People keep asking when Guitar Hero World Tour will be shipping and what it will cost.
The game will ship on Oct. 27, 2008, and will cost $189.99 for the Band Kit, which will include the drum kit, microphone and guitar — same as Rock Band. If you just want the game and the guitar, it will cost you $99.99. And if you simply want the game, it’ll set you back about $50.
But let’s be real here. We only care about this game because of the cool drum kit. Period.
Thanks Engadget!
Jimmy Buffet’s coming to Rock Band.
Harmonix announced this afternoon that Buffett’s hits Margaritaville, Cheeseburger in Paradise and Volcano will be included in next week’s Music Store update.
My neighbour is a huge Buffett fan and bought Rock Band after I introduced him to the joy of playing fake instruments (I can has cheezeburger from Harmonix as reward?). I can’t wait to tell him the news.
Meanwhile, according to one of Rock Band’s developers: “Jimmy Buffett rerecorded the three songs for exclusive use in Rock Band, turns out he really digs the game.”
Buffett, it seems, gets it: These types of music games are the best thing that could happen to musicians. It gives an opportunity for bands to attract new fans they may never have been able to reach. And the rockers don’t even have to go on tour.
Oh yeah, better mention Harmonix is also adding three Disturbed tracks.
Songs sell for $1.99 each (160 Microsoft Points) or $5.49 (440 Microsoft Points) for the pack.
I don’t even like soccer, but I can’t wait to get my hands on one of these jerseys.
Major League Soccer franchise, the Seattle Sounders, announced Thursday that they inked a deal with Xbox 360, making Microsoft’s console the official jersey sponsor. The jerseys will make their debut when the team takes the field for the first time in spring 2009.
The green and blue jerseys are branded with “Xbox 360 Live” on the chest, and they look amazing.
You may know the MLS because of the Los Angeles Galaxy, the team that signed soccer icon David Beckham.
I remember picking up a used copy of Beyond Good and Evil for Nintendo’s GameCube several years ago. I bought it on a whim because the main character, in photojournalism style, used a camera to record a government conspiracy. It looked fresh. It looked interesting.
I was amazed when I played it. In fact, I kept my GameCube all these years just so I could play Beyond Good and Evil again when the fancy struck.
The game was never a huge seller, but it did drum up a cult following. However, the game’s developer Ubisoft was never firm on a sequel.
So I nearly jumped out my seat when I read this afternoon that Ubisoft has confirmed at a news conference in Paris that the sequel is in development. The company released a short trailer for the game and screenshots — the graphics look stunning. No other details were announced, not even an expected release date.
Chances are the game will be released cross-platform.
We’ve seen pics of the Guitar Hero 4 drum kit, but here’s a short video with a little bit of play action. Maybe my wife will reconsider and let me buy them . . . they look so pretty.
Salon writer Rachel Shukert has written an entertaining piece about how the video game Rock Band brought the romance back into her dysfunctional relationship with her video-game addicted hubby.
It’s definitely worth a read.
Here’s my cobbled together abbreviated version using article excerpts:
The man I married is on the couch in the living room, his eyes glassy as he diddles the control on the Xbox, blowing to smithereens shadowy figures lurching across the screen. We haven’t spoken in several hours.
I storm back to my desk and type the phrases “my husband” “addicted” “video games” “HELP” into the search engine. Hundreds of links appear.
“If you don’t stop playing that game right now, I’m filing for divorce!” I holler.
Ben bought the game (Rock Band) over the holidays, lugging the huge box home on foot through the New York winter slush. I knelt beside it on the floor, brushing the beads of oily precipitation from the damp lid.
. . . the Xbox and I have been engaged for some time in a cold war based on the doctrine of mutually assured destruction: If I touch it, I’ll break it, and then Ben will kill me.
. . . when I sit down at those fake drums something transforms in me.
Note after blinking colored note on the screen explodes with our rock. The fake crowd roars. I fake drum faster. Our fake band, Sex Baby, embarks on a fake world tour on our fake jet, playing fake stadiums in all the fake capitals of Europe. Our fake selves grace the covers of fake magazines, and our fake fans number in the millions. When our fake manager calls to tell us we’ve been invited to play the fake Hall of Fame showcase in fake Stockholm, my real husband turns toward me, and smiles.
EDIT: I just read a number of comments posted by people at the end of the Rock Band story on Salon’s website and was flabbergasted at how much indignation some people seem to have against those who game. One person even posted a Bible scripture (out of context and misquoted, of course) saying that video games are childish.
Video games are a hobby, just like baseball, pool, knitting, gardening, reading and cooking; to each their own. Not that this blog needs to be an apologetic. Still, people do often pigeonhole gamers as childish, wondering when they will “grow up.”
There’s a difference between enjoying a hobby and playing World of Warcraft 40 hours a week while ignoring your wife, kids, job and household duties. Don’t judge a person by his Xbox.
An Xbox Fanboy reader has spotted an interesting detail in the recent magazine story about Gears of War. According to screenshots featured in the mag, the game looks like it will have a flamethrower.
But more interesting to me is how heavily people are frothing over this game. Everything that comes out in the media gets uber-analyzed. It reminds me of a another game that came out not long ago for the 360…
A group of monks in Vienna are praising God, and Halo’s Master Chief, for rocket launching their latest chant album into the Top 10 list on the UK’s music charts, according to a report in The Sun newspaper.
The group of Cistercian monks were recruited by Universal Records after Halo: Combat Evolved zoomed into video game history with millions and millions of sales — the game’s theme song features eerie Gregorian Chanting. Obviously, some savvy minds at the label smelled a profit, so they put ads into religious newspapers looking for some chanters.
Apparently, the monks — who are not allowed access to TV, but can use the Internet — sent a YouTube video to Universal, and the label liked it. Thus, Chant: Music For Paradise was born.
“It appeals to all different people. I’ve had Amy Winehouse fans come to me and tell me how much they like the music. I know who Madonna and Amy Winehouse are as I listen to the radio in the monastery,” the monks’ spokesman Father Karl told The Sun.
Ironically, the monks’ album beat Winehouse’s record Back to Black, which came in at No. 13, on this week’s charts.
“Our success is nothing short of a miracle,” said Karl.
Toronto Thumbs has a nice peek at Guitar Hero 4’s drum kit.
The music game franchise is putting out its next game a la Rock Band, with the addition of the new instrument. I dished out $200 for Rock Band, and no matter how fancy pants the new addition is, my wife probably won’t let me justify another massive cash handover for more fake instruments. Sad face.
Just for fun…
I love cheap games. And it just so happens Best Buy has one of the best sales I’ve seen in a while.
The store is selling four Xbox 360 titles for $9.99 each. Normally, at that price they’re trying to ditch the latest bit of movie knock-off garbage. But this time, they’re selling some good ones – most notably, Viva Pinata and Kameo (click the names for reviews). I picked up both.
They’re also selling Vampire Rain and Ninety Nine Nights. I wouldn’t waste your hard-earned $9.99 on those two though. I’m not even wasting time linking to their awful reviews.
The sale ends May 29.
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