Finally, on Saturday the 30th from 10:00PM to 1:00AM GMT, players will be able to jam online with the folks from Neversoft, from the Producer on down to the QA testers. Hit the jump for the full list of Neversoft friends to add to your list, as well as more details on how you can participate in the weekend's festivities.

SHRED, DRUM AND WAIL IN GUITAR HERO® WORLD TOUR LIVE WEEKEND ON XBOX LIVE® MARKETPLACE

Prizes to be won in online sweepstakes. Game with the developers in Xbox Live exclusive Guitar Hero World Tour tournaments

Wednesday 19th November/... Activision Publishing, Inc. (Nasdaq: ATVI) today announced an exclusive Xbox LIVE® online entertainment network weekend for their smash-hit Guitar Hero® World Tour. Starting November 27, 2008, players 14 years of age or older will be able to participate in a number of exciting online activities to determine who is truly the top Guitar Hero® rocker.

These activities include:
• Xbox All Nighter – Thursday, 11/27, from dusk until dawn
• Play & Win Sweepstakes – Friday, 11/28, through Saturday, 11/30
• Game with Developers – Saturday, 11/30 from 10:00pm – 01:00am GMT

Throughout the weekend, guitarist, drummers and vocalists who register and play the Guitar Hero World Tour multiplayer (co-op) session can also win special prizes, such as a Samsung television home theater package, collector’s edition Guitar Hero World Tour drum sticks, 1GB memory sticks and Guitar Hero portable USB/battery powered speakers.

Highlighting the weekend’s activities, on Sunday, November 30 from 10:00pm – 01:00am GMT, virtual musicians will have the opportunity to prove their rock god skills online against none other than Neversoft Entertainment, the creators of Guitar Hero World Tour. For those up for the challenge, be on the look-out for the following development team Gamertags:

• GHDevTina – Producer
• GHDevLee – Associate Producer
• GHDevCorey – Production Coordinator
• GHDevAnthony – Midi Designer
• GHDevChris – Midi Designer
• GHDevJason – Lead Animator
• GHDevZack – Junior Programmer
• GHDevJosh – Jr. Sound Designer
• GHDevKristina – Mocap Supervisor
• GHDevJustin – Mocap Tech
• GHDevAdry – QA Tester
• GHDevBrandon – QA Tester
• GHDevTravisR – QA Tester

More details on registering for Guitar Hero World Tour Xbox LIVE weekend and information regarding terms, conditions, and official rules are available through the official event page: http://www.xbox.com/guitarheroworldtour. Open registration will begin when the site goes live and will end at 04:59am GMT on December 1st, 2008.

The latest installment in the #1 best-selling video game franchise of 2007, Guitar Hero World Tour transforms music gaming by expanding Guitar Hero’s signature guitar gameplay into a cooperative band experience that combines the most advanced wireless controllers with new revolutionary online* and offline gameplay modes including Band Career and 8-player “Battle of the Bands,” which allows two full bands to compete head-to-head online for the first time ever. The game features a slick newly redesigned guitar controller, drum kit controller and a wired microphone, as well as an innovative Music Studio music creator that lets players compose, record, edit and share their own rock ‘n’ roll anthems. Music creators will also be able to share their recordings with their friends online through GHTunes where other gamers can download and play an endless supply of unique creations.

NPD: Behind The Numbers, October 2008 [Gamasutra]

‘Mario,’ ‘Zelda’ Tunes Deleted From ‘Guitar Hero’ Music-Sharing Service [MTV]

Do the masters-only massive setlist, new instruments and gameplay give Guitar Hero World Tour the competitive edge in the band music genre or is the game destined to spend its remaining days treading water in a sea of retarded sexuality and bad poetry?

Loved
The Difficulties All Go To Five: Perhaps sensing an expanding interest in an untapped market, this latest Guitar Hero includes a fifth difficulty level. But instead of using the extra level to make things harder, Neversoft used it to make things easier. If I had a child not already indoctrinated into the cult of band games, I’d be elated.
Quite Exciting, This Computer Magic: Playing Guitar Hero World Tour, I was blown away at times by the animation of character models in the game. From the on-stage moonwalk, to head-banging guitarists, this latest Guitar Hero really amped up the things their characters do during a set.
It's Such An Interesting Concept: It’s easy, I bet, when riding the tidal wave of success and money generated by a popular gaming franchise to get stuck in a rut, to take the no-risk route of more music but same mechanics. I was happy to see that Neversoft avoided that this time around. Granted they did need to come up with two new instruments for their band game, but they did so with a sense of panache. The drums have cymbals which makes drumming a bit more fun, more immersive. The guitar is chunkier, has a new fret-free slider bar and the microphone, well the microphone is just a mic.
The Sustain, Listen To It: Along with tweaking the existing and new instruments, Neversoft seems to have put a lot of thought in how to pull more out of the game play mechanics as well. The new slider on the guitar, for instance, lets you slide your way through whole sections of songs. You can also use it to tap the neck to hit notes and deliver wah during sustain. Other changes include a bass note that is fret free and sections of vocals designed for talking to the audience mid-song.
We say, "Love your brother." : Neversoft went well above and beyond in making sure that competitor Rock Band’s instruments work with their game. Not only can you use the microphone, guitar and drum, when you use the RB2 drums in Guitar Hero World Tour it actually changes the way you play. The game reduces the number of “lanes” on the musical highway from Guitar Hero’s five to Rock Band’s four. Pretty impressive and a great service to cross-title gamers.

