While I’m sure many of you will just take this news to mean that Rock Band 3 exists in some form, there’s a lot more news here than you’d think. While I assumed Rock Band 3 would just be an expansion of the previous games with a couple of new features, Dhani Harrison tells the Chicago Tribune that that’s not the case.

“I’m working on Rock Band 3 and making the controllers more real so people can actually learn how to play music while playing the game.” Harrison says. “Give me a couple years, it’s going to happen.”

I’m all for learning a new skill while playing some games, but this definitely means the difficulty bar for the third game will be a lot higher. Harrison was deeply (and rightfully) involved with The Beatles: Rock Band, and we all know that turned out well. I can’t see any reason for him not to do a lot of work with RB3, and have it turn out well. I, for one, am just waiting for the outrage from real guitar players who will tell me to put down the plastic guitar.

Thanks Destructoid

Music game and/or U2 fans Rejoice! According to USA Today, Bono and Co. want in on this Magnificent music game business, and they want to do it the Harmonix way.

“We definitely would like to be in there, but we felt some of the compromises weren’t what we wanted,” bassist Adam Clayton tells USA TODAY’s Edna Gundersen. “That could change. I love the idea that that’s where people are getting music, and we’d love to be in that world. We’ll figure something out. What The Beatles have done, where the animation is much more representative of them, is what we’re interested in, rather than the one-size-fits-all animation. We didn’t want to be caricatured.”

I’ve been rather pleased with Harmonix’s track record, but I have no Desire for a U2: Rock Band. That would get Out Of Control quickly. I have no doubt that Harmonix could do it, but it’s a question of whether or not that’s a Bad idea. It would surely start an Unforgettable Fire in the heart of every music fan, but it’s clear this isn’t coming Tomorrow, or even this October, so we still have to hear from Harmonix on the matter. If we’re lucky, HMX will have too much Pride to take this on, but with them at the helm, Rock Band: U2 could be Even Better Than The Real Thing.

I think I went a bit crazy with the puns here. But I’ll Go Crazy If I Don’t Go Crazy Tonight.

September 9th is approaching quickly, and my rush to gather $250 for The Beatles: Rock Band is becoming a lot more difficult, but I’m starting to realize that it’s going to be worth the work.

Today, Harmonix added another trailer to the pre-order club site that is only accessible for people that pre-ordered the game, and the trailer reveals a bunch of new tracks from the Fab Four, including (but not limited to) Revolution, Paperback Writer, and Twist & Shout. But there are a lot more songs than the ones featured in the trailer being revealed soon.

Tomorrow, when all of the previews for the game go online, many new tracks will be revealed, and you can see the list of songs being revealed after the jump. Above is the trailer, so leave your thoughts on it in the comments!

* Paperback Writer
* Yellow Submarine
* I’ve Got A Feeling
* Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band
* Dig A Pony
* Birthday
* Do You Want To Know A Secret
* Eight Days A Week
* Twist And Shout
* Within You Without You / Tomorrow Never Knows (LOVE remix version)
* With a Little Help from My Friends
* Revolution
* Can’t Buy Me Love
* I Wanna Be Your Man
* And Your Bird Can Sing

Big thanks to Pepsi and Harmonix for sending us this 1 of 30 limited edition Rock Band guitars designed by artist Matt Moore. Ripten’s guitar is the Xbox 360 version and numbered 22 of 30. You can enter to win it below by leaving a comment (one per reader) and telling us why you think you should win. Our editors and myself will review the submissions and pick a winner by midnight next Saturday.

In addition to the guitar you can win right here, Pepsi and Harmonix are teaming up for a Drink Up, Rock Out summer promotion. Submit a Rock Band music video of yourself and enter to win an MTV Video Music Award Moonman for “Best Performance in a Pepsi Rock Band Music Video”. If you want a little more immediate gratification, check under the caps of Pepsi bottles for a chance to win one of 5,000 Rock Band downloadable tracks and other cool prizes between now and September 13, 2009.

Drink Pepsi and rock out with your coc…err web cam out.

As of this point, we’ve seen almost everything The Beatles Rock Band has to offer. The beautiful trailers, the astounding opening cinematic, the gameplay, the screenshots- everything except for the setlist itself. We only know of the ten confirmed songs that played over the opening cinematic for the game, but if the information we just received is correct, then the game’s full setlist is out there- and it’s great.

The rumored setlist features all of the songs that were in the cinematic, from “I Saw Her Standing There” to “Here Comes The Sun”, but features some new Beatles classics such as “Can’t Buy Me Love”, “Help!”, and “Revolution”. There are some songs that were obviously not going to be in the game- piano heavy songs like “Hey Jude” aren’t present, but I’m still ready to plunk down $250 for the full game bundle. (Especially with my current absence of any Rock Band gear.) I’m not going to try and influence you, though- you can make your own decision after viewing the “leaked” setlist after the jump.

[Thanks tazar!]

