id Software make shooters. It essentially invented the genre, in fact. So you might not expect the team there to be particularly enthusiastic over the introduction of motion control sensors like Microsoft’s Project Natal and Sony’s motion controller.

Technically, you’d be both right and wrong.

John Carmack, id’s co-founder and game engine wizard, says the upcoming devices mark the beginning of a new era of gameplay.

“I do believe that changes in I/O devices are going to make the biggest changes in gaming experiences going forwards,” he says. “However, most of these I/O devices do not add much value for games that are not explicitly designed for them. It has to be something like the Wii.”

In other words, while he’s a believer in motion control, he doesn’t see a big immediate payoff for Microsoft or Sony.

“I don’t expect much coming from the add-ons to the current generation – but I’ll be very interested to see what’s built into next generation machines,” he says.

As for action games – particularly the first person shooter – he thinks motion controllers will have less of an impact. The devices, he says, can open up new styles and genres of gaming, but will have a harder time altering the way people play certain existing game types.

“Great technology doesn’t help a game that’s not built around that technology,” he says. “FPS games are part of a fairly evolved genre that isn’t going to benefit from these.”

id Software might want to brace for some rage over “Rage”.

John Carmack, co-founder and technical wizard of the developer, says the company doesn’t plan to support dedicated servers for the multiplayer component of “Rage,” id’s upcoming new action game.

“It’s not cast in stone yet, but at this point no, we don’t think we will have dedicated servers,” he says.

Infinity Ward made the same decision for “Modern Warfare 2” and has been facing a massive backlash among its fans. The inevitable online petition has gathered over 183,000 signatures and even the developer has acknowledged the backlash.

“Modern Warfare 2” will use a matchmaking setup powered by IWNET for online play. It’s too early to say what Rage will use, but Carmack indicated he believed the servers are something of a remnant of the early days of PC gaming.

That said, he realizes the affinity many PC gamers have for them – and is glad “Rage” won’t be leading the charge away from them.

“The great thing is we won’t have to be a pioneer on that,” he says. “We’ll see how it works out for everyone else.”

Rage, meanwhile, appears to be on track for a 2010 release. But you might want to find a comfortable chair as you wait for the next “Doom” game.

“It’s looking realistic,” says Carmack. “We are on a crunch right now to do presentations for console first party manufacturers, so things are cooking along well for ‘Rage’. ‘Doom 4’ is obviously a bit further out.”

Zenimax was not a particularly familiar name in the video game industry a year ago. Sure, we knew Bethesda Softworks, the company’s high profile development arm, but few realized there was a corporate parent behind that company (and those who did really didn’t pay a lot of attention to it).

These days, everyone knows who Zenimax is – and it’s the company everybody’s talking about. With its high profile acquisition of id Software in late June, Zenimax made a loud – and very clear – statement to the rest of the industry: We’re here and we’re here to play hard.

The company added another notable IP to its collection today, acquiring the rights to the “Prey” series. Formerly owned by struggling developer 3D Realms, the game first surfaced in 1997, but was soon put on an extended hiatus. In 2006, it finally came out. Reviews were decent, but it struck a chord with the core gaming crowd – possibly because of its phoenix-like qualities.

Buying the rights to “Prey,” obviously, is nowhere near as important as the id acquisition, but it is another piece of the puzzle for Zenimax. The company knows that action games are a critical component of successful, major publishers. While Bethesda is the industry’s leading developer of role-playing games, they weren’t equipped to build a shooter.

The id acquisition – which brought seminal games “Doom” and “Quake” into the fold – filled that gap for Zenimax. The “Prey” acquisition gives them another well-known IP to exploit.

While Zenimax is hardly in a position to threaten EA or Activision right now, the privately held company certainly poses a risk to small and mid-sized publishers. And it’s showing no signs that it plans to stay in the middle of the pack.

I should warn you: This post will probably not be good for your productivity.

