Earlier today,we told you about a Guitar Hero: World Tour deluxe bundle. Some mistook that as a price for the whole entire band kit. On top of that, confusion surrounding the price for the bundle still gathered, enough so that Activision Blizzard had to clarify the issue. Pricing for the game's bundles is as follows:
If spending $100 on a new plastic instrument and Guitar Hero: World Tour isn't enough, Red Octane is offering up a deluxe bundle for those that need to lose that extra cash, but don't want to go in for the entire band kit. For $109.99, fans will get a custom guitar bag for their new plastic axe, as well as a Guitar Hero keychain. We're not sure if that's worthy of an extra $10, but for those of you who are really worried about scuffing up their new Guitar Hero guitar, it's an option.
We find the latest screens (in our gallery) of the Wii version of Guitar Hero: World Tour a bit visually disjointed, but at least they prove that Vicarious Visions has their priorities straight: while the characters are kind of jaggy, the note charts are silky-smooth. We've never cared about the graphics in a Guitar Hero game before, and we're not about to start now. It could look like an Atari 2600 game and we would like it just as much. Maybe more, actually.
The screens do include a quick look at the music creation mode, which shows chords being assigned to button combinations. That is super-cool.
If your Wii's teensy amount of storage space currently resembles an overflowing suitcase, then Guitar Hero: World Tour isn't about to make life any easier.
According to Vicarious Visions' Karthik Bala, the game allows you to download songs to an SD card, but you'll still require "about 200" free blocks of memory to be used as a "content cache" for the song you're playing through. Once you've finished with that track, you can clear the cache and transport another of your downloaded songs to your 200 reserved blocks. Transferring songs, explains Bala, happens "pretty quickly."
It sounds like a workable solution, but 200 blocks? That's the equivalent of six Mega Man 2s or three Super Metroids, and is bigger than some N64 games; we're also curious about Karthik Bala's personal definition of "pretty quickly." Protip, Nintendo: if you were thinking of announcing a storage solution in the next decade, next week's Japanese Media Summit would be the ideal time.
Activision has made a deal with Amoeba Music, an independent California music store chain, that instantly imbues Guitar Hero: World Tour with indie cred that would otherwise be hard for a massively marketed corporate product to come by. Of course, this is part of that massive marketing effort, so maybe it could be seen more as Amoeba selling out than Guitar Hero gaining indie cred. In either case, it seems pretty cool to us: an Amoeba location will serve as an in-game venue, allowing players to pretend they're rocking out in a record store.
The promotion extends into the real world as well: if you preorder the game from one of the real Amoeba Music stores, you will receive a free t-shirt when you go in. It's not a free guitar, but it's also not nothing.
Even though we regard Activision as greedy for its approach to downloadable content and subscription models, we have to confess we're impressed by Guitar Hero World Tour's preorder gift of a totally free guitar.
The company just announced the scheme, but don't get too excited, because there are a couple of disclaimers to this. One: as far as we can tell, this is currently a UK-only offer (one that includes all online and high street retailers). Two: you do have to buy the full band set, which is currently going for around £150 at most online stores; still, this does allow you to have a bass player in your band from the get-go. Here, Activision, have some props from us.
Okay, folks. This is it. The huge list of confirmed tracks that will be packed into your disc of Guitar Hero: World Tour. We won't waste any more time dancing around it. Head past the break for the big list 'o tracks.
Another classic rock icon will appear as a weird, exaggerated 3D model in Guitar Hero: World Tour, though the transition should be easier for this one since he's a weird, exaggerated person in real life. Ted Nugent, menace to deer, right-wing radio host and, oh, also world-class musician, will appear as a guitar duel participant in World Tour.
Players will be able to face off in duels, or play as the Nuge. In addition, the classic "Stranglehold" has been added to the roster of playable songs. Is Guitar Hero going to go further down the "classic rock" track to compete with Rock Band? Except ... Rock Band also has a bunch of classic rock.
For those of you who'd like to see The Beatles make their way into some music game, you might be able to have a nice consolation prize. Guitar Hero: World Tour has just been confirmed to include a plethora of new tracks, one of which is Paul McCartney & Wings' "Band on the Run." Whether you're a fan of the man's post-Beatles efforts or not, you have to admit it's a catchy tune.
The full list of confirmed tracks is after the break.
Along with Jimi Hendrix and Ozzy (and other notable classic rockers), Sting will have his likeness featured in the upcoming Guitar Hero: World Tour. The original story over at USAToday.com has since been pulled (all we've got is this image to go on), so we can't find exact details as to what capacity he'll be featured (Will he be playing The Police songs? His own tracks?), but the screen above tells us the man will be rocking the bass.