Hated
I Don't Hear Anything: You can have the best hardware design on the planet, but when your game ships with faulty controllers it just doesn’t matter. While I love the slider on my guitar, the yellow button doesn’t register at all. Others have reported having trouble with drums not registering hits. This isn’t unique to Guitar Hero World Tour, but that doesn’t make it any less annoying.
It's Such a Fine Line Between Stupid, and Clever: One of the things I liked about Guitar Hero III was its story line told through animated cut-scenes. Sure it was incredibly light, but it still helped give the game a bit of character, showing it was something more than Karaoke 2.0. This time around the game still features a bit of the same animation storyline, but it’s really only delivered at the very beginning and the very end. The gap is so long I was confused about what I was seeing when the game’s career mode wrapped up.
I've Got a Small Bit of Bad News: Guitar Hero World Tour has some tremendous high notes during the career mode, from Jimi Hendrix stepping on stage to jam with you to facing off against Ted Nugent. But none of those high notes come at the end of the career mode. Instead you’re left with an odd mix of famous faces packed into a single band playing the sort of music they would NEVER play if they could ever be convinced to jam together. And the end credits' song. Really?
Money Talks, and Bullshit Walks: Product placement in absurdly popular video games are quickly becoming an inevitability, so we’re all going to have to get used to it. But I don’t think they should be as noticeable as they were for me in Guitar Hero World Tour. Plugging for musical instruments and venues: Fine. Plugging for KFC and Coke: No Thanks.

Guitar Hero World Tour has made me a believer. I don’t think I could choose one distinct winner between Rock Band 2 and Guitar Hero World Tour, mostly because they seem to be taking different routes to the same sort of excellence. But I love, for instance, how the drums feel on Guitar Hero World Tour. Drumming through long sections that require cymbals is just plain out fun. Some of the other changes feel a bit gimmicky, but overall it’s a very solid experience and one that certainly isn’t dwarfed by the competition.

In the long run this genre is anyone's game. I'd like to think that the two could peacefully co-exist but the pain of not being able to play a particular musician based on which game you have is going to eventually become too painful to bear.

Guitar Hero: World Tour was developed by Neversoft for the Xbox 360 and PS3, published by Activision and released on Oct. 26 for Playstation 2, Playstation 3, Wii and Xbox 360. The Band Kit retails for $189.99 USD. Completed single-player tour using guitar, played many songs using bass, drums and microphone and tested coop offline and on.

Confused by our reviews? Read our review FAQ.

Top of the list is news that Xbox 360 users can now download a Guitar Hero World Tour update that will allow ION Drum Rocker owners to use the drum kit with the game.

More importantly Neversoft wants everyone to know that while they’ve done everything they can to get the Guitar Hero World Tour drum and guitar to work with Rock Band 1 and 2, they’ve reached an impasse.

The team at Neversoft worked diligently on making the drum and guitar controllers compatible across Guitar Hero World Tour and Rock Band 1 and 2 on the PlayStation 3 platform. The Guitar Hero World Tour drum and guitar controllers currently support a basic level of gameplay with both Rock Band games.

However, integrating the Guitar Hero World Tour drum controller into the Rock Band games requires an update to the Rock Band game software. Until that update is made to the Rock Band software, the Guitar Hero World Tour drum controller will not function in the PlayStation 3 version of that game.

While I applaud the effort being put into making sure that people who own different pieces of hardware can use them with different games, I have to wonder how many people this actually affects. Seriously, let me know in comments. Is this a burning issue for a lot of you? Do you want to use one drum kit on another game? The only thing I want to do is use BOTH drum kits on one game. Maybe set them up in a metal cage with some hydraulics.

It’s the little dreams that keep me going at night.

With Harmonix doing the same thing with their in-house bands in Rock Band, it seems like the way to get ahead in the music business these days is to learn how to program. Hit the jump for the helpful press release, complete with links to each band's MySpace.

NEVERSOFT MUSICIANS TO OFFER TWO TRACKS FOR FREE DOWNLOAD IN GUITAR HERO WORLD TOUR

Featuring many talented artists, spanning genres that cross the musical spectrum, two distinct Neversoft bands deliver “Anything” and “Electro Rock” to fans of Guitar Hero World Tour

After an increase in notoriety with the appearance of “Impulse” in Guitar Hero® III: Legends of Rock and with fans calling them “one of the biggest musical breaths of fresh air” and “a monument to human talent and determination,” An Endless Sporadic returns to the Guitar Hero® stage with their new single, “Anything.” Featuring Andy Gentile, Neversoft Designer, on Drums and Zach Kamins on Guitar, Keyboard and Bass, “Anything,” “Impulse” and other An Endless Sporadic tracks are currently available on iTunes.

