PS3 Fanboy

Most of you should know that two days ago Activision merged with Vivendi's games division Blizzard to form the new publisher Activision Blizzard. The chief executive of the new company, Bobby Kotick, told the Financial Times today the company plans to create an iTunes alternative based off the Guitar Hero franchise. Kotick feels this is "the natural evolution" and Guitar hero has the "potential" to be a "credible alternative to iTunes."

These plans, of course, emerged at least partly due to Activision now having access to Universal Music, which is owned by Vivendi. Vivendi is also known to have payment processing capabilities in "virtually every country." The newly formed company ain't kidding around -- with $3.5 billion dollars lying around that was originally going to be used for a tender offer, there are rumors of them after everything from the Beatles catalogue (which iTunes failed to gain access to), to entering the bidding for Take-Two. Will Activision finally get its act together with the new sources it has at hand? Rock Band has obviously become a major threat by taking market share for rhythm games away from the profitable Guitar Hero franchise. Thoughts?

Looking to rock out with an extra wireless controller for Guitar Hero III? Look no further than this deal. The official Guitar Hero III Les Paul wireless guitar controller for the PS3 shipped to your door for $35.24. Retail is $59.99 but some like Best Buy are asking for $69.99. And remember, this will not work with Rock Band. We are not sure how long this deal will last, so act fast.

[Via CAG]

According to Entertainment Weekly, British music act Coldplay have said that their single, Violet Hill, will be on Guitar Hero. The article did not specify which Guitar Hero this will be, but it's more likely than not to be Guitar Hero III since it was mentioned that the track will be DLC.

The downloadable song is part of a huge publicity campaign for the band's new album, Vida La Vida, which is out June 17. A date was also not specified, but it's safe to assume that Violet Hill will appear sometime before, around, or on June 17.

[Via X3F]

Having an Aerosmith-only Guitar Hero game sounds like a great idea for fans of the band; however, non-Aerosmith followers will probably want to skip over this one. So, with that said Aerosmith fans, this one is for you. Check out this footage of the digitized musicians rocking it out on the virtual stage. Get a taste of "Sweet Emotion," "Love in an Elevator," and also a bit of the few non-Aerosmith tracks in the game. So, enjoy the performance, but whatever you do ... don't follow Steven Tyler backstage if he calls you to walk this way, capiche?

There's a bit of somewhat disappointing news that has slipped out about the PlayStation 3's version of Guitar Hero III - the game will not be completely wireless.

Although, the game's guitar controller will still be wireless, gamers will have to plug in a guitar pick-shaped USB dongle to get it to work. Apparently, the controller doesn't "work seamlessly with [the] PS3's built-in Bluetooth," according to Wired. On the brighter side, the PS3 guitar will have the controller's symbols marked above the buttons to ease navigation throughout the game.

We're not sure why Neversoft couldn't utilize the PS3's Bluetooth technology, but this shouldn't be a deal breaker to anyone. And since the game will only support two players locally anyway, gamers should have no worries about picking up the 40GB PS3 with two USB ports.

We're loving the track list for Guitar Hero 3 so far. There's a nice mix of eighties, geek rock and cult classics. All we need now are some decent British indie rock tunes. Click through for the known track list for the game.

Do you live in Europe? Ready to rock out with Guitar Hero III? Well you don't have too long to wait. A representitive from Activision has confirmed to InsideGamer.nl that the game will be one shelves, for all consoles, on the 28th of October. It's a good thing it's coming out early. Just in time to keep us busy for a month or so before Rock Band gets released. Then it's "Guitar Hero who?"

It is still unknown when the US release is set for, though it will be sometime this autumn. We'll let you know as soon as we find out.

[Via N4G]

Harmonix was just getting us warmed up, it seems. Instead of the five fret buttons we've grown accustomed to on the past Guitar Hero series, the Rock Band official Stratocaster-based guitar controller displays ten fret buttons. On the second pic embedded below, you'll notice the five new buttons down at the base of the neck. We can only imagine what kind of sick guitar solo action Harmonix has in store for us with these.

