In another round of totally geeked-out food products, we’ve recently stumbled across this Xbox 360 cake. Of course, there’s not much you can do with just a 360, so this cake comes equipped with a cake controller and a Guitar Hero IV cake.

The cakes were made by Heather Spencer, a young woman who is currently working on a degree in Baking and Pastry Arts. I say she’s already earned her certificate with these delicious-looking masterpieces. Well, I’m not sure how delicious they would actually taste, but she’s definitely got the “Pastry Arts” part down.

Which is the cake and which is the real thing? Amazing!

You can see more photos of these cakes and Heather’s other creations on her Myspace page (if you’re a member, and let’s face it, you probably are): The Four Bees

As if that Apple commercial isn’t already burned deeply into your psyche, GH3 has even more Coldplay coming your way on June 19, 2008 via download through XBL and PSN.

Though Viva la Vida itself will not be included in the mix (darn), you will be able to rock out (or sip wine) to Violet Hill, Yellow, and God Put a Smile Upon Your Face.

Get to smiling as you read the full press release after the jump.

MULTI-PLATINUM ALTERNATIVE ROCKERS COLDPLAY DEBUT NEW SINGLE AS PART OF DOWNLOADABLE SONGPACK FOR GUITAR HERO® III: LEGENDS OF ROCK

SANTA MONICA, CA – June 13, 2008 – The reflective and emotional chords of multi-award winning band Coldplay are making their debut on Activision, Inc.’s (Nasdaq: ATVI) Guitar Hero® III: Legends of Rock with the release of a three-track downloadable song pack.

Included in the song pack is the hit single “Violet Hill,” from the band’s highly anticipated new album, Viva la Vida, which is set for release on June 17, 2008. The pack also features Coldplay’s first smash hit “Yellow” that earned them a legion of fans worldwide, as well as the upbeat and melodic tune “God Put a Smile Upon Your Face” from the Grammy® Award-winning album, A Rush of Blood to the Head. The Coldplay track pack will be available on June 19, 2008 for download on Xbox LIVE® Marketplace for Xbox 360® video game and entertainment system from Microsoft and in the PLAYSTATION®Store for the PLAYSTATION®3 computer entertainment system.

If you need something to tide you over before the June 29 release of Guitar Hero: Aerosmith, this might be the ticket. Activision has announced that five song packs will be released throughout this month. Starting on yesterday, two of the five packs are from Motörhead and three headline acts from the 2007 Isle of Wight festival.

The Motörhead pack contains “We Are the Road Crew,” “Stay Clean” and the self-titled “Motörhead.” The Isle of Wight pack features master recordings of Kasabian’s “Shoot the Runner”, Kaiser Chief’s “I Predict a Riot”, and The Sex Pistols’ live rendition of “Problems”.

Both track packs are now available on Xbox LIVE Marketplace and the PlayStation Store.

Annoyed that you have to buy two guitar controllers to play Guitar Hero 3 and Rock Band? Frustrated because the Guitar Hero III controller doesn’t work with your Guitar Hero I and II games? Well, worry no longer.

The Ant Commandos (TAC) today announced its wireless V Shaped Double Range Guitar, which is the first controller that’s 100% compatible with all Guitar Hero and Rock Band games for the PlayStation 2 and PlayStation 3. No word on an Xbox 360 compatible version just yet. The controller retails for $59.99 and comes in jet black, flame red, and electric blue.

TAC’s Double Range Guitar enhances players’ gameplay experience no matter which music-inclined video game or PlayStation system they are using. By utilizing 2.4GHz wireless technology, players can hurl themselves around as they thrash to the beat, up to 30 feet away from the console.

A second set of FeatherTouch fret buttons on its Xtended Fret Array allows players to fully take advantage of experiencing a full range when performing earth-shattering solos, then using the higher set for rhythm parts. The Double Range’s lower 5 buttons are 100% compatible with Rock Band’s Solo Guitar play and it offers a 5-way switch to support the sound effect feature in Rock Band.

When playing Guitar Hero, the lower 5 buttons behave just like the top 5 buttons, thus allowing gamers to simulate solo action in Guitar Hero I, II, and III.

Additionally, gamers will be able to rock out like a true musician with the 360FLY Clip, a special belt clip that attaches to the guitar with a single pivot point, allowing players to wildly spin the guitar to replicate the moves of their favorite famous guitarists.

After weeks of information slowly leaking out about Activision’s answer to Rock Band, Guitar Hero World Tour has now been officially announced. Read on for the trailer and more details.

Adding drums and a microphone to the Guitar Hero line-up has been inevitable since Rock Band hit the shelves. Today Activision have announced their “definitive rock & roll music videogaming experience” in the form of Guitar Hero World Tour.

Notable features include a sturdy drum set, player composed and created music, 8 player “battle of the bands” multiplayer and apparently the biggest selection of on-disc music to date, with all of the music being taken from the original recordings.

