The avoirdupois of the world rests on your shoulders as you await the mind-numbing riffs of Painkiller. You wonder how you'll prevent yourself from engaging in overdrive prematurely as your locks bang to and fro. Then you look down and see EHX's Overdrive pedal a stone's throw from your left foot. Exhale.

[Via Boing Boing]

That's a lot of dollars. Also? A lot of Mötley Crüe. Seriously, people, calm down. As of right now Rock Band has 614 songs on offer, 269 different artists, 11 full albums, more revenue than any other game in 2008, $1 billion total in North American retail sales, 40 million tracks sold, and unhindered wallet access to countless deluded human beings who think they're rock stars.

Dry your eyes, drummer. We feel your sense of loss at the news that Rock Band 2 may not be getting its promised second kick pedal after all, ruling out proper reenactments of Lars' two-foot prowess (without a little modding). Now at least you can improve the quality of that one kicker you do have, replacing it with something a little more weighty. Nyko's aptly-named Metal Pedal, a bargain at $20, works with both Rock Band games as well as Guitar Hero: World Tour on all platforms, and is made of real metal to give a more authentic heft. No, nothing will feel quite like the real thing, but it's surely better than that cracked hunk of plastic you've been meaning to send back to Harmonix for months.

You know the supposed Guitar Hero: World Tour keyboard that never materialized? If you were really looking forward to that, get ready to have your hopes dashed on another mystery instrument that will probably also never come to be. According to Harmonix, that extra port on the back of the updated drum kit -- which previously was said to be for a second kicker -- is actually for something that's totally not a second kicker. What exactly will fill that port, though, the company isn't saying. Speculation is rife about another nebulous keyboard peripheral, but if you ask us our money's on a high hat, or maybe that other fundamental aspect of the drumming experience yet to be captured in the silly plastic instrument game genre: the triangle.

[Via N4G]

Guitar Hero: World Tour has only officially been on shelves for a day or so now, but unhappy PS3 customers are already making a fuss -- the game's new drumkit isn't compatible with Rock Band 2. That's a major disappointment -- having redundant guitars because Activision and Harmonix can't play nice is annoying enough, but two drumkits is downright ridiculous -- and it's doubly irritating because Sony promised it would bring the hammer down and make sure all these peripherals were cross-compatible. The Xbox 360 kits seem to work with each other, so it's probably just a bug and Harmonix is apparently working on patch. In the meantime, you can probably take out your frustration with this crazy Gene Simmons axe-shaped guitar controller that's due out on Halloween -- we're not sure if we'd pay $80 for the privilege of pretending to be in KISS while playing a video game, but if you're in the Army, Amazon is taking preorders now.

Read - Guitar Hero: World Tour drums incompatibility
Read - Gene Simmons Axe Guitar

Previously, the ship dates for Rock Band 2 instruments ranged from "sometime within the next few months" to "sometime." Now, however, we're hearing that the standalone wireless drums ($90) and guitar ($70) will begin to ship out next week (at least for the Xbox 360). Additionally, Mad Catz's Fender P-Bass wireless guitar controller ($70) and the wired ION Drum Rocker set ($300) should clutter up floor space around the same time. RB2 party to celebrate the Q3 close? Sign us up.

Rock Band 2 might not be out yet, but ION was kind enough to send us the new Drum Rocker Premium Drum Set a couple weeks early. Built like a tank, this thing makes the original Rock Band drum set look like the toy it is -- we're talking aluminum tube construction that apes traditional electronic rack kits, soft trigger surfaces that register velocity, and quarter-inch connections that'll make modding a dream. Of course, all that heft means that set-up took over an hour and it eats up just about twice as much living room space as the original with no easy way to take it down, but if you're a hardcore fake rocker and you don't have the DIY chops to roll your own, this is $300 you're gonna want to spend. A couple more quick impressions after the break, and tons of pictures in the gallery.

Update: Joystiq also got a chance to check this bad boy out, they didn't like it quite as much as we did. Take a peek here.

It's sad that the petty bickering between Activision, Harmonix, and Konami required console makers to step up and ensure that gamers didn't end up with piles of redundant plastic instrument controllers, but things are starting to get better -- just as Sony did yesterday, Microsoft announced that it's requiring Rock Band 2, Guitar Hero: World Tour and Rock Revolution to be cross-compatible on the Xbox 360. The post on Redmond's Gamerscore blog isn't chock-full of details, but we'll commend Microsoft and Sony for getting involved to make sure that all the lawsuits and infighting don't adversely affect their customers -- now if they could only find a way to make those drumkits actually fit into a living room, we'd be all set.

