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.

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.

They are instead a good, old-fashioned rock band. I picked up their album "Virtua Rock" a few weeks back in a second-hand record store purely because the cover was in the style of a Mega Drive game, only it featured a big hairy man with a guitar. And I normally enjoy the kind of music that comes from big hairy men with guitars.

It also helped that the album had songs called "Outrun, Motherfucker" and "Thunderforce, Motherfucker".

Equal parts awesome and hilarious, I got in touch with the band, and found out that beyond Virtua Rock they weren't just a Sega rock band. They brought a dirty, heavy, fuzzy rock sound to all kinds of gaming topics.

Headed by James on vocals and guitar, with Coirin on vocals and bass and James II on drums, the band have released 7 albums, culminating in their latest, "Transamplification", a 2-disc album featuring tracks like "Romero vs Carmack", "Where Is CHavez?" and "Geometry Wars, Motherfucker".

If this sounds like something you might be interested in (see: gamers, and/or fans of Nebula, Mondo Generator), you can grab some of their albums off Undertow Records or iTunes.

Following up on last week's Warped Tour song pack comes Vans Warped Tour 3-Pack, adding Dear and the Headlights' "Sweet Talk", The Devil Wears Prada's "Hey John, What's Your Name Again?", and Thrice's "Image of the Invisible" to this week's 5 song pack.

Counterbalancing next week's Warped content is a trio of songs from classic rock band Foreigner, who bring "Blue Morning Blue Day" , "Headknocker", and next week's song we can't believe wasn't already in Rock Band, "Feels Like The First Time".

Throw in the odd Black Rebel Motorcycle Club track, "Weapon of Choice", and you've got next week's additions to the Rock Band Music Store for the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3. If they aren't there on the 30th, wait two days, which is also a fun way to tell which console you have, in case you are confused.

What good is E3 hype if none of it comes true?

To get you ready for this E3, we've subjected ourselves to re-living the major press conferences of last year's big show. We've pulled all of the predictions, promises and other verbal constructions Microsoft, Nintendo and Sony used to get you excited about their console. And we've seen what became of all those thrilling statements.

Microsoft, your E3 2008 promises are being checked today — exhaustively.

Background: The Microsoft press briefing occurred on July 14 in the West Hall of the Los Angeles Convention Center. This showcase lasted more than 90 minutes.

Big Money From Hardcore Games

Don Mattrick, Microsoft's senior vice president of interactive entertainment business (i.e. he's the Xbox boss), starts hyping Fallout 3, Resident Evil 5, Fable II and Gears of War 2: "Combined these games represent over a half a billion dollars in projected sales. And they will drive console demand in the coming year."

Verdict: Let's see. Gears sells two million in its first week, so that's about 120 million right there. Fallout 3 sells 4.7 million copies in less than a month, so that's about 282 million. We're over 400 million and we're not even at Fable or RE5, so we'll stop counting now. Good first prediction, Don Mattrick!

A Lengthy Fallout

Bethesda lead game designer Todd Howard demos Fallout 3 and says: "This is a huge game with over 100 hours of gameplay."

Verdict: Sure, that sounds about right, though the main content in the game could be finished in about 40 hours.

Fallout DLC TBD

Howard: "We're going to be doing substantial downloadable content for Fallout 3 and it will be exclusive for the Xbox 360 and Games for Windows."

Verdict: True! All three DLC packs are now out for both platforms, and are not out on PS3.

Resident Evil 5 Release Date Confirmed?

Jun Takeuchi, producer of Resident Evil 5, says Resident Evil 5 "will be available in a simultaneous worldwide release in North America and Europe on Friday the 13, March 2009." (Screen showed March 12 2009 for Japan).

Verdict: Incorrect, sir! RE5 came out a week earlier than promised in Japan, on March 5.

Fable II Would Be Awesome

Peter Molyneux, creative director of Lionhead Studios, hyping Fable II: "You've never experienced anything like the dog in a game, but what I want to show you is the ability to play co-op over Xbox Live" [Verdict: OK, kind of hard to disagree]….The story will be great. [Verdict: That's subjective, Peter] … Your son grows. Your children will grow up with you [Verdict: Possibly misleading; those kids don't grow up]… Fable 2 will be out in October of this year [Verdict: Correct!]