Santa Monica, CA – May 22, 2008 – When the house lights go down this fall, a new generation of axe shredders, drummers and fearless frontmen will come together and rock with Activision, Inc.’s (Nasdaq: ATVI) Guitar Hero® World Tour.  The latest installment from the #1 best-selling video game franchise of 2007, Guitar Hero World Tour will transform music gaming by marrying Guitar Hero’s® exhilarating guitar gameplay, with a cooperative band experience that combines the most advanced wireless instruments with revolutionary new online and offline gameplay modes.  The game will feature a slick newly redesigned guitar, a genuine electronic drum kit and a microphone, as well as an innovative Music Studio music creator that lets players compose, record, edit and share their own rock and roll anthems, along with online Band Career and 8-player “Battle of the Bands.”

Delivering the largest on-disc set list in a music-rhythm game to-date, Guitar Hero World Tour is comprised entirely of master recordings from some of the greatest classic and modern rock bands of all-time including Van Halen, Linkin Park, The Eagles, Sublime and many more.  Additionally, the game will offer significantly more localized downloadable music than ever before on all of the next-generation consoles.  Budding rock stars will also be given creative license to fully customize everything from their characters’ appearance and instruments to their band’s logo and album covers.

In addition to a newly designed more responsive guitar controller and microphone, Guitar Hero World Tour will deliver the most realistic drum experience ever in a video game with an authentic electronic drum kit.  Featuring three drum pads, two raised cymbals and a bass kick pedal, the drum controller combines larger and quieter, velocity-sensitive drum heads with soft rubber construction to deliver authentic bounce back and is easy to set up, move, break down and store.

When I read this headline yesterday, I came very close to needing to change my pants. Thankfully, I realized the error of the situation.

Blizzard is known for their fondness of April Fool’s shenanigans, and once again taunted the gullible with glimpses of what might be if the twisted minds of Blizzard employees were really set loose upon the gaming world. It took me a few seconds to make the connection, and when I did my heart sank.

Oh, how I wish April Fools didn’t exist.

According to the WoW website: “Armed with a trusty axe, killer riffs, and a ton of attitude, the guitar-wielding bard is the second hero class to be introduced in the upcoming Wrath of the Lich King expansion for World of Warcraft.”

Basically, you mix Guitar Hero and WoW (Blizzard and Activision) and you get the bard. Its funny, its clever, it throws in a quote from Spinal Tap, everyone has a laugh and moves on.

Oh, how I wish April Fools didn’t exist.

You see, for those of you who jumped on the MMO train with WoW probably don’t know the beauty (and danger to any sort of social life) that was EverQuest. I played a few classes, but nothing ever compared to the Bard. It was the best class, hands down.

They could do a little bit of everything with their instruments, like a musical Swiss-Army knife. Bards could “twist” the songs and get multiple effects going at any given time. Casters loved bards for their mana song – effectively turning Bards into a mana fountain that spewed blue bar regeneration.

They could stun, charm, trance, fear, kite, haste, run, direct damage – anything any class could do, they could do it too. Hell, they even wore plate and could dual wield. With a truly unique play style that was both engaging and simple to use, they made for the most all round enjoyable play experience.

Sadly, the bard class has fallen by the wayside of late. Sure, you can play one in “Vanguard,” but who wants to suffer through that when Warcrack is readily available?

So you can see why Blizzard seemingly harmless jests nearly cost me a pair of underwear. I thought they had just answered my prayers. But, it was April First.

Who’s the real Guitar Hero? The living room rock star, or the delightfully androgynous protagonist of Fret Nice, who takes to the streets in order to rid the world of black and cloudy music that is – well, is it evil? Who knows? It’s not rock, that’s for sure.

Marten Bruggermann of Pieces Interactive walked us through the current version, which is already available for download on their website. The game was nominated for Design Innovation at last night’s IGF Awards because of the way they use a guitar controller as input for moving the main character around the screen.

Fret buttons towards the end of the neck make you run left, while the ones on the strum bar side move right. Strumming makes you go a little faster. You can also climb by moving up or down on the strum bar and fling yourself off bars after strumming like mad to build up rotational speed. Nothing is terribly complicated, but takes a moment to wrap your head around how to coordinate all the moves.

Combat with the non-rock music is more clever than just shooting lasers. You need to compose a suitable riff depending on the physical characteristics of the clouds. For instance, a baddie with an eye and a mouth will just need two different notes, while one with two eyes, two tentacles, and a mouth will need two of one note, two of another, and one of a third.

After being leaked by guitarist Joe Perry quite some time ago, Guitar Hero: Aerosmith has now been officially announced.

Think of it like this: Guitar Hero: Rocks the 80s is to Guitar Hero II as Guitar Hero: Aerosmith is to Guitar Hero III. Neversoft will continue development and Activision is, of course, publishing.

The set list as a whole hasn’t been confirmed, and we don’t know how many songs there’ll be. What we do know is that ‘Don’t Wanna Miss a Thing’, ‘Dream On’, and ‘Love in an Elevator’ are all shoe-ins. And for those of you that despise Aerosmith, you should be semi-comforted by the addition of “celebrated artists that the band has either performed with or has been inspired by in some way.”

