Rock Band series - Rock Band 4 out now

The final piece of the setlist has been revealed on Twitter via @Rockband. Not sure how to embed the tweet, but here's the picture:

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Not familiar with the majority of those. That said, I am excited for "Free Falling". Been following The Warning on Youtube for a little while now and it's good to see those kids get what could be their big break.

 
Just learned about the lack of online play... seriously unhappy about it.

There was no better feeling than playing with another person or group of people. Unfortunately I'm the only one in my group of friends that still has a knack for this. So couch co-op isn't a thing.

 
ryverse said:
Just learned about the lack of online play... seriously unhappy about it.

There was no better feeling than playing with another person or group of people. Unfortunately I'm the only one in my group of friends that still has a knack for this. So couch co-op isn't a thing.
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Really? Well, it's a pass for me as well. My fiance used to play, and I moved far from all of my friends I used to have Rock Band nights with. No point in getting it just to play with myself. :whistle2:

 
I'm so torn on it because like people are saying on the RB forums, if nobody buys the game and it flops then Harmonix will never add the features we're wanting.

And sure, maybe they deserve that for not making a full effort, but should we give them the benefit of the doubt? I can't really say Harmonix has screwed me over in the past too much. I definitely won't go all in on the band bundle or even the guitar bundle.

But I might still grab the adapter bundle with my GCU discount, use my old wireless guitars/mics and hold down the fort with my sizable DLC library and hope they add ekit support, multiplayer, etc.

Does that seem dumb?
 
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Yeah, HMX has been pretty good to the consumer, especially in comparison to their competition. There is just way too much working against this game at this point.

 
You might be right. Does that mean it's just "destined to fail" though? If nobody buys it then it most definitely will...but then that's a bit of a self-fulfilling prophecy. I guess my thought process is "Well, might as well give Harmonix a chance and see if they fuck me just like EA, Activision, 2K, etc. does" lol. When was the last time you bought a game that didn't live up to expectations? I'm willing to bet it wasn't that long ago.

 
Cutting online play was just retarded. No other way to spin it. I'm not big on playing stuff online but even I was irked at this as that is one of the biggest features of this series plus if I ever wanted to jam with some people assuming I'm in the mood I can't since there's no online. Just think what the returns will be like the first week since you know there will be a lot of frustrated and angry gamers who will buy it and find this out the hard way. I won't deny if it wasn't for this thread even I wouldn't have known and would have been like WTF if purchased since this is just one of the games where the online option is a given.

You would have thought they could have kept the keyboard in at least since they didn't have to worry about anything online related and that should have meant the budget got bigger for other areas of the game. I kinda sucked at the keyboard but still sucks to see them drop it after having it in the last one. It's really starting to feel like they put barely any effort into this and are just hoping there's enough interest in the game and reignited spark in the music video game genre in general to make a decent comeback. No keys, no online play, not so great setlist, yeah this thing doesn't have a whole lot going for it.

 
Well, I mean...to be fair, they do have reasons for these decisions. It's not like they're doing it just to piss you off, lol. I know they talked about online play being challenging because of the cost of maintaining the servers. And also, I sometimes question if online play is just harder to code this generation because I feel like we see a lot of games with server issues, framerate problems, or missing features that were not an issue last gen.

I get the sense that Harmonix just didn't want that headache. That's not a great excuse by any means, but I think Microsoft and Sony share some of that responsibility as well. Hell, half the time, I can't even navigate my messages on XB1 without it chugging or giving me some kind of error.

As for keys...they actually said that keys were just way too expensive to chart. You can imagine how much more work they were than the other instruments. So, they were basically faced with the decision of raising the price of DLC or ditching keys. Raising the price of DLC would have angered everybody. Ditching keys angered that small group (and it was small in the grand scheme of things) that played keys. It's the same with not supporting the ION drums/ekits. That's a niche group of Rock Band players.

The double edge of that sword is you could easily argue that the online players, keys players, and ekit players are the most dedicated in the fanbase, and are probably the ones who never stopped playing. So, doing anything to exclude them could be recipe for disaster...but the only reason we got any of those features to begin with was because of all the money Harmonix made from the casuals. It's sad, but true.

