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.

Hoping to make all their downloadable content available to everyone, Harmonix and MTV Games announced that they have released Rock Band Track Pack Volume 2, the second installment in its track pack series. It is now available for PS2, PS3, Wii and Xbox 360 for $29.99.

The pack features 20 tracks ranging from Lynyrd Skynyrd and Motley Crue to Red Hot Chili Peppers and Duran Duran. It can be played as a standalone game for all consoles. However, you will also be able to export the songs for play with Rock Band and Rock Band 2 using a free offer on Xbox Live or PlayStation Network.

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.

Can’t get enough of Rock Band? Or Energizer batteries, for that matter? The dudes at Energizer have decided to give away one piece of downloadable content with their new Advanced Lithium Batteries.

This site has more details. It is applicable to both PlayStation Store and Xbox Live.

And yet another week is coming up, prompting Harmonix to announce the coming week’s downloadable content for Rock Band. This week they are offering us three different packs and one single.

The first pack is from Dead Kennedy, which includes “Califonia Uber Alles”, “Holiday in Cambodia” and “Police Truck”. The second pack is also three songs from Mission of Burma: “Mica”, “That’s How I Escaped My Certain Fate” and “That’s When I Reach for My Revolver”. Finally, the third pack is a trio of songs from metal bands fronted by women: “Forever” by In This Moment, “Closer” and “Swamped” by Lacuna Coil. Oh, and the single is “Gone” by Crooked X.

Each pack is available for 160 points ($1.99), with the packs going for 440 points ($5.49).

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.

MTV today announced that they will air Rock Band Battle this Saturday at 1pm ET/PT. Hosted by comedian Dan Levy with actress Carrie Keagan, the one hour special will feature five groups going head-to-head as they attempt to live out their dreams of rock n’ roll and compete for a pimped out electronics package.

The four member groups will take on their favorite song from Rock Band 2’s catalog of over 100 tracks. They will be judged on how well they play the game as well as how well they manage to impress the audience with their stage presence and rock and roll acumen.

The winning band will walk away with a big-screen LG television, Cambridge SoundWorks New theater system, Xbox 360 and a special edition bundle of Rock Band 2.

Hoping to cash in on the holiday season, Harmonix and EA have jointly announced a new Special Edition bundle for Rock Band that will be available for the PS2 and Wii starting at $99.99. It will also be available for PS3 and Xbox 360 at a starting price of $139.99.

The Special Edition bundle will feature the microphone, the guitar controller and drum controller. Gamers will be able to rock out to the game’s hundred-plus songs, most of which are available through Xbox Live and PlayStation Network. You will also be able to export 55 of Rock Band’s 58 songs in the game’s sequel for yet more action.

The bundle is now available.

Rock Band is surely big business, especially for Harmonix, the developers themselves, and Viacom. However, it is even bigger business for the founders of the studio – Alex Rigopulos and Eran Egozy – who have gotten a bonus of $150 million this year, based on the stellar sales performance of the franchise.

Even better yet (for them, anyway) is word that Viacom will be paying them even more this year as bonus. It is “expected to exceed this year’s payment,” noted Viacom, implying that it will be more than $300 million in bonuses, though how much more is yet not known.

"We may not have anticipated the payment would be that high, but it’s based on what they have achieved,” said Viacom spokeswoman Kelly McAndrew. "If they are making more money for us and we have to give a little back, that’s OK."

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.

This has to be the coolest thing I have seen this week - a trailer for Samba de Amigo. Monkeys with maracas… overenthusiastic fathers… looks-to-be-fun gameplay are all present here.

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.