Filed under: Gaming, Peripherals

Living room arenas around the world will soon become even more cluttered with toy instruments thanks to Rock Band 2 and Guitar Hero: World Tour. Axes for the two respective franchises haven’t gotten along on the Wii, and while we’re still not sure whether the next generation will cooperate ezGear is hoping to bring some peace (and eliminate some clutter) for current Nintendo rockers with its ezJam Combo Guitar. Inside its baby-blue Strat-esque styling there’s port to plug in your Wiimote when playing Guitar Hero III as well as an integrated wireless transmitter for Rock Band. At $70 it’s a little more expensive than other third-parties like the Nyko Frontman, but playing lead in two bands instead of one is totally worth it.

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Filed under: Gaming

While we love Rock Band 2 as much as the next guy, playing that miniaturized plastic controller will forever look a little dorky (or just make us look like giant men, which is kind of cool). Nothing wrong with looking dorky — heck, we make a living of it — but Mad Catz’s new full-size Stratocaster and Precision Bass controllers for Rock Band 2 are bringing the cool back. They’re exactly what you think they are: actual Fender Squire axes turned into Rock Band 2 controllers, with the size, heft, and weight you’d expect from dad’s electric guitar. Of special note was the Precision Bass controller, which has a dual flipper and thumb rest to allow fast pickers to do their thing Entwistle-style. They are also wireless, will come with a foot pedal for overdrive, and the guitar controller will have a whammy bar, of course. Unfortunately, Mad Katz didn’t add the optical sensor for display calibration, but we’ll forgive them for now. Look for these for $199 in Q1 2009 for both Xbox 360 and PS3. We caught them live at E3, and they look as impressive as they sound. Peep the gallery below if you dare.

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Filed under: Gaming

Playing Rock Band sometimes feels like the real thing, but what if it looked like the real thing? Ion, who make real drum kits, have announced that they will release a premium Rock Band 2 drum kit that will not only have realistic pads and cymbals (which you can custom-assign), but it will also be possible to plug the thing into a drum brain to turn the kit into a real electronic drum kit. If that craziness wasn’t enough, Harmonix plans to gut some actual Fender Stratocasters and turn them into Rock Band guitars, which is either amazing or complete sacrilege depending on your musical religion.

[Via PS3 Fanboy]

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