Gears of War 2: For The World

Cliff Bleszinski, design director at Epic Games: "Gears of War 2 will be available worldwide November 7, exclusively on Xbox 360."

Verdict: True if you count the U.S. and Europe as the world; untrue if you consider Japan part of this planet.

Sony To Be Crushed

Mattrick: I'm so confident in our momentum and our bright future that I'm willing to declare here today that Xbox 360 will sell more consoles worldwide this generation than PlayStation 3.

Verdict: Too soon to say, but so far so good for Microsoft.

A New - sort of - Xbox 360 Coming Fall 2008

John Schappert, vice president of Xbox Live, software and services: "I'm excited to announce today that for the first time in history a consumer electronics device will be completely reinvented through software… When people around the world turn on the Xbox 360s this fall they will be greeted by an entire new interface, an entire new dashboard, creating a brand new Xbox through the magic of software."

Verdict: The New Xbox Experience did indeed go live in the fall, transforming the Xbox 360 from the inside out.

Avatars Will Be Great, Omnipresent

Brendan, last-name-less Rare software design engineer, describing the NXE's Avatars: "You'll see them in the dashboard when you turn on the system. [Verdict: True] You'll see them in your friends list. [Verdict: Yep] You're going to see them in games all over the place and you'll see avatars on websites. [Verdict: We're counting Uno Rush and a Kingdom Kieflings once apiece, ok? Seems that we've got Avatars in a little more than 10 games so far.]

Avatars Will Have Lots of Clothes

Chris, last-name-less Rare producer: "Really, the number of clothes is ultimately going to be limitless. You can expect to see new clothes released in the same way you'd go into a shop and see summer fashion and the winter fashion, you're going to see the same thing here."

Verdict: True. New clothes keep getting issued for Avatars.

Prime Time Is Coming Soon

Schappert: "I'm going to take us to a new channel, Xbox Live Prime Time which we are unveiling today and rolling out this fall [Verdict: No, make that some forthcoming month in 2009]… This fall you'll be able to play along with all of Xbox Live either as the One, the One Hundred or one of the thousands that watch and play this huge prime time game. And the best part, you'll all be able to win real prizes… Instead of just checking to see what's on TV this fall you'll turn on your Xbox 360 to see what's on Live. [Verdict: Whoa, whoa, slow down there John. Xbox Live Prime Time still isn't live, nor is its launch game show, 1 Vs 100, which is, at least, now in beta.]

XBLA Games Coming

Schappert Announced Geometry Wars 2 for "next month"; Galaga Legions announced as 360 exclusive for "next month," Portal Still Alive coming in the fall "with brand new levels and achievements," coming to Xbox Live Arcade.

Verdict: All accurate predictions.

And South Park Too

Announcer in short promo for South Park Xbox Live Arcade game: "Coming exclusively in 2009…"

Verdict: No sign of it yet, but there is plenty more of 2009 to come to keep from the unnamed Announcer to be known as a Liar.

Community Games coming

Schappert: We will launch Xbox Live Community games this fall as part of the New Xbox Experience.

Verdict: True

Netflix 360 Will Be Big

Schappert: "Xbox 360 will be the only game system that lets members who are also Netflix subscribers instantly watch more than 10,000 movies and TV episodes more than doubling our current content offering."

Verdict: Seemingly accurate, though we haven't counted to ensure that more than 10,000 movies and shows were added.

Netflix Watching Will Be Communal

Schappert: "I'm thrilled to announce that you can share your movies and tv shows with your Live party. We all can watch TV and movies together."

Verdict: Uh-uh. This was cut.

GTA DLC Will Be Huge Part Of 360 Fall '08 Line-Up

Shane Kim, corporate vice president of strategy and business development (but at the time he was running the gaming part of Xbox: After hyping coming of Prince of Persia, Tomb Raider, Mirror's Edge, Pro Evo, Call of Duty, Tomb Raider, Need for Speed, which all came out, [Verdict: True], he said, "The release of the first downloadable episode for Grand Theft Auto IV later this year promises to be another huge event for Xbox 360 and Xbox live." [Verdict: Ugh. We think he meant to say "February 2009," not "later this year."

Lots of 360 Games Coming

Kim: All told, by the end of 2008 more than 1000 games will be available for the Xbox 360.

Verdict: Too tired to count this one, but we are not encouraged by the fact that the ESRB as of today lists only 703 rated games for the 360. Was he counting Community Games?

