Graphically, there's not much different from it and the previous version. The song selection menu system is the one thing that looks a bit different. When you roll over a song, it makes it really big, but honestly it's distracting and makes me think it's a title of a group or something. I've had trouble getting used to the menu personally.
Your favorite characters are still there, like Pandora and Axel Steel, plus when you are playing a Van Halen song, you will get to play as the Van Halen guys (current line-up), David Lee Roth, Eddie Van Halen, Wolfgang Van Halen, and Alex Van Halen. As for the music, well that's the real reason that you buy Guitar Hero anyway, right? There are 25 Van Halen songs including popular favorites like "Runnin' With the Devil" and "Jump." You will not find any songs from when Sammy Hagar was singing lead though, and that's a real shame because there are some good Van Halen songs missing. There are also 19 songs from other bands including bands like Blink-182, Third Eye Blind, and The Clash among many others! So that gives you 44 songs to choose from, which is pretty good.