Crock Band

[Tommy Gun]

Another night of Rock Band down and I'm seriously considering spending the extra $70 it would cost me to get it off eBay a month early so I could play me some drums.

Have you played drums before (in any capacity, with a bass pedal)?

I don't regret getting it, but just know that your drums WILL break. So you might want to wait until they fix it, or just deal with modding it yourself.

I'm currently ranked two hundred eighty something on the career leaderboards for guitar. I know you've been pretty exceptional in Guitar Hero as well, Tommy. I can't compete on drums yet, but how am I for guitar?

Honestly, I don't know -- you're probably way better than me. I played through GH3, with only "Raining Blood" left, and quit. I don't play GH much anymore, ever since realizing drumming is more fun, and "real," so I choose to practice that more. I only play GH when people are over, and now with Rock Band, I almost never touch the guitar (especially because no one else here can drum). I haven't completed the guitar solo tour yet. Also, I realized yesterday that we really should have calibrated the game, because it was about 60ish ms off! Add the semi-broken guitar, and so far my scores are pretty terrible. Once you do get the DLC, get Joker and the Thief! The beginning has some really fun HOPOs, and the song is great.

Also, while playing in world tour, I should start taking on Bass so I can get that perfect bass achievement. The one for getting 100% on a song on expert using all up-strums. Sounds like fun.

The funny thing about that is that most people's downstrum has broken, so they can ONLY upstrum anyway.

Speaking of achievements, in BWT, I got the 100% Expert guitar achievement for some song, but because of the "band leader" thing I was using my roommate's profile! So now he has it, despite mostly playing medium! Weak!

[miffy495]

Yay! Now have the 100% achievements for both Guitar and Bass! Got the Bass co-oping with myself on vocals in Say it Ain't So after getting home from work because everyone I could play with was asleep. The guitar one I got about two songs after starting the game for the first time, so whatever. I then tried to do a random setlist to see what the game would throw at me while I co-oped solo. First one up was Highway Star which made me weep a little the first time I saw it. Hard song on guitar, and I don't know all the lyrics off by heart, so I felt kinda hosed. Amazingly made my way through. Feeling triumphant, I made my way to the second song in the random two song playlist. The random is important here. Odds were very much in my favor that the next song would be easier than Highway Star. And then despair. As the words Green Grass and High Tides appeared at the top of my screen I was overcome with dread. Rightly so. Failed it at 92% (!!!) I was about 30 seconds from escaping the craziest bit and celebrating maniacally at my success, but it was not to be. Still, an impressive effort considering I was trying to pull off two things at one. If it had let me activate Overdrive on the vocals, I probably could have saved myself and finished the song too.

...And no, I am a drum rookie. That would be why I am looking forward to it so much. I plan on practicing an insane amount (as I did with GH) and actually getting quite good over a period of a year or so. Took me 8 months to beat Bark at the Moon on expert after starting GH, and I am not afraid to commit the same sort of time to getting good at the Rock Band drums. Start on easy, work my way up. I do have pretty solid innate rhythm, so I hope that I will be able to start to feel the flow and get into the game fairly quick. I guess we will have to wait and see.

[Tommy Gun]

I'm sure you'll do fine, but prepare yourself for the bass pedal! It was really funny to see people commenting about how they were easily playing drums on Expert at Walmart (many store demos had auto-bass on) -- then they bought the game and posted that they were getting killed on Medium with the bass.

I'm sure Rock Band does a great job of easing you into everything though. When I started out with Drummania, I only had a few songs that were easy enough for me to play (since most players who write the files play on Extreme). So that was pretty rough for a while. I will say, it's really satisfying to be able to breeze through a song that you felt was impossible a few months (or years) earlier. Off-beat bass notes used to be so frustrating, now it's almost boring without them.

[twmac]

I just got this email from an ex-workmate in Canada it tickled me no end to read about the devotion to this game (it is a tad long):

You know about the canadian release got delayed, right? They delayed it until december 19th or something. W. (name has been omitted to hide the true identity) just said "That's UNACCEPTABLE!" And the reason is because they're running out of copies enough for all the reserved pre-ordered copies for the states.

