Rockband thread.

[quest55720]

I did a search and did not see a rock band thread. IMO rock band blows away GH3. The game is a blast with 2-4 people. The downloadable content has been great so far and sucking my wallet dry. I love the drums even though they are hard as hell for me. Even on easy the drums give me a challenge because I can not get my hands and feet disconnected. The guitar part is also better on rock band than GH3 IMO. I just like the note charts of rock band better they seem more realistic and just more fun.

My only complaints about the game is the guitar sucks IMO. I do not like the mushy strum bar. Thankfully I can use my other 2 guitars on the game. Also the UI stinks for setting up a band in BWT mode. My last complaint is everyone must play on hard or expert to finish BWT mode. I just don't know 3 other people skilled enough to pull it off. They should of made it medium or better to finish BWT mode.

The track list has a lot of different music which is great. I do love metal(love the GH3 set list) but not all my friends and family do so the set list of rock band is much better for a party type game.

I would say rock band is right up there for my game of the year.

 

[mrcorbo]

^What he said^

I have actually had an easier time with the drums (started on Medium), with my biggest problem being actually hitting the pads without looking. This will come with more practice, I'm sure. It's pretty jarring to accidentally hit the "Guide" button in the middle of a song. Even so, I managed to get through solo tour on Medium up to "The Outlaws - Green Grass & High Tides", which was the first song I failed. I think it was mainly fatigue on that one, too, since the song is the longest one I have played and it was at the end of a play session. I have a Yamaha digital drum pad that I have messed around with (no formal training) and with the exception of missing a high hat pedal and 5th pad this is pretty close to that experience. I especially like the ability to do your own drum fills, which I actually try to play musically instead of just banging away like a chimp . I'm actually thinking of running one of the drum tracks in practice mode and trying to play those patterns on the Yamaha pad to see how realistic they really are.

I haven't had lots of chances to play this in BWT mode, but what I have played shows that this game is clearly best enjoyed as a group activity. I have actually played some BWT mode solo by pulling double duty on guitar (hard) and vocals (easy) with a 360 headset and this is doable if you know the song well enough to sing it without looking at the vocal track. Maybe I'll try it with the drums too so I can rock Phil Collins style.

Lastly, the whole package breaks down pretty nicely for transport and I intend to drag this with me to family gatherings over the holidays for some all-ages fun. Had my 8-year-old niece laying down a mean bass line on Thanksgiving already!

 

[silhouette]

Drums on rock band is the closest to the real thing.. The game is almost like a way of providing color coded drum notes for the songs for various levels of players.. I started on medium, currently not failed on any song. The earlier songs are easy even in medium, because once you get into rhythm, you can make it to the end pretty easily. But, the later songs (like Black hole sun), it gets harder and harder and rhythms varies a lot more during the song (or the same rhythm but with different variations).. My only complaint is sometimes the pads do not register even if I hit them right on time. I also tried couple of songs on hard and expert, and boy, it is really challanging on those mode. It actually feels like you are playing a real drum.

I do not like guitar and guitar mode much.. After GH3, it feels too easy for me.. I almost got 99-100% on every song I played. Maybe, it is time for me to try hard for guitars.

I agree that the game is a blast when you played with 3-4 people. It is almost like a playing in band. You discuss which song to play next, you get frusturated when someone fails repeatedly (this is usually the singer ), and you have the urge for a cold beer after 3 songs After one challanging song, I almost throw my drumsticks to TV as if I am throwing to the crowd (Jk! )...

When played with 3-4 people, GH can not touch this game.. For solo guitar, GH is still a much better game IMO (at least track selection wise).

 

[archie4oz]

Drums on rock band is the closest to the real thing.. The game is almost like a way of providing color coded drum notes for the songs for various levels of players..

No, a Yamaha DTX Explorer or DTX Express on Drummania/Guitarfreaks&Drummania is a closer experience.

My only complaint is sometimes the pads do not register even if I hit them right on time. I also tried couple of songs on hard and expert, and boy, it is really challanging on those mode. It actually feels like you are playing a real drum.

Cheap pads. What can you expect for $170? At that price the whole kit is already a steal. My GF bought her DTX Explorer kit $700 (which is a bargain considering they used to go for a grand), and our Konami arcade guitars were around $260 a piece.

