Rock Band

[rattran]

Ok, assuming I'm decent at playing drums, and was always shit while I was learning guitar, but enjoy music, the question is:

Would I enjoy playing this game? Is it worth the money? Or should I just wait for the next F13 and flail away at schild's copy?

[Samwise]

Someone should make a game that comes with a 24 button guitar (4 x 6) and secretly trick people into learning real guitar while they play.

The buttons are way too clunky to be able to pack six of them together in a row.  It could probably be done with higher quality hardware, mind you, but I bet it would end up costing more than a real guitar.

I'm still waiting for some enterprising hacker to write the driver that makes a real electric guitar function as a Guitar Hero controller (analyze the pitch of the audio output to figure out what fret you're on, and convert that into the appropriate button press).  Once someone did that a version of Guitar Hero that used real guitar tab would be very doable.

[bhodi]

OK, hooked GH2 back up just to see why I was sucking so hardcore at GH3. I've now discovered why. The PS3 guitar fucking blows.

Since I curl my hand around and press the lower part of the buttons, when you hit them on the edge they can hit the side, stick, and require a lot more force to push down than normal. Shitty design. Also, the amount of force to actually push the button down seems to have been doubled, those springs behind the key (or whatever) are way too strong. To top it all off, something about the guitar makes my left hand start to ache after a few songs.

I need to seriously look into guitar modification because I was SO much better at GH with a guitar I could actually play. I need to try the rock band guitar to see what it's like.

[OcellotJenkins]

Game of the decade material.

[Phildo]

Ok, assuming I'm decent at playing drums, and was always shit while I was learning guitar, but enjoy music, the question is:

Would I enjoy playing this game? Is it worth the money? Or should I just wait for the next F13 and flail away at schild's copy?

That's tricky.  It's like playing a wonky electronic kit with the snare drum on the left.  Or like playing the tenors in a marching band, etc, etc.  As I've said, I'm enjoying it so far, but I wish you could adjust the action on the pedal.  Also, I think I'll need to memorize the harder songs rather than site-read them the way I can on the guitar.  But it IS fun.  And don't you want to be able to show off your sick fake-drum chops at the next F13 thingy?  Especially if Schild sucks at them?  The quality of the song choices and most of them being master tracks goes a long way to making it fun, too.

(I do not know for a fact whether or not Schild sucks at Rock Band drumming, but I'll file a full report next week)

[Lantien]

Woohoo, picked it up this morning and have fiddled around a bit here and there.  My thoughts: 

1) there's a lot of Strang und Durm on the official forums about busted units.  So far, everything's working okay on my end. 

2) The guitar is odd.  Due to the lack of raised buttons, it's much harder for people who were using the bump of the buttons as a guide to move up and down to play the faster sequences.  In addition, the length of the guitar (it's feels longer than the GH3 guitar) does it make it more awkward to strum for me, at least.  I can see however that when there's the ending bonus free-play sessions, you'll want the solo tap buttons.  Good luck practicing how to shift your fingers from the regular buttons down to the solo buttons. That's going to take myself some time to get proficient at.

With the tighter window (compared to GH3) for HO/POs and the lack of "responsiveness" when you strum, I've had a hell of a time with some of the harder guitar solos with the Stratocaster.

On the flip side, there are some people who just thrive on the Stratocaster, I think it's going to be one of those things that has no middle ground.  One of the 1Up video blogs did a great job of discussing it. http://www.gamevideos.com/video/id/15950 at around 2:56.

Because anyone who puts their guitar through the paces (you should fly to AZ and feel my PS2 guitar) is saying the RB guitar is a big piece of shit and doesn't seem to register notes that are really really close together as well as the GH3 guitar. Also, it breaks. A lot apparently.

I'm really interested to see people who get into these sorts of game via Rock Band and are totally raised on playing the Stratocaster, to try the Guitar Hero guitars and see how they respond.

3) The drums aren't too bad.  Most of my roommates are starting on easy/medium. Kick Pedal is making them humble, and songs that look easy on paper can totally defeat them.  I haven't tried em yet.

4) Vocals aren't bad, but you need to be able to carry a tune to some degree.  Warbling all over the place will quickly get you to fail, even on Easy.

5) Solo mode is okay, nothing feels new in the little that I've played.  In the interests of unlocking things as quick as possible, I'm playing on Hard, and so far I'm breezing through it. But like I said earlier, My Sharona's solo was a bit uglier on the sightread on Expert.

