Archive | Video Games
While the newest Rock Band game seems aimed at the casual music fan with the addition of a keyboard controller, Guitar Hero: Warriors of Rock seems way more focused on metal. Case in point: they commissioned Megadeth to write the “boss battle” of the game, a song called “Sudden Death.” In this clip, apparently done for the UK, Dave Mustaine talks about writing the song, and it also gives a preview of the song. The game, which will also come bundled with Soundgarden’s new Greatest Hits comp, Telephantasm, will be released on September 28.
Well this is one way to fix Iceland’s volcano problem. A video where a bunch of fake guitar controllers were dumped into the Eyjafjallajökull volcano has been posted on YouTube recently.
The trailer was shot for a new band video game called Power Grip: Rise Of The Six String, which provides the player with an actual six string guitar that you can play the game with and also plug into a real amplifier. It sounds a tad bit similar to Rock Band 3’s new addition, but still seems pretty cool. Check out the video of the fake guitar rebellion above.
[via Simon]
Yesterday, Soundgarden announced that they were releasing a new retrospective package called Telephantasm on September 28, which would include a never before released song called “Black Rain.” However, more information about the compilation has been revealed today.
While it’s cool to find out the CD and companion DVD’s track listing, it’s the new details we’ve learned about the album’s partnership to the Guitar Hero: Warriors Of Rock video game that caught our attention. Not only will fans have access to download the music to play along with the game, but an actual physical copy of Telephantasm will be placed inside a million Guitar Hero: Warriors Of Rock packages. While it isn’t unusual for a rock band to work closely with Guitar Hero, or Rock Band for that matter, such a bundle has never happened before, at least not with a physical copy of an album.
Check out the entire track list for each of the package’s formats after the jump. For those who are excited for the band’s reunion show at Lollapalooza (as well as their intimate show in Chicago) this weekend, then check out video of the band performing “Beyond The Wheel” in Seattle back in April as “Nude Dragons” above. Read more »
Did the video for Iron Maiden’s “The Final Frontier” make you want to kick some space ass?! Well now you can … sort of. The band has created a new online video game called Search & Savage, which is inspired by the title track to their new album.
The game has the player “steering Eddie’s spaceship to collect weapons and help defeat the space pirates who have blown up the band’s cargoship, and along the way collecting the band’s gear that has been catapulted into space so they can get back on their inter-galactic tour!” There is also apparently a second game titled Rescue & Revenge that will be a part of the album’s deluxe edition.
This is pretty awesome for Iron Maiden fans, though isn’t the first time they’ve done an online game to coincide with an album’s release (anyone play the A Matter Of Life And Death video game besides me?). Either way, if you’re looking to waste some time, or take a break from the Slayer pinball game app, then definitely check this out over at TheFinalFrontierGame.com.
Want to hear a new Avenged Sevenfold song before their new album Nightmare comes out Tuesday? Also want to get a sneak peak of the new Call Of Duty: Black Ops video game? Well not only can you do both, but at the same time as well!! Avenged Sevenfold has premiered a new song called “Welcome To The Family” with a video that features footage from the newest game in the Call Of Duty series. You can check out the video above.
While it
‘s In Flames that has a song called “Pinball Map,” leave it to Slayer to come out with their own pinball app. Slayer Pinball Rocks HD has launched for the iPhone and iPad via a reskinned version of developer Gameprom’s Pinball HD game with Slayer’s blessing. The $2.99 app is available now and features voiceovers from Tom Araya, music from World Painted Blood, and mini games, as well as LED versions of the disturbing mini-film Playing With Dolls.
We’re downloading this as we write this, so we’ll get back to you on whether it’s worth the money. But really, how can it not be? For the record, though, we’d much rather Slayer partner up with a physical pinball machine manufacturer and make a standalone game. I mean, why should KISS have all the fun?
The popularity of the Guitar Hero and Rock Band franchises has long been met by musicians and people that don’t like fun complaining that “if you’re going to spend all that time playing a fake guitar, you might as well learn how to play a real one.” Well, with the release of Rock Band 3, you might actually come a lot closer to knowing how to play guitar – and keyboard.
First things first, yeah, there’s going to be a keyboard controller for the first time. The 25 key keyboard will come with a handle that will let you turn it into a keytar! More importantly, There’s going to be a 17 fret, six string Fender guitar controller available that will have 102 buttons in its neck. Players of the Pro Mode in the game will be able to actually play songs using their version of tablature. Will it make you an amazing player if you don’t know how to play? Probably not, but it’s definitely a good start.