Bethesda Softworks has decided to release “The Elder Scrolls II: Daggerfall” as a free download starting today. The move comes as the company celebrates the title’s 10^th anniversary.

This is the title that really set the role-playing game franchise on its path and is generally considered one of the best RPGs ever released. It’s certainly one of the largest. The world of Tamriel here is bigger than any modern Elder Scrolls game, giving you well over 100 hours of gameplay.

Since the game is 10 years old, it may take a little maneuvering to get up and running on your system. Bethesda has put together a walkthrough to help people install the DOSBox emulator (and the game), so they can start playing.

It has been a day of big surprises and big moves in the video game industry.

Two major publishers have realigned their organizations to adapt to the economy, but the news that still has jaws agape is the acquisition of “Doom” and “Quake” developer id Software by ZeniMax Media, which also owns of Bethesda Softworks (makers of the widely respected “Elder Scrolls” and “Fallout 3” role-playing games).

id, for years, has been the poster child for independent game developers. Founded in 1991, it is the company that literally invented the first person shooter (with 1992’s “Wolfenstein 3D”). And the graphics engines created by co-founder and technology head John Carmack have powered countless titles in the industry.

The popularity of the genre Carmack and id created may ultimately have been the reason the company decided to seek a buyer. Because id focuses on development, it has historically partnered with publishers such as Activision and Electronic Arts to distribute its games.

Over the years, though, those studios have built internal teams that focus on the action genre – and publishers make a lot more money on internally created games than they do on ones from development partners.

There's a lot of noise around the web today about former President Bill Clinton being Bethesda Softworks first choice to be the voice of President John Henry Eden in "Fallout 3". It's a great story - but it's not entirely accurate.

Sure, Lev Chapelsky, general manager of Blindlight, which secures Hollywood talent for voicework in games, told Edge that his company had approached Clinton for the role, but Bethesda says it wasn't at the developer's request.

“Before they would pitch us on someone like Clinton, they may first go ask if he would do something like that,” says Pete Hines, Bethesda's vice president of public relations and marketing. “In no way, shape or form, did we say is President Clinton is who we want for this role or [tell Blindlight to] go chase him.”

What likely happened is that as Bethesda described the character, it sparked an idea at Blindlight. The company reached out to the former President and was told ‘The former president will not participate in one of your videogame products, thank you very much’.

"We appreciated that frankness and candour – you don’t get that kind of candour from Creative Artists Agency, frankly," Chapelsky told Edge. "If the answer's no, they don’t return your call for six months."

Ultimately, Malcolm McDowell voiced the part for the game, which became one of the most critically acclaimed - and top selling - games of 2008.

Sorry for the unexplained delay. I was out of town and didn't get a chance to warn my faithful reader(s) I'd be away. More original reporting and other good stuff coming tomorrow, but here's the big stuff that happened while I was away:

-More rumors that Warner Bros. is one of the bidders for Midway. Wouldn't be surprising at all. The studio would get a lot of IP, and a good brand name, pretty damned cheap, to further its video game ambitions.

-The last remaining in-production Sierra game passed on by Activision Blizzard without a publisher, "Wet," finally found one: Bethesda Softworks.

-Speaking of Bethesda, it landed hot-again Oscar nominee Mickey Rourke to do the voice for its upcoming military shooter "Rogue Warrior."

-Another realistic military shooter, "Six Days in Fallujah," has lost its publisher. Konami chickened out in the face of public controversy and dropped the game. More specifically, the word is that Konami's conservative Japanese executives had no idea what kind of criticism the game might face and quickly told their enthusiastic American subsidiary, which made the deal, to reverse course. Really disappointing news for those of us who would like to see publishers taking risks and pushing the boundaries of the medium and the kind of stories it could tell. And yet more evidence that we're not likely to get that from any of the big Japanese companies.