So, W. called me from work, while I was sleeping at home cuz I work evening shift. He said "M., this is an emergency." And I thought it was something work-related. But then he continued "You know about how the canadian release got delayed, right? This Tuesday is the day of the US release. Do you know where this conversation is going?"

Me: "You want me to drive you there to be in the queuing line to buy Rock Band"

W.: "Exactly"

Me: "Alright"

Then I hung up and went back to sleep.

He and a friend planned this out with several printed maps to stores location where they sell on first come first served.

Our team are going to the New York state (Plattsburgh and around) while G. team would be covering the Vermont state (Burlington and around).

Monday night, I finished work at midnight, picked up W. and our friend P., we went to my parents' place to rest and prepare ourselvs to leave in early morning.

By the way, my parents' on vacation and I'm not allowed to use their car for my own interest except for groceries or things needed for the house. I took the car to cross the border. Bad me.

We left at around 3am. At 4:45am, we went to an 24-hour Walmart and bought Rock band, the LAST one they had. They had only 10 copies, and the 9 others were also bought by quebecers too, haha. They took OUR Rock Band and delayed our canadian release. We're only taking back what's rightfully ours.

After W. got his copy of Rock Band, we still had to stay around because P. wanted two further copies.

Before going to Wal-Mart, we went to Best Buy first to see if there would be a queuing line, only to get chased out by a rent-a-cop scouting around the areas. There was no queuing line.

At 5am, we just had to waste time in Wal-Mart and rest a bit in the car until 8am, when K-Mart opens. At 8:12am, we went to K-Mart and, alas, it was too late. They had only 4 copies (2 PS3s and 2 360s), and there were already 3 quebecers who had bought them. Only one copy of PS3 version was left, but we wanted the 360 ones.

So we went to Best Buy, still no queuing line, but we saw some guys sitting in their car that was parked nearby. They looked like Rock Band buyers. So despite the very bad weather (slushy rain type), P. and W. immediately went outside to stand at the door to start the queuing line. The guys inside the car, after noticing them, went outside as well to follow them. I stayed in the car in the warmth.

These guys became friends soon after.

We waited until 8:30am, and the shopping mall that has Best Buy opened up, so we could be in the queuing line inside the mall. At this point, I also joined them inside.

While waiting, we realized that these guys aren't competing with us to get Rock Band because they wanted the PS3 version. So we were cool. We told them about the last one at K-Mart, so one of them went and bought it, but the other two guys still wanted their own copies.

At 9am, the store finally opened, but they said they haven't received the shipment yet and if they still don't have it until 9:30am, they will give us raincheck with a $25 certificate.

At 9:30am, still nothing, so we got our rainchecks and we decided to go to another store. But just before going, I decided I wanted to check out the mall a bit while W. and P. were in the car, planning our next destination. As I explored the mall, I found a store that actually had Rock Band. So I came back outside running and yelling to them "Guys, I found a store that has Rock Band!!" Then I looked at our new friends and added "Only the 360 version though, they don't have the PS3 version, sorry guys!"

As soon as P. heard me, he yelled "WHERE???" and started to run toward the store called FYE (For Your Entertainment) like an olympic sprint champion.

As I arrived last to the store, I clearly saw P., with his credit card in hand, and 2 Rock Bands at the counter of the cash register, all ready to buy them. The cash register shoed up $211 or something for each Rock band (tax included). Something's wrong... $169 plus tax did not add up to $211, it should’ve be $183. The store manager said, "it's $199"

WHAT?? What a rip-off, the other stores sell them at $169. He said "There is no suggested price for this, so $199 is our price."

You should have seen P.’s frowning face when he heard that. It meant, if he was buying them, it was gonna be about $75 bucks more expensive (considering he's buying two). After quick meditation, he decided he's buying them. Better pay a bit more for guaranteed ownership than looking elsewhere else and not able to find them.