6) Band World Tour is pretty fun, but you really want everyone in your band to be Medium level or higher.  With a rag tag band of Hard Bass, Hard/Expert Guitar, Easy/Medium Vocals, and Easy Drums puts us in the mid 4 stars-5 stars on an easy song (In Bloom). Having the ability to custom work on your Avatar is definitely a draw for people who weren't into Guitar Hero to begin with. Among some of the mini tips I'd suggest in group play:

a) In group mode, your 2x bonus Overdrive/StarPower affects everyone. Drums only can trigger their Overdrive after a successful fill, and Singers have a specific (although plentiful) window in which they can trigger Overdrive.  As a result, I'd suggest that the Guitar and Bassist pick their spots to kick Overdrive and watching the Drummer and Singer do theirs. If you do it right, if my math's corrent you'll have the Guitarist doing 8x4 points, Drummer 8x4 points, Singer 8x4, and Bassist 8x6(bassists top out their bonuses at 6x) points. At the very least, you'll want to have at least have your Overdrives paired every time.

b) On the flip side, if you're playing with people who are shaky singers/drummers/etc, have one of the string instruments save an Overdrive for bringing people back.  When a specific person fails, it doesn't doom the entire group right away; successful Star Power/Overdrive usage "brings them back".  Up to 3 times though.  If it's not done in time, the Rock Meter slowly but steadily drops until your entire band fails.

c) Unfortunately, since the vocals are based on word recognition, if your singer doesn't know the words you're in for a world of pain song-wise. It's probably better to have the singer pick the songs early on.

Ok, assuming I'm decent at playing drums, and was always shit while I was learning guitar, but enjoy music, the question is:

Would I enjoy playing this game? Is it worth the money? Or should I just wait for the next F13 and flail away at schild's copy?

Unless you have no friends who own it, wait.  I adore the game and am a total fanboy for it, but I had multiple occasions to try the game with friends first. 170 bucks is a non-trivial investment. Many people who've played guitar before have complained that the GH/RB plastic guitars are nothing like guitars, and require a totally different skillset. If you have a background in keyed instruments (Saxophone, Piano, Accordian?) I think will pick up on it faster.  As for the drums, it's a mixed bag.  Harmonix has been claiming on a limited basis that it teaches you rock and roll rhythms.

Honestly, you're better off waiting for a local bar/college dorm/bestbuy to carry it, and messing with it there. 

[NiX]

c) Unfortunately, since the vocals are based on word recognition, if your singer doesn't know the words you're in for a world of pain song-wise. It's probably better to have the singer pick the songs early on.

I'm pretty sure the game only recognizes pitch. I've had moments where I've muttered nonsense cause it went by too fast, but I kept the pitch and it gave it to me.

[Lantien]

c) Unfortunately, since the vocals are based on word recognition, if your singer doesn't know the words you're in for a world of pain song-wise. It's probably better to have the singer pick the songs early on.

I'm pretty sure the game only recognizes pitch. I've had moments where I've muttered nonsense cause it went by too fast, but I kept the pitch and it gave it to me.

All communication from Harmonix is that it does both.  No clue if that's actually true in the field.  Our vocalist had really sketchy pitch.

http://kotaku.com/gaming/hoodoo-operator/rock-band-details-explosion-269074.php

The vocals have been expanded from what we've seen in games like SingStar. The game's got a phoneme detector, so individual vowels and consonants are picked up.

No clue if they toned that down after people were complaining during coding that the vocals were way too hard.

[Lantien]

EDIT: I should point out that there's some quasi-immersion carrots that are sprinkled throughout the BWT.  You can design your own logo that's displayed on the Drums, and the loading screens chart your progress as you get more and more famous.  You start out with band shots behind a crumbling wall, and you slowly work to shots of sitting in a limo, and the like.  Kinda cool, if you care about that sort of thing.

EDIT 2: Dammit, stupid double post. 

[Nonentity]

Why are there buttons at the neck of the stupid Strat guitar? SO DUMB

I swapped to the GH3 controller around 45 or so songs into the guitar solo tour, haven't looked back.

I honestly think that the game is completely playable on the Strat, but the Strat is definitely a less well-made guitar, and it's just a preference thing.

Drums are SO. DAMN. FUN. Holy FUCK.

