Rock Band

By Michael McWhertor Because the adventures of Frank Castle, better known as The Punisher, is this week's new playable addition to the PlayStation Store. Not a bad way to start the holiday weekend, but PSP owners get the better end of the deal. Guitar Hero World Tour tracks

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By Stephen Totilo Average Per-Gamer Playing Time For Wii Music Games (as of July 1) Rock Band 2 (December 2008) — 39 hours, 6 minutes Rock Band (June 2008) — 30 hours, 23 minutes Guitar Hero Metallica (March 2009) — 14 hours, 38 minutes Guitar Hero Aersomith (June 2008) — 12 hours, 50 minutes

By Stephen Totilo Make way for Rune Factory Frontier and Rock Band 2 in our (theoretically) monthly study of which Nintendo Wii games are getting played the most, per user. Rock Band 2's appearance is no surprise, as it surges toward Guitar Hero III. Notably, Rock Band 2 has passed the average playing time of i...

By Luke Plunkett DJ Hero will be $120 when it's released in the United States. Which is pricey, but not unheard of. When it's released in the UK, however, it'll follow a precedent set by Rock Band in being ridiculously expensive. Activision prices DJ Hero at GBP 108 [Eurogamer]

By Brian Crecente I like the idea, but I would love it if they actually carted arcade games around to parties. Or better still, like a huge stage that unfolds with fog machines, pyro effects and a stage to play Rock Band or Guitar Hero on. Oh... and groupies, totally need groupies.

By Luke Plunkett In terms of portability, though...it's a little ridiculous. For the box to include that locker, the figure and the poster, we're talking a crate as big as a Guitar Hero/Rock Band bundle. Only, for an annual sports title. Wonder how that'll fly with retailers.

By Mike Fahey The downloadable song grand total for Rock Band Unplugged rises from ten to fourteen today, with the introduction of four new songs for the single-player PlayStation Portable version of Harmonix's band game. Avenged Sevenfold's "Afterlife" , Dream Theater's "Constant Motion", Ston...

By Leigh Alexander. At the E3 debut of Project Natal, Microsoft’s Don Mattrick called the controllers we’'ve known and loved “a barrier separating video game players from everyone else.” Wait. Isn'’t that the point? Should video game controllers really disappear?

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By Luke Plunkett Guitar Hero: World Tour Rock Band Videos Themes & Wallpapers Battlefield 1943 Theme MotorStorm: Pacific Rift Competition Theme Battlefield 1943 x2 Wallpapers PlayStation Store via PSP and Media Manager Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (£14.99/€19.99) Rock Band Unplugged

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By Michael McWhertor Free content for LittleBigPlanet, MotorStorm Pacific Rift and Cross Edge join those playable additions, as do new songs from Phish and Pearl Jam for Guitar Hero and Rock Band, respectively. Of course, there's far more to this week's PlayStation Store update, but you'll need to read on fo...

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By Luke Plunkett They looked over all the characters, the animations ... they really kept us honest on whether we were capturing the spirit of the band as they were performing, which was a huge challenge for us...At every milestone they improved it. I think Sir Paul McCartney heckled our project lead's bass-play...

By Mike Fahey Basically a variant of the old why not just play a real instrument argument. White, on the other hand, seems a bit put off that some feel that bands have to be in a game like Guitar Hero or Rock Band to find their audience. Jimmy Page, Jack White slam Guitar Hero [MusicRadar.com]

By Mike Fahey With support recently introduced for both Guitar Hero: Metallica and Rock Band 2, the wireless microphone double-packed with copies of Microsoft's karaoke game Lips are rather conveniently little devices, and they'll be much more convenient this fall, when they are released as stan...

By Mike Fahey All three songs in the "Ten Bonus Pack" will be available tomorrow on the Xbox 360, and two days later on the PlayStation 3, as Harmonix technicians perform the complicated calculations needed to convert 440 Microsoft points into $5.49.

By Michael McWhertor This weekend's another busy one at Kotaku Towers West, as we plan for the move to a larger facility, rummage through the office supplies looking for something to sell and finish playing through Sega's Let's Tap for the Wii. Heading to Blizzard on Monday to play some StarCraft II, but first I...

