With a killer fourth quarter of blockbuster releases rapidly solidifying street dates, gamers can start planning their end-of-the-year game purchases around paycheck dates and frequency limitations on selling plasma for medical research. One more highly anticipated title might have carved out a calendar space, as online retailers including GameStop and CD Universe are listing Sunday, October 28 as the launch date of Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock.

While retailers often post speculative or placeholder release dates on their sites, GameStop seems especially comfortable with the October 28 date; the site is guaranteeing users delivery on that date (despite it being a Sunday) if they select overnight shipping. A representative with RedOctane told GameSpot that the October 28 date was a tentative release date, and has yet to be officially confirmed.

The retailers also suggest that the price of Guitar Heroics continues to escalate. The PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 guitar-and-game bundles for Legends of Rock are listed with a suggested retail price of just under $100, while the PlayStation 2 and Wii bundles will sell for $90. The PS2 and Xbox 360 Guitar Hero II bundles each debuted for $10 less than their newer counterparts will apparently cost, but those packages came with wired guitars, while Guitar Hero III bundles will feature wireless axes.

Guitar Heroes with immediate shredding needs might have taken a look at the Guitar Hero Encore: Rocks the '80s PlayStation 2 exclusive, but balked on the $50 suggested retail price tag for the 30-song set. Best Buy is currently offering a deal on its online store; those who order the game for $39.99 can also receive a free $15 Best Buy gift card by mail.

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This sounds good to me. I'm not really big on the whole Rockband thing as I find it hard to pay for all those extra controllers and then only use them once or twice. At least with GH2 I've found it to be a lot of fun solo and when the drunks come over.

The Universe at War Beta is scheduled to begin Aug 15th. Sign up at the link below and hopefully you will get into one of the most anticipated RTS games of the year.

http://www.sega.com/games/title/univers ... tatest.php

Grab your stakes and holy water, Castlevania: Symphony of the Night has landed on the PlayStation Store.

Originally released by Konami for the PlayStation in 1997, Symphony of the Night is a throwback to the franchise's 2D roots. You -- a descendant of Dracula -- are charged with locating ol'fang face and giving him the what for. How do you get Bram Stoker's buddy? Packing multiple weapons and some RPG elements, you travel across enormous, side-scrolling maps and battle all sorts of baddies.


Bring it on, evil.
Symphony of the Night can be downloaded for $9.99 and will eat up 356 megabytes of your precious PS3 hard drive or PSP memory stick, but it's totally worth it -- this game's soundtrack, cutscenes, voice acting and gameplay arguably make it one of the PlayStation's best titles.

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I think this is a direct port and not a remake like the XBLA version is. Still that is awesome for PS3 owners.

Red Ring of Death Condolence Card

A smart business person sees a need in the current market and creates a product to fill that gap. Me? I see a need and then think of how I can make a project out of it with crystals. My Master Chief figure wanted to rock out. Problem solved.

XBox 360s continue to break at an alarming rate but I was at a loss on how to adequately relay my sympathies. As a supportive friend, you know you need to say something, you just don’t want to say the wrong thing. You know enough to not say “It was simply her time to go” or “Time heals all wounds”. However in particularly difficult situations the right words are hard to come by. The most important thing is relaying the fact that you are there to support them in their time of need. Enter my latest project.

I present you my “Red Ring of Death Condolence Card”. Problem solved.

Well, the PC version of the game at least unless things change. Here's a post by Epic's Mark Rein:

UT3 does not use Games for Windows LIVE. We have not decided about cross platform play between PC and PS3. We're not 100% sure that users want that feature but if we get time we'll play around with it and see how it works. In the mean time we plan to be able to serve the PS3 from PC servers so that should help us gets lots of great servers going.

Thanks Planet Unreal.

This could be a big blow against Microsoft, but in the end I don't think it will actually make a difference. I think that eventually most games will use Game for Windows Live or Steam, but right now its still up in the air. I also think if they offered a different pricing model then it would be adapted faster, like $4 a month. Its teh same price, but it seems cheaper.

Games are supposed to be fun, right? So why do they make negative headlines so often?

Here at GamePolitics we thought it would be fun to track the most publicized gaming scandals ever and we’d like your help. Check out our Top Ten below and then vote (right sidebar) for your choice of the biggest video game scandal of all time.

25 to Life (2006) - Politicians and police groups decried Eidos’ cops & robbers shooter; game reviewers hated it too, but for a different reason: it sucked

Hot Coffee (2005) - needs no introduction. Cheeky Rockstar programmers left hidden sex animations (accidentally or otherwise) buried in the PS2 code of Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas. Modders made sure they didn’t stay buried for long. Rockstar’s denials only made things worse. And then Hillary got involved…

Xbox 360 Red Rings of Death (2007) - Microsoft hid the extent of the 360’s hardware failures for far too long; even now they won’t say what caused the failures or how widespread the problem is, but it must be a lot because MS has set aside a billion dollars to deal with it

SimCopter (1996) - a gay programmer making a social statement secretly coded animations of men kissing to appear during game play on certain dates; he got fired and Simcopter was re-released without the guy-smooching

Manhunt 2 (2007) - officially banned in the U.K. and effectively banned by an AO rating stateside; was it the intense violence level or the ESRB’s payback to Take Two for Hot Coffee? Either way, this drama is ongoing as T2 reviews its options

PS3 Launch (2006) - fights, riots, shootings - and we’re not talking about the games - these were the unanticipated features of the PS3 launch, fueled by system shortages and over hyped consumer expectations

Columbine (1999) - when it was revealed that Dylan Harris and Eric Klebold were fans of Doom, the news fueled a firestorm of criticism over game violence that reached the Clinton White House and continues even now.

Resistance: Fall of Man (2007) - When religious leaders at Manchester Cathedral learned that PS3 launch title Resistance: Fall of Man included a level based on the interior of the house of worship they demanded a recall, drawing a dubious linkage between Resistance and local gun violence in Manchester. The story made international headlines and earned criticism from then-Prime Minister Tony Blair and Parliament. Sony issued an apology, but officials still aren’t satisfied.

Super Columbine Massacre RPG (2006) - Designer Danny Ledonne wanted to use the video game medium to explore the reasons behind the Columbine shootings; Although some acclaimed Ledonne’s effort, others hated it; the game was blamed by some for Kimveer Gill’s shooting rampage at Montreal’s Dawson College and made more headlines when officials of the Slam dance Competition yanked SCMRPG from the event.

Night Trap (1993) - the bloody Sega CD offering featured down on her luck actress Dana Plato and became the subject of hearings in the U.S. Senate over its violence; the controversy helped launch the ESA and, ultimately, the ESRB.

There’s no doubt we left out some scandals, but we had to whittle the list down to ten. If we missed your favorite, feel free to let us know in comments, or use the “other” box on the poll.

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This article sounds like they just did a Google search and threw it together. Only 3 were not from the most recent 3 years. This business is over 30 years old, I imagine there has been a lot more juicy "scandals".

BTW I had to correct 4 spelling errors in that article. Not good for the ECA....

This looks like a good RTS game. I mean who the hell doesn't want to control giant walking mechs as they shuffle along destroying armies. It has always been very satisfying for me to use one LARGE unit and squash others like flies.