The pics arrive courtesy of a Gamestop newsletter, which also details the new features embedded into the guitar controller. As we reported earlier, guitar effects will play a large role, allowing the player to flange, wah, reverb and delay their way into guitar gaming bliss. No official pricing was included at this time, though we wouldn't be surprised to see something closer to $79.99 or thereabouts for the controller alone. Price be damned, we're still going to have to give this bad boy a spin. Anyone else?

Welcome to the inaugural addition of Ask PS3 Fanboy, the feature where we do our very best to answer your pressing questions. Don't be shy! You can e-mail me anytime at colin.torretta@weblogsinc.com and we'll put your question in the running for our next Ask PS3 Fanboy segment. Sorry for the initial delay, but this will be a weekly special ever Sunday -- so ask away!

Q: Is there an effect solution for playing Guitar Hero on the PS3?
A: There is currently no device that offers a 100% support for Guitar Hero 1 and 2, though Pelican has recently released an adapter that provides maybe 70-80% compatability. According to reviews, the adapter works flawless on Guitar Hero but has some issues on its sequel. Unfortunately, you cannot do hammer-ons or pull-offs in Guitar Hero 2 while using the adapter -- making it more or less impossible to play the harder difficult levels of the game. You don't really need to do hammer-ons or pull-offs for the earlier levels so it's not a complete deal killer but definitely annoying. Also, while the Pelican adapter supports Dualshock controllers, it doesn't support rumble at all which is a bit of a bummer.

Q: Have you heard anything about Afrika recently?
A: Very little has been heard about Afrika since it was announced, though three months ago Phil Harrison did mention it briefly in an interview with British gaming site Pro-G. He didn't get into specifics, but did say that he's seen the game and that it's coming along nicely. Unfortunately, he was being very coy about the whole thing so there wasn't a lot to get out of the interview. As for release date, the last time Sony talked about the release date of Afrika, they were saying it will still be coming out in 2007. I think it would be a safe bet that we'll get another taste of Afrika come the mini-E3 next month -- but don't expect an avalanche of info. According to my completely unscientific guesstimates, I'd say TGS '07 will be the big unveiling with a 2008 launch.

More questions after the jump!

When Neversoft took over the Guitar Hero franchise from Harmonix there were worries that the gameplay would change unrecognisably. While the interface of the game has remained largely the same (surely lumped into the "if it aint broke, don't fix it" category), there seem to be a couple of new features shown in this newest batch of Guitar Hero III vids.

The video above, showing Living Colour's "Cult of Personality", gives us some insight into the new additions to the battle mode. It's fairly widely accepted that the multiplayer mode in Guitar Hero I was pretty bad, but Guitar Hero II more than made up for it with its co-op and battle modes. Even then the battle mode could at times feel like little more than comparing scores. With the inclusion of power-ups in Guitar Hero III we will be able to directly affect our opponent's guitar playing abilites by making their markers blink, their fret board tremble or even increasing the difficulty level temporarily.

Sounds like a great update to us. Once all the songs are unlocked, multiplayer really is where it's at with the Guitar Hero series, so it's good to see Neversoft are doing their best to improve on it. As for the single player, there's not much there to improve. Unless, maybe, you included a couple of other instruments? Maybe a singer? Oh wait, nevermind. Be sure to watch the rest of the vids after the jump.

Today RedOctane have released some new details about Guitar Hero 3. Perhaps most excitingly, they have revealed that controllers for the next gen consoles will be wireless. Great news for everyone who kept getting tangled up whilst rocking out to the previous two games. The controller itself will be in the shape of a Gibson Les Paul (pictured) for the PlayStation 3. The Playstation 2, however, will have a Gibson Kramer shaped controller instead. Presumably this is due to the PS2's lack of bluetooth, so expect it to be either wired or to include some kind of USB plug-in.

