1P Start

I’d pretty much given hope that this would happen, but Activision recently rocked my socks with news at their non-E3 event that Guitar Hero: World Tour will work with Rock Band’s instruments as well as third party made controllers.

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The latest Ghostbusters: The Video Game trailer is up and man oh man it’s getting me all kinds of excited:

The game itself better not suck, because this has potential to be the coolest thing ever. How could it not be? It’s the unofficial Ghostbusters III with all the main talent on board (No, I don’t count Rick Moranis) and even most of the secondary types. Hell, it could almost be better than a movie, because you won’t be distracted by the ravages of age on the main actors. Dan Aykroyd’s almost more frightening than any of the ghosts.

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I loved the original Wolfenstein. Forget Doom, Wolfenstein was the first game that really got me into first person shooters. The good times didn’t end their either, Return to Castle Wolfenstein was a pretty fun trip and as one of the first XBox Live enabled games for the original Xbox I have a ton of fun memories associated with it. Now the latest issue of Game Informer has the announcement that a new Wolfenstein game is in the works. Awesome.

This new Wolfenstein’s details appear to be very similar to previous releases, except that maybe this time the hero gets to use some supernatural powers along with the usual array of standard guns. For a few more details head on over to Gaming Today.

An elite team of Grandmas are busy knitting drum silences for Rock Band 2

More details emerged on the new Rock Band 2 drums. While they are essentially the same drums as the first game’s, the new drums are reputed to have quieter drumpads that are velocity sensitive, a reinforced metal pedal (thank god), and clips for add on cymbals that could be purchased separately. It’s a bummer that the cymbals aren’t included with this set, but at least Guitar Hero World Tour doesn’t trump the Rock Band 2 drum set entirely.

But wait, that’s not all! Rock Band 2 will have another set of drums that’s called the Ion kit. The Ion kit will have three cymbals, adjustable pads, a metal frame, and the ability to use the kit as a fully functioning electronic drum kit, i.e. it’s not for just Rock Band.

If you crave more info on these drum kits, you can find all the deets in the latest issue of Games Informer or you can just go to this message board where some dude scanned the entire article and posted it. Isn’t that illegal or something?

Man it’s been damned hot here. So hot that I could barely make myself sit in front of the computer and write updates instead of looking at porn. Anyway… this week’s Rock Band DLC brings us more Red Hot Chili Peppers and Rush. The tracks will be available for As usual, the tracks will cost $1.99 (160 Microsoft points) each and are not available in a discounted pack.

The songs included in this batch are:

* “Snow” (Hey Oh) Red Hot Chili Peppers

* “Tell Me Baby” Red Hot Chili Peppers

* “Closer to the Heart” Rush

* “Working Man” (Vault Edition) Rush

You might have noticed that Working Man was already available before, well this version is a master recording with an all new special solo only found (currently) in Rock Band. So I guess that’s a big screw you to people who already purchased the song. Yeah it’s nice that they’ve finally got Rush Masters as a cover artist could never truly capture the annoyingly high squeal of Geddy Lee, but it sucks donkey balls that they’ve already released the song.

Videos after the break!

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If you are excited about more Rock Band in your life, then the songs that have been announced so far have been pretty damn exciting. What are they you ask? Well, here you go:

* “Ace of Spades” - Motorhead
* “Anyway You Want It” — Journey
* “Pinball Wizard” — The Who
* “Chop Suey” — System of a Down
* “Panic Attack” — Dream Theater or Finger Eleven
* “Give It Away” — Red Hot Chili Peppers
* “Everlong” — Foo Fighters
* “Kids in America” — Kim Wilde
* “Hello There” — Cheap Trick

These songs were seen on a screen on G4TV (see screenshot above), so they haven’t been “officially” confirmed. If this is for real though, holy crapballs is this awesome. Finally, Journey!, System of a Down, and Motorhead! I guess I know why we haven’t been getting any of these bitching songs as DLC…

While playing GTA IV (I’m so close to the end I can taste it), I thought that it was a shame that I wouldn’t get any “trophies” (aka Achievements on the PS3) for my hard work. I wondered what kind of trophies I was missing as I was doing all kinds off crazy stuff in the game. Then I was comforted by the thought that when Sony rolled out the trophies in update v2.40, I’d probably get all the trophies I had earned retroactively.

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Metal fans should be happy with this week’s Rock Band DLC. The songs come from the Motley Crue themed musicfest called Cruefest. The Cruefest Pack will cost $2.99 (240 Microsoft points). The songs in the pack are:

* “Down at the Whisky” Motley Crue

* “Time is Running Out” Papa Roach

* “Who’s Going Home with You Tonight” Trapt

In addition to these songs there will be a free download of the song “Promised Land,” which is from an upcoming film called The Rocker.

Thoughts and videos after the break!

