G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra

Is it wrong to say that I am pumped to see this movie on Saturday? Of course not! It will have no plot and the acting will be terrible, but who cares, its G.I. Joe. While Transformers was a total piece of shit, this will actually be $8 well spent on a summer action flick. An awesome cartoon from my childhood will finally be realized on the big screen exactly the way it was meant to be. Michael Bay is not capable of screwing this project over. It's about time we see something fairly similar to what we remember from the 90's.

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Rock Band DLC 8/4

Wooo Spinal Tap! I'm probably one of the few people actually excited to get this entire album. Only downside is it is the only thing being released this week, which has an odd feeling to it after such a long time of single releases.

We’re at the time of week again – DLC ANNOUNCEMENT TIME! I am very pleased to reveal next week’s awesomosity. What do we have? let’s take a look. Break out your tiny mock Stonehenge because we are bringing you Spinal Tap’s Back From the Dead on 360, PS3 and Wii. Wii also is catching up with Foo Fighters and Black Sabbath. We also haven’t forgotten PSP with some Jane’s Addiction and Styx. Next week kicks ass.

Rock Band DLC Additions for Xbox 360 and PLAYSTATION 3 Systems and Wii Console

The 11 songs that comprised the film’s original soundtrack were recently re-imagined and newly interpreted by the band for its latest CD Back From The Dead. The end result is that England’s Loudest Heavy Metal Band, Spinal Tap, has never sounded better. Back From The Dead also features six brand new songs including “Back from the Dead,” “Rock ‘n’ Roll Nightmare” and “Warmer Than Hell” which are already available in the Rock Band Music Store and an hour-long DVD featuring band commentary. This is Spinal Tap is now available on Blu-Ray from MGM Home Entertainment.

Tracks available on Xbox 360 and Wii (Aug. 4) and PLAYSTATION 3 system (Aug. 6):

Spinal Tap “(Funky) Sex Farm”
Spinal Tap “(Listen to the) Flower People (Reggae Stylee)”
Spinal Tap “America”
Spinal Tap “Big Bottom”
Spinal Tap “Cups and Cakes”
Spinal Tap “Gimme Some Money”
Spinal Tap “Heavy Duty”
Spinal Tap “Hell Hole”
Spinal Tap “Rock ‘n’ Roll Creation”
Spinal Tap “Stonehenge”
Spinal Tap “Tonight I’m Gonna Rock You Tonight”

(All tracks are original master recordings from Back From The Dead recording sessions.)

These tracks will be available for purchase as part of the “Spinal Tap’s TAP TEN” or as individual tracks on Xbox 360 and PLAYSTATION 3 systems.

Price:
$1.99 USD, £.99 UK, €1.49 EU (160 Microsoft Points for Xbox 360) per track
$17.99 (1440 Microsoft Points for Xbox 360) for “Spinal Tap’s TAP TEN”
$2.00 USD, (200 Wii Points) per track

Wii Back-Catalog Additions
Additionally, tracks from Black Sabbath and Foo Fighters will be available Aug. 4 in the Wii Rock Band Music Store. These tracks come from the catalog of Rock Band music already released to owners of Xbox 360 and PLAYSTATION 3 system. With the addition of these tracks, there are now more than 450 tracks in the Wii Rock Band Music Store.

Additional tracks available for Wii (Aug. 4):

Black Sabbath “N.I.B.” *
Black Sabbath “Sweet Leaf” *
Black Sabbath “War Pigs” *
Foo Fighters “Doll”
Foo Fighters “Enough Space”
Foo Fighters “February Stars”
Foo Fighters “Hey, Johnny Park!”
Foo Fighters “Monkey Wrench”
Foo Fighters “My Hero”
Foo Fighters “My Poor Brain”
Foo Fighters “New Way Home”
Foo Fighters “See You”
Foo Fighters “Up in Arms”
Foo Fighters “Walking After You”
Foo Fighters “Wind Up”

(* Denotes cover version)

Price:
$2.00 USD, (200 Wii Points) per track

Rock Band Unplugged Tracks for PSP®System
Rock Band Unplugged fans will enjoy the addition of Jane’s Addiction’s “Had a Dad” and Styx’s “Renegade” to the 25 tracks already available via the Rock Band Unplugged in-game music store for the PSP® (PlayStation®Portable) system.

