I know what you are thinking.
"How is it that anyone is reviewing this, it's not even out for a while?!?" The answer: My school is amazing, and as part of club rush festivities, many students were permitted (myself included) a sneak peek play through Guitar Hero: World Tour. Granted, my time with the game was limited, so this review will not be of full-review status, just a partial glimpse into the new guitar hero system.
The new system has pulled a "rock band" on us, and has added to its splendour drums and mic.
During my time I took the time to get a feel for bass, and guitar, and man, what an improvement.
The bass has an added feature, something not done by either rock band or GH previously; it has added a "slap" feature and an open string feature. The slap feature is facilitated by the set of pads, similar to the rock band solo buttons further down the neck of the guitar. By pressing the normal frets, and pressing the other buttons with the rhythm, you get rewarded with a change in sound and style, expertly imitating the slap sound made famous by "Seinfeld". The open note is self explanatory, it is a note played on just the strum bar as opposed to pressing buttons and strumming. Overall, these two improvements have made playing bass in groups much less like a chore, and more fun and open to a player's own interpretation of a song.
The Guitar, is like all previous games, except one fairly noticable difference. The Clack. It is not gone, as it was in the RB game, but not so annoyingly loud as previous GH guitars, providing an overall more easy on the ears type of playing, without having it gone entirely. Not to mention that the parts are just as lyrical and brutal as the previous GH games.
Not having sung or banged a drum, I was forced to interview others as they came out of the tent in order to formulate an opinion.
The mic, is just like the rock band mic, but what you see on screen has improved. Instead of straight line tracing your voice, you get a bendy one, showing you whether you are bending the pitch, or if you are right on the money, making it harder for singers to cheat.
Not that it stops anyone from trying.
The drums, have evolved from the RB design, adding cymbals to what is now a more realisticly appearing drum set. Not to mention it is much quieter than RB drums, and less recoil, making easier on the muscles and ears. The only qualms with the set found, is apparently the pedal is light, and therefore delicate, causing a bit of concern, but not enough to dimish from the experience. The other, is that now that cymbals have been added there is a space in between the drum and aforementioned cymbals, which I deem the "Nega-Zone", where many a novice has found themselves getting stuck in, only to regroup, and start rocking again.
Even the diminished song list given to us (trying to keep secrets from us methinks) is full of songs with interesting and challenging parts to all, but without crossing into a realm of difficulty that would frustrate many. Not to mention that the list picks from many sub-genres of rock, that would appeal to anyone, from Modest Mouse & Muse, to Led Zeppelin & Van Halen, there is much fun to be had for all, and is a major improvement from rock band, and a step forward for all rhythm games.
If I were to give the new system a set of numbers, here is what they would be:
Graphics 9.5 Of course there is always room for improvement but the new designs are much more fluid, and much clearer, adding to the plethra of good things already there.

Bass 10 I love the way they have given bass more, it was definatley long overdue.

Guitar 9.5 Parts can still be a bit rough on expert and hard, but the transition between all the difficulty levels have been made smoother and more enjoyable.

Drums 8.9? Like I said, I wasn't on this instrument, but the overall opinion of it was positive, with only a few quirks.

Mic (depends on singer) honestly, you'd hear some great people, and some shy people, and some shitty people.

Set list 9.0 Good, I just wish they would have let us seen more.

Overall Experience 9.3 Pretty damn enjoyable, definatley worth to get it, even if you just get the guitar, its a wonderful game.

And remember folks, this is only a preview not the whole kit, bang, and kaboodle here.

awesome, its like a super-secret Hear Mii exclusive embargo breaking
X-clusive review

wtf ur school is broken nerf plz, blizz in upcoming patch. =(

I would give a damn about this game if not Rock Band looked so much more original in some magical way and has The Offspring and Red Hot Chili Peppers (omfg 4 songs from RHCP in total when RB2 comes out!)

Like I said in the review, It's not the finished product, and we didn't get to see the entire song list. I also never compared it to RB2, 'cause I don't know that much about it. Even though i like RHCP, there some people who don't, so I think that would make RB2 a little unbalanced if there are four songs from them, just my opinion.

one of the songs is on RB1, one of them's gonna be on RB2 and two are downloadable, so no. it's not imbalanced.

I misunderstood your previous comment, but still, GH:WT still looks pretty kick-ass.

I cannot deny that. I was thinking of getting that before I changed my mind with all the awesome stuff that rock band has.

Why not get both?

because rock band 1 costs twice as much in europe as it does in america (JEEZ, EA. DOESN'T IT COST ENOUGH ALREADY?! -.-) and I'm getting rock band 2 as well (if it will ever get released over here.)

Bob is right. even in america buying both games would kill one's pocket change.

go modest mouse!

I guess you're right... I still don't know which I'm gonna get though.