[Via Joystiq]

Buh. So, this is getting confusing. According to sources over at ShackNews, the Rock Band 2 Special Edition bundle that was originally set to launch on September 14 exclusively on Xbox 360 will hit stores on October 19. For you fanboys keeping score, that's the same date that the game will hit for other consoles. It's still not clear if the game and instruments will still show up on retail shelves on September 14, but if you were looking to get your groove on in September, you may want to chill.

[Via Crunchgear]

We promise this is the last Rock Band 2 post of the day (okay, maybe hour), but we were just pulled aside at E3 to peep some less-than over-the-radar product sheets for some upcoming Mad Catz accessories. First off, the Premium M.I.C. ($50) is said to have "studio quality" sound all the while including control buttons -- something we didn't realize was missing from the original Rock Band mic until we thought about it. Then we spotted the Portable Drums ($60), which is great news for those of you who excel at drums but like to play Rock Band on the road. They can be used on any surface and even come with foldable drum sticks. Next up, the Official Cymbals ($30 for a pack of 3 or $15 each) for the new Rock Band 2 drum kit are coming from Mad Catz. Remember those three 1/8-inch plugs on the back of the drum kit head? Yeah, these plug into those. Finally, the Kick Drum Screen doesn't really do much, but it certainly will make you look like a pseudo-real drummer (depending on the angle). Mad Catz says all of these random accessories will hit store shelves this fall. Oh, and apologies for the image quality -- these were literally taken in the corner of a crowded room with maybe two seconds of view time per page.

While we love Rock Band 2 as much as the next guy, playing that miniaturized plastic controller will forever look a little dorky (or just make us look like giant men, which is kind of cool). Nothing wrong with looking dorky -- heck, we make a living of it -- but Mad Catz's new full-size Stratocaster and Precision Bass controllers for Rock Band 2 are bringing the cool back. They're exactly what you think they are: actual Fender Squire axes turned into Rock Band 2 controllers, with the size, heft, and weight you'd expect from dad's electric guitar. Of special note was the Precision Bass controller, which has a dual flipper and thumb rest to allow fast pickers to do their thing Entwistle-style. They are also wireless, will come with a foot pedal for overdrive, and the guitar controller will have a whammy bar, of course. Unfortunately, Mad Katz didn't add the optical sensor for display calibration, but we'll forgive them for now. Look for these for $199 in Q1 2009 for both Xbox 360 and PS3. We caught them live at E3, and they look as impressive as they sound. Peep the gallery below if you dare.

If you're jonesing to get your Rock Band 2 on like we are, you'll be all over these new shots of the game's upcoming controllers that we got all grubby on today at E3.

First, the new guitars not only look better, but they will include some welcome hardware tweaks. The new axe includes an optical sensor that will make syncing the game to your display a breeze. Rather than go through that annoying tap..tap...tap synchronization scheme, all you'll need to do is hold up your controller to your display and it will figure things out with you based on your screen's refresh rate. In addition, the new guitars have been updated with slicker fret controls that make it easier to slide from one to the other. Meanwhile, the strum bar has been tightened up a bit. No clicking, though -- the guys at Harmonix say no one "dreams of playing a metronome" anyway. A dig at Guitar Hero? Perhaps, but if you're looking for some click feedback from your controller, look elsewhere.

Well, that was quick. We mentioned Ion's fancy drum kit yesterday, which will be released around when Rock Band 2 ships, but works with both Rock Band games, and now we've got a price and a press shot of the Drum Rocker. The $300 set has high-durability pads, which are supposed to play quiet and will register the velocity of your hits, but the real win is the re-configurability of the whole set -- much like a for-realises electronic drum kit. We're also really digging the metal-reinforced kick pedal, which seems a major improvement over the junky, difficult pedal packaged with the original game. Only $300? We'll take two.

[Via Joystiq]

Playing Rock Band sometimes feels like the real thing, but what if it looked like the real thing? Ion, who make real drum kits, have announced that they will release a premium Rock Band 2 drum kit that will not only have realistic pads and cymbals (which you can custom-assign), but it will also be possible to plug the thing into a drum brain to turn the kit into a real electronic drum kit. If that craziness wasn't enough, Harmonix plans to gut some actual Fender Stratocasters and turn them into Rock Band guitars, which is either amazing or complete sacrilege depending on your musical religion.

[Via PS3 Fanboy]