Guitar Hero 3 confirmed, Songs named

If you haven't had a chance to plug in and play Guitar Hero or its awesome sequel yet, you're missing out. But if you don't want to buy an older game and wired axes, you just might be in luck. Activision has officially announced Guitar Hero III this week, along with wireless controllers.

Now, a second sequel to one of the most talked-about games in recent history is no surprise. It would be silly to sit idle and let the franchise vanish, at least while there's still plenty of money to be made on it. In fact, the original word that there would be a third in the series (which would also see the Wii) came from an earnings call a while back. So we won't talk too long over the fact that there is one, and instead skip to the interesting meat - part of the song list.

• "Cult of Personality" - by Living Colour
  
• "Paint it Black" - by The Rolling Stones
  
• "Cherub Rock" - by The Smashing Pumpkins
  
• "Sabotage" - by the Beastie Boys
  
• "The Metal" - by Tenacious D
  
• "My Name Is Jonas" - by Weezer
  
• "Knights of Cydonia" - by Muse

There will also be a few new covers coming, including songs originally done by Kiss and Alice Cooper. It definitely sounds like Activision is starting to get some serious weight behind the franchise, particularly to get bands that are known for their own self-obsession such as Smashing Pumpkins onto the bill.

Of course, for many of us, the news isn't so much in the sequel as it is in what you can use to play the sequel - Activision has announced that it will be releasing several wireless guitar models to suit your feelings of on-stage freedom. Two models have been named so far - the Gibson Les Paul (for the XBox 360, Wii, and PS3) and the Gibson Kramer (not to be confused with the Seinfeld character, and only on the PS2).

So there you have it. There's still no official release date on either the controllers or the next version of the game, but we'll let you know as soon as we hear something. Until then, rock on in our forums!