Tracks available for Rock Band Unplugged (Aug. 6):

Jane’s Addiction “Had a Dad”
Styx “Renegade”

Price:
$1.99, £.99 UK, €1.49 EU per track on the PSP system>

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Ion Drum Rocker Is Here

Today was quite the exciting day. My Ion Drum Rocker set arrived around noon and I've been busy ever since.



The box itself is a bit bigger than Rock Band drumkits, but it weighs a lot more (over 30 pounds). Previous people have commented on packaging, and they're true. This set has tons of cardboard and barely any Styrofoam. Every item is neatly packaged in its own box, all of them clearly labeled as well. Within that, most are in some kind of plastic wrapping. Simply put, once all the items are taken out, there will be very little roam to work with.






Putting the kit together was very quick and easy. Everything is easily put together, and all the tools needed to do so are included. I'd estimate the total time was around 1 hour. After that though, you have to spend time moving the individual drum heads to the proper position. This takes a decent while to figure out. After playing a few songs and doing some minor adjustments I managed to reach the perfect setup.


The kit itself is fantastic. The moment I started playing I already knew this was money well spent. The kit is relatively quiet in comparison to the standard kits. The drum heads make a nice deep thud sound. The rebound is amazing, and the amount of room to work with is great as well. I have been doing noticeably better in the songs I've played since I started using the kit. Things that I would miss in the past can suddenly be done, and best of all, no more dropped notes.

Of course, there are always downsides. Obviously the drumkit is bigger. I'd estimate 50% bigger than the original Rock Band Drumkit. The only real negative that I've found is the bass pedal. It makes this annoying metal vibration every time you press the pedal down. Also, the cymbals are not nearly as responsive as the pads. Overall they won't add much to the game play, but they do complete the experience.

Overall, I totally love the Ion Drum Rocker, and if you're an expert drum player with a original set that is failing, then this is totally worth the investment.

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Champions Online

I am quite excited for this game to come out September 1st. Ever since I quit WoW for good I've been having MMO withdrawals. A few of my friends are also planning on getting it so I already know it will be a decent experience. If you know nothing about Champions Online you should definitely visit the official website. It is a superhero game from the creators of City of Heroes/Villains. This means the developer already has a solid background in making successful MMO's, and even better, it has plenty of experience in creating a superhero MMO. Sadly, after the failure that was AoC, Warhammer and Wotlk I am going into this with relatively low expectations. We'll see how it is in 9 days (I got lucky and secured one of the beta keys in the recent giveaway). I am sure the NDA will still be in place at that point though, so sadly I will not be able to openly talk about it.

In other news, I fixed my bass pedal with two butter knives. Hopefully this lasts until I receive my Ion Drum Set.

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Ion Drum Rocker

So I finally pulled the trigger on the Ion Drum Rocker kit for Rock Band. I've been really tempted to buy it since I first heard about it last summer, but the lack of money always kept it a dream. Luckily, things have turned around and the price has dropped a bit so I went ahead and bought it from Walmart ($267 out the door). It is supposed to arrive sometime next week and I am already stocking up on DLC that is fantastic for drums. I plan on giving it a proper review after a few days of playing it.

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Rock Band DLC Week 7/28

The latest DLC for Rock Band has been announced:

Hey everybody,

Early announce today as all of HMX will be on a boat today (for real,I’ll even take pictures). Here is the master list of all the DLC coming out for all the systems. 360 and PS3 are getting Weezer, Blink 182, Kiss, and Damone. Wii is catching up at a blistering pace with Mötley Crüe , Kings of Leon, Rancid, Rise Against and more. And on the PSP? How about some James Gang and Alien Ant Farm? Does that work? Yeah it does.

