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.

We think that those playing Guitar Hero III on the Wii have every right to feel like the cast-aside stepchild. Not only does their system of choice not get the DLC from the other consoles, they also got the fun of sending their discs in to be replaced when it turned out that the game was mixed in mono rather than stereo sound. Now, Activision is attempting to make up for one of those slights with a free guitar faceplate for those who had to send their game away.

What's especially cool is that the company didn't make a big announcement about the deal, they just quietly went about trying to make things right with jilted fans. Good show, Activision. Now, about that DLC ...

Just in time for your weekend St. Patrick's Day celebrations (you're not really going to party on a Monday are you?) comes a trio of Dropkick Murphys songs for Guitar Hero III, available right now on Xbox Live and (we're assuming) a little later in the day on PSN.

The pack includes "Famous for Nothing", "Flannigan's Ball" and "Johnny, I Hardly Knew Ya", all master tracks and all from their album The Meanest of Times. Now, before you go complaining that they're not the DKM songs you would have chosen, you should know that the pack is free, free, totally free. Not bad for a holiday usually only good for "you're not wearing green" pinches from the 55-year-old woman in accounting.

Yesterday was a busy legal day for the Guitar Hero franchise, what with Harmonix pulling a $14.5 million dollar royalty suit on the same day Activision decided to address a patent claim from its guitar partners at Gibson. Sure, we're not fancy lawyers with fancy pants, but it strikes us as particularly odd that Gibson managed to work up a deal with Activision – licensing its branding as well as the likenesses of some of its most iconic guitars – well before realizing that, hey! It's already patented this whole thing and owns the rights to a device whereby a "musician can simulate participation in a concert by playing a musical instrument and wearing a head-mounted 3D display that includes stereo speakers."

Turns out that while Gibson told its pals at Activision about the patent back in January, the Big A just filed a lawsuit yesterday asking the U.S. District Court for Central California "to declare Gibson's patent invalid and to bar it from seeking damages." Considering we're talking about a billion dollar franchise, we're sure Gibson's been seeing dollar signs. Perhaps it's afraid games like Guitar Hero are siphoning potential guitar sales away from, y'know, actual instruments ... or maybe it just figured why the heck not. Unless they make nice nice, we figure there's a chance we could see Fender-branded guitars in both guitar rhythm series going forward.

[Via Engadget]

Read – Activision's "Guitar Hero" violates patent: Gibson (Reuters)
Read – United States Patent Number 5,990,405

What's better for attracting people to your booth than a fake guitar? Apparently nothing! Walking around SXSW's ScreenBurn Arcade, I began to notice that I was seeing a lot of Guitar Hero III and Rock Band setups. The guitars and drums are a lot showier than most game controllers, and are thus a lot better at getting attention than other games. I understood the power of these two games.

But that doesn't mean I didn't find it a little weird that groups who had basically nothing to do with Guitar Hero III or Rock Band were featuring it at their booths. I was also amused by the number of booths that featured guitar games, compared to the total number of booths in the ScreenBurn Arcade. It almost seemed like these two games outnumbered not-music games.

Well now, this is a trend we'd like to see continue: Just a week after it's last update (a batch of No Doubt tunes) Guitar Hero III is getting another song pack. This time, it's the "Modern Metal Track Pack," featuring master tracks of Deftones' "Hole in the Earth," Avenged Sevenfold's "Almost Easy" and Thrice's "The Arsonist." As you've come to expect, the three songs will cost you 500 points ($6.25).

If you don't find yourself in a metal mood, you'll be excited to hear that the next pack is already in the works. It's three from Dropkick Murphys, master tracks of "Famous for Nothing," "(F)lannigan's Ball" and "Johnny, I Hardly Knew Ya." It's due in mid-March in time for St. Patrick's Day. And the best part? Totally free. We didn't think it was possible for us to be more excited about drinking ourselves into oblivion on a Monday, but we guess wonders never cease.

[Thanks, Matt]

It seems that Aerosmith isn't the only band staking their rhythm game claim with Guitar Hero III: Gwen Stefani's semi-ska/pop outfit No Doubt is set to hit the game ... well, today. It should be available on Xbox Live now as a matter of fact, and on PSN later today.

500 points will net you three songs from the band's Tragic Kingdom album, "Don't Speak", "Excuse Me Mr" and "Sunday Morning." Admittedly we're not hardcore fans, but these seem like weird choices. No "Just A Girl"? No "Spiderwebs"? Oh well, at least they're master tracks. Song choice aside, is this something you'll be picking up?

As our bat-eared readers discovered when the game was first released, the Wii edition of Guitar Hero III, though advertised as possessing Dolby Surround Sound capabilities, could only duplicate one channel of audio through multiple speakers (a.k.a. mono sound). Incensed, Nintendo's virtual troubadours demanded action -- Activision responded with a somewhat less-than-timely disc replacement program. Now, four months after the game was released, Activision has announced another method of atonement for their single-channel sins.

Instead of replacing your half-mute disc with a standard one (though this option is still available), you can now replace said disc with cold, hard cash (or warm, soft cash, depending on your local climate and the weariness of the bills you receive). While we're sure this policy will be exploited by those who tire of faux rocking and simply want the cash, it's refreshing to see Actie-V face their shortcomings so directly -- if not a tad unpunctually.

[Via Evil Avatar]

All this week, we're giving away copies of Guitar Hero III on all sorts of platforms, from the now-gen (Wii, Xbox 360, PS3) to the last-gen (PS2). But what if you were looking for a copy for that other platform? You know the one ... the "computer." The well-mannered folks at Aspyr offered us a copy of their PC and Mac hybrid release of Guitar Hero III, complete with USB X-plorer guitar, to round out our platform offerings. So, this is your reminder to enter today and a note that you've got another platform choice to consider. Thanks, Aspyr.

Last week, we told you of the rumor that Guitar Hero III would be getting a handful of new classic rock tunes. This morning has proven it to be true, with Foreigner's "Juke Box Hero," Journey's "Any Way You Want It" and Boston's "Peace of Mind" all landing on Xbox Live for 500 points, or $6.25 in Earth dollars.

What we don't know is if these songs will be appearing on PSN later in the day, but since this is Thursday, we're thinking it's likely. If you're unfamiliar with any of the new tracks (for shame!) we've put samples of them after the break.