These are shitty decisions that I'm sure they didn't want to make. But if you think about it, practically everybody in the world ditched Harmonix after Rock Band 3 came out. Viacom got rid of them, and the trendy party fad of RB3 "got old". That's just the nature of our shitty "you're so 10 seconds ago" society.

 
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I just don't want to see them bomb as I've always enjoyed the series but can't help but feel they're making some very questionable decisions with this one. Maybe they will pay off, maybe they will indeed shoot them in the face like it's looking like to me. I hope they end up doing good and don't want to see them fail but eh we'll see.

 
If you're going in on this and using your last gen wireless stuff, can get the adapter for 10 bucks on Amazon with code RB4ADAPTER. It's normally 25(!!!) dollars.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01541ACLQ?tag=cheapassgam08-20

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I'm sure some of these crappy decisions have to be based on them having less money to work with, which makes it even more depressing that I'm still not planning on buying at this point. That said, there is absolutely a chance I'll just say screw it and pick it up at Best Buy on launch day because I can't resist.

 
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Yeah, I doubt they made any of those tough decisions because they WANTED to. Now, what would truly put a nail in the coffin is if they removed all those features and then the core game still sucked. If the argument is "We don't have the resources for all these other things and we want to make sure the basic gameplay is strong." then fine. But if it just feels like ported RB3 with nothing new, it's going to draw attention to the things that are missing.

Ultimately, I've bought lots of shitty games in the past. I'm willing to give RB4 a chance with a reduced buy in. That deal on the adapter is great too. I assume it addresses concerns for people who want to buy the game digitally. I do wonder if those adapters are going to become rare though...kind of like the PS2 memory card adapters for PS3. I just get that vibe from it for some reason.

 
I picked up the adapter.  Still debating on getting the game immediately or not.  Have they officially said if RB3 songs can be exported?  That would probably push me over the edge.  With my RB1, RB2, Lego Rock Band, and Green Day songs in addition I'd have a huge library.

 
Here's a really great thread on the Harmonix forums that tells you basically everything you need to know about the game and separates facts from rumors.

http://forums.harmonixmusic.com/discussion/257724/rock-band-4-rumors-and-facts-unofficial#latest

I think this part in particular is very important:

FUTURE RELEASES

There will be no more ongoing sequels, no yearly releases. The arms race is dead. Rock Band 4 will launch Rock Band as a platform, and Rigopulos told us to expect continual updates, some of which will be paid, and some of which will be free.

We think that there’s an opportunity this time around, given the technology to interact directly with our audience and also to react to the feedback that we get directly from our audience to sort of expand upon a core game of Rock Band 4. So Rock Band 4 will expand through title updates, through content updates, over the long span. We view Rock Band 4 as the Rock Band for this console generation, and it will continually evolve through a dialogue with our community.

"We can do a lot of things that will sustain Rock Band 4 over five to seven years," said Sussman.

I want to go on record now and say if you invest in Rock Band 4 as a platform, features will be added over time and you won't be left high and dry
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Other highlights from the page for me:

Stage Kit: “The old, somewhat-obscure Rock Band Stage Kit will be compatible with Rock Band 4...probably. “It’s this crazy bit of passion play on the art development team…” - But, not at launch.
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I'm pretty shocked by this. I got one of these on clearance at Gamestop years ago, and I honestly love it. It's goofy and dorky, but it adds a really fun element to the game. And my daughter loves the lights. Honestly, if they have plans to get this damn thing working, I feel a lot better about ION drums and Lips mics getting support.

ATMOSPHERE

Audience Sing along is returning.

Audience will shout out song requests during Shows
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"Free Bird!!!!!"

At beginning of song, drummer will “count in” by tapping on the green tom. “It’s a little thing, but it adds a sense of band camaraderie and leadership”
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Kind of silly, but a nice touch.

  • RB3 disc songs will not export to RB4 (at this time)
  • Beatles Rock Band songs will not export to RB4
At this time, “Rock Band 3” on disc songs will not make it into RB4 due to Licensing restrictions. But, Harmonix is working on that and if you want the songs to export, let Harmonix know.
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This is basically what most people expected. RB3 had no means to transfer songs. This is going to come down to how much you believe in Harmonix and their commitment to the franchise.

