Guitar Hero II to feature Skynyrd, GN'R

This week, Activision released two new trailers for Guitar Hero II. The game, which due out this fall, is the follow-up to Guitar Hero, the award-winning and still-popular PlayStation 2 title from RedOctane and Harmonix. The title was so successful that Activision paid nearly $100 million to buy RedOctane, and is rumored to be blowing out Guitar Hero into a multititle franchise akin to Konami's Dance Dance Revolution series.

But while DDR's gameplay is powered by a techno-pop beat, Guitar Hero is an all-rock rhythm game. How lucky then that the two trailers this week revealed that two pillars of the rock pantheon will be featured in Guitar Hero II.

The first trailer showed the game will include "Sweet Child O' Mine," the 1986 breakout hit from one of the biggest heavy metal bands of all time, Guns N' Roses. The second trailer showed that "Freebird," the oft-requested rock ballad from seminal '70s group Lynyrd Skynyrd, would also be featured in the game. Both trailers are viewable below, as is a list of all confirmed Guitar Hero II songs and three tracks rumored to be in the game, which will ship for the PlayStation 2 on November 7.

[UPDATE] RedOctane has now confirmed the following songs as being in Guitar Hero II. The status of one song that had been previously believed to be in the game, Drist's "Arterial Black," is now unclear.

Anthrax--"Madhouse"
Black Sabbath--"War Pigs"
Butthole Surfers--"Who Was in My Room Last Night?"
Guns N' Roses--"Sweet Child O' Mine"
KISS--"Strutter"
Lynyrd Skynyrd--"Freebird"
Motley Crüe--"Shout at the Devil"
Primus--"John the Fisherman" (Original Recording)
Reverend Horton Heat--"Psychobilly Freakout"
Rush--"YYZ"
Stone Temple Pilots--"Tripping on a Hole in a Paper Heart"
Van Halen--"You Really Got Me"