I would say rock band is right up there for my game of the year.

Not sure if I'd go that far. It's basically like Karaoke Revolution with Guitarfreaks&Drummania mashed together with a music list that's more towards western tastes. In fact the vocal portion of Rock Band is basically Karaoke Revolution lite (which is no surprise since Harmonix developed it or Konami).

 

[quest55720]

Not sure if I'd go that far. It's basically like Karaoke Revolution with Guitarfreaks&Drummania mashed together with a music list that's more towards western tastes. In fact the vocal portion of Rock Band is basically Karaoke Revolution lite (which is no surprise since Harmonix developed it or Konami).

That is the beauty of the game. One of my favorite game experiences this year was a 4 person band with my sister in law neice and a friend. With the vocals on easy almost any one can join in and play. If you compare it to GH3 I would say the music is much more diverse. I am sure if sales pick up over seas they will add more over seas music for download. The way they intergrate downloadable content into the game is great. Instead of just being a bonus track they are in the set lists for BWT.

It was a hit during thanksgiving I am sure it will be a hit come christmass with the family. This is the first game I have played since Wii sports were I could get some non gamers to give it a shot.

 

[Arwin]

Eurogamer reviewed it, told us not to throw away Singstar or Guitar Hero, but liked it: 8/10. They also did a great video of themselves playing the game:

http://www.eurogamer.net/tv_video.php?playlist_id=6448

 

[AntShaw]

Rock Band update yesterday for 360 and PS3 versions. Nice set of updates and new features added:

* (New!) Music Store: Rock Band now has a new feature that lets you preview and purchase songs from within the game! Accessible from the main menu, the Music Store lets you view, purchase and sort all available music based on various categories, view album art, listen to song previews, and check out extended information about the song like difficulty for each instrument.
* Revised Fan Caps: To allow Easy, Medium, and Hard players to progress further in the Band World Tour, we’ve increased the number of fans that you can earn before hitting the cap. Easy players can now travel across the Atlantic, Medium players have a wider range of venues they can play at, and Hard players on the Xbox 360 are now able to unlock the “One Million Fans” achievement.
* More diverse songs in Band World Tour: If you’ve ever cursed about having to play “Say it Ain’t So” or a Metallica track multiple times in the same hour, then you’ll be glad to know that we’ve tracked down and fixed the issues that triggered these very repetitive moments in Band World Tour.
* Improved phoneme recognition: We’ve improved the detection and scoring for phoneme recognition. If you had trouble on songs like “Timmy and the Lords of the Underworld” or “Blitzkrieg Bop”, you should have an easier time beating these songs now.
* Microphone Latency on PlayStation 3 improved: Our awesome team of audio programmers has found some optimizations that reduce microphone latency on the PlayStation 3 in certain situations.
* Xbox 360 Band Logos are now visible through Xbox LIVE: An issue with parental controls stopped band logos from being visible over Xbox LIVE. With this update, you can now view all of the awesome band logos that people around the world have created!
* Faster loading of downloadable content: Not only is the loading speed faster, but this information is now cached so that this loading time is a “once only” wait rather than something that happens every time you turn on the game.”

The new in game music store looks FANTASTIC! You can take a look at the screenshot here:

http://www.destructoid.com/harmonix...ic-store-along-with-other-updates-76611.phtml

 

[quest55720]

I downloaded the update last night and wow. The music store is better than I could ever imagine. I am so glad they waited to make it perfect because well it is. That and 6 Boston masters are up next week and holy crap. I will be getting the band together to play a little Boston next week.

 

[AntShaw]

Wii gets it on 6/22. I am sure it will sell like hotcakes.

http://kotaku.com/371465/rock-band-hits-wii-on-june-22

And no DLC for Wii version. Which I would PASS on. Maybe things can get sorted out prior to the 6/22 release.

Regarding downloadable content: During Rock Band for the Wii development Harmonix focused on making the core gameplay experience as solid and enjoyable as possible while tailoring it specifically to the strengths of the platform. The Wii version still contains the robust four-player band experience and all the fun at the core of other versions of Rock Band. However, because the Wii's online capabilities and potential have yet to be fully realized, we wanted to wait before we explored online functionality for Rock Band to ensure that players get the high-quality of online performance they've come to expect.

