And that’s not all: The winner will also get some extra gear:

[The prize] can only be made more awesome by the addition of a deluxe Guitar Hero guitar strap and a USB Guitar Hero rechargeable battery kit with an extra battery, so you never have to be without the power to rock. The winner of this prize pack might also find a Guitar Hero keychain in the box if they look hard enough. And maybe something else too if I can find a place for it.

And all you need to do to enter is send Dan an e-mail with a bit of trivia and your contact info. Hit the Read link for all the details, but hurry up! The contest ends tomorrow.

[Read | image: One of Swords]

This “Game With Fame” session starts an hour earlier than yesterday, so you’ll want to send friend requests to FlogMollyGwF01, FlogMollyGwF02, FlogMollyGwF03, and FlogMollyGwF04, and be online by 6:30 pm, Eastern time (3:30 Pacific). The event starts at 7:00 and is expected to run to 9:00.

Also note: Since the Guitar Hero folks just released a Flogging Molly track pack, it’s a pretty sure bet that’s what the band will be playing. So if you don’t already have it, go get it.

And if you can’t get enough Flogging Molly, One of Swords has an interview with banjo hero Bob Schmidt today, too.

[Read, via One Of Swords]

“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]

It’s a very easy fix included in World Tour that’s perhaps not explained quite well enough by the game itself. But I don’t want to steal 5Frets’ thunder, so hit the Read link for full details.

[Read | image: 5Frets.com]

The import will cost $5.99 on PS3, 600 Wii Points, or 500 Microsoft Points. Check out last week’s post for a rundown of the songs that won’t be available to import.

[Read]

Importing Band Hero tracks into Guitar Hero 5 costs $4.99, 400 Microsoft Points, or 500 Wii Points, and it includes almost all of the game’s 65 tracks. Here are the only four that aren’t available for transfer to GH5:

Aly and AJ	Like Whoa
Hilary Duff	So Yesterday
Jesse McCartney	Beautiful Soul
Styx	Mr. Roboto

I doubt many Guitar Hero 5 players will miss any of these, except perhaps “Mr. Roboto.” But let me tell you, that’s one of the few Band Hero tunes I was really disappointed by — only in that I was hoping it would be a lot more entertaining to play and sing than it ended up being.

Anyway, if you’ve got your Band Hero on, you can also transfer a good chunk of Guitar Hero 5′s tracks into the kinder, gentler interface of Band Hero. (Well, you can if you have a 360; apparently it’s going to take a bit to get this functional on PS3 and Wii.) Continue reading →

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]

• (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]

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]

From the article:

[Wedbush Morgan Securities analyst Michael] Pachter expects The Beatles: Rock Band to have racked up 1.3 million sales across all versions, with Guitar Hero 5 moving 700,000 copies. … [Electronic Entertainment Design and Research analyst Jesse] Divnich agrees that The Beatles sold more games than Guitar Hero 5, but expects a much narrower gap between the two. He projected The Beatles: Rock Band to hit 1 million copies sold for the month, with Guitar Hero 5 tallying 800,000.

That’s quite a difference from Activision’s claims of outselling The Beatles four to one. But of course, we’re talking about different time frames — and the official numbers still aren’t in. The good news for both properties is that they outsold expectations, and their success sounds like it’ll narrow that dip in music-game revenue considerably.

[Read]