Guitar Hero ready to rock again

We all knew it was inevitable, but today the official announcement came down from publisher RedOctane: Guitar Hero II is in production and will be in stores sometime this November. The sequel to 2005's surprise hit, Guitar Hero II will feature the same simple gameplay - "playing" a plastic, guitar-shaped controller in time with an onscreen cascade of notes - with a few new twists.

The newgamewill feature more than 55 songs, as opposed to the first game's 47. An actual playlist has yet to be unveiled, but RedOctane has said thatGuitar Hero IIwill stick with the various harder breeds of rock. In addition, the new game will feature three different note tracks for some songs,enabling playersto choose between lead, rhythm or bass guitar. This also factors into the new co-op mode, which will let players to pick separate tracks for collaborative shredding.

RedOctane has promised "an early glimpse" of the game at E3, so expect to know more when the games expo kicks off next month.

April 17, 2006

Mikel Reparaz
After graduating from college in 2000 with a BA in journalism, I worked for five years as a copy editor, page designer and videogame-review columnist at a couple of mid-sized newspapers you've never heard of. My column eventually got me a freelancing gig with GMR magazine, which folded a few months later. I was hired on full-time by GamesRadar in late 2005, and have since been paid actual money to write silly articles about lovable blobs.