By Michael McWhertor Solid Snake sneaks into the North American PlayStation Store this week, as Metal Gear Solid for the original PlayStation becomes a PS One Classic. And... uh... Gran Turismo 5 Prologue is cheaper. Yes, it's a slow week. Guitar Hero World Tour tracks

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By Michael McWhertor Band Hero, when bundled with microphone, drum kit and guitar controller, will run $199 according to GameStop. As GameSpot points out, that's more than the Guitar Hero World Tour kit. A surprising mark up, especially considering GameStop's recent clearance sale on Rock Band and Guitar He...

By Mike Fahey DJ Hero (Traveler's Tales/Warner Bros Interactive Entertainment for PlayStation 3, Xbox 360) Guitar Hero 5 (Neversoft/Red Octane/Activision for All Systems) The Beatles Rock Band (Harmonix/MTV Games/EAP for PS3, Xbox 360, Wii) Wii Sports Resort (Nintendo for Wii)

By Stephen Totilo Maybe Slaczka was onto something, because Scribblenauts has been chosen as the Best of Show for E3 2009 not only by three of the biggest gaming outlets around — IGN, Gamespot and GameSpy — but it's done so without having to be a console or PC game.

By Michael McWhertor It's a big, big, big week for the North American PlayStation Store, as new downloadable content for Killzone 2, Call of Duty: World At War, LittleBigPlanet and Burnout Paradise bombards the PlayStation Network. And there are games! Guitar Hero World Tour tracks

By Mike Fahey Still not quite sold on this feature. I think part of the fun of the game in a social setting was determining who played what. Some of my most memorable moments with Guitar Hero World Tour and Rock Band involved me being shunted off to an instrument I wasn't familiar with, or being forced to sing...

By Michael McWhertor With gamers warming up to the option of downloadable content over the course of the current console generation, we'd think the market might be ready for that kind of model for a Gran Turismo game. But Polyphony Digital went back to the formula of previous entries for its newest, Gran Turism...

By Mike Fahey Tweet My Gaming is a site that provides a constant feed of video game tweets from everyone who tweets them. It tags video game names and then captures any Twitter activity containing those names, with updates appearing on the front page in real time. It's fascinating to watch it in motion, bu...

By Michael McWhertor GameStop is slashing prices on Rock Band, Rock Band 2, Guitar Hero World Tour, Guitar Hero Aerosmith and more, likely in anticipation of this year's new music games bearing the Rock Band and Guitar Hero names. That means big savings.

By Stephen Totilo Regarding the Sony tech, Riccitiello said, "I've been playing with that and it is cool. And we saw that two years ago. In fact, I think we introduced Sony to it." My guess is that where this ends up is: motion controllers end up with half the market. And the other half still ends up with a more tradit...

By Owen Good Go Play Circus Star (Wii) Go Play Lumberjacks (Wii) Guitar Hero On Tour: Modern Hits (DS) Pool Hall Pro (Wii) Reel Fishing: Angler's Dream (Wii) Rock Band Unplugged (PSP) Smiley World Island Challenge (Wii) Vertigo (Wii) Virtua Tennis 2009 (PS3. 360, Wii, PC)

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By Brian Crecente On Monday night Microsoft packed the top floors of The Standard in downtown LA with their best games and a bunch of gamers. The entire thing was topped off with The Beatles Rock Band set up on a rooftop stage. I didn't get a chance to play it, but here's an excerpt of a bunch of Harmonix folks jammi...

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By Luke Plunkett The mechanics of the game will be familiar to, well, almost everyone, as it follows the same structure as SingStar, Lips, Rock Band and Guitar Hero: World Tour. Lyrics and coloured bars appear on stage, you sing/rap to match the pitch and tone of the original, and you're scored on your perfo...

By Brian Ashcraft E3's Lone Porn Star Is Eyeing a Wii LEGO Rock Band Preview: Building Family Fun-Time Sony Expects Metal Gear Solid Rising On PS3 At Launch The Beatles Rock Band: I Wanna Hold Your Hands-On Impressions Relax With These Wii Sports Resort Screens Assassin's Creed 2 Gameplay Glides In

By Luke Plunkett The problem with this game is all in the name. LEGO Rock Band makes you wonder "why LEGO?" Maybe "Rock Band: Play Rock Band With Your Kids" would have been better. With its cute aesthetic, LEGO brand, Rock Band brand and an excellent scaling difficulty system for all ages, it's hard not to see L...

