I played 'Rock Band'

I knew this was gonna happen, but I kind of forgot. Best Buy stores around the country have set up 'Rock Band' demos to get everyone excited about the impending massive release of the game in the next few weeks.

Here are my thoughts about the game in a bulleted list:

• The drums are awesome. Well, the playing part is awesome (more on this later). I was wondering if the hi-hat was going to come into play... and it does, it feels pretty real. Actually it's more real than any guitar game.
• I felt completely ridiculous playing the drums in front of a crowd of onlookers.
• The songs were really fun, I love drumming for the Hives.
• The guitar looks really cool. The buttons are at the top of the neck and also a double set at the bottom (so you can pretend to do solos... uh, that's so cheesy).
• The guitar feels a little too plasticy... but so do the 'GH' guitars.
• The timing seemed way different from 'GHIII' or the guitar might not have been synced properly, either way, I could barely make it through a song.
• You're gonna have to get another guitar for bass parts (which are not as exciting as guitar parts).
• The weird breaking-glass effect (on the on-screen note indicators) when you hit a note is kind of cool and satisfying.
• The microphone is smaller that I thought it would be, but substantial for most hands.
• There were wires EVERYWHERE! This set-up is a living room nightmare.
• After two days of drumming (not by me, but customers in the Best Buy) the drum set was war-torn dented and scratched. The d-pad didn't seem to working either... looks like it had been smashed with the drum sticks. I could still navigate on-screen menus with the drums, though.
• I can't wait to play the drums in the privacy of my home!