Activision Ponders Subscription Fees For User-Created Guitar Hero Tracks

I’m sure that you know by now that Guitar Hero: World Tour has a mode that allows you to create your own custom music. Perhaps you’ve even taken the time to compose your own tracks. Well Activision has taken notice to the fact that over 25,000 such songs have been created already. So what do they plan to do in celebration? One idea they are considering is selling subscriptions to the content.
Yes, they want you to make music, then sell you the rights to access said music. Just imagine, you could actually be given the opportunity to hand them money for something you get for free! It’s not like Blizzard Activision didn’t just report a huge profit for the quarter or anything. They’re probably hurting for cash, since they no doubt have had to hire more people to count all of their excess monies.
Marware Game Grip Makes Your iPhone Easier To Grasp

I consider my iPhone to be a pretty handy device, even when it comes to mobile gaming. I’ve yet to see anything that makes me consider leaving my DS at home, but in a pinch, it keeps me entertained. There have been a few times that I would have enjoyed the game I was playing more, if only there was actually something there to grip. Don’t worry, the Marrware Game Grip promises to fix all of that.
This is a wonderful device that serves a variety of functions. First, it gives your iPhone that “toy” look that you’ve always wanted. It also will give you something to carry around in your hand when you’re not gaming, because honestly, what are you going to do with two empty hands? This isn’t listed on the features page, but it also looks as though it will finally get people to stop noticing that you’re talking on an iPhone whenever you receive a call. The Game Grip even has the keen ability to make $50 magically disappear from your wallet. Oh and I think it helps with playing games too, or something.
iZ3D Monitors make your gaming 3D

If you’ve started to get bored with your PC gaming and could use a little bit of a change, you might check out these monitors. They feature 3D graphics to pull you into your game. Granted you will have to wear the 3D glasses the entire time you’re gaming, but it would make everything feel new again. Not only can you bring your gaming to a different level, but the 3D monitors come custom painted with cool designs.
Review - ezStand Keeps Your Plastic Guitar Upright

I tend to take the rocking of plastic instruments a bit too seriously at times, but it’s something I enjoy. One of the issues I run into with my guitar controllers is of where to place them when they aren’t in use. I generally keep at least one of them leaned up against my entertainment center, however, that’s not the most ideal situation. I’ve had the opportunity to check out this ezStand from ezGear, which is exactly what I’ve been needing.
The ezStand is quite simply a smaller version of a regular guitar stand. I do actually own a real guitar, so I took a picture of the my real guitar stand next to the one from ezGear. In most respects, they are very similar. There really isn’t much to this product, though it’s worth noting that the neck is height adjustable, and the entire unit is constructed of a light but durable metal, similar to my larger stand.
Get Your Own Tournament Edition SNES For Just Fifty Grand

I’m hardly what you’d call a dedicated gaming collector. Sure, I’ve got almost all of my old consoles still in the closet, and a few pristine copies of Final Fantasy VII sitting on the shelf, but I don’t go unloading hundreds or thousands of dollars on a single item. However, if you simply can’t resist having one of almost every piece of gaming hardware, this is one for your collection.
What you see is a very rare PowerFest ‘94 Competition Super Nintendo. There were only 32 built for the Nintendo World Championships II. So what exactly can this limited edition console do? It’ll play level 1-1 of Super Mario Bros.: The Lost Levels, five laps of Super Mario Kart and the home run derby from Ken Griffy Jr. Presents Major League Baseball. Basically it’s good for a classic Nintendo tournament with your friends, or for sitting on your shelf. All this can be yours for just $50,000.
Walmart Ranked #1 Gaming Retailer, Despite Incompetence

I hate Walmart. For many reasons that I won’t go into here, I can’t stand this big-box retailer. Since we try to stick to gaming here, I’ll list only the related reasons why I don’t like shopping at Walmart. Recently, I decided to pick up Fallout 3 on a whim when it launched. I live in a large town where we have two such Walmarts, and I had some credit with them, so I decided to wander in. I eventually tracked down a sales associate and inquired about the game. They seemed to know what game I was talking about, and proceeded to go over to a shopping cart full of boxes, which were clearly marked Fallout 3. Surely nothing would go wrong, right?
Buy Your Own Ocarina Of Time

Until ten years ago, I had no idea what an ocarina was. In fact, it was some time after the Zelda game was released that I found out that it was an actual instrument, not something created solely for a video game. Well the instruments are real, and there is a real shop in St. Louis that is making a killing off of selling them.
The St. Louis Ocarina store has decided to celebrate the 10th anniversary of the popular game, which has no doubt contributed greatly to their sales. Yes, The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina Of Time has been out for a decade now. Anyway, the store is celebrating with a variety of Zelda-themed products, including Ocarinas ranging from $20-$300 in price, and music sheets for songs learned in the game.
You can visit their site and make a purchase from there, however, those that live in St. Louis get a real treat. They can actually take lessons from a trained Ocarina player. Granted, no matter how many times you play Epona’s song, no horse is going to come running up to you.
Valve Set To Launch Steam Cloud With Left 4 Dead

It seems like years ago that Valve announced their new Cloud syncing service for Steam. If you missed the announcement back in May, the new service will actually save all of your settings such as key-bindings and such on their server, rather than just your PC. This will make things much easier when you go to play one of your games on a different PC, or just upgrade to a new one. Another great feature is that you will be able to sync up save files, though unfortunately that one won’t be seen just yet.
So why the refresher course? Well Valve is finally ready to launch the Cloud service with Left 4 Dead when it launches this month. It will be the only title with support for a little while, though Valve has promised to add it to older titles (as well as new ones when they are released) sometime in the future.
Quake Gets Submitted To Apple’s App Store
Have you been looking forward to some real gaming on your iPhone? Sure, there are some fairly entertaining games available, but nothing beats some good old fashioned Quake. Well it seems that someone has ported the game to Apple’s handset, and submitted it to the App Store for approval.
Unfortunately, it does not appear that this person actually has permission from iD to be releasing the game, so it may not actually make it to the store. However, if it does indeed get there, I suggest downloading it quickly, as I doubt iD will let it stay for long. I suppose we’ll know in 2-5 days, as that’s how long submissions generally take to be approved (or rejected).
PS3 BioShock DLC Dated And Priced

Finally we have some info on the upcoming PS3-exclusive DLC for BioShock. You know, that game that was released last year on the PC and Xbox 360? Still doesn’t ring a bell? It’s that game that’s around a year old that you still have to pay full-price for, despite the fact that there are absolutely no differences in gameplay. Great, glad you’re with me now.
The new DLC is set to debut on November 20th, and will set you back $9.99. There are three challenge rooms dubbed “A Shocking Turn of Events”, “The I in Team” and “Worlds of Hurt”. The rooms are best described by the new Trophies that also come along with the content, which are listed after the jump.
