I'm Alive (cue the scene from Xanadu)

Okay maybe rollerskating angels from a 1980 Olivia Newton-John flik is a bit dramatic, but the point is I'm finally back.

Moving from one part of the country to the other is something all too familiar for me due to my job, but this time my internet outage took much longer than planned. Anyway I'm finally back and glad to be talking games again.

During my 2 weeks without intenet access I decided it was finally time to try out a console game I've been wanting. Rock Band. I know, I know . . . you are saying: "Rock Band is old news, don't you know Rock Band 2 will be out soon?"

Well, I've been wanting this title ever since May when I played it at a friend's house. It is true if I could have held on another month I probably could have got RB1 for cheaper, but on the other hand I was afraid it may not be available at all after RB2 hits the shelves.

Another reason I've held off on RB1 until now is that I heard it was not worth getting for Wii due to the lack of online content. This leads to a topic for another day about why I don't own an Xbox 360 or PS3. Anyway, the bottom line is I like Rock Band. I've enjoyed jamming with my son and even my wife has joined in a few sessions. That was what I was hoping for . . . a game that we could all play together.

I really like the track selection in Rock Band. I'm not much of a heavy metal fan so I've never been too attracted to Guitar Hero, but RB seems to have a decent balance of songs, if not too many main stream hits. But hey, gotta love some Bon Jovi Wanted Dead or Alive. A few of my other favorites are Don't Fear the Reaper and Black Hole Sun. Yes I know my music taste transends several decades, but luckily so does RB's track selection which I think has been part of it's appeal.

Now that we see Guitar Hero following suit with a "band" style game and RB2 a few weeks away I'm excited to see where this genre will go. Personally I hope one or more of the developers goes to a "pay for the tracks you want" format similar to iTunes. Having the same collection of songs in my Rock Band menu as I have in my iPod would truly Rock!