Guitar Hero 2 was officially released yesterday, and I am a happy man.

The forums have been buzzing. Although stores received their copies a week or two ago, they weren't allowed to sell them until yesterday. However, various Targets and Walmarts across the country mistakenly started selling copies early. People with early copies alternated playing and posting reviews and stories and videos online (YouTube rocks). Needless to say, the fires were stoked.

I met up with Baditude at lunchtime in Mira Mesa, and soon enough had my very own copy of GH2, complete with the new cherry red Gibson guitar controller. Returning to work for the afternoon, knowing the ROCK that waited for me in my car was difficult. In fact, I even bailed out a little early.

I got in a few songs before dinner time... just enough of a taste to keep me going.

After dinner, as arranged, I headed over to Baditude's house. Little Buhr was there, and we played a great game called "Tikal". It's a strategical game that involves uncovering and exploring ancient Mayan ruins. Anyone who found Puerto Rico interesting would probably like this as well. I thought it was really great.

After the game, Little Buhr hit the road, and "Satanic Panic" hit the stage. (Eryn went to see someone speak when he was in collge, and the person used the phrase "Satanic Panic". Eryn told me he turned to his friend and said "That would be great name for a metal band." And so it is.)

We warmed up with a couple multiplayer co-op games. Guitar Hero 1 had only a single guitar track, that was shared across both players. Guitar Hero 2 has a lead guitar for all songs, as well as either a bass or rhythm track (depending on the song). So both players get their own, full track of notes.

After a few multiplayer games, we decided we needed to unlock some more songs, so we started a "Medium" difficulty level (read: yawn) career mode, and started playing through the list. Even though it was pretty easy to get through 'em, it was still fun to hear the songs. After we had enough unlocked, we went back to multiplayer and continued to rock the house.

The multiplayer is simply brilliant. The experience of holding down (or, in my bass playing of Primus' "John the Fisherman", trying to hold down) a steady bassline while your buddy is standing next to you, wailing out a screaming solo, just WORKS. If playing single player is Fun, then playing co-op isn't simply twice as fun, it's Fun squared. Playing on Baditude's ginormous plasma TV with the sound cranked up didn't hurt the experience, either.

We were all giggles and smiles and high-fives for the next three hours or so. Not very "metal", I know, but what can you do.

Around midnight, we called it quits. Exhausted and elated and looking forward to next time, I came home and crawled into bed. When I closed my eyes, I saw falling notes.

Good times.

Iwan made a little joke about how sad it was to be so excited about a game. While I take it as just a friendly little jab, I can certainly see that side, and in the big picture GH2 is just a fun diversion. But at the same time, I've come to the conclusion that when we find something that brings us happiness, we should embrace it and revel in it, and take it all in while we still are able. So call me a geek and a loser if you want... just don't take away my right to ROCK.