Not to be outdone, fellow Neversoft Designer David Stowater presents Sworn’s debut in the Guitar Hero franchise with “Electro Rock.” Sworn fuses a combination of Rock, Electronica and Hip-Hop styles, producing an eclectic sound that reveals the music within you. “Electro Rock” as well as other Sworn tracks will be available on iTunes on October 26th, the same day that Guitar Hero World Tour is released.

Both “Anything” and “Electro Rock” will be available as downloadable content when Guitar Hero World Tour launches on October 26th, free of charge, on Xbox LIVE® Marketplace and the PLAYSTATION®Store. Music fans can learn more about the artists, check out pictures and listen to additional tracks on their myspace pages at www.myspace.com/anendlesssporadic and www.myspace.com/swornproductions.

Guitar Hero World Tour [1UP, via VG247]

Guitar Hero 4's New Instrument Revealed [Shacknews]

Luckily, this wasn’t the case with Guitar Hero: On Tour developer Neversoft. Producer Brian Bright was plenty able to talk about his game (since it’s coming out October 26). So my only task in this interview was making it sound different from the two dozen the guy had already been through that night.

Hit the jump to see what I came up with.

It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to figure that Guitar Hero’s a step up from Tony Hawk. So I started by asking if we could expect to see anymore Tony Hawk games from Brian’s team.

Brian glanced nervously at the Activision handler sitting in on the interview. The handler shook his head and muttered, “Can’t say anything.”

“Yeah, we can’t say anything,” said Brian. “Yet.”

The handler made a warning noise and I decided to redirect.

Someone advised me to go into this interview and start with something along the lines of “Sir, go [censored] yourself. What do you say to that?” I can only assume this person isn’t pleased that Brian Bright is working on Guitar Hero: World Tour, or maybe they just curse World Tour for a Rock Band copycat and think the developers should be verbally abused as punishment.

Whatever the reason for the spite, I related this to Brian and asked if he had any thoughts. He got a little wide-eyed and blinked a few times before saying, “They said that? Wow.” He looked at the handler. “Maybe we should do another Tony Hawk…”

The handler coughed and we entered into the dreaded awkward silence. Loathe to fall back on stock questions, I got into the territory of stuff I could Google, but asked anyway. This tactic is safe, it’s bland, and sometimes it’s the only way to move an interview forward.

“What made you decide to keep boss battles in World Tour? They weren’t all that popular in Guitar Hero III…”

Now Brian got excited. “[Battle mode] is the most popular online mode.” Which is why they’ve kept it in World Tour, but it sounds like the dev team has learned its lesson. They’ve gotten rid of power-ups in battle mode (including boss battles) for World Tour – focusing instead on the riffs. “You play a riff, he plays a riff – and whoever plays better wins.”

Jeez – shouldn't it have always been like that…? I remember one games journalist making a Simpsons quip about Legends of Rock: “You used to be about the music, man…”

I threw that into the conversation and Brian assured me, “Everything’s about the music.” Then he went on about how the dev team picked the songs and put together the set list just to prove how much music Guitar Hero is about.

Again, this is probably something you can Google – but actually watching a developer who’s been pouring his heart into a game tell you about how he did it is way better than scrolling down a web page. It’s like feeding on a piece of his soul and his soul is made of candy.

It all starts with a huge Excel spreadsheet. This is circulated through the team and everyone adds songs that they’d like to see in the game. World Tour had over 500 songs on that spreadsheet – stuff that didn’t make it into Guitar Hero III, stuff they’ve done before but think they can do better, etc.

The song list was wheedled down by the preferences of the higher-ups and also by legal boundaries and availability of master tracks. Dealing with dead artists is especially hard, says Brian, because you’re not talking to one person and his/her agent – you’re dealing with an estate, and sometimes nobody even knows where to find the masters in all the dead artist’s stuff. “Sometimes the band’s broken up,” said Brian. “And there’s no one you can talk to you. It’s just gone – out of the question.”

A major concern for Brian in picking World Tour’s songs was keeping the game guitar-centric. A good, dynamic drum solo - *cough* Tool *cough* - might bump up the priority of the song, but ultimately, they went with songs that had strong baselines and solid guitar solos. Vocals factored in the least, but a few songs made it under the wire on grounds that World Tour is a party game, so you’ve got to have songs everyone can sing along to (e.g. Eye of the Tiger).

These songs were then tempo-mapped so each piece of the dev team could take the map and work on their part of the game (without having to share the way you do in level-based games). The designers listen to each song, note tracking each song. They adjusted the note track for Expert and start scaling it down for the Hard, Medium and Easy difficulties. In this way, they build the set list from the ground up while the art, motion capture and gameplay mechanics were being built around the songs at the same time.