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Everyone knew it was coming, but Harmonix has officially announced the arrival of Rock Band 2… in September! The name of the sequel appears to be Rock Band: Opening Act. I’m really hoping they change the name, since an opening act isn’t the pinnacle of rock success. Anyway, In a talk with IGN, Harmonix Lead Designer Dan Teasdale divulged a few details about the sequel, but what’s interesting are some of the questions he didn’t really answer.

You can read the whole article for yourself, but here’s a quick run down of all the most important facts:

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If you’re dying for more Weezer songs in Rock Band, then this week should give you the fix you’ve been looking for. This week’s Rock Band DLC brings us three new Weezer songs from their newest CD (do they even make CDs anymore?). While this isn’t something that isn’t going to make me squeal like a pig, I realize that there’s more than a few Weezer die-hards that have probably pooped their pants by now. The three songs cost $1.99 (160 Microsoft points) individually, or $5.50 (440 Microsoft points) for the slightly discounted bundle.

The songs are:

* “Dreamin”

* “The Greatest Man That Ever Lived”

* “Troublemaker”

Videos and bonus thoughts after the break!

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This Tuesday Sony announced that the firmware update version v2.36 would be coming and it finally hit the Playstation 3. This PS3 update is supposed to help system stability for select titles. While that’s fine and dandy, that still means we have to wait for the version that’s really worth waiting around for: version 2.4. If you aren’t familiar with that particular software version number (and I don’t blame you if you don’t) 2.4 will finally makes the XMB, a.k.a. the Xross Media Bar, a.k.a. the menu that’s spelled like it’s Xtreme to the max, available in PS3 titles themselves. 2.4 will also bring PS3 owners Trophies, which is Sony’s answer to the Xbox Live Achievements and will also make it slightly less sucky than Microsoft’s Live service. The PS3 2.4 upgrade is something that Live users have had for years and Sony should have had on day one of the PS3 launch. I also wonder if not every PS3 game supporting Trophies will make them less meaningful as much as Achievements and more as an afterthought. The fact that Trophies are coming is a nice touch though, because right now I own both systems and those little points you get for accomplishments in games are incredibly addicting and will often sway me to play the 360 version of a game over the PS3 version.

So exactly when is update v2.4 coming? Well it’s next in the queue, but Sony isn’t saying when that will be. This is perhaps the best move on Sony’s part. It’s better to remain incredibly vague than to disappoint Sony fanboys if there happens to be a delay of some sort. Why nail yourself to a deadline if something goes wrong in testing? So everyone be patient and wait just a little while longer for better features on Home. May I suggest earning some Achievements on Live in the meantime?

Sony’s attempt at killing Halo with Resistance Fall of Man didn’t work all that well. Now fans of the first game and those hungry for more shooter action on the PS3 can check out videos of the game on Gametrailers.com or you can check out one of them right here:

I’ll admit that the first game’s setting appealed to me as a fan of historically based science fiction. You really can’t be the concept of aliens attacking during World War II (even if it isn’t entirely original), but for some reason when I played the demo of the first Resistance Fall of Man it didn’t really click with me. Perhaps I’ll give the game another chance, because the videos of the sequel here look pretty cool.

In the realm of rumors, this is a big one. A German gaming website is reporting that 40 gig PS3 owners will eventually be able to play PS2 games because there is a firmware update that will open up backwards compatibility. The German site had this to say (translation by a News 4 Gamers member):

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This week’s Rock Band content should appeal to fans of the Indie music scene. The three pack available this week is called the MTV2 pack (after the MTV that you don’t watch), because the songs are all from finalists from something called the Dew Circuit Breakout 2007.

The songs/artists are:

* “Moving to Seattle” by The Material

* “A Clean Shot” by The Myriad

* “Bullets & Guns” by Them Terribles

In addition there will be an extra song from a band called Maximo Park. The song is called, “Girls Who Play Guitars.”

The thee pack is going for $2.99 (240 Microsoft points) or $0.99 per track (80 Microsoft points), which is a discounted price probably caused by the fact that nobody knows who the hell the artists much less what songs they sing. “Girls Who Play Guitars” is also going for the low price of $0.99 (80 Microsoft points), most likely for the same reason.

Videos and my thoughts after the break!

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If you’re a fan of the Fallout series (and why wouldn’t you be?), then you might be interested in the survival edition of Fallout 3, which is available for pre-order now from etailer giant Amazon.com. Included in the lovely package is the usual stuff from the special edition that you can get at other stores like a lunch box, sound track, and making of DVD, it also comes with a replica of the PIP Boy that doubles as a clock. The Fallout 3 Survival Edition will be available in all the most popular flavors: PC, PlayStation 3, and Xbox 360.

Of course, you really don’t need any of these things, but if you’re going crazy for the release of Fallout 3 why would you not get this?