Stan Lee is a God to millions of geeks everywhere and a seemingly harmless, eccentric old man to the rest of us. Lee is the former president and CEO of Marvel comics, the publisher that brought us such legends as Spiderman, the X Men and Squirrel Girl (seriously).

Why is a washed up old geek in the news I hear you ask? Well, apparently the great state of California is attempting to restrict the availability of violent video games. That is to say, the state governed by Arnold Schwarzenegger, a man who appeared in a boat load of violent films, most of which had videogame adaptations, thinks that games are bad and should be stopped before they harm the kiddywinks.

Crazy ol’ Uncle Stan posted the following message on the Video Game Voters Network’s website, which interestingly had never been heard of until this story:

My memory has always been lousy and it’s not improving with age. But it’s good enough to remember a time when the government was trying to do to comic books what some politicians now want to do with video games: censor them and prohibit their sales. It was a bad idea half a century ago and it’s just as bad an idea now.

Despite how liable he is to wet himself, Grampa Simpson Stan Lee is right, the politicians are overstepping the mark by using games as a scapegoat and this new bill is a blatant attempt to appease conservative voters. He also found time in his open letter to accuse the politicians of doing all this just to drum up positive headlines, to ensure they get re-elected and that 50 years on, politicians still haven’t changed.

And he’s right, after all, 70 or so years ago we saw another Austrian with a dubious past and some right wing ideas get elected to power. He did manage to write a book though. I’m not convinced the Governator can actually write.

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Guitar Hero: Aerosmith was a brave experiement, but a successful one – now it’s time to repeat it with a band that people actually like.

It’s strongly rumoured that MTV is about to announce a forthcoming Rock Band: The Beatles edition. If it’s true, then Rock Band: The Beatles would be a truly landmark game. Not only would it mark the first time that The Beatles have licensed their music to a videogame, but also, if the song In My Life gets included in the tracklisting, it’ll also mark the debut of the Rock Band harpsichord peripheral.

It’s expected that Rock Band: The Beatles will be so realistic that it’ll actually feel like you’re one of The Beatles. For instance, John Lennon‘s guitar will have easy, medium, hard and expert levels, George Harrison‘s guitar will have easy, medium, hard and expert levels, Paul McCartney‘s bass will have easy, medium, hard and expert levels and Ringo‘s drums will have one very easy level that even a baby could play.

The battle between Rock Band and Guitar Hero is getting more and more intense by the second. On one hand, there’s Rock Band 2 – a tried and tested party favourite that comes with such a tidal wave of downloadable music from exclusive bands that you’d never ever get bored of playing it. And on the other hand there’s Guitar Hero: World Tour – the game that has less songs, more lukewarm reviews and happens to be what we’re getting for Christmas. Tits.

And now, just to make matters worse, Rock Band is on the brink of announcing that it’s secured rights to bring out an exclusive game based on the music of The Beatles. Here’s how Variety is reporting the impending Rock Band: The Beatles:

MTV is set to announce Thursday what it promises is an “unprecedented global music project” with Apple Corp., administrator of the Beatles catalog. Videogame industryites are widely speculating that at least part of the project will involve getting Beatles songs for MTV’s music videogame “Rock Band.” The Wall Street Journal reported late Wednesday that just such a partnership will be announced.

Rock Band: The Beatles is just another sign that The Beatles are slowly coming to accept digital distribution. Several of The Beatles’ solo works are available on iTunes now, plus the release of their Love album in 2006 demonstrates a new willingness to jump on any passing bandwagon, no matter how crappy, if it means that Paul McCartney will get a little bit richer.

But what of Rock Band: The Beatles itself? Well, we hear that the game will take players through all the stages of The Beatles’ career, starting with their black and white moptop days, through into their golden period of musical experimentation and then finally a section where players earn points by glumly refusing to talk to each other and having protracted legal battles about money.

Then, depending on what instrument you’re playing, the final stage either involves being shot in the head, being stabbed by an intruder, having half your points taken away from you by a weird old one-legged woman (Rock Band prosthetic leg peripheral sold separately) or going a bit mental because people keep sending you letters.

But anyway, now that Rock Band: The Beatles looks like it’s going to be a reality, perhaps one of the music games can get around to bringing out an expansion pack based on the biggest band of them all. That’s right, The Spin Doctors. You know it makes sense.