V Raw

For those who haven't had the pleasure of taking the game for a spin (or read our amazing first impressions), you, the player, command digital dance floors via the included turntable controller by mashing up popular toe-tappin' tracks. Add this to guitar controller compatibility for all you pre-existing Guitar Heroes and you've got yourself a house or block party, depending on the size of your TV Screen.

To celebrate the game's release, those Modular scallywags better known as Bang Gang were given the impossible task of making an original "megamix" out of all (well, not quite) of the tracks included in the game. Big names too, like Vanilla Ice, Daft Punk, Public Enemy, Queen, Beastie Boys and Weezer. So, how did they go? How do you think? The answer is: awesome, of course.

You can find out for yourself by downloading the mix.

The entire Raw Cast takes place in Activision's "game room" which is pretty much the very same dream room you envisioned yourself having when you were eight: Big TVs, game consoles everywhere and games a plenty. The only thing missing was the petting zoo. Listen here.

Better yet, subscribe to the V Raw podcast via iTunes, here.

The Troggs - With a Girl Like You (Cover)
Gerling - High Jackers Manual
Spacehog - In the Meantime
George McCrea - Rock You Baby
Bell Biv Devoe - Poison
Exile - Kiss You Over

The first instalment in what will no doubt be a blossoming franchise like its Guitar counterpart, DJ Hero is being touted as a game for DJs, made by DJs. A team of Activision in-house DJs, in fact. Using the included turntable controller, players/"playas" scratch and fade their way through a gargantuan selection tracks, or more correctly, mash ups. There's a killer combination of tunes old and new, from Vanilla Ice and Jackson 5 to M.I.A. and Daft Punk - in fact, everyone's favourite French robot duo make a virtual appearance as unlockable, playable avatars.

The game itself is actually pretty tricky, with quick reflexes and a keen sense of button-mashing a must-have attribute if you're set on making it through all the tracks and venues. Lucky for us, Bridget, from Activision unlocked all of the tracks for us with her secret code. It's so secret in fact, she wouldn't even email it to us to get them all again - so don't bother asking! A real highlight was being able to use an existing Guitar Hero guitar controller along with the turntable for some crazy two player mash up action.

The game will be available October 28th.

The crew learning the ropes/putting their money with their mouthes are/hitting the "euphoria" button:

For those of you playing along at home, Dave Eggers, screenwriter for the upcoming Where The Wild Things Are, is responsible for American publishing house McSweeney's (read: he funded it), who are in turn responsible for killer quality publications such as McSweeney's Quarterly, The Believer and Wolphin, have done the next logical thing: they've made an iPhone app.

For $7.99 the McSweeney app can be yours (for a six a month mini-subscription) and gives you instant access to the regular daily grind found on the McSweeney's website. But where things start getting really "exclusive" is with the weekly Small Chair updates. These will be pushed to your iPhone in the form of articles found only in old school/hard copy's of The Believer and short films from the Wolphin DVD/magazine.

Download the app if you don't mind reading on a small screen or miss the feel of paper, or read up on it some more if you're still not convinced.

"Number nine, number nine, number nine." Say this out loud and you'll get two responses: either you're quoting the Beatles' epic nine minute sound collage "Revolution 9", or you're simply relaying today's date to everyone within close proximity of you. While both are correct, it's also no coincidence that a whole new load of Beatles gear is being released on this symbolic date.

If you haven't already heard - in which case you've either been living under a rock or are immune to every press outlet's horrible Beatles-pun headlines (like the one above) - the entire Beatles back catalogue has been remastered in both mono, the way the fabs recorded it to be heard (at least until 1968) and stereo, for the generation of folk who have been raised on iPods and the like. Both are being released in 2 brand new box sets (mono and stereo) with shiny new packaging, liner notes and documentaries. If you already own the original 1987 CD masters, the upgrade is more than worth it as even the most avid fans are bound to hear brand new, once inaudible 40 year old sounds within the spruced up tracks that they missed the first time.

The other big deal is the one Apple Corps struck up with Harmonix, the developer of the popular Rock Band video game franchise, several years ago to create a solely Beatles themed Rock Band title. Finally, after months and months of hard work with input from Paul McCartney, Ringo Starr, Yoko Ono, Olivia Harrison and Giles Martin, the labour of love is finally released today alongside the box set. target="_blank">The Beatles Rock Band (Wii/Xbox 360/PlayStaion 3) features 45 songs (with even more downloadable songs coming in the months to come) as well as some of the best art direction and attention to detail ever seen in a video game, making the group rhythm Rock Band experience the second best to being one of the actual Beatles.