By Luke Plunkett But you know what? That doesn't really matter. They're no worse than Rock Band peripherals. And these are plastic instruments that are perfect scale replicas of the actual instruments The Beatles used, right down to the logos and paint schemes. That'll be more than enough for most Beatles f...

By Brian Ashcraft What you missed last night E3 Round-Up: Day One Rape Games Officially Banned In Japan Final Fantasy XIII Still On Track For Winter 2009 Release... Testing Molyneux's Milo, A Virtual Boy With, Yes, A Dog These Are Ringo Starr's Rock Band Drums What's Behind The Nintendo Curtain?

By Michael McWhertor Fret Nice, the indie platformer that you play with a Guitar Hero a controller—or possibly with a Rock Band guitar controller—is coming to a console near you, thanks to Tecmo. Fret Nice will let you play two-player co-op locally or online, but with a catch—both players will be attached by a g...

By AJ Glasser In the Interest of Time, A Modern Warfare 2 Gameplay Clip Old Republic Gets New Trailer Watch Ayane Kick Some Ass APB E3 Trailer Full Of Cops, Criminals Alan Wake Creeps Me Out All You Need Is The Beatles: Rock Band Debut Trailer Molyneux's Milo Brings a Virtual Child to the Xbox 360

By Brian Ashcraft Pictured is Ringo Starr's drums with classic black oyster pearl finish and Ludwig-branded Beatles kick drum head. This September, The Beatles: Rock Band will be rocking its way into living rooms with these fabulous looking pieces of pricey plastic. All that's missing are the mop-top wig...

By Brian Ashcraft Electronic Arts EA Adding MMA To Sports Roster In 2010 And EA's Latest Partner Is... Brutal Legend vs The Prince Of Darkness Old Republic Is All-Talk (Literally) EA E3 Press Conference Commence APB E3 Trailer Full Of Cops, Criminals EA Sports Active Sells Oodles, Getting Expansion Pack

By Brian Ashcraft Why Xbox 360 New Controller Is Called 'Natal' Facebook, Twitter Coming To Xbox 360 First Look At Halo 3 ODST Xbox 360 Controller Crackdown 2 Adds Competitive Multiplayer, Hits In 2010 Last.FM Coming To Xbox Live All You Need Is The Beatles: Rock Band Debut Trailer

By Michael McWhertor This career-spanning look at The Beatles first video game shows off the variety of visual styles that will be highlighted in The Beatles: Rock Band, as well as how that three-party harmonizing will work. Or at least what it will look like in the HUD.

By Owen Good E3 2009 E3 2009 Preview: These Are The Big Shooters, We Reckon E3 2009 Preview: These are the Big Racing Games, We Think E3: The Great Walk-Off Activision Reveals Its E3 2009 Lineup Come to Kotaku's E3 Party This Sunday s E3 2009 Predictions

By Michael McWhertor A half-dozen tunes will comprise the "Bonnaroo Pack," due for release on the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 versions of Rock Band and Rock Band 2 for $9.99 or 800 Microsoft Points. Each of the six master tracks will run you $1.99 or 160 Microsoft Points individually. Careful not to blow your load, fo...

By Brian Crecente Lord of The Rings Comes To Wii, With Dashes Of Mario, Link Are Our Games Alive? E3 2009 Preview: These Are The Big Shooters, We Reckon E3: The Great Walk-Off Sacre Bleu! The First LEGO Rock Band Trailer Sony Prepares An Army of Playstation Evangelists

By Michael McWhertor Maybe I'll be able to sneak in a little Rock Band Unplugged during more private moments, but there's just too much to get ready for to make E3 a coverage success. It might be worth having a little video game cleanse before the show, so I can better appreciate all the games I'll be obligated to pl...

By Luke Plunkett PlayStation Store via PSP and Media Manager Rock Band Unplugged Demo (free) For the first time on PSP the Rock Band experience is here, so what are you waiting for? Come and experience the full band experience in the palm of your hand. PEGI 12+

By Michael McWhertor Brian Ashcraft 1. At the Nintendo presser someone will make a joke about Mother's Day cards (2:1) 2. Price cut on the original PlayStation 3 (2:1) 3. Once again, someone will mistakenly call "Rock Band" "Guitar Hero" or vice versa on stage (4:1) 4. Konami announces Zoe of the Enders 3 (5:1)

By Michael McWhertor MTV Games' Rock Band series shrinks down and drops the plastic instruments for the PlayStation Portable release Rock Band Unplugged, which turns the band video game series into a break out solo effort. If you're at all interested in the Rock Band series or have enjoyed Harmonix's origina...

