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The Guitar Hero series has been a long road for Activision and Neversoft. Unfortunately for Neversoft, their part of the road ended with the sixth installation of Guitar Hero: Warriors of Rock. The title implies epic-ness that in some ways it reaches and others it falls short.

The “Quest Mode” narrative storyline is one of the best parts of the game: There is an ax-guitar encased in stone that was once lost by a hero. The game’s cast are all challenged to battle for the ax. They morph into altered selves which also have additional perks, like multiplier bonuses. Each set contains songs that make sense for that character. The character morph designs are all exaggerated but awesome. I especially like Warrior Echo’s steampunk zombie look.

There have been some complaints that the set list is not excluded to hard rock but you’ll hear no complaints about the songs from me. The songs matched to each character make sense and I enjoyed playing ALL the songs. I found myself playing all the songs when I didn’t need to (there are always a song or two left over that you won’t need to play after you morph). The “boss fights” have a good level of difficulty and the Rush “2112″ set was epic.

Will people care for the storyline? Maybe not. It’s a bit out there and most gamers just like the idea of unlocking songs and getting the most accurate percentage.

Outside of the “Quest Mode” very little has changed compared to what people expect from a Guitar Hero title. “Quickplay+” allows players to enable certain perks to accomplish song specific challenges, and the multiplayer is still fun and easy for many people to join in. The character customization is strong with outfits unlocked as you go through the story mode. In the past, I have criticized Guitar Hero for their female character models. I felt they were too thin and looked sickly. And it felt with every iteration of Guitar Hero the females got thinner and thinner. How can they rock if they are wasting away? In Warriors of Rock, you have a little control over the size but in general the female character models look healthy and ready to rock. I enjoyed making my J-Rock inspired rocker and look forward to playing her in “Multiplayer”.

In the end, it’s what you expect from a Guitar Hero title. If you are looking for a good mix of alt rock songs that you are familiar with, then it’s worth picking this up. It doesn’t do much to revolutionize or change the rhythm game genre and will probably only be played/dragged out for parties after you’re finished with the story. But, I enjoyed Warriors of Rock more than I have previous Guitar Hero titles but I think the series does need to do some soul searching for future titles.

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!

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.