* “I Saw Her Standing There”
* “Please Please Me”
* “Twist and Shout”
* “All My Loving”
* “I Wanna Be Your Man”
* “She Loves You”
* “I Want to Hold Your Hand”
* “A Hard Day’s Night”
* “And I Love Her”
* “Can’t Buy Me Love”
* “I’m A Loser”
* “Baby’s in Black”
* “I Feel Fine”
* “Help!”
* “Ticket to Ride”
* “I’ve Just Seen a Face”
* “I’m Down”
* “Drive My Car”
* “In My Life”
* “If I Needed Someone”
* “Day Tripper”
* “Taxman”
* “She Said She Said”
* “And Your Bird Can Sing”
* “Paperback Writer”
* “Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band”
* “Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds”
* “Good Morning Good Morning”
* “I Am the Walrus”
* “Hello Goodbye”
* “Revolution”
* “Back in the USSR”
* “While My Guitar Gently Weeps”
* “Birthday”
* “Everybody’s Got Something to Hide Except Me and My Monkey”
* “Helter Skelter”
* “Hey Bulldog”
* “Come Together”
* “Something”
* “Octopus’s Garden”
* “Here Comes the Sun”
* “Don’t Let Me Down”
* “Dig a Pony”
* “I’ve Got a Feeling”
* “Get Back”

Straight out of E3 today is yet another video for The Beatles: Rock Band, but this time with gameplay. The trailer for the game gives us a good look at some of the visual changes added to The Beatles: Rock Band, namely the psychedelic background visuals, addition of 3-part harmonies, and slight changes to the note boards.

One of the things that kind of irks me about the trailer is the game’s rendition of “Get Back”. It’s a lot different than the one I’m used to, but it still takes place atop the headquarters of Apple Corps. I’m sure I’ll get used to it eventually, but I’d much prefer the version with McCartney’s higher-pitched vocals. Oh, and the trailer’s gorgeous too!

If you care, hit the jump for a list of the songs featured in the trailer, in the order you hear them in. I might be wrong, but this is what I got, and I’m pretty sure it’s right.

I Saw Her Standing There
I Wanna Hold Your Hand
I Feel Fine
Day Tripper
Tax Man
I Am The Walrus
Back in the USSR
Octopus’s Garden
Here Comes The Sun
Get Back

There’s really no other way to describe this cinematic, other than to say it’s absolutely fantastic. It’s beautiful. From the style, to the animation, to the music, to the surreal ending, it’s absolutely gorgeous, and it hurts my brain to even think of how much work went into making this on Harmonix’s part. I challenge you all to find a better cinematic than this, because I simply can’t find one.

But enough of me singing it’s praises. Although I knock on Activision for their use of the Guitar Hero franchise, I can’t wait until September 9th, when The Beatles: Rock Band comes out. Although it’s only 45 Beatles songs, as one of the greatest bands ever, I’m sure I’ll have an insane amount of fun with the game. You can look forward to it too, when it hits the PS3, Wii, PS2, and Xbox 360 this September.

If you go to the official website for The Beatles: Rock Band, you’ll be treated with two new suprises. One is a entrance section to the preorder club, for those who preordered the game, and the other is a brand new site backdrop, with the sounds of a million screaming fans in the background. But what is that background? Why, it’s the set for the Ed Sullivan Show, of course!

Beatles fans out there surely know just how popular and frequent the Beatles were on Ed Sullivan’s show, so it only makes sense that this stage would appear in the game in some form. Though we don’t have a surefire confirmation, it’s pretty safe to say that the Ed Sullivan Show set will indeed be a stage/arena for you to play in in The Beatles: Rock Band. Click the image above to see the full image.

LEGO Rock Band has been officially announced today, after plenty of internet rumours and speculation. The game will ship in “Holiday 2009″ for PS3, Xbox 360, Wii and DS. Harmonix and TT Games will be working together for all versions of the game, and Rock Band Unplugged developer Backbone Entertainment will join in the fun for the DS version. Hit the jump for a little more info and a few confirmed tracks (The Final Countdown is in there).

• Blur: “Song 2″
• Carl Douglas: “Kung Fu Fighting”
• Europe: “The Final Countdown”
• Good Charlotte: “Boys and Girls”
• Pink: “So What”

Warner Bros. have issued the following statement, too:

“LEGO Rock Band combines the multiplayer music experience of Rock Band with the fun, customization and humor of the LEGO videogame franchise packed with brilliant chart-topping songs and classic favorites suitable for younger audiences.”

So LEGO Rock Band is to be aimed at youngsters. Makes sense, but since when do youngsters need a LEGO version of Rock Band to get your plastic guitar all sticky? They do it fine with the normal version.

I’m sure some people will be upset by this week’s Rock Band offerings, but it’s not as if this is the first time that Harmonix has released Nickelodeon songs. And for those of you that are upset (for reasons unknown) about the Spongebob songs, you can always just skip it and download Journey’s Don’t Stop Believing or even Pat Benetar’s Heartbreaker, which was previously a GHWT exclusive.

As always, songs are 160 MS Points or $1.99, while the Spongebob bundle is up for 440 MS Points or $5.50. Though, I should note that the song in the video isn’t in the game. Even if it were, it’s a David Glen Eisley song. Hit the jump for the full list of this week’s song releases.

Journey – Don’t Stop Believing
Pat Benetar – Heartbreaker
Glasvegas – Geraldine
The Von Bondies – C’mon C’mon
SpongeBob Squarepants – I Can’t Keep My Eyes Off You
SpongeBob Squarepants – The Best Day Ever
SpongeBob Squarepants – Where’s Gary?

