Just weeks ago, it felt as if the stalemate between Activision and Harmonix would never end. Both companies blamed the other for the lack of compatibility between guitar peripherals for Rock Band and Guitar Hero III. Thankfully, Nyko has come to save the day as it recently announced that it would develop a guitar that's compatible with both games.
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In 2008, the team at MTV Games are proud to present to you the MTV Rhythm Game Track Finder, your beacon in the confusing swirl of rhythm games.

The regularly updated database will allow you to search any artist and any song to find out which rhythm games it is in and to compare song lists for any major music-based video game.

The database currently indexes song lists for more than two dozen rhythm games, including a range of SingStars, Guitar Heroes, Dance Dance Revolutions, Rock Band, and lesser-known favorites such as FreQuency, Elite Beat Agents and the Donkey Konga series.
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1UP has been closely following the ridiculous back-and-forth between Rock Band and Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock in achieving true cross-compatibility between the peripherals released for each. Unfortunately, the recent introduction of lawyers into the mix means gamers may not see an easy solution anytime soon, but at CES 2008, Nyko unveiled their own brand of solution that could make life easier for rockers on PlayStation 3.
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Orlando Sentinel "Control Freak" blogger Mark Reule has an opinion about the next installment of Guitar Hero.

He Writes

"After reading through February's EGM, I noticed a little tidbit about a rumored Guitar Hero sequel featuring a band that "rocks in mysterious ways". Give up?

Think 1991. Think Achtung Baby. It can only be U2."
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Anyone who would like their 20th century copy of Guitar Hero III exchanged for a copy of the Pro Logic II one they originally paid for, your time has almost come. If you head on over to Activision's support site, you can pre-register for the replacement disc's mailout campaign, which means you'll be notified as soon as it kicks off. After that, you should be well on your way to enjoying the game in surround sound.

Hopefully, that's not too far away. Until then, you'll just have to soldier on.
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It's been a while since Pocket Gamer last cast their eye over the most popular games on the Nintendo Wi-Fi Connection. The Christmas period certainly provided some interesting developments; not least as it marked the first time a Wii game hit the top spot.

Unsurprisingly, that game was the Slash-fronted Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock, which hit a post-December 25th peak to overcome the previously long-running top NWC title, Pokémon Diamond
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Jan. 2, 2008 -- MSNBC tallied in their Game of the Year readers' votes between December 19 and 27. "Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare" garnered 33 percent of the over 17,000 votes and is MSNBC Readers' Game of the Year. The runner-up was "Bioshock" at 22 percent of the votes. The second runner-up was "Mass Effect" at 10 percent.

Here are MSNBC readers' picks for the best in each genre:

¿ Best sports game: Madden NFL '08
¿ Best racing game: Project Gotham Racing 4
¿ Best casual game: Big Brain Academy: Wii Degree
¿ Best family game: LEGO Star Wars: The Complete Saga
¿ Best music game: Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock
¿ Best handheld game: The Legend of Zelda: Phantom Hourglass
¿ Best role-playing game: Mass Effect
¿ Best action/adventure game: Bioshock
¿ Best shooter: Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare

View the full report for the runners-up in each category.
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ActionTrip's 2007 Game of the Year voting poll registered 10673 participants. 1809 registered users voted for Call of Duty 4, 1279 for Halo 3, 1192 for Assassin's Creed, 837 for "None of the Above", 716 for BioShock, 710 for Crysis, 627 for The Orange Box, and so on. The rest of the results can be viewed in ActionTrip's voting poll section.

¿ People's Choice: Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare
¿ Runners-up: Halo 3, Assassin's Creed, Crysis, Half-Life 2: The Orange Box

¿ Game of the Year (ActionTrip Staff): Portal
¿ Runners-up: Mass Effect, Halo 3, BioShock, Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare, The Witcher

¿ Best Action Game: Halo 3
¿ Runners-up: Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare, Half-Life 2: The Orange Box, God of War II, BioShock, Crysis

¿ Best Strategy Game: World in Conflict
¿ Runners-up: Supreme Commander, Command & Conquer 3: Tiberium Wars

¿ Best RPG: Mass Effect
¿ Runners-up: The Witcher, Neverwinter Nights 2: Mask of the Betrayer

¿ Best Sports Game: FIFA 08
¿ Runners-up: SSX Blur, NHL 08, Winning Eleven: Pro Evolution Soccer 2008

¿ Best MMOG: World of Warcraft: The Burning Crusade
¿ Runners-up: Tabula Rasa, The Lord of the Rings Online: Shadows of Angmar

¿ Best Rhythm/Music Game: Rock Band
¿ Runners-up: Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock

¿ Babe of the Year: Joanna Krupa
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MSNBC video game section has been polling gamers about their favorite games in a number of categories, trying to narrow down the search for the Game of the Year.

On Thursday the site put up the poll to decide which of the finalists, culled from the best of each genre, should be named the game of the year.

The finalists are:
¿ Madden NFL 08
¿ Project Gotham Racing 4
¿ Big Brain Academy: Wii Degree
¿ LEGO Star Wars: The Complete Saga
¿ Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock
¿ The Legend of Zelda: Phantom Hourglass
¿ Mass Effect
¿ Bioshock
¿ Call of Duty 4

At the time of this writing Call of Duty 4 was leading with 31 percent of the vote. BioShock was close behind with 22 percent and Mass Effect was in a distant third with 8.6 percent.