-Microsoft isn't exactly off to a good start in its efforts to produce original video content for Xbox Live. Writing on his blog, horror director James Gunn, who made a short as part of the "Horror Does Comedy" series the Xbox 360 maker did with Saffran Digital Media to produce its first original video for the service, wrote "Microsoft/XBox was by far the most dreadful, non-talent friendly company I've ever worked for." In short, the company repeatedly censored and cut Gunn's piece (totally rejecting the first one, in fact), acting as if they didn't know what they would get from the maker of "Slither."

This is obviously an attitude and reputation Microsoft is going to have to change since it really does aspirations to be, as Gunn wrote, "their own network, as well as a gaming console, DVR, and way to buy movies."

(Part of our series counting down the top ten videogames of 2008 -- with interruptions for the most disappointing and most overrated -- according to Variety critics Leigh Alexander, Tom Chick, Chris Dahlen and Ben Fritz. Full details are here. To check out the rest of the list, click here. Most importantly, vote for your favorite games of 2008 in the Cut Scene reader awards here.)

Drumroll, please, as we present our picks for the #1 best game released in 2008. A first-person shooter, an RPG, a casual family game and a stealth actioner with 30 minute-plus cutscenes. An original, a "2," a "3," and a "4." Two American games, a French Canadian game and a Japanese game. A PS3 exclusive, a Wii exclusive, and two multi-platformers. Two unqualified hits and two moderate sellers. I'd say this is a pretty diverse and interesting set of choices...

Tom Chick

Far Cry 2 (Ubisoft / Ubisoft Montreal)

Of all the places I went this year without leaving my house, "Far Cry 2's" lush African countryside was my favorite, and not just because these are currently the best graphics I've ever seen. Here is a game that breathes without breathing down my neck. It's not afraid to let me roam without making the gameplay equivalent of idle chit-chat. With its emphasis on an interface-free interface, it does a tremendous job getting out of my way (in this respect, it is the anti-"Fallout 3") and letting me just be here. If Terence Malick were to make a videogame, it would be "Far Cry 2." And when things happen, they happen dramatically and dynamically. There's a glorious sense of spontaneity in the way the shooting erupts, unfolds, progresses. I almost never feel that these firefights were built by the developers. In fact, I almost never feel that about any of the moments in "Far Cry 2." These moments are mine. Some games unfold. Others are revealed. Some are like thrill rides. Others are like  playgrounds. But "Far Cry 2" is a beautiful place where amazing things simply happen. 

Chris Dahlen

Fallout 3 (Bethesda Softworks / Bethesda)

I could go on about each of the core elements the game got right – that it was so much more than "Oblivion" with shotguns, that even the escort missions were fun, and that the sight of the Chinese army invading a ‘50s "Leave it to Beaver" cul-de-sac will stay with me for years to come. But the single reason I loved "Fallout 3" was that I never knew what was around the next corner.

Ben Fritz

Boom Blox (EA / EA Casual)

The first great game for the Wii that would only work for the Wii is also the most surprisingly deep, universally accessible, and  unyieldingly enjoyable videogame of 2008. Using the Wii-mote to play with blocks seems like the most obvious concept in the world (no offense, Mr. Spielberg), but the development team at EALA crafted an experience so rich that I’ve enjoyed it with non-gamers, with hardcore gamer friends, with kids, and by myself late into the night. The diverse array of challenges and huge number of levels stands as proof that “casual” and “core” are not mutually exclusive. “Boom Blox” is the videogame that demonstrates, truly, we all can play together.

Leigh Alexander

Metal Gear Solid 4 (Konami / Kojima Prods.)

Simultaneously one of the highest-rated and most controversial titles of the year, it polarized its audience. Sure, there were those who loved the game's uncontested technical polish and the most sophisticated implementation yet seen of the franchise's stealth mechanics -- but much of the discussion revolved around the merit (or lack thereof) of Hideo Kojima's self-indulgent directorial style and the game's long periods of non-interactivity badly in need of an editor.
 
