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.

Guitar Hero III Mobile has sold over a million units according to publisher Hands-On Mobile, which had previously announced that the game had also seen over 7.5 million song downloads in under six months. Mobile phones are one thing, but we still have to wonder whether we'll see people playing Guitar Hero DS on the train in the morning.

As there's obviously a market for this title, we might as well mention that the June song pack for the game will feature "Stricken" by Disturbed, along with covers of "Talk Dirty to Me" by Poison and "Rock and Roll All Nite" by KISS. We want to try and understand why people download GH Mobile, but we just hope Phase is doing as well.

Those replacement discs and free guitar faceplates that Activision has been sending to jilted, mono-version buyers of Wii's Guitar Hero III are now enshrined in law. Gamespot is reporting that the publisher has officially settled the class-action lawsuit brought late last year by gamers who were angry over getting fewer sound channels than they were promised by the game's marketing and packaging.

The settlement stipulates that wronged parties will be able to get a replacement disc and a free faceplate through Aug. 31. It might not quite be the full profit stripping that the original suit sought, but we suppose it is something to have the replacement program enshrined in the law.

Nyko is now shipping to retailers its Rock Band/Guitar Hero III compatible Front Man wireless guitar for PS3. The third party controller is $60, which is the same price some retailers charge for first party controllers.

The Front Man guitar works up to 25 ft and allegedly gets 80 hours of play time, it also uses a "stomp box" to switch between the two rival rhythm games. It's great that the guitar is compatible with both games unlike the first party controllers, but isn't the whole point of a third party peripheral to be much less expensive than first party? Oh well, we had no complaints about the controller when we got some hands-on time with it at GDC. The Front Man seems like an alternative for those who need another ax quick and a first party controller isn't at the store .

Chris Chike, currently the Guinness world record holder for points in Guitar Hero III, won the Play N Trade GHIII tournament last weekend and bested his record-setting score. Chike's Guinness score was 870,647 (seen in video above) before he won the tournament, along with $2000 of in-store credit, with 889,256 points.

The best part of this story is that Chike actually drove two hours to compete at the Play N Trade store in Bloomington, Minnesota. Guess when you're the world record holder the trip seems worth it, considering you've probably got the win in the bag. Chike says he still hasn't done as well at any tournament event than he's done at home. The good thing about tournaments and competition is you only have to be better than second place.

This Saturday, video game retailer Play N Trade is holding a Guitar Hero III tournament with a national grand prize of $2000 (in store credit). Competitors should check if their local store is participating in the tournament and confirm the time matches start. Entry fee is $10 beforehand or $15 on the day of the event.

Players will compete by single elimination in best 2 out of 3 matches. The top player from each store then plays Through the Fire and Flames on Expert and their score is sent in to determine a national champion on March 17 for the aforementioned $2000. Second place national winner receives a PS3, GH3 bundle and $500 in store credit; third place receives a GH3 bundle and $200 in store credit. Depending on how confident players feel in their TtFaF skills, this could either be a sure bet or an exercise in futility.

Variety reports developer Harmonix sued Activision on Monday for $14.5 million in royalties owed them from the Guitar Hero franchise, only to pull the suit Tuesday night. The filing of the lawsuit seems to have been all Activision apparently needed to talk things through outside of court.

The lawsuit revolved around Harmonix's technology being used in creating Guitar Hero III and royalties owed them for that deal. Harmonix, which created the first two GH's before publisher Red Octane was purchased by Activision, also claims it has not been paid for GH DLC, in-game advertising and other nitty-gritty details. Activision originally stated it had paid what it owed to Harmonix and "the claims otherwise do not have merit."

With Activision looking to drive the Guitar Hero franchise into the ground the seventh level of hell, it looks like Harmonix wants to get some money out of watching its original cash cow get milked into oblivion.

Read -- Viacom withdraws 'Guitar' suit
Read -- The full court docs.

IGN reports January's NPD data shows that the Rock Band bundle on Xbox 360 barely beat out Guitar Hero III in sales for the month. This would be the first time Rock Band has been able to catch GH III on any of the platforms it is available on. Although it would be easy to dismiss the accomplishment because GH III had already sold millions before Rock Band was even out of the gate, it does mean consumers don't think of Guitar Hero as the end all music game.

Despite Rock Band's higher price point for the full bundle, it appears gamers are willing to spend the extra cash for the "platform." Sales of the game have been steady and the the constant flow of DLC has come back to MTV/Harmonix in a river of cash. With the announcement by Activision of retail game Guitar Hero: Aerosmith, it's become clear that Activision and MTV/Harmonix have very different ideas on how to establish longevity for the franchises.

