Rock Band

[Morfiend]

Sorry that was worded badly. I mean in the game couldnt find the option to go download tracks.

[OcellotJenkins]

Sorry that was worded badly. I mean in the game couldnt find the option to go download tracks.

They are found outside of the game, in the XBL marketplace under the music game genre I believe.  When you buy and download songs, they then show up under a special tour section in the game.

[Jerrith]

One thing I'm sad to see is that few people (that play online in random matches, at least) seem to get the DLC.  Since you can't play a DLC song if any one of the four members of your band is missing it, it tends to make playing the DLC in random matches very rare.  It was actually a bit of a shock tonight, when, in a 4 player band, I hit random, and one of the Police DLCs came up...  We checked afterwards, that pack was the only one that everyone had.  We had fun playing the other two, but then went back to the base songs...

Songs seem to download fairly quickly from Live...  I wonder if it would be possible to do something where if at least half your band has a song, the rest could download it and play it while a part of your band...  So if only you have a piece of DLC, you could play it with one other person, and if two people in the band have a piece of DLC, a full band could play it...

Probably too late to work out the licensing to do it in Rock Band, but maybe a sequel could do it...

Getting 3+ new songs for the game every week is really nice. :)  Part of why I like Rock Band so much.

[Trippy]

Songs seem to download fairly quickly from Live...  I wonder if it would be possible to do something where if at least half your band has a song, the rest could download it and play it while a part of your band...  So if only you have a piece of DLC, you could play it with one other person, and if two people in the band have a piece of DLC, a full band could play it...

You could do it by passing encryption keys around but that's extra programming work.

[Azazel]

Sabbath's main problem is that they have no master tracks left. Apparently studios back in the day didn't care so much about master tracks, and the master tracks were disposed of. As such, they had to be remade with cover artists to get it into Rock Band/Guitar Hero, or they have the artist go back and re-record the song, like Guitar Hero 3 had happen with In Living Color's "Cult of Personality" and The Sex Pistol's "Anarchy in the UK".

Ah, makes sense. Though since the original line-up is apparently back together again and about to record a new album, I'd be just dreamy  if they could get them to re-record some of their key tracks. I'd pay seriously good money for real Sabbath songs, played by Real Black Sabbath.

[Morfiend]

As some of you guys know I recently picked up Guitar Hero 3, and then Rock Band. I used to hold these games (Guitar Hero anyway) in a sort of disdain. They look pretty goofy when some one is playing it, and I always thought "if your going to spend that much time, pick up a real guitar". I have changed my mind. I still think people that complain expert is to easy should seriously go learn a real instrument (I'm looking at you schild). But other than that, I am having a great time. I have been playing GH3 for about 3 weeks now, and Rock Band for 2. This is the first I have ever picked up on of these type of games. I beat GH3 on Medium, including beating Lou my first try, and was pretty proud of my self. Also, I can 97 - 100% all the rock band songs on medium. I really want to move up to Hard on both, but maybe I don't have the hand eye, or my fingers don't work right, or I'm doing some thing wrong. I am horrible at hard. So far I can finish one song on GH3 on hard, and I can stumble through Rock Band easier songs at about 65-70%. I did manage to finish Maps on expert at 85% which I was very proud of.

So anyway, do you have have any tips, tricks or styles that I should know, or that would help me move from Medium to Hard? Mostly having to do with how to hold the guitar, and which fingers to use for which frets and stuff. Right now I don't really have a specific way, I just kind of fumble a finger to the closest key, but that ofter leads me to miss the Red, Yellow and Blue buttons more than the Orange or Green ones.

Help.

[cmlancas]

A cheesy way for me to get through the songs is to have the index for red and just slide up a bit for green with it. My hands are bigger than most people's though I would imagine. The key to hard is to know where your hands are at all times. If you pick up GHII, Heart Shaped Box is a good one to practice because you have to go back and forth so much.

[schild]

Help.

Practice more.

No, really, it's simply a game that takes practice. Strategy doesn't really have a place until the last few songs on each version. Well, none on the first.

[Phildo]

I disagree, Schildo.  I was thinking about technique from the minute I started playing GH1 on hard.  I usually keep my hand on the higher four notes and use my index to cover the odd green note, unless there are chords involving the lower notes.  That way there's less pinky stretching and your hand doesn't need to move as much.