Brian was in a pretty chatty mood by now, so I felt safe enough to slide in another hard question: “Do you think it’s a compliment or an insult to be compared to Rock Band?”

The handler raised an eyebrow, but Brian immediately said, “Of course it’s a compliment.” He glanced at the handler and continued, “We’ve got nothing but respect for the guys at Harmonix… they’re great guys.”

But for obvious reasons, Activision and Harmonix are not on speaking terms. Brian really couldn’t talk too much about how his team feels about their rival, but he did say, “Rock Band is popular, but I think Guitar Hero’s community [will trump it].”

He’s talking about the Music Studio feature, of course. In the middle of extolling its many values as a tool for creative genius, the handler quietly informed me that any tracks uploaded to the GH website that resembled covers of licensed music would be taken down. They want to support their fan base, but they don’t want to break the law (and potentially damage their credibility with artists they might want to include in the next game).

Brian isn’t afraid of having to win back any fans they might have lost to Guitar Hero III’s bruising difficulty (he thinks Guitar Hero: Aerosmith has reassured those poor souls that Guitar Hero has come back from the Dark Side). Even if those players have gone over to Rock Band, there’s room enough on everyone’s shelf for two games; especially with the instrument compatibility. Moreover, Brian doesn’t know of any artists that have exclusive deals with Rock Band or with Guitar Hero, so beloved songs will always be available to both factions.

Time was running out, so I wrapped up with a basic question you ought to ask anyone who works on a music game: “What’s your favorite song to play?”

For drums, Brian likes Everlong by the Foo Fighters. As for singing, it's Obstacle 1 from Interpol because apparently he used to be a Goth. He’s got two favorites on guitar – Van Halen’s Hot for Teacher (which he can’t beat on Expert) and The Joker from Steve Miller Band. And on base, Brian says he’ll play anything from Bon Jovi.

Me? I’d kill for one or all of the following:

Total Eclipse of the Heart – Bonnie Tyler
The Jem and the Holograms theme
That Marilyn Manson cover of This is Halloween

What about you guys?

It started with a broken BART train. This led to a cab, which I had no money to pay for. The next shit storm occurred when my flight was cancelled. And then, the later flight I got bumped to was delayed by an hour and half. Oh, but it gets better. I get to the hotel with a mere 40 minutes to go before the event starts and the room I’m given is being remodeled.

*Cue AJ’s head exploding*

So, yeah. After all that, Guitar Hero: World Tour fucking owed me a good time.

And by God, I got it. I had to throw a few elbows and put up with the posturing bastards attracted by the competitive edge to Guitar Hero III, but I freaking got my good time.

Here’s the thing – this game is Rock Band. No, don’t give me that crap about how it’s different, it’s better, it’s got six drumheads, so it’s totally different. It is Rock Band. And who says that’s a bad thing? I already knew how to play the instruments. Not well, mind you, but it’s not like I needed a tutorial to find the fret buttons.

It’s like having a favorite candy and then they come out with a sour version that fizzes in your mouth and has Tool songs. That’s what Guitar Hero: World Tour is – the Warheads to Rock Band’s Airheads.

There are some subtle differences in appearance – the in-game visuals are more lurid and less sparkly, the fonts and vocabulary are completely different, and the Tool-themed venues are just freaking awesome creepy. And the not-so-subtle differences from Rock Band aren’t that jarring because this is still a Guitar Hero game, so it’s perfectly natural to go through competitive modes and encounter devil-looking “bosses” as you plow through career mode.

The only major thing that sets Guitar Hero: World Tour apart is the make-your-own-music feature. On PS3/360, this is only in the Music Studio mode where you can record yourself jamming on whatever instrument (except the vocals) and edit it together to sound like a real track. This is part of Activision’s strategy to reach out to the community in a way that Rock Band didn’t; allowing you to record your own music and upload it to the web (where other people can download it and put it on their set lists).

The Wii has Music Studio, too, but it also has Mii Freestyle mode. And if just now, you’re rolling your eyes and muttering “Wii Music, feh,” I’ve got news for you: this mode was probably the most fun anyone had all night (next to getting sloshed and singing Michael Jackson’s Beat It without shame or inhibition). Mii Freestyle is just like jamming in your friend’s basement when you’re young and don’t know what you’re doing – a carefree setup where there is no wrong and no right, with little cue cards and an optional looping drumbeat to get you going if you don’t know where to start.

I tried this mode out after being savaged by my peers on the 360 version; it was the perfect salve to my wounded pride. It’s not that I disgraced myself singing vocals on 360 – I may be tone deaf, but World Tour’s Easy mode lets you get away with off-key murder (and on Beginner, you can just shout incoherently into the microphone). It’s just that the attendees had divided into two groups without telling me – and the 360 version was for Hardcore Only. So because I didn’t know the lyrics to Filter’s Hey Man, Nice Shot and I wasn’t alive during the 70s when Pretty Vacant came out, I wasn’t “hardcore” enough to play with that crowd (even though it wasn’t me that failed us out of Schism, it was the drummer).

