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So, on Saturday night I got a chance to check out Rock Band 2 a bit early at a local game store that held a midnight pre-release/tournament. Basically, it’s as good as the first, if not better. It has a huge selection of songs, and the difficulty, or lack thereof, has been fixed completely. Sadly, I didn’t get a chance to check out the drums, as the owner didn’t have any at the store at the time.

My first impressions after the jump.

• The game plays exactly like Rock Band 1, as far as the guitar, bass, and vocals go.
• The only real difference I could tell in the Guitar parts is that the timing on hammer-ons is a bit off now. However, it took me all of half of "Man In the Box" to get that timing down.
• And speaking of songs, the setlist is MASSIVE, even without the RB1 DLC. Yeah, that’s right. The DLC from Rock Band 1 automatically shows up in your setlist the first time you put the game in. Songs like E-Pro (Beck), Battery (Metallica), and a new version of Ace of Spades (Motorhead) are just a few awesome songs out of many.
• The game now includes around 15 characters that can be used instead of creating your own rocker. They range from a glam rocker with a huge afro to a hippie girl with long, flowing clothes.
• Many of the songs, as with in Rock Band 1, are censored.
• The difficulty has been ramped up significantly, with some songs (Including Peace Sells (Megadeth) and Pinball Wizard (The Who)) looking almost as hard as Through The Fire and Flames on Expert.
• As such, Overdrive is now more important than ever. I feel like using Overdrive actually gives you more points than it did in 1, to make up for the raised difficulty.
• I personally did not get to get my hands on the new Stratocaster controller, however I’ve heard from some people that the fret buttons are quieter, the whammy bar feels sturdier, and the accelerometer, used to detect when Overdrive is trying to be used, has been fixed.
• A No-Fail feature is available off the bat in the Extras menu, with the other cheats. Also, it should be noted that use of any of the cheats that change the gameplay, including Unlock All Songs, will dissalow you from playing on Live. Thankfully, you can toggle it on and off.
• Included with the first pressing of the game is a code that can be entered to grant you 50 free song downloads from day one. After the first pressing, this code will not be included with any other version of the game.

So, all in all, it’s a great game. If you have the cash to shill out for the whole thing, go grab it. It’s awesome for parties and pretty fun to play by yourself.