Very into Rock Band and are looking for some new classic songs to jam to? Well, if that’s the case, then today’s your lucky day: MTV Games, Harmonix (joint Rock Band founders) and Apple Corps LTD (copyright owners of the Beatles music; not the iPod company) announced today a whole new game for the Xbox 360, PS3 and Wii that features the legendary British rockers.

Arriving 9/9/09, it will be available as a stand-alone game for $60, and for $250, as a limited edition Rock Band set including the whole package– game, guitar, drums, mic– entirely designed to look like the instruments used by the Beatles. You can also get just the guitar for $100.

The game will also have 45 of the Beatles hits from 1962 through 1969 playable, though as of right now, not much is known about whether you can download those songs for play on your Rock Band 1 or 2 as well as if you can play other songs in this special Beatles version. We also know that fortunately, the 3 companies also said that the older Rock Band instruments will be able to work with the new game, so those of you who don’t wanna spend the extra $190 for more plastic instruments can just get the game and be all set

So you pumped for this new game? Will this make you hold off on that Rock Band 2 or Guitar Hero World Tour purchase and wait a few months to get a game based on one of the greatest bands ever? Sound off in the comments.

Info from Joystiq.com and pix from Rock Band Beatles preview page.

The Even More Psychedelic Tap Tap Revenge 2

Back in November, I wrote a post about my formerly favorite game for the iPod Touch/iPhone: Tap Tap Revenge.

It was a great game; a Guitar Hero-inspired game, but with enough iPod Touch specifics to make it unique, portable, even had a few good songs. And of course, it was free.

Now, after many months of taping, tilting, and shouts of frustration as I break my 300+ note combo, Tapulous (they make TTR) have finally answered my wishes and given us a totally reworked, and quite insanely awesome, Tap Tap Revenge 2.

So, what’s different this time around? What justifies the download?

For starters, its also free. So, price ain’t exactly an issue here. But there is quite a few upgrades that make this blow the previous game away. 1st, the entire interface — both for getting to the songs and downloading new music — has been reworked: instead of plain text lists, songs now have actual information (time, artist, album art even, best score, etc.). Also, online play has been similarly reworked, and is overall easier and better.

Now on to gameplay. Aside from the by-and-large lack of licensed music (that’s the price you pay for a free app.) my two biggest complaints in the previous games were the lack of Guitar Hero style chords and held notes. Well, that’s been solved. Notes now also come in pairs (and sometimes triplets), and can be held down as well. Not only does this add variety to the game, but makes the Hard and Extreme Levels (which I found a little bland in TTR), well — Hard, and Extreme. Like really hard; carpal tunnel syndrome inducing hard. But it’s even more fun for it. Also added is an achievement system that Tapulous says will be expanded over time.

Finally, as you can see, the background also has undergone major upgrades, as you now fly into space. As for the coolest part of the game, Revenge Mode? Well, that one you have to see for yourself.

Wrap-up - There’s still no license music (although 2 license spin-offs — TTR Nine Inch Nails Edition, which features NIN music, and Tap Tap Dance — both do have licensed music, but cost money), but the overhaul of the rest of the game, as well as an addition of dozens of new music, and of course the unbeatable price of free, make this one definitely one to go for.

Pick it up in iTunes here (Note: link opens iTunes).

There’s a reason all these people lined up last year (Pic from ABC News)

For those who don’t know, Black Friday* is the day after Thanksgiving — the first day of the holiday shopping season –  and stores put out deals with HUGE SAVINGS on EVERYTHING, including electronics.

So if you want/need something new and value your wallet, READ ON!

*alludes to companies profits rising from “red” to “black” from its large volume of sales, though its less likely due to the current economic turmoil

All the major stores have great deals going down: Best Buy, Amazon, Circuit City (who really need go holiday sales if they wanna stay in business ), Amazon, Walmart, Costco- you name it.

For all the info on the deals from these and tons of other stores check out BlackFriday.info, but we’ll give you a small taste of some of the deals that catch our interest in this post.

