The demo will include five total tracks, consisting of three master tracks--"Lay Down" by Preistess, "Even Flow" by Pearl Jam, "The Metal" by Tenacious D--and two cover songs--Pat Benatar's "Hit Me With Your Best Shot" and Scorpions' "Rock You Like A Hurricane." Two weeks after the October 9 release of Tony Hawk's Proving Ground, the demo will appear as free download on Xbox Live Marketplace.

"Music is such a huge part of skateboarding culture and pairing the Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock demo with Tony Hawk's Proving Ground makes perfect sense," explained RedOctane head of publishing Dusty Welch. "We're excited to bring together two highly anticipated games and give fans their first chance to rock out with the franchise that's taken the world by storm."

Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock is slated for a late October release on PlayStation 2, PlayStation 3, Xbox 360 and Wii. For more on the game, check out the known tracklist and our hands-on preview.

The 1.27gb download includes Operation Husky, the first mission in Airborne. What's the game like? Well here is the latest trailer:

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The demo features a community center skate park and a brief tutorial. Saving and uploading gameplay movies via the "skate.reel" feature is supported, allowing you to share your totally rad videos with the public.

PlayStation 3 users will have to wait a bit for a trial, though EA has said the demo is already in Sony's hands.

• NVidia BioShock Drivers
• ATI BioShock Drivers (Click BioShock)
• FileShack BioShock PC Demo

With the help of Limelight Networks we will be pushing some pretty massive bandwidth for Mercury members for the demo. Feel free to grab a download accelerator if you are a Mercury member. The Quicksilver servers support them and the BioShock demo will be available there.

The demo will include a multiplayer map that supports up to 16 players, in addition to the first example of a single-player mission. A skirmish mode allowing for play against AI bots will also be included.

World in Conflict hits stores on September 18 on the PC, and later this fall on the Xbox 360. If by some miracle you really have no idea what this game is about, check out our preview.

"It is always darkest before the dawn. Too Human will be out in 2008. A firm date with tons of new info is coming soon," reads the brief post. "This will be followed up with a playable demo. The demo will speak for itself."

Considering the recent legal battle, and the long history of Too Human's development, some fans aren't holding their breath. The game... Read more

The BioShock demo will be of an impressive 1.84GB in girth that you will be able to eagerly gulp down at FileShack. The demo will also be available on the new FileShack Quicksilver system for Mercury members with support for download accelerators with multiple connections.

In a following update on the company's Cult of Rapture website, BioShock creative lead Ken Levine warned users away from potentially spoiler-filled forum posts and implored users not to post spoilers themselves.

"Please don't ruin other people's experience by revealing secrets in unmarked threads, and if you want to enjoy the game to its fullest, stay away from any threads that might ruin the fun for you," wrote Levine. "With a game like BioShock, it will really make a difference.

Look for a new Shacknews interview with Levine in the coming days.

Today's bytes bring you a Beautiful Katamari demo, Cooking Mama 2 details, Mad Catz stuff, and a DS game based on those little gang-member figurines. ... Read more

Medal of Honor: Airborne ships next month on PC and Xbox 360, with a PlayStation 3 release following in November.

Update 2: As the demo-induced BioShock frenzy continues, 2K community manager Elizabeth Tobey has announced the release of a free downloadable BioShock art book. The PDF-format book is print-ready.

Update: 2K Games has announced that the PC demo of BioShock is "in its final stages of testing and approval," and is planned to be released this month. The company did not definitively announce whether the demo will be released before the game's August 21 release date, but an announcement is expected soon.

