The final countdown has begun - get ready, boys and girls, because Guitar Hero: Greatest Hits is coming to a console near you on June 24th. You've got less than a month to prepare yourself for the onslaught of some of the most famous (and infamous!) tracks from Guitar Hero, Guitar Hero II, Guitar Hero Encore: Rocks the 80s and Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock.

We've finally rounded up the full tracklisting of what's in store for you... 48 master recordings, Band Career mode, 8-player Battle of the Bands (two full bands competing head-to-head online), and of course, your favourite tracks transported from single-instrument to a full guitar/bass/drums/vocals extravaganza.

Activision have announced the last group of tracks for Guitar Hero: Greatest Hits, their latest and greatest attempt at making even more money. The game will allow players to replay through the most "fun" songs from previous Guitar Hero games, but the ability to use the bass, drums, or vocals instead of the lonely guitar.

This week's announcement sees the track listing from Guitar Hero Encore: Rocks the 80s and Guitar Hero: Aerosmith. There isn't any massive surprises, with Judas Priest, Anthrax and Twisted Sister each to feature, along with a number of other artists.

The idea: Take the "most exciting, recognisable and fun to play music" from earlier titles Guitar Hero, Guitar Hero II, Guitar Hero Encore: Rocks the 80s and Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock - and then convert these formerly guitar-only titles into a full-band experience.

The result: Guitar Hero: Greatest Hits, I kid you not.
We've got a new trailer that may explain things a bit more.

The Holiday flood begins this Thursday with the release of an ungodly amount of games, including Brothers in Arms: Hell’s Highway, Crysis Warhead and Wipeout HD, and doesn’t stop until the week before Christmas. To save you all a bit of time, I like to run through the release list at the start of a given quarter, and make sweeping generalisations as to the quality of upcoming games.

Last week’s Warp Pipe covered the games of October, so this week we’re looking at November’s big hitters, including Gears of War 2, Left 4 Dead and Mirror’s Edge.

What will you remember 2007 for, in terms of gaming?

We asked some of the game admins and network staff to find out their thoughts, but I'll give you a quick recap first:
Australia got the PS3 in a bit of an anti-climactic launch, bringing with it a bit of resistance, as well as a stormy racer. We got a new Command & Conquer, another episode of Half-Life 2, a final Halo and didn't get the latest Grand Theft Auto. The world was thrown into "what-if?" with a little game from Massive, a motley crew of cartoons finally arrived, making up Team Fortress 2, and the Call of Duty was heard on a more modern battlefield. Ingame physics were turned on their head and flipped inside-out with Valve's puzzling Portal, our favourite four-fingered family arrived on almost every console known to man, first-person shooters got genetically-engineered, and the world was overrun by pocket monsters, both handheld and motion-sensitive. It's also been a big year for a little Italian plumber, who not only took over the soccer field, he also had a party or two and even headed into space, as well as turning somewhat more two-dimensional. Blizzard released their first MMO expansion, announced their second, revealed that 9 million people played World of Warcraft, took the covers off of StarCraft II, and still managed to keep tight-lipped on their new project.

The Games Network has done a whole bunch of work behind the scenes, making things a lot nicer and easier to work with, even if it looks pretty much the same. One of the major changes would be the upgrade to our file mirror, which now boasts 10 terabytes of space, so there's plenty of room for games, demos, screenshots, videos and patches. We also upgraded our staff, getting a whole new person to work for us, as well as a handful of new newsbots to bring you updates and good stories.

As a team, we tended to stay pretty close to home this year (other than sending representatives to eGames in Melbourne, GO3 in Perth, and BlizzCon in LA!), but we took the time to recognise the local guys with a big meetup for our Adelaide members, volunteers and gamers on the Australia Day long weekend last year. We had a whole pub to ourselves!

Overall, we must be doing something right, as every month, it seems we get bigger and bigger, with more visits, downloads and members! ...and, of course, you guys are the most important thing. Thanks for all your support, whether you're a regular visitor, someone who pops in from time to time, or just someone who keeps an eye out for interesting files in our library.

Bring on 2008 - but first, read on to find out what the admins, staff and volunteers have to say about 2007!

It seems The Romantics known best for their hit song What I Like About You, which is featured in Guitar Hero: Rock The 80s, are suing Activision over the likeness and an "imitation" of the track in the game.