But a brilliant director who's overambitious is essential to a medium long constrained by narrative status quo, risk aversion and repetition. Look closely at the subtleties of "Metal Gear Solid 4's" brilliant postmodernism -- underneath the overt sprawl lies an exercise in stunning elegance whose largest failing was that it imposed itself on an audience that prefers a different format.

And that's a wrap. I'll provide a convenient summary of all four of our top ten lists in a post later today. Don't forget to cast your votes for the top games of the year here.

(Part of our series counting down the top ten videogames of 2008 -- with interruptions for the most disappointing and most overrated -- according to Variety critics Leigh Alexander, Tom Chick, Chris Dahlen and Ben Fritz. Full details are here. To check out the rest of the list, click here. Most importantly, vote for your favorite games of 2008 in the Cut Scene reader awards here.)

These are not games we thought were bad, or even disappointing. They're the videogames that Variety's critics found fell the shortest of what most other critics and/or the public thought. It also, interestingly, the only category in this whole process in which all four of us agree about a game.

Chris Dahlen

Grand Theft Auto IV (Rockstar / Rockstar North)

It’s a lie to say that sandbox games let the player “do anything they want”; they still have an underlying vision, as we saw in "Fallout 3." So what’s "GTA IV’s" vision? That the American Dream ain’t perfect? That consumerism infects our lives? That talk radio lies to us? This is dimestore cynicism. It’s easy to admire the parts – the drunk effects, the jazz fusion station, the consistently interesting mission design, the Ricky Gervais cameo, and the way the cars go so much faster when you hit the highlife. But the sum ain’t there.

LittleBigPlanet (Sony / Media Molecule)

A niche game for budding game designers, disguised as an all-ages, endless dreamscape. And here’s a question: why do the games that bet big on user-generated content consistently expect users to dive into specialized skills such as platformer level design, puzzlecrafting, or 3-D modeling, when the two types of content that real life people actually put on the web – text, and photographs – are neglected?

Castle Crashers (The Behemoth)

It’s not like me to bash an indie. But "Castle Crashers’" single-player campaign was repetitive and undistinguished, and four-player co-op was good for maybe an hour – an hour that’s now better spent with "Left4Dead."

Ben Fritz

Fallout 3 ( Bethesda Softworks / Bethesda)

When fans rattle off all the awesome things they saw and did in “Fallout 3,” I can hardly argue. But I don’t understand why all the tedious, old-fashioned RPG tasks in between don’t bother them more. Whether I’m agonizing over how to distribute all my points and perks after finding out I made a bunch of bad choices the last time I leveled up, working through a dialogue tree with one of the information repositories known as “people,” struggling with the mediocre combat, or just trying to find the stuff I need so I can move on, 80% of “Fallout 3” is a slog to get to the 20% that’s actually worth experiencing.

LittleBigPlanet (Sony / Media Molecule)

The ultimate problem with “LittleBigPlanet” is that it’s impressive, but nothing more. Wow, sackboy is cute. Damn, those level-building tools are remarkably easy to use. Holy cow, that user created level looks just like a working calculator / a lamborghini / “Duck Hunt” / “God of War.” But there’s nothing remotely engaging about the experience, unless you’re in that small minority with dozens of hours to kill and the desire to make an awesome platforming level.

Patapon (Sony / Sony)

The fact that you push four buttons to a beat and everything's really cute doesn't make up for the fact that this is a painfully simple RTS with absolutely no substance.

Leigh Alexander

Professor Layton and the Curious Village (Nintendo / Level 5)

Why are charming little animations an excuse to glorify the sort of dull school workbook designed expressly to validate Mensa wannabes?

LittleBigPlanet (Sony / Media Molecule)

It's adorable, I'm heartened by the vision behind it and couldn't be more impressed with Media Molecule and its beautiful execution. But at the end of the day, I'm a fan of video games because I want the professionals to make them for me. I don't want to make video games, I don't really care what my "friends from the Internet" have made, and I often wonder how many people really do care -- and how many people just leapt on board the bandwagon of positive sentiment surrounding an effort they admired. 

