It's easy to talk trash about playing (or pretending to play) some of the greatest songs ever written on fake, plastic guitars plugged into a video game system.

But us un-elitists here at the Scene & Heard headquarters, are woefully below the hip standard when it comes to The Beatles: Rock Band game slated for release on PS3, Xbox360, and Wii September 9.

Do you really care if it's silly to play simulated music in front of a TV set? Shut up, because playing "While My Guitar Gently Weeps" as a pixelated George Harrison will be the coolest thing to happen to video games since a stick figure jumped over alligators in Pitfall on the Atari. Besides, if you say you don't want to play Beatles music as a Beatle in a Beatles video game, you are lying to yourself (or you don't like their music, thus making you too weird to analyze anyway).

Though it's been announced that the game's developers, Apple Corps, Harmonix and MTV Games, have secured rights to at least 45 Beatles songs to use in the game, we haven't seen anything resembling a tracklist yet. But they have said the game will be a "visual and musical history" of the band. [source: Variety] And as Apple Corps CEO Jeff Jones put it: “It will span samples of the whole catalog all the way through.”

Sounds to me like the game will take some cues from cover acts like Beatlemania Now who dress up and act out all the different phases of the group's storied career. From Liverpool, to Beatlemania's Invasion, to the costumes and drugs, to their greatest songs, to their demise.

That in mind, it's easy to come up with 45 songs that are LIKELY to be in the game. But bare in mind, this is only a wish list--nothing official. But if I were a master schemer in the MTV Games office, my tracklist would start by shaping up something like this for the game:

Period I/Mania (settings: Liverpool, Ed Sullivan show)
1. I Saw Her Standing There (big mistake if you don't start with this song)
2. I Feel Fine
3. Love Me Do
4. She Loves You (this will be such a great one to sing)
5. I Want To Hold Your Hand
6. Hard Day's Night
7. Eight Days A Week
8. Ticket To Ride
9. You've Got To Hide Your Love Away
10. Help!

Period II/Getting Better (setting: America)
11. I've Just Seen A Face
12. Drive My Car (beep-beep! beep-beep! beep-beep!)
13. Taxman
14. I'm Only Sleeping
15. Doctor Robert
16. Got To Get You Into My Life
17. Paperback Writer
18. Day Tripper
19. We Can Work It Out
20. Yellow Submarine

Period III/We're On Drugs (settings: in respective movies, and trippy dream sequences)
21. Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band
22. With A Little Help From My Friends
23. Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds
24. It's Getting Better
25. Within You, Without You
26. I Am The Walrus
27. Hello, Goodbye
28. Strawberry Fields, Forever
29. Baby You're A Rich Man
30. All You Need Is Love (can we get some plastic violins and trumpets for this song?)

Period IV/Love & Revolution (settings: Abbey Road, more trippy sequences?)
31. Back In The USSR
32. While My Guitar Gently Weeps
33. Happiness Is A Warm Gun
34. Why Don't We Do It In The Road?
35. Helter Skelter
36. Revolution 9
37. I Want You (She's So Heavy)
38. Here Comes The Sun
39. Two Of Us
40. For You Blue

The End (setting: the record label rooftop show, obvy)
41. Get Back
42. Come Together
43. Hey Jude
44. Yes, the full on Abbey Road Medley (from "You Never Give Me Your Money" to "The End")
45. Let It be


...So whaddaya think? There are certainly some gems like "I Will," "Rocky Raccoon" "Eleanor Rigby" and "Yesterday" notably missing, but would they translate as well into a stand up and play with plastic controllers party game? Who am I to judge? You tell me, what classic Beatles tracks do you want to play in this upcoming game?

Well 2007 was fun. It gave us Live Earth, the iPhone, and Britney Spears with a Sinead O'Connor haircut. But we got bigger and better things to move on to now, right? Right! Out with the old, in the with new, as they say. Allow me to dedicate this post to persuading you why 2008 will not only be bolder and brighter than last year, but one for the record books.

First off, 2008 is actually considered "The International Year of Planet Earth" by the United Nations General Assembly. As cool as that sounds, all it really means is scientists get more money for research on earth science sort of stuff. But hey, the year got a powerful nickname out of it.

Of course, The UN has ALSO declared it "The International Year of The Potato," so we get some mashed potatoes with our science funds.

It's a leap year!

