Not good enough to wield the axe in front of thousands of screaming fans? Pick up the Guitar Hero axe then! This year’s Download Festival, to be held at Donnington Park, Castle Donnington, on June 8-10 will be host to Guitar Hero performances on the Third stage every night from June 7-10, between 10pm and midnight.

These two-hour sessions will have Guitar Hero players perform in front of up to 3,000 fans and genuinely experience what it’s like to be a rock star, even though you don’t really know how to play a guitar. This took place last year, and the reaction was enthusiastic: people were actually moshing! Each night’s best performer, as voted by the crowd, will pick up a brand new Epiphone Les Paul (pictured right) courtesy of the company itself, and the respect of the rockiest festival in the world.

The Xbox 360 version of Guitar Hero II will be available on-stage, which will be host to individual or double acts. Performers will be able to pick from the game’s 40 licensed songs or the track packs available through the Marketplace.

Limited places will be available, so if you’re interested, drop an email to guitarhero@bhpr.co.uk, or alternatively, head to the Third Stage on the night and they’ll do their best to get you up onstage.

New information on an upcoming Gears of War update was disclosed through the official forums by Epic Games’ VP Mark Rein. He revealed that the update will include new achievements for the Annex and the Hidden Fronts DLC and will improve roadie run as well as squash exploits and do some “general housekeeping”.

Contrary to what Jack Thompson might want you to believe, gamers aren’t killers. In fact, some of us would give our lives to protect. The Sun reports of one such gamer, Adam Mapleson, 24, who was shot by armed robbers as he tried to help a security guard.

Fellow commuters watched in horror as two gun thugs – who had held up the woman as she loaded a cashpoint machine – shot the IT consultant outside his local rail station.

Cabbie Steve Frost said: “There was blood all over the floor and all over the wall. There was lots of screaming. People panicked and started running.”

Julia Hickey, who had been heading to catch a train to work, said: “There was a young man lying in a pool of blood. He looked in a very bad way.”

Thankfully, he was rushed to the hospital and is now alive and well.

According to his MySpace profile, Adam likes listening to heavy metal (hey, who doesn’t?) and likes to play games, with favorites including Counter-Strike, GTA and Oblivion.

This franchise is rooted in every nerd/dork’s life, and has impressed quite a few gamers with its many titles, many of which have been good. FiringSquad takes a look at the ten best Star Wars games (in their opinion, of course), ranging from the obvious KOTOR to Republic Commando.

Love him or hate him, but Christophe Gans, the guy behind the Silent Hill film, is helming the movie adaptation of Capcom’s Onimusha. This comes from IGN, as they report that Gans will direct the film for Samuel Hadida’s Davis Films, the production company behind both Silent Hill and Brotherhood of the Wolf, both Gans’ films.

As per their report, the film has a staggering budget of $70 million and is being shopped around to prospective buyers, with several studios showing interest. The movie has been penned by Leslie Kruger and John Collee (Master and Commander), and filming is set to begin in China next February for a late 2009 release.