Guitar Hero Warriors will be getting nine new tracks. Check them out below:

The Modern Rock Mega Pack, available beginning today, features the following songs:

• “Sorrow” by Bad Religion
• “Sic Transit Gloria… Glory Fades” by Brand New
• “She’s A Genius” by Jet
• “Supermassive Black Hole” by Muse
• “Psycho” by Puddle Of Mudd
• “Little Sister” by Queens Of The Stone Age
• “Always” by Saliva
• “Hands Open” by Snow Patrol
• “Headstrong” by Trapt

The Modern Rock Mega Pack is available on Xbox LIVE for 1320 Microsoft Points, on the PSN for  £13.99 and for Wii for 1650 Wii Points .

That’s right after many Guitar Hero titles being released, Activision has driven the franchise into the ground and has now chosen to shutdown the Guitar Hero business.  With Activision trying to get as much out of the franchise as possible releasing as many games a year as they could added with the competition of the Rockband franchise, Guitar Hero which started it all is no more.  Along with the franchise, 7 Studios has also been closed down which was acquired by Activision in 2009 working on the DJ Hero titles.  Lawsuits have been made and it is a big but inevitable mess.  Next will be the Call of Duty franchise if I had to guess with now three different developers working on that franchise.  This has also lead to the discontinued support for any future DLC for Guitar Hero and DJ Hero after February.

Ten song mega pack for Guitar Hero Warriors of Rock has been announced by Activision. Available now and featuring hits from metal legends Black Label Society and rock icon Marilyn Manson, a track from Children Of Bodom’s soon to be released studio album, Relentless Reckless Forever and Firewind.

In anticipation of the upcoming 8th March release of Relentless Reckless Forever, F Children of Bodom will rock fans with three tracks for the Guitar Hero Music Library this month, including early, exclusive access to “Was It Worth It, ”the first single off their forthcoming album. Rounding out the February Mega Pack’s offerings from Children on Bodom are “Living Dead Beat,” from their fifth studio album, Are You Dead Yet?, and “Blooddrunk,” off their similarly titled 2008 album, Blooddrunk.

Returning to the Guitar Hero music library for a second encore with three tracks in the February Mega Pack is  Marilyn Manson. Known for their uniquely theatrical performances, the pack contains “Get Your Gunn,” the first official single off the band’s debut album, Portrait of an American Family, “Tourniquet” from their second full length studio record, Antichrist Super star and “Coma White,” off their 1998 disc, Mechanical Animals.

Last but not least, international power metal sensations, Firewind, make their Guitar Hero debut with the inclusion of “World On Fire” from their Days of Defiance album exclusively in the February Mega Pack.

The arena’s are bigger and better than ever before!

The storyline is as follows: The Rockstar has been imprisoned by the Beast, and his Legendary Guitar is missing. So it is up to 6 characters from previous Guitar Hero games as well as 2 new ones to reclaim the guitar, free the Rockstar, and ultimately kill the Beast. The only slight niggle I found, is that the storyline seems a little “cartoony” at times. But then Guitar Hero has never been a serious, story-heavy franchise. We just want to rock! *Metallllllllllllllllll*

Each character has a specific power move – similar to the power-up’s in Versus Battles in previous games, such as Johnny Napalm’s minimum 2x multiplier, and Echo Tesla can generate Star Power for every 10-note streak. These moves are used to gain Power Stars that count toward that character’s transformation. Once enough stars are earned in a chapter, that character will transform into their Warrior form and their power will be upgraded. Then an encore will be played to complete the transformation. Once the first four characters have been transformed, it’s onwards to what is probably the best venue in the Guitar Hero series, Rush’s 2112 venue. Here you play through all 7 parts of Rush’s epic rock anthem “2112” in a row with all four characters’ powers combined and in several different locations that correspond to the story of the song, with the members of Rush providing narration in between each part. Once all 7 parts are completed, the Legendary Guitar is now yours, and it is now time to recruit the other warriors. You also get the right to play 2112 in Quickplay+.

Each character’s ‘Warrior’ incarnation presents a different side of them…

Once all 8 warriors have been transformed, it is time for the final battle with the Beast. It’s a three-song set, and you will be playing the three Megadeth songs in the game. The warriors are split up into 2 bands of four members, each band taking one of the first two songs. The first band will take the first song, which is “Holy Wars…The Punishment Due,” and the second band will take the second song, which is “This Day We Fight!” In each song, all the powers of the band members are combined, and it is up to you to score 20 power stars to charge up the Legendary Guitar and deliver a crushing blow to the Beast. When you score 20 stars on both songs (for a total of 40), the Rockstar will awaken and he will take over the final segment of the battle, combining all 8 powers at once on the brand-new Megadeth song recorded specifically for the game, “Sudden Death.” Afterwards, the beast will die and you are awarded with what is probably the cheesiest credit sequence in the series. Another very minor drawback of the Quest Mode is you don’t even get to play a song during the credits.

