According to Contactmusic, Courtney Love has recently taken a different tone regarding her late husband Kurt Cobain’s appearance in Guitar Hero 5. Speaking to music magazine NME about the brouhaha, she said this:

“What pisses me off the most about it is I think Kurt would be fine with having five Kurt Cobains singing the [Spice Girls] song ‘Wannabe,’ [importable from Band Hero] like, ‘Tell me what you want, what you really really want.’… I think he’d find that really funny. But at the same time it’s gross what they did. Gwen [Stefani] started the lawsuit. I have really good lawyers now and will join that lawsuit. There was this grey area and they f—ed the lot of us. They didn’t f—k Jack White, but they f–ked Gwen, f–ked Johnny Cash and f–ked Kurt… It’s just gross. This is the rock ‘n’ roll business, this is what people do. They are sleazy; they do sleazy things.”

So, er, if the person whose likeness is being used would have been fine with the use…didn’t you just kinda shoot your whole legal argument in the ‘nads there, Courtney?

[Read, via Kotaku]

I’m kind of a geek. I freely admit this. Learning the minute details of things I like — and especially learning why things are that way — never fails to intrigue me. So I dig this post at the Guitar Hero blog from Anthony Campos, note tracker at Neversoft, in which he explains in exhaustive detail how and why vocals are handled differently in Guitar Hero 5.

I’ve played a hell of a lot of GH5, much of that time spent on the mic, and I have to admit that I didn’t catch all these changes. Like this:

If the player barely crosses the “Excellent” threshold of a [star power] phrase, they will be awarded the standard 1/4 of the star power meter. However, if they begin to push into the extra 20% of the progress meter, the player will be awarded extra SP relative to how much of the meter is filled. Think of it like whammying SP for vocals.

So tell me, am I the only one who hadn’t noticed this?

[Read, via @GuitarHeroDevs]

Oh hey, the Energizer thing isn’t the only music-game crossover promo contest going on at the moment. Microsoft and Reese’s are also running the “Xbox LIVE and Reese’s Halloween Prize Draw,” with over 1600 players winning 10 bucks worth of Microsoft Points, and one seriously lucky bastard walking home with this:

• (1) 55″ 3D TV– ARV $1,899
• (1) Xbox 360 Elite Console – ARV $300
• (4) Wireless 3D Glasses – ARV $320
• (10) 3D movies: ARV $200 (Ten 3D movies including but not subject to: Toy Story 1,2,3, Shrek, UP, Under the Sea, Beowulf, Open Season, Monster House, The Polar Express)
• (1) $400 Visa Gift Card for Party Snacks – ARV $400
• (1) Avatar Xbox 360 game – ARV $60
• (2) Gamer Chairs: ARV $1200
• (1) Entertainment Center for TV: ARV $699
• HDMI cables for the TV to Xbox 360 and the home entertainment system ARV $99
• (1) Bose® – Lifestyle® V30 Home Theater System – Black –$2,999
• (1) Mini Fridge to have in TV room – ARV $115
• (1) Geek Squad – Home Theater Installation – ARV $599

Yeah, I wouldn’t mind that.

What do you need to do to enter, you ask? Download a special gamer pic off XBL, and play in a multiplayer session of Guitar Hero 5. That’s it.

Don’t worry if you don’t have GH5, though; just downloading the gamer pic will get you registered to win the 800 MS Points, and you can enter the main sweepstakes by mail — just check out the official rules for details.

[Read, via @GuitarHeroDevs]

Hmm. This is interesting. Kotaku reports that the video that kicked off this whole brouhaha about Kurt Kobain’s appearance in Guitar Hero 5 has been taken off of YouTube — by Activision. And sure enough, attempting to view it gets you this message: “This video is no longer available due to a copyright claim by Activision Games, Inc.”

This may smell like conspiracy — after all, no other videos of Guitar Hero 5 appear to have been taken down — but I’d like to think that it’s a first step in abiding by the wishes of Cobain’s surviving loved ones and “re-locking” Cobain’s character so that he can only perform Nirvana tunes. What can I say, I like to think the best of people.

Hit the Read link to see comments from the person who originally posted the video.

[Read]