[ Words: Kotaku's Brian Crecente ]
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Dec. 18, 2007 - A PriceGrabber.com survey of 3,309 online shoppers conducted in early December reports that:

¿ The number of consumers interested in video games and consoles continues to rise, with 64 percent of respondents planning to purchase a gaming equipment in the next year.

¿ 71 percent of online shoppers plan to spend more than $50 on gaming.

¿ 55 percent favor consoles in the $100 to $300 range.

¿ Game selection is the most important attribute when choosing a gaming system.

¿ 31 percent favor the Nintendo Wii, saying it offers the best games.

¿ Non-violent games have gained in appeal, with 29 percent rating animated/child-friendly games as their preferred genre.
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A dad who bought his son Guitar Hero 3 for the Wii placed it on ebay after catching his "innocent little boy smoking pot in the backyard with 2 of his delinquent friends". As a punishment he placed it on ebay to share bonding time with his son while watching the Guitar Hero being auctioned off. Turns out, the seller received much more than he thought he would get, as the game sold for $9,100.
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After months of hundreds of gamers complaining about Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock for the Nintendo Wii playing music in mono sound only, a fix is finally coming. Activision has acknowledged the problem and has promised replacement discs to current customers at no cost. Re-mastered discs will be available by early next year.
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Latest American sales from VGcharts.

1 Wii Sports - Nintendo 325,483
2 Forza Motorsport 2 - Microsoft 208,037
3 Marvel: Ultimate Alliance - Activision 201,476
4 Super Mario Galaxy - Nintendo 188,325
5 Mass Effect - Microsoft 113,856
6 Wii Play - Nintendo 112,724
7 Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare - Activision 106,583
8 Assassins Creed - Ubisoft 102,501
9 Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock - Activision 92,441
10 Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock - Activision 81,408

DS 458,050
Wii 325,483
360 250,648
PS2 161,513
PSP 160,848
PS3 155,515
GBA 32,268
GC 2,545
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It's now been confirmed that next year downloadable content will start to become available for the Wii Guitar Hero III in a letter from Red Octane:

"Downloadable content for the Wii is something we are working very hard on getting in place for the new year. There is no definite timetable in place but we are hoping it will be soon."
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Kotaku's Brian Crecente has a leaked copy of the National Institute on Media and the Family's annual Media Wise Video Game Report Card, set to be officially released tomorrow. This year's report card is broken into five parts:

¿ The MediaWise Video Game Report Card
¿ The Buying Guide
¿ The ESRB Rating System and Ratings Education Efforts
¿ The Retailer Ratings Education and Enforcement Surveys
¿ Annual MediaWise-Harris Interactive Poll of Kids and Parents

Kotaku gives a quick summary for each part.
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3rd Dec, 2007 The industry is still shaking from the earthquake announcement of Vivendi and Activision's merger today, but gamers themselves are going to have a lot of questions too. Both companies hold their fair share of much-loved franchises, several of which have extremely radid fanbases, so worry is going to be high as to what the deal is really going to mean. It seems accepted human 'wisdom' that any change is a change for the worse, and in gaming any alteration in the corporate status ... » Read More

Via CNet:

The immense popularity of the hit Guitar Hero franchise--the third iteration of the game, Guitar Hero III, brought in $115 million during its first week on the market--may be the best thing that has happened to the instrument, to rock 'n' roll, and to guitar instructors, in a long time.

"I have an overwhelming feeling that my business is safe for years to come when I see kids playing Guitar Hero," said Dan Emery, owner of New York City Guitar School. "These kids are really enjoying playing Guitar Hero, and they're really being turned on to old classic rock" via the game.
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VG Chartz' hardware sales for Black Friday week in North America are as below (ranked by units sold):

1. DS: 684,202
2. Wii: 421,419
3. Xbox 360: 254,680
4. PSP: 194,723
5. PS3: 174,045

The full report also includes the top ten software titles for the week for Wii, Xbox 360, and PS3.
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Xbox360 writes:

"Johnny Rotten's now infamous ranting at Guitar Hero III's launch party was captured on OXM's cameras and has now been uploaded on OXM.co.uk for all to see. After introducing himself by saying "[censored], it's rubbish, I hate the whole thing", the Sex Pistols singer then goes into the reason why he's there - to promote Guitar Hero III.

"I'll give it to you basic and honest," he says. "The offer came in and I took it home and I played it with a bunch of kids. What I like is it weren't teaching you how to be a rock star, it was teaching you how not to be a rock star..."

And that was the last thing said on the game, after explaining how the Sex Pistols re-recorded tracks (Anarchy In The UK and Pretty Vacant). For what followed was half-an-hour ranting about Tony Blair, screaming "I AM ENGLAND" and throwing microphone at journalists who he thought were "smug." Watch the whole video to see what we mean. And keep an eye on the swear counter too... ouch."
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Wedbush Morgan Securities' Michael Pachter estimates that Activision's key music franchise will total around 7.5 million units sold this year, but will decline a bit next year because of Rock Band.
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