It took a couple of days to make sure everyone was contacted, but now I can announce the winners for the past three contests!

The winner of the Xbox 360 & Battlefield Bad Company 2 package provided by GameStop is @TheTriscuit! He was one of the several people who picked Charlie’s Angels as the winning team in the Celebrity Bracket Challenge and was randomly chosen by GameStop as the new owner a 360 system and BFBC2.

Our What’s Up With Activision contest, which gives some love to Neversoft & Infinity Ward following the insanity that’s been happening at both Activision branches, saw Risha Korrine win a copy of Modern Warfare 2 and Scott Snell win Guitar Hero 5 for leaving comments over on our Facebook group.

And finally, the winner of the God of War collection for the PS3 as well as a God of War 3 hoodie, is MSGROCKS1.

Congrats to all of our winners and make sure you stay tuned into GamingAngels for more chances to win!

Some crazy stuff has been going on with Activision lately. News of staff cuts at Neversoft and the drama surrounding Infinity Ward have been the talk of the intertubes. Sounds like something has Bobby Kotick’s knickers in a twist.

Well, we still have oodles of love for Neversoft and Infinity Ward, and to show our support we have one copy of Modern Warfare 2 and another of Guitar Hero 5 (both PS3 versions) we want to give away.

How can you enter? Be a registered fan of our Facebook group & leave a comment on the Contest Note telling us what you would do if you could replace Mr. Kotick and be the Queen (or King) of Activision.

The giveaway will be open until Sunday March 7. We’ll be picking the winners at random on March 8th and will contact them via Facebook. It’s one entry per person and due to the games being Region 1, you’ll have to live in the US or Canada in order to win. Good luck!

Rock Band Beatles

Some may think that the music game genre may be over-saturated and starting to die off, but a new study shows that’s not true.

DFC Intelligence used information from GamerDNA for the month of September to monitor the usage of The Beatles: Rock Band and Guitar Hero 5 on the Xbox 360. They looked at how many played the music games and how many played both titles.

The figures show that 45% of Guitar Hero 5 users also played The Beatles: Rock Band. The percentage drops abit the other way to 34% of Rock Band users play Guitar Hero 5.

Miller claims that “considering that this was only the first month of release for the products this is a surprisingly high overlap, that suggests strong loyalty to the concept of music games in general.”

The figures do show that Beatles: Rock Band did attract a new user base to music games. Amongst worldwide users, 64% of The Beatles: Rock Band users had not played Guitar Hero World Tour or Rock Band 2.

Today we get news from Activision that features not only an expansion of Guitar Hero downloadables but also the ability to import tracks from Guitar Hero 5 and Band Hero into their Guitar Hero music library.

On November 5, Guitar Hero fans can import 69 tracks from Guitar Hero 5 into Band Hero or import 61 tracks of Band Hero into Guitar Hero 5. The list of songs and details is here.

For Guitar Hero 5 content, we get the music from the sexy, Lenny Kravitz. On November 12 the following three songs will be available for download: “Let Love Rule,” “Lady,” off his seventh studio album Baptism, and “Fly Away”.

On November 19 fans will be able to rock it out to a three pack of KISS songs. The pack will feature: “Modern Day Delilah,” the first single off their new album, Sonic Boom, “Lick It Up” the title track on their similarly named 1983 album, Lick it Up, and “I Was Made for Loving You,” KISS’s second Gold single. The track does not come with face makeup.

In a move to celebrate the fans, on November 24, fans will get music that features Neversoft employees. The pack includes: “Lemon Frosting” by Bunny Knutson, “RockNRola” by Nancy Fullforce, “From the Blue/Point of No Return/T.T.R.T.S” by An Endless Sporadic, “Love Holds It Down” by Dom Liberati, “You Really Like Me” by Davidicus and “Guilty Pleasures” by Tony Solis. This pack will only be available on the Xbox 360 and Playstation 3.

Kurt Cobain

Activision has responded to Courtney Love’s remarks with the claim that they received proper permission to use Kurt Cobain’s likeness in Guitar Hero 5.

Activision said: “Guitar Hero secured the necessary licensing rights from the Cobain estate in a written agreement signed by Courtney Love to use Kurt Cobain’s likeness as a fully playable character in Guitar Hero 5.”

Meanwhile, former Nirvana members, Novoselic and Grohl both support Courtney and have expressed their disapproval of Cobain’s in-game appearance.

According to Kotaku Novoselic and Grohl have released a joint statement calling for Activision to prevent the Cobain avatar from playing songs from other artists.