[Morfiend]

http://www.escapistmagazine.com/articles/view/editorials/zeropunctuation/2716-Zero-Punctuation-Guitar-Hero-III

[Azazel]

I love Yahtzee.

[bhodi]

So fucking true. This is the wrong thread, though! :)

[Nebu]

http://www.escapistmagazine.com/articles/view/editorials/zeropunctuation/2716-Zero-Punctuation-Guitar-Hero-III

Brilliant... as always.

[Morfiend]

So I played another 2 hours on hard in GH3 last night. I managed to finish one more song in the first tier. And I had to practice it like 5 times first and then play it 5 more to finish it. Could it be possible that I just really dont have the coordination to do hard? Or maybe I need to memorize the song layouts? I hope this isnt the case, cause I dont want to have to practice every song 5 to 10 times to beat it.

Will there come a point where it just sort of clicks and all of a sudden I am able to handle hard mode do you think? I really really want to be able to do this, but last night I was very frustrated. It seems the jump from normal to hard is a little to big IMO.

Any words of encouragement, or tell me to fucking quit trying already?

[Bokonon]

So I played another 2 hours on hard in GH3 last night. I managed to finish one more song in the first tier. And I had to practice it like 5 times first and then play it 5 more to finish it. Could it be possible that I just really dont have the coordination to do hard? Or maybe I need to memorize the song layouts? I hope this isnt the case, cause I dont want to have to practice every song 5 to 10 times to beat it.

Will there come a point where it just sort of clicks and all of a sudden I am able to handle hard mode do you think? I really really want to be able to do this, but last night I was very frustrated. It seems the jump from normal to hard is a little to big IMO.

Any words of encouragement, or tell me to fucking quit trying already?

Well, most songs on hard have sections that are either mostly G-R-Y-B or R-Y-B-O. You can generally assume that most of a song will be in the latter, though there are exceptions. You just need to play until shifting hands without losing track of which set of buttons your hand is on just "clicks".

Of course, I'm just a "Yahtzee"-level player (though I beat the first one on expert), so I still haven't beat GH3 on Hard. Beat Rockband on hard easily though. I'd actually use that as your practice for GH3 hard.

[Samwise]

I agree with Yahtzee's assessment of the difficulty curve on GH3.  Unless you're psycho obsessive it's best to just stop playing the game on Hard once you get to the "battle for your soul" section.  The jump in difficulty at that point is just nuts, and it jumps again at the final boss battle.  (The final boss battle on Hard is reportedly even harder than the same section on Expert.  How's that for  ?)

[cmlancas]

In GHIII, I didn't notice the difficulty really ramp up until I hit Metallica's One. That solo is insane -- way harder than anything else I had played prior.

[Lantien]

Medium to Hard seriously just involves putting in lots and lots of time.  It sort of just comes to you. What I can suggest is if you have multiple games, is to play the lower tier of hard on one game, reach the ceiling where you can't handle it, and then swap to the other game. A ton of it is just getting muscle memory and seeing the same songs over and over.

It helps that when you played Medium that you were somewhat okay with using the pinky to hit the blue notes.  Although to be fair, I've noticed I've slipped a notch lately; I'm having a really hard time nailing the rapid strings of Blue note with Orange hammer-on.

We still play Rock Band a fair amount, probably once a week, when we can get everyone together.  Unfortunately one of my roommates is not amused by Rock Band, which makes things difficult.  It doesn't help that she isn't crazy about the sound of drumsticks striking rubber pads either, shocking.

In spite of this, I've managed to put in a bit of time on drumming, and can now competantly play about 80% of Medium songs with a mid-90% accuracy rate. For the longest time my foot/ankle was sore after playing, until the game reminded me that what I can do is put my foot down and depress the kick drum pedal, and then right before I had a kick pedal note coming down, lift my foot slightly and then bring the foot back down.  It takes a bit of effort to do properly, but it hurts a hell of a lot less afterwards.

Looking forward to Tuesday... Buddy Holly will be a lot of silly fun, and I have a soft spot in my heart for The Pretenders, even the covered versions.

[DeathInABottle]

Since the GH3 thread is sort of dead, I'll bitch here: I can't fucking beat "Raining Blood" on Expert.  The Mosh section is impossible.  Okay, fine, it's not impossible, but I can't do it.  Any hints or strategies?  I want to go beat Lou already.

[schild]

I can't beat it either. In fact, here's a secret - I gave up on the last tier. Well that's not true, I've gotten really good at Cliffs of Dover.

