You begin the Career Mode in Guitar Hero II touring as a gig band, and you find yourself launching your career at a Battle of the Bands in a high school gymnasium a la Smells Like Teen Spirit. The set lists are still 5 songs long in the Career Mode only this time around, however, the fifth song is unlocked in the form of an "encore" after you have completed three of the first four songs offered to you in that set list. The encores range from the absolutely silly (Spinal Tap's "Tonight I'm Gonna Rock You Tonight") to the totally awesome (Guns 'n Roses "Sweet Child o' Mine!")

Wavegroup Sound has been responsible for almost all the music contained within both games in the series, yet a couple of the songs stuck out this time around as, well, not so good. Nirvana's smash hit "Heart Shaped Box" has an extra guitar solo in it towards the end that feels really out of place, and the classic outro lyrics to Rage Against the Machine's anthem "Killing in the Name" is drastically altered from raucous "F**k you, I won't do what you tell me!" to less offensive "Now I'm under control, I won't do what you tell me!" Of note, however, the developers left untouched all the sexual innuendos contained the lyrics of "Cherry Pie." Message to Walmart shoppers: sex okay, F-bomb angst not okay.

The difficulty level has been ramped up this time around and "Freya" by the Sword on Expert will leave you and your fingers in tears - that is if you can even finish the song. The introduction of 3 button chords in the game will keep many a gamer's fingers busy while trying to master this tricky new addition to the game's mechanics. Fortunately, a Practice Mode is included where you can pinpoint any part of a song giving you trouble and slow it down a few notches. This is very handy in Career Mode as you can access the Practice Mode of any song you are stuck on right from the menu after you fail the song. We won't tell you how many times one of our staff had to play "Bad Reputation" by Thin Lizzy on Expert in Practice Mode before achieving success.

The bonus tracks we've played so far are very cool. Buckethead's contribution, "Jordan", is the most frustrating song you will ever experience on Expert level. Strong Bad, from the world famous homestarrunner.com, has a song included in the game's bonus songs about one of his awesome creations, TROGDOR the BURNiNATOR!

All of your favorite playable characters make a return in GH2, but one of our favorite new character additions is just crazy as all hell. We say that because Lars Ümlaüt is a Norwegian Death Metal dude complete with the white and black face makeup and sports those crazy heavy metal spikey forearm leathers, but at the same time he bears a striking resemblance to the Muppets' own, Sam the Eagle. Perhaps they were trying to make him more like this guy auditioning for Austria's version of American Idol

The improved stat system will definitely help many players who want to master the songs, as the game now tells you exactly which sections of the song you need to work on by breaking them down and scoring your success ratios for each section. For example, GH2 breaks down how many of the Star Power phrases you hit and your average score multiplier.

In a nutshell, that's how the first night of Guitar Hero II went down at Pink Godzilla HQ. Pink Godzilla is definitely feelin' the GH2 love and we don't plan on stoppin' until our fingers bleed or the controller turns into a robot...or something else equally cool. Keep your eyes and ears peeled to this here site for more Guitar Hero in the future! And don't forget, November 11th is the Guitar Hero II launch party for all you 21 and older.