While Guitar Hero III has more original recordings from bands than the covers, the older versions of the game relied on using cover versions of various bands songs. It seems in the eyes of The Romantics the cover version is 'too close' to the original.

I think I'm glad the eGames & Entertainment Expo is only on once a year - we were only there for two days this time around and I'm still having trouble getting my head around it all!

Building on last year's roots, this year's Expo promised to be bigger and better than before - and from what we saw, it delivered. With big titles such as Crysis, Assassin's Creed, Haze and Mass Effect on show (the official number was 50 new titles either displayed or playable), plus large stalls from Sony and Nintendo, this was a great way to show off just what's around (or coming soon) in the games industry.

We are still a nation of party-goers, with the eighth celebration thrown by a fat little plumber topping the charts again this week. It's good to see the Wii back up in the top section, long may she reign!

In other news, the PC chart's a bit surprising, with an attack from a futuristic battlefield coming right up behind a couple of warring worlds. Xbox 360 is still wielding chainsaws and fending off locusts, a bunch of cars is storming around the PS3, DS is still overrun by pocket monsters, and the PS2 has stopped singing and now thinks it's an 80s hero.

The things I do for you people. I've been sitting here for an hour and a half, listening to Activision's E3 Investor Event on a fairly crackly, low-quality webcast.

It's just like being there, but without pictures. Trust me - those montages of video game footage are great, when you just get the sound ...by the time you realise you're listening to Call of Duty 4, it's changed into Guitar Hero III.

Anyway. So you don't miss out on the fun, I've managed to get my hands on this year's E3 lineup for Activision, the first of many such lineups for today.

Guitar fans rejoice. Not only do you get Guitar Hero Encore: Rocks the 80s very soon, the wrapping's starting to come off of Guitar Hero III, for PS3, Xbox 360, Wii and PS2. We've got for you the full lineup of the game's unlockable guitars, a few bits and pieces of information - and the new subtitle.

Ladies and gentlemen, please put your hands together for Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock!

Continuing the tracklisting theme, we have the final, confirmed version of what songs are going to be popping up on Guitar Hero Encore: Rocks the 80s.

The Vapors are back on the list (!!), joined by the Dead Kennedys and band recordings of Judas Priest and Limozeen, and of course they're nestled quite comfortably next to the already confirmed choices of Iron Maiden, Flock of Seagulls and Twisted Sister.

After someone leaked some Guitar Hero Encore: Rocks the 80s tracks earlier this week, Red Octane has stepped up to the plate and officially announced "some of" them, along with giving us a whole pile of screenshots.

.38 Special, Scorpions, White Lion, and Iron Maiden are all still on the list, but there's been no word on The Vapors. Aw.

The last tracklist we had is over here, let's see how it compares to the official word from Red Octane...

A jam packed Ep for yas tonight, as the GG team starts to realise we've filmed too much and theres not enough time for it all! Lets get straight into it, here's a little preview of tonight's ep - expect to see Halo 3, Guitar Hero Encore and Juiced 2 previews, MGS: Portable Ops and Silverfall reviews - and, of course, the Wii Bowling Roffle Cup at Bribie Island Retirement Village.

Good Game airs on ABC2 @ 8.30 Tuesdays, 12:45am Thursday mornings and 10:30pm Saturday nights. Visit www.abc.net.au/goodgame where you can download every ep and segment (free for Internode customers), and give us feedback on the show.

Oh. My. Goodness.
I'm squealing like a schoolgirl here, having just caught a glimpse of the latest additions to Guitar Hero Encore: Rocks the 80s.

No, still no pictures, no videos, no nothing... but... OMGOMGOMG... The Vapors: Turning Japanese has just been added to the game, as well as a few other tracks. I don't care about the rest, but figure you might (Anthrax, Iron Maiden, Scorpions...), so I've included them in the tracklisting anyway.

I keep talking about Guitar Hero Encore: Rocks the 80s. I talk about what songs are on the tracklist. I talk about how I'm excited about the game. I talk about how we have NO information about it other than apparently it's due out next month for the PS2.

Well... tonight is your lucky night, retro fans! I have a brand spankin' new trailer video for you. It's got some graphics plucked straight from the London Olympics design team and a revamped "I Wanna Rock" by Twisted Sister.