E3 06: Guitar Hero encore announced

If there's one lesson to take away from the Rolling Stones' four-decade-long career, it's that rock and roll will never, ever die. As such, when RedOctane and Harmonix Music's runaway hit Guitar Hero stormed stores last year and established a groupie-like fan base of virtual Vais, pseudo Satrianis, and make-believe Malmsteens, a sequel was as inevitable as another aborted Van Halen reunion.

RedOctane today confirmed the band was indeed getting back together, as it announced that Guitar Hero II would arrive on the PlayStation 2 this November. While the song list hasn't been announced yet, the publisher confirmed that there would be more than 55 tracks in dire need of shredding. There's also a multiplayer co-op mode that will let players collaborate, each playing lead, rhythm, or bass guitar portions.

And in case devoted fans feared that the series would stray too far from the musical genre that spawned it, RedOctane has promised that the tracks would be the same mix of classic, alternative, and modern rock, with additional entries from hair metal and heavy metal.

RedOctane has confirmed that the sequel will be compatible with the original game's guitar peripheral, and that it will give the world its first glimpse of the game at next month's Electronics Entertainment Expo in Los Angeles.