By the way, if you really wanna capitalize on these Black Friday deals, you better be ready to get up really early (think earlier than 5 AM!) because the lines here are crazy.

Here’s some of our picks from each store.

Walmart:

• Xbox 360 Arcade Bundle- (see here) with Sonic Saga. wireless controller and Guitar Hero 3 with Guitar for $199.99 – this is a perfect example of insane Black Friday deals.

Xbox 360 Walmart Deal

Best Buy:

• Xbox 360 60GB Console with 4 games (Lego Indiana Jones, Kung Fu Panda, NBA 2K9, Tony Hawk’s Proving Ground) for $299.99. For those who wanted a 60 GB system deal instead of the deal Walmart is offering (above) for the Arcade.
• AT&T LG VU With Touch Screen – $49.99 with New 2-Year Contract- another great deal.
• $100-$150 off Macbooks and Macbook Pro’s- yup, this is even for the new Macbooks that came out only a lil’ while ago (see here for a recap of new Macbook info). This is great for those looking to buy one of those new, sweet, aluminum Macbooks (oh, and you can save even more on some of the older plastic Macbooks- I saw one with a $300 savings!). Check it here.

Circuit City:

• Xbox 360 Arcade Holiday Bundle with Extra Controller & 20GB HDD – $199.99. As you’re probably noticing, the Xbox 360 is getting major deals everywhere, but for those looking for an Arcade bundle (or anyone looking for a video game system below $200), but here you are basically getting what was the discontinued Pro model as a new deal. This is AWESOME and should make a great holiday gift.

Dell:

• Creative Labs 8 GB Mp3 and Video player w/ built-in speaker and voice recorder for $79! Perfect for anyone who wants a great music player loaded with features, that is also almost $100 cheaper than the iPod Nano.

Creative Zen Mozaic 8 GB

• Dell Inspiron Mini 9 for only $299- This is a tiny little laptop — aka netbook — is perfect for school and travelers with its small 9 inch screen. I assume this version is the one running a special Linux OS with a 4 GB SSD (solid state drive), and it may not be the perfect system for those who aren’t completely tech savvy.

Dell also sells a Windows XP version and both models have room for up to 32 GB SSD (these aren’t designed to replace you big 15 inch laptops or desktops), and these models may cost more than the $299 price here, though not much higher (these aren’t available with those expensive add ons you find on other computers).

For all the info on the Dell Mini 9 click here.

Dell Mini 9

This is just a small sample of the crazy deals coming on Friday. For all the info on all the deals go to that BlackFriday.info site.

What you think- any of the Black Friday deals listed going to make you wake up early on Friday? You gonna wait till a little later in the Holiday shopping season looking for even better deals? If you are getting something on Black Friday- what is it? Let us know in the comments. 

The Psychedelic Tap Tap Revenge

Alright. Once again, those who read the blog regularly know I’m a big iPod Touch fan. So here’s review of what I consider to be one of the best iPhone/Touch games currently available: Tap Tap Revenge.

The concept is fairly simple: take Guitar Hero, take out two rows, and instead of holding down buttons and strumming, you tap the beats as they come. Not so hard. Getting a 50 note streak allows you to activate Revenge Mode (basically Star Power), which gives you a 8x points multiplayer. All the 20ish songs are free downloads in-game, and some are actually somewhat good. And the game comes at the excellent price of free. Once you get the hang of the timing, the game becomes utterly addicting, especially the frenzy of the Extreme Levels.

In short, an excellent game. Those who happen to be Nine Inch Nails fans, a special NIN edition has been made as well, with their licensed songs. (Note: NIN edition costs $5. Regular version is free). Click here to go straight to the iTunes dowload page for the regular version. Enjoy!

For all you Guitar Hero fans, you day of waiting for your “Rock Band killer” has finally come. Today is the day Guitar Hero World Tour comes out with all the instruments — Guitar, Drums, Mic — and unlike Rock Band, this is available at launch for ALL systems: Xbox 360, PS3, PS2, and Wii (which still doesn’t have Rock Band 2). Check out our previous post here to see what makes this version better than ever.

