Activision has announced the development of Guitar Hero World Tour, the latest instalment in the Guitar Hero franchise, which we can't help but notice bears more than a slight resemblance to EA's Rock Band.

In a press release, Activision states the game will feature "a slick newly redesigned guitar, a genuine electronic drum kit and a microphone", as well as a Music Studio music creator that lets players compose, record, edit and share their own rock and roll anthems.

The game will apparently offer the largest on-disc set list in a music-rhythm game to-date, comprised entirely of master recordings and featuring bands such Van Halen, Linkin Park, The Eagles and many more. There will of course be downloadable tracks available at a later date.

Moving on to the peripherals. Aside from a more responsive guitar controller and microphone, Activision says that its electronic drum kit, made up of three drum pads, two raised cymbals and a bass kick pedal, will deliver the "most realistic drum experence ever in a video game".

Similarly to Rock Band, there are online gameplay modes which allow you to challenge other bands all over the world. Offline, you can play in band mode, with up to four players, or choose single-player career mode to go it alone.

Finally, the game's Music Studio give you the chance to create your own digital music from scratch, utilising all the instruments in the game. You can then go ahead and play these in-game, or even share them online through GHTunes, where other gamers can download and play them.

How all this fares against Rock Band remains to be seen, but we can only keep our fingers crossed that the price tag is a little more pocket-friendly.

The game is being developed for the Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, and PlayStation 2. No release date as yet, but we'll keep you updated.