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In celebration of the success of the Guitar Hero game series and leading into the launch of Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock, Activision has announced the release of nearly every song from the series on the iTunes Store. Guitar Hero Essentials includes a selection of over 1,300 songs featured in the games.

From "Surrender" to "Welcome to the Jungle," to "Carry On Wayward Son," nearly every song to appear in the Guitar Hero franchise has been gathered. A newly recorded version of "Anarchy in the U.K." which the Sex Pistols recently recorded for Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock, is also available as a separate track. The series also includes Artist and Genre Essentials custom-created especially for guitar fans. Titles include Shredders, Live Guitar Heroics, Killer Guitar Solos and Guitar Anthems of the '80s with tracks from Aerosmith, Guns 'N' Roses, Rage Against the Machine, Metallica, the Rolling Stones, Jimi Hendrix and Pearl Jam. Additionally, iTunes will be offering guitar-themed playlists from guitar legends Steve Jones of The Sex Pistols and Slash of Guns 'N' Roses and Velvet Revolver so fans can download the legends' favorite anthems.

"Guitar Hero fans have been clamoring for increased accessibility to their favorite songs from the set lists," said Dusty Welch, head of publishing for Activision/RedOctane(R). "Where there's music, there's Guitar Hero, and with iTunes, we are able to provide fans with a central location for downloading their favorite rock anthems."

iTunes: Guitar Hero Essentials

Aspyr Media

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Today Inside Mac Games has posted an interview regarding Aspyr Media's upcoming title, Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock. In this interview, we discuss with Glenda Adams, lead programmer at Aspyr, the ins and outs regarding this once console-exclusive game.

Here's a clip:

MP: This is one game I never thought we'd see on the Mac. Has it been a challenge converting a console title to Mac OS X?

GA: This is the first Xbox 360 game to be ported to the Mac, which presents quite a few technical challenges. The 360 has 3 CPU cores, and to take advantage of that Guitar Hero III is very multi-threaded. Getting all of those threads to work well on the normal dual-core Intel Mac has been a challenge. There are also lots of graphics effects that the game relies on special 360 video hardware to perform (shared video memory primarily) that have had to be re-written for the Mac & PC. At first you'd think that Guitar Hero III would be a very simple game - you watch the notes come down the fret board on screen and hit the buttons accordingly. But the extra action going on (the band, the crowd, pyrotechnics, etc) and the fact that the game has to run at a very consistent and high frame rate, because it is so timing dependent, adds up to a lot of work. And on top of all of this, we only started development in May/June, so we've had to do quite a bit in a very short time.

Aspyr Media

IMG Interview: Guitar Hero III

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Sillysoft's annual Luxtoberfest event is drawing to a close. Throughout the month of October the company has been hosting tournaments and contests in celebration of its strategy based world domination game, Lux. The winners of the 2007 Lux Awards will be announced live in an online Lux room this Sunday, October 28th.

You have until the night before to send in your votes for the best maps, generators, and AI of the year. You can see the list of all this year's maps and plugins at the Sillysoft site.

The award ceremony is a yearly highlight of Lux and will be taking place on Sunday October 28th, at 1 PM Pacific / 4 PM Eastern / 8 PM UK / 9 PM Europe time. Click the Show Network Games button inside Lux, select the Luxtoberfest host and click Join Game to attend.

It will start on time, so you're advised to show up 5 minutes early. I hope to see you there.

Sillysoft: Contest Entries

Sillysoft

Lux Delux

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Psychic Software and the Darkwind: War On Wheels developers have announced a Halloween special for the 3D cross platform massively multiplayer online wargame. Scouting events, normally a feature available to subscribers only, will will be free for non-subscribers from October 31st, 12 pm to November 1st, 12 pm GMT.

We will provide free vehicles for all, as you may remember, non-subscribers are not allowed to own vehicles and customize them. You will have to bring your own gang members though. This is a unique opportunity to test this part of the game, that is not otherwise available, and to meet our special squad of Halloween vehicles!

What are you waiting for? if you are not yet a player, register now for free, train... train... and train again yourself to be ready. Once done, head on to Dexter's to hire a few more characters.

We are looking to meet you outside the town on Halloween!

Darkwind: War On Wheels

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Applelinks recently posted a new review of Command & Conquer 3: Tiberium Wars. One of several Cider powered titles recently released for Intel Macs by Electronic Arts, C&C 3: TW continues the award winning RTS series. Applelinks gave the game a perfect score of 5 out of 5.

From the review:

For an RTS, the levels of Tiberium Wars show a surprising amount of variety. Although the basic flow involves you setting up a base and upgrading soldiers/structures so you can effectively attack an enemy base or defend your own, that won't always be the case. A surprising level early on has you controlling just one soldier as he infiltrates an enemy camp. Reinforcements eventually do arrive, but you get a bonus if you don't use them. Considering that Tiberium Wars offers over 35 single player missions, this variety is quite welcome.

Once you get through the single player missions of Campaign Mode, the game isn't over, of course. You can play through it again as the enemy to get a completely different take on the various levels. There's also Skirmish Mode, in which you play a level as either GDI, Nod or Scrin against one or more computer opponents. And, as always, there's a robust Multiplayer Mode over a local network or online. The interesting thing about multiplayer mode is that you can broadcast your matches for others to watch even if they don't own Command & Conquer (website registration required). Observing matches in which you're not participating serves two important purposes: First, it can help you learn and master additional strategies, and second, it's a good way to observe the action of the game to determine if it's something you'd want to purchase.

Applelinks: C&C 3 Review

Electronic Arts

Command and Conquer 3 Tiberium Wars

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Spiderweb Software has released a new screenshot for Avernum 5. The game is the next installment in the popular Avernum RPG series. The game will feature gameplay improvements, an intricate plot, and larger battles.

Avernum 5 features:

- An enormous world. Hundreds of quests, dozens of dungeons and enemy fortresses, and multitudes of characters.
- Epic storyline. Hunt the assassin Dorikas, while his agents try to trick and waylay you at every turn.
- Many unique encounters. Not just mindless hack and slash. Many unusual enemies that will require clever tactics to defeat.
- Rich game system with over 50 spells and battle disciplines, many character building options, and powerful secret skills to unlock.
- Unique game world. Not just the same old elves and hobbits.
- Experience with previous Avernum games is completely unnecessary to enjoy Avernum 5.

Avernum 5 Screenshots

Spiderweb Software

Avernum 5

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