EA, Harmonix and MTV Games have announced a new expansion for Rock Band in the form of Rock Band Track Pack Volume 2. Filled with 20 songs previously offered as DLC, this disc will be offered up for Wii, 360, PS3, and PS2. The disc can be played as a standalone game, or 360 and PS3 users can import the content into their hard drive similar to the process of bringing original Rock Band songs into Rock Band 2.

Hit the jump for pricing and full song list.

1. Avenged Sevenfold – Afterlife

2. Blondie – Call Me

3. Weezer – El Scorcho

4. Devo – Girl U Want

5. Maximo Park – Girls Who Play Guitars

6. Disturbed – Indestructible

7. Angels & Airwaves – It Hurts

8. The Cars -Just What I Needed

9. The Police – Message in a Bottle

10. Pixies – Monkey Gone to Heaven

11. Duran Duran – Rio

12. Mötley Crüe – Saints of Los Angeles

13. Lynyrd Skynyrd – Simple Man

14. Red Hot Chili Peppers – Snow ((Hey Oh))

15. Nine Inch Nails – The Perfect Drug

16. Fall Out Boy – This Ain’t a Scene, It’s an Arms Race

17. Papa Roach – Time Is Running Out

18. Garbage – Why Do You Love Me

19. Judas Priest – You’ve Got Another Thing Comin’

20. Smashing Pumpkins – Zero

The pricing is set at $29.99. A pretty cool deal if you don’t already have all or most of the songs. Anyone here planning on running out and grabbing a copy November 17th?

Wow. The (remaining, R.I.P.), Beatles have just licensed a number of their songs to Rock Band. This would just be the most popular DLC to date. On top of that, it’s revolutionary (especially for Harmonix & EA) because The Beatles never license their songs to anyone. You can’t even buy their music on iTunes, and Apple’s been trying for years.

The following is a quote from the Wall Street Journal which broke the news:

The Beatles have licensed songs to MTV Networks’ Rock Band videogame series, according to several people familiar with the matter, a coup for the Viacom Inc. unit in its battle with rival Activision Inc. for supremacy in the world of rock and roll video games.

How Harmonix & MTV Music managed to swing this (rumor has it that all they needed was love.), I’ll never know, but somewhere, Steve Jobs is sitting in his eggshell white iFortress crying. I’m sure the Guitar Hero: World Tour development team will soon join him, cymbals in tow, for this is also a huge blow to GHWT, whose launch has produced relatively unfavorable results. I, on the other hand, spent the past 30 minutes trying to seep Beatles puns into this post, and failed miserably. Help! Hit the jump for the press release.

Apple Corps Ltd. and MTV to Announce Exclusive Agreement to Develop Unprecedented Global Music Project

WHAT: Apple Corps Ltd. and MTV to announce an exclusive agreement to develop a global music project.

WHO: Jeff Jones, CEO of Apple Corps, Ltd. Judy McGrath, Chairman and CEO of MTV Networks Van Toffler, President of MTV Networks Music/Logo Group

WHEN: Thursday, October 30, 2008 2:00 pm UK Time, 10:00 am ET, 7:00 AM PT

About Apple Corps. Ltd. Apple Corps Ltd. was founded by The Beatles in 1968 to look after the group’s own affairs. The London-based company has administered the catalogue of The Beatles releases of the 1960s that have sold to date more than 600 million records, tapes and CDs. Since the 1990s Apple has piloted new Beatles projects that have become benchmarks for pioneering accomplishment and which have included The Beatles Anthology projects, the 28 million-selling album The Beatles 1 and the The Beatles LOVE show and CD. Further information on The Beatles’ projects can be found at www.thebeatles.com.

About MTV Networks MTV Networks, a unit of Viacom (NYSE: VIA, VIA.B), is one of the world’s leading creators of entertainment content, with brands that engage and connect diverse audiences across television, online, mobile, games, virtual worlds and consumer products. The company’s portfolio spans more than 150 television channels and 350 digital media properties worldwide, and includes MTV, VH1, CMT, Logo, Harmonix, Nickelodeon, Nick at Nite, Noggin, The N, AddictingGames, Neopets, COMEDY CENTRAL, Spike TV, TV Land, Atom, Gametrailers and Xfire.

Source: Wall Street Journal (thanks, p0wer-glove!)

UPDATE: It seems that the Wall Street Journal’s report citing “several people familiar with the matter” were not familiar enough. Rather than appearing in Rock Band 2, The Beatles are going to be getting their own game. Read more…

For those of you that hope to observe rocking out to Billy Idol’s White Wedding with a plastic remote as a hobby by the end of this year, you should probably just tape your Wiimote to the Xbox 360 Fender- rumour has it that Harmonix & EA are delaying Rock Band 2 for Wii until early in 2009.

According to Destructoid and their GameStop tipsters, it seems that the Wii version of Rock Band 2 could possibly be delayed until January 2009. GameStop’s inventory apparently shows Jan. 6th, 2009 as the new shipping date for the game, which completely disregards Harmonix’s guess at a December release.

But fret not, mon frêre! As Destructoid points out, there’s always Wii Music, for those who would rather bob their heads to the smash hit Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star, which I’m told gets all of the kids at the playground dancing.

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.

What this means is that any fake guitar, drum set, and microphone that you may purchase along with Rock Band 2, Guitar Hero: World Tour, or Rock Revolution would work in any of those games. You only need to buy one set of instruments to enjoy any and all of these pretend rock experiences.

