It’s pretty much like the first version (and it is backwards compatible with the components – the guitars, drums and microphone, so you don’t have to buy the whole kit again, you can just buy the game if you have the instruments already), and you can pay 400 MS points (which I think is equal to about $5) and transfer most, if not all, of the games from the first disc so you have more songs to play.  And any songs you may have purchased from Live with the first game, can also be used on the second game.

There are some new differences though.  You can hire staff – promoters for the various regions of the country and the world, groupies, interns, and a manager (I can’t remember if you could hire a manager in the first game or not). There are various challenges in each town, that are QUITE difficult.  For instance, there was one that required the band to play on Expert level.  Another which was just for a guitarist.  And another that was for a high level song (not on Expert level, but an extremely challenging song even on Medium) that sounded like it would have made the Medium setting look almost like Hard or Expert.

Another twist, is that occassionaly something will pop up after you’ve chosen a song – for instance, we were playing through the single songs in a particular city, and after we chose the last song before the multi-song sets, a notice popped up that a “film student” wanted to film a video in 60s psychadelic style, with a song of their choosing (which happened to be a Go-Go’s song), and we’d get no money, but we’d get more fans than normal if we finished with five stars.

Another time, while we were doing a three or four song set, a notice popped up for an option to “confuse the guitarist”, where the game randomly chose a more “challenging” song than what had been on the set for the last song, and if we finished it with a minimum of four stars, we’d get something like quadruple the money and double the fans.  My husband was the guitarist, but the song the game chose was one that we’d already played and wasn’t really *that* difficult, so we were able to get five stars.

My guess is when my husband gets home from work today we’ll probably be playing it again sometime before bed.  It’s pretty fun.

Supposedly one can purchase the updated guitar & drum set separately in about a month.  The guitar is supposed to have put the “click” back in the strum bar so one can feel when it’s been pressed down enough to be recognized by the system. The current one does not “click*, so I guess there have been reports of people breaking the strum bar from pushing it up or down too hard, from thinking they had to do so to get it to click.  Frankly I like the current version since it is quieter, but that is just me. Oh, and the new guitar is also wireless.

The drums are “supposed” to be quieter and recognize the drum sticks better -and it is wireless.  And there is also going to be yet another drum set released closer to Christmas that is made by an electronic drum making company, which will have an “xbox” brain in it for Rock Band II, and be interchangable with a separate “drum kit” brain to make it a stand alone electronic drum set for actual use in a real band.  But that version is going to cost another $100 more – just for the DRUMS – than the entire Rock Band II kit which *includes* the guitar, microphone and drums!  So I would only recommend purchasing that drum set if you have someone in your household who actually plays drums outside of the game.

There are some more perks in the game, but we have not tried or encountered them just yet, so I won’t bring them up for now.  One thing though, that I hope they took out of this version of the game, is the fan cap.  In the previous game, the fans capped at like 500,000 on the Medium setting. It was rather depressing to reach that limit, and not be able to move on to other cities or unlock other songs because they required more fans.  We are just simply not agile or nimble enough to move up to the next difficulty setting without failing out constantly (and thus LOSING fans).  I’m sorry, but not everyone is going to be able to play on Expert mode no matter how much they practice.

So we’ll have to play until we reach 500k fans and see whether the limit is still in place.  My hope is that it will not be there, so we can continue to play and unlock cities, venues & songs.  The replay value will be excellent without a fan cap in place, for people like my husband and me who will likely only hope to be great on the Medium setting.

We’ve had Apple iPods for pretty much as long as they’ve been in existence.  We’ve had almost one of every version since the very first one.  We’ve had iPods, we’ve had (and have) the Shuffles, and we have Nanos.  My Nano is one he purchased for our anniversary gift to me this year, and had it engraved.  I it.

We ALSO have the iPhones.  Yes, plural.  One for him, and one for me.  The first version, he bought a week after they came out.  For the 3G version, we took the day off of work, dropped the Kiddo off at daycare as per usual, and stood in line the day it was released.  For three and a half hours.  (which, I have to say is MUCH better than when we stood in line for the Xbox 360, but that is another story)

And we both have iMacs.  He has a 30″ iMac, I have a 24″ iMac.  I really really my iMac.  And we both have MacBook Pros.  We also have a G5 Mac tower (I think it is a powermac?) which is home to OS X Server.  Oh, and I almost forgot.  He also has a 15″ Macbook in black.

(and I wonder why our credit cards have gotten out of hand?? Wait, no I don’t.)

So yeah, Macs rule in this house.  We have TWO lone Windows machines, both Dells.  Those are so we can remote into our home network while we’re at work, and for various games that are not on the Mac yet.  Although that is starting to become less and less of a problem anymore.  Technically I could run World of Warcraft on my iMac, and I can also run Spore on my iMac.  But I have those installed on my PC, simply because I prefer to use my iMac for surfing the ‘net, checkin’ my e-mail, and doing graphics doodling and tinkering with HTML.  Sometimes even while playing WoW or Spore on my PC.  My husband uses his iMac to watch various movies or TV shows (Star Trek DS9, currently) while he plays WoW or Spore, or other games.

Anyway.  I can’t recommend Apple’s products highly enough.  Especially their computers.  Extremely stable, last longer than any PC we’ve ever owned (I still have a 15″ G4 Powerbook that runs perfectly that is waiting for its prospective new owner to get paid so she can buy it – and we bought THAT in 2004!), GREAT for graphics work.  And did I mention stable?  I can maybe count on one hand the times I’ve had to forcefully reboot my iMac.  Or any of my Mac computers, for that matter.

Yes, they’re a little pricey sometimes (our poor credit cards can attest to that), but they are WELL worth it. And the iPods aren’t half bad either.

Apple just had one of thier “let’s announce all our new fancy lines of iPods and stuff!” party today, and of course, my husband was all over that.  He was giving me the run down of what things Apple was revamping, what things seemed to have little if any changes, that kind of stuff.

His main interest, at least this time, is in their new Nanos.  They’ve apparently moved back to the longish shape from the version before the last one (the one before this new release was shorter and wider).  Only they increased the screen size a little so they’re more video friendly, and added a cool new function, “shake to shuffle”.  And there are quite a few more colors than previously available.

So of course, he HAS to have one. *rolling my eyes*  I told him I really would prefer not to have to charge anything more on the credit cards, since we really, really, need to start paying those stupid things off.  And we definitely aren’t able to pay for it in cash.  I said if he could sell the two he already has (which is one of the short/wide ones, and one longish one two revisions past), I would consider it.

He countered with offering to pull the weeds in the front yard this weekend, AND find a way to drain what’s left of the water in above ground pool so we can disassemble it and put it up for sale.  I was really more surprsied at the offer to weed the yard since, 1) we usually hire a landscaper to do the work for us (because we’re lazy), and 2) if we can’t afford the $50-$100 for the landscaper, I am usually the one who does the weed pulling.

I caved, and ordered him a new Nano. In the color he favored the most, which is blue.  And opted to do a simple engraving on the back, from me and the Kiddo.  Hey, the engraving is free, so what the heck.

He is lucky to have me for a wife, I think.  And he owes me a yard weeding and a pool draining this weekend. AND I still think he needs to try to sell the other two Nanos as well.

And yes it is after midnight, and I should be sleeping. For some reason I’m just not tired yet. Dang it.