This won’t come cheap, though. The keyboard will cost $79.99 (or $129.99 with the game). And the guitar will cost $149.99 alone. But in another nod to actual musicians, there will be a MIDI Pro Adapter Box for those that already have MIDI keyboard and drum sets, so they’ll be able to use their existing instruments to play. Wired got a chance to play Rock Band 3, and the Pro mode sounds pretty ridiculous.
Guitar is where Pro mode really gets insane. To play a guitar track on this setting, you’ll need the new Fender Mustang Pro Guitar controller, which simulates the playing of six strings and 17 frets with a whole array of buttons on the neck.
Also, you need to be a savant. Pro mode guitars weren’t available for our hands-on experience, but we saw a video of the Dio tune “Rainbow in the Dark” and it looked damn near impossible — like trying to read tab notation on a piano roll going a hundred miles an hour.
It seems like the Rock Band franchise is adjusting to the declining sales and buzz about rhythm-based games. Closets everywhere are filled with plastic guitars and drum sets, and the actual movement of playing the games as a cultural phenomenon jumped the shark shortly after the first Rock Band came out. But this could give Harmonix two things: the opportunity to sell two more peripherals and a new audience of actual musicians that might stop sneering and start playing. There’s a partial track listing of songs after the jump (spoiler alert: Dio!). Read more »
Remember when the Guitar Hero franchise was fresh and exciting? Activision does too, which is why the recently-announced Guitar Hero: Warriors of Rock, is the only GH game they’re releasing this year. In prior years, they’ve flooded the market, and by the time the awful Guitar Hero: Van Halen was released last year, no one cared and the rhythm-based music game was at its low point. It looks like they’re at least beginning to make amends with this one, which will be released in September (and you can pre-order here).
This time, they’ve added a story-based “Quest Mode” (wait, aren’t all of them kind of quests?) that begins in CBGB’s. Hey, wev’e been there, and as long as it doesn’t begin in the toilet in the basement, we’re ok with it. Gene Simmons in the narrator of the game, and also serves the the voice for the “Demi-God or Rock,” who needs to take down “The Beast” to save rock and Roll. Whatever, as long as the music’s good, we’ll give it a show. And among the impressive 90 tracks is a brand new Megadeth song and the previously-unreleased live version of Metallica and Ozzy Osbourne playing “Paranoid” at the Rock Hall of Fame show last year. Hit the jump for some of the songs included:
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It seems like an eternity since the rhythm video game franchises of Guitar Hero and Rock Band first came on the scene, but the idea isn’t even five years old yet (Guitar Hero came out in November, 2005). With Green Day – Rock Band
being released on June 8, this will be roughly the 2,439th rhythm-based video game to come out (actually, only the 15th, not counting portable versions).
Much like Metallica fans flocked to Guitar Hero: Metallica, if you like Green Day, then you’ll want to pick this up. However, unlike Metallica, who put tracks on that game from bands they’ve played with or covered by the likes of Machine Head, Corrosion of Conformity and Bob Seger, this one’s all Green Day. In fact, it’s got two entire Green Day albums on it, for a combination of about 6 chords! Basically, if your inner 12 year old wants a reason to jump around the living room screaming the lyrics to “Basket Case,” this is the game for you. Otherwise, wait for Guitar Hero: Cannibal Corpse to come out. You’ll probably be waiting for a while. Track listing after the jump:
Read more »
AC/DC’s classics might be featured in the blockbuster movie Iron Man 2, but Lamb Of God will be featured in Iron Man 2: The Videogame.
Lamb Of God has contributed a new song called “Hit The Wall” to the video game version of Marvel Studio’s big summer superhero flick. Singer Randy Blythe commented:
“Working on a piece of music specifically for the Iron Man 2 video game was a new challenge for us. A few of us are real game and comic fans, so the partnership with Sega [Iron Man publisher] has been really exciting. We can’t wait to play the game and hear our music as Iron Man kicks ass.”
The video game will be made available this coming April. As cool as it is that we will get to hear a new song in the game, it would have been extra sick seeing Tony Stark kick ass to “Now You’ve Got Something To Die For” on the big screen.
Posted by Bram Teitelman on Mon, Aug 30, 2010 at 2:10 pm
Video, Video Games