Let the battle begin

Dec 4, 2008 07:15 GMT  ·  By

The music game genre is definitely on an ascending trend these days, as more and more companies want to profit from this new segment. Activision and Harmonix are already dominating the market with their Guitar Hero and Rock Band titles, respectively, but other companies are also launching their own games. Microsoft wants to take over the karaoke game market with Lips, while Nintendo wants to benefit from the big sales of the Wii and has launched Wii Music.

But the two big games, Guitar Hero and Rock Band can't be defeated so easily, as they benefit from a big fan base and excellent online services, which offer a lot of great things to the regular user. Without a doubt, one of the most popular of these is the DLC (Downloadable Content), which offers new songs that users can purchase and play in the two games.

This has generated a battle between the two titles, which struggle to offer the best lineup of songs, so that each can attract more users than its rival. This week is no different, as both Activision and Harmonix have announced the DLC packs that will be coming to the Xbox Live Marketplace and PlayStation Network in the near future, and both lineups are pretty impressive.

In December, Guitar Hero will receive songs from the Smashing Pumpkins, like G.L.O.W., 1979 and Everlasting Gaze. On December 11, rockers will get the chance to play songs from Nirvana's repertoire, as the tracks You Know You're Right, Silver and Negative Creep will be available. The following week, on the 18th, we'll get the chance to rock out on some tracks from The Eagles, like Frail Grasp On The Big Picture, Life In The Fast Lane and One Of These Nights. Last, but not least, on December 23, players will get the chance to download for free popular Reggae tracks like Slightly Stoopid – Jimi, Pepper – Your Face and The Expendables – Sacrifice.

Harmonix has also announced the tracks that will appear this week, and the lineup is, as we’ve already mentioned, quite impressive, also featuring a few foreign songs. Thus, players will get Children of Bodom - Are You Dead Yet?, Finley - Tutto e Possibile, Platero y Tu - Hay Poco Rock & Roll, Squeeze – Tempted, Tokio Hotel - Ready, Set, Go!, All-American Rejects - Real World, The Naked Brothers Band - I Don't Want to Go to School, The Naked Brothers Band - Body I Occupy and Miranda Cosgrove - Headphones On.

All in all, some pretty interesting songs, which are sure to entertain a lot of couch-rockers out there. Let's just hope that with the winter holiday season almost upon us, we'll see some themed songs as well.