Yesterday KISS rock god Gene Simmons hit the Times Square launch of the Xbox 360 version of Guitar Hero II to rock out with some fans of teh game.

The PR folks just sent us these shots from the event. Looks like it was a good time. And, man, that guy's tongue looks like it has gotten longer. Brian Crecente

Mr. Simmons will be fake-rocking onstage with the Xbox 360 version of Guitar Hero II alongside one of five expert-level plastic guitar shredders.

From Xbox.com:

Gene Simmons of the legendary rock band KISS, along with five of the top Guitar Hero II gamers in the country, will rock out in a Guitar Hero II JamFest. The player with the best song—and highest score on the Xbox Live Leaderboard—will play the signature KISS song "Strutter," one of the popular game's classic rock tracks, with Simmons.

Looking at the five Guitar Heroes and Heroines makes me think Gene is seriously going to push to get either Kelly Law-Yone or Felicia Williams to rock out with him. It's just a gut feeling.

The whens and wheres are at the official announcement. Michael McWhertor

Guitar Heroes to Take on Gene Simmons [Xbox.com]

Some people just never learn. After GamesRadar's last attempt at gay humor went sour, writer Matt Cundy has inexplicably decided to try it again. Maybe he's trying to make up for past transgressions, or maybe he's just trying to grab some readers who would be intrigued by a headline like "Men Kissing Men", but in either case, the mark has been missed again. It's not that the material is particularly homophobic as much as it is poorly executed. The attempts at humor get a bit lost in the pure blandness of the article itself and after reading it I'm left with the feeling of "What's your point?" and more importantly, what is your intended audience with this piece?

At the GDC I had the pleasure of sitting in on a GLBT (That's Gay, Lesbian Bi and Transgendered for the uninitiated) developers roundtable. One of the things discussed was how to create more visibility for gay people within the gaming community, but I don't think this is exactly what they had in mind. Unfortunately, I think articles such as this one do more of a disservice to gay people by giving the whole thing the air of a circus sideshow. Perhaps if this was written for ingestion by a gay audience it would seem a little different, but somehow I doubt it.

I'm sure there are plenty of those who'd still be shocked to learn that there are men who do kiss men, but in this age of Bully and Brokeback Mountain, I think that number is slowly dwindling. I would like to think that we have progressed to a point where this type of thing wouldn't be such a big deal, but being myself a gay man in a gamer's world, I know that it's just not the case.

In the case of Mr. Cundy's gay articles, however, I leave you with the immortal words of the venerable Mr. Quentin Crisp: "If at first you don't succeed, failure may be your style." Flynn De Marco

At first, it seems as if the guy on the left has lost the race by level 1-1, but he somehow pulls ahead by the eighth world. Listen to the audience reaction: we haven't heard an audience go nuts like that since we saw Gene Simmons strangle a wild gorilla to death with his tongue at a 1993 Worcester K.I.S.S. concert.

The race to the ultimate Bowser is a real nail-biter — luckily, there appears to have been no ill-will between the contestants, and they seal the contest with a snuggle.

Super Mario Bros. Race