Famous rock band No Doubt has sued Activision over the use of its avatars in the game Guitar Hero 5. No Doubt says that the deal it signed with Activision only permitted the avatars to be used when playing No Doubt songs. The problem is that Activision has it set up that you can play any song in the game with the No Doubt avatars. That I’m even writing about this is rather depressing.

After finally adding some drummy goodness with Guitar Hero World Tour and then issuing the video game equivalent of a greatest hits album, the newest installment of Activision’s wildly popular Guitar Hero series has hit the market.

Many may look at Guitar Hero 5 the same way people look at popular sports games like EA’s Madden series: the core game hasn’t changed that much at all but there are some new features here and there, plus 85 new songs to play and a slightly redesigned guitar controller.

Diehard fans of the series will likely go out and buy Guitar Hero 5 without much convincing, while people who are slowly (or quickly) growing weary of the near-endless crop of music games aren’t likely to find much here to change their minds. So let’s focus on those of us (myself included) in the middle – people who like music games enough to keep playing them but need some good reasons to keep shelling out $60 to $100 every other month (or so it seems).

If you really think about it, it makes sense that future installments of Guitar Hero and other games like that could basically come packaged like those Jakks Pacific plug-and-play TV games. It’d eliminate the need for a console altogether. Activision CEO Bobby Kotick realizes this, and says that his company is considering the possibilities.

Ahhh, just what the doctor ordered: Logitech just released a wireless guitar controller that looks like a kinda-sorta Superstrat played by Adrian Smith of Iron Maiden along with a collapsable drum kit for the Wii and the XBox360.

Well, they don’t have their own game, but at least the Rolling Stones have their own download pack. Guitar Hero just announced that the Stones have their own DLC pack, available starting today for 720 Microsoft Points (or $9).

We don’t usually announce blog launches but this one is pretty much beauty: it’s PlasticAxe, a blog about music gaming. Granted he’ll probably run out of stuff to write about on day 10, but Joe Rybicki, formerly of 1UP and a bunch of other gaming sites and magazines, has melded his love of music gaming with his love of Wordpress templates and created a niche blog to end all niche blogs.

This is the OpenChord V1 guitar. It’s a guitar, obviously, but one that works with Guitar Hero and Rock Band.

Logitech has announced a premium Guitar Hero drumset for the PS2 and PS3, priced at $229 and available soon. The kit features a stainless steel bass pedal and the drumheads and cymbals can be repositioned “to fit your reach and suit your style, helping you play faster and better.”

Guitar Hero 5 will launch in September and with it, a slightly new and slightly-improved Guitar controller featuring, among other changes, an all-digital slider and colored dots along the neck of the Guitar which ought to make it easier to glance down and see where your fingers are.

Xbox 360’s owners can soon stop being jelous of the PS3 Logitech Wireless Guitar Controller. Yup, soon they will be able to get their own premium wireless controller with a maple neck, rosewood fingerboard, a virtually silent strum bar and metal frets. The controller is an official liscenced product so it should work seemlessly for Guitar Hero when it launches this August for $199.

Activision has declared war against the most popular band of all freakin’ time. The fifth installment in the Guitar Hero franchise (aside from the band specific titles) goes on sale September 1st, which is eight days before The Beatles: Rock Band hits store shelves. Oh boy! If I were a betting man, I’d say the The Beatles are going to sweep this round.

Time to load up on some Guitar Hero? If you own a Wii and want to skip all the foreplay, you can get a pretty nice bundle for just shy of $100.

Newsflash: people love Guitar Hero and Rock Band. You can tell because Logitech makes a $200 guitar controller that’s currently backordered 2 to 4 weeks.

Get ready for… Guitar Hero Idol, maybe! There’s some rumblings going on that Activision Blizzard is considering turning Guitar Hero into a TV show. It’d either be an American Idol-esque contest show or more along the lines of a reality show. (Those are still around, reality shows?) Yes, perhaps the dumbest idea to ever come out of the United States of America.

Short Version: If you’re a Metallica fan, this may quickly become your new favorite game. Drummers, too, will find the new Expert+ mode with double-bass pedal compatibility a welcome addition to the Guitar Hero series.