out videos for upcoming titles on the franchise, and share their rock and roll secrets.

There is yet no word on the release date for the room. Read more…

So you’re sitting in front of your TV with your partially unbuttoned dress shirt and your tighty whitey underwear asking yourself “how can my plastic guitar rock experience get any better?”

Well, the first thing you can do is invite a few of your buddies over and recreate the Tony Hawk, Kobe Bryant, A-Rod, and Michael Phelps commercial — and once the emotional high wears off from that, you can thank Activision by downloading their latest “Country Rock” expansion featuring: Rascal Flatts “Me and My Gang,” Brad Paisley’s “Ticks”, and Brooks & Dunn’s “Hillbilly Deluxe.”

This little taste of country can be yours for 440 MS points on XBL and $5.49 on the PSN. Yeeee-Haaaw!!!!

Guitar Hero: Metallica has finally been confirmed, after a series of rumours about the game. The game allows players to play in some “famous settings” with 28 Metallica songs and some Alice in Chains, Foo Fighters, Slayer, Machine Head and Queen ones, too. Also featured is “an all new Expert+ difficulty setting featuring two bass drum kick pedals.” Seems, well, difficult (if One on GHIII is anything to go by). The game is set for release in the first half of 2009, although there is no word on which consoles yet.

As if you didn’t have enough games backtracked to carry you into the New Year, today, at an event hosted by Massive Inc., Activision announced a shitload of new games, though they’re mostly sequels to old titles. Hit the jump for the full details. Read more…

Neversoft, if you’re going to keep whoring out the Guitar Hero franchise- please, do it like this.

I wish I had more to say about this video, but to put it simply, this stuff is awesome. The amount of work and dedication is must have taken to do this is just astounding. Not to mention the LED programming for handlebars. Some kids with time on their hands road around a track of painted dots with LEDs on their handlebars in order to emulate the Guitar Hero experience, set to The Living End’s Prisoner of Society- on a bike.

It’s surprisingly well done, even with the hand writing and the star power tracks. I don’t have the motivation to ever do something on a scale this large, but I definitely have to applaud their work. Kudos, guys.

You may or may not remember the cringe-worthy Guitar Hero World Tour commercial filled with sportacular beefcake — I personally can’t get the look of shame from Michael Phelps out of my head. It would seem that the powers that be have heard our cries and replaced these talented schmoes with an equally talented set of boobs: Heidi Klum. That’s not to say that all of her talent consists of boobs — she has a nice ass, too. Go now and watch them shake. Read more…

Seriously, who thought four grown men wearing pink dress shirts and white boxers sock sliding across a hardwood floor was a good way to market Guitar Hero: World Tour?

What type of Rock Band Group are Tony Hawk, Alex Rodriguez, Kobe Bryant, and Michael Phelps forming? A sissy band that caps off a long night of underwear performances in their living room with a pillow fight? Maybe they can call their band the “Old News Pretty Boy Ski Lodge Olympic Mike” Band. Why Mike? Who told you to do this commercial?

Activision, please hear my plea. Fire your ad agency. The quadruple piano intro is to testosterone as Kryptonite is to Superman.

Afterthought: Does anyone actually like these commercials? Does this make you want to buy Guitar Hero over Rock Band 2?

DS Fanboy reports that the full tracklist for Guitar Hero On Tour: Decades, the next iteration of the huge Guitar Hero franchise on DS. You might not believe it, but it’s an excellent setlist. Not only is it more independent than last time from its console brother, but the tracks themselves are great too. Despite there only being 28 songs, it’s certainly a promising start for this game, and it includes such hits as “Are you gonna go my way” by Lenny Kravitz, “Buddy Holly” by Weezer, and even the epic “La Bamba” by Los Lobos. Hit the jump for the full tracklist.

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It’s always nice to hear mainstream media reference the video game industry positively, but Fox News took it a step further when Alexis Glick affectionately cited Guitar Hero’s projected profits as proof of an economically healthy holiday buying season. Click through for the video. Read more…

It may not be a surprise to hear that the king of guitar is getting some DLC, him being a big part of the game, but a selection of tracks from Jack White’s band The Raconteurs is certainly welcome. It’s good to see more and more bands signing on to have their music in these games; the more of a selection there is, the better the games will be.

The three songs from Hendrix are “If 6 was 9,” “Little Wing,” and a live version of the classic “Fire”. The lineup for fans of The Raconteurs is “Salute Your Solution,” “Hold Up” and “Consoler of the Lonely”. Let’s hope there’s more to come in the future, eh?

The Hendrix pack releases on November 13, and The Raconteurs’ pack releases on November 20, 2008. Both packs will be available on the Xbox Live Marketplace for 440 Points and the Playstation Store for $5.49. The three tracks from The Raconteurs will be released on their own for 160 Microsoft Points, $1.99 on the PS Store and even 200 Wii Points on the Wii. Rawk out!

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.

The latest in the long line of James Bond actors, Daniel Craig, is secretly a huge gaming fanatic.  He’s actually passionate enough about videogames (secretly) that he wouldn’t sign on with Treyarch to make the upcoming Quantum of Solace game until he got a chance to evaluate it himself. Read more…

Activision announced today that Sting and Tool will be added to the lineup for Guitar Hero World Tour. In addition to their music, Sting will be contributing his voice and likeness to an in-game character, and Tool will be adding their creative input on the design of a new venue.

This is a nice step forward by Activision. The announcements of new tracks can get a bit old, but the addition of twists like this definitely help in my opinion.

Afterthought: What say you? Do in-game characters and band inspired venues matter to you, or would you just rather a more in-depth track selection?

Full press release and in-game screens available after the jump. Read more…

These instruments getting all “compatible” with each other borders on pornographic.

Harmonix, Neversoft, Konami, and Activision have all signed an agreement with Microsoft and Sony that guaranteed that all of the new peripherals coming out for the newest batch of music games would all be compatible with each other. Read more…