After buying them and bringing the two rock bands back to the car. We felt bad for our PS3 friends, so we wanted to help them out by showing them where to go. We gave them our maps and called a few places to see if they still had available PS3 versions. All the places that we called were either sold out or not selling the PS3, until the last store we called. Bingo, they had like 10 copies. We showed them directions and we bid them good luck and farewell, as they start rushing out to their car.

We went back to look through the mall further

As we walked further inside the mall, one of the PS3 friends ran back to us, yelling: "GUYS, THE BEST BUY HERE FINALLY RECEIVED THE SHIPMENT OF ROCK BANDS!!"

Holy fuck.

P. and W. immediately went back to the car to grab the two rock band that they just bought at FYE and returned them to the rip-off store. They then bought rock bands at best buy with the raincheck, and received the two $25 certificates. So not only was it $30 cheaper for each rock band, but they also got $25 gift certificates, Times TWO. So they were saving $125.

At this point, I said "hey guys, since I'm doing you guys a HUGE favor and drove you all the way here for Rock Band that I am NOT even buying it for myself, how about you guys give me those certificates? After all, it's not like you're losing anything, you weren't supposed to be getting these certificates in the first place. They agreed and gave them to me. Sweet, I got a $50 certificate. I bought Mario Party DS and a 2gb USB key.

We got back across the border and played a couple of songs before I had to go to work.

[SiN]

Awesome story there twmac!

SiN

[miffy495]

Man, I caved and ordered a copy off eBay for a little bit above retail. Much less awesome story.

[Tommy Gun]

Check out this craziness from my first night of RB online adventuring:

We both missed the SAME SINGLE NOTE! (has to be a glitch, because we both physically hit it)

[DanJW]

I got to sing in a full group at the NCsoft party last night (thanks for inviting me guys!). Lots of fun, they had it set up on a stage with dry ice machines. So I nailed "Paranoid". Win.

They had an awesome real in-house band too, in the next room. Watch out for Audio Assault. Weird thing was that some of the songs in their set were played moments before on Rock Band.

[miffy495]

The girl was over tonight and her curiosity finally got the better of her. Didn't hurt that her best friend is also a Guitar Hero addict, and that the majority of Rock Band's playlist reads like her CD collection, so when she noticed the game sitting on the coffee table, she asked if she could give it a go.

I was actually a bit nervous. My way-too-much-play skills at GH/RB are a point of pride when I'm hanging out with my geekier friends, but tend to get a lot of good natured jokes at my expense around other groups. She knew I played a lot of the game, but actually watching someone shred through Expert solos is different, and I began to brace myself for the evening of mockery to follow. Luckily, she loved it.

We got started by making her a character. In most games, this would be difficult. Thing is, she has a bright blue mohawk. This is not something most games are willing to easily recreate. She gave up when she played Warioware and just made a short-haired blonde Mii to play with, which was what she had before deciding to dye and style it. Rock Band was very accomodating for her style though, and immediately you could tell it had made a good impression.

Then we got started playing. Another fact about her that comes in handy here, she plays the bass for real. Given that I play guitar as well, we just selected our natural instruments and had at it. She started on easy, got a feel for it, and moved up to medium. By the end of the night she was getting high 90s for notes hit, but we'd been drinking so she was afraid to move up to hard while not in possession of her full coordination. She was having a great time all the way though, and we ended up singing along to quite a few just for the hell of it.

Long story short, I don't think I'll be elbowed in the ribs jokingly anymore whenever someone in the general area mentions Guitar Hero. I somehow doubt though that the re-physiqued Judy Nails in GHIII would have been quite as much of a hit as getting herself onstage with her own instrument. Now I know that the next time her best friend and I gang up on her and try to make her play Guitar Hero and watch westerns with us she'll be quite a bit more receptive to the idea. And now that she's discovered she likes it, she can't make fun of my rhythm game addiction anymore. I declare victory in this round! I have now shown the joy of rhythm games to everyone from my already gaming little sister to my girlfriend to my grandmother, (Grandma even went out and found herself a Wii for Wii Sports and GHIII) and not a single one has walked away from it unimpressed.

