Rock Band

[Sqthreer!]

So the other night, a couple of my friends bought the game, and I had the pleasure of playing it with them on a very large widescreen HDTV. It was pretty cool because we had a full band of four people. We switched off with different instruments, but I got to sing, play the drums, and play the guitar.

All in all I think it's a really cool idea for a game, but it needs several improvements, obviously, since it's the first version. One thing I did not like about the guitar is that the notes were kind of hard to read for me. The hammer-ons were sort of hard to tell apart from the others, though that may be just because I am used to Guitar Heroes.

I'm no video game critic so I'll stop here, but as far as whether or not I think this game will kill Guitar Heroes, I don't think so, but I haven't had enough time to play it to know for sure.

Has anyone else played it?

[TimJing]

I've never played it, but it does look really fun. I heard it costs $200 altogether, though, which is kind of silly. Understandable, but silly.

[Ulti]

I really, really want this. Me and my Guitar Hero posse in my dorm are all going to chip in and buy it, so it should only be about 40 bucks a person. But I've gotta wait until the 11th when it comes out for PS2, that's right in the middle of finals week.

Also: Lazy question, anyone have the tracklist? I meant to look it up earlier, but never got around to it.

[Bobbias]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_songs_in_Rock_Band

[Sqthreer!]

It is expensive, but for a reason. It comes with a nice-looking drum kit, a really nice-looking guitar, a microphone and some other stuff I think. I got to play a Nine Inch Nails song on drums

[Bobbias]

Do the drums still suck, like (I forget who) said when they got to try it a while ago? And how are the charts difficulty wise?

[TimJing]

I really, really want this. Me and my Guitar Hero posse in my dorm are all going to chip in and buy it, so it should only be about 40 bucks a person. But I've gotta wait until the 11th when it comes out for PS2, that's right in the middle of finals week.

Oh, yeah, that sounds like a really good idea. You guys will probably have a blast with that. I'm jealous

[Ulti]

Okay, I just realized something. The ps2 only has two ports on the front. I'm planning on getting Rock Band for the ps2. What does this mean.

: |

[Bobbias]

You'll need to get a multitap?

[Eggman]

Don't bother. The game's not very good. The bass pedal on the drums gives double hits, the pads register maybe 1 in 10 and it just feels lame. My friend's bass pedal snapped in half after a bit on Expert. Notecharts are almost all the same because most rock songs have boring percussion.

The guitar for it is absolute trash. 90% of them die within a day or so with down picking just not working at all after a while.

Band career is very stupid. It's like one of the home DDR games shit all over it. I swear we played Say It Ain't Say 10 times in 3 hours. And you get randomized song sets a lot.

[Bobbias]

Wow. Sounds like they dropped the ball on this one. It certainly had potential, but if that's as bad as it sounds, it looks like Rock Band is going to be in the books as one of those gigantic failures that could have been something great.

[Spectere]

Okay, I just realized something. The ps2 only has two ports on the front. I'm planning on getting Rock Band for the ps2. What does this mean.

I'm pretty sure all of the peripherals are USB devices.  If that's the case, they'd include a hub.

The 360 only has two controller ports as well (three if you include the one on the back and don't have the wi-fi addon).

Also, it sucks that the drums, well, suck.  That was the only reason I was interested in this.

[Eggman]

There's a huge thread on the Rock Band forums about all the hardware problems. Worst part is, Harmonix isn't saying anything until next week so they don't hurt Black Friday sales. uuggggghhh

[Bobbias]

Ouch. I know that GH3 has pushed Harmonix to get Rock Band out ASAP, but you'd think it might sell better if they waited until the hardware problems were fixed... I mean, releasing something with such bad hardware issues is going to hurt them in the long run way more than waiting until everyone has GH3 and then releasing it would. (You'd think that maybe if they waited they might get more sales to people who already have GH3 anyway. I know that some of those people, at least, would be willing to buy both because it means more songs, as well as more stuff to play.) So ultimately, releasing it too soon really hurt harmonix...

[Eggman]

Most people who bought GH3 before it are having a better time anyway. The guitar (at least for the 360 version) works with Rock Band and is much better in every way.

What bothers me are the reviews for the game, which are all amazingly positive, despite the hardware issues. It's just dumb.

Pretty much the only thing that works in the game is the microphone. Making your character/band is fun with a bunch of people too, if only to see how each person tops the others in costume choices. I ended up with a long pigtailed glasses girl with some school shirt and tie and no pants with thigh high boots.