 
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Xbox One Digital Preorder Bonus Songs:

  • All That Remains – “What If I Was Nothing”
  • BABYMETAL – “Gimme Chocolate!!”
  • Earth, Wind & Fire – “September”
  • Interpol – “All The Rage Back Home”
  • Jefferson Starship – “Jane”
  • Linkin Park ft. Daron Malakian – “Rebellion”
  • Marilyn Manson – “The Mephistopheles Of Los Angeles”
  • Mastodon – “High Road”
  • My Morning Jacket – “One Big Holiday”
  • Pierce The Veil ft. Kellin Quinn – “King For A Day”
  • “Weird Al” Yankovic – “My Own Eyes”
  • The Wild Feathers – “Backwoods Company”
 
Apparently people are finding this on shelves early at multiple places including Target and BB...may want to look near you if you're going to buy it.

 
I wiki'd the OP. I honestly have no plans of keeping it updated week to week like I did for those 3-4 years at this point, but there's a lot of good info both in that post and throughout the thread so I kind of hate to scrap the legacy here and start a new one. If any of you guys wanna keep it up to date, go nuts.

If I do buy it later on I'll probably be more motivated to put more effort into keeping it current.

 
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Having some trouble with the in-game store... Seems very inconsistent which songs I owned on 360 show up as purchased. Even stuff on the same album.

 
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One thing I do trust is since Harmonix has kind of taken a step back from being the mainstream they will listen to their community. They seem to make this the only Rock Band for this Generation. I feel if we support them and voice our opinions on what we want they will try to listen and put the money they make to being a better experience for the community. 

 
This is probably the most torn I've been on a game in a loooong time. As bad as I want to support Harmonix and Rock Band - especially now that GHL is out - I know that 1) I probably will barely play it with all the stuff that has come out / is coming out soon 2) the game still has a long way to go before it's "finished." 3) If they start feeling the heat from GHL in the next week or three they'll probably put it on sale.

I'll probably give it another week or so and just buy the thing and hope Harmonix doesn't fuck up.

 
I hope this doesn't start a middle school flame war in here, but after not ever being able to track down a legacy bundle version of RB4, I decided to refund my digital RB4 purchase and just follow through with my GCU pre-order of Guitar Hero Live...and I have to say, I'm actually really, really liking the game so far

(Sorry this is so long. It's basically my Guitar Hero Live review, haha)

Where RB4 seemed to very much play it safe and follow the "if it ain't broke..." approach, GHL is a pretty freaking ballsy game. Starting with the guitar controller...I LOVE it. Maybe it's being a musician and playing guitar in real life, but this controller is challenging on a whole new level. In some ways, I actually think it might be harder than really playing guitar, lol...but getting your brain to accept that going left/right quickly is no longer the skill...and that it's up/down now...and the various combinations that can be made from that, is a total mindfuck.

It's exactly what they said it is. It can be super simple just hopping from one button to the next, but when they throw in barre chords and stuff that is like power chords, but inverting and mirroring for each string, it gets so hard and confusing, haha.

I'm also loving GHTV. It's fantastic. It's MTV when MTV was MTV...except you can play Guitar Hero over it. People have been trying to criticize it as pay to play, but that's not it at all. Yes, you have "play tokens" that you can buy (though I've already earned 20 in like an hour) but those only count if you want to select a specific song. If you're cool with doing random stuff (which for me, has become more fun anyway...even in RB), you can pick between two different channels that basically have music "shows" all day long, and play "for free".

These shows can be 30 minutes or one hour long and just continuously play videos that you can jump in or jump out of at any time. Yes, you can't pause the track. If you put the controller down, the music keeps going...and you just get whatever score you get. As an example, right now the show on channel 1 is "Incredible Hits" and is currently playing Boston's "More Than A Feeling". Channel 2 is "Pop Hour" and is currently playing Ed Sheeran's "Sing". (and they just finished up a Metal show and "2000-2010 Hits").

I think the thing I love about it the most is how unlike any previous Guitar Hero game this feels like. It just feels like a controller and a music service that I can jam to any time I want. Yeah, there's no full band. But it feels innovative in its simplicity. It's almost the exact opposite of where RB4 went, and so far, I think I might like it more. Time will tell how repetitive GHTV will get...but if they can add music to it regularly, it could be an incredible alternative to DLC.

I'm honestly shocked how enjoyable this game is so far. I think Activision finally got it right.
 
