First off, for all those Canadians out there, Happy Canada Day! Hopefully the weather is nice today so I can go play some softball and maybe watch some fireworks. Also, it was recently announced by Harmonix that Rockband 2 will be coming for the XBox 360 in September and on the PS3 later on in the year. Apparently, the game will allow cross downloading of downloadable content (DLC), which means that the songs you’ve purchased on Rockband 1 can be played on Rockband 2 and the starting music list may reach 300 titles. As far is Harmonix is concerned, they don’t see any difference between downloadable content. The songs will feature master recordings on disc (better sound quality) and an overall improvement in online play.

Also, Rockband 2 will boast new instruments which are supposedly more quieter, more realistic and more reliable than the original set. But for those of us with the original instruments, they will still work for the new game. I think this feature alone will make fans want to stick with Rockband rather than switch over to other games like Konami’s Band Revolution or Activision’s Guitar Hero IV. I’m sure many gamers have already spent well over $200+ on plastic instruments, I’m sure they don’t wish to shell out even more so.

-Stephen