The Guitar Hero franchise could be seeing at least 3 more Guitar Hero titles before the next full game is released according to Mick Hickey.

Hickey is an analyst with Janco Partners and he had a few things to say following the news of Activisions latest fiscal quarter.

Hickey thinks that we could see three full standalone expansions for Guitar Hero before the next big sequel in the franchise.

“We expect the Company will release at least 3 expansion packs for Guitar Hero IV before the next iteration of the franchise”

Now we all know about two of the three possible games with Guitar Hero: On Tour Decades having been announced at the E3 conference, and with the all but confirmed Guitar Hero: Metallica.

What could this elusive third title be?

Perhaps Activision already hinted at it during their most recent investors conference call when, during question period, they said the Guitar Hero line would be getting “new genres” and that “next year there’s a really exciting lineup that should broaden the concept of unleashing your inner rockstar through an even bigger audience”.

But this really wouldn’t come as a surprise given Activision’s expansion of the Guitar Hero series already.

Source: Gamasutra - Analyst: Three Expansion Packs Possible For Next Guitar Hero

Related Links:
Console Hero - New Guitar Hero For The DS Announced (Decades)

Console Hero - Guitar Hero: Metallica -It’s Official

Raymundo Castaneda, 30, is just a regular guy who likes to play Guitar Hero however for the last 8 months he has been on the run from police for allegedly killing a man.

In Charlotte, North Carolina, on December 23, 2007, Castaneda and his friend Moises Lionidas Aquilar were watching a soccer game on television when they got into an argument and Casteneda stabbed Aquilar multiple times, killing him.

On Wednesday someone called the CrimeStoppers hotline and said that Castaneda was seen on more than one occasion playing Guitar Hero at a Jacksonville, Florida Wal-Mart.

With that information U.S. Marshals were able to just hang around the Wal-Mart until Castaneda showed up again.

On Friday morning Castaneda must have needed to get a Guitar Hero fix because the U.S. Marshals found him rocking away at the Guitar Hero III display.

“He was calm, cool and collected. Playing a video game. He didn’t have a care in the world,” said Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office spokesman Ken Jefferson. As officers approached Castaneda with guns drawn, he put down the axe and gave himself up, saying only, “You got me.”

Castaneda has now been take to the Duval County Jail where he will be meeting with law enforcement from Charlotte for questioning before being extradited back to North Carolina to face a murder charge.

Yes, I love Guitar Hero just as much as the next guy, but if I’m on the run from the cops I don’t think I’d be hanging out in a Wal-Mart playing it. If you’re willing to kill someone, at least drop the pretense of upstanding morals and steal the game.

Source: The Dreamin’ Demon - Raymundo Castaneda Likes Wal-Mart, Guitar Hero

Dan Teasdale of Harmonix mentioned on the Official Xbox Magazine(OXM) podcast that the final song for drums on Rock Band 2 was going to be Dream Theater’s ‘Panic Attack’, but Painkiller from Judas Priest won out.

Other things that Dan mentioned were;

The final song for guitar on Rock Band 2 hasn’t been locked down yet, but Panic Attack is in the running, as is Painkiller and Steely Dan’s ‘Bodhitsattva’.

Axl Rose and ACDC came in to play the game during licensing talks.

No songs from Rock Band 1 have been ruled out for the import to Rock Band 2 yet due to licensing issues.

The Who’s E3 concert was recorded.

To hear more of what Dan Teasdale had to say, head on over to the OXM podcast and give it a listen.

Source: OXM -KOXM Podcast #125 via ScoreHero - Final Rock Band 2 Drum Song Revealed 

Thanks to some sharp eyed Guitar Hero fans we might just have new info regarding the game.

We mentioned a few days ago about the new images that were released for Guitar Hero World Tour that showed old favorites Pandora, Clive, and Eddie, but we missed something that might have been important.

At the bottom of the image for Eddie Knox it has an empty KFC bucket on the floor. This might just be pure speculation but the guitarist Buckethead wears, strangely enough, a bucket on his head, and not just any bucket but a KFC bucket.

Buckethead was featured in the recent ‘Guitar Hero III Guitar Virtuoso Track Pack’ and his song ‘Jordan’ is an unlockable track in Guitar Hero II.

