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Whether you don't yet own Guitar Hero III or just want to pick up another Les Paul guitar, you might find yourself shopping at Circuit City this week. The retailer is selling bundles of the game for the low price of $59.99, which is the same price (and even cheaper, depending on where you find it) as a standalone guitar.

If interested, you can either drive yourself over to a brick and mortar store or check out this deal online. It might be worth it to have an extra guitar for when Guitar Hero: World Tour rolls around, after all.

[Via CAG]

Earlier this month, Guitar Hero and Aerosmith fans alike anxiously perused the partial track list for Guitar Hero: Aerosmith, hoping to find some tunes worth faux-jamming too. Now there won't be any more speculating on what will and what won't be in the game, as the full forty-one song list was just revealed. Incidentally, our favorite tunes on it happen to be from bands that aren't Aerosmith.

Were you hoping for "Mama Kin?" "Crazy?" Something else that didn't show up previously? Check past the break to see if the game delivers.

Within hours of Rock Band hitting the Wii, Red Octane has begun the ultimate rock battle by releasing full images of instruments for the Wii version of Guitar Hero: World Tour. We've seen a few sneak peeks around the place, but now they are in their full gallery glory for you to enjoy.

Rock Band one-upped the Guitar Hero franchise by adding drums and a microphone, so what's next? Add a burger and beer to the package to simulate the roadie experience? Stuff a few groupies in the box to cheer you on as you rock out in front of the TV? If you consider yourself a rock star with the new World Tour instruments, we don't blame you -- they look pretty hot.


[Via press release]

Vicarious Visions' Karthik Bala has once again confirmed paid downloadable content in the Wii version of Guitar Hero World Tour, though current Wii guitar games have left us doubtful of any feature. Furthermore, you'll be able to save your songs to a "Rock Archive" on an SD card, and even play songs from the card without copying them over first. But ... but isn't that completely impossible?

Bala also confirmed that despite the new guitar's wacky gimmickry, your old Guitar Hero III (or Guitar Hero: Aerosmith) guitar will work just fine, and that "any USB microphone should work." With all these features, Vicarious Visions is going to have to be really creative if they want to disappoint us.

We're interested in the above video of Guitar Hero Aerosmith because it shows what the game will be like when playing with other listed musicians. Unfortunately, it looks like you still have to look at Steven Tyler's scary avatar during songs featuring Aerosmith, like Run D.M.C.'s version of "Walk This Way."

You'll also get a glimpse of three of the revealed tracks, which we've heard are easier than their Guitar Hero III counterparts. What say you, Guitar Hero experts? Does the game look less difficult, or is it too hard to tell without knowing more setting details?

For those of you who noticed the PS2 buttons make their way into the video, know that this does come from the PS2 build of the game. You see, Vicarious Visions, the developers behind Marvel: Ultimate Alliance for the PS2, wanted to include both Samus and Link into the game and apparently did without Nintendo's consent. There's a lot of confusion surrounding it and, supposedly, when Nintendo was shown the characters were included in the PS2 version of the game, told Activision to cut them out. The rest is just a bunch of confusing history.

We can't help but be skeptical about the DLC in Guitar Hero World Tour. As Wii owners, we're used to being burned when it comes to this kind of thing, and we hate getting our hopes up. "Fool me once ..." and so on, right?

Vicarious Visions is trying to assuage our fears, though, confirming to MTV Multiplayer that Wii version will have downloadable content. According to Karthik Bala, CEO of the company, the DLC will even be actual songs (as opposed to the user-created content that's also a feature in Guitar Hero World Tour).

Bala didn't elaborate on that last feature (called GH Tunes), so we're not sure if it will make an appearance on the Wii; the CEO says that more details on GH Tunes are still to come. We do feel better about the downloadable content though -- at least a little bit (old habits die hard).

Even an official press release can't convince us that the Wii version of Guitar Hero World Tour will support downloadable content -- mostly because the press releases can't keep their stories straight. We've seen two versions of the press release: the first, on Activision's own site, claims that World Tour is the "First Game Ever in the Guitar Hero Franchise to Allow In-Game Downloadable Content on Wii," while the second, found on GamesIndustry.biz, is exactly the same minus the mention of DLC. Was the line excised mid-release? Did it get added later? Will it be in the game? We have no idea. What we do know is that the only reason Activision can tout World Tour's "first-ever Wii Guitar Hero DLC" is because they never followed through on their promise to put it in Guitar Hero III.

We've got new screens in our gallery which obviously aren't from the Wii version of the game, but which show off new features like character creation, guitar customization, and the awesome music-recording function that we have no idea if we'll get. Maybe the Wii drum kit will make extra noise when you hit it.

While a lot of people here may have spent hours rawking out and pulling buffoonish poses to Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock, it's safe to say that country rock musician Charlie Daniels wasn't quite as enthusiastic. Firstly, the guy is 71, and if performing high kicks and the splits is beyond us flexible twenty-somethings, it's probably going to be unrealistic for anyone who qualifies for a free bus pass. Secondly (and a lot more relevantly), he's not too chuffed about how one of his songs, "The Devil Went Down to Georgia," has been presented by Legends of Rock.

According to an entry by the musician on his blog, the song in question is "a lighthearted novelty about a fiddling contest between a country boy and the devil and the devil always loses," but try telling that to Guitar Hero III. Instead, the game has players competing on the song with old Beelzebub himself, in a face-off which the devil can win. Insert outraged gasps here!

Anyway, this is the main sticking point for Daniels, who accuses developer Neversoft of "perverting my song," and huffs that he's "disgusted with the result." He also describes the game as having "a dark side, complete with grotesque monsters on stage with the band, strange, eerie lighting effects and all manner of weird things popping up on the stage," and reckons it's "not the healthiest thing in the world for young, impressionable minds to be exposed to."

As it happens, Daniels' complaints look set to fall on deaf ears, because he sold off the publishing rights to the track. Nevertheless, his diatribe is worth a read, if only for a chuckle.

[Via Kotaku]

Those of you who love Aerosmith might feel a sweet emotion at this news. Activision has announced that its next Guitar Hero game will be devoted entirely to the band, fittingly called Guitar Hero: Aerosmith.

Now, we like Guitar Hero and Aerosmith as much as the next guy, but we can't help but feel a little jaded; this just seems like overkill. Activision is surely livin' on the edge, releasing so many iterations of Guitar Hero in such a short period of time. As for the game itself, that's just a lot of Aerosmith. We're sure that fans of the franchise don't want to miss a thing and will just push play, but we hope Activision knows that an Aerosmith guitar game isn't an original idea.

So, what's our verdict? Activision can dream on. We're not crazy, crazy, crazy for this game.

[Press release via NeoGAF]