Gamedrop

Will Skate Rock Harder?

A lot of sites are reporting that EA’s Skate could be the next-gen Tony Hawk-killer that true boarders have been looking forward to for years. With today’s announcement of the Skate soundtrack it looks like EA is going for the jugular since the music in the Tony Hawk games has always been one its biggest selling points. However, Skate apparently has a lot of bases covered, with the old (Ramones and Sex Pistols), the new (The Falcon, The White Stripes), the hardcore (Bad Brains, The Dwarves, and Slayer) and everything in between (Nirvana, N.W.A., ZZ Top). Hit the jump for the entire, awesome lineup.

Gene Simmons Brings Tongue, Self to Guitar Hero II 360 Event in NYC

As Major Nelson announced last week, today Gene Simmons made a special appearance at Times Square's Virgin Mega Store, which happens to be right across the street from our offices. We waded through the crowds to get a glimpse of the KISS guitar hero with the um, Guitar Hero 360 controller. Also at the event were the nation's top five Guitar Hero gamers who jammed onstage in front of many bewildered tourists. The highest scorer, which in this case was J.W. McNay, got to play "Strutter" with Simmons (Simmons played on his own ax... literally shaped like an ax). The kid also got a custom-made 360 controller signed by Simmons. Except for the fact that I was in the same building as a member of KISS, it was pretty odd and uneventful. And Major Nelson was nowhere to be seen... For more of pics, make the jump.

Music Games Get On The Band Wagon

I have no musical talent whatsoever. I’m tone deaf. Even my heartbeat has no rhythm (I should probably have that checked out). But I'm a gamer and can still fullfill my pop star dreams with all the music games coming out lately. It seems like since the insane popularity of Guitar Hero, a dozen different publishers have jumped on the music game bandwagon. That's just fine with me. I'm looking forward to Jam Sessions (DS, Ubisoft) an acoustic guitar sim that lets you create music instead of just following the rhythm. There’s also two new beat-making games, Traxxpad (PSP, Eidos), which lets you record your own voice to add to the mix and Beatarator (PSP, Rockstar) that'll include samples by hotshot hip-hop producer Timbaland. Plus, I can continue pretending I know how to play a guitar when Guitar Hero 80's Edition (PS2, Activision) drops in June. And SingStar Pop (PS2, Sony) will feed my karaoke addiction when it comes out in the late spring. Not to mention the mystery project in the works between EA and Harmonix/MTV Games (developers of Guitar Hero and Karaoke Revolution). There’s widespread speculation about this game: Will it be Drummer Hero? Band Hero? Keyboard Hero? Well, I'm an MTV intern, and I’ve seen and tried out an early build of this mystery game (heh, gotta love the perks!). Obvious conflict of interest here, but I can only say that it’s really, really, really cool and my rock star aspirations will be virtually satisfied well into next year.

Live From GDC: Face the Music

With the Game Developers Conference, you pay your money and you take your chances. Most of the seminars are at least salvageable, with some educational or entertainment value.

Other seminars are an hour of your life that you will never, ever get back.

Yesterday, I stumbled into a talk that was humorously titled by its speaker, "Music Licensing for the Jilted Generation." That was the most interesting thing about the talk.

I know nothing about music licensing. And when I left, I knew less than nothing. The man spent ten minutes reading off the features of the PlayStation 3 game SingStar.

The moral of the story: Follow the crowd. If a speaker attracts an audience so small you couldn't even field a baseball team, he's for sure someone you don't want to listen to...

YOU ICEHOLE!

What self-respecting junket whore would pass up a chance to stay in a hotel made entirely of ice? So when EA Canada invited us to Quebec to demo SSX Blur at Quebec's Hotel de Glace, we jumped and brought along The G-Hole crew for some, ahem, cold play.

EA Wants You... To Give Them More Money

Here's my problem: Every time I cruise at 124 mph down crowded city streets I feel a little incomplete. What starts off as a fun and adventurous Need for Speed-inspired Sunday afternoon drive filled with unlimited potential for mirth and merriment always ends a being bit emotionally unfulfilling, and I've finally figured out why--THE MUSIC!! It's very difficult to fully embrace the joy of dodging pedestrians at three times the legal speed limit when the only thing on the radio is the latest from Yanni. Fortunately for me -- and every other driver out there who thinks that "road rage" is just a heightened sense of awareness -- times are a-changing.

Electronic Arts -- in an effort to finally realize their goal of having more money than God -- has announced that, starting today, all the kick-ass tunes from their best-selling titles will be available for download here, taking their whole "It's In The Game" catchphrase to a whole new level. Check out the entire story here. 

Now if you'll excuse me, I've got some downloading to do. I have a 5 o'clock flag football game against the 11 year-olds who live on my block, and I'd love to show 'em who's boss while rocking out to a little Good Charlotte.

IBoy!

Behold the iBoy, a functioning Apple iPod built from twigs and used Chinese newspapers.

Actually, the iBoy is a fusion of the original Nintendo Game Boy and iPod. It's a cool music player that pays homage to video gaming's roots. It's also a neat piece of homemade engineering.

You can build your very own iBoy by following its creators instructions here.