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GHIII gets Velvet Revolver and Foo DLC [update]
Update: The official press release mentions that the Boss Battles songs ("The Devil Went Down to Georgia" and battle music by Slash and Tom Morello) will be made available on the XBLM for FREE later this month. Rock on!We saw this Guitar Hero III DLC coming a mile away and today it's available for everyone to purchase and enjoy. For 500 Microsoft points apiece you can grab either the GHIII Velvet Revolver Pack or the Foo Fighter Pack. Each track pack includes three songs performed by the original artist (would we have it any other way?) with "She Builds Quick Machines", "Slither" and "Messages" in the Velvet Revolver Pack and "The Pretender", "All My Life" and "This is a Call" in the Foo Fighter Pack. The DLC is still as expensive as ever breaking down to a little over $2 a song, but we knew it was coming. Enjoy, rock out and spend frivolously!
Velvet Revolver, Foo Fighters Guitar Hero III track packs hit Xbox Live
We think the signs are pretty clear now that Activision isn't taking the threat from Rock Band lying down. Just a bit more than a week after Guitar Hero III was released, we already have two meaty song packs to download through Xbox Live and enjoy.For 500 points ($6.25) you can get either a Foo Fighters pack that includes "The Pretender" from the new album "Echoes Silence Patience & Grace", "All My Life" and "This Is A Call" or the Velvet Revolver pack, with "She Builds Quick Machines","Slither" and "Messages". Each of the packs are by the original artists. With a nice boost like this to the track listing before the old songs have even gone stale, it's clear Red Octane is playing for keeps. ... You may not want to count Guitar Hero out just yet.Update: Activision has also announced that boss battle anthems and "The Devil Went Down to Georgia" will be downloadable (for free!) later this month for play outside the game's Career mode.
Activision expects Guitar Hero III shortages
You might think it was enough that Rock Band and Guitar Hero III were facing off at retailers this holiday, but no. Not only must one game eventually best another, but it seems that their respective company executives must compete for the ultimate sales hyperbole. You may recall that EA's CEO recently advised Rock Band purchasers to line up a day in advance to secure a copy. Not to be left behind, Activision CEO Robert Kotick stated in a conference call that Guitar Hero III may be hard to find this holiday as well, even though the company touts "an unprecedented amount of global supply."At this rate, we're expecting EA to announce that Rock Band will now be so scarce that it won't actually be available for purchase.[Via Joystiq]
Guitar Hero III makes $115 million in first week
Piggybacking on the information that Activision is going to have a record quarter and Guitar Hero III may be in short supply this holiday, Activision released some financial numbers that show how popular their game is. Activision says that GHIII sold over $115 million in its first week, making it the best launch in the company's history.Activision believes they'll continue to do well against EA and MTV's Rock Band due to their "unparalleled number of music tracks, a highly competitive price point and the only game in its genre available worldwide." Although, much like the console war, we're thinking the music genre showdown between Rock Band and Guitar Hero won't be answered until years from now -- and there's always the possibility of peaceful coexistence.
