It seemed, at a glance, that Harmonix had done everything it possibly could with the Rock Band franchise.  There's been a trio of sequels that have introduced various instruments and new ways to play; thousands of songs released via DLC; and even band-specific games for Green Day and AC/DC, as well as a Lego spin-off. So what's left?  How about a new way to play?

Consoles and PC's have had a slow month interms of new AAA quality games arriving for your respected platform. While January got off to a slow start, it quickly recovered to bring us high quality tittles through digital distribution. Plenty of great downloadable arcade tittles were made available through XBLA, PSN and Steam, giving us many hidden gems on the digital marketplace. Let's look back at the games we reviewed over the past month.  

When MTV Games selfishly dumped Harmonix from its game line-up (despite the millions of copies of Rock Band and Dance Central that were solid), many thought that the developer would be in trouble, like most other shuttered developers as of late.  But they bought their own rights back, hunkered in and went back to work on thriving with their products.  Now, months after being let go, the team is doing better than expected, thanks to some quality Rock Band 3 content and a promising Dance Central sequel.  The party's not over for them, not by a long shot.

The Entertainment Software Association (ESA) welcomed the U.S. Supreme Court’s landmark ruling that underscored constitutional protections for video games, developers, and video game industry artists. At issue was a 2005 California statute restricting the sale and rental of computer and video games. The ESA, the lead party in the case Brown v. Entertainment Merchants Association/Entertainment Software Association, argued that the statute presented unconstitutional limitations on expression, and the U.S. Supreme Court agreed, holding the California law unconstitutional under the First Amendment.

 

This year at E3, Microsoft’s focus was clearly on Kinect. Be it Kinect integration with controller-based games or a slew of new Kinect games, the wildly successful controller-free peripheral had a massive showing. Unfortunately, it failed to impress.

LAS VEGAS – Video games were everywhere at CES 2011, especially since the latest mobile phones and tablets open up greater opportunities for visuals and gameplay. EA Mobile’s ROCK BAND, which was created by developer Harmonix, made its mobile debut in Las Vegas at the Verizon Wireless press conference. ROCK BAND will be coming to select 4G smartphones from Verizon Wireless later this year.

We are coming to you live from SpikeTV's Video Game Awards 2009 in Los Angeles with host Jo Garcia, Playboy's 2008 Cybergirl of the Year. She's hot and our coverage will be hot so stay tuned here as we beam to you live video reports from the VGAs as we interview the top developers and, of course, celebrities on the Red Carpet, Backstage and in the Green Room. It all starts at 8pm Eastern Time.