Sony is supposedly working to get SingStar microphones to also be compatible, as well as getting the current Guitar Hero 3 and Rock Band guitars to play nice together.

Source: Gamasutra via Gamerscore Blog

Rock Band 2 is the perfection to Rock Band 1’s innovation, according to the Harmonix development plan. Even the start menu is way more hardcore, with a snarly white tiger and slithering snakes.

We’ve been hearing Rock Band 2 tidbits for a while now–84 songs on the Rock Band 2 disc, 500 total in the playlist by the holidays (”The Moby Dick of playlists,” says PR Coordinator John Drake, who took the stage to demonstrate for us), the first Guns ‘n Roses track in 14 years (”But is it a good song?” — “That’s a great follow-up question!” Drake teased), full compatibility for downloadables and your original Rock Band instruments. The focus of today’s demo was showing off new modes, but we also got a quick strum on the Sunburst guitar.

First up, Quickplay has been revamped to look like the Rock Band store. You’ll see the whole list on the right, with the selected track’s artist, album, year, and difficulty ratings for all the instruments on the left. Holding down the sort button pops up a menu of headers (genre, for instance) which make navigation much easier, a must, since the track list is only getting longer.

The new set list creation feature makes Quickplay a lot more seamless, since you can fit “more [songs] than you could play without going to the bathroom” and play them without always going back to the menu. Any of the sorting headers can be selected to play all the songs in that cateogry, so if you have an urge to play all the A songs, or have a Bowie marathon, or throw an 80s night party, it’s easy to set up.

World Tour (solo or band) has also been upgraded with new cities and venues, and– the best part– online bands. You can also hire staff for your tour this time around, which sort of act like accessories in an RPG–they’ll boost certain aspects of your score, whether it’s how much money you make or how many fans you win. Your Mom is the stand-by, but you can also hire a street team, a (drunk) publicist, an intern, or a tattoo artist.

Distinct from the regular Tour Mode is Tour Challenge, which is pure tiered progression with a lot of different ways to proceed. It’s designed to give the best experience possible for each instrument, so you’re not stuck stumming the same three notes on a stellar drum track. Events are unlocked as you go based on difficulty, but will also appear when you acquire new DLC.

Probably the most exciting feature for the true rock band maniacs is Battle of the Bands. This mode pits your band against first your local friend list scene, and then the world, as you compete in new battles everyday. Yes, so if you can’t pull ahead of the pack in a battle to master a certain album, maybe you can beat them at this new song, or at abstaining from star power, or at any of the daily new challenges that the designers devise.

Bands from all over the world put up scores during the limited time (the one they showed us had 13 days to go) and if you get passed up, the game sends notification or you can even get e-mails via rockband.com.

Drummers will be stoked for the included drum lessons–a whole mode just to teach you proper vocabulary, beats, tempos, and fills, while those who have partied too hard to play Rock Band anymore can let their characters jam on their own in Jukebox mode. Lots of new features that are worth exploring.

My exploration began today when I briefly wielded the Sunburst stand-alone guitar. Unfortunately I was too pussy-footed to land the premium drum set, but it seems a lot sturdier than the pack-in, and of course, as we already know, it can function as an actual electronic drum set (if you buy the add-on module and an amp).

For my part, on the guitar, I felt like the strum bar was a compromise between the clicking (which I prefer) of Guitar Hero 3 and the super-padded original Rock Band version. We played Mountain Song by Jane’s Addiction, and got to hear the Rock Band fellows do Cheap Trick’s “Hello There.”

Whether you can afford all the new instruments or not, the disc, at least, is pretty much mandatory for Rock Band players. We’re hoping to get some more time with it on the show floor, and will update this post with drum impressions if we get the shot.

We reported yesterday that Konami had filed a suit against the makes of Rock Band, claiming that Harmonix, MTV, and parent company Viacom, violated patents filed by Konami dating back to 2002 and 2003.

Today, Harmoix swung back at Konami, as a company spokesperson stated:

“Konami’s actions are extremely surprising. Unfortunately, successful products such as Rock Band can often become targets for baseless litigation … We have substantial defenses to this claim and intend to vigorously defend it.”

I smell a corporate rock off in the making! An epic battle, to be fought with plastic guitars and scaucer shaped drum kits! Extra points go to the first executive from either side that grows their hair out and adopts a “nothing but full body spandex will do” clothing policy.

Source: Game|Life

Like a pureed blend of Tetris, Harmonix’s cult-classic Amplitude, the wickedly obscure PlayStation game Vib-Ribbon, and some fashion of Windows Media visualizer, AudioSurf might just be one of the best indie games ever made. For one, its content is only as limited as your personal music library.

The game takes the songs from your hard drive and turns them into a Tetris-flavored rollercoaster ride, a unique gameplay experience that’s built off the rhythms and tempos of whatever music you feed it. It’s the sort of thing you could see going horribly wrong if not built properly, but in the case of AudioSurf, the precisely correct mixture of simple mechanics and challenging, high-level play is on display. In effect, it’s the sort of game that anyone can appreciate, whether you’re hardcore, casual, or somewhere in between.

