Yesterday at E3 Harmonix, MTV Games and EA took the wraps off new features for Rock Band 2.

Rock Band 2 will debut on the Xbox 360 this September during an exclusive launch period in North America. The game will become available on the PS3, PS2 and Wii later this year.

A closer look at game modes

Rock Band 2 includes local and global online modes while Solo Tour and Band World Tour modes have been fused into World Tour mode. World Tour mode is now online and features new opportunity gigs, challenges, cities, venues and staff that can be hired.

Players can play through mini-campaigns in Tour Challenges, which are divided into the best songs by instrument, decade, genre, artist and album, or go head-to-head against other bands in Battle of the Bands mode in contests that will be updated constantly.

You can jump in and jam in Quickplay with new prefab characters or customised characters that can play on any instrument. This mode also allows you to build your own set lists and organize your song lists in various categories. If your passion lies with drumming the Drum Trainer mode will teach you the basics of different beats and fills.

Tracks detailed

The game also includes a Character Creator with new clothing, accessories, tattoos, hairstyles, instruments and more. Great news is that Rock Band 2 is backwards compatible with all downloadable music content for Rock Band. Gamers that own Rock Band will be able to export most of the original game disc’s tracks and upgrade them into Rock Band 2 thanks to Disc Export Features.

Rock Band 2 boasts the largest music catalogue of any music-based video game to date with over 100 songs. The disc will feature 80 songs and 20 additional tracks will be available to download for free this fall. Artists include Pearl Jam, Metallica, Megadeth and for the first time a video game will feature AC/DC (Let There be Rock) and Bob Dylan (Tangled Up in Blue). Guns N’ Roses will also debut their first new track in 14 years titled Shackler’s Revenge.

Instruments

The game will support third party instruments as well as Rock Band 2 instruments. Featuring a new authentic look, the Fender Stratocaster Controller includes a reinforced strum bar, quieter buttons, wireless functionality and a built in calibration tool that automatically sets your AV setup. The Drum set will be wireless and features quieter, velocity sensitive drum pads as well as a metal reinforced pedal. Singers can look forward to a microphone with authentic styling and weight.

Licensed third party instruments from Mad Catz include the Fender Telecaster Controller (soft buttons with lower action), Fender Bass Controller (the first bass guitar controller takes the shape of the Fender P-Bass and features extended length, tuning pegs and a split strum bar to replicate finger-bass style picking), Full-sized Squire Stratocaster Guitar Controller (features a controller built into an actual Squire Stratocaster body), Cymbal Expansion Pack (add-on cymbals upgrade the Rock Band 2 drum set). Drummers can also use the ION Drum Rocker, a real electronic drum kit.