Rock Band Live Tour comes to Dallas in November

With the huge success of the original Rock Band game, Harmonix is promoting their upcoming sequel, Rock Band 2, by taking the show on the road. Using headliners Panic At The Disco and Dashboard Confessional, they will be having concerts across the country that will feature Rock Band performances by the general public. That means that you might be able to play on stage between the major acts, and show off your Rock Band skills to the world.

Tickets for the event will go on sale starting on August 8th, 2008, with the local Dallas show happening on November 12, 2008 at Nokia Theatre.

The full press release and tour dates are listed after the jump.

Rock Band Contest provides that Rock Star feeling

Ever since Harmonix developed the first Guitar Hero game in 2005, the goal has always been to give the feeling of performing up on stage in front of thousands of screaming fans. This idea was expanded with the release of Rock Band which allowed you to complete your band with a drummer and lead singer. The only problem left was that you were still just playing in your living room with your friends, not on a real stage in front of screaming fans. That is unless of course you had the chance to perform at The Ultimate Rock Band & Guitar Hero Competition this past weekend at The Max, hosted by Maximedia Studios.

Click the read more link below.

Perform on Fake Instruments on a Real Stage for Real Money

The idea behind games like Guitar Hero and Rock Band is to give you the sensation of playing in front of a huge crowd and rocking out, but usually these games are played in a living room with a very small group of people. Occasionally there are competitions that allow you get on stage, but even then, they are usually on a small, temporary stage. But fear not, little rocker dude, because Saturday July 12, 2008, Maximedia Studios will be offering the chance for anyone to play on a professional stage in front of a roaring crowd. The "Ultimate Guitar Hero / Rock Band Contest" will be challenging rockers from the Dallas/Fort Worth area to compete with each other for an as-yet-unspecified amount of cash in front of a live crowd on a real stage. There will be prizes given away throughout the day, and it should be fun for anyone. The full press release at the "read more" link below. For more information, check out the event website at www.liveatthemax.com/rockband.

New Realm Media Networks Feature: Live Streaming

Realm Media Networks is proud to announce a new feature, live streaming! Our goal is to use this feature to show off new titles, and allow you to interact with our staff as we play, enabling you to see the features of the game you're most interested in.

For our first trial run, we're pulling an older title out of the archives: Guitar Hero 3: Legends of Rock for the Nintendo Wii. We'll be streaming live from 7-9 PM Central time on Monday, April 14, 2008. We're using the Mogulus service, and an integrated chat room in the embedded player lets you interact with us at anytime while you're watching.

Before and after the live stream, we'll be looping some old footage of a guitar hero tournament, and there are several videos available through the "On-Demand" menu. Our live and archived streams will be available at anytime through our stream page.

TipperQueen discusses her appearance at CES 2008

It's not every day that you can say you met both the richest man in the world and one of your favorite rock star idols, but long time Dallas resident Kelly Law-Yone (aka TipperQueen) recently did just that at CES 2008. She appeared on stage with Bill Gates and Slash of Guns N' Roses fame to help promote Guitar Hero 3 during Microsoft's keynote address at the annual Consumer Electronics Show.

Realm Media Networks was able to ask Kelly a few questions about her recent experience.

Realm Media Networks: So, to get started, how were you selected to appear at Microsoft's CES keynote?

Kelly Law-Yone: Since I have several YouTube videos of me playing Guitar Hero, including some of my WSVG [World Series of Video Games] performances, Microsoft knew that I was a technical player that could perform on stage. They also had me perform at their GH2 360 release, so I had already worked with them before. I was contacted in December while I was in Florida for a Guitar Hero tournament, so I had less than a month to prepare for all of this.

RMN: What was it like meeting Bill Gates and Slash?

Kelly Law-Yone: I got to talk to Bill briefly backstage about Guitar Hero, which was pretty awesome. He seemed really impressed when he learned that people used their right hand to tap notes on the fretboard. He was really easy going and was always cracking jokes when something didn't go exactly right.

I only got to meet Slash briefly before the show started, and it was hard to recognize him without the shades and the hat, haha. I didn’t even know he was going to be there until I arrived in Las Vegas. I was more nervous about Slash watching me during my performance than anyone, because after all – he's the one playing this on a real guitar. I didn’t want to mess this up, and I didn't!

