A few weeks ago, we mentioned how Activision was giving away Guitar Hero: Van Halen for free when a customer purchased the first initial shipment of Guitar Hero 5. Back then, that was the only the only information we had and we had no clue how players would receive the game. Now we do.
Today, Gamestop received the details on how this will work. According to an employee who works for the retail company, if you purchase either the stand-alone or bundle of Guitar Hero 5, a unique code will be packaged inside the box. From there, you would head over to guitarhero.com/vanhalengameoffer and enter in the code which came with the game. Once this is done, you would then enter in your personal information, like name and address, and after this is all done, Activision will send your free copy of Guitar Hero: Van Halen six weeks later.
Even though you don’t get the free game right away, it sounds like you should get it sometime in November, which is about a month and a half earlier from the actual release of Van Halen.
I’ll be honest, since Neversoft took over development of the Guitar Hero franchise from Harmonix, I became less interested in the series. I felt Harmonix had more of a passion creating a music game, and I thought they absolutely proved this when Rock Band was released. Especially if you compared Rock Band to Guitar Hero: World Tour. But this deal seems too good to pass up and I think I might have to bite at this promotion.
Up top is the first trailer for Guitar Hero: Van Halen if anyone cares. This is like what? The 87 Guitar Hero that will be released this year? I dunno, I do love my rhythm games and all, but a Van Halen game seems rather…. irrelevant. Its not like I don’t enjoy the legendary band; I’ve seen them in concert, but I have no interest in owning a Guitar Hero game inspired by them. If I were to choose a popular 80’s band to have a videogame based around a group, it probably would have to be Guns N’ Roses.
Just like other Guitar Hero games named after bands, this version includes other groups. You would think since Activision decides to do this, they would at least hand picked a group that would be similar to Van Halen. But why on earth is Blink-182 included, among other similar artist?
With what seems like an endless amount of rhythm games coming out this year, Guitar Hero: Van Halen is probably the least one talked about. To be honest, I keep on forgetting about the game until its brought up for whatever reason. It’s not because I don’t like Van Halen, but I think a videogame based off the famous group seems a tad irrelevant these days.
That said, Activision has announced the release date for Guitar Hero: Van Halen and will be the last Guitar Hero franchise game to come out this year. On December 22, 2009, players can finally pretend to be David Lee Roth, which has been a dream for many gamers I’m sure.
The title will be available on the PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, Wii and PlayStation 2. After the jump, check out the full track list. (more…)
Activision has announced its fall lineup of rhythm games, and it is a lot of titles. DJ Hero, Guitar Hero 5, Band Hero, and the rumored Guitar Hero Van Halen are all expected by the publisher to be released later this year.
DJ Hero is promised to expand Activision’s music genre, and will support its own turntable controller (see above). Players will get a diverse mixture of music including electronica, dance, hip-hop and more. Instead of the players trying to become a legend in the Rock scene, they will now try to be the king of the night clubs.
Guitar Hero 5, will be a direct sequel to the companies famous and most successful music franchise. Like in the previous games, gamers will try once again build their rock god status, and play at small clubs to large arenas around the world. The game is promised to include songs from today and yesterday. The next installment is going to include a new feature where players will be able to drop songs, change band members, instruments, and levels of difficulty, but doing this ‘all on the fly.’
Band Hero will also be making its debut this year. The publisher goal is to market the title as a fun rhythm game, which the whole family can enjoy. Basically, don’t be surprised to see bands like the Jonas Brothers and artists from American Idol to be include with the game — yuck! I hate to say it, but I hope it fails.
Activision also announced, even though most knew it was already in development, that Guitar Hero Van Halen is indeed coming out. Obviously, the title will feature many songs from the large collection that band has recorded over the years. Along with that, the company confirmed Queen, Blink-182, The Offspring, Queens of the Stone Age and many more will be included with the game.
I would also like to personally congratulate Activision for breaking the record of releasing games with the word ‘Hero’ in the name, and doing this all in one year. That is an amazing accomplishment.
During the GDC in San Francisco last week, senior designer of Harmonix Dan Teasdale held a keynote panel. During the session, a PDF slide show was shown to the audience. However, at least one of the slides was not presented to the crowed. Kotaku uncovered the missing picture and it had something very interesting, that might have confirmed a possible game in the works.
If you check out the picture above, this was the graphic that was supposed to be shown off, but decided by the company to be scrapped. If you study it, you can obviously tell the point of the slide is to show what ‘guitar/instruments’ music games have come out and will come out in the future. Pretty much every title has been announced; however, some of them have only been rumored. The most notable game yet to be revealed on the list is the Lego Rock Band. The Lego version of RB has been talked about for sometime, but has not been unveiled. According to many sources, Traveller’s Tales has been rumored to be developing it, but everything thus far is only speculation. Although now, it looks like a pretty safe bet Lego Rock Band will indeed be released. When? Well that remains to be seen. But if we go by the graphic — we should see it before or around the same time the Beatles Rock Band game is in stores, which is on 9/9/09.
We should also note that if you look at the same picture, you will see the letters “GH:VH.” I think that is a pretty strong indication that would translate to the rumored ‘Guitar Hero: Van Halen.” Although, how Dan Teasdale knows about the Activision published title is a tad strange.
How many Guitar Hero’s can Activision bust out in one year? As of now, they have confirmed three separate titles for 2009, including the arcade version. Their big one is obviously Guitar Hero: Metallica, which comes out at the end of the month. Apparently they could even have a more successful band ready to come out with their own rhythm game by years end. According to a dtoid reader, Game Crazy is listing in their POS a Guitar Hero: Van Halen, to prove this — he decided to snap a photo. As of now, this is only a rumor — but a reliable one at that. It should also be noted that the screen only shows a regular version and not a bundle. But if this ends up being real, we’re pretty sure we will see a package including all the instruments.
If Guitar Hero: Van Halen does indeed come out, that would mean Activision plans on releasing four totals GH games in 2009. Talk about milking a franchise…that has to be some kind of record, right?