GHIII makes $115 million in first week
If anyone, anywhere had doubts about the monstrous success of Guitar Hero III, said doubts can officially be put to rest. Activision has announced that Guitar Hero III has made over $115 million dollars in its first seven days of availability. This makes Guitar Hero III the biggest launch in Activision's history, and they are pleased to note that Guitar Hero is the number one selling franchise in North America through September (really? bigger than the Halo franchise?). The press release also notes that three more downloadable song packs should be available this month. To put it succinctly, we're betting the execs at Activision are congratulating themselves for acquiring Red Octane (and thus the Guitar Hero name) right about now.As for Rock Band, well, it's got some mighty big shoes to fill.[Via GameStooge]
GHIII: Foo, Velvet Revolver and BB DLC discovered
The first (some may say second) downloadable content for Guitar Hero III has been discovered and Foo Fighter and Velvet Revolver fans should get excited.The yet to be officially announced GHIII DLC was discovered by BatDan hiddenzombie013 (excuse us) over at the ScoreHero forums when he was looking through the leaderboards for high scores on the CD exclusive tracks. To his surprise, he came across leaderboard postings for six new songs from the Foo Fighters, Velvet Revolver and also postings for the GHIII boss battles (yup, the Tom, Slash and Devil tracks that are already on the disc). This puts the confirmation level of the DLC at around the 99.8% level, but as with any leaked information we're left with more questions. Questions like, when will the new tracks release? How much will the new tracks cost? And why do we feel handicapped when playing any song on expert? All these questions will not be answered until Activision comes clean and makes the DLC announcement or until we as a community get better at planting spies at developer HQ. The new tracks are posted after the break, so commence drooling ... now.[Via AltGN]
GHIII Code website now open for business
If you broke down and purchased the Guitar Hero III soundtrack CD in hopes of getting your promised three in-game song downloads then you already know you've had to deal with lots of anticipation and delays. As it's setup, once you purchase the soundtrack you're then treated to a unique key code in the packaging that must be entered online over at the Guitar Hero Code website. Then, once entered, the website will spit out a unique Xbox Live code that can be entered on Xbox Live and will allow access to the three in-game GHIII tracks. But, the Guitar Hero Code website has been a icky, unruly mess as of late.Initially, the special Guitar Hero Code website was schedule to go live on October 28th, but that date came and went with nothing. A new date was posted stating that soundtrack purchasers could get their Xbox Live code and songs on October 30th ... but again, nothing. Then another message popped up on the website stating that "sometime this week" you'd be able to get access to the Xbox Live codes and we're happy to say that "sometime" has come. The Guitar Hero Code website is now live and anyone who purchased the soundtrack can get their in-game GHIII content by registering on the site and entering their CD key code. You've experienced lots of waiting, lots of hoop jumping and lots an annoyance, but it has to be worth the AFI, Flyleaf and Manson.[Thanks, Kurifurisan]
X3F Achievements 101: All Hallow's Achieve
Welcome to another wonderful edition of X3F Achievements 101. Today's topics of discussion include Major Nelson's warning about gamesaving, sludging through the online multiplayer Achievements of Fuzion Frenzy 2, my experience thus far with Project Gotham Racing 4, and the rather annoying list of Achievements found in Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock. Anyway, all the goodness that you've come to expect is included after the break.
Rock Band kiosks being installed at Best Buy
Brian over at MEGATONik sent work that he spotted a Rock Band demo kiosk being set up at his local Best Buy store. The kiosk he saw wasn't fully functional yet due a scratched game disc, but he did get to play with and inspect the peripherals. We're guessing Best Buy's around the country will be getting Rock Band kiosk installations soon (if not already), so keep your eyes peeled. And since you've already had some hands on time with Guitar Hero III, your Rock Band vs GHIII comparison will be complete once your fingers grace Rock Band's instruments. Oh the anticipation!
Fanpoll: feature ideas for the Fall Update
We're going to do something a little different for our Fanpoll this week. Rather than take a static poll, we're going to ask our readers to submit individual ideas. Radical thinking, hmmm? As it turns out, we're also straining to come up with a question that would be easily answerable by a static poll, so we've decided to steal a topic from our Joystiq mother ship: what features would you like to see in the Xbox 360 Fall Update? We already know that it won't be IPTV, so what could it be? Do we have any prognosticators out there that can foresee the next big Xbox 360 bell and/or whistle? Let us know what you'd like to see -- or predict what you think will come true -- in the comments.Also, check out the results from last week's Fanpoll after the break.
Oops, GHIII title update adds offline co-op
When popping in Guitar Hero III for the first time last night, we were greated to a surprising title update. Our first thought was, "oops, looks like Neversoft had to fix something that was broken" and what are the odds that were were right.1UP confirmed that the title update was available for the game's launch and fixes (or we should say adds) the option for offline co-op quickplay. You see, someone forgot to add the promised offline co-op quickplay option, but we guess that's what title updates are for. No official update has been rolled out for the PS3, PS2 or Wii versions of GHIII just yet and we aren't quite sure what is expected of those without Xbox Live as we're sure they're the target market for such feature. Humph, maybe Neversoft should have got it right the first time, but maybe we're asking just a bit much.[Via Joystiq]
Slash & Poison launch Guitar Hero III in Los Angeles
Slash, Poison, the casts of Reaper, Chuck, and that chick with the awesome power to learn things by watching them on TV from Heroes were just a few of the celebrities who helped launch Guitar Hero III at a Best Buy in Los Angeles this past Saturday night. They also had a really awesome launch party up on the roof, which included different stations where each version of the game were set up, free food and booze (a rock and roll staple), and a concert from Poison, complete with the Burning Man-esque stage from the game.However, proving that every rose does indeed have its thorn, the upstairs roof-raising party wasn't open to the general public. So while the masses waited below to buy their copies at midnight, the red carpet and velvet rope brigade partied upstairs on sushi, BBQ, and Red Bull. Just like the real rock and roll world. Check out video from the event after the jump, along with some sneak peeks from our gallery. So, how many of you picked up a copy on Sunday?%Gallery-9284%
GHIII three song DLC free? No, not really ...