After the show, I got to take a picture with Robbie Bach and Bill Gates, which was simply amazing. I couldn't believe it was really happening, because I’ve always wanted to meet Bill ever since I was a kid. I also got a picture with Slash and congratulated him on a great performance and he said the same to me! I only wish I had the chance to play him on Guitar Hero 3.

RMN: How did this CES press conference compare to the Guitar Hero 2 launch?

Kelly Law-Yone: The CES Keynote was much more rehearsed and practiced than the GH2 launch. During the keynote, everyone was running around backstage and there were tons of wires on the floor so people would constantly tell you to "watch the floor." CES is one of the biggest events of year, so it was definitely more scaled up.

RMN: Are you going to be appearing at any other Microsoft events?

Kelly Law-Yone: I would love to work more with Microsoft – they are a great group of people to work with. Everyone knows how to have a good time but still stay focused on what needs to be done.

RMN: Many people are saying Guitar Hero 3 has bumped up the difficulty significantly over Guitar Hero 2, does that seem like an accurate statement to you?

Kelly Law-Yone: I actually think it's the opposite; I think GH3 is a whole lot easier than GH2. Part of it has to do with the larger timing window when you can hit the notes so you don't have to be as precise. Some people complain about the complicated chord changes, but all it takes is figuring out what is most comfortable for you. One of my favorite parts about GH3 is the different hyperspeed settings and the fact you can play at your own [hyperspeed] on XBOX Live. I think the note charts in GH2 are much more complicated than that of GH3 actually. "Through the Fire and Flames" is the hardest song to do well on, in my opinion, but if I get through the first few notes of the song I know I’ll pass it, unlike Guitar Hero 2’s "Jordan."

RMN: Thanks for answering a few questions, I'm sure your fans were excited to see you up on stage at one of the biggest press conferences of the year!

Kelly Law-Yone: It was definitely one of the greatest events I have ever been to, and I have to thank Microsoft, my team – Team Pandemic, and my friends and family cheering me on. Being on stage with Bill Gates and Slash seems surreal, and I’m really thankful I got to have this amazing experience. Keep rockin’ everyone, and have a great 2008.

Other Links:
[pic] TipperQueen at WSVG Dallas 2007
[pic] TipperQueen at Midnight Gaming Championship

RAGE, id Tech5, Quake Zero lead QuakeCon 2007 announcements

QuakeCon sees the congregation of thousands of gamers every year, revolving around the FPS genre, and specifically around the company that started the trend, id. Each year brings new announcements in 3D engines and games, and this year was no different. 2007 saw the announcement of a new title, RAGE, which showed off the company's new engine, titled id Tech5. Another project announced was a free, browser-driven version of Quake Arena, although no specific details were given.

RAGE is a slight departure from the normal Quake/Wolfenstein/Doom formula, with the addition of significant racing and "road warrior" type levels. The new 3D engine allows for large, but extremely detailed environments, using Megatextures. As the game is still in production, not much is being said, although early trailers show off advanced character rendering and animations, pushing the level of detail beyond what was seen in Doom 3.

The id Tech5 engine will be used on titles for both Xbox 360 and PS3, including RAGE, but will not appear on the Nintendo Wii, due to hardware limitations.

Quake Zero, still an unofficial title, is planned to be an iteration of Quake that can run from a website, and will be free for users. Much like simple flash games found around the web, Quake Zero will be advertiser supported, but will integrate within the website's framework. The goal is to use Quake Zero to drawing people to a site, and build a community. With a relatively small budget and developer group, id is hoping their free, online experiment will be fruitful.

vVv Vision talks about WSVG, Gears of War patches, and MLG

During the recent WSVG event in Dallas, Realm Media Networks was able to talk to the top two Gears of War teams about the tournament and Gears of War in general. Here's the full transcript of the interview with the vVv Vision, the 1st place team.