[ThunderPeel2001]

Geeks are cool

[miffy495]

Oh, I'm fully aware. I have no problem being a geek. She knew that I'm ranked in the top 2500 GH players a long time ago, simply because she asked. As I said, all the mocking was good natured. If it wasn't, I could easily shoot back with references to her massive anime collection. Everyone's a bit geeky, right?

Still, there is a difference between being a geek and having no life whatsoever. Another thing that I'm forced to admit is that my GH skills developed because my first year of University I was a complete lonely shut-in and they are now the best evidence of a year of my life I'd rather forget. I'm proud of being a geek, it's the recovering hermit status that I'm wary of advertising, thus the nerves over people seeing me play.

[miffy495]

OK, so using rather shady methods (I opened a US based live shell account, bought some American MS points off a website, and went onto the US live store) I bought a bunch of tracks for Rock Band. As my roommates were trying to sleep, I only got to try out a few of them, but here are some quick impressions.

Fortunate Son I had been looking forward to immensely. Love that song. Turns out it's really easy. As in, I got a full combo on my first time through. Easy does not negate the awesome though, and I look forward to belting out the vocals on it soon.

War Pigs and Synchronicity II I really wanted to play as those songs had been in earlier Guitar Hero games (II and 80s, respectively) and I wanted to see if/how Harmonix had changed the note charts. Synchronicity II is about a bajillion times more fun in RB than it was in GH 80s, thanks to a completely redone note progression and changing a long section that used to bugger my strumming arm up into a long section of hammers and pulls. War Pigs is give and take. I think the singer in GHII was a bit better (this one is also a cover) but when there's an actual singer doing their thing I can't see it mattering that much. Still, for solo guitar play, it's noticeable. The song has been made harder on the regular progressions, but easier (not much in either case) on the solo, so the guitar is give and take here. Both will be played a lot over the coming weeks. I always sang along to War Pigs when I was playing GHII anyway, so I'm used to the "play and sing simultaneously" thing for that song.

Last one I played was Jukebox Hero just for the sheer hell of it. Fun song once it gets going, but there are a lot of periods of standing around. I can't see myself playing this one solo a lot, but it seems like it would be great for band work, as someone would always be doing something awesome.

[Tommy Gun]

Finally. Stupid pedal.

[miffy495]

Um... your site seems broken at the moment. From the name of the url, I'm guessing you got the Expert achievement, but what's up with the pedal?

...also, my kit came. Guitar broke after 2 days which is a shame because it felt great. Haven't tried that 10 minute fix thing yet, will probably do so soon. Have beaten the drum thing on medium, only 3 songs left to 5 star on that difficulty level. Very, very fun. I'm getting the hang of kicking fairly quickly, but it's still taking me a while to get certain songs down. Enter Sandman's intro drove me nuts, but I think I've got it now. Haven't tried anything on Hard yet, so that's the next goal. Damn. So good. Need to fix my guitar so I can use the high buttons for solos again. That was damn fun while it lasted.

[Tommy Gun]

Um... your site seems broken at the moment. From the name of the url, I'm guessing you got the Expert achievement, but what's up with the pedal?

Ah, yes, server is being dumb again. I'll be switching servers in Feb.

Yes, I got the achievement finally. The pedal is a crappy plastic kill-your-leg pedal, that's all. A real bass pedal is MUCH easier to sustain rapid beats with. That's what made me fail the final song a few times.

[miffy495]

I see. I'm starting to get what you mean. Halfway through Hard now and in always sweating quite a bit by the time I go to put the sticks down. Too damned fun though.

Oh, and that masking tape quick-fix for the strum bars on original guitars works like a bloody miracle. Did it earlier tonight on my guitar which was registering not a single damn downward strum. Now it actually works better than new. Love it to death, and I've become quite the afficionado of tiny plastic guitars. When this one broke and I had to go back to the GHIII Les Paul, it just felt like a joke.

