Rock Band and Rock Band 2 owners with a taste for twang should count their money, then decide if new downloadable tunes from Alan Jackson, Keith Urban, Shania Twain, Martina McBride and more are in the cards. These seven new country hits will be dealin' out as of December 29 on the Xbox 360 and Wii and January 7 for the PlayStation 3.

The entire "Going Country Pack 02" will cost $10.99, £4.99 UK, €7.99 EU or 880 Microsoft Points for Xbox 360, depending on your currency of choice. That works out to $1.99 USD, £.99 UK, €1.49 EU or 160 Microsoft Points for Xbox 360 per track.

• Alan Jackson – "Good Time"
• Cross Canadian Ragweed – "Cry Lonely"
• Jason Aldean – "She's Country"
• Keith Urban – "I Told You So"
• Kenny Rogers – "The Gambler"
• Martina McBride – "This One's For the Girls"
• Shania Twain – "Any Man of Mine"

Expected to launch later today, the Xbox Live music games stores will make browsing the latest releases for games like Rock Band 2 and Guitar Hero much more convenient. Rather than having to scroll through an endless list of tracks, you'll be able to search, sort, and preview clips, much in the same way you can from inside each individual game, only without having to actually spin it up.

Games benefitting from the dedicated music stores include Guitar Hero 5, Guitar Hero World Tour, Band Hero, Lips, Lips: Number One Hits, Lego Rock Band, The Beatles: Rock Band, and everything else Rock Band. Sorry, Rock Revolution fans. I guess it just wasn't meant to be.

That game was self-contained. If you wanted to play The Beatles' songs in another version of Rock Band, tough, you couldn't. But Green Day: Rock Band will do nothing of the sort, and will feature "a fully exportable track list that will allow users to play the songs in "Rock Band" and "Rock Band 2" on the Xbox 360 and PlayStation".

Wii users, meanwhile, will just have to make do.

Amazing how the power of technology can make the band appear as if they aren't too old for this stuff.

Yes, the Spike Video Game Awards, held on Saturday night, brought the new shit like it was June and this was an E3 of old, with five games making their public debut at the show. For those who missed our at-the-moment weekend coverage, those five games are:

Batman: Arkham Asylum 2
Star Wars: The Force Unleashed II
Green Day: Rock Band
Deadliest Warrior: The Game
True Crime

That wasn't all. We also got our first look at a number of 2010's biggest titles (albeit ones we already know about), namely:

Halo: Reach
Prince of Persia: The Forgotten Sands
Medal Of Honor
Spec Ops: The Line
Crackdown 2
UFC 2010 Undisputed
Tron: Evolution

Phew. While nothing above was truly surprising, it's still a lot more stuff coming out of a weekend in December than you'd otherwise have expected. Hence the recap.

You can catch the trailers and reveals here, here and here, while you'll find the full run-down of the night's winners (remember this was, before it became a pre-Christmas marketing event, an awards show) right here.

As you can see, the band's rocking out to "American Idiot" with note highways, band shots, the works. And then as if to drive home the point, the title card Green Day: Rock Band slams over it at the end. Sounds rather definite to me. I guess we shall know if this is for-sure real or not in about 90 minutes, right?

MTV Teases 'Green Day: Rock Band' [Joystiq]

My buddy Andrew and his housemates have been playing Rock Band for ages, so it wasn't much of a surprise to see them there at the event. What I didn't know is that they'd be bringing their LEGO heads. Other great acts of the night include Ironheade in full cosplay gear and the girls that rocked the Dixie Chicks.

That pink and black smudge with the tiara in the bottom right hand corner of the screen is actually me acting as Stage Manager Fairy, writing out Chris Kohler's script for the next act. Next year I think I'll procure walkie-talkies for the stage crew. Or possibly a bullhorn just for myself. Either way, I still don't have a voice today — but I have a ton of fun memories and a wonderful feel-good glow that comes from donating time, money and swag to Child's Play.

Thank you to everybody who came out. We'll see you next year!

"We can confirm that 39 positions were eliminated today at Harmonix as part of re-structuring to better align our staffing to best suit our product development plans and schedules moving forward," an MTV Games / Harmonix spokesperson told Kotaku in an e-mailed statement. "Those affected were primarily in QA. The others affected ranged from administrative to other various roles within the company."