What you waiting for? Go run down to your local Best Buy/ Walmart/ Target- wherever, and start rocking!

Oh, and let us know your take on the new Guitar Hero– better than Rock Band 2?

Ad for Sen. Barack Obama in Burnout Paradise (Pic from GigaOM)

I don’t know about you, but I like to play my video games as a temporary escape from the “real world.” You know, controlling a team of your favorite players in Madden or MLB 2k8, or destroying some random alien in Halo 3 — things that you just can’t do in real life. To my great dismay, that barrier between “real world” and the “virtual world” of video games is starting to get really blurred. What am I talking about? Read on!

There have been many reports — and pictures — of video games on the Xbox 360 being filled with ads promoting Senator Barack Obama (and soon, most likely Senator John McCain if that’s the way things are headed). I know this might not bother most people, and it isn’t terribly annoying to me, but I fear this path and where it may lead.

It’s one thing to see a Snickers or Sprint ad in a game of Madden (they’re both 2 big NFL sponsors), or a T-Mobile or Sprite ad in a game of NBA Live 09 or NBA 2k9 (T-Mobile and Sprite are big NBA sponsors- NBA 2k9, by the way, is not yet listed anywhere as receiving these in game ads); those ads give the game a more realistic feel.

But now that the ads are expanding to other topics not related to the game (i.e. politics), this new direction isn’t really not sitting well with me. I don’t wanna start seeing an ad play during halftime of one of those games telling me the problems with the other candidate. And if they are putting in these little ads on the sidelines 3 weeks away from the election, whats to say they won’t put in other, bigger ads as we get closer to November 4?

Obama Ad in NBA Live (Pic From Reuters.com)

I understand video games are insanely popular — especially with us teens — but if the companies and sponsors want to go out and start filling our games with ads to make a little more $$$, why can’t we the customer see the price of games drop and not have to pay $60 per game. That, or keep the ads to a minimum (and if at all possible- relevant to the game like T-Mobile in the NBA and Sprint in Madden).

What you think- are you noticing some of these election ads popping up in some of your games (particularly Madden 09, NBA Live 09, Guitar Hero 3, and Burnout Paradise) you seeing them in other games (if so which ones)? More broadly, do you mind the increasing appearance of ads in games or believe the games should be cheaper in light of them? Let us know your thoughts in the comments.

Info and Pix from Joystiq.com, Reuters.com, and GigaOM.com

Rock Band fans, your long wait for the next version of the popular music game has finally ended. Today, Harmonix and MTV Games released the next version of Rock Band — Rock Band 2 — to the world, and it can be yours for either $59.99 for just the game (for those like me who already have Rock Band 1 and don’t want more instruments lying around ), or $189.99 for the whole package: the game,  a new wireless drum, a new wireless guitar, and a mic.

So what you waiting for? Go to your local Best Buy, Circuit City, Target, Walmart or wherever and pick your self some new virtual rock star goodness, and let us know what you think of the new game (or if you’re waiting for Guitar Hero World Tour to come out next month) in the comments.

P.S. Owners of the PS3, PS2, or Wi: don’t be too upset, the Xbox 360 only has exclusitivity  of the game for a month. Rock Band will be available for the PS3 on October 19, the Wii on November 16 and the PS2 on November 18.

And current Rock Band owners, feel free to download Stephen Colbert’s new free song (called “Charlene”) for Rock Band 1- it’s interesting to say the least and you can check it out here.

Just like today is a big day for America (for those who didn’t vote yet- GO VOTE!), we here at TeenTechBlog also have a big day with some big news to share with you.

To follow-up on our search for a new writer to join us, we are proud to announce some great news. Some of the applications we received were so impressive, we felt compelled to add not one, but 2 new writers, each with their own styles and specialties.

In no particular order:

1. Nik G.– Out of Atlanta, Georgia, he loves technology (especially T-Mobile phones) and also is a big sports fan (especially Georgia Bulldogs).
2. Zev Rosenbaum– From the New York area, he enjoys PS3, Guitar Hero, sports and tech.

