Graphically Guitar Hero II is not the best looking game on the Xbox 360 but it does look much better than it’s Playstation 2 counterpart (as it should!). The character models look fantastic in high-definition as do the backgrounds and the little piece of paper that the notes fall down the screen on. Some awesome new lighting effects add to the overall feel of GH2 and the cool lightning bolts or fire that flows from your fingers during an awesome guitar solo really shine nicely in high definition. Obviously if you are buying GH2 for its graphics your are missing the point, the point being the audio and in that department this game really rocks the house. Other than the 74 songs available from day one (you have to unlock many of them through career mode or using a code you can find on this site) there are plenty of nice sounds to bump up the audio portion of Guitar Hero II.
Everything in this game sounds amazing when pumping out of a nice 5.1 surround sound system with a good sized subwoofer to counter the high tweeters of the smaller speakers. Small noises such as missed chords (that twang noise a guitar makes when pulling the wrong string) or the nice vibrations of the waa-waa bar are all done to perfection. Other than the obvious noises, sounds such as is the chanting of the crowd, the singing of the band, or even the sound effects in the menu portions of the game. Overall Guitar Hero II has reminded me why I love to play videogames in the first place. The feeling you get when hitting one of those hard 5 note combos is something that no other game out there can replace. Getting the chance to play this masterpiece on the Xbox 360, as the first time it has hit a next-gen console, is enough reason to go out and purchase this today. It should not even matter that it has a huge song list, downloadable tracks to come, the best graphics of the series, a sweet guitar, an awesome multiplayer mode, and one of the most addictive career modes ever to grace a videogame. If you can not tell I absolutely love this game and would only not recommend it if you literally do not have any fingers to strum the guitar. If you have fingers and like music I am ordering you to go out and get this game today, we should be seeing some downloadable tunes on Xbox Live any day now and you need to beat the included 74 before downloading any new ones. I have to get back to jamming out, if you think you can beat me add me to your friends list and use the in game menu to compare our high scores.