Kotaku received word independently that at least one staff designer was among those laid off.

But the Rock Band publisher indicates that sales of Rock Band were not a factor, pointing to a shift in out-sourced and part-time QA at Harmonix rather than full-time testers.

The Beatles: Rock Band has sold more than a million copies worldwide according to the company, though the music gaming category has been softer this year. At an investors conference in New York yesterday, EA CEO John Riccitiello, whose company distributes Rock Band, said that packaged sales of Rock Band (meaning discs and instruments, not the vigorously downloaded add-on songs) was down by "hundreds of millions of dollars." Downloaded songs remain hot, with more than 60 million songs in Rock Band's 1000-song library paid for and downloaded date, according to MTV.

It's two great tastes that taste odd together! The combination of Slipknot and Simon & Garfunkel is very much how I'd imagine a jelly doughnut filled with pickle relish would taste. Luckily you don't have to buy them together. Still, Slipknot's "Duality," "Psychosocial," and "Sulfur" could be just the right counterbalance to the soothing classics "I Am A Rock" and "The Sounds of Silence." It's the sort of odd pairing I don't think anyone has attempted. I'd daresay that if you played all five tracks on random in an MP3 player it might commit suicide.

One of the artists' additions are also playable in LEGO Rock Band. I'll let you figure out which.

Also coming next week is Light Resolve's "Dreaming of Love," which is only appearing on the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 Rock Band Music Store. Sorry Wii owners. You can go listen to the track on the group's MySpace page if that makes you feel better.

The Rock Band Network is a service that allows people to turn listenable music into music that is playable in Rock Band, empowering any musician or fan with the proper rights to expand the Rock Band music library and make some money off sales to gamers of the songs they work on. The Network is currently in closed beta.

The November launch of the service on the Xbox 360 that was suggested by Harmonix to Kotaku this past summer isn't happening.

An MTV Games spokesperson broke down the current roll-out plan:

"We're working hard to get the Rock Band Network open public beta release of tools up before the end of the year, with our RBN storefront launching in early 2010. Exact dates still TBD. The tools necessary for bands to start authoring and prepare their content for review are already live on Creators.rockband.com/tools/download. The open beta launch will add access to the currently private website where all of the RBN community activity and peer reviewing of tracks will take place. People who join the Rock Band Network (bands, fans or otherwise) will be able to play and preview any song before it hits the store, so they should stay tuned for the official launch."

So the closed beta continues and it sounds like it will open up to the rest of the public by New Year's. If you want to buy the songs people are coding, however, you'll need to wait until 2010.

The RBN is planned for the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3. Originally, the 360 version was supposed to launch first. There was no word today about whether that is still the plan.

[PIC]

Today Harmonix and MTV Games proudly announced reaching and surpassing the goal they set back in August, with more than 1,000 songs from from nearly 400 different artists available for purchase and play between the Rock Band Music Store and the songs included on the Rock Band and Rock Band 2 discs. This week also marks the 105th consecutive week of new Rock Band DLC releases. Impressive!

"When we launched Rock Band two years ago, we made a promise to create a music gaming experience that delivered on a weekly basis more songs and artists than ever imagined," said Alex Rigopulos, co-founder and CEO of Harmonix Music Systems. "We're extremely proud to pass this remarkable milestone of over 1,000 songs in Rock Band and will continue to innovate and bring more of the best music to Rock Band players all over the world."

With the impeding launch of the Rock Band Network Music Store, which will allow bands to upload their own music for purchase, expect that number to explode in the coming months. Enjoy the milestone while you can, cause we're more than likely going to leave it in the dust real soon.

It's coming up on Thanksgiving weekend in the states, so Harmonix has gotten next week's Rock Band Music Store additions announcement out of the way so the team can get down to the serious business of eating until they can't move. Next week brings three new Nirvana tracks to Rock Band, including the Nirvana track, along with a strangely crippled 3-pack debut for 80's icons Night Ranger.

Nirvana Pack 02 comes complete with "Smells Like Teen Spirit," which is the one Nirvana song everybody knows, as well as the Live at Reading version of "Lithium" and the MTV Unplugged version of "Come As You Are," the latter of which is strangely available for LEGO Rock Band as well.

