From NerdCore god MC Lars, plenty of good chuckles to be had here…

Ryan over at If It’s Movies has been communicating with the keepers of Sublime, hoping that one day the legendary Long Beach band would make its way into his favorite (and mine!) rhythm game, Rock Band 2.  Pre-release of the game everything was looking good for the band’s inclusion, with their management telling him to keep his eyes open for the games release in fall 2008.  As we all know Rock Band 2 saw release, without a Sublime track.  Instead, GH:WT nabbed “Santeria” from the bands eponymous third album.  Fearing the worst, Ryan asked for an update, and quickly got his answer…

Hey Man,

For whatever reason, Rock Band has not figured out just how much people love Sublime.  They had asked the band to be a part of the last version, then pulled out at the last minute.

On the other hand, Guitar Hero is using more songs of Sublime’s in future releases.  Can’t tell you which songs and when, but there will be more.

I’ll pass on the info to the people who do Rock Band and maybe they’ll wise up.

Peace!!
Sublime MGMT

Ugg.  C’mon HMX.  No more Nickelodeon songs!  Bring on the Sublime already!

Bobby Kotick, Activision Blizzard CEO

LOL

Said Harmonix’s charting team…

<thud>

Also of interest, Rock Band averages four DLC tracks sold per copy of Rock Band sold, while Guitar Hero averages only one. Link.

Sorry Harmonix.  Life, sometimes, just isn’t fair.  Link.

Freddie’s been a busy boy lately.

Researchers at Johns Hopkins University have taken to modded Guitar Hero controller which, together with a modified version of the game, has been found to be an excellent rehab tool recent amputees with short attention spans…

Inspired by Wii-hab, Armiger and colleague Jacob Vogelstein borrowed a colleague’s copy of Guitar Hero and attacked the controller with a soldering iron. They rewired the standard guitar-shaped controller to take instructions from the VIE.

Next they substituted muscle contractions for button presses. In particular, they had to rejigger the inputs. Two-handed gamers normally play by using one hand to press colored “fret” buttons to correspond to the correct notes while using the other hand to push a “strum” button in time with the note. Onscreen, these same five colored buttons scroll down the display in time with the notes the players are supposed to hit. To correctly play a note, the player must press the right color fret button and the strum button with the opposite hand.

Link. [via]

It may take a few moments to sink in exactly what you are watching, but when it does… wow.

Update: Bought and paid for by Neversoft, this is no fan production it seems.

Women in gaming have had a rough go thus far. Sexism is rampant, all but marketing divisions are male dominated, and developers can’t seem wrap their heads around how to cater to the fairer sex without patronizing them at the same time. Not helping matters is Grace Kim - who made waves last month as a former Activision employee who posed for Playboy with Rock Band instruments - seen in a new G4TV video below, completely failing at every element of GH:WT whilst “reviewing” it (read: trashing it). If you need a quick laugh, just click play.

The next time I play WT drums I think I’m going to do it in 4-inch stiletto heels too. You know, just for the extra challenge.

Hot off the heels of the death of drummer Mitch Mitchell, the last of the original members of the Jimmy Hendrix Experience, Activision has released a (previously announced) 3-pack of classic Hendrix DLC for Guitar Hero: World Tour. When it comes to regular DLC releases Rock Band has far outpaced the GH series for the past year, but since the release of WT Neversoft has really stepped up it’s game, making available a planned 29 DLC tracks in its first 4 weeks of release (RB had 24 tracks available in the same release window).

The Hendrix tracks contain two studio recordings, If 6 Was 9 and Little Wing, as well as Fire from Hendrix’s legendary performance at Woodstock. Expert guitar chart vids are below courtesy of YouTuber KlotePinoGH. Looks fun…

Jimmy Hendrix - If 6 Was 9

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