Review of Rock Band for the Xbox 360

Drinking beer, needing a good drumming rug, the overwhelming urge to smoke something - Rock Band for the Xbox 360 somehow manages to capture all the fine details of what we imagine being a rockstar ought to be like. I'm a musician, I play guitar, bass, sing, and even mess around with drums here and there, so I should be, like, the master at this game... right? One of the best things about this game is that it doesn't favor any talent level over the next, anyone can fill in on any part, and instantly he or she becomes part of a world touring, arena filling monster band.

If you've played Guitar Hero this game is going to look and control in a very familiar way. The screen is essentially the same for all instruments. There are colors on the screen which correspond to certain notes which must be played in time with the song. The drums don't look much different onscreen, and it's not hard to pick up the general idea. What is hard, is trying to figure out how the hell to time your foot with the bass beats while using your hands to hit the pads. It takes some practice, but one you start getting into the groove, you'll find yourself thinking about getting a mohawk and insisting on getting paid more.

The other newest addition is singing. The lyrics scroll across the top of the screen, and a meter shows you how well you're doing. The pitch detector can be a little touchy sometimes, which can be a little annoying, but in the end doesn't hurt the playability of the game.

And what a fun freaking game this is to play. Rock Band may be the best multiplayer game of all time. There is nothing - nothing - like the feeling of going for a "Big Ending", in which each instrument has a few seconds to improvise a wildly huge rock ending to a song, and hitting that last note all together. The crowd goes wild, you and your friends go wild, and you officially feel like a badass.

The song listing is also great, but some have criticized rock band for not having as extensive a catalogue on the disc as Guitar Hero III. Just be sure you get Rock Band for an online enable system, and be sure you've got some extra cash, because one of the best aspects of this game is the ability to download additional tracks. So far, new tracks have been released every week since shipment, and have ranged from the Ramones to Oasis to Black Sabbath to the Police. I read an article in Game Informer prior to Rock Band's release, in which the developer's stated that they were thinking of Rock Band as a platform rather than a game. Two albums are already slated to be released in full in the near future, one of which is Nirvana's Nevermind. So far, most tracks run at $1.99 a pop, which is not that bad when you consider i-Tunes averages $.99 per track, and you can't even play the drums on it.

This is the game I've been waiting for my entire life. Finally, my love of video games can be married to me love of rocking. In fact, my friend, my girlfriend and I rocked out for 9 hours straight last weekend, and it seemed like it was about 30 seconds. Don't worry about the money, don't worry about what your wife will say. All those problems will go away after a beer and a shot at belting out Radiohead in your living room.