The concept is pretty simple. When you load up a song, it maps the track into a level. In the level, you control one of several different available ships using the mouse or the analog stick on a controller. The ship travels along a path alongside various colored blocks. Hitting the blocks sets them on a grid below your ship, and creating combos of three or more blocks removes from the grid, and nets you points.

Different ships end up with different types of blocks to play with. Mono ships, for instance, only have limited strings of colored blocks which all connect to each other, as well as gray blocks, which are meant to be avoided, since they don’t provide combos.

Other types of ships deal with several different colors of blocks at once, and only same-colored blocks will create combos. These other ships also tend to have abilities unique to them. One has the power to make one color of blocks disappear from the grid, while another can rearrange the blocks on your grid in random order, and so on.

There are added score bonuses tallied at the end of each stage for doing everything from getting through the whole level without hitting a grey block, to simply reaching the end with no leftover blocks of any kind on the grid.

While all of that sounds rather par for the course in a basic puzzle game, the thing that lifts AudioSurf well above the norm is its musical element. The way you move through the stage is entirely determined by the makeup of the song you pick.

Slower tracks translate into literal uphill climbs, whereas faster songs are quick downhill rushes. Bouncy songs have your ship bopping along to the rhythm, creating a challenging and sometimes vexing experience.

Half of the game’s addictiveness comes from simply trying to see what songs make for the best and craziest levels. The best part is that it doesn’t really matter what type of music you listen to, so long as there’s a rhythm underneath it. You can gum up the works a little bit if you throw in classical or opera music without drums of any kind, or anything that’s exclusively vocal. But other than those exceptions, just about anything else will create something playable and fun.

Even better is the game’s community element. Leaderboards are kept for every single song played by a user connected to the Internet. High scores are divvied up by difficulty level, and any time your top score is bested by another user, the game actually sends you an e-mail telling you which song and who beat it. This e-mail system is downright insidious in the way it practically demands that you return to the game to reclaim your score.

The only flaw with the leaderboard system is that everything is based on ID3 tags for your mp3s. That means that live songs and remixes that aren’t necessarily labeled as such often tend to get lumped in with the normal song boards. There is a moderation system in place to review songs that might have been renamed illegally to screw up the scoring, but considering how scattershot people’s labeling of songs tends to be, you’re going to have to put up with some inconsistencies.

Those issues are a small price to pay for what is, in essence, one of the best and most addictive music games to come along in years. The gameplay may be simple, but the sheer variety of content and high-level challenge presented on the higher difficulty settings are more than enough to suck any music fan in for hours and hours on end.

The fact that the game will only cost you $10 on Steam (the only place to download it, currently) is even better. If you’ve got even a halfway decent-sized music library and an affinity for puzzle games, you’d be insane to pass AudioSurf up.

As an aside, if you’re on the hunt for some cool songs that make for thoroughly excellent levels in the game, here’s my personal top 10 out of the dozens and dozens of songs I’ve tried. Obviously you should give these a listen before you buy ‘em to make sure they jibe with your personal tastes, but from a gameplay standpoint, you should at least get a good challenge out of these.

1. Chemical Brothers – “Star Guitar”
2. Bumblebeez – “Dr. Love”
3. BT – “Never Gonna Come Back Down”
4. Fischerspooner – “Emerge”
5. LCD Soundsystem – “All My Friends”
6. Boris – “The Woman On the Screen”
7. M83 – “Gone”
8. Crystal Method – “Starting Over”
9. Dillinger Escape Plan – “Milk Lizard”
10. The Velvet Teen – “GyzmKid”

What does this score mean? Check out our review scoring breakdown.

Rock Band has been bringing in money for Harmonix. And it just brought in a lot more. Viacom recently paid Harmonix a reported $208.7 million as a bonus for the company’s success. The bonus was outlined in Viacom’s 2006 buyout of Harmonix for $175 million.

Gameindustry.biz reported:

Viacom’s Form 10-K statement, released last week, indicates that the company offered a financial incentive as part of the acquisition.

“In addition, to the extent financial results exceed specific contractual targets against a defined gross profit metric through 2008, former Harmonix shareholders will be eligible for incremental earn-out payments with respect to the years ended December 31, 2007 and December 31, 2008,” the form read.

What does this mean in layman’s terms? Well, if Harmonix exceeds their projected income, their shareholders get a little extra something.

Viacom was also quoted as calling Rock Band “an unqualified success, setting the foundation for another valuable franchise.” Valuable enough to shell out a $200 million bonus? Apparently so.

We want to reward one lucky Riptenner with a copy of Guitar Hero 3 and the wireless Les Paul guitar for the Xbox 360.

The rules are simple, just register to be a member of our community, upload an avatar and leave a comment below with the words”air guitar”. We will pick one lucky Riptenner at random and send them out a Wireless Les Paul Guitar and Guitar Hero 3 game for the Xbox 360. Contest ends February 29th at Midnight EST. Good luck.

If Rock Band DLC keeps pouring in every week, it’s only a matter of time before your favorite band makes it in (if they haven’t already). Harmonix mixed it up a little this week with some Iron Maiden, Stone Temple Pilots, and the Hives. Details after the break.

Hearing our bemoaning of the cover tracks last week, Harmonix did things right this week by only making a third (yay for math!) of the songs “as made famous by” editions.

The only cover version of a song is Iron Maiden’s Number of the Beast, and once you’ve rocked your way through that, you can enjoy the sweet sounds of original master tracks of the Hives’ Die, All Right! and Stone Temple Pilots’ Interstate Love Song.

