Lead designer Alan Flores told us about all the extra things headbangers should try in order to put the (double bass) pedal to the metal.

***

Neversoft’s Must-Do List for ‘Guitar Hero: Metallica’ Players
(Xbox 360/PS3/Wii, March 2009)

As written by lead designer, metalhead and musician Alan Flores:

Try to play Slayer’s “War Ensemble” on Expert+ drums.
I say try because most people (like 99% of you) will only be able to get through a little bit of the song. Even so, this really has to be attempted to fully understand what a challenge it is. The song starts off easy enough with a couple of accent hits, but once that double bass drum beat kicks in… good luck!

Experience Cliff Burton’s bass lines in “Orion.”
Its funny, “Orion” is the only song that I know of in “Guitar Hero: Metallica” where people actually fight to play the bass. Cliff’s bass lines completely drive the song and there are even a couple of bass solos that he does along the way. Bass playing has never been this fun in a “Guitar Hero” game.

Sing Queen’s “Stone Cold Crazy.”
People don’t really think of singing as a challenge in “Guitar Hero,” but trying to mimic Freddie Mercury’s machine gun delivery and wide vocal range in “Stone Cold Crazy” gives you renewed appreciation of the man’s talent.

Drum over a song from The Black Album.
Guitar Hero Metallica has a cheat code that allows you to play an entire song like it’s a drum fill, mapping the drum sounds from the song to your drum kit controller. It’s a really fun mode, but especially fun when playing something like “Sad But True” from The Black Album. Lars’ drums just had this monster-huge sound on that album so it’s really satisfying to plug in a second kick pedal and lay down your own beats when they sound this good.

Check out old Metallica set lists in the photo gallery.
There are a couple of images of old Metallica set lists in the Extras for the game. If you’re in a band, seeing that Metallica didn’t always get paid is encouraging.

Put an alternate outfit on the band and re-watch the “Ecstasy of Gold” intro.
In case you haven’t seen it, the Career mode of the game starts off with the band walking to the stage in slow motion to Ennio Morricone’s “The Ecstasy of Gold,” just like they do at their live shows. We have some alternate outfits in the game. I don’t want to spoil the surprise of what they are, but if you put on one of the alternate outfits and re-watch the intro, the band will appear in the new outfits. It’s pretty funny!

Watch the motion capture video of Lars trying to play “The Shortest Straw.”
He had a little bit of uh…trouble.

Write a metal song in the studio
We sampled an ESP Truckster guitar model that James Hetfield plays and an ESP bass model used by Tom Araya from Slayer so your epic metal masterpiece should sound better (i.e. more metal) in the Music Studio.

Check out Metallifacts, learn something new and appreciate the band’s performances.
The Metallifacts mode is a great way to learn about each song in “Guitar Hero: Metallica.” I learned quite a bit once Lars and James added their own personal information to each song. The Metallifacts mode is also a great way to appreciate the band’s performance, the light show, the pyrotechnics and all of the hard work that went into making the game look great. In the Metallifacts mode you can just sit back and watch the band perform; it really is the next best thing to being there live.

Create a set list that reflects your mood.
In Quickplay, you can create a set list of up to six songs and it’s fun to try and theme them. Want to sing songs about the hardships of the road Then make a set list with Metallica’s “Wherever I May Roam,” Bob Seger’s “Turn The Page” and Lynyrd Skynyrd’s “Tuesday’s Gone.” Feeling a bit crazed? Put Suicidal Tendencies’ “War Inside My Head,” Queen’s “Stone Cold Crazy” and Metallica’s “Welcome Home (Sanitarium)” in a set. You can even try making a set list of the fastest, most insane stuff with Slayer’s “War Ensemble,” Metallica’s “Fight Fire With Fire,” “Disposable Heroes” and “Dyer’s Eve.”

Play “Creeping Death” as a full band.
The song is such classic. When you get to the break, all four members of your band get to shout “die” at the top of their lungs. Truly epic!

Download Latest PSP Games

There are many gamers going around the Web indicating that 2009 is the year of the PS3 or Xbox 360. However, another platform that many gamers have undermined may be picking up steam to take over 2009. According to reports PSP may have an awesome lineup in store for 2009 with unrevealed titles as well as existing franchises.

The PSP is one platform that many gamers overlook as a contender in the gaming device arena. The PSP truly is a portable multimedia device considering you can play games, watch movies and listen to music all from a single device. However, gamers have been complaining about the lackluster lineup in 2008. The PSP lineup did start spectacularly with titles such as Final Fantasy
VII: Crisis Core and God of War: Chains of Olympus, but quickly died down near the last quarter.