And I could beat Through the Fire and the Flames if I could get through the intro.

[Morfiend]

Any hints or strategies?

Its time to buy a real guitar.

[DeathInABottle]

I can play the song on a real guitar without any difficulty.  Hell, I can do it on my acoustic.  Simulating the damn thing is a lot harder.

[Phildo]

Served.

[cmlancas]

Served.

In green, right? Who the fuck cares if you can play a real guitar -- the guitar thread is in GD.

I never thought I'd see this post on f13 :o

[MrHat]

So, I finally broke down my wife and went to get rock band.

Couldn't find any 360 versions anywhere.  I almost bought a PS3 and Rock Band for the PS3.  Almost.

[schild]

Served.

In green, right? Who the fuck cares if you can play a real guitar -- the guitar thread is in GD.

I never thought I'd see this post on f13 :o

You obviously missed Morphiend's silly post.

[Morfiend]

So, I finally broke down my wife and went to get rock band.

Couldn't find any 360 versions anywhere.  I almost bought a PS3 and Rock Band for the PS3.  Almost.

If you havent left for your vacation yet, and are still looking, two things.

1) Dont buy the PS3 version, the GH3 guitar wont work with it, and its a much better guitar.
2) Try Target or Toys R Us or Costco, all three of those places had it in stock this weekend here.

[WayAbvPar]

So, I finally broke down my wife and went to get rock band.

Couldn't find any 360 versions anywhere.  I almost bought a PS3 and Rock Band for the PS3.  Almost.

The Federal Way, WA Best Buy had 6 or 7 on Saturday (I got one when I returned my busted pedal/CD version). They are starting to show up in ones and twos in B&M stores, and many online retailers (not gamestop) show them in stock (BestBuy.com, ToysRUs.com, etc).

Game is lots of fun. Drums get very hard very quickly (even on easy) as more beer is consumed, I have found. I am having to learn to play all over again, since I never had a working drum pedal before. Much harder this way! 

[rattran]

I like the Rock Band guitar more than the GH3 guitar for the ps2. Having the buttons come all the way across the neck makes it much easier for my small hands.

Both seem tiny, and made out of cheap plastic though. Mostly because they are.

[Tairnyn]

So, I finally broke down my wife and went to get rock band.

Couldn't find any 360 versions anywhere.  I almost bought a PS3 and Rock Band for the PS3.  Almost.

I found mine via Circuit City's online store. If it's out of stock online they'll instead reserve a copy at the nearest pickup location it's available.

[Lantien]

So I finally completed drums on Medium. Didn't fail out of any songs once I "got" drumming.  Some notably tough songs to wrap my brain around towards the end include:

Green Grass and High Tides
Train kept a rollin'
Enter Sandman
Foreplay/Longtime

Anyone notice that it seems like their drum likes to drop notes?  I can't tell if I have a total lack of rhythm (possible) or if the window is just tiny, or if there's lag, or what.  Especially when I think I'm on a roll, just to notice that the kickpedal is dropping notes.

On the up side, the very brief ending scene for Drummers is different than Guitarists in solo world tour.  There's certainly no lasting storyline, it just ends up looking like the big dramatic end to a concert, depending on what instrument you play.

And yeah, to echo the warning about PS3, looks like Activision/Red Octane is fighting wth EA/Harmonix over this: http://kotaku.com/gaming/rock-band/activision-on-gh-not-so-fast-mtv-333855.php

Sounds like things aren't getting settled anytime soon.  Sorry PS3 owners.

[WindupAtheist]

Am I the only person in the world who thinks it's pretty much impossible for anyone to play one of these "toy instrument" games without looking like a total dork?

[geldonyetich2]

The ground was already broke with DDR.

[Morfiend]

Anyone notice that it seems like their drum likes to drop notes?  I can't tell if I have a total lack of rhythm (possible) or if the window is just tiny, or if there's lag, or what.  Especially when I think I'm on a roll, just to notice that the kickpedal is dropping notes.

You need to go to calibration, and do the manual calibration, then after that there is an option to sync your instrument, do that also, it should work wonders.

[WayAbvPar]

Am I the only person in the world who thinks it's pretty much impossible for anyone to play one of these "toy instrument" games without looking like a total dork?

Do you think that anyone playing any other video game looks any cooler? It is about having fun, not looking good.