Rock Band 2 is coming, I'm picking sides early

Kotaku led me to the announcement of Rock Band 2 at IGN earlier today. The surprising sequel will go toe to toe with Guitar Hero: World Tour.

I know Nazer and I have drooled over Guitar Hero's impressive new guitar and drum peripherals but the battle lines have been drawn and if I'm dropping two bills on another bundle of fake instruments, it's going to be Rock Band again. Here's why:

1) New, *promised* better instruments
2) New, *promised* awesome setlist
3) Transferable downloaded songs

The last one is key. Everyone knows I've spent a shitload of money downloading new songs for Rock Band and having full confidence that those mostly awesome songs will work with later versions of the game is a relief.

Little things like this go along way in judging how I feel about a company's product. Activision, the publishers of Guitar Hero, loves to do little weasel things to gouge money out of consumers like charging full price for discs that offer little more than mere add-on content (Guitar Hero 80's, Guitar Hero Aerosmith, you get the idea), and cockblocking guitar compatibility with Rock Band.

The first two reasons I listed have yet to be proven true, and I can't say I can completely rule out going the other way even though it seems that way. The new Guitar Hero drums and guitar both look great and we'll learn in a few weeks if Harmonix/EA can come through on their promised hardware/setlist improvements.

Another gripe I have is that it looks like the Xbox 360 version will come out before the PS3 version, another case of a multiplatform game having perks on the 360. I will read all of your PS3-bashing comments while I watch my blu-ray of The Golden Compass.

If anything, this fall will be an interesting season for fake musicians everywhere, but if you're gonna rock out at 198, it will probably be on some form of Rock Band.