That’s my main problem with Guitar Hero: World Tour – the peer pressure from other gamers. Rock Band has its fair share of performance artist assholes that refuse to play with anyone who isn’t rocking on Hard or above, but I think it was established by the consumers that Rock Band was for everybody and Guitar Hero III and beyond was for the hardcore (come on – boss battles?). Thus, I encountered way more competitive jerks in just three minutes on World Tour than I ever did playing Rock Band for an entire year. The people I was playing with on 360 wouldn’t even let me try out Beginner and sneered at me when I chose Easy for vocals. Which is funny, since none of them wanted to sing at all.

After we scraped our way through Hotel California, my impressions of World Tour were all bad for a solid 10 minutes: “Fuck this game, it’s just a rip-off of Rock Band – only assholes want to play Pretty Vacant. And who really cares about singing? So what if there’re two extra drumheads to hit? I can just wait for Rock Band 2…” Etc.

It didn’t help that there’s still an emphasis on competition in World Tour. It’s not as severe as in Legends of Rock where versus mode had you crippling your opponent with seemingly-random power-ups. That game was less about the music and more about the game. But it’s still obvious in World Tour that you’re supposed to be better than the next guy – or at least above reproach if you fail the song. Even the icons for each player’s success speak to this; they’re side-by-side instead of on the same line, enhancing the feeling that you’ve got to be better than everybody if you don’t want to get made fun of.

I frown on this – and not just because I suck at guitar. Even if I could pull off the insane riffs without spraining my wrist, I would still scorn a game that takes all the fun out of pretending to be a rock star. So I salute World Tour for including Beginner mode – even if it’s boring for the bassist to just press the strum button every so often and not go near the fret buttons. It’s a way for a noob (or a girlfriend, or a kid) to play without forcing them to sing when they don’t want to (and aren’t particularly good at it anyway).

When I found my way to the Wii version, everything got better. It wasn’t just the Mii Freestyle mode that changed my outlook; it was the gamers that gravitated to Nintendo’s little white box. These were the guys and girls who didn’t care who was playing on what mode and were patient as people combed through the song list over and over again, looking for that one song they weren’t ashamed to sing (Eye of the Tiger was a big hit). And they didn’t give me lip when I set vocals to Beginner so I could screw up the live version of Sweet Home Alabama (I have a Texan accent – I just can’t say “Alabama” the way Lynyrd Skynyrd intended).

So maybe one stereotype is true – non-hardcore gamers prefer the Wii. But like Guitar Hero being a Rock Band clone, who says this is a bad thing? If the dev team on World Tour meant to make a game for everyone that had just as much appeal as Rock Band and maybe a little bit more (okay, kind of a lot more) content, then it looks like they’ve succeeded.

Or at least they got through to me. And by the end of the night, I was screeching my way through Jimmy Eat World’s "The Middle" (apropos, given the peer pressure I was under) with the best of them. But I swear, if you guys aren’t already good at guitar, you’re either going to have to play World Tour in secret until you get better, or play it on Wii.

P.S. I realize hardcore does not equate asshole. And I’m damn sure you guys are going to love this game with or without all that fancy-schmancy accessibility I was gushing over. The set list is solid, the difficultly ramps up smoothly so you don’t hit any brick walls, the motion-captured celebrities look amazing, and the head-to-head face offs are now a fair fight of who is the better player instead of who gets the power-up first. Just try and remember this is a party game and not an opportunity to alienate all of your friends, ‘kay?

ETA: Sorry - something was way broken with my gallery...

Sydney, Australia – September 8, 2008 – Rock and roll legend Sting and progressive metal pioneers Tool are making their video game debuts, contributing more than just music, in Activision Publishing, Inc.’s (Nasdaq: ATVI) Guitar Hero® World Tour.

In what will be the largest collection of artists ever to appear in a Guitar Hero game, singer-songwriter, actor, author, activist and lead singer/bassist of The Police, Sting will add his voice and likeness as an in-game character. Aspiring frontmen can take the stage as Sting throughout their vocal career or play alongside him as he performs one of The Police classics, “Demolition Man.”

Hugely popular alternative metal band Tool, known for their epic, intense musical arrangements and killer visual arts, will also soon be known for their contribution to the upcoming Guitar Hero World Tour. Guitar Hero fans from all over the world will be able to rock out to “Parabola” and Grammy-award winning “Schism” from Tool’s critically-acclaimed 2001 album Lateralus in addition to “Vicarious” from their 2006 Grammy-award winning album 10,000 Days. The game will also feature an all-new venue designed in collaboration with the band and highlighting the art style that has become a staple in their music videos, live shows and album artwork.

I don't know how far ahead they planned that - we obviously revealed [our drum kit] much earlier than they did...I've a feeling there was a: 'Oh s***! There's cymbals! How can we put cymbals on our kit?' That would be the easiest way without having to rewire everything and re-engineer the entire circuit board.

