The upcoming Beatles game from Rock Band makers Harmonix will contain 45 songs, spanning the height of the fab four’s career from 1962 – 1969, it’s been announced by Variety today. That period gave us such classic albums as Please Please Me, A Hard Day’s Night, Help!, Rubber Soul, Revolver, Sgt. Pepper, The White Album, Yellow Submarine, and Abbey Road, among many others. So with that knowledge at hand, I’ve compiled a list of 45 of The Beatles’ biggest hits from that era:

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Team Teabag don’t have a gaming pumpkin carving competition. Why is that? The more cynical among you might attribute it to the fact that cajoling all threee of our readers into such an activity may be far more effort than it’s worth, especially considering that our British reader base don’t really get into the whole Halloween thing like our American counterparts. The kinder (and more accurate) among you might just attribute it to us being too lazy to come up with such an idea.

Aaaaanyway… Kotaku have succeeded where we have failed, and have a massive gallery of reader-submitted gaming pumpkins, ranging from Castle Crashers to Fallout 3, and everything in between. You can see a small selection above, but you really need to go check out their gallery to enjoy the smorgasbord of pumpkin carving genius they have on offer.

As a Brit, I’m in the unique position of being able to describe myself as “European” however and whever I feel like it. Unfortunately however, my allegiance to the EU motherland has now taken a major blow as one of its member states, the tiny, flat, and mostly dull country of Belgium, has decided to go and make video game rentals illegal.

No, really. Apparently, after much lobbying from the Belgian games industry, the country’s authorities decided that the rental market was eating into the profits of brand new game sales, and as of December 1st it will actually be a criminal offense to rent any computer game in the country.

Will the plucky Belgians be taking trips to the Dutch border to get their hands on this illicit merchandise? I guess only time will tell. But for now, I’m just glad that there’s a couple of hundred miles of water between our fair green isles and their Belgian beureaucratic madness.

As part of the drive to raise awareness of their upcoming game You’re in the Movies, Microsoft have signed up Hollywood legend Burt Reynolds to give a series of ‘screen test masterclasses’ to get you in the mood for the game.  The classes will come in the form of a series of TV adverts and a new website for the game, the first of these ads will be shown on VH1 in the USA on 17th November with global showings to follow.  The bandit himself had this to say:-

“It’s great to be able to share some of my experience with everyone about what it takes to be a movie star. “You’re in the Movies” on Xbox 360 allows everyone to have a piece of the action and have a fun time with their friends and family, starring in their own features, from the comfort of their own homes.”

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Introducing the musical genius that is Brett Domino, appearing above with his band The Brett Domino Trio. Trust me, this is good – and it only gets better…

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Yep, you heard me right. MTV have just announced that, along with Harmonix, they’ll be bringing us a music game towards the end of next year, which allows players to play out the musical careers of The Beatles.

This partnership marks the first time that Apple Corps, along with EMI Music, Harrisongs Ltd, and Sony/ATV Music Publishing, has agreed to present The Beatles music in an interactive video game format. Published by MTV Games and developed by Harmonix, the world’s premier music video game company and creators of the best-selling Rock Band®, the game will be an unprecedented, experiential progression through and celebration of the music and artistry of The Beatles.

The game was creatively conceived with input from Sir Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr, along with Yoko Ono Lennon and Olivia Harrison, and enjoys their full blessing. In addition, Giles Martin, co-producer of The Beatles innovative LOVE project, will provide his expertise and serve as Music Producer for this groundbreaking Beatles project.

The press release goes on to feature official endorsements from none other than Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr, as well as Yoko Ono, Olivia Harrison and Jeff Jones, the CEO of the fab four’s record label, Apple Corps.

Perhaps we’ll also get plastic replicas of Lennon’s Gibson J-160E acoustic, Harrison’s Rickenbacker 325, and of course, McCartney’s infamous Hofner 500/1 left-handed “violin” bass.

I stumbled across a pretty awesome site today… Basically, as we all know, pop legend Rick Astley has been nominated for the “Best Act Ever” award at the MTV European Music Awards. Well, the site bestactever.com is fighting the good fight and spreading the word of His Rickness, providing us with lots of automated ways to vote and keeping everyone up to date on his progress.

And something about Mudkips.

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Almost 30,000 people walked through the doors at ExCeL and crammed themselves into the MCM Expo for an occasion they are unlikely to forget and will no doubt be eager to repeat. The experience begins as you travel to the event with the trains, buses and DLR’s having been invaded by cosplayers and you can feel a strong sense of anticipation in the air. With cosplayers travelling from all directions, and a noticeable pride in their chosen costumes, it reminded me of the beginning of The Warriors, minus the aftermath of rumbles and bloodshed. The family appeal of the expo really hit home while on a train to the event as a young boy spotted a cosplayer and cried out “mister wolf!” while waving excitedly, and I have to admit that beyond my undeniably rugged exterior I found this incredibly cute.

As you approach ExCeL you will suddenly find yourself surrounded by row upon row of people attending the event and the positive energy from everyone will make you feel as though you’re approaching a Rock concert. At the main entrance, one of the first things you’ll notice is the long cue of people eagerly waiting for tickets and I would describe how this felt but, and this is where you begin to hate me, I of course walked right past everyone.

The expo is as warm as it is busy and I second the wise words of the expo survival kit found in the official show guide, remember to keep yourself hydrated and, whatever you do, please don’t leave this until you reach ExCeL and find yourself forced to spend a king’s ransom on drinks.

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MTV and Apple Corps Ltd, administrators of The Beatles back catalogue, have called a press conference for 2pm GMT today to “announce an exclusive agreement to develop a global music project.”, which considering this press release has been sent to many gaming sites and that one of the main PR men for Rock Band is listed on the release suggests that MTV have beaten Activision in the war over The Beatles.

While we could be blowing this out of proportion, with it maybe ending up being an announcement over digital distribution of their music, I have a feeling that in the not too distant future we’ll be rocking out to Helter Skelter in Rock Band.

Full press release after the break.

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EA and Harmonix have finally confirmed a release date for Rock Band 2 on this side of the pond, and as we reported a while back, it is due to hit our shores on November 21st across Europe.  This date is for the game only mind you, as the new instruments will not be available until sometime in December, this date also only applies for the Xbox 360 version, with PS3, PS2 and Wii versions of the game to come in the following months thanks to Microsoft’s timed exclusivity on the game.