Fun Games For Families Too

Kim announced Banjo Kazooie Nuts and Bolts, Viva Pinata, BK XBLA, Scene It Box Office Smash, You're In the Movies — all of these games are coming this holiday exclusive for Xbox 360. Also from Kim: "You're In The Movies will include an Xbox Live Vision camera when it ships this holiday.

Verdict: Correct!

Guitar Hero World Tour Will Be Great, Launch New Rock Stars

Kai Huang, co-founder of Red Octane, out to hype Guitar Hero World Tour: "On disc we're going to ship with the greatest number of master tracks ever from some of the best bands of all time, more than 85 songs with tons more at launch and beyond [Verdict: True].. Our new music studio in Guitar Hero: World Tour is going to for the first time let people make and share music from around the world. This is going to revolutionize the way people create, share, discover and play new music. And with GH Tunes when that launches it's going to be the premiere online distribution platform from where a community of aspiring artists are going to become the next big rock stars." [Verdict: Kinda hard to verify, but we're going to say…not yet?]

And GH Will Have REM

Huang: "Guitar Hero World Tour owners will be able to download an REM track pack featuring three songs from their new album before anybody else."

Verdict: True

And Metallica

Huang: "Metallica is joining forces with guitar hero in a huge way… for the first time in music and vg history. Metallica's highly anticipated new album death magnetic is going to be offered as downloadable content in its entirety at the same time the album is released. First for Guitar Hero 3 in September and then again when Guitar Hero World Tour launches in the fall."

Verdict: Not only true, but proven to be an understatement with the recent launch of Guitar Hero: Metallica.

Lips Will Be Fantastic

iNis founder Keiichi Yano, hyping the holiday launch of the Xbox 360 karaoke game Lips: "It's breaking new ground by being the first game that lets you sing from your own music collection. It's going to be great. Imagine plugging in your Zune or your iPod into your Xbox 360 and singing along to all of your favorite songs. [Verdict: True, though not without complaints from reviewers that not all iPods synced with the game] Lips is also going to be the first game ever to feature these wireless mics that light up with your music performance. And these guys are also motion-sensitive so I can do stuff like this (cymbal hit) even when I'm not singing. So it's going to be fun Lips will ship this holiday featuring best songs from many regions and genres inclusion rock hip hop country r and b, pop a lot of your favorite artists you guys love to sing to. [Verdict: The rest was spot-on.]

Lips Will Be REALLY Fantastic

Kim: Lips is definitely going to be the gotta-have-it gift for this holiday for everyone.

Verdict: Oh, come on. Lips might have been fantastic, but he didn't really mean that, did he?

Rock Band Sort of Exclusive

Kim: Rock Band 2 will premiere exclusively on Xbox 360 this September.

Verdict: True, since he meant it would be a timed exclusive.

Rock Band 2 Will Have Rose, Dylan, ACDC

Alex Rigopulos, co-founder, Harmonix, discussing Rock Band 2, said, there would be 84 songs on the disc, every single one of them a master recording. He said Axl Rose's Shackler's Revenge will premiere in RB2, as would Bob Dylan's Tangled Up In Blue and ACDC. And, he said, "the soundtrack will also include 20 bonus tracks available for download in the fall."

Verdict: All accurate.

Rock Band 2 Will Also Have Fine Print

Rigopulos: "We've made all of the downloadable tracks from the original game forward-compatible into Rock Band 2.. furthermore, if you own the original Rock Band you'll be able to export almost all of those tracks into the Rock Band 2 game as well. So no need for disc-swapping… by the end of this year I'm happy to announce there will be over 500 songs available for play in Rock Band 2.

Verdict: True, just note that he said "almost."

Square-Enix Will Have Three RPGs For Xbox 360

Yoichi Wada, president of Square-Enix: dropped some release dates for Infinite Undiscovery — September 2, in NA, 9/5 in Europe, 9/11 in Japan and Asia — Star Ocean for the spring, and Last Remnant for November 11 with a TBD for it coming to Games For Windows.

Verdict : Wada nailed it.

Make That Four

Wada: "An Xbox 360 version of final fantasy xiii , the latest in the final fantasy series, that has more than 85 milion units shipped worldwide, is planned for release. We believe that releasing an xbox 360 version for Final Fantasy XIII will allow us to provide a game to even more fans in the two regions in North America and Europe."