Tracks available on Xbox 360 (July 28) and PLAYSTATION 3 system (July 30):

Blink-182 “Down”‘
Blink-182 “Feeling This”
Blink-182 “The Rock Show”
Damone “Out Here All Night”
KISS “100,000 Years (Live)”
KISS “Deuce (Live)”
KISS “Parasite (Live)”
Weezer “My Name is Jonas” (Sorry it’s a link to a GH video, it’s the only studio recording I could find on Youtube)
Weezer “Pork and Beans”
Weezer “Undone – The Sweater Song”

(All tracks are original master recordings)

These tracks will be available for purchase as part of the “Blink-182 Pack 01,” “Weezer Pack 01,” “KISS Pack 01” or as individual tracks on Xbox 360 and PLAYSTATION 3 systems.

Price: $1.99 USD, £.99 UK, €1.49 EU (160 Microsoft Points for Xbox 360) per track
$5.49, £2.49 UK, €3.99 EU (440 Microsoft Points for Xbox 360) for “Blink-182 Pack 01,” “Weezer Pack 02” or “KISS Pack 01”

Wii Additions
Additionally, tracks from Kings of Leon, Rancid, Rise Against and Lush, as well as back-catalog tracks from Children of Bodom, Finley, Mötley Crüe, Platero y Tú, Squeeze and Tokio Hotel will be available July 28 in the Wii Rock Band Music Store. These tracks come from the catalog of Rock Band music already released to owners of Xbox 360 and PLAYSTATION 3 system. With the addition of these tracks, there are now more than 425 tracks in the Wii Rock Band Music Store.

Additional tracks available for Wii (July 28):

Kings of Leon “Crawl”
Kings of Leon “Molly’s Chambers”
Kings of Leon “Sex on Fire”
Rancid “Last One to Die”
Rancid “Ruby Soho”
Rancid “Time Bomb”
Rise Against “Prayer of the Refugee”
Rise Against “Re-Education (Through Labor)”
Rise Against “Savior”
Lush “Sweetness & Light”
Children of Bodom “Are You Dead Yet”
Finley “Tutto è Possibile
Mötley Crüe “Don’t Go Away Mad (Just Go Away)”
Mötley Crüe “Dr. Feelgood”
Mötley Crüe “Kickstart My Heart”
Mötley Crüe “Rattlesnake Shake”
Mötley Crüe “Same Ol’ Situation (S.O.S)”
Mötley Crüe “She Goes Down”
Mötley Crüe “Slice Of Your Pie”
Mötley Crüe “Sticky Sweet”
Mötley Crüe “Time For Change”
Mötley Crüe “Without You”
Platero y Tú “Hay Poco Rock & Roll”
Squeeze “Tempted”
Tokio Hotel “Ready, Set, Go!”

(All tracks are original master recordings)

Price: $2.00 USD, (200 Wii Points) per track

Rock Band Unplugged Tracks for PSP®System
Rock Band Unplugged fans will enjoy the addition of James Gang’s “Funk #49” and Alien Ant Farm’s “Smooth Criminal” to the 23 tracks already available via the Rock Band Unplugged in-game music store for the PSP® (PlayStation®Portable) system.

Tracks available for Rock Band Unplugged (July 30):

James Gang “Funk #49”
Alien Ant Farm “Smooth Criminal”

Price: $1.99, £.99 UK, €1.49 EU per track on the PSP system

** Dates for Rock Band game tracks are tentative and subject to change. **

Personally I am quite excited for KISS and Damone. However, I've never been a fan of Blink 182, and Weezer is ok, but it will ultimately come down to how good the charts are. All in all, this is a very solid week and I hope Harmonix keeps up with the good releases.

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Play us out, keyboard cat

Quite possibly one of the greatest shirts in recent times has finally begun printing. I present to you Keyboard Cat being sold on Threadless.




I am quite surprised it took so long for someone to create a design like this seeing the immense popularity the short clip has had on the internet.

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