The Romantics Sue Activision Over Guitar Hero Cover Song

Billboard is reporting that members of the real rock band ‘The Romantics’ have filed a lawsuit against Activision, RedOctane and Harmonix over the “Guitar Hero Encore, Rocks the 80’s” videogame, which uses a version the band’s “What I Like About You” recorded by musicians that the band claims sound too much like them.

The song was performed for Guitar Hero by the band Wavegroup Sound. However, The Romantics claim the cover version is “virtually indistinguishable from the authentic version” and as a result would cause consumers to believe that the version was recorded by the original group. (ummm DUH we consumers are really stupid)

Just admit it ‘Wavegroup Sound’ can play the song better than you, now get over it. Next time Activision needs a cover band that does not sound “too good” they can contact me here at OLGn. Because none of the songs I play sound anything like the original ones.

Look Cool With Some Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock Cheats

Guitar Hero 3 brings out the rocker in all of us. Well ok, some of us just plain suck at it. So for the people like me, that no matter how hard we try, the song always sounds like a cat is stuck in a blender. I have decided to post the cheat codes for the game. My favorite one is the No Failure cheat. Now you too can feel less like a dork and more like a real fake Guitar Hero. The codes will work for PS3, Xbox 360 and the Wii.

[Codes after the jump] Full Story »

DLC available for Rock Band, Rock Band Store open

Rock Band launched today, and downloadable content is already available. As promised, there are three-song packs and singles available from such heavyweights as Metallica, The Police, and Queens of the Stone Age. The packs cost $5.49 (440 Microsoft points) a piece and the individual songs cost $1.99 (160 Microsoft points). All the songs in the packs are master tracks and also offered as singles. Only one of the songs offered only as a single, Wolfmother’s “Joker and the Thief,” is a master track. The others, like Foreigners “Juke Box Hero,” are covers.

Harmonix has also announced the release schedule for up to the week of Dec. 18. Look forward to a David Bowie next week and a Black Sabbath pack the week after that.

Full list of songs after the jump.

Harmonix has also announced that the Rock Band Store is open. From the Rock Band news section:

Would your favorite bands be caught dead without gear and clothing worthy of a rock superstar? Hell no, and neither should you. Visit our newly opened Rock Band store and be the first on the block to sport our spiffy, exclusive clothing and merch.

Full Story »

U.S. Senators Gunning For Videogames … Again

Four U.S. senators, Joe Lieberman, Evan Bayh, Sam Brownback and Hillary Clinton a current US Presidential candidate, have released a letter on Monday to Patricia Vance president of the Entertainment Software Rating Board (ESRB). The senators are calling for a “thorough review” of the system in the wake of Rockstar Games’ Manhunt 2 receiving a “Mature” rating and not the “Adults Only” rating some say the game should have received.

The letter the senators sent also went on to claim that the motion-sensitive controller used with Nintendo’s Wii system “permits children to act out each of the many graphic torture scenes and murders” in the game and suggests that ESRB take the controller’s advanced capabilities “into consideration” in rating future games.

[source: Video Business]

My Opinion:
The video game rating system is just like kids watching cable TV. If the parents are out of the room you know the kids will most likely be watching something they should not. Everybody knows the amount of sex and violence that can be found on cable TV even during the day can be staggering. Every TV in America has a V-Chip installed and it’s up to YOU as the parent to activate the V-Chip and use it. Just like it is your job to not give your kids $60.oo or more for a video game and not monitor what they buy.

Come on they are YOUR children not the Governments. Start taking some responsibility for your lack of action.

Do you want to allow the government to control what you and your family can or can’t watch or even what games people can buy? Then continue to do nothing to fight for your rites and that day will come, sooner than you think.

Turning Point: Fall of Liberty Invasion Video Trailer

Turning Point: Fall of Liberty the new “Invasion” trailer have been sent over today. The “Invasion” video is part of the beginning of the game as Nazi forces overrun New York City in an aerial assault. (Why is it always New York that everybody hates so much? What did they ever do to you?) The video also features Spark Unlimited CEO Craig Allen talking about some the aims and inspirations behind the game. Turning Point: Fall of Liberty will be released for PC, Xbox 360 and the PS3.

