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Originally published Saturday, October 4, 2008 at 12:00 AM

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Video-game reviews | Rock on with new tunes or battle zombies

Video-game reviews of "Rock Band 2," "FaceBreaker" and "Siren: Blood Curse" offer everything from music to boxing to zombies.

The Sacramento Bee

Expand your music library with "Rock Band 2" or slug it out with boxers in "FaceBreaker" and zombies in " Siren: Blood Curse."

"Rock Band 2"

4 stars

When "Rock Band" arrived on the scene late last year, it was a pretty big deal. It took the idea of a game played with an instrument-shaped controller and expanded it into a four-piece ensemble with a microphone, a special drum kit and guitar controllers.

"Rock Band 2" isn't as big a deal on its own, but it offers an enormous slate of new songs and a few improvements to the hardware. More than 80 new tracks — all master recordings — are on the new disc, with 20 more songs set for a free release soon.

Even better, all but three songs from "Rock Band" can be transferred for play in the sequel. It costs 400 Microsoft Points ($5) to do so, but that's a bargain compared with the way Activision released "Guitar Hero's" songs for use in "Guitar Hero II" — a few at a time for a buck or two apiece. Add to this the dozens and dozens of pay-per-song releases on Xbox Live, and we're talking a serious amount of music, along with some new play modes and tweaks to the old ones.

The Xbox 360 version is the only one available now; a PlayStation 3 version should be out in a few weeks, around the same time as the new "Guitar Hero: World Tour," which will introduce full-band options and other improvements to that series. PS2 and Wii versions are slated for next month.

Updated versions of the instrument hardware are also available for purchase now.

System: Microsoft Xbox 360

Price: $59.99

Age rating: Teen

"FaceBreaker"

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2.5 stars

FaceBreaker, a boxing game with an exaggerated look, isn't complicated. The arcade-style controls provide a high punch, low punch, throw, "breaker" moves and various defense options. It plays smoothly, looks good and is decent fun.

Players can choose to take the boxers through a career mode (which unlocks more fighters as progress is made), instant-action matches, online bouts and a multiplayer tournament mode. Players also can create their own boxers and upload photos of themselves for the faces.

System: Sony PlayStation 3, also for Microsoft Xbox 360

Price: $49.99

Age rating: Teen

"Siren: Blood Curse"

2.5 stars

Survival-horror games depend greatly on a building sense of dread, just as good horror movies do. But how effective would a horror film be if it stopped for a minute, then started up again every 15 minutes or so?

That's the problem with "Siren: Blood Curse," a gritty, gory and profanity-riddled horror game whose length is broken up into relatively short episodes that must be downloaded and installed individually (which can take hours).

System: Sony PlayStation 3 (PlayStation Network download)

Price: $39.99 for all episodes or $14.99 per four-episode chapter

Age rating: Mature

Copyright © 2008 The Seattle Times Company

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