Hot guitar strummin' and finger pickin' action collided with the corporate man at Best Buy in Los Angeles on Monday, with Dave Navarro (because real rockers love the game too) on hand to promote Guitar Hero II, and Joystiq was there. We lined up about half an hour early to get pix and vids, quietly slipping in amidst the obsessive fans of either Navarro or this game. After talking to about a dozen people, we realized that they could have sent James Taylor to plug this thing, and the same people would've shown up. Everyone was stoked for the midnight release of the game, and one hardcore fan even drove up from San Diego, just to get his axe signed.A representative from BB handed tickets out and told us that they were only giving out 50 so that you could get in line to have things signed. Once they finally opened the doors and let us flood in, we spent some time at the various demo stations they had set up (with pretty sweet speaker systems that looked like they were on loan from a K.I.S.S. concert), and then dutifully took our spot in the signing line. We grabbed a game en route to the table and pulled the guitar out of the box, got it signed by Navarro, and then -- surprise! We were told that Activision was buying the game for those first 50 tickets. Score! Big announcement about that guitar & game soon on Joystiq, so keep your eyes open.
Pictures and video after the jump, but sadly no Carmen Electra since she and Dave went splitsville earlier in the summer.
[Update: added some rockers]
Once we left we were deaf, dumb and blind, kid.
It was corporate giant versus the rock world tonight. Of course, the corporation won, but what can you do? We have to play nice with them until we get our Wiis and PS3s.
The line wasn't horrendous when we got there, but by 10:30 when the doors opened, it was a tad crazy.
There was even some hot PlayStation Portable action going on, although they were listening to music and not playing Loco Roco. What gives?
For those about to rock...
We salute you.
Once inside, we were witness to the altar of Guitar Hero II. Navarro later smashed this guitar to bits. The shrapnel missed our head by inches. We were too busy ducking to get pix of that.
This rack full of GHII was signed and gone by midnight.
Although they had quite a few posters left over. These are surely destined for a dorm room somewhere.
Overall, not a bad game launch in our opinion, but that's because we had starry eyes. Not because of Navarro, but because of the free game. Toastyyyyy!