Brian. Harmonix invented Guitar Hero. They then invented Rock Band, which GH World Tour is now , for want of a better word, copying. Might be for the best if you keep the "innovation" smack talk to a minimum.

GH dev mocks Rock Band cymbals [Eurogamer] [Image: Corbis]

But what about Rock Band? With an established fan base and a head start in the rhythm band genre, how can Guitar Hero: World Tour compete? Bright's simple answer? "We're bringing it."

His more complex and informative answer? "We want to push the genre farther forward. We're bringing innovation this year."

He's talking about the host of new features Guitar Hero: World Tour is bringing to the rhythm game market, such as the whole music studio, the GHTunes community they are building, and a drum kit with a built-in midi controller...they basically created a midi controller for the PS3 and Xbox 360 from the ground up.

Now that the PlayStation 3, PS2, and Xbox 360 versions of the game all support Rock Band instruments, the stand alone version of GH:WT should be able to find an audience in even the most stalwart Rock Band fans. "They can pick up the standalone version of World Tour and use those instruments, and when they break they can buy ours."

All that innovation, plus World Tour is technically the first third-party title to utilize Nintendo's Mii system, allowing you to bring your own brand of superdeformed style to the game.

Seeing as the main game - friends getting together and playing music - is essentially the same, the battle will come down to innovation and music selection, and from what I've seen so far, Bright is right - they are definitely bringing it.

Airbourne – "Too Much Too young…"
At the Drive-in – "One Armed Scissor"
Black Rebel Motorcycle Club – "Weapon of Choice"
Bob Seger – "Hollywood Nights"
Dinosaur Jr. – "Feel the pain"
Silversun Pickups – "Lazy Eye"
Survivor – "Eye of the Tiger"

You can't help but look at this and wonder: when they're not throwing around the big bucks to get hold of Metallica or Hendrix, Activision just can't compete with Harmonix's song selecting finesse.

Guitar Hero World Tour Rides the Crazy Train [IGN]

Ozzy Osbourne dishes on 'Guitar Hero' and technology [USA Today]

Guitar Hero: World Tour Setlist A [Beautiful] Fake [Game Informer]

[Roadrunner Records, thanks Silenced!]

SYDNEY, Australia – July 24, 2008 – The iconic legacy of late singer/guitarist Jimi Hendrix continues in the upcoming Guitar Hero® World Tour video game from Activision Publishing, Inc. (Nasdaq: ATVID). One of the most creative and influential musicians of the 20th century, Hendrix will be featured in the game as a playable character, along with two of his most recognizable master tracks, “Purple Haze (Live)” recorded in 1969 at the San Diego Sports Arena and “The Wind Cries Mary.” Additional exclusive songs from the legendary artist will follow as downloadable content.

“Guitar Hero games have become the virtual rock stage for the industry’s most beloved artists and Guitar Hero World Tour continues that tradition by honouring the great Jimi Hendrix and celebrating some of his greatest work,” said Tim Riley, Vice President of Music Affairs for Activision Blizzard. “His presence in the game will serve to satisfy multiple generations of his fans and Guitar Hero devotees, as well as create new fans by reintroducing his genre-defining guitar style through the unique Guitar Hero experience.”

Guitar Hero World Tour is being developed by Neversoft Entertainment for the Xbox 360® video game and entertainment system from Microsoft and PLAYSTATION®3 computer entertainment system. The Wii™ version is being developed by Vicarious Visions. The PlayStation®2 computer entertainment system version is being developed by Budcat. The game is not yet rated by the OFLC. For more information on Guitar Hero World Tour, please visit www.guitarhero.com.

Exclusive: Hendrix Comes to Guitar Hero [Rolling Stone] [Pic]

Blizzard, Infinity Ward, Neversoft execs sign long term contracts with Activision Blizzard [Variety]

Giant Bombcast 06-03-2008 [Giant Bomb, via VG247]

Guitar Hero Official Site [via Go Nintendo]

[thanks everyone who sent this in!]

You can even test your skills against Neversoft developers, who will be shackled to their Xbox 360s on a Sunday from 12-4 PST. Poor saps. The details are in the release after the jump but for anyone interested, keep in mind its for US and Canada based gamers only. Sorry, Mexico!

GUITAR HERO® III: LEGENDS OF ROCK — ROCK YOUR PARTY WEEKEND ON XBOX LIVE® ANNOUNCED

Fans Celebrate the Culmination of the Football Season as They Play for Prizes and Play with Game Developer Neversoft

SANTA MONICA, CA. - Jan. 18, 2008 - Gridiron fans get ready to rock out and win prizes on Xbox LIVE® with Guitar Hero® III: Legends of Rock! Activision announced today that Xbox LIVE will host the Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock - Rock Your Party Weekend, a special event happening the weekend of the big game, February 1-3, 2008 for U.S. and Canada residents. The 72-hour event gives players the chance to prove their axe grinding skills and includes a Play & Win Sweepstakes that offers gamers who register and play, the chance to win a multitude of prizes. Before the big game, fans can test their talents against Neversoft, developers of Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock, from 12 - 4 p.m. PST on Sunday, February 3.

