Guitar Hero II is the second game released in the Guitar Hero series. It is also the first game to be released on the Xbox 360 as well as the PS2. The 360 version has many new features that were not included on the PS2 version.

New songs

For the port, RedOctane licensed 10 new tracks (8 main setlist songs, 2 bonus songs):

• "Possum Kingdom" - Toadies *
• "Salvation" - Rancid
• "Life Wasted" - Pearl Jam
• "Billion Dollar Babies" - Alice Cooper
• "Hush" -Deep Purple
• "Rock and Roll Hoochie Koo" - Rick Derringer
• "Dead!" - My Chemical Romance *
• "The Trooper" - Iron Maiden
• "Drink Up" - Ounce of Self *
• "Kicked to the Curb" - Noble Rot *

There are also changes to charts from the original songs. For example, in Stop!, there are two more SP phrases, and in Monkey Wrench, the first note (on Expert at least) is a blue sustain one beat before the original start.

The setlist for the game has been changed to reflect the new tracks and a new understanding of the difficulty of the original songs.

For a complete list of songs, see Song List.

Downloadable content

See Song List for more information.

There are currently 5 track packs available for 500 Microsoft points each. There have not been any announcements of new packs.

In a GameSpy interview, RedOctane said that versus online gameplay was a probable future addition, and that downloadable songs would be priced the same as other similar services.^[1]. They have also claimed in various interviews that "Guitar Hero II will feature more downloadable content than any other 360 title".^[2]This turned out to be untrue however, because Guitar Hero III, Rock Band, and Rock Band 2 all have more downloadable content.

Leaderboards

The 360 version also features leaderboards on Xbox Live. Scores are split into three groups:

• Campaign Only - Your total score for the songs on the main set list
• All Songs - Same as Campaign Only, but includes bonus songs and DLC
• Individual Songs - Individual leaderboards for each song.

Scores listed on the leaderboards do not include the percentage or note streak acheived on a player's best run. In fact, the only designation of any kind is a small letter next the the score, denouncing which difficulty level the score was acheived on.

The leaderboards have already been hacked (much like other XBL learderboards), making total scores of over 1 billion and song scores quite a bit over the optimal scores possible to show up on the boards. Neither RedOctane nor Activision have remedied this problem yet, despite much fan complaining.

Glitch

A glitch has been discovered that allows players to beat any song with minimal effort, particularly useful to people playing solely for achievements. The glitch was discovered by user "r0kk_on" on the GameFAQs message boards.[1]

For more, see glitch.

References

1. ↑ http://xbox360.gamespy.com/xbox-360/guitar-hero-2/754599p1.html
2. ↑ http://xbox360.ign.com/articles/764/764899p1.html