VIDEO GAMES: Rock returns and the gaming of tomorrow now.

The pinnacle of rhythm games has returned this past week. Guitar Hero 2 is in my hands and it is totally rockin'. Red Octane have up the ante this time round with a massive 40 licensed songs and another 15 independent tracks to strum through. And for those people who managed to master the game on the Hard and Expert levels it seems they have upped the difficulty too.

Unfortunately I am not in the number who can play on Hard or even come close to expert. I shredded through the game on Medium, now I am looking for those elusive 100% notes hit. I really have to practice my hammer-ons and pull-offs to master those quicker sections.

Now looking forward to the future and the next-gen consoles. It looks like I am leaning in the direction of getting a Wii, with a price tag 50% of the one on the PS3, it may be the way to go in the meantime until the price drops on the other. Where as the PS3 is about adult gaming the Wii is going to emphasis family gaming.

If the potential is properly harnessed by video games makers Nintendo, with a less powerful system, could be showing the way to go. Getting the player to immerse themself in the game using body movements, you swing the control like a sword your character in the game could be swinging their sword. The possibilities are endless.

One game that has me excited is Trauma Center: Second Opinion, think operation without the buzzer and using the Wii-mote to control the doctor's hands are you operate on patients in a hospital ER.

But then I do see those gorguous screenshots of the PS3 in action and I can help but think what would I be missing.... We'll see what 2007 brings.