Night Ranger's 3-pack consists of "(You Can Still) Rock in America," "Don't Tell Me You Love Me," and "You're Gonna Hear It From Me," all three of which can be purchased in both normal and LEGO Rock Band. A lovely selection, but without Sister Christian this track pack is dead to me. Dead I tell you!

You're motorin'!

Watch the video.

Rock Band Yoko Ono

Not only have a slew of new, blockbuster titles come out for the emerging platform, Apple finally realized that maybe they should wake up and start touting the gaming benefits of their smartphone and media player.

This is by no means all of the iPhone and iPod Touch games we reviewed this year, but it's a quick look at some of the more memorable ones. Don't forget, just because they're download only, doesn't mean you can't present a list with the iTunes card you give someone.

Any we missed? Any you would suggest for a friend?

Asphalt 5

Price: $6.99
Rating: N/A
Genre: Racing
Subject Matter: Gameloft brings Burnout's adrenaline-amping crashes and Ridge Racer's wind-in-your-hair thrills to the iPhone with Asphalt 5.
Value: A strong competitor to the PSP's racing games, Asphalt 5 offers three modes-quick race, career, local and online multi-player, 33 cars, 12 tracks, vehicle customization, and unlockable stat-boosting babes.
Buy it for: Gamers ready to go vroom.
Read the Full Review

Command & Conquer: Red Alert

Price: $9.99
Rating: N/A
Genre: Real Time Strategy
Subject Matter: EA brings its over-the-top real-time strategy series to the iPhone, allowing on-the-go gamers to wage war wherever they please.
Value: While things like C&C's cheesy cinematics didn't make the leap to the iPhone, the platform's touch screen display is ideal for RTS style gaming.
Buy it for: RTS players looking for a mobile strategy game.
Read the Full Review

Doom Resurrection

Price: $6.99
Rating: N/A
Genre: First-person touchscreen shooter
Subject Matter: Loosely based on Doom 3, Resurrection is an impressive port of the demonic sci-fi FPS that's easily controlled with the iPhone's accelerometer.
Value: As iPhone games go, Doom Resurrection is priced almost right, offering a solid campaign, but not much more.
Buy it for: budding space marines who enjoy killing hellspawn between phone calls.
Read the Full Review

Dungeon Hunter

Price: $6.99
Rating: 9+
Genre: Diablo-esque action.
Subject Matter: Dungeon Hunter has gamers play as a fallen prince back from the dead to save the kingdom from his evil wife. Plenty of dungeon crawling, loot gathering and virtual button-mashing in this game.
Value: A single play-through of the game can take 25 hours, and there are three character classes to play with. This is probably the best value you'll find on the iPhone or iPod Touch.
Buy it for: fans of adventure games like Diablo and light role-playing titles.
Read the Full Review

Madden NFL
Price: $9.99
Genre: Sports
Subject Matter: EA Sports delivers its bestselling Madden franchise to the iPhone for the first time.
Value: Fully licensed, with all of the teams, players and game modes from the console version of the definitive NFL video game title.
Buy it for: A great stocking stuffer for any football fan with an iPhone or iPod Touch.
Read the Full Review

Metal Gear Solid Touch

Price: $0.99 to $9.99
Rating: N/A
Genre: Third-person touchscreen shooter
Subject Matter: Metal Gear Solid Touch brings 20 stages lifted from Metal Gear Solid 4 but focuses more on arcade-style touchscreen shooting than the stealth gameplay that Solid Snake is famous for.
Value: Depending on how much you pay (the game was marked down to 99 cents recently) MGS Touch offers a decent amount of replayability and cool items to unlock.
Buy it for: the serious as a heart attack Metal Gear fan who doesn't have access to a PlayStation.
Read the Full Review

NBA Live
Price: $9.99
Genre: Sports
Subject Matter: The NBA goes mobile in EA Sports' first port of its popular pro basketball simulation.
Value: All teams, all players, plus season, playoffs, and pick-up-and-play modes, with customizable rosters.
Buy it for: Any hoophead with a gadget fixation will love having a full basketball sim in his or her pocket.
Read the Full Review