However, you do get a reward for killing the Beast. First of all, you unlock “Sudden Death” for play in Quickplay+, and you will also unlock the Rockstar setlist, which contains some of the single hardest songs in the game, and a few of the hardest songs in the Guitar Hero series, but more on that later. In addition, you will unlock Domination Mode, in which you go back and play each character’s chapters again with all 8 powers combined and try to score the maximum 40 stars on each song. Extra rewards will be unlocked for dominating a character’s chapter, as well as Achievements. That’s it for Quest Mode, now it’s on to the heart of the action in Quickplay+. Like in Guitar Hero 5, you can play with any combination of band members, whether it be 2 guitars and 2 drums, or 1 guitar, 2 basses, and 1 singer, or your normal standard band with a guitar, bass, drums, and vocals.

…as well as paying tribute to rock legends 😉

What puts the Plus in Quickplay+ is the added features. Each song has several challenges attached to it for each instrument, much like in GH5‘s career mode. Some examples include up-strumming an entire song on bass or hitting as many notes in a guitar solo as you can, or simply hitting as many notes in a row as you can. One challenge that is common for all songs on all instruments is the high score challenge, where you just go for as high a score as you can possibly get. You can get up to 3 stars per challenge (1 star for completing a challenge at Gold level, 2 stars for Platinum, and 3 stars for Diamond), and there are 12 challenges for each song (except for songs with missing parts), so you can get up to 42 stars in one song (3 stars x 12 challenges + 5 stars for a high score + 1 star for a Full Combo on any instrument). Not only do the on-disc songs have challenges attached to them, but so do all previous Downloadable Content and imports.

Each song also has a “Power Challenge” attached to it, where you combine two of the powers from Quest Mode and score as many stars as you can. I don’t think there is a limit to how many stars you can earn here (I’ve gotten as many as 21 on one song). These powers have been compared to the Perk system in the Call of Duty: Modern Warfare games. Another parallel to Modern Warfare is the new experience system implemented into Quickplay+. Every 10 stars you earn increases your level and unlocks new stuff like instruments for the Character Creator, new venues, new photo galleries, and others. Like in Modern Warfare, the higher you level up, the more stars you need to progress. After level 20, you will need 20 stars to move to the next level instead of 10. All in all, these new additions add a whole new level of gameplay to the game, and I rather enjoyed them.

A cheesy plot, perhaps. But if Brütal Legend taught us anything it’s that Cheese and Awesome go hand-in-hand!

As in Guitar Hero 5, up to four people can play cooperatively online with any band configuration, including duplicate instruments. But that’s only the beginning. Improvements have also been made to the competitive play modes. For example, in Pro Face-Off mode, after certain “checkpoints” in a song, it will show you how far apart you are from the next-ranked player. This is an awesome addition, so you don’t have to look over to your opponent’s side to see how far ahead or behind you are. The additional “Rockfest” modes from Guitar Hero 5 are back in this game as well, including Streakers, Elimination, Perfectionist, Do Or Die, and Momentum. Each mode can be played free-for-all or in teams. There is also a new game called Momentum+, which is described simply as “a harder version of Momentum.” Basically, this version lets you attack your opponent by sending him back to Beginner difficulty with Star Power.

Probably the most important aspect of any music/rhythm game is the actual music that’s featured in the game. In the case of Guitar Hero, you would expect a list of songs that rock on guitar, and this game’s setlist delivers on that in spades! While Guitar Hero 5 kind of fell flat in the setlist department, Warriors of Rock returns the series to its roots with one of the most rock-oriented setlists in a full sequel since Guitar Hero 3, including songs from artists like Slayer, Megadeth, Anthrax, Dragonforce, Steve Vai, Children of Bodom, and one of my favorite guitar shredders of all time, John 5. There are a few duds (Nickelback, Fall Out Boy), but what music game doesn’t have those? It’s impossible to please everyone, but overall the positives outweigh the negatives.

Multiplayer has been cleaned up, and is a crisper and better experience for it.