Do you think this picture was meant to be a hint, or is it merely a coincidence?

View the Eddie Knox image and more info after the break.
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Remember PopStar Guitar, The new guitar video game that was announced 2 weeks ago to be produced by XS Games?

We’ve just stumbled upon ‘The countdown to PopStarGuitar.com‘ which we think may be releasing information about the game slowly. It looks like it is set up by someone at XS Games, or by someone close to XS Games. We don’t know… it’s the ‘contact us’ with the XS Games e-mail address, but hosted on blogspot, that’s throwing us off (more about our speculation below, including other artist’s songs that might be in the game).

‘The countdown to PopStarGuitar.com’ has this image (to the left) on their site as the ‘possible’ cover art for the game for the Wii.

Click on the image for a larger picture.

More info, including our speculation about the website below.
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A few weeks ago the band Rush was on The Colbert Report, and they had themselves recorded while playing their song Tom Sawyer on Rock Band. Unfortunately they perform better in real life than in video games.

Last week The Colbert Report has rapper Nas on the show, and he played Tom Sawyer faring much better getting an impressive 95%.

View Rush’s attempt at Tom Sawyer after the break.
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Episode #18 of the Starpower Podcast is being broadcast live this evening at 11:30 Eastern Standard Time. Listen live tonight at http://www.starpowerpodcast.com/starpower-live/

Edit: This live broadcast is now over, however it should be up for air on the Starpower Podcast webpage shortly.

This special edition of the Starpower Podcast is called Gods Of Rock Band, and will feature some of the best Rock Band players.

Special guests will include;

ES942 - One of the most legendary plastar players and now a multi instrumentalist reaching 42 Million Points overall

Someguy913 - #1 Drummer of Xbox Live

Billtvshow - #1 on XBL for Vocals #1 on Scorehero for Vocals #1 in Life in general

Machchunk - #1 on Bass!

Violinhero - He VOXTAR FCd RTTH - THE FREAKING END

They will also talk about Phr34k’s Rock Band drum marathon where he played every Rock Band song for the drums(including DLC) on expert, straight for 25+ hours.

Other topics they will touch on is Neversoft’s DLC releases, The Who pack for Rock Band, and next week’s Rock Band DLC release.

Once again the address to listen to tonight’s broadcast live is;

http://www.starpowerpodcast.com/starpower-live/

Related Links:
Console Hero - Rock Band DLC Week of August 5th

3 new screenshots for Guitar Hero World Tour were released last week.

The shots in question show Pandora, Clive Winston, and Eddie Knox, characters from the original Guitar Hero games.

To view the new shots, click the Guitar Hero Community link below.

Source: Official Guitar Hero Community Blog - Pandora, Clive and Eddie? Yep!

It’s Friday once again which means that next week’s Rock Band DLC has been announced.

Starting on Tuesday you can download 5 songs, 3 of which feature artists from CrüeFest, as well as two singles from System of a Down.

Included in the CrüeFest pack is Sixx:A.M.’s ‘Life Is Beautiful which we announced last month would be coming to Rock Band as a DLC.

The full DLC tracklist is as follows;

CrüeFest Pack

BuckCherry - “Rescue Me”
Mötley Crüe – “Face Down In The Dirt”
Sixx:A.M. - “Life Is Beautiful”

Singles

System of a Down - “B.Y.O.B.”
System of a Down - “Toxicity”

The CrüeFest Pack is available for $2.99 (or 240 Microsoft Points), which individual songs in the pack can be had for $0.99 (or 80 Microsoft Points). The System of a Down singles can be had for $1.99 (or 160 Microsoft Points).

All songs will be available on Tuesday August 5th on the Xbox Live Marketplace, or on Thursday August 7th on the Playstation Store.

Activision and Logitech announced a partnership today that will see Logitech providing 3rd party game controllers for Guitar Hero World Tour, much in the same vein as Mad Catz providing 3rd party controllers for Rock Band.

This might be a smart move for Activision. While many gamers enjoy the Guitar Hero controllers that are produced by Red Octane, there are those who are looking for a bit more variety. Logitech has experience in game controllers, especially with their racing simulator controls, and will hopefully fill the need for more upscale controllers.

Full press release(s) after the break.
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