The new Xbox 360 dashboard
(Credit: Daniel Terdiman/CNET News)
The E3 conference opened Monday in Los Angeles with a press conference from Microsoft. Here are some highlights.
Microsoft showed off first-ever game play footage from the post-apocalyptic title Fallout 3 and announced that there will be downloadable content exclusive to Xbox Live. We saw real-time action from Resident Evil 5, shipping on March 13. We got a peek at the new co-op feature in the game, where players will be able to team up and make their way through together. Developer Square Enix also made announcements that included the release of four titles for Xbox 360 including Final Fantasy XIII.
Complete E3 coverage
but that doesn't mean Microsoft
and others aren't making noise.
As for console exclusives, we saw in-game action from Fable 2, shipping in October. Players will be able to seamlessly invite other friends who are also playing the game. Finally, we were blown away by the impressive game demo of Gears of War 2 shipping November 7. The game actually looks better than the original and will feature a five-player online co-op mode.
Microsoft will be releasing a new dashboard interface this fall that incorporates an avatar system--the Xbox answer to Nintendo Mii characters. The new feature allows you to join up with other friends to form a "party," a group of up to eight people where you can share multimedia items or start a game. A new mode called Primetime will actually incorporate real-life TV shows like 1 vs. 100 and allow Xbox Live members to play and watch these game shows and possibly even win real prizes.
Microsoft also announced ... Read more
Beatles music may soon be strumming a new tune via air guitar video games, according to a report in the Financial Times.
Apple Corps and EMI, which respectively represent The Beatles' business interests and ownership of its master recordings, have reportedly been in discussions with video game publishers Activision and MTV Games.
Under a possible deal that could be worth several million dollars, users could put their air guitar to use while listening to The Beatles and playing Activision's Guitar Hero or MTV's Rock Band games, according to the report.
The move to push The Beatles' music onto a new stage via video games could occur within the coming weeks, the Financial Times reported. Such a move would mark a change in embracing technology for The Beatles' music, given that digital-use licenses for Beatles recordings are not yet available.
The Beatles representatives, as well as the game publishers, declined to confirm whether a deal is on the horizon.
SAN JOSE, Calif.--For the gathering of curious onlookers eager to see what a Sony OLED TV looks like on the inside, officials at the Embedded Systems Conference had some bad news: The airline (no, they didn't say which one) lost their stuff. Unfortunately, their stuff included that TV.
Instead, as a last-minute replacement, we got Gibson's Robot guitar, which was scheduled for the teardown treatment later this week. (See our earlier coverage of the Robot guitar here and video of it in action.)
David Carey, president of Protelligent, a company that specializes in taking apart electronics piece by piece, took the stage with the electric-blue electric guitar and a variety of tools. Starting at the bottom of the instrument and working his way up the strings to the head, Carey explained how there's actually nothing robotic about the guitar at all.
The "robot" part of the name refers to the guitar being self-tuning. "It's not a robot," Carey noted. "Electro-mechanics join with embedded processing to achieve an automatically tuning electric guitar. It's one of the best examples of an embedded system I've seen in a long time."
The technology inside is licensed from German company Tronical, and it's integrated with what is essentially a standard Gibson Les Paul.
It's only rock 'n roll, but Wii like it. Harmonix, the game developer acquired by MTV Networks to create the Rock Band video game, announced Monday that the software will be available for Nintendo's Wii console on June 22. Currently, versions of Rock Band have been created for Microsoft's Xbox 360 and Sony's PlayStation 2 and PlayStation 3.
(Credit:
Harmonix/MTV)
Rumors of a Wii edition of Rock Band first started to circulate early last month. The game was originally released in November amid the soaring popularity of Activision's Guitar Hero franchise, which had a Hollywood-worthy $115 million opening weekend for its most recent game, Guitar Hero III. MTV's Rock Band puts a spin on the concept by letting participants play bass, drums, and vocals in addition to guitar.
Despite the inherent similarities to Guitar Hero, Rock Band has been a huge hit, too.
But, just like a rerun of Behind the Music, the guitar-playing video game craze has been ridden with drama. Harmonix developed the original Guitar Hero, but MTV Networks acquired it in 2006 to create rival Rock Band and distribute it through gaming mega-publisher Electronic Arts. Meanwhile, guitar manufacturer Gibson Guitar has filed a lawsuit against the manufacturers of both Guitar Hero and Rock Band as well as six major retailers--according to Gibson, it's held a patent on a guitar-playing video game since 1999.
So far, none of the gaming console manufacturers--Microsoft, Sony, and Nintendo--have been targeted by Gibson's suit.
The June 22 Rock Band Wii release will encompass the U.S. and Canada markets, and a core bundle (software, drums, microphone, and one guitar) will cost $169.99. Standalone instruments will also be sold. It'll feature a lineup of 63 songs, including five exclusive to the Wii.