Also keeping with the trend of last week, each of the songs will cost a hard earned 160 MSP ($1.99). Even though it’s still $2 a pop, at least it’ll be easily accessible on PSN/XBLM as opposed to a magazine.

Source: Rock Band forums

Official Xbox Magazine’s February issue will come packed in with new Rock Band songs Bang Camaro’s Rock Rebellion, Count Zero’s Shake along with Freezepops’ Sprode. I read OXM– it’s a great magazine with a fantastic group of writers and I bear no ill will toward them or Harmonix. But this pisses me off beyond belief.

Did Harmonix come to the conclusion, “how can we screw the small group of people that stuck with us in the transition from Guitar Hero by making them buy a magazine?” Or even better, “can we rip on our PS3 audience by not even giving them the chance to get these songs so conveniently?”

It’s great that they’re making three songs semi-free. Even Activision gave away a free song (the Halo 3 theme). But that was readily available to anyone who had an Xbox Live account. PS3 users, not so much. Even so, I’m not so sure many PS3 users would want to jam out to the MJOLNIR mix anyways.

Let’s just hope I never get to rant about this ever again.

Source: Official Xbox Magazine

Harmonix doesn’t want you to hate them because their Rock Band controllers have a bad habit of breaking. In fact, they’re practically bribing their customers for forgiveness by offering them a free game.

The company is currently experiencing some difficulties with their Rock Band guitar controllers. Specifically, they’re breaking. And replacement guitars are slow to reach their intended destinations. So many gamers wait patiently (what else can they do?) for their new guitars that Harmonix saw fit to offer an apology for the delays.

In an email sent to those who have requested replacement guitars, Harmonix has apologized for the delay and offered a free EA game to customers.

Part of their email reads:

By the time you receive this, your replacement guitar should be on its way to you. However, the Rock Band team is committed to providing a world-class customer experience and we do not believe we have met this commitment in connection with your request. As a token of our appreciation for your patience and understanding, we will be offering you a FREE EA game. Details will follow shortly.

It’s a small consolation to gamers who have shelled out big bucks for busted gear, but hey, who doesn’t like free?

Rock Band is a fun, fun game. I have been a musician, so this whole debate about real instruments vs. plastic guitars and electric drum kits can just take a break while I talk about how cool this game is. You may not be making music, but you are having one hell of an immersive musical experience.

Rock Band is like tapping your foot to the beat, only with instrument-appropriate props. It’s like drumming on the back of an office chair, only with a full accompaniment. With a properly calibrated musical tool, you are catapulted into a realm where that metaphorical tapping of your foot has consequences ( à la Guitar Hero) on the music you’re hearing.

To be honest, I haven’t played too much Guitar Hero, so I can’t give you the super skinny on whether the tabs are harder in GH3 (although this is what I seem to hear from all corners.) I can tell you that the strum bar on the new Fender Stratocaster irked me for quite a while when compared to the clicky Les Paul. As obnoxious as that click may be to some, it’s handy feedback—the new bar is padded somehow, so there’s no noise, but it also feels a bit like strumming through molasses until you get used to it.

Some also seem to have difficulties hitting the overdrive, but I had considerably less trouble. It’s important, though, since overdrive is used to not only boost your score, but also to bring back players who have failed out. If you leave them languishing on the island of suck for too long, the whole band will crash and burn.

Singing seems comparable to other karaoke games, although I wouldn’t recommend buying this game specifically to sing. That said, I wouldn’t buy this game specifically for guitar, either. I MIGHT, however, buy it for drums, because where else are you going to drum quite like this (except maybe an arcade)?

The drums have four pads to whack with real live drums sticks along with special create-your-own fills, and you can’t fake your way through each song, either. You really have to have an innate sense of the beat, and learn to drum on it. I managed to mash through an expert level guitar song (“When You Were Young” by The Killers, easily my favorite track) but couldn’t get through 8% of it on the kit.

Clearly what you are buying here is three games in one—four if your aspiration lies in being the grooviest Rock Band bassist around. The overlap is the fun avatar creation system (where you put together the raddest costume and most insane hair), and the track list, featuring 58 songs. That is, 58 to start with.

The brilliant thing about Rock Band (besides the fact that it even exists), is that it could very well be the wave of the future. Downloadable content (as of last week you could already purchase songs by The Police and Metallica, among others) promises an ever expanding repertoire of songs to choose from. Having MTV on board seems to guarantee that all the hits we could possibly ask for will be delivered.

Prices vary, but they aren’t terribly prohibitive at 99 cents to $2.99 per track, considering that you’re getting a playable experience and not just a tune to passively listen to. Harmonix would love to see everyone getting their rock fix this way in a few years, and a lot of that could depend on what songs get released for download.

The main draw here is jamming with friends, but if no one will come over you can play in a pick-up group online, or duel for points. Even playing by yourself can be rewarding—after all, practice does tend to make perfect, or at least more perfect. The harder the guitar gets, the more my hands hurt, but the harder the drums get the more fun I have, if I can follow what’s going on. I wonder how many people will start scheduling official band rehearsals.