In the Quest Mode, each character’s chapter contains songs under a specific genre. For example, Johnny Napalm’s setlist is punk-rock oriented, Judy Nails is alternative, Axel Steel is metal, etc. So the Quest Mode is sorted more by genre than by difficulty, but the songs in each set do get harder as you go down the list. Another thing to note about this game’s setlist is that it is HARD, probably the hardest setlist since GH3. So for that reason, this game may not be the best for beginners to start, but it is definitely a welcome challenge for hardcore Guitar Hero veterans. In Quickplay+, you can see the intensity ratings for each song, and you will be surprised to see our first tier-10 songs for both guitar and bass.

Party Play is back, but it doesn’t jump right into it like it did in GH5. Another very minor drawback. But they did improve it by showing a player the intensity rating for the song on their instrument when they jump in. Another feature added is Downloadable Content recommendations where the game tracks which songs you play most often and recommends DLC to match. You can also keep track of all your unlockables through the Rewards Tracker, which also shows what you need to unlock the next item. This is a good way to keep track of your progress, and I rather like it. One more thing to note is that your stats from Guitar Hero 5 and Band Hero, including average multiplier, longest note streak, and even scores for DLC and imports carry over into Warriors of Rock. In your rock record, “Lifetime” stats include values from all 3 games. Another new addition is the option to share scores and achievements on Facebook and Twitter, which can be good or bad depending on how you use those services. If you use them mostly for connecting with other Guitar Hero players, this can be a good thing.

The new direction for the franchise is completed with an updated controller (with customisable inserts, no less)!

If you’ve found recent Guitar Hero games to be lacking a certain ‘Je ne sais quoi’, or if you just want the opportunity to play more complex and more songs, look no further. Warriors of Rock will fill your appetite for epic rock and more. Definitely one to consider buying!

This game was reviewed on the Xbox 360.

Guitar Hero: Warriors of Rock – Megadeth’s “Sudden Death” and Soundgarden’s “Black Rain” – have been nominated for Best Metal Performance and Best Hard Rock Performance, respectively, at the 53rd Annual GRAMMY Awards.

To commemorate these exciting nominations, Guitar Hero is offering a free MP3 of Soundgarden’s “Black Rain,” the previously recorded song that was finished for inclusion in Guitar Hero: Warriors of Rock, exclusively to all of its over two million Facebook fans.

The free download will begin Friday, 14th January, 2011, at 05:01 am GMT and end Sunday, 16th January, 2011, at 16:59 pm GMT.

“From the first time I played Guitar Hero in Paris several years ago until recently getting my ass handed to me playing at an Activision event in San Francisco, this has been the most fun and most rewarding track I have ever written,” said Dave Mustaine of Megadeth.

“We congratulate and are honoured to have worked with the metal legends of Megadeth and rock icons Soundgarden on their GRAMMY nominated songs, which were both uniquely integrated with Guitar Hero: Warriors of Rock,” said Tim Riley, Vice President of Music Affairs, Activision. “From reuniting the Sex Pistols with their re-record of “Anarchy in the UK” to delivering Metallica’s smash-hit Death Magnetic as downloadable content day and date with the record’s release, Guitar Hero continues to be the preeminent interactive music platform, pioneering the music gaming space by bringing new, exclusive content to axe shredders, drummers and fearless frontmen around the world.”

Activision has announced two new DLCs for Guitar Hero: Warriors of Rock and DJ Hero 2.

The KISS-mas Track Pack for Guitar Hero: Warriors of Rock features Rock And Roll All Nite, Detroit Rock City and Calling Dr. Love.

The Linkin Park Mix Pack for DJ Hero 2 contains mixes of The Catalyst (Does It Offend You, Yeah? Remix), When They Come For Me and Pts.OF.Athrty.

The KISS-mas Track Pack costs 440 Microsoft Points on the Xbox 360, $5.50 on PS3 and 550 Wii Points on Wii. Individual tracks cost 160 Microsoft Points, $2 and 200 Wii Points.

The Linkin Park Mix costs 640 Microsoft Points on Xbox 360 and $7.99 on PS3, and all the mixes will be released as downloadable singles on the Wii for 300 Wii Points.

Source

The DJ Hero 2 demo will also have four tracks or mixes rather.  They are:

– The Pussycat Dolls (Featuring Busta Rhymes) ‘Don’t Cha’ Mixed With Pitbull ‘I Know You Want Me (Calle Ocho)’
– Lady Gaga Featuring Colby O’Donis ‘Just Dance’ Mixed With Deadmau5 ‘Ghosts N Stuff’
– MSTRKRFT Featuring N.O.R.E. ‘Bounce’ (Battle Mix)
– Estelle Featuring Kanye West ‘American Boy’ Mixed With Chic ‘Good Times’

DJ hero 2 is out October 19th for the Xbox 360, Playstation 3 and Wii.  Guitar Hero: Warriors of Rock comes out on September 28th for the Xbox 360, Playstation 3 and Wii.

