Certainly out intent is to have all three iterations or installments of Mass Effect to be on Xbox 360. That's the goal...I hope, I hope, I hope that this cycle is longer than the last one.

With 16 chords to use at any time from a library of 120, users may strum out a song relatively easily if you're familiar with basic guitar playing. We were able to play the Main Riff I for "Fast Car" by Tracy Chapman and "Torn" from Natalie Imbruglia this morning by following guitar tabs found on the web. In addition to its function as a guitar, the software also includes a library of 20 songs and a listening-then-repeating exercise."

"On the touch screen, a thick crop of vertical lines represent the guitar string. It's pasted against a black background so that the focus is the line itself. To play, strum the line with your touch pen or finger and you'll hear a twang. Change chords with the D-pad by moving it in the direction of the chords shown on the top screen and the tone of the twang changes every time you move the D-pad to another chord."

I'm not so sure about changing chords with the D-pad, but I'm loving the rest of this. Brian Crecente

Your DS Is Now A... Guitar? [GameSetWatch]

Ok, I'm right on the line with these. I love the shoes, can't get enough of the gaming shoes, but the baby blue color and hardcore Nintendo fanboyism of these sneaks leave me a little hesitant to buy.

On the flipside, these particular shoes have translucent soles that give you a peak at a gel-obscured Yoshi on one foot and a yellow-cape wearing Mario from Super Mario World on the other. Maybe they'll come out with a nice black or grey version of these.

Of course it's also going to depend on for how much Run Athletics is going to sell these Super Trainers.Brian Crecente

Super Trainers Nintendo X Run Athletics Legacy [Urban Retro Lifestyle]

Even with early reports of nightmarishly long download times, the Xbox 360 HD movie download service is putting in a strong showing. The service is trumping competitor Amazon's Unbox effort as American consumers prefer to watch hi-def content directly off the 360's hard drive rather than fooling with streaming DVD quality films from a PC running Windows XP Media Center to the TV. Interesting to note that box office flops are even performing well on the Xbox service. Says Microsoft's Ross Honey (SWEET NAME ROSS!):

If you look at our sales charts, movies like The Perfect Storm, Unforgiven and Swordfish are all doing disproportionately better than you would expect, and the only explanation is that they're available in HD.

That and not forcing people to leave their sofa means higher crap tolerance. Brian Ashcraft

Ross Honey Has The Bestest Name [Games Industry]

A reader recently got a chance to fill out a Guitar Hero 2 survey. The questions seem to hint at some pretty kick-ass things to come.

I've put a big chunk of the reader's email after the jump, but here's a summary of some of the interesting ideas hinted at:

Keyboard Hero or Drummer Hero, Guitar Hero II Expansion Packs for $30 with an extra guitar, Band-specific expansion packs, genre-specific expansion packs, a full-sized wood guitar controller, a microphone add-on for singing and playing (I like to call this the Crecente pack), a stand-alone amp, custom skins, motion-sensing controls, two-piece guitarto make it easier to transport, an effects pedal, higher level of customization which would allow you to put your face in the game, create your own guitar, download outfits, venue guitars and songs or create your own set lists, new guitar body shapes for the controller, like the Gibson Firebird or Kramer Striker.

Drummer Hero? Keyboard Hero? Microphone support? I think I'm going to pass out.

Keep in mind, despite my hyperventilating, that this all comes from an unseen survey. Which means it's highly speculative. The jump has a more detailed list of questions and such. Brian Crecente

Asked whether I intend to buy a Wii and/or PS3

Asked how likely I'd be to buy an expansion pack with new songs,
guitars, characters, etc. that requires owning the full game and
includes a guitar for $30 over the base price, one that does not
include the guitar, and the same two options for a version that
doesn't require me to own the original.

Asked my top three choices of band to be featured in an expansion
pack. Bands were: Van Halen, Guns n Roses, U2, The Killers, Led
Zeppelin, Jane's Addiction, Aerosmith, Green Day, Metallica,
Radiohead, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Pearl Jam, KISS, Rush, Eagles,
Coldplay, The Beatles, AC/DC, Alice in Chains, Black Sabbath, Jimi
Hendrix.

Then asked to rate my interest in each of above bands being featured
in their own expansion pack.