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n8rockerasu said:
I hope this doesn't start a middle school flame war in here, but after not ever being able to track down a legacy bundle version of RB4, I decided to refund my digital RB4 purchase and just follow through with my GCU pre-order of Guitar Hero Live...and I have to say, I'm actually really, really liking the game so far

(Sorry this is so long. It's basically my Guitar Hero Live review, haha)

Where RB4 seemed to very much play it safe and follow the "if it ain't broke..." approach, GHL is a pretty freaking ballsy game. Starting with the guitar controller...I LOVE it. Maybe it's being a musician and playing guitar in real life, but this controller is challenging on a whole new level. In some ways, I actually think it might be harder than really playing guitar, lol...but getting your brain to accept that going left/right quickly is no longer the skill...and that it's up/down now...and the various combinations that can be made from that, is a total mindfuck.

It's exactly what they said it is. It can be super simple just hopping from one button to the next, but when they throw in barre chords and stuff that is like power chords, but inverting and mirroring for each string, it gets so hard and confusing, haha.

I'm also loving GHTV. It's fantastic. It's MTV when MTV was MTV...except you can play Guitar Hero over it. People have been trying to criticize it as pay to play, but that's not it at all. Yes, you have "play tokens" that you can buy (though I've already earned 20 in like an hour) but those only count if you want to select a specific song. If you're cool with doing random stuff (which for me, has become more fun anyway...even in RB), you can pick between two different channels that basically have music "shows" all day long, and play "for free".

These shows can be 30 minutes or one hour long and just continuously play videos that you can jump in or jump out of at any time. Yes, you can't pause the track. If you put the controller down, the music keeps going...and you just get whatever score you get. As an example, right now the show on channel 1 is "Incredible Hits" and is currently playing Boston's "More Than A Feeling". Channel 2 is "Pop Hour" and is currently playing Ed Sheeran's "Sing". (and they just finished up a Metal show and "2000-2010 Hits").

I think the thing I love about it the most is how unlike any previous Guitar Hero game this feels like. It just feels like a controller and a music service that I can jam to any time I want. Yeah, there's no full band. But it feels innovative in its simplicity. It's almost the exact opposite of where RB4 went, and so far, I think I might like it more. Time will tell how repetitive GHTV will get...but if they can add music to it regularly, it could be an incredible alternative to DLC.

I'm honestly shocked how enjoyable this game is so far. I think Activision finally got it right.
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I am so excited to open the box, take a nice whiff and jam out. Been too long since I could jam.
 
Another cool thing with GHL that I noticed tonight is the game basically has online multiplayer almost in the same way that a shooter does. It's kind of abstract, but since the songs on GHTV are live, anybody that is currently playing competes against each other during the song. The scoreboard is live and you'll see your name jumping up or down depending on how you're doing. It almost feels like a kill count with each song being a round of deathmatch or something. It's pretty cool.

Additionally, again like a shooter, there are badges and ranks...with the highest level being "Hero". Coming from Activision, these things probably seem like a no brainer, but it's an interesting way to approach online play in a rhythm game.

 
LOL, that is pretty lame, but like the article said there is a lot riding for the company on the game's success. Sadly they are probably fine with the negative press they got if the inflated star rating on amazon helped them move more units in the weeks after launch.

Glad to hear that GH appears to have put forth a better effort than they did in the past few GH games.  The market was oversaturated, but continuing to put out lackluster games couldn't have helped the genre at that poin.

I'd actually love to jump into one of these games right now but I'll probably continue to hold off to see what the deals look like around the holidays. 

 
Holy crap! Best Buy finally has the Legacy Bundle in stock! Only a month after release, lol. GCU discount and $15 in reward certs (thanks to Guitar Hero, ironically) brought my total down to $53. Not too shabby.

Now they just need to figure out the ION/ekit situation. I'm hearing MadCatz might be developing their own drum brain to accomodate those sets. All because Microsoft was that adament about not allowing wired controllers.

 
Cool to finally get online multiplayer. I just noticed being able to download RB2/RB1/Lego songs, so...I guess there's that. Haven't figured out AC DC yet.

Kinda seems too little too late, but beggars can't be choosers.

