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Activision have already been very clear that they intend to exploit theGuitar Herofranchise (along withTony HawkandCall of Duty) every damned year until humans evolve to the point where we no longer have ears. So it’s no surprise thatGuitar Hero IVis in the works — that was already a given. But according to industry whispers heard byG4’s TheFeed, Activision is already in the process of conducting hands-on testing of the title. The first round of testing is set to begin tomorrow, and is said to include four to six people....

All right, so during the week this story might be brushed off as a crazy unfounded rumor froma random French site, but it’s the weekend and we’re all about the crazy French during the weekend. French gaming site NoFrag is reporting that they have a reliable source that has informed them that Blizzard’s next game will be partly a first person MMO. Of course we all know Blizzard has beenworking on a new IP for some time nowand that it isgoing to be an MMO, so it is expected that details would leak out at some point....

[Editors note: Despite how hard cameraman and tech-guy Roy Malcomber tried we had several technology fails and apologise for sound quality]. Brinkis awesome and I could spend all day trying to explain the game to you but that would be pointless. So, I am going to let the CEO ofSplash Damage, Paul Wedgewood, do it instead. Enjoy!

We recently told you about aMetal Gear Solid 4Solid Snake statuethat Sam’s Club would be auctioning off. Now this 6 ft. tall fiberglass resin not-so-solid Snake is officially on sale at their auction page, where he’s currently standing (squatting?) at $206 after 6 bids. There is more than 10 days left on the auction, so anyone wanting to claim the best lawn ornament ever still has plenty of time. Speaking of Sam’s Club,Nick recently toldus about their new price forRock Band, which is just a couple of bucks cheaper than anyone else....

The used game debate is one that shows no sign of slowing down, with most publishers ironically (read: hypocritically) raging such capitalistic practices. We’ve covered the majority ofthese outbursts, arguing time and again that secondhand games are a basic part of trade and commerce, and that game publishers shouldn’t try and be special exceptions to the rule. Luckily, it seems a few people get that, not least Microsoft’s Chris Lewis....

Shigeru Miyamoto is going to have himself a rather busy Game Developers Conference this year. On top of delivering what many are calling the conference’s only keynote speech worth attending, the legendary developer will be honored at this year’s GDC with a Lifetime Achievement Award, for — well, just about everything that isgoodabout gaming. As far as I’m concerned, there ain’t an honor you may throw at Miyamoto that he probably doesn’t deserve....

Set to go down on Easter weekend in Houston is Showdown Championships, a massive fighting game tournament of cutting-edge Japanese arcade titles. This year marks the 8th year that this tournament has gone down, and looks to be the biggest and best yet. So what are they playing this year? The finals of this showdown will be played live on stage, in front of thousands of fans, media, and spectators, as announcers give the audience the play-by-play....

According to everyone, their cousin, and their dog trainer’s boyfriend,Rainbow Six Vegason theXbox360 is good. Really good. So some new mapsandtwo new modes should have fans foaming at the mouth. The latest issue of theOfficialXboxMagazineconfirms that six new maps and two newmultiplayermodes will be available for download on theXboxLive Marketplace for an estimated 800 MS points. No date was announced. “Assasination” mode designates one player on the team a VIP, with other players on the team trying to protect him while at the same time, trying to assassinate the other teams VIP....

We’ve all been waiting forSkate 2for a long time. Ever since the originalskate.revolutionized skateboarding videogames back in 2007, gamers have been looking forward to a bigger, better, and more badass sequel. Oh, wait … that’sGears of War 2. Well, from the reviews quoted in theSkate 2commercial above, the billing that Cliff Bleszinski gaveGears 2is just as applicable to this game.Skate 2boasts greatly improvedonline functionality, aPSN/XBL demo(I’ve downloaded it, but haven’t tried it out yet), andsteaks for press— and it’ll be available tomorrow, January 21st, for the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360....

I really love the RPG genre but I almost never manage to actually finish one. There are three sitting on my desk right now, some of which I’ve barely scratched the surface on. And, when I finally get back to them, I’ll probably be so lost that I’ll have to start from the beginning again. A big part of the reason for that is I simply can’t invest the amount of time necessary to play all the way through....

The Sony PlayStation Blog invites you to join them for a night ofdrugs, sex andMAG! So long as you’re over 18, you can meet them at the Aria Hotel at CityCenter in Las Vegas next Thursday. You’ll be able to play the final PSN beta forMAG, hang out with the developers of the game and fill up on all the finger foods! The event goes from 4:00PM to 7:00PM and you have to RSVP for the event over on thePlayStation Facebook Fan Pagein order to get in....

The above designs, along with some otherStar Trek-ishones, arrived at the US Patent Office today. The above design seems to bear some resemblance tothe ones we saw demoed at Sony’s E3 press conference, except that they don’t have that light orb glowing at the end of the stick. These designs were registered a year ago, last June, says GoFreak atNeoGAF, so they may differ a bit from what Sony has now....

Lame excuse or honest response? You decide. Sony’s Phil Harrion toldGameDailythat the idea of rumble in a controller is just not so next gen — but he did open the door to rumble in 3rd-party controls. Here’s what the lad had to say: We have no plans to do so in the standard controller that ships with PlayStation 3. I believe that the Sixaxis controller offers game designers and developers far more opportunity for future innovation than rumble ever did....