Today Guitar Hero II finally comes out for the Xbox 360. I already have a copy and will post a GIAP entry once I’ve had a chance to play it. So I thought I’d go ahead and give my two cents on Harmonix’s latest announcement into music games: Rock Band. It was announced Sunday on USA Today, and it looks to be the most ambitious rhythm game yet. While Guitar Hero lets you play mock-guitar to all your favorite songs, Rock Band aims to let you fill any or all seats of a band, with controllers for the aforementioned guitar, and now drums, and a microphone.

But this isn’t just an expansion of instruments. Rock Band promises a lot of cool features new to the franchise. Multiplayer online co-op is finally a reality, so your ideal rock band could be spread all over the globe; all playing different parts to the same song in real-time. Another big announcement is that all the songs will be the actual works of the original artists. That means no more covers.

Rock Band will be published by EA, and will be hitting store shelves this holiday season for the Xbox 360 and PS3. Also, it’s been confirmed that the Xbox 360 Guitar Hero controller will work with Rock Band. I am looking forward to this one, as I love rhythm games, and I love the direction this game is headed in. Rock on, Harmonix!