Once again you Guitar Hero fans have an opportunity to play online with the developers of the Legends of Rock edition of the game.  For the three hours from 3:00pm EST - 6:00pm EST this Sunday, look for the following gamer tags from the RedOctane team:

• GHDevLisa
• GHDevBunny
• GHDevTina
• GHDev1
• GHDev2
• GHDevSean

Is it me or am I noticing a majority of these fine folks seem to be chicks?  Rock on Girls!!

Nothing to see here - (DLC announcement on Monday)

See you then,
Sean

PS Go, go gadget conspiracy theories!

Two positive signs this morning indicate that the folks across the pond may have reason to expect an imminent release date for Rock Band - which of course we’ve been lucky enough to have since last November.

First - this ad from a French retailer showing a price of 149.99 in Euros with a 5/22/08 expected date in stock.

Second - Also found was a promo site for the Stag and Dagger Music Festival in London on May 15th and you can see in the logo that Rock Band, Harmonix and 360 are all pictured as show’s sponsors.  See the link to the festival. Could be a pre-launch promo, no?

The May 15th date for the festival would certainly jibe as a pre-launch promo based on the May 22nd date in the French retailer’s ad, and also would be within the April -June time frame that was recently mentioned.   Let’s keep our fingers crossed, but may I dare suggest not holding our breath?

Thanks MaxConsole and Kotaku for both!

While being interviewed on a recent (March 26) Rockline Radio show, Def Leppard’s guitarist Phil Collen apparently confirmed that at least three of the band’s top singles  will be included in Guitar Hero’s next non-Aerosmith game.  The three singles were

*Photograph
*Rock of Ages (now famous for Gunter Glieben Glauten Globen)
*Animal

Unfortunately a replay of the show is not currently available at rocklineradio.com, as they’re going to wait until the April 29th release of  Def Leppard’s “Songs From the Sparkle Lounge” album which will contain 11 new tracks. 

Interestingly, Def Leppard has been releasing albums since 1979, and with over 65 million albums sold, I wonder if we are actually getting a peek into Guitar Hero: Def Leppard rather than GH:IV.  I was singing Photograph back in 1983 and from Pyromania, to Hysteria, to a drummer with only one arm - I think there could be quite a fun story to tell if the GH folks were to chronicle another band in the same style as the promised upcoming Aerosmith game.

More as we know it.

Source: Guitar Hero News

From the ‘getting caught up on old news’ department:

According to Game Informer, Aerosmith guitarist Joe Perry has mentioned that the “other bands” including The Kinks (”All Day and All Night”), Cheap Trick (”Dream Police”), Mott the Hoople (”All the Young Dudes”) and Joan Jett (”I Hate Myself For Loving You”) will also feature in the new game in the successful franchise, alongside some previously announced artists such as Lenny Kravitz, The White Stripes and Deep Purple.

Aerosmith songs should make up 60% of the total and apparently will include hits like “Walk This Way”, “Sweet Emotion”, “Movin Out”, “Make It”, “Draw the Line”, “Uncle Sally”, “No Surprize” and “Kings and Queens”.  The other 40% of songs- made up of bands that Aerosmith has toured with - will tie in during the game by having an opening band open up for Aerosmith to warm up the crowd.  Aerosmith will then make a dramatic entrance, perform two songs and an encore, just like the real life tour lineups the band experienced.

Now I’m a huge Aerosmith fan, but I was a little hesitant on buying a game with nothing but Aerosmith, cause it would get old fast.  But if they wanna throw in Icky Thump or Lenny’s version of ‘American Woman’, I’m so there.   The Kinks?  GET OUT OF TOWN.   Celluloid Heroes, You Really Got Me, Lola,  Wish I Could Fly Like Superman….  I’ve upgraded this from ‘Meh’ to ‘Intrigued’.  Supposed systems are the 360, PS3, and the Wii.

Well, the great news that Rock Band for the Wii is being released on June 22nd might not be so great after all.   Word has it that there will NOT be DLC, the Guitar Hero III guitar will NOT be compatible, and there might not be world tour mode or band customization.   You know what this sounds like?   A port of the PS2 version.

Keep in mind this is all rumor.. That the 5 bonus tracks for the Wii is just a ‘make up’ for not having downloadable content.   With the lack of the Wii’s hard drive, I’m speculating that the memory cards just aren’t a good alternative for storage space.  Also, when you consider the game is $169.99 and the console itself is $249, perhaps they are just worried that it won’t sell that well.  Who knows?  Only time will tell.

Update:  A few more questions have recently been answered.  And, in advance, I’m really sorry about the character thing..

If there is character creation, will there be Mii support when creating your Rock Band character?
No, there will be no character creator.

Will the bundle include a powered USB hub, like the Xbox 360 release?
The bundle will ship with a USB hub.

Will each instrument need to be connected to a Wii Remote?
The Harmonix development team considered a lot of options in creating the Rock Band for the Wii instruments. At this time, we felt that sticking with the current peripheral functionality was the best route. [Read: No Wiimotes necessary!]

And finally, a picture of the Wii drumset courtesy of Joystiq.com

Earlier this month, Ubisoft announced the sixth and newest game in their Imagine™ series: Imagine™ Rock Star. The game is part of Ubisoft’s “Games for Everyone” Division and allows players to create a rock band and select who plays the drums, guitar, bass and piano and (more important to my point) customize the look of each band mate in order to become the most stylish rockers. Players can wirelessly jam with up to four of their friends, perform in concerts and earn money as the band works its way up the charts to the No. 1 spot to land its dream recording contract.

Ok, so, yes, this game is designed for 6-14 year old girls but here’s the thing. One of my favorite things to do in Harmonix’s Rock Band is to stop touring between cities and change my character’s outfit so the fans don’t get bored with her look. And, I’m becoming bored with the hairstyle choices as well as all the clothes in my closet (I’ve bought almost everything). So, oddly enough, I want to go shopping and I have nothing interesting to buy.

My friends and I have discussed this before, and we agree that we would all be willing to spend real Xbox Points if there were new clothes and hair styles available to us in the Rock Shop that was purchased similarly to DLC. So, as another way to cement Rock Band’s success in reaching an all ages and both genders audience, we suggest they start thinking outside the box for some new revenue creating ideas.