Some elements of the band career mode remained under wraps, but the system has players unlock new songs and venues based on how many cumulative stars they've gotten on different performances.

The full band experience is positively addictive, as you and three other friends work your way through one song after another. To our eye, even on Expert difficulty the guitar parts are a little easier than one might expect, especially considering the blazingly difficult guitar lines in "Guitar Hero III." Of course, that's the sort of thing that may very well get tuned up in the coming weeks as "Rock Band" nears completion.

Meanwhile, the drum gameplay has plenty of challenge to make up for it. Learning to balance what your arms are doing against the foot pedal will be an entirely new test for most rhythm gamers out there. Our only complaint is about the foot pedal itself - the spring it sits on makes rapid double taps of the pedal a real pain. Head-to-head drumming is a blast - and makes for a lot of noise as each player whacks away at those pads. Our favorite is a new tug-of-war mode that has each player trying to pull a meter over to his or her side of the board by performing with greater accuracy.

The full song list is coming along nicely - and the word on downloadable content is pretty remarkable. "Rock Band" has some big plans ahead, from the multiple instrument gameplay to the huge list of original master track songs. Only the coming months will reveal whether the team behind the project can bring all those plans to fruition in a way that will draw in the crowds.