Gibson is none too happy about Activision's 'Guitar Hero' pictured here.
(Credit: Activision)This post was updated at 4:12 AM on Monday to reflect the fact that Gibson has added MTV, Harmonix, and EA to the list of plaintiffs.
Legendary guitar manufacturer Gibson Guitar has sued six major retailers--Wal-Mart, K-Mart, Target, Amazon.com, Gamestop, and Toys-R-Us--for selling Activision's Guitar Hero video game series, MarketWatch reported Friday.
The decision was made "reluctantly," according to a statement from Gibson.
Earlier this month, Gibson sued Activision over Guitar Hero, claiming that the game violated a 1999 patent for a virtual-reality guitar-playing device that "simulate(s) participation in a concert by playing a musical instrument and wearing a head-mounted 3-D display that includes stereo speakers." A copy of the patent included in Gibson's original lawsuit is indeed dated November 23, 1999.
Activision filed for declaratory relief on March 11, claiming that Gibson's lawsuit came about after the video game publisher nixed a marketing deal with the guitar manufacturer. "Gibson waited three years to make its patent allegations, and only did so after it became clear that Activision was not interested in renewing its marketing and support agreement with Gibson," the Activision filing stated. "Activision continues to believe that Gibson's claims are disingenuous and lack any justification."
But in Gibson's latest move, filed Monday, the Nashville, Tenn.-based company has chosen to target retailers as well--a tactic that Activision quickly criticized.
"Our Guitar Hero retailing partners have done nothing wrong," Activision said in a statement. "We will confront this and any other efforts by Gibson to wrongfully interfere with Activision's relationship with its customers and its consumers."
On Friday, Gibson made it clear that it's after any guitar-playing game, as it added MTV, Harmonix, and Electronic Arts to the list of plaintiffs. MTV, which acquired Guitar Hero developer Harmonix in 2006, uses EA as the distributor for its Rock Band game. Rock Band, a Guitar Hero competitor that was released last November, allows players to team up on vocals, bass, and drums in addition to guitar.
(Credit:
Hands-On Mobile)
Article updated 2/29/08 to correct headquarters location.
We were stoked when Hands-On Mobile, a San Francisco mobile games company, announced Guitar Hero III Mobile for Verizon. On Friday, AT&T brings the portable version of the wildly popular console game to J2ME phones.
The game is expected to launch on 30 handsets today, including Motorola V3 RAZR and Sony Ericcson 810, with more handsets joining the fray. The staggered launch means there's no guaranteeing that your handset will be supported when the game goes live today, but Hands-On Mobile suggests that eager phone gamers check back with AT&T throughout the day and Saturday.
(Credit:
Hands-On Mobile)
There's good reason to make haste. Guitar Hero III Mobile dethroned Tetris in mobile gaming on Verizon, a miraculous feat, by offering three popular songs per month taken straight from Activision's console game. Users who subscribe by March 1 will receive the standard start-up song package and also the month's playlist, including Lynyrd Skynyrd's 'Freebird', Black Sabbath's 'War Pigs', and Iggy Pop's 'Search and Destroy'. Dilly-dalliers who subscribe after March 1 will have to wait for April to get any bonus song releases.
Membership on AT&T-supported phones has other benefits, too. The Java platform has allowed for certain upgrades to the BREW version of the game currently out on Verizon phones. The graphics are slightly larger and clearer, and Hands-On Mobile has added a haptic dimension to a missed note: the phone vibrates in response to butter fingers.
In another welcome change, songs will now live on AT&T phones, saving users from having to download them anew. Sorry, Verizon users, you shouldn't expect any alterations to your version yet.
What the J2ME platform gains in graphical quality, it loses, slightly, in audio power. Songs on Guitar Hero III Mobile for Verizon play MP3s; while AT&T's version streams out MIDI.
Be sure to catch Guitar Hero III Mobile in action in this video, taken on a Verizon phone.
There's another way besides certain popular video games to emulate your favorite guitar heroes--have them teach you themselves.
An Atlanta-based start-up is launching iVideosongs.com on Tuesday at the Demo Conference in Palm Springs, Calif. Users can pay to download videos of famous guitarists and expert music teachers giving detailed musical instruction in high definition.
(Credit:
iVideosongs.com)
For $9.99 each, artists such as Graham Nash of Crosby, Stills & Nash, Jeff Carlisi of .38 Special, and Alex Lifeson of Rush, spend time demonstrating how to play all the different parts of some of their most famous songs. The lessons are presented in chapters--introduction, verse, chorus, bridge, outro--and titles can be sorted by skill level and genre. For $4.99, professional instructors will demonstrate a variety of songs, and basic instrument tutorials are available for free.
It's not only for guitarists however. There are videos instructing aspiring drummers, keyboard players, and more. But the site is heavily geared toward the guitar, which also happens to be the instrument of choice of the site's founder and Grammy Award nominee Tim Huffman.
