Modification tools for Call of Duty: World at War are now available, offering you the chance to create custom content for the recently-released shooter.

Grab the tools from AtomicGamer, FileFront and Gamer’s Hell.

Expanding your purchase options, Call of Duty: World at War is now available on Steam.

Developed by Treyarch, the game is now selling like hotcakes across all regions. It can be bought for $49.95, the same price as retail.

Since Activision is in party mode, the publisher has announced that it will host a Xbox Live weekend this month, letting players 14 years of age or older participate in a number of activities to celebrate Guitar Hero: World Tour.

The activities include an Xbox All NIghter on November 27; Play & Win sweepstakes from November 28 through 30; and Game with Developers on November 30 from 10pm to 1am GMT.

Those who play during the weekend can win special prizes, including Samsung home theater packages, 1GB memory sticks and more. However, most interesting will be the Game with Developers session where lucky gamers can have their ass whooped by the makers of the game themselves. Here are the people who are participating:

• GHDevTina – Producer
• GHDevLee – Associate Producer
• GHDevCorey – Production Coordinator
• GHDevAnthony – Midi Designer
• GHDevChris – Midi Designer
• GHDevJason – Lead Animator
• GHDevZack – Junior Programmer
• GHDevJosh – Jr. Sound Designer
• GHDevKristina – Mocap Supervisor
• GHDevJustin – Mocap Tech
• GHDevAdry – QA Tester
• GHDevBrandon – QA Tester
• GHDevTravisR – QA Tester

You can check out the event’s official website for more information.

Surprising everyone, Treyarch’s Call of Duty: World at War has sold more than double on Call of Duty 4’s first week of UK sales.

The game hit two more platforms than its predecessor – PS2 and Wii – and has become a blockbuster hit across all platforms, including PS3, Xbox 360, PC, DS and PSP.

Neither sales figures nor per-console breakdown was provided for the game’s sales.

Series creator Infinity Ward is now working on Call of Duty 6 for release sometime next year.

Leading drum research initiative The Clem Burke Drumming Project has announced a collaborate research project with Activision’s Guitar Hero World Tour that will examine the benefits of using the game’s drum kit controller.

The project is an unique collaboration between Blondie drummer Clem Burke, Dr. Marcus Smith and Dr. Steve Draper from the University of Chichester and Gloucestershire, respectively. Their aim is to gather information of various art forms of drumming through the application of scientific principles. Here’s where Guitar Hero comes in:

With two raised pads that represent the hi-hat and either the crash or ride cymbals, three pads which correspond to the snare and two toms and a bass-drum kick pedal, the Guitar Hero World Tour drum controller simulates an authentic drum kit.

When playing on the drum kit controller in the game on higher difficultly levels, the Clem Burke Drumming Project believes Guitar Hero World Tour will provide an opportunity to acquire the specific motor skills needed for drumming. The Clem Burke Drumming Project will investigate the transfer of skills and the physiological demands of game play compared to live drumming.

The Clem Burke Drumming Project recently launched its first wave of findings, revealing that gigging professional drummers had a heart rate profile similar to professional football players and expended a significant amount of energy (400-600 kcal per performance). Physiological tests included the measurement of heart rate, oxygen uptake and blood lactate in rehearsal tests and monitoring heart rate and blood lactate during live stage performances.

The Clem Burke Drumming Project team will conduct a series of physiological and neurological tests using the Guitar Hero World Tour drum kit controller, which will be permanently housed in the University of Gloucestershire’s newly-built dedicated drumming laboratory and at the University of Chichester.

The research will also examine the neurological changes in the game, seeing how the brain’s grey and white matters evolve during gameplay. It will also investigate the health benefits of playing the game.

Guitar Hero World Tour is now available on PS2, PS3, Xbox 360 and Wii.

Keeping the stream of content flowing, Activision today announced that tracks from The Killers’ upcoming album will be made available for Guitar Hero: World Tour. The songs will be available simultaneously with the album’s release on November 25.

Two singles from the album will be playable: “Human” and “Losing Touch”. Rounding out the pack will be “Mr. Brightside” from the band’s debut album Hot Fuss. It will be available on both Xbox Live and PlayStation Network for 440 Microsoft points ($5.49). Songs can also be bought individually for 160 points ($1.99) a piece.

Hoping to further capitalize on the Guitar Hero franchise, Activision today announced the acquisiiton of Budcat Creations, the studio who worked on the PS2 and Wii versions of games in the aforementioned music franchise. They are currently working on a new game in the same franchise.

