Special weekends are special. Activision has announced the Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock weekend, which begins Friday, November 2. Over the course of 72 hours, gamers 13 years or older can "participate in a number of exciting activities online," where every hour Activision will give away fancy prizes. Winners packages include a limited edition guitar faceplate signed by Slash, which you can promptly sell on eBay for twice what you paid for it.
That weekend will also be likely the only chance you'll have to snag Guitar Hero III's "Meet Your Maker" achievement, which involves beating one of the game's development team online. The full list of gamertags you'll need to clutter your friends list with can be found after the jump; but seeing as how four billion copies of this game are going to fly off of the shelves day-one, we wish you the best of luck.
Activision have also confirmed that the 5-song demo for the title will be available on the Xbox Live Marketplace. Nothing special here folks -- this is the same demo available on the Tony Hawk's Proving Ground disc, and if you have one of those space-aged disc writing drives, you can burn yourself a copy right now.
You can find the press release and those gamertags we were talking about after the jump.
ACTIVISION ANNOUNCES GUITAR HERO® III: LEGENDS OF ROCK WEEKEND AND FREE GAME DEMO ON XBOX LIVE® MARKETPLACE
Fans Can Download Game Demo and Shred Against Guitar Hero® Developers Online to Win Prizes and Ultimate Bragging Rights
SUNNYVALE, CA - October 22, 2007 - Activision, Inc. (Nasdaq: ATVI) today announced a special Xbox LIVE® online entertainment network weekend for the highly anticipated title, Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock. Beginning November 2, 2007, fans 13 years old or older will be able to participate in a number of exciting activities online including a 72-hour Play & Win Sweepstakes where every hour winning axe shredders who register and play are awarded with special prize packages, such as a limited edition guitar faceplate signed by Slash, as they battle in a multiplayer showdown against the developers of Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock, as well as an exclusive Xbox LIVE leaderboard tournament to crown the top Guitar Hero player. Before Guitar Hero fans sign up for this gnarly shredfest, they will have the rockin' opportunity to practice their skills with a free game demo available for download on Tuesday, October 23 exclusively through Xbox LIVE® Marketplace for the Xbox 360® video game and entertainment system from Microsoft. The free game demo, playable with either the X-Plorer guitar or Xbox 360 controller, will include the following 5 finger-melting songs:
- Even Flow (by Pearl Jam) - Lay Down (by Priestess) - The Metal (by Tenacious D) - Hit Me with your Best Shot (as made famous by Pat Benatar) - Rock You like a Hurricane (as made famous by Scorpions)
To kick off Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock Weekend, fans will have the coveted opportunity to secure the rare and elusive "Meet Your Maker" Xbox LIVE achievement, where axe-shredders can beat the creators at their own game, while competing online against the developers from Neversoft on Friday, November 2 from 6:00pm - 9:00pm EST. Be on the look-out for the following development team Gamertags:
- GH DesLead, Alan - Design Lead - GH AsstProd, Lee - Asst Producer - GH SrProdTech, Clive - Sr. Producer Technology - GH OnlineEng, Mario - Online Engineer - GH OnlineEng2, Tim - Online Engineer - GH MidiDes2, Chris - Midi Designer - GH MidiDes3, David - Midi Designer - GH MidiDes4, Geoffrey - Midi Designer - GH MidiDes5, John - Midi Designer - GH MidiDes6, Brian - Midi Designer - GH MidiDes7, Kyle - Midi Designer
More details on registering for Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock Weekend, and information regarding terms, conditions, and official rules will be available on Tuesday, October 23 through the official event page: www.xbox.com/gh3weekend. Open registration will begin when the site goes live and will end at 11:59pm (EST) on November 4, 2007.
Activision really should have checked if this worked with everyone first, i have midterms next week video games vs not failing, it's a really close call...
Will this demo let you play more than 4 songs in a row? ;)
Also, burned cd loading times FTL! I hope the full game won't have likewise loading times.. I could make peace in the Middle-East in the time it takes to get to play.
michaelangelo is insane. I guitar teched for him back in 97. He's really cool, and a real nice guy, but when he has a guitar in his hands, get out of his way.
I'd be more excited about this demo if I hadn't rid myself of that shitty X-Plorer guitar 2 weeks after it came out.
Seriously, you'd have a better time playing Guitar Hero on your cat.
I just tried the demo at a convention this weekend. I only played Rock You Like a Hurricane myself on Hard and Expert, but I really liked it. Hammer-ons and pull-offs seemed a lot easier.
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10:21 AM on 10.22.2007, 
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