Guitar Hero II

Guitar Hero 2 is awesome. It's better than GH1 for two reasons: It has better controls (The hammer-ons/offs are a lot less fiddly) and it's harder. That means that if you mastered GH1 you will still find some challenge in GH2. It also means that if you are a complete n00b/white (No rhythm)/cripple (GIMP HANDS!) the game will last longer. Easy's still Easy though, so don't worry, you can still pass a few tracks right away.

Another improvement is the practice mode. It definitely comes in handy for some of the harder tracks, the last ten on Expert career would be a lot more frustrating without it. You can select which section(s) of the track you want to practise, and you can select the speed as well. It makes the hardest parts easier. I can't recall any other rhythm action game which includes this type of option. But then, I haven't played them all.

Yet another thing worth mentioning is the multiplayer. There's the original Face-Off, fair enough. There's Pro Face-Off, where you both play the full track on the same difficulty. Perhaps best of all, there is another mode, Co-Operative, where you share a score/combo meter/star power bar (And you have to activate star power together). The best thing about this mode is that one player plays the lead, while the other plays the bass or rhythm, depending on the track. There are some f*cking awesome bass lines. War Pigs. Play it.

The career tracklist is pretty good, and the covers are pretty decent. There are a few tracks I absolutely love being covered in this game, and I think they've done a good job. The extra tracks are almost all a bit sh*t though. But it doesn't matter, since there's tons of good tracks. I've put the tracklist below, even though it's easy to find on the internets, because I figure that it's probably the main piece of information anyone would base a purchase decision on; 'Does it have tracks I want to play?'

One thing I will briefly mention is that the 360 version has more tracks, so if you have a working 360 and are willing to pay about twice as much for this game, along with a Gibson X-Plorer guitar (Same shape as the ESP EX series), and (expensive) downloadable tracks (500MSP for three tracks, five packs of three tracks available, although one is an MCR pack, and the other four are tracks from GH1), it might be worth getting that version instead.

This is a game for (almost) everyone, for (almost) any occasion. One player is addictive. Two player is awesome. Playing drunk f*cking rocks. Playing with a bunch of mates taking turns is also awesome, even if you all suck, because everyone always finds at least one track they like. It's an awesome game. If you haven't bought it already, and you don't hate rhythm action games, do so, now.


Tracklist

Tier 1:
Shout at the Devil (Motley Crue)
Mother (Danzig)
Surrender (Cheap Trick)
Woman (Wolfmother)
Tonight I'm Gonna Rock You Tonight (Spinal Tap)

Tier 2:
Strutter (Kiss)
Heart-Shaped Box (Nirvana)
Message In A Bottle (The Police)
You Really Got Me (Van Halen)
Carry On Wayward Son (Kansas)

Tier 3:
Monkey Wrench (Foo Fighters)
Them Bones (Alice In Chains)
Search and Destroy (Iggy Pop and the Stooges)
Tattooed Love Boys (The Pretenders)
War Pigs (Black Sabbath)

Tier 4:
Cherry Pie (Warrant)
Who Was In My Room Last Night (The Butthole Surfers)
Girlfriend (Matthew Sweet)
Can't You Hear Me Knockin' (The Rolling Stones)
Sweet Child o' Mine (Guns N' Roses)

Tier 5:
Killing in the Name (Rage Against the Machine)
John the Fisherman (Primus)
Freya (The Sword)
Bad Reputation (Thin Lizzy)
Last Child (Aerosmith)

Tier 6:
Crazy on You (Heart)
Trippin' on a Hole in a Paper Heart (Stone Temple Pilots)
Rock This Town (Stray Cats)
Jessica (The Allman Brothers Band)
Stop (Jane's Addiction)

Tier 7:
Madhouse (Anthrax)
Carry Me Home (The Living End)
Laid to Rest (Lamb of God)
Psychobilly Freakout (Reverend Horton Heat)
YYZ (Rush)

Tier 8:
Beast and the Harlot (Avenged Sevenfold)
Institutionalized (Suicidal Tendencies)
Misirlou (Dick Dale)
Hangar 18 (Megadeth)
Free Bird (Lynyrd Skynyrd)

Bonus Tracks

Raw Dog (The Last Vegas)
Arterial Black (Drist)
Collide (Anarchy Club)
Drink Up (Ounce of Self)
Elephant Bones (That Handsome Devil)
Fall of Pangea (Valient Thorr)
FTK (Vagiant)
Gemini (Brian Kahanek)
Laughtrack (The Acro-Brats)
Less Talk More Rokk (Freezepop)
Jordan (Buckethead)
Kicked to the Curb (Noble Rot)
Mr. Fix It (The Amazing Crowns)
The New Black (Every Time I Die)
One for the Road (The Breaking Wheel)
Parasite (The Neighborhoods)
Push Push [Lady Lightning] (Bang Camaro)
Radium Eyes (Count Zero)
Red Lottery (Megasus)
Six (All That Remains)
Soy Bomb (Honest Bob and the Factory-to-Dealer Incentives)
The Light That Blinds (Shadows Fall)
Thunderhorse (Dethklok)
Trogdor (Strong Bad)
X-Stream (Voivod)
Yes We Can (Made in Mexico)

5 star(s) out of 5

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