"Budcat Creations is an outstanding developer with an experienced management team and a very talented group of programmers, designers and artists," said Mike Griffith, President and CEO of Activision Publishing, Inc. "In addition to strengthening our development capabilities on the Nintendo platforms, this acquisition increases our Guitar Hero development resources as we continue to grow the franchise and expand our global leadership position in the music-based genre."

The studio now becomes a wholly owned subsidiary of Activision, the largest publisher in North America. They are based on Iowa City, Iowa. Financial details of the agreement were not disclosed.

Following up on the trailer, Activision has released the first screenshots from Guitar Hero World Tour. A picture of the drum kit can be seen in this post. The game is due out this Fall on PS2, PS3, Xbox 360 and Wii.

Activision today confirmed that the Wii version of Guitar Hero World Tour will support some form of downloadable content, though no details were provided. It is not known if the content refers to new songs or the sharing of user-created tracks.

Downloadable content on the Wii is a concern for developers due to the console’s paltry 512MB of internal storage. Users can expand that space through the use of SD cards, however, the Wii will only executive downloaded content if it is located within the internal memory.

In related news, a picture of the drum kit that will come with the game has been released. Enjoy.

In a surprising move, a free track for Guitar Hero 3 will be offered for PS3 gamers on Thursday, June 5. The free track in question will be inspired by God of War, Sony’s insanely awesome action game. This was revealed through a PlayStation Underground mailing from Sony (attached in this post), with no additional details provided.

This may seem odd at first, but Neversoft and Microsoft teamed up for a similar promotion that saw them giving away a free Halo tune for the Xbox 360 edition of the game.

Following up on revealing the game title to be Guitar Hero World Tour, Activision issued a trailer for the upcoming multi-instrument rocker in development at Neversoft. The game is due out this Fall on PS2, PS3, Xbox 360 and Wii.

The next entry in the Guitar Hero series won’t be called Guitar Hero IV, but Guitar Hero World Tour, publisher Activision has announced. Set to arrive on PS2, PS3, Xbox 360 and Wii this Fall, no further information was provided for the title.

The company, however, recently revealed the five-pad drum kit that it claims are “the most realistic drums”. The game will also reportedly let users record, create music and share it with the rest of the world. Four bands have already been confirmed to be in the game - Van Halen, The Eagles, Linkin Park and Sublime.

Not much is known about Guitar Hero 4, which is slated for release sometime later this year. But some new information has popped up, courtesy of none other than legendary guitarist Ted Nugent. In an interview on the Detroit Radio Station WRIF he mentioned that he is involved in the production of the fourth game in the series, using colorful language to express the motion capture work he did.

While he did not mention his level of participation in the game, he did mention one song specifically - “Strangle Hold”, though the game might feature more songs, or maybe even another different song. You can hear the whole interview here; just jump to the 12:30 mark if you want to skip the rest of the stuff.

The ESA may have been in major trouble for the past few weeks as publishers Activision, Vivendi and LucasArts left the US-based trade body. No reason was cited for their departures. However, EA has stepped up to the plate to defend the body, criticizing those who left by lambasting their “lack of leadership.”

Speaking to Gamesindustry.biz at a recent press event, Jeff Brown, VP of corporate communications at EA, commented: “They’re a big company and we feel that when you’re a big company you’ve got a responsibility to consumers to work on policy issues which are very, very important to consumers. And the best way to do that is with an industry consensus. That’s the way it’s been done with the ESA in the US, and with ELSPA in the UK.”

He added that EA was not reconsidering its position in the trade body, urging the ESA to make a strong case to its remaining members for their ongoing participation.

When asked about E3, Brown responded that “EA is 100 per cent committed,” adding that other major publishers will also be present at the event to show off their wares. The event, organized by the ESA, will run this year from July 15-17 at the Los Angeles Convention Center.

Earlier this year The Romantics, a band and not a hippie group, sued Activision on the grounds that the cover of their song in Guitar Hero ’80s was a little too accurate. It has been reported that their injunction for the publisher to stop the sales of the game has been denied in a preliminary hearing.

“Activision is pleased with the ruling and thinks that the case is without merit,” the publisher stated. “The company believes video games represent a growing opportunity for the music industry to reach new audiences and a strong source of potential license revenue for both bands and music publishers.”