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Video Game Review: Rock Band 2

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By ROMMIE JOHNSON | The Tampa Tribune

Published: September 19, 2008

System: Microsoft Xbox 360

Also available for: Nintendo Wii and Sony PlayStations 2 and 3, coming soon

Publisher: MTV Games/Harmonix/EA

Reviewer's rating: ***

ESRB rating: Teen

Game type: Rhythm/Music

Kind of like: "Guitar Hero"

Best feature: "Psycho Killer" by Talking Heads?! Too awesome.

Worst feature: More of the same.

The bottom line: Did you like last year's "Rock Band"? Then chances are you'll like this year's "Rock Band 2." That is, if you have a reason to buy it.

See, it's basically the same game. And while it's a really fun game, that's still kind of disappointing when you consider the price (from $60 to $190).

You play and sing along with popular songs. It's not just "Guitar Hero" - here, you can be a drum hero or vocal hero, too. Invite your friends and you can all rock out together as a band.

The main difference is the songs. "Rock Band 2" features more than 80 new tracks from the likes of AC/DC, Modest Mouse, the Beastie Boys, Dinosaur Jr., Jane's Addiction and more. Of course, additional songs will be downloadable in the coming months. But that was the case with the original "Rock Band," too - so why didn't they just make these new songs downloadable instead?

There are some upgrades. You can now play World Tour mode online with friends, which is pretty sweet. And the instruments are considerably sturdier and more precise.

Fortunately, the game is backward compatible with the old instruments, too, so you don't have to shell out for new drums if you haven't broken yours yet. Even so, if you already own last year's game, the incentives to upgrade are few.

But if not? Let there be rock.

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