Hey everyone.
Well, Rock Band 2 just came out on the PS3, so of course I got it right when the store opened.

So, considering I played the first Rock Band extensively, I don’t really feel the need to make a really long review for this one, since it’s basically the same thing other than new songs and some enhanced features. So I’ll basically talk about the setlist, the new features… and that’s it. If you want to know how the game plays check out some videos! Let’s go!

New stuff!
Let’s start right away with this. Though the basic gameplay is the same as in the first, there are quite a few new interesting features. So let’s check those out.

Characters
Now that’s something people have been asking for in the first game. In the first, when you created a character, it was stuck at the instrument you created it on. If you wanted your character to play on the drums but created it on the guitar, you’ll have to re-create it on another instrument. Now you just create a character and he/she will play on any instrument you want. Might seem small, but I think it’s a great addition. Now my pink schoolgirl can play drums AND guitar. Nice.

Difficulty display
On the quickplay screen, when you select a song, you will see how difficult it is. Not only is it classified in difficulty like in the first (like blistering difficulty and such), but now on the left sidebar you’ll see the difficulty, out of 5, for each instrument and for the band in general. Great stuff right there I say, excellent addition.

Challenges
Haven’t delved in this too much yet, but basically you are given challenges in the game. Basically it’s A series of songs for each instrument, constantly going up in difficulty. It’s also one of the faster ways to unlock songs.

Battle of bands
Ah now that’s a fun feature. Every day I think a challenge gets added on here. It might be getting high scores, getting long note streaks and a bunch of other stuff. When you do those challenges, you and your band are ranked against other bands all over the world. Potentially really fun.

Multiplay centralizing
Another badass feature. Now on the menu, you have no more “single play” and “multi play” options. Instead you have Quickplay and Tour. Now instead of choosing single or multi play, you just choose which mode you want to play, and the number of players there joins and plays. If you’re alone you just join and play alone. That’s really nice, centralizing everything, and that also means you can continue the tour by yourself instead of always having to be with friends to go on with the band. Really good feature if you ask me.

There’s a few other minor additions, like solos on drums, being able to hire different managers (you start with having your mom as a manager, but build your way up to different ones that have different effects) and a couple other things. Overall some nice additions.

Songs
The set list here is actually pretty good. Though I find that in general the songs seem a bit longer than most songs on the first game, there’s still some great stuff here.
AC/DC “Let There Be Rock”
AFI “Girl’s Not Grey”
Billy Idol “White Wedding Pt. I”
Bon Jovi “Livin’ on a Prayer”
Cheap Trick “Hello There”
Disturbed “Down with the Sickness”  (lawl they basically removed the whole part where he swears a lot >_>)
Dream Theater “Panic Attack”
Guns N’ Roses “Shackler’s Revenge”  (though not as good as I expected/hoped)
Jethro Tull “Aqualung” 
Jimmy Eat World “The Middle”
Journey “Anyway You Want It” 
Judas Priest “Painkiller”
Linkin Park “One Step Closer”
Megadeth “Peace Sells”
Metallica “Battery”
Modest Mouse “Float On”
Motorhead “Ace of Spades” 
Red Hot Chili Peppers “Give it Away”
Rush “The Trees”
Survivor “Eye of the Tiger”
System of a Down “Chop Suey”
Tenacious D “Master Exploder”
The Guess Who “American Woman”
 The Offspring “Come Out & Play (Keep ‘em Separated)”
The Who “Pinball Wizard”

Really quite a few good songs there, lots of variety and overall a really nice setlist. You should find SOMETHING in there that you like. Just a note, that’s not the whole setlist, just the songs I think are really good/fun to play. See the whole setlist here.

Overall 
If you have the first Rock Band and like playing it, there’s little reason not to get this. 84 new songs (plus 20 more with a code that… aren’t revealed yet but should come out relatively soon(though i don’t know if the wii version will have those, and the PS2 version definitely doesn’t)), lots of new features, and for 15$ you can transfer almost all the songs from the first into the second game.
If you don’t have the first and are willing to fork out the cash, buy the pack with(probably) slightly enhanced instruments(I have no idea how they are, since I had the intruments from the first). Well worth checking out, really fun for parties and just hanging out with friends.
And of course this game is challenging, quite a few really tough songs. 
Another interesting fact: By the end of the year the setlist including RB1 and 2 and all the downloadable songs will equal around 500 songs, making it by far the largest setlist in a music game right now(not counting Stepmania).
So yeah, get this, it’s really fun.