14 DAY TRIAL // DJ Hero 2 was one of the highlights of today's spectacular Activision E3 press briefing. The biggest publisher in the world organized an event that featured many of the famous artists from its music games. Celebrities like Usher, NERD, Chris Cornell, Maynard James Keenan from Tool and Jane's Addiction made their appearance on the stage to promote Activision's future rhythm releases.
During this conference, a trailer of DJ Hero 2 was shown, detailing some of the musicians that provided songs for players to mix and mash up. According to Joystiq, these artists are: 50 Cent, B.O.B., Daft Punk, David Guetta, deadmau5, Dr. Dre, Eminem, Flo Rida, Gorillaz, Jay-Z, Iyaz, Justice, Kanye West, Lady Gaga, Lil Wayne, MIA, Rihanna, Sean Paul, Stevie Wonder, Chemical Brothers, Jackson 5, The Prodigy, Tiesto and Timbaland.
We already knew about Eminem, David Guetta or deadmau5, but the presence of Stevie Wonder and the Jackson 5 was quite a surprise. This will surely lead to many interesting and strange mixes. One can only imagine what kind of songs result from combining The Prodigy and Jackson 5 or Tiesto and Stevie Wonder.
Like the first game in the series, DJ Hero 2, uses a turntable controller that lets players combine and remix parts from one or more famous dance and hip songs to create new musical work. The titles simulate the work of a disc jockey, challenging the amateur musicians to press buttons on the controller to match the notes of the songs and to slide a knob to change between the pieces being mixed together at the right moments.
One can also sing or rap in addition to using the turntable controller, like in the rock'n'roll counterparts of the game, Guitar Hero or Rock Band. DJ Hero 2 is being developed by FreeStyleGames and will be published by Activision, despite the poor sales of the first installment in the franchise. No fixed release date has been announced yet, but Activision declared that the project was aimed for a launch in the last quarter of 2010.