“We want people to know that we are dismayed and very disappointed in the way a facsimile of Kurt is used in the Guitar Hero game,” they said. “The name and likeness of Kurt Cobain are the sole property of his estate – we have no control whatsoever in that area.

“While we were aware of Kurt’s image being used with two Nirvana songs, we didn’t know players have the ability to unlock the character. This feature allows the character to be used with any kind of song the player wants. We urge Activision to do the right thing in ‘re-locking’ Kurt’s character so that this won’t continue in the future.

“It’s hard to watch an image of Kurt pantomiming other artists’ music alongside cartoon characters. Kurt Cobain wrote songs that hold a lot of meaning to people all over the world. We feel he deserves better.”

Kurt Cobain

Media recently pointed out how weird it is to see Kurt Cobain singing in Guitar Hero 5 or even rapping. For Guitar Hero 5, Activision made Kurt Cobain an unlockable, playable character. It shouldn’t surprise anyone that Courtney Love is threatening legal action now.

Posted on her twitter account she raged about Activision’s decision stating it was a, “outrageous violation and breach of contact”.

She said: “I cannot allow this to stand… For the record, this Guitar Hero shit is breach of contract on a Bullys part and there will be a proper addressing of this and retraction.

“WE are going to sue the sh*t out of Activision we being the Trust the Estate the LLC the various LLCs Cobain Enterprises.

“Activision being motherf**king sorted it will be addressed hardcore. I have nothing to do with Guitar Hero I loathe it and find it odious Kurt would have too.”

Guitar Hero 5

Activision’s Guitar Hero 5 is now out and fans can now consolidate their favorite Guitar Hero Songs in the Guitar Hero Music Library. The library has the ability to import 35 songs from Guitar Hero World Tour for the Xbox 360, Playstation 3 and Wii for 280 MS Points, $3.49 on the PS3, and 350 Wii Points.

Select track packs from Guitar Hero Smash Hits will be available later this month. The Deluxe Box Set Edition of “Get Yer Ya-Yas Out! The Rolling Stones in Concert” will be available November 3rd. On September 3, The Rolling Stones Live track pack will have select songs and be available for 720 MS Points or $8.99 on the PS3.

Here’s the launch trailer for Guitar Hero 5:

Kurt Cobain

Possibly one of the most iconic artists in alternative rock, Kurt Cobain created songs that made a huge impact on the music industry. Activision has now made him one of the five exclusive in-game artists in Guitar Hero 5. Kurt Cobain will be featured as a playable character performing two songs from Nevermind: “Smells like Teen Spirit” and a previously unreleased live recording of “Lithium”.

“Kurt Cobain is one of the most recognizable frontmen in rock ‘n’ roll history and it’s an honor to have two of Nirvana’s masterpieces included in Guitar Hero 5,” said Tim Riley, Vice President of Music Affairs for Activision. “This is the first time the original recording of ‘Smells Like Teen Spirit’ has ever been licensed in an entertainment property and we’re thrilled to offer Guitar Hero® fans exclusive access to the unreleased live version of ‘Lithium.’”

Got to admit that the ability to play a previously unreleased live version of “Lithium” is pretty cool.

Guitar Hero 5 is due out in September. Here is a video of virtual Kurt Cobain:

Guitar Hero 5

The very talented Matt Bellamy will be bringing his trademark singing and guitar playing to the virtual stage in Guitar Hero 5. He’s the latest in-game playable rocker and joins Johnny Cash, Carlos Santana and Shirley Manson.

I have a total crush on Matt Bellamy. He’s the front man for Muse and if you’ve never seen them live…you’re missing out. Matt puts on a show like I’ve never seen. Muse fans can also look forward to a pre-order for the release of the band’s upcoming album, The Resistance which is set to release on September 15.

The one song mentioned is “Plug in Baby” but I’m not sure if there are others.

Here is a video featuring digital Matt Bellamy:

Guitar Hero 5

Activision has announced that gamers that pre-order Guitar Hero 5 from now until September 1 will get Guitar Hero : Van Halen for free! Free is something that all gamers love and could make the difference in your decision.

“Rock out to over 130 on-disc tracks in two games on September 1 by pre-ordering Guitar Hero 5 now at your local retailer or at http://gh5.guitarhero.com/preorder.php and picking up your copy in September, or by buying specially marked copies of the game at any retailer anytime during the month of September, and take advantage of this limited time offer.”