Verdict: No reason to think this won't happen.

Note: No mention was made during the press conference of 2008 games Too Human, Braid or Dead Space, despite the latter two becoming two of the most acclaimed games on Xbox 360 in 2008.

To Sum Up.... Microsoft did a decent job predicting things, but whiffed big on Rockstar and 1 vs 100. We weren't promised any full games that we didn't get. And most of the hype for upcoming games' features was fair. Plus, they did the awesome thing of predicting that they would conquer Sony, which should be fun to follow in the future. For the sheer number of future-looking statements and overall accuracy, we're giving them a B.

Next Victim: Nintendo

[PIC]

The game will be coming out for the PS3, Xbox 360. Wii and the DS with each version having it's own distinct features but all will include a career mode and forty songs to play along with. Oddly, the console versions will not include vocals, but the DS version will. There is no official song list yet, so keep your eyes peeled for more announcements regarding that but I did see a few that were available on the demo which were Blitzkrieg Bop, Detroit Rock city, We're Not Gonna Take It and All The Small Things. There are eight playable characters and various locales ranging from garage to county fair to rock arena. Unfortunately, even though they showed off the drum kit at the presentation, they didn't provide any photos of it so keep an eye for that as well.

Is Rock Revolution going to be a Guitar Hero or Rock Band killer? Probably not, but it will be interesting to see how it actually does in the market. I'm afraid however, that this might be a case of too little too late.

Def Leppard Songs to Appear in Guitar Hero 4 [Guitar Hero News]

We're all eagerly anticipating Rock Band, but yesterday morning Harmonix delivered one more thing: A surprise iPod music game called Phase. So I jumped on the phone with lead producer Kasson Crooker, who told me about whether Steve Jobs has played it, if we can expect an iPhone version, and, most interesting of all, whether the beat-detecting technology in Phase could soon be applied to a game like Rock Band.

Kasson: We have soundtracks, downloadable content, and this is the next step: re-experiencing your own music in a game. We wouldn't be able to separate out all the instruments and what not, but I think you'll see this kind of technology used in other Harmonix products down the road.

Geoff: Hey Kasson, thanks for taking the time to chat. How did this project come about?

Kasson: In the past all our games have forced you to play with a certain set of songs. We've always wanted to do something that would let you pick what kind of music you want to interact with and go from there. Of course the challenge is to come up with technology to analyze a user's songs and turn them into an actual game. About 18 months ago we started working on that technology to look for events in songs, pick up the tempo, the rhythm, and turn all of it into something fun on the fly. We started prototyping based off that technology with no idea where the game would show up. Would it be a console game? A flash game? A cell phone game? It was just about 8-10 of us working on it.

Geoff: So when did the iPod come into the mix?

Kasson: A couple months into it we got introduced to the iPod games guys and it just seemed like such a natural fit. The iPod is where you keep all your songs and it's a piece of technology that everybody has, so it really was exactly the right platform for a game like this.

Geoff: So do we know if Steve Jobs plays Guitar Hero? Rocka Band? Or has he even had a chance to check out Phase?

Kasson: I honestly don't know! His relationship with games is a little bit in question I think. I haven't heard about it if he has indeed played the game.

Geoff: How long did it take to develop the game?

Kasson: About a year. First we had to come up with the beat matching gameplay. It was important to take advantage of the unique interface of the iPod, so that's where we came up with the idea of moving your thumb around the clickwheel to catch things.

There have certainly been a lot of challenges too. We're used to working on consoles with a lot of memory and graphics horsepower. The iPod was never intended as a game device so there's a lot we couldn't do. The graphics are pretty simple. And we couldn't do things like put some audio filtering over the songs to tell you how well you are doing.

Originally the game was just going to be for the 5th generation iPod Video, but once the new Nano and Classic were announced we scrambled to get it to work on those too.

Geoff: This is an obvious question, but any plans for a version that works on iPod Touch or iPhone?

Kasson: Yeah, we've thought about it. One of the things that has been really important to Harmonix is the concept that our games are more platforms than just one-offs. But what I will say is that I don't think we'd ever just port Phase to the iPhone. Every interface dictates something new. There's no click wheel but you could glide things around on a touch screen and interact with the music in different ways. We'd want to re-sculpt the game around that interface.

Geoff: Any plans for a little mini-guitar peripheral that plugs into your iPod port? I had to ask.

