These days, if a game doesn't have at least some kind of web presence on the publisher or developer's official site, it's a fluke rather than an exception. We've often taken to just updating our game pages with the official site rather than doing a story on it because frankly there's only so many times when you can act excited about some wallpapers, videos and screenshots.

With Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock, however, Activision is going all-out. Yeah, you'll get the usual videos and screens, plus some behind-the-scenes info, but they're going one better by offering a complete online community that lets you attract groupies (which pushes your ranking on the overall site that much higher), track your progress in online head-to-head battles and lets you secure a unique stage name that's shared across the site's forums and rankings.

That's merely the pre-launch content, however. Once the game is kicked out to stores, the full site will go live, allowing you to go "on tour" and participate in band battles, tournaments and check in with the game's "rock radius," which lets you see nearby friends and their accomplishments on a global map. Good things are brewing for the future of the Guitar Hero franchise, and we're rather psyched to see how the final product will turn out come the end of the month.