Just a little over a week has passed since the announcement of Rock Band 2 and the EA and Harmonix tandem have already unleashed a flurry of new details for Rock Band fans to bolt down. Among other things, the developer has confirmed that World Tour will now feature online play, as well as revealed the first ten tunes that will be featured in the sequel.

The press release detailed the game modes what will appear in the sequel, along with fixes that have been made for a more relaxing gameplay experience.

Game Modes

Quickplay

• Now easier than ever to get in and jam without hassle.
• New prefab characters
• Your customized characters can now play on any instrument
• Make your own set lists
• Organize song lists by a variety of categories (alphabetical, genre, era, etc.)

World Tour

• Solo Tour and Band World Tour join forces to create the ultimate band touring experience!
• World Tour is now online
• No more band leaders! If you need to fire your guitarist but keep the band going, fire away!
• Switch up instruments throughout world tour
• All new collection of opportunity gigs, challenges, cities, venues, and hirable staff

Tour Challenges

• Take your band on tour in a whole new way with specific music challenges.
• Focused mini-campaigns featuring the best songs by instrument, decade, genre or artist
• Automatically generated DLC challenges
• Album specific challenges

Battle of the Bands

• Put your band to the ultimate test by competing against other bands, both on your friends list and around the world!
• Dynamic content with regular new contests designed by Harmonix
• Matches up your score against overall competition and friends’ bands - with REAL TIME feedback
• Get updates on new battles from your Band Profile, as well as notifications when your score has been topped!

Drum Trainer

• A true teaching tool that gives players a step-by-step lesson through the basic beat and fill vocabulary any real world drummer would know.

Rock Band

And here are the first ten tracks confirmed to be featured in the sequel:

2000s

• Dream Theater “Panic Attack “
• System of a Down “Chop Suey”

1990s

• Foo Fighters “Everlong”
• The Muffs “Kids in America”
• Red Hot Chili Peppers “Give it Away”

1980s

• Motörhead “Ace of Spades”

1970s

• Cheap Trick “Hello There”
• Elvis Costello “Pump it Up”
• Journey “Anyway You Want It”

1960s

• The Who “Pinball Wizard”

Given the truckload of information unveiled already, you may think we won’t be hearing much about the game for a while now, but that won’t be the case, as EA is known to be at E3 next week, and you can bet your bottom dollar that it will try its best to outshine its archrival, Guitar Hero: World Tour.