Retailing at $169.99 for the full package (Game, drums, guitar, mic, and usb hub—for 360), it’s not something that everyone will be able to afford right away. The peripherals will be available separately starting sometime next year, so if you know you want to be a drummer, you can just pick up the game and the set without worrying about the rest.

Rock Band is the game Harmonix always wanted to make, and the polish shows. It takes the rhythm genre and explodes it into happy fireworks for everyone to enjoy all at once.

Gift givers looking for Guitar Hero, Rock Band, or Dance Dance Revolution merchandise this holiday season beware, knock-offs are out there, and while you may not know the difference, the individual receiving the gift likely will.

I recently found myself shopping for a birthday gift for my niece, having no luck finding anything that I thought a 6 year old girl would like, I called my sister, and she said ‘buy her a webkinz’. A what? I had no idea what the damn thing was until she explained it to me, and when I went to pick one up, I was bombarded with knock-offs galore.

The same reality exists for the popular Guitar Hero and Rock Band merchandise, as knock-offs have already made their way to store shelves.

Before you check off “Guitar Hero” on your list, make sure you didn’t pick up “Guitar Superstar” instead, as the rip off available at Macy’s is no where near the same quality. Is your little one hoping for a Rock Band drum set? Well, make sure you aren’t fooled into purchasing the “Drum Star” knock off instead.

The attack of the clones doesn’t stop there, as the popular gaming craze that is “Dance Dance Revolution” finds itself duped by the lesser quality “Dance Mania” knock-off.

The rule of thumb here, is that there are no stupid questions. Ask store associates, family, and friends. Most of all, do your research before you buy.

Source: Engadget

Activision’s release of “Guitar Hero Encore: Rocks the 80’s” has spurred a lawsuit from American rock group, The Romantics. Lawsuits are common place these days, however the grounds for the suit against the publisher of the successful video game franchise seems like a stretch.

The Romantics claim that the band commissioned to perform their hit song “What I Like About You” sounded too much like them, resulting in a rendition that is “virtually indistinguishable from the authentic version”.

The lawsuit was filed on November 20th in federal District Court in Detroit. Look out Frank Caliendo, John Madden may be after you next.

Frank Caliendo impersonating John Madden on The Late Show

Via: billboard.com

The Battle of the Bands is heating up, with challenger Rock Band offering more instruments and more downloadable songs. Why does Rock Band belong in the Hall of Game with Guitar Hero 3 performing extremely well, considering our review? We went to MTV spokesperson Ton-Essa La’Rocque to explain what makes RB special.

Q: I thought the release date was official for the 23rd?

A: I’ve heard the 20th, I’ve heard the 23rd. It’s unofficial.

Q: What are the changes from GH to Rock Band?

A: What they tried to do with Rock Band was go for authenticity. For instance, Fender really designed the guitars. Rollins and Boss did the drums and the pedals. It’s more of a love for music and also gaming so what they wanted to do was merge.

You have the microphone where you can do karaoke, which rates you on tone and diction. You have the bass, guitar, and drums so you can form a whole band. You can also do this online. You can be at home and form a whole band and online from other households. You can have battle of the bands. You can battle another band in probably another country online.

What they’re going to do is every week or every two weeks they’re going to make available new downloads. It’s going to be sort of like iTunes, where you can download entire albums and songs. Right now they have a deal with The Who and Metallica.

Also what they’re going to do is you can customize your band so all the members can look just like you. You can create your whole hometown. It’s going to be very detailed as you make more money. It’s going to be a whole storyboard. So as you make more money you get better venues, clothing and equipment.

Q: Is Rock Band only coming in a bundle on release date?

A: That is also unofficial. They are thinking about a bundle which has a microphone, the drum set and one guitar. However, if you do have Guitar Hero guitars or other peripherals they are compatible with Rock Band.

Q: Why are there ten buttons on Rock Band guitar compared to five on the GH guitar?

They are actually the same. You can play higher up on the board or lower down. If you play lower down on the smaller buttons you acquire style points. Yea if you really want to get low and rock out you can use that. Also, we have sound effects, so when you release your star power, for anybody who is familiar with GH it’s the same with RB where you can release your star power and you can use your sound effects.

Q: What sets Rock Band apart from GH?

What sets it apart is authenticity. If you look at the guitars they are more realistic. The p’s are actually flush on the neck and they have a longer neck. Because of the authenticity and the whole band being able to play live or on set, there’s really no comparison.

Guitar Hero is finally facing some tough competition this year due to Rock Band, and the behind-the-scenes maneuvering between companies is probably pretty confusing to most music game fans.

The creators of Guitar Hero may have moved on to develop Rock Band, but the GH license is still going strong with big-name contributors and more addicting guitar gameplay. We talked with Activision’s Alex Ortiz, who is Guitar Hero 3’s production coordinator, about how the legal and licensing changes have affected this popular series.

Q: What was the transition like from Harmonix to Neversoft?
A: I joined the team later in development. As far as working with Neversoft on this title, it seems like Neversoft knew what exactly what they were getting in to. They’re a really great developer who pulled off a really good game in GH3. They pretty much proved they can take over Harmonix crown and still preserve what Guitar Hero is.

Q: Did you use the same engine and interface as the previous two Guitar Heroes?
A: They have their own engine. We couldn’t use what Harmonix developed, but overall users who are familiar with GH1 and 2 will pretty much feel right at home with GH3 and see that not much was changed. Obviously the menu and everything is completely different. It’s more of the Neversoft style of things, but it’s a really good change, to be honest.