Kasson: Not a bad idea! But no plans right now.

Geoff: One early complaint about the game is that you have to create a separate iTunes 7.5 playlist and convert songs to work in the game. In other words you can't just randomly select a song on your iPod and play it.

Kasson: We had a lot of discussions about the right solution and worked really closely with Apple since the conversion software is actually part of iTunes 7.5. When you convert your songs it creates a small little data file on your hard drive. But we didn't want to force people to convert 10,000 songs in their iTunes library. And the iPod isn't powerful enough to do that analysis on the fly by itself. But if you really want every iTunes song to work in Phase you can just convert them all and transfer them over.

Geoff: Now that you've developed this beat detection technology, could we see it applied to Rock Band? I'm imagining a mode where you put a CD in your Xbox 360 disc drive, the game rips the song and then let you play along to it.

Kasson: Totally! We have soundtracks, downloadable content, and this is the next step: re-experiencing your own music in a game. We wouldn't be able to separate out all the instruments and what not, but I think you'll see this kind of technology used in other Harmonix products down the road.

REACT ADDS TWO NEW "HIGH-DESIGN" PS2 GUITAR CONTROLLERS

(MINNEAPOLIS, MN) Adding to their current line-up of charismatic guitar controllers, React will introduce their two newest wireless models, The Legacy and the Odyssey, in time for the 2007 holidays.

The Odyssey conveys a fresh, vibrant, and modern sensibility and is equally accessible to both male and females, while The Legacy is a vintage throwback with a timeless wood grain finish. And as a revolutionary add-on, The Legacy includes a wireless dual-effect pedal that allows the gamer to initiate star power or the whammy bar with a tap of their foot. Use of the pedal is optional, but highly encouraged.

The Legacy and Odyssey, the newest in the line of React "high-design" guitars controllers, will launch in November at all Best Buy locations nationwide.

Since I have such a hard time reading—had a nasty fall off a loading dock as a child—I couldn't quite keep up with the storyline. But who the hell cares? With production values this bad, you just gotta let the music (and cheesy effects) wash over you. Take a break from the PS3 onslaught and enjoy some old school Castlevania III coverage. Michael McWhertor

Celebrities. They're just like us! They buy gelato, shop for groceries, divorce their trophy wives, and wait in line at the airport (note: all celebrity behaviors swiped from Us Weekly). And they play Guitar Hero, even if they're certified, world famous rock and rollers.

Like who? Jonathan "I'm the lead singer of Korn" Davis, the Donnas, that one guy from Incubus, another guy from My Chemical Romance, even SNL funny man Fred Armisen and NIN sad man Trent Reznor—they all love plucking away at plastic baby-sized geetars.

The Wall Street Journal has profiles and honest to goodness quotes from those folks, who, despite being well paid drummers in arena rocking bands, really fantasize about being well paid guitarists in area rocking bands. Michael McWhertor

When Being a Fake Rock Star Is Better Than the Reality

From The Ant Commandos, makers of all things shredding and video game guitar related, comes this new Guitar Hero controller made just for kids.

The Shredder Guitar Controller has a smaller, lighter frame, shorter neck with more reachable buttons for tiny arms, an easier to use whammy bar and the ability to slip into Rock mode with just a shake rather than a tilt.

"We got an overwhelming response from consumers asking TAC to make a guitar just for kids and that's how we created the Shredder Guitar. Unlike other guitar controllers, the Shredder has a smaller frame and lighter weight to help kids reach their rock star potential," stated Lip Yow, President of The Ant Commandos.

I'll be interested to see how well this works. Tristan, my 5-year-old, really wanted to play Guitar Hero, but the guitar it comes with was just too unweildy.Brian Crecente

Guitar Mania

Let's hope the winner this time actually gets featured as one of the main bands this time and not just an unlockable.

Be A Guitar Hero II

Oh... My... God... I can't believe how much Guitar Hero kicks ass. This is my new favorite game. If you haven't heard about it, Harmonix's latest is a rhythm game that features a life-sized guitar with a strum bar, whammy bar and five multi-colored fret buttons. You have to play chords and notes, pull off properly timed sustains and use the whammy to rock out.

This game actually knocked me off the 360! Must unlock all songs and play I wanna Be Sedated until my fingers fall off and then learn to play with my toes.

Now back to practicing my power chords.