Team Members

Jerry Prochazka, Manager (vVv LordJerith)

Ryan Watson (vVv Takedown)

Ethan Holmes (vVv Bawabus)

Kevin Green (vVv StOnEs)

David Held (vVv puff)

Realm Media Networks: How did you guys get into this tournament?

vVv LordJerith: We were signed up for the event, then Matt, the CEO of WSVG, contacted us and gave us his own personal invite. He wanted us to come out to check out the World Series of Video Games. We are excited ... it was really good tournament for us. So it was really great for us to get the invitation, the World Series of Video Games has been a really accomodating and good event for us.

RMN: So are you guys professional gamers, do you play in a lot of tournaments full time?

vVv Stones: Yeah we've been playing in MLG. We just won in MLG Meadowlands [In Meadowlands, New Jersey], the first tournament for Gears of War so far, well, the first really big tournament. [see vVv Vision at Meadowlands]

RMN: So how's the setup for this competition compared to the setups of the other competitions?

vVv Takedown: Here's we're kinda thrown in the back behind Fight Night Round 3 and Quake 4. We're all kind of set in the back a little bit more. At MLG they have the main stage and the big screens and stuff, I think it's a lot better. Gears of War doesn't stand out as much here as it does there.

RMN: So much do you guys play, outside of competition?

vVv puff: We try to get as much practice as possible. Whenever we get off of work, I don't since I don't have a job so I gotta get a job. (everyone laughs) We get on around 8 and practice until about 11. If we're doing good, we're going to keep playing. We get as much practice as possible.

RMN: So how do you guys practice?

vVv puff: We try to run different strategies around different kind of teams to see what they do, and just mix it up.

RMN: Favorite maps & weapons?

vVv Takedown: War Machine, Shotgun

vVv Bawabus: War Machine, Handy B Button without it I wouldn't be good at this game

vVv Stones: Manshion, Shotgun

vVv puff: Clock Tower, Pistol or Boom shot

RMN: Since Gears of War has come out there has been some patches, that made some subtle changes. How has that affected you guys?

vVv LordJerith: This is one of those classic situations where the game developers have kind of shut out the voices of the competitive community in favor of more casual gamers. Fortunately for the competitive community, we can adjust to the developer's desires to favor the casual gamers. Some times it is unfortunate, specially with a title as popular as Gears of War, that the developers don't take time to satisfy both communtities.

In this particullar last patch they took out the weapon sliding glitch, which although a glitch, we discovered actually increased the pace of the game. It made the game more interesting. Obviously when they removed it, we adjust and continue to move forward. But even though it's a small community, because of the growth of competitive gaming it would be nice if the developers gave some of the top teams a little more ear.

Such that Microsoft has done with Shadowrun by bringing in the top Halo teams and Counterstrike teams to help develop the game, ensure it's balanced and keep it fast paced.

RMN: I saw just a couple days ago, it's expected to be announced at E3, about Gears of War would be coming to the PC. Do you guys have any feelings/opinions on that, how the control would differ on a keyboard/mouse?

vVv Bawabus: The different setups with Shadowrun they spent a lot of time balancing the control of the PC and the consoles, because obviously a mouse is much more precise than just moving a stick around to aim. With the way Gears is setup I really see no way they can balance it over than making it so that the aimer doesn't really track with the mouse completely. But that would just be frustrating to PC players.

Honestly, I don't see PCs developing as much as consoles can just because it feels better with the control for a lot of people. PCs obviously cost a lot. It's just easier for more people that are better at games to get into them on consoles.

RMN: So how would you feel if you had to compete across platform for those games, like Shadowrun, that are available for both PC and consoles?

vVv Bawabus: Actually, we've been practicing a lot and I don't think at this point gaming would make much of a difference if both PCs and Consoles got into it at the same time. Yeah we'd beat them, it wouldn't matter. (team laughs in agreement)

RMN: So what are you going to do with the money?

vVv Takedown: I'm probably going to save the money and use it for travel to get to other events.

vVv Bawabus: I'll probably be saving some of the money for college, or other funds, and then donating the rest to charity.

vVv Stones: Dunno, probably throw some rims on my car. New intake, new exhaust? And then I'll probably use the rest to pay my college tuition.

vVv Puff: I'll probably use mine to save it, and then I can move out of my mom's house finally.

RMN: Thanks guys! Congratulations on your win!

Links:
WSVG Dallas 2007 full story
WSVG Dallas 2007 image gallery
vVv Vision website