Guitar Hero II [X360]

Most of the other changes are purely cosmetic, but all are for the better. The graphics are noticeably more smooth and detailed. Every venue has additional lighting effects and additions to the environment that add entertainment for those players able to tear their eyes away from the crawl of notes. Those notes are easier to see than ever before, especially on an HDTV, which is a boon to players (like us) with eyes that water madly when confronted with expert level difficulty.

The song order has been reworked, as well, so that tracks once found earlier or later in the career progression have been moved around. There are still a few songs that seem slightly misplaced, but some of the weird difficulty progression from the original GH2 release has been fixed. The Sword's 'Freya' is no less irritating when it breaks into that extended middle riff sequence, however.

If the basic career progression and star ratings weren't enough to drive you to perfection, online leaderboards and (of course) achievements have been put into action. We've only seen the leaderboards in action on Microsoft's internal network (where we were ranked #6 overall!) but that's enough to know that the basic functions work just fine. There aren't many frills to the online presentation, but that's to be expected, given the game's generally low-key menus. And the fifty achievements will keep you playing long after you've five-starred every song on expert.

The big question mark is downloadable content. Activision has promised loads of it, but what form it will take remains a mystery. We assume that more songs, characters, guitars and skins could appear, but the rate of release and pricing will be revealed later.

Suffice to say that with the addition of even a handful of decent songs online, this edition of Guitar Hero II will become the definitive one. Even without a massive collection of exclusive content, this is an improvement (if a slight one) over the five-star PS2 original, which is all 360 owners need to know.