The buzz around the interwebs as of late falls squarely on rumors of free Guitar Hero III DLC. Late last night, Major Nelson's RSS feed produced a blog post (which has been since removed) telling of a GHIII Companion Three Pack as a free download. The songs that were listed included AFI's "Carcinogen Crush", Manson's "Putting Holes in Happiness" and Flyleaf's "Tina". Sound familiar? Well, it should, because those are the exact same in-game tracks that you get free when you purchase the GHIII CD Soundtrack. After going straight to the source, Major Nelson confirmed to us that his GHIII DLC blog post was a mistake and that the three tracks are free downloads, but only with the use of a special code found within' the game's CD soundtrack as previously revealed. So, you'll have to shell out a few bucks for the CD to play these in-game tracks, because they are not coming to the Marketplace as free downloads anytime soon. Clarification kids ... that's what it's all about.
Walmart's devious Guitar Hero III bundling
Warning future Guitar Hero III purchasers ... Walmart is evil. And yes, we know the word evil carries a lot of emotional weight behind it, but we're comfortable and confident in using such an adjective to describe Walmart seeing what they're doing with their Guitar Hero III bundles.You see, Walmart somehow received an exclusive GHIII bundle from Activision in which they sell the game with old GHII guitar controllers. That means Xbox 360 owners who'd buy the bundle wouldn't get a wireless Les Gibson and instead get the corded Xplorer. A bundle that was never previously announced and smells of clearancing out old inventory. True, the bundled boxes specifically show which guitar is included in the box (like the picture above), but some may not notice the guitar switch or just aren't informed enough to know the difference. Talk about shady GHIII bundling practices Walmart ... we're disgusted.[Thanks, Daren]
Consumer check: Make sure Wal-Mart's Guitar Hero 3 bundle is one you want
As many prepare to rock with Guitar Hero III today, we've received a few tips about consumers accidentally getting wired Xbox 360 controllers at Wal-Mart instead of the much ballyhooed wireless guitars. According to Wal-Mart's website, they are currently carrying several bundles of Guitar Hero III -- including ones with a wired x-plorer guitar for Xbox 360 (pictured) and SG controller for PS2. Target also has a similar bundle currently. The only reason we haven't started our voodoo to punish Activision and Red Octane for this trickery is that there actually is a price adjustment for these bundles. The Xbox 360 bundle and PS2 wired bundles are both $10 less than their wireless counterparts.The basic thing to do in this situation is to make sure you go to the store and read the box. If they don't have the one you want, it's your right as a free consumer to go shopping someplace else. We've been informed that some Wal-Marts only have one version of the bundle -- it may not be fair, but all we can do is let you know to check the box before you buy. Oh, but if they are selling the wired bundles for the same price as the wireless ones, then we'll call our voodoo priestess and start the incantations.[Thanks Nick and everyone else who sent this in]
Sunday's ads bring GHIII deals and more
Today, Guitar Hero III hit store shelves, which means you should be looking for the best deals and get your purchase on. And since we're cool cats here at X3F, we figured we'd help you out by looking up the best GHIII offers, though we're leaving the purchasing totally up to you. Over at Best Buy, they are offering a free Sex Pistols faceplate for your guitar with purchase of any GHIII bundle, while Circuit City is offering a free guitar stand with any GHIII purchase (bundle or stand alone game). They are both equally good deals, so you'll have to choose which you prefer and which suits you best. Also, you may want to pick up a $2 GHIII keychain at Best Buy, because they're not only cool, but all proceeds will go to benefit the Boys & Girls Club. W00t to that.Best Buy also has the best free offers on two other new releases this week including a free Homer ball, free Homer poster and a free keycode to unlock the Medal of Homer level when you purchase The Simpsons Game. If TimeShift is more your thing, then pick it up at Best Buy this week, because you'll be treated to a free music CD priced at $14.99 or less. Remember, all these offers are only good through this Saturday, so be sure to take advantage of them while they last. Oh, and don't forget to pickup GHIII ... it's good times.