[Ragnoros]

I like the new guitar mostly. I think it is more comfortable. I played a good 8 hours+ today, mostly guitar, and my hand never got tired or cramped like it usually does with the GH guitars. I did have a harder time with the solos and hard stuff. Probably due to the new buttons, also the solo frets are going to take some practice/getting used to.

Oh also it broke. Won't strum down anymore. So I will concede that the GH3 guitar is better made.

Anyway I really like the set list, better then GH3 in my opinion. Although I have not played all the songs as we played multi player mode and didn't realize till rather later that we were unlocking songs VERY VERY slowly. I think around the 6th time we played Dani California someone realized we were getting screwed.

I do have a question. Where do you download content from? Because I never found it in any of the options. Or do you have to do it from the dashboard?

[Lantien]

I like the new guitar mostly. I think it is more comfortable. I played a good 8 hours+ today, mostly guitar, and my hand never got tired or cramped like it usually does with the GH guitars. I did have a harder time with the solos and hard stuff. Probably due to the new buttons, also the solo frets are going to take some practice/getting used to.

Oh also it broke. Won't strum down anymore. So I will concede that the GH3 guitar is better made.

Anyway I really like the set list, better then GH3 in my opinion. Although I have not played all the songs as we played multi player mode and didn't realize till rather later that we were unlocking songs VERY VERY slowly. I think around the 6th time we played Dani California someone realized we were getting screwed.

I do have a question. Where do you download content from? Because I never found it in any of the options. Or do you have to do it from the dashboard?

When I picked up My Sharona and Fortunate Son, I bought them outside the game, in the Xbox live menus.

When I was dicking around with the Stratocaster, my right arm (I am right-handed) just felt uncomfortable during long strumming sessions.  It also seemed like I was really off during the HO/PO sessions... maybe I'm too used to the Guitar Hero-styled guitars.

[Big Gulp]

Okay, let's just say that my buddy Roger and I suck bad at the drums.  BAD.

I was starting to think that we'd be screwed and not have a drummer when Roger's roommate Al comes over, and having never played the drums in his life, gets 92% on Gimme Shelter (granted, on Easy, but we're just looking for basic proficiency here).  The dude's a fucking idiot savant on the drums!  So thankfully, we've got that covered now.

[MrHat]

That's awesome.

You are all making me sad.

I want to buy this, but have no nearby friends :(

[Tairnyn]

A friend bought this and brought it over for our weekly gaming night (normally reserved for LAN-based geekery) last night. It was the most fun we've had in a long time.

The band tour mode was great and I really loved having to do sets where you don't know what the songs aree going to be. We were all switching around instruments a lot which led to some frustration trying to change players in between songs so we ended up just leaving the players the same and switching instruments without regard for individual stats.

Having never played GH I really liked the guitar. I found I could play very comfortably using the inside set of buttons and never had any trouble with the palm of my hand pushing them accidentally. It seems like there's some issues due to motor memory on the GH guitar rather than a flaw with the RB guitar itself. I purchased a X-Plorer strat for my PC version of GH3 (and as a bass guitar for RB next time) last night so I should soon be able to offer an objective comparison without having trained on the GH version.

Drums quickly became the house favorite, but some people just don't have the coordination for it. When the beat goes out it's usually disaster for everyone else unless we all know the song really well. We had both a dark horse who was amazingly good at drumming on their first try as well as a guy who thought it looked easy and gave up in frustration after 2 songs, vowing never to touch them again.

As the only person in the group with some singing background I was stuck with singing more often than not. (I sooo want to drum for the rest my life) The pitch detection on the vocals is excellent and I found that the little arrow showing you where you're off was pretty helpful. Songs that I had only passing knowledge of were difficult and could probably gain from a few practice rounds where I just sit and listen to the lyrics. I'm fortunate enough to have a falcetto that can do songs like Maps but it doesn't make me feel any less gay to be singing female vocals.

Overall, it was much better than I expected. The game itself isn't as good as the combination of friends, drinking, video games, and music creating an amazing synergy and entertaining the people not playing as much as the band members. Even my wife, who dreads any situation in which she's the focus of attention, said she considered picking up the microphone to sing a song or two.

GREAT SUCCESS

[MrHat]

You can play the instruments only right?  No need for a singer?

[OcellotJenkins]

I'm patiently waiting for

[cmlancas]

I think you could do better. C'mon.

[Mosesandstick]

How big is the game (spatially)? Would the box be small enough to fit in a large suitcase? What about if you packed everything seperately?

