Being a huge Guitar Hero nut, I'm naturally intrigued and excited by the upcoming Rock Band -- especially now that the game has been announced for release for the PlayStation2 on Dec. 17.

(Blogger's note: I don't have a PlayStation3 or Xbox 360; for more on that, tune in for a future blog entry.)

But now comes word, compliments of GameSpot.com, that buyers will not be able to purchase the game unbundled until after the holidays. The bundle that releases on Nov. 23 will come with the game, drum kit, guitar and mic. Web sites had listed each "instrument" for sale indiviually at the time of the game's release, but the announcement from Canadain gaming site The Bits Bytes Pixels and Sprites tells otherwise.

Presumably, the second guitar can be one of the units already sold with the previous Guitar Hero entries.

Price tag? $169.99 ($159.99 for the PS2 bundle). That's more than a new PS2, and almost half of what a PS3 or 360 cost.

Would you pay console prices for a game, no matter how kick-ass it might be? I'm not sure I would.

Then again, being first in line and ahead of the curve has never appealed to me. I hardly ever buy new consoles on the first cycle of shipments (part of it's money, part of it's knowing the first line of systems is always buggy), and I rarely get games the instant they hit the shelves.

Guitar Hero III being the exception.

I'm sure I'll get my hands on Rock Band eventually, but at release? With that price tag? Probably not.