Huffman started to take guitar lessons from an instructor as a kid, but became bored learning to read sheet music. "So I set out to learn popular songs by connecting with local musicians who were better than me," he explained in an interview. He kept at it, eventually cutting his college career short to go pro, and in 1984 was nominated for a Grammy. Now after 25 years in the music business, Huffman says he sees a need for connecting artists to aspiring musicians.
(Credit:
iVideosongs.com)
"It struck me, how could we take the best people and make them available to people everywhere, anywhere, anytime from a learning perspective," he said.
But it wasn't an easy or a quick process. Huffman said he spent several years getting the company's legal ducks in a row. Now iVideosongs.com has master licensing agreements with five of the biggest music publishers in the world. Both artists and publishers get a direct royalty payment for each video downloaded, according to Huffman. Also, there's no DRM on any of the songs. They can be downloaded to any device.
Though there are currently about 50 songs (60 percent are taught by instructors, the rest by the original artists) in the database, there are 300 lined up and ready to go. They will be released in small batches, and by the end of the year Huffman says he expects the catalog to reach 1,000 songs.
(Credit:
Amazon)
Imitation may be the sincerest form of flattery, but try telling that to The Romantics.
The new-wave rock band has filed a lawsuit against Guitar Hero game publisher Activision for its use of a sound-alike recording of What I Like About You in Guitar Hero Encore: Rocks the 80s, according to a report in the Detroit Free Press. The band is also seeking an injunction against the game, which could result in the game being pulled from store shelves.
The band isn't claiming Activision infringed on its copyright of the song; indeed the game publisher had permission to use a cover version of the song. However, that cover version was too good, and The Romantics sued, claiming that game publisher infringed the group's right to its own image and likeness, the band's lawyers told the newspaper.
"It's a very good imitation, and that's our objection," William Horton told the paper. "Even the guys in the band said, 'Wow, that's not us, but it sure sounds like us.'"
Also named in he lawsuit was music firm Wavegroup Sound, which recorded the song for the game.
The game franchise has been wildly successful for Activision. Earlier this month, the company announced that Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock had earned $115 million in its first week on the market.
Conference-goers flocked around the Guitar Hero station at Motorola's mammoth tent on the CTIA Wireless conference floor, but it was Hands-On Mobile's modest booth where Guitar Hero Mobile is best experienced. There the game's product manager, JJ Leichleiter, walked me through the mobile version of the popular console game.
Let me dispel all doubt by assuring you that this is the real thing, deputized by Activision, Guitar Hero's console publisher. Loosely based on Guitar Hero 3, the 3D mobile version offers two characters (Axel Steel and Judy Nails), four guitars, and 15 songs. Subscription holders will receive three more songs every month.
Playing virtual guitar has gotten easier with a reduction from five keys on the console game's peripheral guitar to three on the phone. Users can choose whichever keypad row feels best.
This game has a lot going for it--easy fretting, satisfying animation, and killer sound quality. Guitar Hero Mobile uses PMD audio for the BREW platform, which preserves the melody, harmony, vocals, and cacophonous ding every time you miss. Stay tuned for a video demonstration on this space and on CNET TV.
Guitar Hero Mobile will be available for purchase for Verizon Wireless users in December 2007. After that, more networks on the BREW platform will join the fray, followed by J2ME phones.
A partial track list for the long-awaited third installment of Guitar Hero was released by Activision today.
As usual, the 11-song list offers a nice blend of time-tested rock anthems by the Rolling Stones, Fog Hat, and Alice Cooper, as well as new classics by the likes of the Beastie Boys, Weezer, and Smashing Pumpkins.
In keeping with the inclusion of a Spinal Tap song in Guitar Hero II, the new game will include a song by Tenacious D.
Notable is the fact that seven of the songs on the list are original recordings. In previous versions of Guitar Hero, most songs were cover versions.
Guitar Hero III will be available for Xbox 360, PlayStation 2 and 3, and the Nintendo Wii. The game's release is slated for this fall.
Here's the 11-track Guitar Hero III track list released by Activision. Full coverage of the announcement is over at GameSpot. (By the way, be sure to check out our video of the Guitar Zeros, a San Francisco band that hacked Guitar Hero controllers to make them into real instruments.)
Original recordings
- Paint It Black (Rolling Stones)
- Cherub Rock (Smashing Pumpkins)
- Sabotage (Beastie Boys)
- The Metal (Tenacious D)
- My Name is Jonas (Weezer)
- Knights of Cydonia (Muse)
- Cult of Personality (Living Colour)
Cover versions
- Rock And Roll All Nite (made famous by Kiss)
- School's Out (made famous by Alice Cooper)
- Slow Ride (made famous by Fog Hat)
- Barracuda (made famous by Heart)
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