Then asked how likely I would be to purchase following themed
expansion packs: Country (like Brooks & Dunn, Garth Brooks and Toby
Keith), Ozzfest Edition (like System of a Down, Disturbed and
Sepultura), Southern Rock (like ZZ Top, The Georgia Satellites and
Black Crowes), Modern Hard and Alternative Rock (like Tool, Slipknot
and Foo Fighters), Hair Metal (like Quiet Riot's Bang Your Head,
Twisted Sister's I Wanna Rock, and Whitesnake's Here I Go Again), Rock
of the 60s, 80s Metal (like Judas Priest, Iron Maiden and Def
Leppard), Modern Metal (like Pantera, Lamb of God and Slayer), Warped
Tour Legends (like Alien Ant Farm, Anti-Flag and Weezer), Classic Rock
(like The Who's My Generation, Rolling Stones' Brown Sugar and
Santana's Black Magic Woman),Modern Punk (like Anti-Flag, Bouncing
Souls and Rancid), Grunge (like Soundgarden's Outshined, Smashing
Pumpkins' Siamese Dream and Pearl Jam's Alive), Christian Rock (like
King's X, MxPx and P.O.D.), Tour-a-Palooza (like Soundgarden, Stone
Temple Pilots and The Smashing Pumpkins), Old School Punk (like
Misfits, Dead Kennedys and Minor Threat), Rock of the 70s, Rock of the
80s.

Asked my opinion on how likely I would be to buy a new Guitar Hero if
it included the following hardware enhancements: Premium full sized
wood guitar controller, a microphone that allows you to sing and play
like a rockstar, a separate speaker that plugs into the console and
plays your guitar playing, custom vinyl skins of different graphics or
colors for the guitar controller, motion sending controls that would
allow your character to mimic your real-world motion for extra
power-ups and higher scores, a two-piece guitar that breaks down for
storage/portability, and an effects pedal for special sound effects.

Asked my opinion on features, like downloading your face into the game
to make the character look like you, building your own guitar hero,
downloadable characters, custom guitar creating, downloadable outfits,
downloadable venues, downloadable guitars, downloadable songs, and the
ability to create your own set lists.

Asked opinion on guitar shapes for future included guitars, including
Gibson Firebird, Flying V, Les Paul, SG, X-plorer, ES 335, and Kramer
Striker.

Asked about colors including Metallic (mirror), Red, Green, Cherry,
Orange, Black, Pink, Blue, Natural (wood grain), light blue.

Asked if I would be interested in a game that goes beyond forms of
guitars to the rest of the band, and then specifically asked about
games entitled Keyboard Hero and Drummer Hero.

Sa-weeeet! And I mean that in every sense of the word. Reader Ryan writes that his girlfriend got this wicked candy swag for presenting at the Canadian Game Studies Association last week. Apparently she ate the Mario and Yoshi, why he stuck to Donkey Kong and Diddy. They sawed poor crystaline Link in half and chomped his upper and lower in unison. Brian Crecente

Nintendo has announced that some lucky fan will be able to play a Revolution game on the new console at their pre-E3 press conference on May 9.

The winners will be flown to LA and invited to step up on the stage at the Kodak Theater during Nintendo press conference to play a game on the system. I guess that means will be seeing some game play on May 9?

To enter you just have to click on the link below by April 28. Three finalists will be selected at random to be flown with a guest to Los Angeles and put up in a hotel for two nights. The three will then sit in the front row (maybe next to me, I promose I'll say hi) at the press conference. During the presser one of the three will be randomly selected to go up on stage and play with the Revolution in front of the world's media and not a few Nintendo execs.

The gamer will be the first consumer on the planet to play the Revolution. Hit the link for you chance to enter and the full rules.

Nintendo Sweepstakes [AOL]

GameStop and Microsoft have teamed up to give away a custom-built Xbox 360 motorcycle. The chopper was designed and built by Joe Martin of Martin Brothers Bikes.

To enter just buy something for $25 or more at a GameStop or EB Games or just hop over to the link below and sign-up. You can enter for free once a day. The contest ends May 24.

Other prizes include a Sharp HDTV AQOUS TV, Alienware Area-51 m5500 computer, Xbox 360, some starter kits for the console and Martin Brothers jackets.

Chopper [Game Informer]