GHIII Weekend event details roll in
Yesterday, we mentioned that the Xbox Live sponsored Guitar Hero III Weekend would be kicking off on November 2nd with lots of weekend fun planned. But since the official website wasn't active, we didn't have much more info to share. But now the website is live and registration is open, so this is what's going down ...For 72 hours starting next Friday, GHIII Weekend will be rockin' Xbox Live in full force. Starting Friday night, eleven GHIII developers from Neversoft will be competing online from 6-9:00PM eastern allowing gamers to challenge them to a song and unlock the coveted "Meet Your Maker" achievement. Complete list of developer gamertags is posted after the break. There will also be a Play & Win sweepstakes running all weekend allowing gamers to win a GHIII prize package every hour with one lucky person taking home an Xbox 360 setup grand prize. You can register for the Play & Win festivities right now by going logging into Xbox.com and going here. Finally, there will be an online Barracuda Tournament where the top ten Barracuda scores will receive a prize package including a guitar autographed by Slash. You have to register for the tournament beforehand (right here), then pop in GHIII, go to "Quickplay", select "Expert" and choose the song "Barracuda". Again, the top ten scores will win prizes and you can even keep track of the leaderboards over at guitarhero.com/contest when GHIII Weekend kicks off.There will be lots to do, lots to take in and lots of rock star stuff to complete next weekend. GHIII Weekend kicks off November 2nd, so drink plenty of fluids and expect to rock for three days straight.
Fanpoll: Rock Band Vs. Guitar Hero III
It's time for another Fanpoll kiddies. This week we take on one of gaming's most pressing questions: Rock Band or Guitar Hero III? Neither of these games are available just yet, but they're both right around the corner. We're sure many of our readers (pssst ... that's you!) already have at least some idea of which one they desire more. As such, we ask that you follow your heart and place your vote accordingly. Once you place your vote, feel free to explain your reasoning in the comments. Also, you'll find the results of last week's Fanpoll, skate Vs. Tony Hawk's Underground, after the break. Which do you plan to buy, Rock Band or Guitar Hero III? Rock Band Guitar Hero III I'm getting both I'll wait for the reviews, thank you very much Neither
Download Guitar Hero tracks off of iTunes
Boy oh boy do we have a once in a lifetime music deal for you, one that'll change your life for the better and make your tummy rumble (but in a good way). Activision has just placed every single Guitar Hero track (from GH, GHII and GHIII) on iTunes for you to purchase dubbed Guitar Hero Essentials. Go ahead, try and tell yourself that you can live without the melodic sound of Metallica, RATM, Pearl Jam or Aerosmith. Try and tell yourself that you don't need to purchase these tracks for when you are away from your 360 and can't play Guitar Hero. Just try and tell yourself that you don't need any of the 1200+ master rock tracks over at the Essentials iTunes store. You can't, because you need this music. You need to purchase it and you need to browse the list. And for a limited time, iTunes will organize the tracks according to genre, theme and game they came from and we'll also throw in a FREE (yes, we said free) air guitar with any track purchase. Hurry, this offer is limited ... call now![Via Joystiq]
For those about to rock: GHIII demo on XBLM
Well whaddaya know? A Guitar Hero III demo was promised by Activision yesterday and there it is, sitting pretty on Xbox Live Marketplace. Honestly, now that it's downloaded, it looks kind of strange sitting next to its evil twin. We can imagine the dramatic film conclusion right now: "Come on, I'm the real Guitar Hero III demo! You know your own game, don't you?" "Don't listen to him! He's lying!" Of course, actually figuring it out is as easy as removing that (perfectly legal) burned CD from your DVD tray. As you might expect, the demos are exactly the same, so don't expect anything new (aside from a faster load time anyway).So, if you just had to wait for the legit option, or find yourself lacking a CD burner, go forth and download. And then rock, or something.
