Guitar Hero II

Monday 16 October 2006 Guitar Hero's instantaneous appeal started with the guitar itself: the chunky, tactile plastic talisman that so effortlessly drew players out of themselves and into the music. The same shouldn't be true of the sequel - available sans controller, it's a refinement and expansion, all about the songs. But the new, cherry-red variant that ships with Guitar Hero II will prove tempting to many who never bought a second controller first time round (and maybe even some who did).

RedOctane may have carved out a small niche for itself by making dance pads, but it was last year's release of Guitar Hero that put the company on the map. A surprisingly addictive blend of gameplay, good music and a sweet Gibson-inspired, guitar controller all added up to a resounding success. Now the company is back for round two, and this year's revision is looking better than ever thanks to a packed song list and the addition of a few requested features. Numero uno on the list of

Thursday 11 May 2006 Unofficial music business lore states that if an artist's first major-label album is a smash hit, the follow-up is almost doomed to underachieve. It happens all the time. However, ten minutes on the show floor at E3 is all we needed to know for sure that the Guitar Hero series, which gives you a guitar-shaped controller and lets you play rock god, is absolutely not going to fall victim to that age-old curse. The thing the game does right is preserve everything that made