Resident Evil 4 Mobile Edition

Price: $6.99
Rating: 9+
Genre: Shooter
Subject Matter: Resident Evil 4 Mobile Edition is a screen-tapping, stop-and-pop, suspense shooter.
Value: With a dozen settings and two dozen timed stages, this iPhone title is worth the money.
Buy it for: Resident Evil fans, shooter fans, anyone interested in gaming on their phone or Touch.
Read the Full Review

Rock Band

Price: $9.99
Rating: N/A
Genre: Music
Subject Matter: It's Rock Band. It's on the iPhone. Yeah!
Value: Packed with 20 tracks, Rock Band has a set list that boasts the likes of Foo Fighters, the Pixies and Joan Jett. Players can jam on all four instruments. Multiplayer supports up to four.
Buy it for: Music game lovers on the go.
Read the Full Review

Rolando 2

Price: $4.99
Rating: 4+
Genre: A charming side-scrolling puzzler.
Subject Matter: This sequel to last-year's must-have iPhone game, Rolando 2 introduces more story, character development and challenges.
Value: This is the first time Luke has ever played an iPhone that felt truly substantial.
Buy it for: fans of LocoRoco, Rolando or cute, cleverly-crafted puzzle games..
Read the Full Review

Space Invaders Infinity Gene

Price: $4.99
Rating: 4+
Genre: Shoot em up
Subject Matter: Space Invaders Infinity Gene is a re-imagining of 70s classic arcade game Space Invaders.
Value: One of the most played games on my iPhone, Space Invaders Infinity Gene offers you 19 levels with a number of interesting new weapons. But almost more importantly, the game can create levels on the fly designed around music played from your iPhone or iPod Touch's music library.
Buy it for: fans of Space Invaders, fans of shoot-em ups, fans of fun.
Read the Full Review

Star Defense
Price: $.99
Rating: 9+
Genre: Tower defense
Subject Matter: Defend a planet outpost from an amazingly orderly bunch of aliens walking there way along the paths that lead from landing port to your base.
Value: It's just a buck, and it's a ton of fun.
Buy it for: Fans of tower defense and globes.
Read the Full Review

Streets of Rage

Price: $4.99
Rating: 12+
Genre: Genesis brawling side-scroller
Subject Matter: This is a straight-up emulation of the Sega classic for the Genesis with chop-socky music and over-the-top tiny graphics.
Value: Not much of a deal here even at $5. It's a straight, troubled port.
Buy it for: With a bad framerate and problematic controls, only hardcore fans of the game and nostalgia freaks should get this.
Read the Full Review

Waterways

Price: $.99
Rating: 4+
Genre: Puzzler
Subject Matter: Winner of the 2008 Japan GameGam Competition, Waterways is a puzzle game with cows, ducks and water.
Value: For a penny shy of a dollar you can't go wrong with this portable game.
Buy it for: Puzzle enthusiasts who want a some brain teasing on the go.
Read the Full Review

Zenonia

Price: $2.99
Rating: 9+
Genre: Adventure role-playing game.
Subject Matter: Zenonia follows a young man named Regret as he searches for answers to the mystery surrounding his birth after the sudden death of the man who raised him.
Value:With about 20 hours worth of play and the ability to choose good and evil paths, this is a no brainer.
Buy it for: fans of The Legend of Zelda.
Read the Full Review

Not only does next week's Rock Band Music Store update bring six live tracks from Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers, it also gives us insight into what Harmonix feels is family friendly. For instance, "Refugee," "A Thing About You," and "Here Comes My Girl" are all available for LEGO Rock Band as well as the normal version, while "American Girl," "Even the Losers," and "Mary Jane's Last Dance" are not. All of the tracks are from The Live Anthology, in stores November 24th.

Kelly Clarkson makes her Rock Band / LEGO Rock Band debut with "Miss Independent,", rounding out a non-Petty, family-friendly trio that includes the Go-Go's "Our Lips Are Sealed" and Pink's "Who Knew."

Things can only get worse.

