Hey everyone! I wanted to take this opportunity to introduce myself to the masses. I’m Chicago Horde (most people call me Brad) and I’m the newest (and first) addition to the Rockgamer.com editorial team! Mike & Jen, in their infinite wisdom, have given me the chance to help bring you any and all news and information regarding music gaming in general, obviously with a focus on Rock Band & Guitar Hero. *raises horns*

A little about my RB/GH preferences:

• Favorite Guitar Hero track (from disc): “The Trooper”
• Favorite Guitar Hero track (DLC): “Bark at the Moon”
• Favorite Guitar Hero game: Guitar Hero II (360 version)
• Favorite Rock Band instrument: Guitar/Drums (Hey, it’s a toss-up!)
• Favorite Rock Band track (from disc): “Foreplay/Long Time”
• Favorite Rock Band track (DLC): Tie between “Smokin’” & “Truckin’” (Until the Judas Priest album hits!)
• Number of Rock Band tracks owned: ALL
• Most wanted band: AC/DC

OK, enough about me. I want to hear from you! If you’re not registered for the forums, do it now! I’m on there pretty frequently, and welcome any and all questions/comments. Plus, I need someone to help me help hijack Mike’s threads! I can also be contacted at chicagohorde@rockgamer.com. (Just give me a few days to figure out how to get into that e-mail address…)

I’m fully committed to contributing to this site with anything and everything our members and guests want to know about. (And if you’re a guest, register already!) This site is for all of us who love rocking out with these games, and our site will only get better with input from you! Tell us things you want to have happen or would like to see here. Let’s strive to make this the premier site for all things rock-gaming related!

On a final note, I must give mucho thanks to Mike & Jen for their generosity in sending this opportunity my way and believing I have what it takes to help out around here. I will do my best to make myself a valued contributor to the site and not let anybody down!

If any of you are on LIVE, send me an invite sometime! (I’m on the gamer tag page here…..) Especially if you’ve created any band members based on “He-Man & the Masters of the Universe” characters! LOL

(No, seriously…)

And with that, BEWARE THE HORDE!

Via Xboxic

[Edit Mike: I was gonna write my own story on this but the money conversion was giving me a headache]

Europeans, get those pitchforks ready. Rock Band will be hitting stores on the 23rd May. Fantastic, until you delve a little deeper. You’re going to need a spare £180/€240 though if you’re to pick up the game and instruments though, which is outrageous considering the US’ bundle is $169, or around £85/€105. Admittedly we expect to pay more in Europe, but £95 extra?

Breaking it all down, you’re going to have to pay for the Instrument Edition at £129.99/€169.99 which includes the drum kit, guitar and microphone, then buy the game separately at £49.99/€69.99. It seems that even those with two Guitar Hero guitars don’t escape by buying things separately, because for the time being at least, a microphone has not been announced as something that is shipping separately. Wireless guitars will be sold separately for £59.99/€79.99, with the drum kit coming in at £69.99/€89.99.

All previous Rock Band content released for North America will be made available to Europe on the 27th May, and all future content released will be available immediately to Europe as well. Don’t forget that Europe also get nine extra tracks included on the disc:

• Blur “Beetlebum” (English)
• Oasis “Rock ‘n’ Roll Star” (English)
• Tokio Hotel “Monsoon” (English)
• Muse “Hysteria” (English)
• Les Wampas “Manu Chao” (French)
• Playmo “New Wave” (French)
• Die Toten Hosen “Hier Kommt Alex” (German)
• Juli “Perfekte Welle” (German)
• H-Block X “Countdown to Insanity” (German)

The Salem News has a great article on how Guitar Hero is becoming popular at some of the local bars.  Johnathan Phelps writes:

“Although the weekly tournament started just a few weeks ago at Sylvan Street Grille, it has quickly become a popular event, picking up on a trend that has taken hold in bars and clubs from Boston to L.A. Locally, Dodge Street Bar & Grill in Salem and The Pickled Onion in Beverly also offer “Guitar Hero” nights.

“So far, we’ve had a great turnout here,” said Vinny Polcari, general manager of Sylvan Street Grille. “We’ve held other video game competitions like (arcade) skiing, but ‘Guitar Hero’ really adds to the bar atmosphere.”

Jen and I have been in contact with several Central Florida bars about possibly starting up a ‘Guitar Hero/Rock Band’ night and we’re interested in your experiences if you’ve ever attended anything like this.  Oh, and if you have a bar local to us and are interested, let us know.

Edit:  Discussions closed.  Thanks for all the great questions!

The fine folks at Harmonix have granted us an interview and we’re in the process of putting together the questions. Jen and I are really psyched about it and were wondering….. What would our readers ask? So I asked Harmonix if they would mind fielding some community questions and of course, they said ’sure’. So use that little comment box below and post some interesting questions… The three we like best (We are judge and jury on this one folks…. ) will be asked. Just a word of advice… I’m pretty sure asking the question ‘When are we going to be able to play ________ on Rock Band’ won’t be considered.

Continue Reading “Upcoming Interview: Ask Harmonix!” »

By mike@rockgamer.com

So last night, just about the time I was accepting the fact that it was going to be a nice quiet Friday night, Inga calls. She said the magic words ‘Are you ready to rock’. I won’t tell you what my exact response was, but it does rhyme with “Yuck Fyah”. I had presumed that Inga broke down and bought the setup, cause she’s almost as much of an addict as Jen and I are… Typically, we all rock at Jen’s, cause it’s a central location and her living room works good for it and can handle a good 6 or 7 people comfortably. I hadn’t been to Inga’s pad yet so after a little Google map work I printed out the directions and headed out. Ang and Jen were already there, along with Inga’s 7 dogs. One of them had this third eye and obviously had beans for lunch, while another growled at me so I had to use my mad ‘Dog Whisperer’ skillz till he submitted. They already had Guitar Hero II rolling, Jen was wailing to Free Bird. People started flocking in.. Hanging out.. Enormous amounts of beer started creeping it’s way inside the house. Damn my broken toe! Not only can’t I drum, but I couldn’t drink cause 1) I live 30 minutes away and 2) Beer and broken toe medicine makes Mikey a sleepy rocker. Within 30 minutes the house was full of beer, pizza, dogs, and people. We had the token new guy (Raj or Rodge, Jen will edit this when she reads it [insert: its Raj FYI - Jen *wink*]) who’s virginity we took on the Guitar Hero II tutorial. But he was eyeing the drums and we switched to Rock Band. I usually tote my Xbox hard drive around be cause I have all the DLC and didn’t think that Inga would have downloaded it yet, but it turned out that Jen just toted her gear.. I should have known by her trademark blue drumsticks.

And we rocked. And we rolled. We sang. Instant, spontaneous party. I woke up this morning to find Jen hacked my twitter account (are my passwords that transparent?) and noted that we were rocking… So I thought I’d post a question to our readers: How do you roll? Do you get together? Do you play online with strangers? Do you play online with friends? Solo? Post your comments. We wanna know.

Peace.