Original story: Following the announcement that a BioShock-related announcement would be announced tonight on SpikeTV, journo Geoff Keighley announced availability of an Xbox 360 demo now downloadable via Xbox Live. Publisher 2K Games followed the announcement with its own announcement on The Cult of Rapture, the company's site dedicated to the game. ... Read more

• Loki Demo
  This action RPG has nice blood. And uh..uhm.. that's about it.
• Scallywag: In the Lair of the Medusa Demo
  Action RPG demo, comes with fifteen levels and a sneak peak at mod support found in the full game.
• Global Conflicts: Palestine Demo
  Adventure game where you play as an Israeli or Palestinian reporter writing a story about security checkpoints.
• Tasty Treats Adventures: The Secret Recipes Demo
  Probably the best game I've played this year. Awesome graphics, a gripping story...it really doesn't get much better than this.
• RIP3: The Last Hero Demo
  For some top down shooting action, check out the RIP3: The Last Hero demo.
• Combat Mission: Shock Force Demo
  This demo of the tank sim/strategy game Combat Mission: Shock Force comes with two scenarios, playable as the US or Syrians.
• Transformers: The Game Demo
  Play through the game's first three chapters as Bumblebee.
• RedStone Open Beta Client
  A new fantasy MMORPG to try out.
• 2Moons Open Beta Client
  You can now check out the new action MMO from Acclaim.

• Anderson & the Legacy of Cthulhu Demo
  Fan made horror action game based on H.P. Lovecraft stories. Game is out soon in Europe.
• ThreadSpace: Hyperbol LAN Demo
  This sci-fi action / turn-based strategy game can now be tried offline. An online version can be found on Steam. Not a bad little indie game.
• Ship Simulator 2008 Demo
  This year's release features "weather changes, emergency flares, environment changes, ship motions on waves and big bow splashes" among other changes. I can barely contain my excitement.
• Civilization IV Beyond the Sword Demo #2
  More Civilization goodness from the Firaxis team. This one includes the Charlemagne scenario.
• GODS: Lands of Infinity: SE Demo
  With Strategy First releasing the English language version of this fantasy RPG in North America, here's a new demo.
• Pro Cycling Manager 2007 Demo
  Multi-language demo for Pro Cycling Manager 2007 - Le Tour de France. No doping required to play. I hope.

"I can confirm that the demo [of Ratchet & Clank Future] will be downloadable via the PlayStation Store," said Insomniac Games marketing director Ryan Schneider in an interview with Shacknews. "What Sony chooses to do with it, and when, it really is in their hands. The [E3] demo is finished...and when it comes out, we have a rough idea, but you never know. I think the PlayStation Store is a fluid storefront, and anything can happen."

The director then revealed that additional content is on the way for Resistance: Fall of Man. "We actually have some content that hasn't been shared yet," he stated, "so I think our fans will be happy in the coming ... Read more

Most notably, Metal Gear Solid 4 was shown in playable form during the proceedings, as seen in Kojima's gameplay presentation below:

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Download the full HD Metal Gear Solid 4 gameplay video at FileShack.

Kojima began by reiterating that stealth gameplay is still the name of the game in Metal Gear, but illustrated how this will change based on the... Read more

• Civilization IV: Beyond the Sword Demo
  This demo just hit the net in the past couple of hours so I can't tell you if it's any good, but it's hard to go wrong with a Civ game, isn't it? As an added bonus, you can test our new Quicksilver download servers with this demo. Hit it with a download manager and ten connections!
• Ultima Online: Kingdom Reborn Client
  The grandfather of MMOs has been reborn. You can check out a trailer of the revamps before you go downloading a couple of gigs.
• Upshift StrikeRacer Client
  If car combat is your thing, this demo is probably worth checking out. It doesn't really have the graphics to blow you away but it's a nice distraction for about a half hour--although the gameplay isn't really all that hot either. Ok, it's probably not worth bothering. Sorry. ... Read more

According to TotalVideoGames.com, the latest issue of Japanese gaming magazine Famitsu contains news of an "international demo" arriving later this month. The demo has been rumored to include up to 2 hours of play time, and would most likely contain English voiceovers. Earlier this year, Microsoft revealed that the North American release of Blue Dragon would feature both English and Japanese voice tracks.

Last week, the company announced that Blue Dragon will be included in its Bringing It Home initiative for delivering content, such as trailers and demos, to Xbox Live users during E3. At the time, Microsoft did not ... Read more