 
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Pretty sure this game is tanking hard. The band kit set is almost always on sale on Amazon these days. It was like 170 bucks last week, lowest I ever saw it from its initial 250 price tag. Should have jumped on it then but I got some leftover bills and season tickets to pay for so had to opt out but considering it goes on sale all the time sure there will be another opportunity. It is a shame but not having online from the start definitely hurt them and I can guarantee retailers claim departments likely had quite a few returned games/kits once people bought it and found out there wasn't any online. I personally like to play with friends and don't care that much for online but in a series like this which revolves around participation it's definitely a mainstay feature that should have been there from the start like literally every other one in the franchise. Not quite sure what they were playing at with that move...

 
RB4 is a joke; you have to constantly DL 3 gig files to play, most of the features like sorting aren't there; the career modes and costumes are bare bones.

I should have just stuck with RB3.

 
2DMention said:
RB4 is a joke; you have to constantly DL 3 gig files to play, most of the features like sorting aren't there; the career modes and costumes are bare bones.

I should have just stuck with RB3.
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It's basically an indie game in early access. If you're familiar with PC games on Steam, it's really not that unusual. Yes, they have updates that you have to download each month, but that's because they're continuously working on the game and adding features. Is it ideal that all of this stuff wasn't in at launch? No, of course not. But the fact that the game got made at all is kind of a miracle. Harmonix developed AND published the game...with Mad Catz as their only partner.

You should also qualify your statement. "Sorting" is pretty generic. You can sort by artist, song, date acquired, difficulty, etc. But the advanced sorting...like decade, genre (the stuff that you had to hit back and pull up that menu for), yeah...that's not there. It's definitely something I'd like to see improved, but it's not quite as barren as your statement makes it appear either.

As for whether the game "tanked" or it's "too little, too late", I feel like that's only relevant for the casual crowd. If you still enjoy music/rhythm games and still play RB3, those concepts shouldn't matter to you. Is Rock Band ever going to be the go to at parties again? Probably not. It's a very different world than it was in 2008. Do I give a shit that RB isn't trendy and cool anymore? No, I don't.

But Harmonix intentionally stripped the game down because it's all they could afford. They put out a foundation that could be built upon...and they're actually doing that. Once the next expansion comes out this fall, the game will be basically back to the feature set of RB3. And yeah, that took them a year...but again, this was a tiny independent team with very limited resources doing this. The fact they keep working on it at all 7 months after release is better than a lot of "AAA" games do.

 
2DMention said:
Would be nice if they added Keys...
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I do too, but I understand why they won't. Charting keys was so much more time consuming and expensive for them. It's the same reason pro guitar won't be coming back. If they don't keep development on a scale that is sustainable, they're just setting themselves up for failure. I can't be mad at Harmonix for recognizing their limitations and trying to operate within them.

It's unfortunate, but when you get kicked out of your $10 million mansion, and have to move into a modest 3 bedroom house, you can't expect to keep all of your stuff. That's basically what happened.

 
Clubs feature is useful if you bought Rivals and are looking for people with DLC to play with online.

I'm holding out for a sale on the Rivals stuff.

 
KaneRobot said:
Clubs feature is useful if you bought Rivals and are looking for people with DLC to play with online.

I'm holding out for a sale on the Rivals stuff.
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2DMention said:
Your wish has been granted. I picked up a Guitar Rivals pack for $40 at Wally*World.
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Yeah, I was going to say...Gamestop's had the game/guitar bundle for $40 and the full band kit for $100 this past week. The game is really 99% back to what RB3 was (minus keys and pro guitar) too. Online multiplayer is the last chip to fall and that's coming January 25th. It's a month later than they anticipated, but Harmonix is trying to really polish the mode to make sure the experience is great.

There's a forum post detailing it here:

http://forums.harmonixmusic.com/discussion/281369/online-quickplay-the-december-update-and-you

But yeah, even e-kit support is back on XB1 and I've finally been able to use my ion drums again. It was a hell of a wait getting to this point, but it's finally paying off. And playing the new songs on a decent drum kit has been amazing. :)

 
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Every time this thing goes on sale I'm hoarding cash or about to make other big purchases that warrant me passing on this. The last month and half has been tempting though, lowest I've seen the kit is 115 now. Getting a bit more greedy now as I kinda hope with some more time passing someone will throw it up on a 99.99 sale. It's fell this low, don't see why another 15 markdown can't happen at some point.

 
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