The Friday deluge of awesome news continues, as thanks to Game Informer and the fine people at the NeoGAF Forums, we have the first details on Rock Band (which is the latest game from Guitar Hero developers Harmonix)
- One disk with 4 separate campaigns. Guitar, Drum, Bass and Vocal. Each can be played on its own from start to finish, in addition, a full band game is designed to allow for one huge co-op playthrough.
- Will feature full support for four player online play on both 360 and PS3. Any combination of on/offline play will work and each player can pick their own difficulty setting.
- Musical fret-boards are now transparent so you can see more of the background visuals. Guitar is on the left side of the screen, Bass on the right and drums down the middle. Vocals scroll from right to left along the top of the screen.
- Microphone doubles as a tambourine on many songs to combat super long guitar solos where the singer doesn’t have much to do.
- Drums are apparently insane. You use actual sticks and hit one of four colored pads in front of you, in addition to a kick pedal attached to the drumming unit. Drummers will also have the ability to do fills etc. in their own little free-form section, do well and you’ll trigger the drummers version of star power.
- 4 songs announced in the article, not sure if this is new or old but whatever.
Weezer - Say It Ain’t So - Original Master Track
Black Sabbath - Paranoid - Original Master Track
The Who - Won’t Get Fooled Again - Original Master Track
Nirvana - In Bloom - Original Master Track
INSTRUMENT DESCRIPTIONS
Guitars/Bass
Guitars are an exact 3/4 replica of a Fender Strat.
Five familiar buttons near the top of the neck, five buttons near the body of the guitar. You will use these new buttons during specially designed solo sections using ONLY hammer ons and pull offs, no having to worry about your strum bar. Signature Fender 5-way switch has been added. By shopping at the in game store you’ll be able to purchase several virtual effects pedals such as Flange, Wah, Chorus and Echo. These can be applied during your song by setting the 5 way switch to the desired effect.
Drums
It consists of four pads, a kick pedal and legs for the entire unit to stand on. Think of it as a TV dinner tray stand only cooler 
Leftmost pad (red) is your snare drum, everything else doubles as toms and cymbals depending on the song.
A set of real wooden drum sticks will ship with the unit.
If you play drums in this game on hard or expert, then you’re really playing the drums. Apparently you could sit down at a real set and play the same songs.
Loads more details are at the post linked…I’m simply blown away. I guess I’ll be looking into an Xbox 360 or PS3 this fall after all…