Sony drops price for PS3 dev kits

Sony has dropped the price of Playstation 3 dev kits to $10,250 a piece, according to Gamespot. The drop in price will help smaller developers get in on that sweet, sweet cell processor action. In addition to the cheaper price, Sony is also adding features that will make it easier to develop for the PS3, Gamespot said.

Sony is also rolling out new software-development features, debugging tools, and support for applications such as ProDG and its SN tool suite.

Sony is following the PS2 formula, reducing the prices of dev kits for both systems about a year after their release, Gamespot said.

Hopefully this is the right direction for Sony. My biggest problem with the PS3, and why I’ve gotten a Wii and Xbox 360 first, is the lack of games that I absolutely must have. Heavenly Sword looked like it would be kinda cool, I really want to try Folklore, but there’s nothing that absolutely screams buy me now. Perhaps some more indie studios will be able to pump some life into the system.

5 Exclusive Clive Barker’s Jericho ringtones

Codemaster’s has given us five free, exclusive ringtones just for our readers from Clive Barker’s Jericho. Each one features a different character’s dialogue. While I haven’t gotten to the game yet, three of them sound like taunts, one each from Delgado, Jones and Rawlings. The fourth is from squad leader Ross, voiced by the ever-present Steven Jay Blum, saying, “I have no idea what you just said.” Finally, we have the narrator simply saying “Jericho” in a creepy voice.

My personal favorite is Ross, just because I can’t help but scan through all the different characters Blum has used the exact same voice for.

Here is the audio preview of all the ringtones in the pack.

Here is the full download:

  5 Exclusive Clive Barker's Jericho Ringtones (87.1 KiB, 261 hits)

EA: PS3 Orange Box not delayed

Videogamer.com is reporting that the Orange Box for the PS3 will be released in December as planned, according to an EA representative. The EA release schedule showed the Orange Box as to be released on Jan. 17 2008, but the representative said the game is still going to be released in 2007.

(Found through That Video Game Blog)

Cyanide Studio Announces Blood Bowl and Future Plans

The game developer Cyanide Studio has announced some general plans for their company in the next year including ‘Blood Bowl’. Here is a snip:

2007 has been “full speed ahead” at Cyanide! The studio took on an international dimension with the opening of a facility in Montreal, Canada and it cast aside its “PC/sport” mantle to release games for both the Sony PSP and Nintendo DS platforms as well as making a successful incursion into the hack ‘n’ slash genre with Loki.

Cyanide’s Canadian studio (Amusement Cyanide Inc.) is currently working on several exciting projects. The most complex is the development of a dynamic 3D animation engine which integrates physical and biomechanical laws under the control of a powerful artificial intelligence system. The engine will generate real-life, real-time character behaviour for collisions, falls, tackles, kicks, punches, etc which take into account all the forces governing the game environment. The resulting engine will be used in future Cyanide games like Blood Bowl, which is to be published by Focus Home Interactive, as well as being licensed to other small and medium-sized game studios, worldwide. In addition to the animation engine, the Canadian studio is working on two of Cyanide’s current games: an add-on to the recently released hack ‘n slash RPG - Loki - as well as a version of Blood Bowl (see below) for the Nintendo DS.

Game development is continuing apace inside Cyanide’s French HQ. Based in Nanterre, in the west of Paris, the various teams are working on a wide variety of projects. The 2008 edition of the perennial favorite Pro Cycling Manager is well underway and it will be released, as usual, just before the start of the Tour de France (June 2008). Other teams are busy with the adaptation of Blood Bowl to the PC and console platforms (Xbox 360, Sony PSP and Nintendo DS). This will be a faithful representation of Games Workshop’s board game in which insane warriors of the Warhammer fantasy universe compete in a “blood sport” that vaguely resembles American football. Release is scheduled for late 2008. At the same time a multiplayer action/RTS game will be brought to market. Set in a dungeon environment where players embody greedy adventurers looking for gold and glory, it is by far the most comical universe ever created by Cyanide.

Ghostbusters Teaser Trailer

Vivendi Games is partnering with Sony Pictures to try and turn “Ghostbusters” into a videogame franchise. First title in what the publisher hopes will be a series of “Ghostbusters” games is set for release in fall ‘08 from Vivendi’s Sierra label. I don’t know why I am even posting this you will understand after you watch the vide.