OK, my oldest boy saved up and got a ps3 a few months ago. He has been hinting that he might want to check out Guitar Hero or Rock Band. I know there are many variations/versions of both of these games, and I have not done much research.

If anyone can recommend one over the other, or pros/cons of both, that would be cool.

Does one offer better song selection, or possibly online downloading of songs you want, and not just what comes on the game? I see some have games for certain groups like ACDC, would be cool to find a Rush game.

I suppose starting with a guitar and maybe getting the other instruments at some point would be the goal.

There, fixed it for the rest of us.

And no Randy, I am sorry but I cannot help you with *your* upcoming new game.

You should check out the song lists for yourself to see which games suit your tastes better. I personally like Rock Band, but personal preferences aren't much to go on.

Also, note that both systems let you buy individual add-on discs, with songs from particular genres and/or artists (Like Aerosmith or Metallica, etc.). Also, I know that Rock Band will let you buy individual songs from an on-line catalogue for about $4 a song.

It really is down to personal preference of the song list, but that being said there is absolutely tons of DLC available for both with many songs being offered on both GH and RB. I personally prefer RockBand as a multiplayer game, but on guitar alone I prefer GH - but I own and play both.

I might even recommend you just go ahead and get the whole kit with drums, guitar etc... This is the type of game that even non-video gamers tend to enjoy. We occasionally have family RockBand nights where even my technically challenged mother-in-law will grace us with some terrible vocals while the rest of us try and outscore each other on guitars.

Also, RB3 was just released though I haven't tried that one yet.

Good luck with your son's purchase!

you guys are to funny

I find myself liking the tunes on Rockband better therefore playing it more. My kids appear to have no preference and play either one.

Hey Randy, I bought GH World Tour because I liked the drum kit with the raised cymbles better. The instruments work on Rock Band as well, so I just bought the stand alone RB game disc after. As a game, we play RB 10 to 1 over GH. The downloadable content is WAY better. (at least on the Wii)

I have gotten quite addicted to the rhythm games and have played both GH5 and RB2. Too me there was no comparison and my opinion is that RB is the quality game. The DLC (downloadable content) available is quite amazing and much more varied across all genres than GH.

I would recommend RB3 that came out last month as it is very good and introduced a keyboard, pro-guitar and pro-drums (which supports up to 3 optional cymbals). There has been much more innovation on the RB side.

Since you mentioned Rush, GH 6 (Warriors of Rock) did offer Rush's '2112' that RB doesn't have, but in the RockBand online music store you will find all of the 'Moving Pictures' album, 'Working Man' and 'Closer to the Heart'. Also RB3 DLC recently added 'Subdivisions' to showcase the new keyboard instrument. RB2 on disc has 'The Trees'.

DLC as of 10/26/2010 is not backward compatible with RB 1 and 2, so that is another reason to get RB3 over the older titles if you are just getting started. However you can also buy RB2, RB1, Lego RB, Green Day RB, or any of the track packs (ACDC) and pay a $5 or $10 export fee per title to bring all of the other titles content into your main library so you can play most of the songs without having to swap game discs. This is the real differentiator for most, that you can collect over 2000 songs currently all playable from just RB3 without swapping discs. The Beatles Rock Band is the only exception as its songs are not exportable to RB2 or RB3.

Oh, and the cost per individual songs online is typically $2 each. Some songs are $1 but most mainstream stuff is $2. I believe GH add on songs are also $2.

Let me know if you have any questions.

Awesome info Dave and everyone else, this helps answer all my questions for my son, cough cough, I'm mean, yeah for my kids.

I will be getting RB3 as my wife likes keyboards.