Tom Chick

Grand Theft Auto IV (Rockstar / Rockstar North)

One of the most amazing realizations of a real-world-ish place and one of my favorite games this year. Also the setting for a poorly told
story and uninspired gameplay, and the subject of a system-shattering
PC port.

LittleBigPlanet (Sony / Media Molecule)

Awesome graphics! And those little sack people are so cute I could just eat them up! Now where's the game? 

Braid (Number None)

This is not a game that moves and it's not very accessible. You need to have a stomach for old-school platformers and mental brick walls. Which is a shame, because the place Braid eventually goes is sublime.

Coming Monday morning: The best videogame(s) of 2008

(Part of our series counting down the top ten videogames of 2008 -- with interruptions for the most disappointing and most overrated -- according to Variety critics Leigh Alexander, Tom Chick, Chris Dahlen and Ben Fritz. Full details are here. To check out the rest of the list, click here. Most importantly, vote for your favorite games of 2008 in the Cut Scene reader awards here.)

Leigh Alexander

Fallout 3 (Bethesda Softworks / Bethesda)

It's more of a prototype for the wholly-lifelike game experience than a perfect execution thereof, but no coin's ever landed this close to the cup. The expansive rendition of a post-apocalyptic Washington is both breathtaking and unsettling, a wide-open nuclear playground that offers a decidedly overwhelming array of options for how it's to be experienced. It's dark and exhausting, but the sense of discovery and the opportunity to mark each fallout-dusted stretch of land with the footprints of choices invoke an almost giddy delirium.

Tom Chick

Banjo Kazooie: Nuts and Bolts (Microsoft / Rare)

Forget "Lego [Insert Popular License With Geek Appeal]." This is the best Lego game I've ever played. Never mind that it doesn't have the Lego license. That's Lego's loss. As I explore this colorful world built for exploring, gathering bits and parts along the way, "Nuts & Bolts" appeals to a unique compulsion that most games can't touch: the desire to engineer stuff. Not just make stuff. Lots of games are doing a great job letting me make stuff. The "Boom Blox" toy box, the map maker in "Far Cry 2," and the video editor in the PC version of "Grand Theft Auto IV" are all wonderfully accessible studios in which I can build something, consider it, and then ask myself, "Um, now what?" But the things I create in "Nuts & Bolts," the cars and airplanes and submersible attack ships, have immediate gameplay value in this colorful world. These are the vehicles I use to tackle various challenges: go this fast, jump this high, carry this doo-dad there, run this course, and so on. And I'm even free to break many of these challenges by outbuilding them instead of outplaying them. That's freedom: the ability to foil the developers themselves.

Chris Dahlen

The World Ends With You (Squre Enix / Square Enix)

I've heard from diehard Japanese RPG fans who say this didn't knock their socks off. Maybe I'm just not tired of angsty spikey-haired adolescents grinding their skills and saving the world. Or maybe I adored the game's winningly emo dialogue and its fantastic sense of place, from the ramen stand to Shibuya’s mythical phone booth of love.  “Any tree can drop an apple. I’ll drop the freakin’ moon.”

Ben Fritz

Fable 2 (Microsoft / Lionhead)

“GTA” and its legion of imitators have made physical sandboxes old hat, but “Fable 2” is the first successful societal sandbox. No videogame world has ever felt quite so alive or so full of consequences. A brilliantly accessible but rich combat system makes “Fable 2’s” quests a joy, but it’s the awareness that you’re fighting for something deeper – whether it’s new houses for all three of your spouses, a fierce reputation so people will cower everywhere you go, or revenge on the villain who killed your sister so many decades ago – that makes the experience matter.

Coming tomorrow morning: The second best videogame(s) of 2008.

