Rock Band

[bhodi]

Like the afterburner mod for the game boy, enterprising people rushed to fill the drum set's poor and noisy design.

[WayAbvPar]

I am praying that the game's popularity will spawn a cottage industry of peripherals. It wouldn't be hard to improve on the hardware that shipped with the game.

[Azazel]

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.

[schild]

Am I the only person in the world who thinks it's pretty much impossible for anyone to play Ultima Online without looking like a total dork lost-in-the-past asshat?

[Prospero]

Damn this game is good. I just played for the first time at a friend's house tonight. It's 100x better than I thought it would be, and I had high expectations. Playing the drums for Enter Sandman is fucking full of win.

Bravo Harmonix.

[Tairnyn]

Brought Rock Band to work for the Christmas party and it was a smashing hit. Someone else brought a Wii and it sat in the corner unused while most everyone waited for their turn to play an 'instrument'. It's pretty fun to watch the stuffy administration folks rocking out, especially since it has a good collection of older songs they can get into. One of our interface guys commented that it just feels wrong to play a game in which the system is telling you exactly what to do and scoring you on how well you do it.

[WayAbvPar]

Anyone have a link to a schedule for DLC beyond this week? I am anxiously awaiting Who's Next and Nevermind.

[Morfiend]

As far as I could find they dont have any listed for next week and beyond. I really hope they keep it up though. I am hoping for some more hard rock or metal songs or maybe some more NIN.

[sidereal]

The fidelity to classic rock is. . unfortunate.  What percentage of their audience do they really believe is over 40?

My personal wishlist:

• War Pigs - Faith No More (cover of Sabbath).  Epic was the incorrect Faith No More choice
• No Quarter - Led Zeppelin
• Undertow - Tool (I'd prefer Swamp Song, but the profanity would likely make it harder)
• Silent Lucidity - Queensryche (for fingerpicking)

I even thew a little classic rock in there so it has a chance of happening.

[Morfiend]

I dont think you will see any Tool. As far as I know, they still wont even put their stuff on iTunes.

[Driakos]

My personal wishlist:

• War Pigs - Faith No More (cover of Sabbath).  Epic was the incorrect Faith No More choice

It may be blasphemy, but I actually like the Faith No More version better than Sabbath.

[Lantien]

As to if/when DLC is being released,

http://kotaku.com/337037/rock-band-dlc-available-next-week-on-xbla-ps3-has-to-wait

There will be DLC next week. An announcement will go out today or Monday.

Sony's offices are closed next week and the DLC will be postponed for a week until they come back (but they'll be back on schedule the following week when they get a double-dose of DLC awesomeness). It will go up in the Xbox Marketplace as regularly scheduled.

Man, I keep feeling bad for the PS3 experience.

[Lantien]

Well, they uh, announced the DLC.

Harmonix and MTV Games want you to ring in the holiday cheer with a
special Rock Band gift. For a limited time, fans and
gamers can purchase tracks from platinum-plus-selling rock act 30
Seconds To Mars, pop-punkers All-American Rejects and Swedish new-wavers
The Sounds at a special holiday price of $0.99 per song (80 Microsoft
Points per track for Xbox 360).

Starting tomorrow, there will be a total of five new songs available.
They are:

"Attack" - 30 Seconds To Mars (from 2005's A Beautiful Lie)
"The Kill" - 30 Seconds To Mars (from 2005's A Beautiful Lie)
"Dirty Little Secret" - All-American Rejects (from 2005's Move Along)
"Move Along" - All-American Rejects (from 2005's Move Along)
"Song With A Mission" - The Sounds (from 2006's Dying To Say This To
You)

Makes sense to throw in some modern songs to appeal to a broader segment of the population right before Christmas. And having it at 99 cents hopefully is less a holiday appeal, and more a precedent sent for modern hits.  I might take a shot at the song from The Sounds, a friend of mine is a fan of theirs. Joystiq was nice enough to put up a youtube video for every song here.

[schild]

After seeing those 5 songs, I don't feel bad for PS3 owners.

[NiX]

I just can't see the All American Rejects songs being any good in Rock Band. I'm definitely considering getting the 30 Seconds to Mars songs though.

[Tairnyn]

I dig The Sounds song, but the rest I probably won't taint the random playlist with. Considering the breadth of kickass songs I've heard lately that I wished were in the game the 'big release' is pretty meh.

[Lantien]

I dig The Sounds song, but the rest I probably won't taint the random playlist with. Considering the breadth of kickass songs I've heard lately that I wished were in the game the 'big release' is pretty meh.

It makes me wish the Harmonix DLC strategy was more cohesive. Making the assumption that as this progresses, they're going to release a mix of 80s hits, classic/southern rock, and modern hits. I'd love to see them spread them out, with:

 - Two classic/southern/Punk/Pop/80s/grunge song at the 2.99 price
 - One modern song/obscure artist/band that MTV wants to promote at .99

This way, people who don't want the newest Fallout Boy hit can instead go after say, a song by Faith No More.

Of course, that changes if the songs are getting the okay to be used at the last moment, requiring songs to be packed bundled up in its current incarnation.

[Hokers]

Happy to see the song by the Sounds, I would have preferred "Painted by Numbers" but cool.

After relating my difficulty in finishing the last easy drum song on easy (Grass and Trees or something like that) my friend said that he read that the song was a kinda joke in terms of difficulty level, is that true?  That song was just plain mean.

[Tairnyn]

Happy to see the song by the Sounds, I would have preferred "Painted by Numbers" but cool.