Other announcements for the game include 'a new multiplayer action-inspired battle mode, grueling boss battles, a bevy of exclusive unlockable content and authentic rock venues', as well as online play. The game will take advantage of RedOctane's partnership with MTV by including a large number of original tracks, rather than covers. Hopefully this will reduce the production time for downloadable songs. Speaking of tracks, below are a few names to get your juices flowing. Let us know what you think of them. Expect the game out before the end of the year.

• Paint It Black (by The Rolling Stones)
• Cherub Rock (by Smashing Pumpkins)
• Sabotage (by Beastie Boys)
• The Metal (by Tenacious D)
• My Name is Jonas (by Weezer)
• Knights of Cydonia (by Muse)
• Rock And Roll All Nite (as made famous by Kiss)
• School's Out (as made famous by Alice Cooper)
• Slow Ride (as made famous by Fog Hat)
• Cult of Personality (by Living Colour)
• Barracuda (as made famous by Heart)

If you were unfortunate enough to sell your PS2 before reading about the failed attempts to play the original Guitar Hero on PS3, you aren't alone. In fact, upon first hearing the news of this little gadget, you probably jumped up for extreme joy and knocked yourself out on a low-hanging ceiling fan. Jeesh, be more careful! Now, we've all been patiently awaiting this very product since it was known to be in the works since November. Thanks to Pelican and their beautiful PS2 to PS3 adapting magic, we can finally rejoice, hold our original Guitar Hero controllers high, and rock ourselves out silly.

See, some of us actually made the tragic mistake of assuming everything would be fine, without bothering to physically check adapters or reading any news about incompatibility. And so, with rage-like Hulk powers, we may very well have smashed everything in our living rooms when we realized the horrible, staggering truth. While most of our audience was probably savvy enough to avoid this type of disastrous end, we were stubbornly unwilling to part with this cherished product that literally, brought us tears of joy. Yes, tears of joy. Game on, beautiful rock stars of the gaming world. Game on.

[Via Joystiq]

Harmonix have signed an exclusive deal with Fender, guitar maker extraordinaire, to design the upcoming Rock Band controller around their ultra-popular Stratocaster model. There's a bit more teaser information on the game itself to follow.

When asked about whether the new controllers will be compatible with Guitar Hero III onwards, or vice-versa, Harmonix responded saying that they would love for that to be the case. Guitar Hero I and II controllers will be compatible with Rock Band (cutting the price slightly for those wanting the Ultimate Rock Band experience), but that the new controllers would have a couple of new features over the old ones. Whether the new Fender Strat controllers will be compatible with Guitar Hero III, however, is up to Activision but is something the guys at Harmonix would be very interested in making happen.

Responding to worries of a lack of single player mode, due to the apparent focus on online-play, Harmonix made sure to reassure everyone that there will be a "deep, complete solo experience" for each of the different instruments. So that Guitar Hero, Donkey Konga, Singstar combination idea you thought up down the pub last year is even closer than you think. As for fears that the online play might be ruined by lag, we're told not to worry. It's a problem "for which we have a unique solution...and it's a heck of a lot of fun in action."

This one's definitely a rumor, since it's coming from Rumor Reporter -- the same guys who spread all that awful Warhawk stuff. Whether that is true or not is irrelevant. We're here to focus on the latest rumors. There are a couple of games being tossed around and, for the most part, aren't surprising but worth talking about.

• Guitar Hero is making its way onto the Wii, apparently. That'll turn out pretty fun. Probably.
• A videogame based on the upcoming Ironman movie is in the works for the PS3 and XBox 360, under the creative umbrella of Sega and developed by Secret Level.
• Capcom intends to continue the Lost Planet franchise on the 360 and PS3 with an unconfirmed title as of yet titled "Lost Planet Wars". This game will probably be an RTS or some other strategy-oriented title, much like the game following Halo 3, titled Halo Wars, will be.

So, we're gonna support these rumors because... well, they're not exactly rumors. These are expected! Not entirely, but if these things didn't exist, that would be silly and sad. Maybe the next Lost Planet will be something completely different or completely the same as the first game. Leave your thoughts.