(Part of our series counting down the top ten videogames of 2008 -- with interruptions for the most disappointing and most overrated -- according to Variety critics Leigh Alexander, Tom Chick, Chris Dahlen and Ben Fritz. Full details are here. To check out the rest of the list, click here. Most importantly, vote for your favorite games of 2008 in the Cut Scene reader awards here.)

Tom Chick

Fallout 3 (Bethesda Softworks / Bethesda)

I didn't do this intentionally, but once I'd arranged my list I realized that my top four games of 2008 are all powerfully imagined and skillfully created open worlds, with rock-solid infrastructures of good gameplay and an unwavering emphasis on freedom. Here are almost unprecedented juxtapositions of developer creativity and player freedom ("Grand Theft Auto IV" would have belonged among this rare company if Rockstar had either written a better story or designed a better game). "Fallout 3" is the most contrived of the four, proceeding apace along the usual RPG trappings like dialogue trees, fussy interface muckery, and occasionally clunky world building. But it's an unforgettably bleak and epic experience, brave enough to be barren and gray, but crammed with stories, vignettes, characters, and sights. Some fans of the "Fallout" series were worried that it would be "Oblivion" with guns. "Oblivion" should be so lucky.

Chris Dahlen

Left 4 Dead (Valve and EA / Valve)

The brilliance of "Left 4 Dead’s" co-operative play lies in the way that even strangers learn to work as a team, knowing their survival is at stake.  And if you play with friends, you get a rare chance to see their true character come through. I never get sick of reading about people's experiences in the game – Daniel Purvis’ tale of cowardice under pressure is my favorite - because the same few elements can afflict you in so many ways. Sort of like browsing old chess games, with a much, much scarier queen. 

Ben Fritz

Braid (Number None)

If nothing else, “Braid” entranced me with a quality I never knew videogames could possess: relaxation. Spending hours pondering, experimenting, and rewinding time while figuring out brain-bending puzzles to the tune of a wistful cello solo and the sight of swirling watercolors was a wholly unique and utterly invigorating experience. Themes of loss, regret, and forgiveness are subtly woven and then masterfully brought home, even if the epilogue is unbearably pretentious.

Leigh Alexander

No More Heroes (Marvelous and Ubisoft / Grasshopper Manufacture)

It's shamelessly bizarre, heavy-handed, clunky and incisively brilliant from beginning to end, a loving send-up of the very gamer culture that eats up the deprecating self-references with glee. Little moments of genius abound: the actually joyous use of the Wii's controls, the necessity of playing an entire stage hanging upside down from one's couch, and the population of villains who, given only brief cameos, seem more exciting and fully-realized than all of the grave animated robots we've been fed all year.

Coming tomorrow morning: The third best videogame(s) of 2008.

In a year with two well reviewed, successful, AAA console RPGs, I've noticed an interesting phenomenom: There are "Fable 2" people and there are "Fallout 3" people and rarely do the twain meet. Sure, lots of us respect both games, but I have yet to meet a single person who loves and has invested dozens of hours in them both.

Despite coming from the same genre, they've very different games in all sorts of ways. Which is why everyone I know, for one reason or another, is either a "Fable 2" person or a "Fallout 3" person. Why is that? I thought it would be interesting to have two writers who respect both games but find themselves drawn to one much more than the other discuss their differences.

I'm the "Fable 2" person and Variety's ace reviewer Chris Dahlen (who can also be found at his own Save the Robot blog) is our "Fallout 3" person. Here's us going at it.

The "Fable 2" guy -- Ben Fritz

Five or six hours into “Fallout 3,” I glanced at the bottom of the screen and realized something: I didn’t know what almost anything on the HUD means. “Cnd?” “AP?” The two numbers with a slash between them? The multiple markers, some flashing, on my compass? What the hell is all that?

I’m sure it’s my fault. I probably didn’t pay enough attention in Vault 101 (maybe I shouldn’t have cheated on that test) and I could obviously look at the “help” menu or the manual.

