This week Harmionix gives us a four-pack of downloadable tracks. Two from Rush and a Pair from the Red Hot Chili Peppers. What’s interesting is that one of the tracks is a re-release of a currently available track. “Working Man” from Rush is being released as a master track (the first time it was only a cover) which also includes an alternate solo. The new tracks are listed below.

• Red Hot Chili Peppers “Snow (Hey Oh)”
• Red Hot Chili Peppers “Tell Me Baby”
• Rush “Closer to the Heart”
• Rush “Working Man” (alternate-take master)

All four songs are master tracks, and will go for $2 each. No track pack this week.

So, as most of you probably know by now, the Les Paul Guitar Hero controller for the PS3 does not work with Rock Band. Thankfully last week Harmonix completed a patch for the PS3 version of the game that allowed this controller to work with Rock Band. The patch was submitted to Sony, but wasn’t made for download. So what happened?

Rumors have been flying around as to what actually became of the patch. The most prominent being that Activision (publishers of Guitar Hero 3) stepped in and barred the patch from being released. Sadly, today that rumor was confirmed. Here is the post from the official Rock Band forums from the Harmonix team:

PS3 Guitar Compatibility - UPDATE 12/12/2007

Hi Everyone,

As we have said in the past, Harmonix and MTV Games believe in an open standard philosophy of hardware and game compatibility. We think that there should be interoperability between music instrument controllers across all music games. This is clearly in the best interest of consumers, game developers and console manufacturers and will only help to grow the music game genre as well as inspire innovation and creativity.

Two weeks ago, Harmonix created a software patch for the Sony PLAYSTATION 3 version of Rock Band that allowed for guitar compatibility and support for third party peripherals, including enabling use of Activision’s Guitar Hero III controller with Rock Band. The compatibility patch was submitted, approved and had been scheduled for release by Sony on Tuesday, December 4. Unfortunately, Activision objected to the compatibility patch’s release. The patch remains with Sony, but we have been told that it will unfortunately not be released due to Activision’s continued objection.

As is the case with the Microsoft Xbox360, we believe that Sony PLAYSTATION 3 users should be able to use the peripheral of their choice with Rock Band. We sincerely hope that Activision will reverse its decision and allow release of the compatibility patch and further, that Activision will allow Guitar Hero III to support Rock Band guitar controllers as well. We welcome all third party developers who wish to support our controllers and will provide any required support in order for them to do so.

We believe that when consumers have choice, everyone wins. Harmonix and MTV Games hope that Activision and others will also adopt this philosophy.

Sincerely,
The Harmonix Team

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Remember those small issues with Assassin’s Creed on the PS3 that I told you about the other day? You know, the ones that made the game almost unplayable for some people. Well those of you experiencing this issue may finally get to enjoy the game, bug-free.

An Ubisoft UK Community Manager has confirmed that they are indeed working on a game update that should improve the stability of the game. When is it coming? “As soon as possible.”

There’s nothing quite as reassuring as a patch that’s coming “ASAP.” I’m sure there are plenty of reasons why they can’t give us even a vague time frame, so lets just be happy that they’re working on it.

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We’re all Guitar Heroes here at GamerFront, so you can bet that we love new content. It’s been pretty hard to pull us away from Rock Band though. We’ll have to make a little time over the weekend for the latest GH III downloadable track: the Halo theme song.

That’s right, Microsoft and Activision are bringing you yet another track for free. Granted, the Boss Battle pack never should have happened in the first place, but it was still a good guesture.

One has to wonder if the timing for this latest freebie has anything to do with the launch of Rock Band. Surely not.

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