Activision became king of the hill in 2007 as the number one US publisher. According to NPD data the company's current market share is 17.7%, a 7.2% increase over last year. Of course, Activision utilized the powers it has as a third-party publisher to sell Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock and Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare,the number one and three titles in sales respectively, across multiple platforms. This is the first time in the company's history that it reached the top spot.

Activision was certainly on a financial and critical acclaim rampage in 2007. COD4 got a spot on our Top 10 list and GHIII was the number one game for our significant others. As successful as last year was, it's now looking like Rock Band is poised to make GHIII yesterday's news, which could be troubling for Activision considering how financially successful the Guitar Hero series has been. Then again, this year we'll start seeing the armed and fully-operational Blizzavision (yeah ... still working on that name).

Yahtzee puts in plain speak during the latest Zero Punctuation review that Guitar Hero III is when the Guitar Hero series stopped being fun. Because you see, there's this wall that players hit and the game becomes impossible. Yahtzee doesn't want to hear it -- and neither do we -- if you're the only guy in your village who beat everything backward and forward. You aren't average, normal, or in any way a part of the natural order of sheep that make up the population of our little planet. Also, in this very special episode of Zero Punctuation, Yahtzee puts questions about his sexuality to rest.

Find your weekly dose of (NSFW) unhinged rage after the break.

[Thanks Mromson]

And as Atreyu mourned the loss of Artax, the great Wedbush Morgan analyst Michael Pachter emerged from the Swamps of Sadness to dispense some relatively happy predictions for Activision stock holders. Pachter believes Guitar Hero will sell 7.5 million units this year and will begin to see declining sales next year due to Rock Band competition. He guesstimates the Guitar Hero franchise will generate $550 million for Activision this fiscal year.

Pachter expects decent revenues from Spider-Man and Shrek sequels for Activision's fiscal year '09 and sees their new James Bond game generating between $100 -150 million in sales. But Guitar Hero is Activision's great source of revenue and imperative in keeping them in the #1 US publisher spot.

Activision is loving modern warfare and plastic guitars as it increased quarterly revenue expectations by $180 million. The company was originally expecting revenues at $1.05 billion this quarter, but its revision is now set for $1.23 billion. The company's full year outlook went from $2.07 billion to $2.30 billion. The change was made due to higher than expected sales of Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare and a little title known as Guitar Hero III.

Activision continues to hold the top US publisher spot, which it took from EA earlier this year. Activision's CEO says the publisher's had 16 years of growth and that this will be its most profitable quarter ever. It's good to own the Guitar Hero -- really good.

Games Radar has put together a little piece comparing the difficulty of Guitar Hero to Rock Band. Their basic conclusion is that "Guitar Hero III hard = Guitar Hero II expert" and "Rock Band Expert = Guitar Hero II hard." They say that Guitar Hero is tough to jump into and Rock Band may be too easy at the medium level for seasoned vets.

Having had significant time with Rock Band on a visit to Harmonix on Tuesday, we can say that when comparing the guitar portion of the game, Rock Band on hard feels close to Guitar Hero II on medium -- except you do have to deal with that pesky orange button, so in essence it feels the same. That doesn't mean that there isn't a challenge in there for the average player, it's just a point of reference for jumping in. Now that's just the guitar, we're not even talking about the beasts of drumming and singing, nor the extreme joy the social interaction of the game provides.

We think the signs are pretty clear now that Activision isn't taking the threat from Rock Band lying down. Just a bit more than a week after Guitar Hero III was released, we already have two meaty song packs to download through Xbox Live and enjoy.

For 500 points ($6.25) you can get either a Foo Fighters pack that includes "The Pretender" from the new album "Echoes Silence Patience & Grace", "All My Life" and "This Is A Call" or the Velvet Revolver pack, with "She Builds Quick Machines","Slither" and "Messages". Each of the packs are by the original artists. With a nice boost like this to the track listing before the old songs have even gone stale, it's clear Red Octane is playing for keeps. ... You may not want to count Guitar Hero out just yet.

Update: Activision has also announced that boss battle anthems and "The Devil Went Down to Georgia" will be downloadable (for free!) later this month for play outside the game's Career mode.

Piggybacking on the information that Activision is going to have a record quarter and Guitar Hero III may be in short supply this holiday, Activision released some financial numbers that show how popular their game is. Activision says that GHIII sold over $115 million in its first week, making it the best launch in the company's history.

Activision believes they'll continue to do well against EA and MTV's Rock Band due to their "unparalleled number of music tracks, a highly competitive price point and the only game in its genre available worldwide." Although, much like the console war, we're thinking the music genre showdown between Rock Band and Guitar Hero won't be answered until years from now -- and there's always the possibility of peaceful coexistence.