[ThunderPeel2001]

What's the compatibility of all those guitars, Miffy? Can you use the new wireless GH3 guitar with GH2? Can you use the Rock Band guitar with GH2 or 3? Do Guitars from different platforms work on other platforms (PS2, Wii, 360, etc?).

It'd be cool if someone made a chart... Actually, I'll go and Google one right now

Edit: Found one!

[Wrestlevania]

Actually, I'll go and Google one right now

Edit: Found one!

You can't link to that site, being crufted from Satan's own foreskin as it is!

I thought it would be 'hilarious' to keep the paranoia and vitriol rolling into 2008.

[Roderick]

During the new year's celebrations there was much Singstar and Guitar Hero III, and me and my girlfriend want to buy it too, now. We experienced some nastiness on the wireless guitar though; one of the buttons was 'clicky' and unresponsive. I don't mind a wire, so is it a good move to buy a GH2 guitar somewhere, possibly with the game itself while we're at it? Or is the busted controller a fluke?

To keep on-topic; Rock Band seems awesome, but a bit cumbersome with all the instruments. Too little room, I'm afraid! Would like to try it out sometime, I'm particularly interested in its combining karaoke Singstar stuff with instruments. That's pure gold, right there, because you're humming the songs along anyway while you play GH.

[Tommy Gun]

I finally posted my Rock Band "review," though it's admittedly all over the place and not really a review at all. I just wanted to post it already so I could move on to talking about more specific things, like the horrible menus, and so on.

Part 1: hardware, difficulty, modes

Part 2: Bullet points!

[Roderick]

Nice article, Tommy =)

Quick additional question to those I wrote above; is there any crossover possible between different consoles with any GH guitar? Probably not, but it would rock if I could use my future 360 guitar on someone else's PS3.

[ThunderPeel2001]

I don't think there's any console crossover, sadly. I wish there was. It means you need to find someone on pretty much the same level as you, and prepared to travel with a big fake looking guitar (possible on public transport) AND with the same console as you, before you can enjoy two player. Oh well.

Tommy: Your website is down again, so I can't read your article

Wrestle: Did we ever discover if that journalist was fired for writing an honest review? I'd forgotten about that, I probably shouldn't have linked to that evil, (potentially) untrustworthy site.

[Tommy Gun]

Tommy: Your website is down again, so I can't read your article

Wrestle: Did we ever discover if that journalist was fired for writing an honest review? I'd forgotten about that, I probably shouldn't have linked to that evil, (potentially) untrustworthy site.

I've read/listened to a bunch of stuff about it, and from what we know, no, it was a case of REALLY bad timing (on their part). It was bullshit that he got fired, but it doesn't seem like it was advertiser pressure that did it. They didn't change the review score, they only modified some parts of the text (which actually added more criticisms). We'll likely never know for sure, though.

[Wrestlevania]

We'll likely never know for sure, though.

If Gamespot are working hard to achieve anything, it's this.

What with the Christmas break and the fickle, tardy nature of reporting nowadays, it'll likely never be brought up in any meaningful or insightful way again.

[miffy495]

Nice review, man. I can't hack it in the 5th tier on hard drums yet (did pretty damn well right up to there, but I've hit a wall) so I don't know firsthand what you're talking about wrt the bass pedal craziness, but otherwise I'm totally with you. That band leader thing is ridiculous, but it seems that every time I play coop nobody wants to do the BWT anyway and we just do a lot of quickplay. That's too bad, because I really want to see the whole thing, but oh well.

Rock Band was a huge thing on New Year's. We loaded the whole kit into my buddy's van and went off. Played from 6pm to 10am, rotating who was on what the whole time. I got some good singing, some solid drumming, and some spectacular guitar work in, and everyone had a blast.

I see in your review you were into the 30 Seconds to Mars song. I'll admit that I don't know any of the songs that were released on Christmas, so I didn't download any of them. I'll give that one a look. Any other recommendations from that group of songs? After all, they're only a dollar.