So you wanna be a rock superstar?

I managed to get my hands on a copy of Rock Band for the Playstation 2. This was due to a confluence of events:

1) I played Guitar Hero for the first time last weekend and was hooked right away. The developers for the original GH split, with RedOctane creating Guitar Hero 3 and Harmonix making Rock Band. I was in Best Buy looking to see if they restocked on Guitar Hero (they hadn't) when I came across...

2) ... an open box set of Rock Band (game/wireless guitar/drums/microphone) - it wasn't discounted properly, but once it scanned it was $40 cheaper.

3) I had a pocket full of gift cards and store credit.

I'm not a huge video game guy - I have a PS2 and X-Box, I go through stints of Final Fantasy, Tomb Raider or Halo, but I don't tend to buy or rent a lot of games. I haven't touched a video game in about 6 - 12 months. But the first time I played Guitar Hero last week, I was hooked. GH and Rock Band are so much fun, especially when you get together with your friends. I only had a chance to play a little guitar this weekend, but it's looking good. Guitar controls work same as Guitar Hero. The microphone adds a karoke component to the gameplay. The drum kit is a full set and by all accounts, if you can beat the drumming levels on hard, you can play real drums. No signs of virtual groupie however.

It looks like you can use the PS2 guitar/drums/microphone with the PS3. Add in that the PS3 allows players to create and customize their own in-game character and download more tracks, plus the Blue Ray DVD player in the hardware, and I'm definitely leaning in the PS3 direction more than X-Box 360. They even have whole albums on download, so you and your friends can play, for instance, "Nevermind" by Nirvana from end to end. The minute I see a full Radiohead album like "The Bends" up there, I'm doomed.

I wonder if this game has the potential to be a relationship-killer, as Guitar Hero and Rock Band widows roam the earth while their husbands and boyfriends live out their rock star fantasies. Any female game players out there tried out either GH or Rock Band?

Maybe there'll be a "Rock Band - Failed Glory" edition where, after a stint in rehab, you end up in a Ratt cover band, playing bars in middle America, fighting for your shot at a VH-1 reunion special or reality show.

Some of the Rock Band's track listing highlights that sold me on it:

"Are You Gonna Be My Girl" – Jet, "Blitzkrieg Bop" – Ramones, "Cherub Rock" – Smashing Pumpkins, "Creep" – Radiohead, "(Don't Fear) The Reaper" – Blue Öyster Cult (you use the microphone like a cowbell?! Hell yeah!), "The Electric Version" – The New Pornographers, "Enter Sandman" – Metallica, "Epic" – Faith No More, "Go with the Flow" – Queens of the Stone Age, "Here It Goes Again" – OK Go, "Maps" – Yeah Yeah Yeahs, "Paranoid" – Black Sabbath, "Sabotage" – Beastie Boys , "Should I Stay or Should I Go" – The Clash, "Suffragette City" – David Bowie, "Tom Sawyer" – Rush, "When You Were Young" – The Killers