Bill Gates is expected to step down from daily duties at Microsoft at some point this year.

In November, we'll elect a new president. That's always fun. But without Stephen Colbert on the ballot, I feel I'm at a loss. I also feel cheated by Isaac Asimov who's short story "Franchise" said in 2008, our president would be chosen by a computer program that selects the 'most representative' citizen.

FILM
One can hope the Hollywood writers' strike ends this year, right? Otherwise, we got some sizzling treats already in the oven..

We get the second installment in Christopher Nolan's "Batman Begins" series--The Dark Knight, with Heath Ledger showing his chops as The Joker. I, my friends, am a little too excited.

And the train of comic book-adapted films continues to steam along. We're getting a new revamped "Hulk" movie which is technically a sequel to Ang Lee's disappointing Hulk from 2003. With ED NORTON taking over as the Jekyll-like Bruce Banner. Well that has me excited. June 13, 2008.

Not to mention, Robert Downey Jr. steps in as Iron Man this May.

JJ Abrams mysterious monster movie "Cloverfield" hits theaters this month, as does Stallone's return to the Rambo franchise.

Also hitting theaters this month is Michael Gondry's latest flick, "Be Kind, Rewind." If you didn't know, Gondry has been behind some of the most wonderful films of the past few years. And this one is about Jack Black and Mos-Def re-making movie classics. Gondry will also open up his own video store in NYC where people can make their own movie shorts. Genius marketing, Gondy boy. Hope the Hollywood writers guild doesn't have a whole lot to say about that..

The Matrix's Wachowski Bros will also return this year with their futuristic take on "Speed Racer." Plus Christini Ricci is in it, so...

And Indiana Jones returns with white hair and side kick Shia LaBoeuf in the fourth installment of the George Lucas series after it was high-jacked by wannabes like Nic Cage's National Treasure and Dan Brown's Da Vinci Code.

The new M. Night Shymalan flick -- "The Happening" was, of course, filmed around the area here, following suit with his previous flicks. This one stars Mark Wahlberg and is apparently about global warming.

The new Disney/Pixar production slated for this summer, "Wall-E," looks great with a little Johnny 5-like robot attempting to clean up the earth all by himself as the last living thing on it. And he learns love when he gets visited by a foreign robot.

There is a X-Files sequel in the works, as well as a new addition to The Mummy series.

One of my favorite directors Spike Jonze is directing my favorite childhood book, "Where The Wild Things Are" with some screen writing help from one of my favorite writers, Dave Eggers.

Jim Carrey is lending his cartoony voice to Dr. Seuss' "Horton Hears A Hoo"

The new Star Trek, re-booted by hot-writer JJ Abrams should be in theaters come December.

And there is plenty other film reels to look forward to, but those are the ones I'm looking for.


MUSIC
Nostalgic reunions continue to be the biggest news in the music world. Next year, we may get Led Zeppelin tours, Kinks tours, My Bloody Valentine tours...but those are all speculative at this point.

The final spike will be hammered into the old way of buying your music. iTunes will officially have made it when the entire Beatles catalog will be made available on iTunes this year, digitally remastered for the event even.

As far as albums, the new Coldplay and Nada Surf records are what I'm looking forward to most. Nada Surf are always guaranteed good and the new Coldplay is reportedly headed in a Spanish/Cuban direction.

The disbanded Northstar will release an album of leftovers and rarities to help disheartened fans like me cope with the loss.

The mysterious Glassjaw record seems to finally be coming together since weird instrumentals keep popping up on the group's myspace. But... one can only hope.

Green Day are reportedly demoing new material this month.

Oasis want to make a huge huge huge album this year.

We also get some new noise this year from Hot Chip, Jack Johnson, Coldplay, The Offspring, REM, Gnarls Barkley, Weezer, Story of the Year, The Matches, Rise Against, Ace of Base, 311, The Academy Is, Fergie, Aerosmith, Anti Flag, Black Sabbath, a reunited Fenix TX, Taking Back Sunday.


VIDEO GAMES
All I'm worried about is Metal Gear Solid 4.

Although, Ghostbusters 3 seems a little exciting too.


What do you think? 2008 look pretty rad? Did I miss anything that's way too important to miss? Any wild predictions on what we got in store politically? Any big surprises on the horizon? Will we find life on other planets? Invent the HoverBoard? Sound off in the comments folks.