– Full Guitar Hero: Warriors of Rock Track-list
– Full DJ Hero 2 Track-list

“I AM a Warrior of Rock! Younger fans getting exposed to true classic rock songs is one of my personal crusades,” said Alice Cooper. “The new audience listening to the classic songs of today, like “No More Mr. Nice Guy,” will hopefully be inspired to write the classic songs of tomorrow.”

In addition to the exclusive re-recorded classics, Guitar Hero: Warriors of Rock continues to get back to its rockin’ heritage with yet another 20 tracks picked specifically for their killer riffs and intense solos. These tracks will join the previously announced songs for Guitar Hero: Warriors of Rock – the largest on-disc set list ever in a Guitar Hero game – and include:

• Alice Cooper – “No More Mr. Nice Guy”
• Alter Bridge – “Ties That Bind”
• Atreyu – “Ravenous”
• Bad Brains – “Re-Ignition (Live)”
• Blue Öyster Cult – “Burning For You”
• Bush – “Machinehead”
• Deep Purple – “Burn”
• Edgar Winter – “Free Ride”
• Five Finger Death Punch – “Hard To See”
• George Thorogood and The Destroyers – “Move It On Over (Live)”
• Lynyrd Skynyrd – “Call Me The Breeze (Live)”
• Pantera – “I’m Broken”
• Poison – “Unskinny Bop”
• The Ramones – “Theme From Spiderman”
• Rise Against – “Savior”
• The Runaways – “Cherry Bomb”
• Steve Vai – “Speeding”
• Strung Out – “Calling”
• Styx – “Renegade”
• Sum 41 – “Motivation”
• Them Crooked Vultures – “Scumbag Blues”
• The White Stripes – “Seven Nation Army”

The game will have many new features that set it apart from previous entries in the series- Warriors of Rock will have the biggest in game collection of songs, adding 500+ songs to the already massive Guitar Hero Music Library that it will be featuring as well. The game will also feature a story driven Quest Mode, in which, according to the developers, “players will embark on a larger than life, epic rock journey from the stage of CBGBs, the infamous punk-rock club in New York City, to the molten lava fields of rock treachery as eight Guitar Hero characters transform into rock warriors.”

The game will be bundled with an “all-new, show-stopping guitar controller that was inspired and born from the game’s unique art style and specifically made for shredding.”

The Quickplay+ mode will add thirteen new gameplay challenges to each on-disc soundtrack, and most of the tracks are already availible online. Some of the tracks in the disc will be:

• AFI – “Dancing Through Sunday”
• Anthrax – “Indians”
• Avenged Sevenfold – “Bat Country”
• Black Sabbath – “Children Of The Grave”
• Buzzcocks – “What Do I Get?”
• Children Of Bodom – “If You Want Peace… Prepare For War”
• The Cure – “Fascination Street”
• Def Leppard – “Pour Some Sugar On Me (Live)”
• Dethklok – “Bloodlines”
• Dire Straits – “Money For Nothing”
• DragonForce – “Fury of the Storm”
• Drowning Pool – “Bodies”
• Fall Out Boy – “Dance, Dance”
• Foo Fighters – “No Way Back”
• Foreigner – “Feels Like The First Time”
• The Hives – “Tick Tick Boom”
• Jane’s Addiction – “Been Caught Stealing”
• Jethro Tull – “Aqualung”
• KISS – “Love Gun”
• Linkin Park – “Bleed It Out”
• Megadeth – “Sudden Death”
• Metallica & Ozzy Osbourne – “Paranoid (Live)”
• Muse – “Uprising”
• My Chemical Romance – “I’m Not Okay (I Promise)”
• Night Ranger – “ (You Can Still) Rock In America”
• Nine Inch Nails – “Wish”
• The Offspring – “Self Esteem”
• Queen – “Bohemian Rhapsody”
• Rammstein – “Waidmanns Heil”
• The Rolling Stones – “Stray Cat Blues”
• Silversun Pickups – “There’s No Secrets This Year”
• Slayer – “Chemical Warfare”
• Slipknot – “Psychosocial”
• Stone Temple Pilots – “Interstate Love Song”
• ZZ Top – “Sharp Dressed Man (Live)”

Warriors of Rock, like all other Guitar Hero games before it, will be released on the Xbox 360, PS3 and the Wii, though no specefic release date has yet been anounced.