Q: What were Red Octane and Activision’s response to EA buying out Harmonix?
A: It was one of those buyouts that takes everyone by surprise. It wasn’t really expected, but we weren’t really surprised that a great developer like Harmonix was eventually bought by another company.

Q: What sets Neversoft apart from Harmonix?
A: I think what really sets it apart is our own unique style. When you look at the two games, Rock Band and Guitar Hero, there’s not a whole lot you can do as far as changing up the prep board too much. They’re almost going to look the same, it’s just what each developer going to bring to the table art and style-wise that’s going to differentiate the two.

Q: What’s in store for online play?
A: Online play is available right out the gate on PS3, Xbox 360 and the Wii. PS2 does not have online.

Q: What can you do online?
A: Basically it’s what you can do offline. Co-op mode is available online and competitive online play is there. You can pretty much go head-to-head against anyone in the world and prove who the best GH player is.

Q: Rockband has MTV, what about GH?
A: GH has the fact that it’s a monster franchise and brand name that is so well known. Throngs of people know GH. People still don’t yet know that Rock Band name. It’s yet to prove itself to the wide consumer market. You know when most people hear GH they know what it is. Rock Band, they’re not sure what it is. Because GH is such monster of a franchise it’s actually easier now for us to get artists involved. Artists are more proactive about coming to us first and trying to get involved.

Sex Pistols came back and rerecorded “Anarchy in the U.K.” for us. That was a major, awesome accomplishment. We got the band Living Colour to also rerecord “Cult of Personality”, and they actually extended and added things to the solo in the song. It’s amazing.

We also have Slash and Tom Morello who came in and recorded new, exclusive music just for us.

Q: EA claims that their guitar and the GH guitar are interchangeable, are they?
A: That’s been the long-standing thing that Harmonix has said– that the Guitar Hero guitar will work with their game. I’m sure their controller will probably work with ours, but I’m pretty sure there’s going to be some compatibility issues. Each piece of hardware is different. How the pieces of software are going to react to a controller that wasn’t necessarily designed for it, that’s kind of up in the air.

Anyone who has played video games in the 8 or 16-bit era remembers a genre that has since become the black sheep of 3D gaming culture: the platformer. Platformers made up a huge percentage of all console games and arcades of the day, and would all be started by one game in particular, that put it’s highly pixilated main character through every kind of death trap imaginable.

Pitfall was put out by Activision in 1982, and although the company had quite a few of successes before this, Pitfall was a tremendous hit for the company on the Atari 2600, and throughout the 80’s in general. Clones were quickly manufactured almost as soon as the game launched. Other Activision earlier games included KABOOM!, Chopper Command, and Ice Hockey.

In order to understand the importance of Activision’s role in gaming, it’s better to think about what the industry would have been like if they never existed. Mario would probably have never come along to save the failing market in 85’ and go on to sell tens of millions of copies. Simon Belmont would never have taken up his whip to defeat Dracula. Mega Man could have very well been made into a top down shooter, and Ryu Hyabusa may have never started his gap jumping, ninja-flipping quest for revenge.

The face of video games would have been altered forever, or even worse, the entire concept may have died back in 1983 like it was supposed to according to the so called experts. Yikes! Thankfully, Pitfall does exist, and the videogame industry may have avoided an abyss of endless black thanks to Harry and his vine swinging, cliff hanging, action packed adventures.

Activision has become more of a powerhouse publisher in recent years, snagging up young and talented individuals and companies from all over the world. The list of quality games these people are creating with the help of Activision is amazing. However, the lack of a truly lengthy library prevents them from making this list on their own. Until true independence can be established, they’ll just have to keep their current position under the corporate thumb.

A perfect example of this would be Infinity Ward, the ammunition behind the extreemly successful WWII Shooter Series, Call of Duty. The campaigns are fast paced, in your face, and laced with authenticity throughout. Next moth, the series abandons the WWII era making the move to Modern Warfafe with the release of the highly anticipated Call of Duty 4.

Neversoft is home to the genius that is Tony Hawk, the number one gaming franchise which has dominated the digital skating market for years. And Raven, was the creative force that gave us Hexen II, the Soldier of Fortune series, Quake 4, and the phenomenal 2002 title, Jedi Knight II: Jedi Outcast.

You can even become a rock god with Harmonix’ Guitar Hero. But could any of these companies make a top ten list on their own two legs? The answer is no. So, instead our number ten spot will belong to the mighty conglomerate that is Activision. So the first developer on our top ten list doesn’t develop anymore? Well, not exactly…

Activision, no matter how you look at it, has changed the face of gaming. Its development of the seminal game Pitfall would single handedly create a genre, save an industry, and pave the way for future innovators. Their acquisition and absorption of talented developers continues to set bar for quality software, and their role in that equation cannot be denounced. Also, the games being churned out by Activision and its developers continue to shape the next generation of gaming. Today, video games are a 6.2 billion dollar business. Activision is one of the few companies you have to thank for that. You’re welcome.

Must Haves:
Pitfall (Atari 2600)

Have Nots:
Pitfall: The Mayan Adventure (GBA)

Top Ten Developer List: 10 | 9 | 8 | 7 | 6 | 5 | 4 | 3 | 2 | 1