By Owen Good • Since the key here is the accessory, I guess this is filed under hardware. Best Buy is offering 20 percent off on console accessories with the purchase of any game. Accessories means controllers, Wii gadgets, Rock Band instruments, and the Xbox 360 WiFi doodad. The sale is online only and ex...

By Owen Good Battlefield Bad Company 2 Multiplayer Impressions Star Trek D-A-C Micro-Review Frankenreview: Punch-Out!! Darksiders Preview: The War of God Punch-Out!! Review: Call It A Comeback Call of Juarez: Bound in Blood Multiplayer Preview: All The Pretty Horses

By Brian Crecente The unbridled success of Guitar Hero, Rock Band and the Wii are spurring game developers to look at new ways to control games. But, he added, it was games like Guitar Hero that allowed developers to start experimenting with new controllers.

By Owen Good Studies and claims have tied the popularity of Guitar Hero and Rock Band to actual music performance for some time. A British study says the games' popularity have inspired children there to experiment with music. There are unverifiable claims Guitar Hero is responsible for a surge in sal...

By Mike Fahey We've taken a look at the songs that simply must be included with the game, along with instruments they could reproduce in order to make The Beatles: Rock Band Premium Bundle worth picking up, even if we already have a living room full of plastic instruments.

By Owen Good But he never had any exposure to Rock Band or Guitar Hero until recently in a mall store, where he was literally beaten at his own game. I know about Rock Band, because Nirvana has some songs on it. I had never tried the game before, so I gave it a go. I worked through the menu and found the song "In Blo...

By Mike Fahey M.I.C. actually stands for Microphone with Integrated Controller, and that's exactly what the Rock Band M.I.C. is. You've got your standard wired premium microphone, with the Xbox controller's A, B, X, Y, start, back, and home buttons placed in a line down one side of the grip. It's a design so sim...

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By Mike Fahey Part of their innovative line of official Rock Band peripherals that includes the dual-strumming Fender Bass and the microphone with 360 controls built-in, the Mad Catz Portable Drum Kit for the Xbox 360 aims to deliver a solid drumming experience in a packages tiny enough to stuff into...

By Owen Good Resistance 2 Review: Can't Fight This Feeling Anymore Far Cry 2 Review: Hurry Boy, It's Waiting There For You Fable II Review: A Feast Of Burden Which Drums Are Louder: Rock Band 2 or Guitar Hero World Tour Activision Eyes Subscription Fees For Guitar Hero World Tour User-Created Songs

By Brian Crecente While playing Guitar Hero World Tour for my review of the game I started thinking that maybe the plastic and rubber drum kit was a bit louder that Rock Band 2's. So Adam and I made this short little video showing me playing a chunk of the same song. This isn't scientific at all (You'd need a way to m...

By Brian Crecente 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, drum...

By Brian Crecente 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 comp...

By Mike Fahey Has Activision managed to beat Harmonix at their own game, or is Guitar Hero World Tour but a pale imitation? Let's see what the all-star game critics super group has to say. From nowhere near even Rock Band 1 to look out, Harmonix, in five easy steps.

By Owen Good Hope everyone's had a good chance to fan themselves and hose off following Thursday's introduction to Grace Kim, the former Activision PR rep turned Guitar Hero Rock Band vixen in this month's Playboy. Remember a while back, the survey that asked if anybody's played video games in the nud...

By Owen Good Nintendo Responds to Trade Commission Investigation of Wii Rock Band 2 Review: Second Verse Same As The First Training Wheels: My First MMO The Best Damn Video Game Infomercial You'll Ever Not Walk Away From Activision Boss Says Guitar Hero Is "Dominating" The Competition

By Brian Crecente Rock Band 2, developed by Harmonix and published by Electronic Arts was released on Sept. 14 for the Xbox 360. Retails for $60 for just the game, $190 for the special edition with instruments. Focused on tour mode both solo and with others, tested Xbox Live online play.

By AJ Glasser 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...

By Owen Good Casting Agent Confirms Rock Band 2 TV Show Spore Review: Evolutionary Creationism Harmonix To Release Rock Band: AC/DC? Microsoft: "No Comment" On Batshit Insane Xbox 360 Relaunch Rumor Can Rock Band Really Teach You to Rock Out?Happy 9th Birthday Dreamcast!

