Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock Bangs The Drums

Right, the next salvo in the only kind of war we really, like, dig has been fired. This is the war between two competing games franchises. This time around, RedOctane/NeverSoft/Activision have swayed SPOnG away from Harmonix/EA/MTV's Rock Band (hands on here) with a mighty addition to Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock.

How has GH III:LOR managed this feat? Simple, it's included She Bangs The Drum by the legendary Madcunian band, The Stone Roses.

It's a well-known fact among people who aren't idiots that the legendary Stone Roses' first - eponymous and, of course, legendary- long player is one of the very few completely perfect slabs of music ever to be made. There is not a duff track on the damned thing.

So, to get one of those perfect tracks into the game is enough for us to say (today, don't quote us next week when Rock Band includes something even better; we love this war!) that GHII:LOR rules the roost in advance of being released.

Here's what the RedOctane press people say, "She Bangs The Drums is one of the Stone Roses’ best-loved songs, hailing from an album consistently voted the very best British album ever. Its inclusion in Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock will appeal to fans of the classic late-80s music scene, lovers of sublime guitar rhythms and riffs, as well as the indie-shoegazers."

"Shoe-gazers"? If you were looking at your shoes at a Roses' gig you were either (a) at the wrong gig and you should have been up the road watching James; or (b) ingesting the kind of substances that no one could possibly recommend cut with some downers.

The game was premiered at the ongoing Edinburgh Interactive Festival today as were the new Guitar Hero controllers - still Gibson-a-likes.

Zach Fountain, General Manager, RedOctane Europe says there's more... “The Guitar Hero roadshow moves from here to Leipzig, where we’ll be announcing a whole new stack of European songs for Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock.”

'European songs'? What is he on about? Music is universal, man! Except when it's Italian, that's always crap.


Songs announced for Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock so far include:

Slash’s Original Boss Battle Recording

Welcome to The Jungle (by Guns N’ Roses)
One (by Metallica)
Paint It Black (by The Rolling Stones)
Cherub Rock (by Smashing Pumpkins)
Sabotage (by Beastie Boys)
The Metal (by Tenacious D)
My Name is Jonas (by Weezer)
Knights of Cydonia (by Muse)
Even Flow (by Pearl Jam)
Lay Down (by Priestess)
Cult of Personality (by Living Colour)
Miss Murder (by AFI)
Through Fire and Flames (by Dragonforce)
Number of the Beast (by Iron Maiden)
3's and 7's (by Queens of the Stone Age)
Suck My Kiss (by Red Hot Chili Peppers)
Raining Blood (by Slayer)
Reptillia (by The Strokes)
Paranoid (as made famous by Black Sabbath)
Cities on Flame (as made famous by Blue Oyster Cult)
Mississippi Queen (as made famous by Mountain)
La Grange (as made famous by ZZ Top)
Rock and Roll All Nite (as made famous by Kiss)
School’s Out (as made famous by Alice Cooper)
Rock You Like a Hurricane (as made famous by Scorpions)
Slow Ride (as made famous by Foghat)
Barracuda (as made famous by Heart)

In the unlikely event you've never heard the legendary tune...