After relating my difficulty in finishing the last easy drum song on easy (Grass and Trees or something like that) my friend said that he read that the song was a kinda joke in terms of difficulty level, is that true?  That song was just plain mean.

Not sure how Easy is, but Green Grass and High Tides on Normal difficulty has been challenging for me because of the grueling long sequences where the kick drum is off beat with the snare. I can usually hit it for 5 or 6 repetitions before I lose it and have to recalibrate myself. If you can get that beat down then it's just a matter of endurance, since I'm pretty sure it's the longest song in the game right now.

[Phildo]

Move Along will actually have a fun drum part.  Not particularly complicated, but fun.

[WayAbvPar]

After seeing those 5 songs, I don't feel bad for PS3 owners.

 

I jumped on Monday morning to see if there was anything new. Saw these, didn't recognize them, downloaded last week's stuff instead. I wouldn't download them if they were free, in all likelihood.

[Tairnyn]

Curses. My kick pedal broke at the hinge tonight during Enter Sandman. 

[Lantien]

Not sure how Easy is, but Green Grass and High Tides on Normal difficulty has been challenging for me because of the grueling long sequences where the kick drum is off beat with the snare. I can usually hit it for 5 or 6 repetitions before I lose it and have to recalibrate myself. If you can get that beat down then it's just a matter of endurance, since I'm pretty sure it's the longest song in the game right now.

Echo on the weird long sequence.  It's easy for your brain to turn off, and it can really screw you up coordinating the drumming with the pedal-work.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=24ac3294VAg <-- not me, but what was screwing us up on the drums tends to be around the six minute mark, that red&yellow alternating with yellow kick. I believe that's medium drumming on the right.

If you like to drum, pick up the song by the Sounds.  I downloaded that because we occasionally have a female lead singer, and I wanted to snag a song more in line with a girl's "natural" range. Not the most exciting song to play lead guitar to, just a lot of two note chord-y stuff.

At this point, I can play most of the songs on Medium, and am slowly working on hard. I'm getting to the point now to where I'm actively seeking out the more energetic songs on Medium to drum on (Suffergette City, etc).  I played a bit last night with some friends who were visiting, and they really seemed to get a kick out of the system.  Unfortunately, none of them knew much about the music, so when we were trying to assemble a full band, I had to end up singing. My vocal abilities definitely only go as far as medium.

Wondering what next week's DLC will be. I have a sinking suspicion that the reason why they're not announcing this week's DLC early is partially because it's going to be relatively forgettable stuff like last week.

[Strazos]

Yeah, I usually hate these kinda games, but I actually played for a few hours with some friends of mine.

Seeing as I have no actual musical talent, I was relegated to mic duty. It was actually fun, until I had to sing some shit by Bowie. Fuck you Bowie, for destroying my throat and voice for 3 days. I don't have that kind of range....though to be fair, I had trouble hitting any of the high notes, seeing as I had spent 8 hours vomiting the previous day. 

I was still a pretty terrible vocalist, though I was actually able to perform admirably on medium on certain songs (knowing the actual song helps!).



PS: plz 2 have s-child record himself doing vocals. It would be even more funny than that old JP-version Persona 3 preview.

[Lantien]

Working graveyard and trolling some sites, picked up this bit of information from http://majornelson.com/archive/2008/01/01/rock-band-tracks-various-1-1-08.aspx:

Lynyrd Skynyrd - Gimme Three Steps

The Black Crowes - Hard to Handle (Cover)

Rush - Limelight (Cover)

It's Major Nelson, so it's legit.  I dunno, I'm not super interested in Gimme Three Steps or Limelight; I'm probably going to go after Hard to Handle if the cover isn't horrible, although it's probably going to be murder on the vocalist.

[Samwise]

Conan griefs Rock Band players.

Awesome.

[MrHat]

Is Dire Straits on here somewhere?

[Tairnyn]

I listened to the Black Crowes and Rush songs released this week and they are awful covers. I'd much rather see fewer songs of better quality.

[Lantien]

http://www.rockband.com/forums/showthread.php?t=21115

So I am going to try each Monday morning to post up the new DLC coming out for the week.


This week at $1.99 (160 Microsoft Points) we have-

"Number of the Beast" made famous by Iron Maiden (cover)

"Die, All Right!" by the Hives

"Interstate Love Song" by Stone Temple Pilots

I love me some Interstate Love Song.  So awesome.

[Morfiend]

Ohhhhhhhh Number of the Beast. Awesome song.

[WayAbvPar]

Didn't they have permission for Run To The Hills already? Or was that a cover too? Or was that in a totally different game? I swear I remember trying to sing it before...wonder why they would have to use a cover for a song from a band who allowed them to use another song already.

[Margalis]

All 3 of those songs are good.

[Big Gulp]

Is Dire Straits on here somewhere?

Seconded!  Oh God, seconded!

I want Sultans of Swing ASAP, people.  Get on it.

[Tairnyn]

More STP makes me a happy panda. Although, the Hard drums for Vasoline are currently the bane of my existence and stalling my solo career.

[Lantien]

Run to the Hills was a cover, but Number of the Beast it was an original track in GH3.  The most commonly accepted answer is that the master track for Iron Maiden just had the drums mixed down for GH3, which works out great, but can't work for a game which has drums as an element to be played. No clue if that's actually true or not.

That being said, I love this configuration of song releases.  One modern song (Hives), one song that resonates with most of the 25-30s demographic (STP), and one classic song that also doubles as soothing the metalheads (Maiden).  I think if they keep that sort of release pattern up as well as having Mondays be announcement day of songs, they'll knock down a significant amount of complaining.