What’s interesting isn’t that I didn’t know what all the numbers mean, but that I just didn’t care. Fundamentally, I’m not interested in engaging with dozens of different statistics. I don’t want to spend time boosting my action points, distributing my experience, or selecting perks and S.P.E.C.I.A.L. attributes. But I have to, because my character is essentially a collection of points that I’ve assigned.

"Fable 2" is more my style, because your character develops not by deliberate choice, but through the consequences of your actions. I like using magic, so I become a skilled magician. I like stealing stuff and killing shopkeepers, so even if I would prefer to be loved, I'm known as a scoundrel. I spend a lot of time as a blacksmith, so I'm loaded. I like going on quests to earn acclaim and commissioning statues of myself, so I'm quite the hottie (though my wife and husband get kinda jealous).

The newest episode of Glitch in the System finds guest host Jason Zumwalt (best known as Roman in "Grand Theft Auto IV") visiting Blizzcon, where he finds the man with the most disturbing character name in the entire World of Warcraft, and also observes a native geek mating dance.

Also, host Jacob Sirof stops by the "Fallout 3" premiere and manages to make Lynda Carter (TV's "Wonder Woman") run away in under 30 seconds.

(Warning: Probably not appropriate for the easily offended)

(Produced, as always, by me.)

Sorry for the lack of posting. Between the Beatles and EA layoffs and a major story that I hope we'll be posting tonight, it's been another day of total insanity. But meanwhile, check out our two most revent reviews:

-"When the team behind "Fallout 3" created a vision of Washington, D.C., following nuclear holocaust, it didn't just wreck the buildings, it twisted the American Dream itself," writes Variety critic Chris Dahlen, who says it's likely to be one of the year's biggest hits. "This long-awaited new installment in the cult franchise from publisher-developer Bethesda Softworks continues in the spirit of its predecessors by giving players a massive post-apocalyptic world to explore, exploit and try to save, while shrewdly integrating classic themes like patriotism, tribalism and mankind's capacity to destroy itself...

"In 'Fallout 3, the American Dream is a charred blueprint survivors are struggling to follow. But hope never dies, and the final stretch of the story includes a Strangelovian display of national power that's spectacular, ironic and heartfelt. The player leaves thinking America might just survive this war, right in time to start some new ones."

To give you an idea of how passionate Chris's review is, even our non-videogame playing copy editor told me that reading this made him want to get a console. Read Chris's entire review right here.

-Given how similar the two games are, the only real question about "Guitar Hero: World Tour" is, "Is it better than Rock Band?" It's pretty much a draw, according to my review: "While 'World Tour' beats 'Rock Band' with an innovative music creation and sharing system and a more realistic drum kit, it lags behind in subpar animation and the racket those drums make...

"'Guitar Hero: World Tour's' major innovation is that it brings the rock experience into a studio. The game has a powerful and well-designed music-creation mode where players can compose their own songs by jamming or by using a software program called GHMix to alter tunes note by note. Just as in the real world, jamming is more fun, particularly with the huge variety of effects and instrument types built in. Producing anything worth sharing with the world, of course, is quite hard and GHMix, while useful, is awkward compared with computer programs like Garage Band.

"Players can share their compositions with others via the GHTunes community, through which songs can be uploaded, downloaded, and rated. It's a fantastic idea, though the popular tracks have thus far leaned more toward remixes of the 'Super Mario' and 'Legend of Zelda' theme songs than anything original. Truly talented composers will inevitably be spending their time with real instruments and mixing software."

Hopefully "World Tour" composers will do better than Nintendo theme songs. But for now, that's what's topping the charts. And seriously, those drums are loud. If I want to play "World Tour" at night without waking my wife, I've got to use the "Rock Band 2" drums. Though it is cool how "World Tour" automatically adjusts to a drum set with four pads instead of five.

You can read the whole review here.