Available on Xbox 360 and Wii (Nov. 24) and PlayStation 3 system (Nov. 26):

· Go-Go's – "Our Lips Are Sealed" +
· Kelly Clarkson – "Miss Independent" +
· P!nk – "Who Knew" +
· Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers – "A Thing About You (live)" +
· Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers – "American Girl (live)"
· Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers – "Even the Losers (live)"
· Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers – "Here Comes My Girl (live)" +
· Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers – "Mary Jane's Last Dance (live)"
· Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers – "Refugee (live)" +

After opening his article for The New Republic with a reference to how he and his fellow "smug old children of the 70s" lament the passing influence of the music of their youth, critic David Hajdu discovers a cruel twist. The music games that are so popular on consoles today bring older music to younger audiences, continuing what he considers to be the lamentable tradition of letting an older generation condescend to a younger one that older music is superior music:

For another thing—and this is the main failing of music games, and it is a significant one—they have the insidious effect of glorifying classic rock, a music with an already bloated reputation that is founded on its very bloatedness. In the games' absorption with technical prowess, speed, flash, grandiose show, and fakery, they not only affirm the enduring allure of classic rock to kids and young adults, especially males; they also advance its tyranny. People like me who have kids of video-game-playing age no doubt get many things wrong about these games, and chief among the errors of our age group, I think, is inflated generational pride in the 1970s-style arena rock that Guitar Hero and Rock Band promote to our descendants—kids who might otherwise, and perhaps more appropriately, use their after-school hours to nurture interests in music of their own. The games reassure us that our aftercomers are our heirs. They are male-oriented tools of cultural primogeniture, applications of twenty-first-century technology with a very ancient mission.

The full article will appear in the magazine's December 2 issue.

Pretending [The New Republic]

Yes, as with SingStar, Rock Band can't understand your actual words while singing. It just picks up the pitch and tone and runs with it. So while singing can, and normally does get the job done, if you can play the flute, you can get the job done via other means.

[via Neatorama]

The fact he mentions a third Rock Band should surprise only those who wake up every morning shocked to see the sun has risen. But the specifics, and why he's involved in the project, those are a little more interesting.

"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," he told the newspaper. "Give me a couple years, it's going to happen."

I don't know. I enjoy playing Rock Band because I can't play the guitar. If I wanted to learn how to play the guitar I'd, well...learn how to play the guitar.

The ever-changing Thenewno2 [Chicago Tribune]

In order to properly play "Dead Leaves and the Dirty Ground," "Girl, You Have No Faith in Medicine," and "Icky Thump," the three White Stripes tunes making their way to the Rock Band Music Store next week, you will need a divorced spouse you are still on amazingly good terms with. If you are drumming, it'll be best if you've never had a lesson, and if you are playing the guitar you'd best own a mic stand. Otherwise the experience will be totally ruined.

If you can't handle those restrictions, you're probably better off playing The Damned's "Smash it Up (Part II)" or Kasabian's "Club Foot," the two other songs coming to the console versions of Rock Band next week, or No Doubt's "Excuse Me Mr." and the Dropkick Murphys' "I'm Shipping Up To Boston," this week's Rock Band Unplugged additions.

Available on Xbox 360 and Wii (Nov. 10) and PlayStation 3 system (Nov. 12):

• The Damned – "Smash It Up (Part II)" +
• Kasabian – "Club Foot" +
• The White Stripes – "Dead Leaves and the Dirty Ground" +
• The White Stripes – "Girl, You Have No Faith in Medicine" +
• The White Stripes – "Icky Thump"

Tracks available for Rock Band Unplugged (Nov. 12):

• No Doubt – "Excuse Me Mr."
• Dropkick Murphys – "I'm Shipping Up to Boston"

"I think my Lego character is wonderful. I want one," he said, according to BangShowBiz.com "We had discussions about the hair, there were a few emails. They had to negotiate to use my likeness, but it's a nice thing."

That's May's plasticy perm above, depicted with Lego Freddy Mercury in the game. May said a jealous Joe Elliott, the Def Leppard singer, called him up to complain that he didn't get a minifig version. "Joe Elliott rang me up and said he was pissed off because they didn't make one of him," May said.

See? Not everyone hates being paid to appear in a video game ...

Brian May's Lego Hair Demands [BangShowBiz.com on Yahoo! UK, via Eurogamer]

GameStop lists it for shipment Nov. 4 at $19.99 - of course, less than the $29.99 to $39.99 it sold for when it debuted a year ago. The tracks can be transferred to your hard drive for Rock Band or Rock Band 2, but just for the 360 and PS3 version; not the PS2 or Wii.

Rock Band: AC/DC Pack to Hit non-Walmart Shelves Soon [Destructoid via VG247]