The drums are booming from horizon to horizon... and there, can you hear it? The distortion-filled wail of a million guitars, thrashing their way to platinum-record glory. This Holiday season the Gods of Rock are about to go to war, and I for one raise my pointer and pinky high to throw them the horns of welcome.

From the West, begin your salutary bass riff for Activision, Neversoft, and Red Octane, the terrible trio who look to continue the glory of the Guitar Hero franchise with Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock (Check out the GameSpy Preview). Red Octane built the original Guitar Hero guitar controller -- a very nice piece of work -- and looks to follow up with an incredible wireless Gibson Les Paul. Meanwhile, although Neversoft is a newcomer to the franchise, the Tony Hawk developer has a reputation for badassery that can't be denied. Then there's the set list: killer classics like "Slow Ride" by Foghat, "Rock N Roll All Night" by KISS, "School's Out" by Alice Cooper, "Suck my Kiss" by the Red Hot Chili Peppers or "Paint it Black" from the Rolling Stones. Personally I think "My Name is Jonas" by Weezer is reason enough to buy the game. Finally? Name recognition! The Guitar Hero franchise has become the de-facto standard for videogame partying. But this year, Activision's got some competition...


Now turn your eyes to the East, friends, and open your ears to the piercing meedly-meedly solos of Electronic Arts, Harmonix, and MTV. This trilogy of terror includes the original Guitar Hero developer, also known for Karaoke Revolution, combined with the immense musical and financial resources of industry behemoths MTV and EA. (Check out my FileBlog on the Inside Story of Harmonix and Guitar Hero). Together they're unleashing the most ambitious home music game in development today: Rock Band. Rock Band will have players jamming on both guitar and bass while a singer belts out lyrics into a microphone and a drummer pounds away on a drum set. See GameSpy's Latest Preview. You'll be able to form your own 'band' with your friends, post your triumphs on Xbox Live, download new tracks (and even whole albums!) and more. This thing is going to be huge.

BUT WHO WILL TRIUMPH? When Rock Band was announced, using the original developer as well as the musical resources of MTV, it was a foregone conclusion here at GameSpy that it would roll over Guitar Hero III. But now that we know more about both games, it's hard to say. First up, the controllers: Red Octane's new wireless Gibson Les Paul looks like the best guitar controller available, at least in terms of playability. That gives Guitar Hero III the edge for shredders. Even though the Rock Band Fender Stratocaster looks amazing, the buttons on the prototypes we played were still 'mushy.' Will it be fixed in time?

Then you have the musical selections. Rock Band aims for a wider appeal, with a lot of tracks emphasizing the vocals for karaoke fans. Songs like "We Won't Get Fooled Again" or "Suffragette City" are more fun to sing than play on the guitar. So instead of facing off in a head-to-head competition, the two games each have a very different focus -- Guitar Hero III is all about seriously hardcore guitar licks and Rock Band is about pop tunes and finding a group of players who can back up a really good vocalist. The games will likely appeal to different people.

Of course, they both appeal to me. Which is a raw deal. I'll be spending almost as much on fake instruments this holiday season as you'd expect to spend on real ones. Rock hurts.

      -Fargo