I'd like to think I'm a decent Guitar Hero player - I'm in the top 5 in the Sochl GH3 group. I'm not saying this makes my view of the game and more or less important, but take from that what you will. I managed to play 2 tiers on guitar on hard and drums on medium. So here's my quasi-review of Rock Band:
The unboxing in 3 words: messy, tedious, sexy
The packaging for this game is nuts. Everything has its own box, all encapsulated within a box. Everything is in plastic wrap, zip tied, and taped down. Your room will inevitably be a mess to get everything up and running. But once it's all out, put together (which is actually fairly simple), and plugged it - the only word to describe it is sexy. The thing that surprised me most was the guitar - photos do it no justice. It is literally a Fender Strat. Very, very nice.
Drums:
Pros:
Pedal is firm enough that you can rest your foot on it without triggering a button.
Pads are really responsive and can take a beating.
Controls in the game using the pads to navigate menus and whatnot is surprisingly simple.
I really like the directional pad on the drum kit - so much that I wish it was the one on the 360 controller.
Cons:
I don't think the sticks can take a beating - you'll probably need a new set after a while.
No tilt adjustment - sometimes altering the height just isn't enough.
No place to put your sticks - I managed to cram them into the hole in the center, but it's awkward.
Cable for the pedal to the set is too short - if you have the drums very high up the pedal won't rest on the floor.
I really wish you could lock the pedal to the base, and not just have it rest over the bars.
Guitar:
Pros:
It looks damn sexy.
Whammy bar is long and easy to access.
Start/select buttons are big and labeled well.
Directional pad's Up/Down/Left/Right actually makes sense (unlike the Guitar Hero one), and it is placed well.
Cons:
This could be a "pro" to some, but the frets are all flush with each other, so it's difficult to get a feel for where you are. I suppose it's more like a real guitar.
Could just be because it's new, but the frets are rough to push in. Initially it's not an issue, but after a while it gets to you.
Same as above, but with the strum bar. I like to strum one direction unless it's a really fast part, but it's very difficult to do so with this one. Almost like they want you to strum up and down all the time.
Other Hardware:
My biggest issue is the fact that you cannot turn your console on with an instrument connected through the USB hub. This was confusing, and at first I thought my hub was simply broken. You need to either manually push the power button on the console, or have one instrument connected to the console directly and use that to power on.
The Game:
First thing I need to mention is how fantastic it is at switching between instruments. You never need to choose which one you're using (aside from guitar/bass since it's the same instrument). So with both plugged in, I can do a solo quick play on guitar, go back, just get on the drums in the same menu, pick a song, and I'm on it on drums.
I don't like the fact that you cannot use the same character for different instruments. This makes saving money/unlocking songs and items tedious, I think. Instead of pigeon-holing you to a single instrument, they should have just let you create a single virtual persona of yourself and let it transcend all instruments. What's worse is two characters cannot have the same name.
As far as difficulty goes, on Guitar Hero 2/3 I could play through Expert. On Rock Band, I immediately jumped into Hard and, while I still 5-starred every song I played, I made stupid mistakes mainly because of the new guitar. Maybe it will just take some time to get used to, or maybe I need to go back to the GH2 guitar, but I don't think I will be able to get the intense solos with this guitar. Also of note - activating "overdrive" (star power) is a bit of a chore now, as a tilt is not what triggers it, but rather a change in tilt from low to high. That is to say, if the guitar is already tilted high (as I normally play it), I need to tilt it back down first, then back up. I'm not sure if I like this better or worse than GH3's super-sensitive activation, where it would go off if I did so much as use the whammy bar.
Drums are really fun. I look forward to mastering them. On the drive to work today, all I was thinking about was playing them. It's fantastic. Some downsides are the fact that there are songs that have drum notes that I can't even hear - usually they're hi-hat or cymbal hits - so they're tough to play. Also, having played the actual drums a while back, I find it a little awkward making cymbal hits on the same level as the drums. Usually they're higher up.
Tonight I put it to the true test and get some friends to play co-op with me. I can't imagine it being anything short of pure, unadulterated awesomeness.
Oh, and P.S. - the track list is the best of any rhythm game ever. Just jumping into it - the first 5 songs I played were "Blitzkreig Bop", "Creep", "I Think I'm Paranoid", "In Bloom" and "Here It Goes Again".
"Blitzkreig Bop" and "Here It Goes Again" on drums will give you the most incredible "holy shit I can't believe I'm doing this" moments.