The new guitar is easily the best guitar controller across every platform, every iteration, ever. They improved my biggest complaint about the LP (sharp edge cut into my forearm) and smoothed it out. It's also a bigger size so it doesn't play so much like a ukelele anymore. The xbox button/directional knob is aesthetically pleasing but doesn't add much.

I thought the slider bar was going to be a gimmicky novelty until I started learning how to play Solo F on Satch Boogie. It's now a "must use" in order to really master that section, and does make things fun on easier parts like The Joker. But I can't imagine why they bothered to put in slider notes in fast sections where there are no rests available to jump from the frets to the slider bar and back, since it seems impossible to not break a combo there. Maybe I just need more practice.

I also really like the new palm mute star power button. Makes for a real-life technique put into action in the game. Nice. It's also hard to accidentally pause it if you whiff and hit the wrong button like in previous controllers.

But here's the best thing about it - the strum bar is amazing. It has much more give than the LP, making it mushy like the Rock Band strat, but with the click still there it makes alt strumming a cinch. It is WAY more accurate when counting out the beats on a difficult alt-strum section, which obviously results in better scores. It's also about 20% longer, so it makes it easier to find when quickly jumping back from a finger tap section.

Now I guess I'm just lucky to have gotten a set that works great out of the box. So if you got screwed with a bad set, that's basically unforgiveable of Neversoft to not have QA'ed these things before they went out.

I'm only a Hard Drummer, so I'm not so good at the drums, but as a casual drummer, I must say that the cymbals have certainly elevated the experience dramatically from the 4-pad Rock Band set. I was able to set them up without having to refer to the instructions fairly easily, and was off and running right away.

The rubber pads have excellent bounce, and are very very quiet. I can enjoy playing the game at a moderate volume and not be drowned out by the sound of the thwacking of the drums. My yellow cymbal was more sensitive than the orange cymbal, as the lightest of taps were registering on yellow, but the orange required a noticeably more substantial hit.

The kick pedal has less spring than the rock band pedal, and since there isn't a bar that it can lock down on below, it's free standing. Since I play on shag carpeting it doesn't move anyway so that isn't a problem, but I can see being a problem if played on hardwood floor. I like the bubble grips when played without a shoe, more comfortable than ridges, and there's also less angular distance to register the hit (i.e., lower profile) so it feels less taxing. This doesn't matter to me though because I keep my foot pressed down when it's not being played.

I hate the interface. I can't find anything, and it isn't intuitive. For example, why are the leaderboards under options? It's not polished. As mordred mentioned the online faceoff is borked (why not have pro faceoff anymore where if you play on expert you go up against medium?). Stupid, stupid, stupid. Also why pretend like subsequent songs are random when you're really just flipping a coin for the first song, then alternating subsequent songs should you continue to play the same player?

I don't like how they tried to rip off Rock Band and their wonderful interface by putting "gigs" in the career when it really just makes it hard to find the songs you're playing. I'm not a big chaser of fans in Rock Band so the exlcusion of scoring fans to me isn't a sore point with me. Luckily for them they at least have a venue where you make a setlist in career mode so once you unlock all the songs you'll never have to go back and hunt down which song is in what venue.

As for the look - it is a matter of preference. I've always been a fan of the "special thing that happens to the stage when you get to the last song in your set" and here they don't disappoint. They don't really go for realism, and they certainly don't attempt to be a real-life simulator. Instead they go the other direction and go for more outrageousness and comedy. I've always thought the human models in Rock Band look like they're made out of clay, and have a Tobal 2 look to them. Certainly not a bad thing, but I can take it or leave it since it's just eye candy and I'm only focused on the notes anyway when I'm actually playing the game.

Speaking of the notes, they did leave it looking just like GH3 for this game, and since my background is in piano and am used to reading round notes, it's just a natural transition for me to prefer round notes. So that's where my preference comes from.