After my last post where I mentioned that I got to play Rock Band at the Tulsa InstallFest, I joked about an XBOX 360 being in my near future. Well, I guess I wasn’t joking after all. At first I thought I would have no problem waiting until after Christmas. Most of the places I checked were out of stock and it looked like the must have video game for 2007 was out of reach. Then I called my buddy Jason at GameSpot and was told that they had a couple of them left.

It was a bit sad trading in my only PS2 games for Rock Band. As I laid my games out on the counter, Guitar Hero, Guitar Hero II, Guitar Hero Encore: 80’s, and Guitar Hero III, I felt a sadness in my heart. I had spent hours upon hours working hard to finish all those songs. Numerous parties where we laughed at each other after failing at an attempt to finish Freebird on Expert. Ah, good times.

Then there was the real issue – I didn’t own an XBOX 360. But I wanted to play the game. Thanks to that good old “no preset spending limit” on the American Express, I ended up taking one of those home as well. I guess I knew the cost going in, but didn’t really think it would go that far. Oh well, such is the life of a video game junkie. Having won a cool new Bluetooth mouse and a 4GB Zune at the InstallFest, I was feeling the need for frugality.

But Rock Band is really that good. Having played Guitar Hero for nearly two years, the guitar parts on Rock Band aren’t too different and don’t seem to hard. But the drums are in another league. I have never been a drummer and I find the added coordination of feet and hands to be intense. It’s going to take some time before I can get past easy on drums. I don’t even want to mention my first attempt at singing vocals but getting an okay on the first song in each (Hey, Ho, Let’s Go) really doesn’t give me much hope of ever being a vocalist.

I had just finished Guitar Hero III on medium this past weekend, so I was a bit bummed that I would have to play all those songs again once I pick it up for the 360. But given the enormous collection of online downloads that are available, I think I’ll get over it. The PS2 was so limited when it came to downloadable content that it didn’t hurt too bad to bid it farewell. When I think about it, it’s probably the oldest piece of technology in my house next to the clock in our microwave oven.

My Gamertag in XBOX Live is ChrisFromTulsa if you want to play online sometime!