Sony execs have admitted that the game release pacing for the PSP in 2008 was poorly planned and promised that the lineup will be three times better in 2009. According to John Koller, Sony’s director of hardware marketing, 2008 was the best year for the PSP. Apparently the PSP sold 31 percent more year-over-year. However, something tells me Final Fantasy and God of War really deserve the credit for this sales boost.

It seems like the brains at Sony got together 16 months ago to try to resolve the PSP game lineup issue. Koller stated, “We talked with each of our internal developers and looked at all of our franchises and asked: How can you create them for PSP?” The games that resulted from the meeting so far include: Resistance: Retribution, MotorStorm Arctic Edge and a portable LittleBigPlanet.

It seems like third party publishers have jumped on board, taking advantage of the PSP as well. There is a new Assassin’s Creed and Rock Band game planned for the PSP this year. Monster Hunter Portable is slated to hit the US sometime this year as well. The game that I am still waiting for is Elder Scroll Travels: Oblivion for the PSP. It doesn’t seem like the game is canceled but it has been two years since anything has been announced. Metacritic recently updated the release date for the game to November 2009, so it doesn’t look like its completely canceled.

Koller also indicated that the lineup for 2009 could be 50 percent more than that of 2008. He also teased that there are major franchises yet to be announced. I recently talked about a new rumor pointing to a new Grand Theft Auto game for the PSP. It seems like this could become a reality with Sony hinting at a few unannounced big franchises coming this summer. Make sure to keep your ear to the ground for more information on upcoming games.

Sega just confirmed it’s completed a deal to publish official games based on the 2010 Winter Olympics, to take place in Vancouver.

According to the announcement, “SEGA will publish a wide variety of games with winter sports and events including skiing, skating, and snowboard bearing the Vancouver 2010 Olympic Winter Games emblem.”

“SEGA is extremely excited to once again work with ISM on a series of multi-platform games celebrating the Olympic Games,” says Sega COO, Okitane Usui.

“The Vancouver 2010 Olympic Winter Games offers gamers a collection of exciting sports to master, as well as a stunning location for players to take advantage of. We aim to bring fans around the world an exhilarating experience whenever they play any Olympic title.”

Press release after the break.

THE OFFICIAL VIDEO GAME OF THE VANCOUVER 2010 OLYMPIC WINTER GAMES – SEGA ANNOUNCES PUBLISHING AGREEMENT

TOKYO (February 5, 2009) — SEGA® Corporation today announced a worldwide agreement with International Sports Multimedia (ISM), exclusive licensee of the International Olympic Committee (IOC), to once again become the sole approved video game publisher of the 2010 Olympic Winter Games in Vancouver, Canada. After an　extremely successful series of video games from the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games, this exclusive license will allow SEGA to once more publish the only official interactive entertainment software titles of the world’s most famous sporting event.
Through this agreement, SEGA secures the sole rights to publish console, PC/Macintosh, handheld, arcade, and mobile games worldwide. Under this exclusive license, SEGA will publish a wide variety of games with winter sports and events including skiing, skating, and snowboard bearing the Vancouver 2010 Olympic Winter Games emblem.
“Working with SEGA has resulted in Olympic Entertainment Software achieving unparalleled success and we are delighted to support SEGA once again for the Vancouver 2010 Olympic Winter Games”, says Raymond Goldsmith, Chairman & CEO of ISM.
“SEGA is extremely excited to once again work with ISM on a series of multi-platform games celebrating the Olympic Games,” says Okitane Usui, Chief Operating Officer, SEGA Corporation. “The Vancouver 2010 Olympic Winter Games offers gamers a collection of exciting sports to master, as well as a stunning location for players to take advantage of. We aim to bring fans around the world an exhilarating experience whenever they play any Olympic title.”

Download latest games for Free

Coming up this week in new videogames is EA’s follow up to its well received Skate game. Skate 2 will be available for both the PS3 and Xbox 360. Nintendo gamers on the Wii and DS have SimAnimals to play with, as well as some fireworks with Big Bang Mini (see a trailer on that here). The Sony PSP gets a good RPG release this week with Star Ocean: Second Evolution, which has been getting decent reviews. Check out the game releases below for the week of January 19 to January 23, 2009.

This week’s new videogame releases (1/19/09-1/23/09):
(subject to change)

Xbox 360:
Skate 2

PLAYSTATION 3:
Skate 2

Wii:
SimAnimals
Ultimate Shooting Collection

Nintendo DS:
Big Bang Mini
Inkheart SimAnimals
WonderWorld Amusement Park

Sony PSP:
Star Ocean: Second Evolution