In celebration of this week's Fourth of July holiday, Activision plans to serenade Guitar Hero III players with in-your-face patriotism and ambiguous homo-eroticism -- that's right, the "Top Gun Anthem" will be available as a free download on July 3rd. The film's instrumental theme, obtainable from both Xbox Live and PlayStation Network, is sure send your fingers up and down your instrument as you dream of being Val Kilmer's wingman. No, Tom Cruise's wingman!

Just in case you hadn't heard via, oh, every manner of media possible, British rockers Coldplay will have a new album, Viva la Vida, on shelves (and your favorite music download service) June 17. Today Activision announced that a dose of Coldplay DLC will hit Guitar Hero III two days later on June 19.

The Coldplay track pack will contain three songs, including "Violet Hill," the first single from Viva la Vida. "Yellow" and "God Put a Smile on Your Face" from the album A Rush of Blood to the Head round out the set. Activision has yet to price the goods, but three-song packs have historically run 500 MS points via Xbox Live and $6.25 on PSN.

[update: Activision sends along confirmation that the Coldplay track pack will, in fact, set you back 500 MS points or $6.25 on XBL and PSN, respectively.]

Following the Motörhead set earlier this month, more Guitar Hero III downloadable content lands on the PS3 and Xbox 360 today, with the three-song Isle of Wight Track Pack now available on both consoles for purchase and download.

The pack features "Problems [live at Brixton] by The Sex Pistols, "Shoot the Runner" by Kasabian, and "I Predict a Riot" by Kaiser Chiefs. The set costs 500 Microsoft Points, or $6.25 USD on PS3. For a taste, check out the above video for Kasabian's "Shoot the Runner." It's kinda rockin'.

[Via X3F]

Consider us impressed floored. Chris "iamchris4life" Chike, the recognized Guinness world record holder for the highest single-song point tally in Guitar Hero III has gone and done what many considered impossible. In the above YouTube video, Chike 100-percents Dragonforce's "Through the Fire and the Flames," revered and dreaded by fans as the most difficult song in GH3.

Watch in amazement – as we did – while Chike powers through the song on expert difficulty without missing a single note. In the end, he not only fully completed the song (beating his previous best of 97%) but scored 987,786 points (his best run prior to this netted 840,647). Our hats, glasses, and all other accessories are off to you, Chris. Now, may we offer you an ice pack for your hand?

[Thanks, Wibby!]

Big fat update this week. For starters, it's time for PS3 owners to jump in the pool and try out the Civilization Revolution demo. So far, our thoughts are positive, but conflicted. PC Civilization players will jump right in and notice some major changes, but will console gamers find joy in the methodical (yet incredibly streamlined) Civ gameplay?

Enough thinking, what about some twitch action? The free God of War theme for GH III is available today, along with the PSN's first game self-published by a developer, Novastrike. Also, storming out of left field is Wolf of the Battlefield: Commando 3. There's also a couple other nice additions in this week's update, so check it out after the break.

The PS3 Fanboy's got your European PSN update on their site, but be sure to bring chocolates. They like chocolates.

Fret no more, for there is new reason to hold onto thy fret! Activision has announced that five new downloadable track packs for the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 versions of Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock will be made available in the month of June. The first pack, a trio of songs from British band Motörhead, is already available on the Xbox Live Marketplace, and should follow on the PlayStation Network later today.

The only other release announced thus far is the Isle of Wight pack. The Isle of Wight is not, you'll note, a band, but a music festival held in 2007. Three of its "most memorable performances" have been converted into colorful note charts, with Kasabian, Kaiser Chiefs and The Sex Pistols providing the music. So, in summary:

Motörhead Track Pack (5 June / 500 MS Points / $6.25)

• "(We Are) The Road Crew"
• "Stay Clean"
  
• "Motörhead"

Isle of Wight Track Pack (12 June / Price unconfirmed, but likely to be same as above)

• "Shoot the Runner" by Kasabian
  
• "I Predict a Riot" by Kaiser Chiefs
  
• "Problems" by The Sex Pistols

Having mastered every single one of Guitar Hero III's songs (including that one), perhaps you and your freakish, mutant fingers are yearning for some new notes to enliven those increasingly soporific shredding sessions. If you've got a PlayStation 3 copy of Activision's guitar 'em up, why not grab the promised God of War track, "The End Begins (to Rock)," from the PSN later today? It's epic, it's free and it sounds like this.

[Via PS3 Fanboy]

Here's some news that's sure to strike a sour chord with the legions of Guitar Hero III owners worldwide. We've confirmed with Activision that Guitar Hero: Aerosmith will not allow users to access content for GH3.

