GUITAR HERO III DROPKICK MURPHY TRACK PACK NOW AVAILABLE

In honor of Saint Patrick's Day, a free song pack from Dropkick Murphy for the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 versions of Guitar Hero III is now available for download via the Xbox Live Marketplace and PlayStation Store.

• Guitar Hero III – Official website 

PLAYSTATION 3 GUITAR HERO III BOSS BATTLE SONG PACK NOW AVAILABLE

If you've got the PlayStation 3 version of Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock and have been waiting for the "Boss Battles" download pack that Xbox 360 users have been enjoying for the past week or so, your wait is over. The Guitar Hero III "Boss Battle" Song Pack is now available through the PlayStation Store as a free download. Approximate file size is 78mb.

Just don't hold your breath hoping for the Halo 3 Mjolnir Mix track to show up for the PS3, okay? Enjoy!

• Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock – Official website

FREE HALO 3 THEME SONG FOR XBOX 360 GUITAR HERO III

Okay, so I'm really late on this one – I meant to post it over the Thanksgiving weekend, but obviously that didn't happen due to issues involving gluttony and tryptophan. What I'm talking about here is the long-rumored release of the Halo 3 theme for the Xbox 360 version of Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock.

While some may gripe that it was first rumored to be a downloadable track for Guitar Hero II, the fact remains that it was never officially promised by Microsoft, Bungie or Activision, so it's not like GHII owners are missing out on something that they were told they'd be getting by anyone other than the internet water cooler.

While the news about the Halo 3 track is good, the second part of the announcement is even better… it's a free download. If you've got the 360 version of GHIII, you've got no excuse to head over to the Xbox Live Marketplace and add this one to your hard drive. Get to it!

• Guitar Hero III – Official website
• Guitar Hero III: Halo Theme Mjolnir Mix (Free) – Major Nelson

XBOX 360 GUITAR HERO III: LEGENDS OF ROCK DEMO NOW AVAILABLE

A demo of Activision’s Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock for the Xbox 360 is now available for download in all regions via the Xbox Live Marketplace. Download size is approximately 544.82MB.

• Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock – Official website

IS THE XBOX 360 GUITAR HERO II X-PLORER GUITAR DEFECTIVE?

There have been numerous complaints across the internet regarding the X-plorer guitar included with the Xbox 360 version of Guitar Hero II, and yesterday word began to circulate that RedOctane’s customer service had notified someone that there were two (2) models of guitar that were in fact defective.

The reported problem with the guitars, aside from having the worst back button in the history of the franchise, is that the whammy bar is partially or totally unresponsive, the yellow fret button sticks, the “tilt” function for Star Power works, but only sporadically and that some form of issue with the strummer exists, be it that it’s too loose, too tight, doesn’t work, etc. (For those wondering about my comment regarding the back button, that’s the button used to activate Star Power if you don’t feel like tilting the guitar – and it’s miniscule and recessed on the X-plorer)

According to Kotaku, one of their readers got the following response to his queries regarding some of the issues he was having with his controller;

“We have isolated this issue to two model numbers that can be found on the guitar’s packaging. The numbers are 95065 and 95055. We are asking that customers who puchased their items from a retailer perform an exchange with that respective store (for a model number other than the defective two listed above). Customer’s who purchased through our online story can complete an rma request for their defective item and we will exchange it for a fully function guitar controller. We do apologize for the inconvenience and will [resolve] these matters.” – Quote from RedOctane customer support as per the Kotaku article

Since my guitar is a 95055 and it most certainly has lag issues with the whammy-bar, I started to look to see if there was any official word regarding that comment. In searching through RedOctane’s site and the official Guitar Hero forums, I couldn’t find anything other than links back to the Kotaku article or other sites that had picked up on that quote. There was no official comment from RedOctane to be found.

Here is what I did find in my search for answers;

1. It appears that there are only two models of guitar – the 95055 and 95065. The few sites that stated the box they had said “95067” advised that the guitar inside was labeled as a 95065.
2. I Called my local Gamestop (where I bought the game) and they advised they haven’t heard anything about the issues with the guitars or any kind of a recall / return request.

Given the horror stories about some of the guitars and the fact that mine, while off, isn’t badly off, I’m really inclined to hold onto it for a few more days until someone knows something concrete as I’d hate to bring it back and get one that’s even worse. (Especially since the only guitars out there are apparently the problematic 95055 and 95065 models)

So, is RedOctane really asking people to return their guitars? I don’t know. I know I’ll be holding onto mine at least until next week in hopes that someone makes an official, on the record, statement about this whole mess.

• Red Octane Responds To Defective 360 Guitars– Kotaku
• Red Octane says two Xbox guitar models “defective” – Joystiq
• Official Guitar Hero forums – Guitarherogame.com