Some of the prizes up for grabs include Microsoft points, Guitar Hero® Gear and an Xbox 360® wireless guitar faceplate signed by Slash. One lucky grand prize winner will take home the Ultimate Home Gaming Center, which includes an LG 50" 1080p Flat-Panel Plasma HDTV, an Xbox 360 Elite and a BoomChair - Wi-FX Wireless Gaming Chair.

Fans can register for Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock - Rock Your Party Weekend on Xbox LIVE by downloading the Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock GamerPics exclusively through Xbox LIVE® Marketplace for the Xbox 360® video game and entertainment system from Microsoft. Players can also register by visiting http://www.xbox.com/rockyourparty/, where they can get additional details regarding terms, conditions and official rules.

Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock offers the ultimate rock experience with new wireless guitars, freshly added content and features including a multiplayer action-inspired battle mode, grueling boss battles, a host of exclusive unlockable content and visually stunning rock venues. Expanded online multiplayer modes allow axe-shredders worldwide to compete head-to-head for true rock status as they riff through a star-studded soundtrack including master tracks by legendary artists such as Aerosmith, Guns 'N' Roses, The Rolling Stones, Beastie Boys, Rage Against the Machine and Pearl Jam, as well as original songs by guitar icons Slash and Tom Morello. Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock is now available and is rated "T" for Teen by the ESRB. For more information visit http://www.guitarhero.com/.

In addition to the three songs I've never heard of listed above, tracks from—according to the press release—popular European bands Extremoduro, Trust, and Die Fantastischen Vier will be available as single song downloads. Finally, holiday classic "We Three Kings", as recorded by Steve Ouimette, will also hit sometime in December.

Nothin' but the hits!

We'd seen YouTube user egyokeo's videos of his custom MIDI drum pad-Guitar Hero III interface, but had yet to see him drum his way through Dragonforce's "Through The Fire And The Flames" on expert. It's a fairly impressive effort, even for a 20-year veteran of the drums, when someone can register a four-star performance on a song this challenging. For details on how he pulls off held notes and chords plus technical info, check his video description at YouTube.

Through the Fire and Flames - Achievement Unlocked on Drums [YouTube]

Guess that rumor about the Halo theme appearing in Guitar Hero II as downloadable content wasn't wrong, just a tad premature. Hit the jump for the news release.

ACTIVISION AND MICROSOFT GIVE THANKS TO GUITAR HERO AND HALO FANS

In appreciation of Guitar Hero® and Halo fans alike, Neversoft, Bungie, Activision/RedOctane, and Microsoft have all joined forces to bring players the iconic Halo theme (MJOLNIR Mix) as a free playable song for Guitar Hero® III: Legends of Rock, exclusively for the Xbox 360® video game and entertainment system from Microsoft. The theme will be available from Xbox LIVE® Marketplace on Thanksgiving, Thursday, November 22nd.

The Halo theme was written, composed, and performed by Martin O'Donnell and Michael Salvatori; and the MJOLNIR Mix features guitars performed by the Grammy Award winning guitar hero, Steve Vai.

"It's a real pleasure to hear one of the best loved and most iconic themes from Bungie's Halo Universe in Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock," said Marty O'Donnell, Composer and Audio Director for Bungie Studios. "As longtime fans of the Guitar Hero® franchise, it was great to collaborate with Neversoft and Activision/RedOctane to offer this exciting free download to our fans."

Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock contains explosive new content and features including a multiplayer action-inspired battle mode, grueling boss battles, a host of exclusive unlockable content and visually stunning rock venues. Expanded online multiplayer game modes allow axe-shredders worldwide to compete head-to-head for true rock status. The game features a star-studded soundtrack including master tracks by legendary artists such as Aerosmith, Guns 'N' Roses, The Rolling Stones, Beastie Boys, Rage Against the Machine and Pearl Jam, as well as original songs by guitar icons Slash and Tom Morello. While continuing to retain all the key features from their prior legendary performances, fresh downloadable content will be available on multiple platforms, and players can now shred to a killer set list from many of the most popular rock songs ever recorded.

For the first time ever, Guitar Hero® fans are able to thrash and burn with new wireless guitar controllers available for each platform, including exclusive Gibson Guitar's Les Paul model for the Xbox 360® video game and entertainment system from Microsoft, Wii™ home video game system from Nintendo, and PLAYSTATION®3 computer entertainment system. PlayStation®2 computer entertainment system gamers also get to shred on a new exclusive shape, Gibson's Kramer guitar, popularized by hard rockers and known for its body design, pickups, electronics and construction for furious finger fretting.

Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock, developed by Neversoft, is rated "T" for Teen by the ESRB, and is currently available at North American retailers. For more information about the Guitar Hero® franchise, please visit the dedicated community site: www.guitarhero.com.

Halo Theme MJOLNIR Mix:

Written and composed by Martin O'Donnell (ASCAP) and Michael Salvatori (ASCAP).