By Mike Fahey First of all, thanks for the story, much appreciated. The Fender Bass like all our Rock Band range is a product we are deeply passionate about. Thing is Mike, a lot has changed in recent years. Mad Catz have repositioned ourselves as makers of high quality peripherals and most of our products n...

By Brian Crecente This year around the retailer-only show will give folks their hands on time with Guitar Hero: World Tour, Rock Band 2, Wii Music, Star Wars: The Force Unleashed, Spore, Call of Duty: World at War, Animal Crossing and, I'm told, a first ever chance to check out Halo Wars.

By Jim Reilly There are new and improved guitars this time around. All the instruments are sturdier and all wireless, including the drums. The guitar is pretty much the same, with the exception of a new wood grain look and a sensor to test playback lag. The drum foot pedal stays attached to the drums and feat...

By Mark Wilson Anticipating the comments, I'm going to point out that, yes, you could make such a contraption at home for less money. But given what we've already spent on Rock Band, what's another fitty? Lightning Review: Rock Band Stand Keeps Your Guitars, Controllers and Mics in Check [Gizmodo]

By Michael McWhertor What a glorious console age we've entered, when individual tracks from Rock Band get their own patched releases. It's all for the best, though, as they're merely minor fixes that aren't treating game killing bugs, just addressing incorrect meta information. In the case of "Limelight", t...

By Mike Fahey Fontaine also stated that he "was particularly pleased with record holiday handheld sell-outs of the Nintendo DS and the Sony PSP. The Nintendo Wii, even in the face of on-going seasonal shortages, Microsoft's Xbox 360 and Sony's PlayStation 3, proved to be on many holiday wishlists as n...

By Mike Fahey Chris Paladino with Microsoft's Gamerscore Blog got a chance to rock out to Black Hole Sun on a prototype Rock Band drum set being developed by Ion. Lovely little set, with cymbals included that mirror the placement of the drum for a more authentic drumming feel. Chris kicked it up to expert a...

By Michael McWhertor The Harmonix community manager writes at the official Rock Band forums that a routine patch for the PlayStation 3 version of the game is coming soon, one that will address "a number of items related to guitar controller compatibility." The patch was expected to be released yesterday, but...

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By Mike Fahey While members of my family are great at bullshitting, we're also pretty good with rhythm and music. My mother and her mother before her ran dancing schools for most of their lives, with most of the girls in the family performing at some point. My brother Richard and I both dabble with musical i...

By Michael McWhertor Sorry, SingStar, but any intentions I had of purchasing your off-disc tunes have gone by the wayside, now that I know that stellar downloadable content from Metallica will be arriving for the week of Rock Band's release. Gamespot has details on the planned song list, as well as the flexibl...

By Michael McWhertor The latest issue of the Official Xbox Magazine features not only a gushing review of Harmonix and MTV Games' Rock Band, it also provides zipper tearing details on the game's upcoming downloadable content. We've known for some time that tracks from The Who, The Grateful Dead, and Nirvana w...

By Mark Wilson · The Rock Band Special Edition Bundle for the PlayStation 2 system will feature a wired drum kit, wired microphone, wireless Fender Stratocaster guitar controller and a USB hub. · Standalone instrument peripherals for Rock Band, including a wireless guitar option for the Xbox 360, wil...

By Michael McWhertor The full list of fifty Rock Band achievements for the Xbox 360 version of the game has been published at Xbox360Achievements.org, giving us a look at the easy ("Unlock a Big Club in Solo Tour on Easy, Medium, Hard or Expert"), hard ("Score 100% notes hit as bassist, up-strums only, on Expert...

By Michael McWhertor Of course, Croal has a number of reasons for suggesting this course of action, including that potentially "thousands of Xbox 360s [are] in stores with this design flaw" and that many gamers looking to play this year's hottest 360-bound titles—Rock Band, Halo 3, Grand Theft Auto IV, Mass...

By Michael McWhertor In addition, the NanaOn-Sha staffer says that the rhythm genre he helped create is on the decline in Japan. That's in contrast to current Western tastes where music titles like Boogie, Rock Band and Guitar Hero are still hot. What's contributing to this downfall? Flat panel TVs, he says, an...