 

[cthellis42]

No online play is even more of an annoyance. Less so with the Wii, since the rest of the console is very much encouraging local multiplayer, but still... how can online play be that difficult to manage? DLC actually has technical limitations to overcome as well, but certainly online multiplayer does not.

 

[Shifty Geezer]

Ha. Ha ha. Hahahahahaha!

Anyone after the whole lot will be looking at a total of GBP 180 / EUR 240, then. That's rather more than in the US, where you can buy the game and all the instruments for USD 169 - equivalent to around GBP 85 / EUR 107.

Hahahahahahahahaha

 

[PARANOiA]

Holy moly. I've been talking this game up to my friends, but it it's scaled to that price over here that will be insane and there is no way on earth I will pick this up. How disappointing.

 

[AntShaw]

That is rather a bone head move. With as much as lame-o SingStar is selling over there, for them to alienate this many people with pricing is just asinine. I Just don't get it!!

I'll hope its a misprint for you guys, and it was be a reasonable price.

WITH THAT SAID, after owning the game for 3 months, not only can I justify every penny I spent on it, and all the downloaded songs, you can easily justify that extra $$ to buy it in the EU as well. I don't know A SINGLE person, anywhere who has bought this and been dissapointed!

 

[AlNom]

Are there any euro-centric tracks/bands available in the game? It might be kind of weird to sing for the English-only people, but I was just curious.

 

[mrcorbo]

Ha. Ha ha. Hahahahahaha!

Hahahahahahahahaha

The initial rumor had the whole package at 169 EUR which while admittedly expensive pretty much follows the precedent of 1:1 scaling on software/hardware pricing. But if you have to pay that for the instruments only while still having to buy the game seperately....that's disgusting.

It's a damn shame too, because it is a great experience. WTF are they thinking?

 

[mrcorbo]

That is rather a bone head move. With as much as lame-o SingStar is selling over there, for them to alienate this many people with pricing is just asinine. I Just don't get it!!

I'll hope its a misprint for you guys, and it was be a reasonable price.

WITH THAT SAID, after owning the game for 3 months, not only can I justify every penny I spent on it, and all the downloaded songs, you can easily justify that extra $$ to buy it in the EU as well. I don't know A SINGLE person, anywhere who has bought this and not been dissapointed!

Is that what you meant to write?

 

[AntShaw]

Is that what you meant to write?

Hahaha fixed.

Not sure entirely of euro-centric bands they would have. I find the song selection far superior to GH and SingStar. Do some quick wiki checking for the song lists and you can see.

I LOVE the relentless weekly updates of new songs/packs/albums (TBD).

 

[Shifty Geezer]

There are 9 extra EU tracks
English

• "Beetlebum" by Blur
• "Rock 'n' Roll Star" by Oasis
• "Monsoon" by Tokio Hotel
• "Hysteria" by Muse

German

• "Hier Kommt Alex" by Die Toten Hosen
• "Perfekte Welle" by Juli
• "Countdown to Insanity" by H-Block X

French

• "Manu Chao" by Les Wampas
• "New Wave" by Playmo

 

[mrcorbo]

Also confirmed is that this is a timed exclusive for the 360.

For those of you who may not know, if you have a 360 and already own GHII or III for it you can use your existing guitar controller for Rock Band as well. This is not the case for the PS3 version, though. Any USB mic should work, as well. So it may be possible for you to get this on the cheap by just buying the drums and game and using peripherals you already have to fill in the remaining spots.

Though, even if you have some of this stuff, you may just want to boycott the game on principal.

 

[Shifty Geezer]

You can't just buy the drums. As I understand it, the instruments are all sold in the bundle. You buy four instruments for £130, and the game for £50. If you have the GH guitar you can just get the game, but someone, somewhere will need to shell £130 to get the drums if you're to actually play a band, rather than...Guitar Hero (you could always have someone sing along to Guitar Hero and forgo the mics).

I suppose eBay will offer a lot of broken up packs for individual instrument sales.