Electric is dead. Kevin Caseyplays electronic guitar

The game Guitar Hero II, available for most consoles, costs a cool €100 to buy. If that sounds like a lot, remember: it does come with its own Gibson Xplorer life-sized "electric guitar".

The idea is, to play along to rock songs from the likes of Iron Maiden, Nirvana, Anthrax, Foo Fighters, Deep Purple and 70 other creatures from the swamp

of rock. The tracks are not originals but capable covers. More tracks are gradually becoming available to download. The colour-coded Xplorer buttons are laid out similar to the first five frets of a guitar, and the strum button in the body is used to pick notes as they fly by the mark on-screen. Note the colour, hold the button, strum the note. There's even a neck strap and a whammy bar for throwing the more sensational rock shapes.

Speaking as a guitar virtuoso trapped inside a non-musical body, I'm looking forward to shredding the axe and generating the sort of feedback that won't involve a meeting with my line manager.

I light a cigarette. I don't smoke, but Mark Knopfler looks cool playing slide with a burning cigarette pinched in the strings between the neck and the pegs. The Xplorer doesn't have actual strings so I'll just put that out.

At first I'm lost, but I start to get a feel for it. Yeah. I pick up some rhythm. Hit enough notes in succession and the crowd goes wild. Miss enough notes and get booed off stage.

Starting in the garage band, picking one-note-at-a-time, the rock grows more "progressive" up to the point where you'd need to be Jeff Beck to lick the complicated "boss" tune and move up a level.

Guitar Hero II is another facet in the growing trend of extending the game experience towards beneficial simulations. Its success has prompted the developers to create an entire rock band simulation, including drums, bass and singer, complete with special controllers, due for release this year.

Game-playing is often criticised as being sedentary and mindless activity of the lowest order leading to obesity, violence and time-wasting. Yet, as the games industry works to shake off the mantle of chaos, it's diversifying into self-improve- ment as entertainment.

From the multi-million-selling "brain training" titles to the stand-up-and-burn-some-calories benefits of Wii Sports, games are battling to make good people better in more direct ways and win over the mainstream audience.

GH II is not a music tutor - for that there is no substitute. But for the novice it introduces a sense of timing and song structure. With excellent graphics and detail, it's a cool package. But I'm not a rocker, I'm a gamer. Personally, I don't find it very compelling because for me, as a game, I don't feel like I'm going anywhere and the music is a mixed bag.

After all that self-improvement, I must admit, in terms of games, I prefer to shoot things.