It will also be impossible for those who've purchased only Guitar Hero: Aerosmith to access and download tracks currently available for GH3. For those with both games: prepare for disc-swapping. The carry-over of DLC into Guitar Hero: Aerosmith seemed like a real no-brainer; hopefully Neversoft will take Guitar Hero fans' previous purchases into account while nailing down Guitar Hero World Tour and Guitar Hero: Metallica's feature sets.

With Xbox 360 players getting a Halo 3 musical number for free last Thanksgiving, the gods of rock have now smiled down on PS3 owners as well. Tucked away in the latest PlayStation Underground newsletter comes word that PS3 armchair rockers will be able to download a free God of War-themed track for Guitar Hero III to rock out to on Thursday, June 5.

No other details have been revealed, including what selection exactly will be released. Even so, free is free, though honestly we're racking our brains trying to come up with a single piece of God of War music that's memorable enough to warrant a living room encore.

Update: It has a name! "The End Begins (to Rock)." [Thanks, Dan; via Guitar Hero Community]

The website which reported that three Rock Band tracks would be packaged with the South Park: Season 11 DVDs has now taken that bit of info back. TVShowsonDVD.com says that a Paramount representative informed them the information was incorrect, but that there will be other bonus materials in the release. South Park's eleventh season had the infamous "Guitar Queer-o" episode.

Considering South Park had an entire episode about Guitar Hero, it would have been a little weird if the DVDs came with Rock Band downloads. However things got mixed up, it's a little sad to see the info turn out false -- unless the "bonus materials" end up being Guitar Hero III tracks.

[Via X3F]

It seems that Activision has stumbled across the correct formula for getting us to drop our drumsticks and don our trusty, dusty Les Paul peripherals -- a three-song DLC pack for Guitar Hero III featuring the music of the epic British prog-rock trio, Muse. As of May 8, "Supermassive Black Hole" and "Exo-Politics" from their 2006 album Black Holes and Revelations as well as the fan-favorite "Stockholm Syndrome" from 2003's Absolution will be available to download for a heretofore unannounced price (we're assuming it will match the $6.25 price of former GHIII packs). We've got videos for all three tunes after the jump -- go decide which ones are purchase-worthy! (Hint: All of them.)

We've known for a while that inclusion on a video game soundtrack can help drive music sales, but usually the song in question is actually available for sale when it appears in the game. Not so for Def Leppard's new single, "Nine Lives," which will premiere as a downloadable Guitar Hero III track before it's available at retail or other online services. No F-f-f-foolin'!

The track, which comes as part of a Def Leppard pack along with classics "Rock of Ages" and "Photograph," will be available on April 24th in the U.S. and May 8th in the U.K. The album "Songs from the Sparkle Lounge" follows soon after on April 28 (digital download) and May 5 (physical disc).

"I know from personal experience how much more you get into the music by playing the game," said Def Leppard Lead Singer Joe Elliott in a press release. "Guitar Hero is extremely popular with all kinds of music heads, which includes a lot of our fans - and we think releasing Nine Lives this way first is just fantastic!"

[Via X3F]

We thought that the inclusion of "The Devil Went Down to Georgia," as the final song in Guitar Hero III was a pretty inspired choice, but it seems not everyone was as thrilled with the selection, including Charlie Daniels, the song's author. The Christian country star (who no longer holds the rights to the song) recently posted about the game on his blog, his primary beef seeming to be that El Diablo can win.

He wrote that the song "is supposed to be a lighthearted novelty about a fiddling contest between a country boy and the devil and the devil always loses." But, he goes on to say that GHIII features "a guitar-playing devil who battles the player and very often wins." ... So, is Daniels complaining about balancing issues? Because, if so, we totally agree. The devil's way too tough.

But we do feel compelled to point out that the game never says the main boss is the devil. In fact, he has a name and it's Lou. Maybe Lou isn't a devil at all, maybe he's just deformed like that guy from Mask. So we ask you, dear reader, what's the worse sin? Letting the devil win in a video game or calling handicapped people demons? We think the choice is pretty clear.

[Via Bit-tech.net]

Poor Bessy, the Guitar Hero cow is getting her teats squeezed raw by Activision. Hands-On Mobile announced another addition to the GH III oeuvre as the "number one selling" mobile version of Guitar Hero III became available for BlackBerry smartphones. Come on Bessy, just keep squirting.

According to Hands-On the mobile version of Guitar Hero III has achieved 7.5 million song downloads in less than six months and will be available on the nation's top four mobile carriers by April. Oh well, more power to 'em. Observing someone play GH III on a phone can't possibly be more awkward than it'll be watching someone play the DS version of GH III on the subway in the morning.

In light of today's official Rock Band Wii announcement, we asked Harmonix if there was any chance the Guitar Hero 3 controller would be compatible with Rock Band (and vice versa). The response was less than hopeful, with Harmonix telling us it's up to Activision -- in other words, no. On the bright side, it gives us an opportunity to update our Guitar Compatibility Guide. Check it out after the break.