On a sadder note, we regret to announce that our dear Australian friend and writer, Aidan Galea, will be leaving us for now, focusing more intensely on his studies and exams. We thank Aidan for his invaluable help in growing this blog to new heights.

As always, we want to take this opportunity to say thank you to you, our dear readers, because without you none of this would’ve been possible (Go on, give yourselves a little pat on the back for your work ).

Enjoy!

-Your friends at TeenTechBlog

Now that Madden 09 is out in the wild (see our review on it here), lets turn back to the ever popular Rock Band 2. The news we got here is not going to be the most pleasant for fans of the “old” game (and those wanting to get in on the new one), but we’ll give it to you anyways. For those who wanna know more on this, hit the More link.

Let’s start this with a little recap: Rock Band 2 will launch first for the Xbox 360 on September 14, with a one month exclusivity till the other systems (PS3, PS2, Wii) get their respective versions of the game. Now while the stand alone game itself will not be delayed, according to Gizmodo.com the bundle of all the instruments and the game will be delayed until October 19- the same day it launches on the other systems. This is not the end of the world by any means, but with Guitar Hero 4 expected to come out on October 26, this could be a real problem for Harmonix- makers of Rock Band-  along with anyone looking to buy this and show it off to all their Guitar Hero loving friends before they get their hands on Guitar Hero 4

What you think- are you still gonna wait for the bundle, is this delay in the bundle gonna make you switch to Guitar Hero 4, or are you perfectly happy with your current music games (Rock Band 1, Guitar Hero 3 and Aerosmith) and Madden 09? Let us know in the comments.

Well, we covered Rock Band’s E3 info, and we know a lot of you LOVE Guitar Hero, so we got some info for you as well. O, Rock Band users- you may wanna check this out as well, as one of the big announcements involves you guys to. All the info is after the More link.

• Sequel to Guitar Hero On Tour for Nintendo DS- Yes, only one month after Guitar Hero On Tour came out for the DS, Activsion is planing an encore with a game called Guitar Hero On Tour Decades. You can’t blame them though- they sold 350,000 (yes 350,000) copies in the first 3 weeks, so a successor was obvious. So what’s new in Decades? Well as you could’ve guessed, the songs in the game will probably date back multiple decades. There is also a new song sharing capability (to let your friends with the original On Tour sample some of the new tunes), and a possible addition of using the DS’s Mic for Karaoke. Not much else is known on the new game such as price or release, but we know Activision will announce more info when the time is right.
• Latest Metallica Album to come to Guitar Hero World Tour and Guitar Hero 3 at the same time it is released on CD- This is some pretty big news, as it shows how big the impact games like Guitar Hero and Rock Band are having on the music industry. It is also big news if your a fan of classic rock or Metallica. We don’t know yet how much this will cost to download, but you can expect it when Guitar Hero World Tour is released in the fall.
• Videos of Guitar Hero World Tour in action- Joystiq got some videos of this highly anticipated game in action- with everything from how the new drums will work, to using the new Song Creator, all the way down to how the game will play with a drum, guitar, and mic all at once, as well as everything in between. Check out the videos here.

Guitar Hero World Tour Demoed

• Compatibility for Rock Band Guitar and Drums with Guitar Hero Aerosmith and World Tour!!- We saved the biggest news for last, and any one who owns Rock Band, or likes its instruments better than Guitar Hero’s, has got to be thrilled by this news. This new Rock Band compatibility comes as an update to Guitar Hero Aerosmith, will be included in Guitar Hero World Tour, and will as the title of the bullet says- allow you to use your Rock Band drums or guitar in Guitar Hero Aerosmith and Guitar Hero World Tour. No news on whether the new Rock Band 2’s kit is supported, or if the new Mad Catz and Ion Rock Band add-ons will work, but it still is pretty big (and nice) news regardless.

Ok, so there is the Guitar Hero E3 info. Any thoughts, questions or comments? Let us know in the comments.

Info provided by Joystiq.com