Guitar Hero competitor Rock Band already allows gamers to import on-disc tracks from the first game to the sequel, and now Activision is finally ready to add a similar forward compatibility feature to Guitar Hero 5 (PS3, Xbox 360, Wii).

A new DLC pack is headed for the Guitar Hero: World Tour (360, PS3, Wii), and this time, it's for all the punk rockers in all of us. Even the name of the pack is punk-sounding, with Epitaph Punk-O-Rama Track Pack as the title. Obviously, as you may also see from the name, it's all about the Epitaph artists. List after the jump.

Jimmy Page and Jack White are not singing praises for Guitar Hero. Their concurrence: video games shouldn't be how people get exposed to music or playing instruments. In a press conference in LA, promoting the documentary "It Might Get Loud", the two legendary guitarists (Page from Led Zeppelin, White from The White Stripes, in case you didn't know) gave out their thoughts on music-simulation games.

Landing on the Xbox Live Marketplace today is Nirvana's Track Pack #2 for Guitar Hero World Tour. Rock, headbang and jam to the songs "Very Ape", "Sappy" and "Stay Away". More details over at the full article.

Well if you don't have strong legs to kick out a beat on Guitar Hero's drum pedals, Ben Heckendorn (Ben Hecks) has another mod to make life easier for you. Taking a GH: World Tour drum kit's kick pedal, he modified it into something that allows you to simply blow on a tube to register bass kicks. He did this mod as a request from someone who uses a wheelchair.

Last year, Gibson Guitar Inc. filed a suit against Activision's Guitar Hero for allegedly violating patent rights. About a year later today, a U.S. District Court in the Central District of California has finally given out its decision, holding that the music game franchise does not infringe on a 1999 Gibson patent, which simulates musical performance using a 3D headset display and stereo speakers. Read more in the full article.

Whoa, Black Betty, bam ba lam... Here comes the next track pack in line for Guitar Hero: World Tour on the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3. Going live on February 5 is the Southern Rock Track Pack. Three songs are in it, including Creedence Clearwater Revival's "Commotion", and covers for "Black Betty" and "Gimme All Your Lovin'".

Can't find a song worth playing in Rock Band? Harmonix has you covered. According to a Yahoo news report, they're expecting to increase the number of available songs this year to as many as 5,000. Since they only have around 500 right now, I'm rather curious to see how they're going to jump that up tenfold.

Forbes recently accused Rock Band of being a "shameless knockoff" of Guitar Hero, only with added peripherals. Shame on you, Forbes. You know how much the truth hurts. EA responded to the accusation with a very firm no comment statement.

Irony in the full article.

In line with the January 27 release of his "Working on a Dream" album, Bruce Springsteen hands out free downloads for your music player and your Guitar Hero: World Tour (Xbox 360, PS3, Wii) through Amazon. More tracks yet again for Guitar Hero, they just keep coming don't they?