Apparently as a peace offering, on February 16-18 Aerosmith’s ‘Dream On’ will be available for free download for use with Guitar Hero III. It’ll be obtainable on both Xbox Live and PlayStation Network (Sorry Nintendo!) for those few days only.

Yep, your own music tracks! What’s better is that AudioSurf analyzes your music to synchronize the gameplay to your tracks – similar to how Beats! works for the PSP ( get this on the PS3 Sony!)

Audiosurf even interprets the mood and intensity of the song, converting pumping tracks to wild roller coaster rides full of colour, and soothing songs into calm tracks against a relaxing sky.

In Audiosurf, you race down a futuristic and colorful highway, earning points for clustering together cars of the same color like Bust’a'Move. You can even compete with others on the internet for the high score on your favorite songs.

Accepting almost any music file type (MP3, iTunes M4A, WMA and OGG) Audiosurf enhances your music collection, synchronising the beats, the intense sections, the long pauses, and giving them a more vivid meaning.

I’ve always been a fan of music games, especially Frequency and Amplitude, but I’ve never been a fan of games that make you play a fake guitar. I’d prefer to play a real one, so with Audiosurf we can have great gameplay without using plastic guitars. Watch AudioSurf in this Feist video.



Visit the AudioSurf website and download the demo from the 2008 IGF Audience Award page, where AudioSurf is the finalist in three categories.

It appears The Romantics’ request to have their song “What I like About You” removed from Guitar Hero: Rocks the 80’s has been denied, at least for now. The ruling official, Judge Edmunds, stated on Monday that:

“Activision did exactly what the company was supposed to do in developing the product.”

The Romantics apparently felt that the cover version of their song sounded so similar to the original that “it, like, totally infringed on our awesomeness and uniqueosity”. Sorry, that’s not a real quote, but that’s how I imagined Jimmy Marinos (singer/drummer on the song) would’ve said it.

Hey, Romantics, how about you just be grateful someone is still paying you for your shitty near-30-year-old song.

To celebrate, go enter our Air Guitar contest. Right now. Go.

However, when you go to download Snakeball, the purchase will be confirmed but the store will not prompt you to download.

What’s going on Sony, you’ve gone a bit ga ga. These sorts of mistakes sometimes happen early on in a store update, and I don’t think any of us should be complaining if we might get some freebies.

*Update* – Snakeball was only on the Australian store, and the “offer” was soon solved with a price of AU$12.95. It has since disappeared, and whether it will return is unknown. It hasn’t made the UK update, but there is still a chance that it might appear.

Here’s the full European update:

Games/Demos:
- Toy Home (£4.99)
- Populous: The Beginning (£3.49) (An EA PS1 Game)
- Timeshift MP demo

DLC:
Warhawk
- Omega Dawn Expansion Pack (£3.99)
Guitar Hero III
- Boss Battle Pack (free)
Motorstorm
- Holiday Paint Job (free)

Trailers:
- Sky Diving trailer
- Devil May Cry 4 TGS 2007 trailer
- Sega Rally trailers (Canyon trailer, Arctic trailer)
- Kane and Lynch trailers x5
- Assassin’s Creed TV Spot trailer
- Grand Theft Auto IV trailer

Movie trailers:
- CJ7

Others
- High Stakes Poker wallpaper
- Uncharted wallpaper
- Pain wallpapers x4
- Retro theme
- Nature theme
- Manga theme
- Pixels theme

And here is the full US Playstation Store update:

Games
- Toy Home ($9.99)
- Warhawk PS1 ($5.99)
- Trials of Topoq ($4.99)
- Mesmerize: Distort ($1.99)
-Snakeball ($9.99) (Full game can be bought in the demo)

Demos
- Snakeball
- Blacksite: Area 51

DLC
Warhawk
- Omega Dawn Booster Pack: ($7.99)
Folklore
- Holiday Add-On (free)
Motorstorm
- Holiday skin (free)
High Stakes Poker
- Add-on 1 (free)
- Add-on 2 (free)
Guitar Hero III
- “We Three Kings” – Steve Ouimette (free)
Rock Band
- “My Iron Lung” by Radiohead: ($1.99)
- “Buddy Holly” by Weezer: ($1.99)
- “Brass in Pocket” a cover of The Pretenders: ($1.99)

Videos
- GT5 Prologue – “Sizzle Trailer”
- DMC4 – “Final Trailer”
- Warhawk – “Omega Dawn Trailer”
- PS3 TV spots – “Only On”; “Universe”
- THPG – “Mike V’s Skater Story”
- Turok – “Dino Mauling”
- PSP Feature video
- Uncharted – Animation video
- Strange Wilderness Trailer
- Oral Fixation Tour Trailer

Other
- Warhawk theme
- PAIN: Santa theme
- PAIN: Cookie theme