British rockers Muse are rocking Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock with Activision with their three songs Muse Track Pack having hit the Xbox Live Marketplace last Thursday. The rock band renowned for their breathtaking live performances and a signature music style are returning to Guitar Hero for an encore performance with the release of three track downloadable song pack. The pack includes hits like “Exo-Politics” and “Supermassive Black Hole” from the trio’s critically acclaimed album Black Holes and Revelations and “Stockholm Syndrome” from their multi-platinum album Absolution. For 500 points, the Muse Track Pack is available for Xbox 360 as well as the PS3 (at the PlayStation Store).

by materials of xbox360fanboy.com

1. The Sims 2 Kitchen & Bath Interior Design Stuff Expansion Pack
2. The Sims 2 Double Deluxe
3. The Sims 2 FreeTime Expansion Pack
4. World Of Warcraft: Battle Chest
5. World Of Warcraft
6. Call Of Duty 4: Modern Warfare
7. Sins Of A Solar Empire
8. World Of Warcraft: Burning Crusade Expansion Pack
9. Assassin’s Creed: Director’s Cut Edition
10. Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six: Vegas 2

Since we last saw March’s NPD numbers, it looks like The Sims 2 has formed a Triumvirate to take the top three spots. World of Warcraft: Battle Chest and the Burning Crusades expansion pack continue to hold their respective fourth and eighth place positions, while Sins of a Solar Empire slips from fifth to seventh. Interestingly enough, the original World of Warcraft managed to leap from ninth to fifth, conversely Call of Duty 4 slips from third to sixth. Assassins Creed makes its debut on the NPD charts at number 9, while Vegas 2 nabs the tenth spot from Frontlines: Fuel of War to round out the tenth spot.

Wired reports that the US Defense Intelligence Agency has just acquired three PC-based video games which they will use to train the next wave of analysts. The games are short, but they have branching story lines that change depending on how a trainee reacts to various problems. Quoting:

“‘It is clear that our new workforce is very comfortable with this approach,’ says Bruce Bennett, chief of the analysis-training branch at the DIA’s Joint Military Intelligence Training Center. Wired.com had an opportunity to play all three games, Rapid Onset, Vital Passage and Sudden Thrust. The titles may conjure images of blitzkrieg, but the games themselves are actually a surprisingly clever and occasionally surreal blend of education, humor and intellectual challenge, aimed at teaching the player how to think.”

Much like its unfortunate series of protagonists, the Grand Theft Auto series seems to be continually under fire. The latest parental interest group to put the game in its crosshairs is Mothers Against Drunk Driving, which commemorated Grand Theft Auto IV’s release yesterday with its own official statement decrying the game.

Noting that drunk driving claims nearly 13,500 lives each year, MADD said that it is “extremely disappointed” that the game lets users get virtually drunk and then get behind the wheel of an equally virtual automobile.

“Drunk driving is not a game and it is not a joke,” MADD said. “Drunk driving is a choice, a violent crime, and it is also 100 percent preventable.”

MADD is asking the Entertainment Software Rating Board to bump Grand Theft Auto IV’s rating up to AO for Adults Only from M for Mature. The ESRB’s content descriptors for the game currently include “use of drugs and alcohol.” The parental group also said that it is asking the game’s “manufacturer” (presumably Take-Two Interactive) to consider stopping distribution out of a sense of social responsibility, or out of respect for those who’ve been hurt or killed by drunk drivers.

While the NPD group reports this week that Blu-ray hardware sales are far slower than expected following the demise of HD DVD, the Blu-ray Disc Association says Blu-ray Disc movie sales trebled in the US in the first three months of 2008.

“According to research from US-based Home Media Magazine, US Blu-ray disc sales jumped 351 per cent in the first three months of this year. The high-def disc format benefited from increased awareness of the category and Toshiba’s decision to exit the HD DVD business at the end of March,” the BDA announced.

Hardware sales prediction

“Home Media reports that the rise in Blu-ray Disc sales led to the first increase in consumer spending on home video in two years. In 2007, total sales fell 0.5 per cent and they decreased 0.4 per cent in 2006,” adds the release.

The Blu-ray Disc Association says that Blu-ray players will be in roughly 25 per cent of US homes in three years, though the current estimate for the end of this year is still only that Blu-ray players will be in 1 per cent of US households, which seems to be more in line with the recent NPD reports.

Analysts estimate that the average price of a Blu-ray disc will drop from $28.50 (£14.34) this year to $24.43 (£12.30) in 2011.

By Adam Hartley