[Valmorian]

I want a synthpop hero so badly.. :( 

[schild]

Synthpop Hero would wreck my soul. If I could sit down and fake play some Iris, VNV Nation, Wolfsheim, X Marks the Pedwalk, etc. I would totally crap my pants every 5 minutes at the awesome. It'd be a poopstravaganza.

[WayAbvPar]

How big is the game (spatially)? Would the box be small enough to fit in a large suitcase? What about if you packed everything seperately?

No way the box fits in a suitcase. You MIGHT be able to break everything down and pack it separately, but it would be pretty bulky.

So- who went out and bought a drum throne and microphone stand? I am into this thing almost $300 already, but it really seems worth it. If the kick pedal isn't busted (am hoping that a restart of the system will help it...haven't tried since last night).

Singing a song you have never heard is even more difficult than drumming or strumming an unknown song. The 6-pack random sets can be a challenge, but definitely a fun one! I can't wait to play "Won't Get Fooled Again" on the drums (trotski and I did it yesterday with him as Townshend and me filling in for Daltrey. 5 Stars! on easy.... There are so many expansion ideas for this it is just sick. I would definitely pay some decent coin for better/more realistic drums from a licensed third party. It seems like you could rig a drum set with mufflers that would pick up stick impacts, right? Cymbal might be tougher to fake though.

[Driakos]

If your Rock Band shit breaks, you can get a new instrument cross-shipped, 2nd day.  No charge.

The drums are awesome.

It looks like I can "pug" (pub?) with people over xbox live.  Has anyone tried this?


Edit: I was wrong about cross-ship.  They will just ship you a new instrument and a postage-paid box to send your broken instrument back with.  2nd day.

[Margalis]

Ok, who lives in the Boston area and wants to invite me over to play? 

Considering none of my friends have any interest in this or musical ability to speak of there is no chance in hell I'm ever buying this.

[Tairnyn]

You can play the instruments only right?  No need for a singer?

You can play any of the instruments you want and the rest is filled in by the system. A drummer and two guitarists will work just fine.

[schild]

The progression through songs in this game sucks my ass and the mystery set lists and custom lists need to not exist until you've unlocked everything. We've played Creep 5 times.

Seriously, it's fucking wonk.

And the guitar is for people who are bad at guitar hero.

[schild]

Make that 7 times. Creep has come up 7 times. I'm also starting to fucking hate Should I Stay or Should I go.

[Ragnoros]

Thats what I said schild. Just have someone play through on solo once to unlock everything. Works just like the old guitar hero.

[schild]

Or it doesn't work anything like the old guitar hero. The band tour is the point of the game right? Too bad it's completely busted. Fucking Mystery Set list can shove it up it's ass.

[NiX]

I don't know if anyone read the other Rock Band thread, but I was wondering if there was a patch out. Also, is there a way to force games to patch? I've made a US silver account, but it just won't auto update.

[Margalis]

Is it possible to just disable some songs? Seems like a logical feature to offer for songs that people just hate and aren't any fun to play, especially in a game like this where enjoyment is tied pretty closely to how much you like the song.

[Tairnyn]

Make that 7 times. Creep has come up 7 times. I'm also starting to fucking hate Should I Stay or Should I go.

It seems that the 'fans' request the songs you do best on, thus the Freebird effect.

[Abagadro]

[Ghambit]

I can pretty much guarantee that many people here will have problems with their Fender Strat "downstrum" at some point in time.  There are fixes posted on the forums that a few of us adventurous people tried and so far my Strat has performed flawlessly ever since.

Here's a fix:
http://www.quartertothree.com/game-talk/showthread.php?t=40188

Another fix is to simply file down the "nubs" on the contactors so that they cant roll off eachother when strumming hard.  I dont advise this though, as it seems a bit extreme mod-wise... and it's not something you can back out of unless you feel like soldering.

The simplest fix (the one I used) is to simply put tape between the outer contactor and the plastic post with the rubber stopper.  About 4 layers (fold tape twice) should do it.  I then tightened the screws on the microswitch to make sure it didnt move.


rock on...

[Stephen Zepp]

Someone should make a game that comes with a 24 button guitar (4 x 6) and secretly trick people into learning real guitar while they play.

I'm still waiting for some enterprising hacker to write the driver that makes a real electric guitar function as a Guitar Hero controller (analyze the pitch of the audio output to figure out what fret you're on, and convert that into the appropriate button press).  Once someone did that a version of Guitar Hero that used real guitar tab would be very doable.