Any Sting fans out there? Like his old stuff, or his new stuff? Or both?
Australian gamers are, by now, either used to getting treated terribly by game companies, or really depressed. At this point, when a game comes out only a little late or somewhat overpriced compared to other regions, it must be a great relief.
Activision has disclosed the pricing scheme for the Australian release of Guitar Hero: World Tour. The prices differ by platform, with the Wii version consistently just a bit higher than the PS2 version and lower than the other next-gen versions. $79.95 ($66.61 US) pays for just the game, $159.95 ($133.27 US) gets a "Guitar Bundle," and the Super Bundle, containing the game, guitar, drums, and microphone, will cost $319.95. Compared to Rock Band, that seems like -- oh, right.
Guitar Hero: World Tour is going to be a big game. Not only because of all of the features included in the title, but also because it's making some of the most legendary of rockers come out of the woodwork to remaster their songs for the game. MC5's Wayne Kramer is one of these figures, as he went into the studio to re-record his band's hit song "Kick Out the Jams" just for this game. Along with Wayne, friends Jerry Cantrell of Alice and Chains and Gilby Clark formerly of Guns 'N' Roses joined in on the track. Also, it turns out that when The Sex Pistols re-recorded a track for Guitar Hero 3, they also did another track, "Pretty Vacant," which will be featured in the upcoming game. As if that wasn't enough, Motorhead also hit the studio and redid their song "Overkill."
On top of that, four new tracks were also confirmed for the game, albeit from more modern artists. These tracks are none other than:
The Living End -- "Prisoner of Society"
Los Lobos -- "La Bamba"
Bullet for My Valentine -- "Scream Aim Fire"
Lacuna Coil -- "Our Truth"
To check out the videos for these four songs, head past the break.
One of the new features in Rock Band 2 will be a "No Fail" mode, in which gamers can enjoy the song they're playing without fear of failing out because, well ... they're just not that talented a wannabe rocker. And it turns out this casual-focused feature will be absent from Guitar Hero: World Tour.
But, the real question is: does the game need it? Certainly, other rhythm-based games sold extremely well without it, including past Guitar Hero games and the original Rock Band. Does this lack of a "No Fail" option tick off any of you? Are you good enough that it doesn't even matter? Or are you going to be picking up Rock Band 2 and don't really care for this Guitar Hero: World Tour business?
Actiblizzion has announced that '90s fixture the Smashing Pumpkins have recorded a new song, "G.L.O.W." specifically for release as a Guitar Hero: World Tour download, marking the first time a new song has debuted in a music game under those specific circumstances. The track, which will be included on an album later, will be released as part of a three-song DLC pack, along with "1979" and "The Everlasting Gaze." The first in-concert performance of the new song is above, thanks to some dude who took a camera to a Pumpkins show!
The deal isn't just for DLC, however: Billy Corgan will appear in-game -- and as a playable character in career mode, even -- and the wonderful "Today" will be included on the disc. We hope it introduces the Pumpkins to some of the youngsters who may be surprised to learn that a long time ago, guitars had strings on them and could be used to play any song.
Activision has announced a whole slew of brands will be supporting the upcoming Guitar Hero: World Tour, from amps right on down to guitar strings. It's nothing new to us, considering the company did the same thing for previous Guitar Hero games, but the list for World Tour is kind of massive. It goes:
Ampeg
Audio-Technica
EMG Pickups
Ernie Ball
Evans Drumheads
Guitar Center
Krank Amplification
Mackie
Marshall
Orange County Drum & Percussion
Pork Pie Percussion
Regal Tip
Sabian cymbals
Vox
Zildjian drumsticks
Of course, with Rock Band tapping Fender for their guitar needs, and Gibson suingeveryone on the planet, we wonder why Activision hasn't found another suitable Guitar manufacturer to feature in their game. May we suggest Ibanez? They make some nice guitars!
Another classic rock icon will appear as a weird, exaggerated 3D model in Guitar Hero: World Tour, though the transition should be easier for this one since he's a weird, exaggerated person in real life. Ted Nugent, menace to deer, right-wing radio host and, oh, also world-class musician, will appear as a guitar duel participant in World Tour. 
Australian gamers are, by now, either used to getting treated terribly by game companies, or really depressed. At this point, when a game comes out only a little late or somewhat overpriced compared to other regions, it must be a great relief. 