Performances by: Martin O'Donnell & Michael Salvatori

Guitars performed by Steve Vai. Steve Vai appears courtesy of Epic Records.

Halo 2 Soundtrack Album produced by Nile Rodgers.

Based on the Halo Universe created by Bungie Studios.

About Bungie

Bungie was founded in 1991 with two goals: to develop games that combine brilliant technology, beautiful art, intelligent stories and deep gameplay, and to sell enough of those games to achieve its real goal of total world domination. Over the past 10 years it has produced games such as the "Marathon" trilogy and the first two "Myth" games, hailed as classics by critics and gamers around the world. Bungie's "Halo" franchise is an international award-winning action title that has grown into a global entertainment phenomenon, selling more than 18 million units worldwide, logging billions of hours of multiplayer action on Xbox LIVE®, and spawning action figures, books, graphic novels, soundtracks, apparel and more. The critically acclaimed "Halo 3", released on Tuesday, Sept. 25th 2007, is the fastest-selling video game ever, achieving $300 million in global sales its first week, making it one of the most successful entertainment properties in history. More information on Bungie can be found at http://www.bungie.net.

While Rock Band won't be on store shelves for a few weeks, we do have at least 50% of the equation to ignite the flame wars. So hit the jump for our Frankenreview of the Harmonixless Guitar Hero III—all the answers to all of life's problems in five short paragraphs.

PlanetXbox360
Some veterans of the series may think that the buttons on their new guitar are sticking but that is actually a gameplay feature that Neversoft included to help new gamers feel comfortable in the series. The time limit to hit the correct key has been increased by what feels like a good bit of time, now hitting those impossible guitar solos is much easier. At first I felt like the game was too easy but the developers helped offset this issue by amping up the actual song difficulty.

Yahoo
The new guitar (we tried the wireless Les Paul that comes with the 360) feels a lot sturdier, with crisp precise controls and a suitably tense whammy bar. The detachable face plate will allow for some slick customization for people who aren't content with stickers. And being able to detach the neck will make it much easier to bring your controller to a friend's house...Give us this solidly built wireless guitar, Activision, and we won't begrudge you the extra profit.

OpposableThumbs
This is the first Guitar Hero game to venture online, and it's about time. While the face-offs and battles I've been able to participate in have been fun and largely lag-free, you're forced to search for your own games: the quick match option that is supposed to allow you to jump into a game quickly is completely broken....Also keep in mind that the co-op career mode, complete with exclusive unlockable songs, is offline only. That means that if you want to play these songs (and you will), you'll need a friend with a second guitar and time to unlock them with you.
GamesSpot
It's...disappointing that Activision has finally decided to corporate up the Guitar Hero experience with a fair amount of lame product placement and dynamic in-game advertising. It's one thing to get branded guitars and get Guitar Center to sponsor your in-game shop— it's quite another to have several of the game's environments feature billboards that display ads dynamically, and logos for Pontiac and Axe Body Spray that pop up all over the place. It even goes so far as to have Axe-sponsored guitars you can buy in-game, and Axe-sponsored go-go dancers prancing about the stage while you play. Gross.

GamesRadar
By going real with the songs, next-gen with the graphics and online with the gameplay, it leaves the wishlist relatively barren. At the same time, it's not delivering us much new on the gameplay front, and in fact lags a bit in terms of smart strumming mechanics.
The most noticeable difference to me in Guitar Hero III (and Rock Band, for that matter) has to be the hefty amounts of original studio dubs. I never had issues with playing covers before I'd experienced something better. And now it's really hard to go back.

They've also made the game seemingly much easier, even at Expert level difficulty. Using the new wireless Gibson Les Paul controllers, I found myself pulling off solo note sequences with ease, possibly a bit too much ease. Hammer-ons and pull-offs feel more forgiving than ever. Nice for noobs looking to faux shred, but it might not sit well with the more skilled.

We got a chance to play through many of the newly revealed European skewed tracks, but finally got our hands on some old favorites including Tenacious D's "The Metal", Pearl Jam's "Even Flow" and Priestess' "Lay Down." While we struggled through some unfamiliar tracks like "Hier Kommt Alex" by Die Toten Hosen and "Avalancha" by Héroes del Silencio, we rocked everything else like a hurricane.

While I suspect that many of the note charts aren't final, I was puzzled by the lack of Star Power fueling notes on some tracks. There were many songs that would've only resulted in a single use of the multiplier doubler. Hopefully, those note charts will be addressed before final release.

Mark Wilson, Brian Crecente and I also went head-to-head with the new Battle Mode, a feature I found to suck virtually all the enjoyment out of the game. Some players may want to invest the time to mix up their Face-Offs and Pro Face-Offs, but I pretty much plan on avoiding this new addition like the plague.

After countless hours with the first three Guitar Hero games, Legends of Rock will still get my money. Hardcore plastic shredders will probably want to pay close attention to final impressions before they buy in.