Official Rock Band Thread (It's out, bitches)

Sooo against my better judgment my roommate convinced me to pay $100 while he pays $70 to get this goddamn game. And man. Worth every penny. Played with the two roommates for like 5 1/2 hours. Amazing. It's too bad World Tour is kind of gimped. I can't tell you how many times we played Say it Ain't So.

Also, has anyone elses' mic been DOA out of the box? I've read that you need a controller on to make it work, but it doesn't read the mic at all. We've been playing with the headset because the game recognizes that instantly, but cannot ever find the actual Rock Band mic. Anyone know what's going on? Should I just return the whole thing to Wal-Mart and get another one? Mine had like 10 sitting on the shelf. Also, the guitar has two yellow-colored fret buttons instead of a green one on the far end. It seems like I got a fucked up bundle.

Here's the current set-up:

USB Slot 1: USB Dongle with Drums and Guitar
USB Slot 2: Mic

We've also tried, USB Slot 1: USB Dongle with all three instruments

Also, USB Slot 1: Mic
USB Slot 2: USB Dongle with Drums and Guitar

So basically we've tried everything, but to no avail.
 
Bowie pack is up. Same prices as the other stuff. 160 individual, 440 packaged.

Moonage Daydream
Heroes
Queen Bitch

Heroes and Queen Bitch are covers.
 
[quote name='A Happy Panda']Sooo against my better judgment my roommate convinced me to pay $100 while he pays $70 to get this goddamn game. And man. Worth every penny. Played with the two roommates for like 5 1/2 hours. Amazing. It's too bad World Tour is kind of gimped. I can't tell you how many times we played Say it Ain't So.

Also, has anyone elses' mic been DOA out of the box? I've read that you need a controller on to make it work, but it doesn't read the mic at all. We've been playing with the headset because the game recognizes that instantly, but cannot ever find the actual Rock Band mic. Anyone know what's going on? Should I just return the whole thing to Wal-Mart and get another one? Mine had like 10 sitting on the shelf. Also, the guitar has two yellow-colored fret buttons instead of a green one on the far end. It seems like I got a fucked up bundle.

Here's the current set-up:

USB Slot 1: USB Dongle with Drums and Guitar
USB Slot 2: Mic

We've also tried, USB Slot 1: USB Dongle with all three instruments

Also, USB Slot 1: Mic
USB Slot 2: USB Dongle with Drums and Guitar

So basically we've tried everything, but to no avail.[/QUOTE]
send in for replacements.


Also, can you post pics of the guitar? I want to see it with two yellow buttons
 
[quote name='anomynous']send in for replacements.


Also, can you post pics of the guitar? I want to see it with two yellow buttons[/QUOTE]

It's nothing special. Instead of green paint it's yellow paint. The button functions exactly as it would. Being the gamer I am, I like having my stuff pristine.
 
Just did some tests and I'm pretty sure I've got a defunct drum kit. I ordered a replacement already. Glad to see they're offering the Nintendo way of swapping out hardware quickly and painlessly.
 
[quote name='Nohbdy']http://kotaku.com/gaming/rock-band-tv%3F/mtv-talks-about-rock-band-the-tv-show-326730.php



All aboard the over-saturation train!

Remember guys, Harmonix looked for songs that had an equal focus on drums, vocals, and guitars. Now find 950 more of those.[/quote]I don't see that as a bad thing. As long as they keep them all at a fair price, I would love to see some more downloadable content, especially from bands and artists I actually like. Sorry, David Bowie isn't really my favorite.
 
[quote name='sp00ge']Dont' forget, RockBand IS an EA game. :lol:

I could easily see $50+ tacked on.[/QUOTE]

I think ol' zoglog is suggesting that the drums as pictured are minimum $300, in keeping with his "man these American games have ripped off those Japanese games that Japanese publishers never bothered to bring stateside, and don't forget that a $1000 package with Guitarfreaks-style guitar (featuring all *3* fret buttons!) and Drummania-style controller is more ideal than $170.

Of course, with the complaints about how flimsy the RB stuff is, perhaps a happy median should have been sought after.
 
[quote name='mykevermin']I think ol' zoglog is suggesting that the drums as pictured are minimum $300, in keeping with his "man these American games have ripped off those Japanese games that Japanese publishers never bothered to bring stateside, and don't forget that a $1000 package with Guitarfreaks-style guitar (featuring all *3* fret buttons!) and Drummania-style controller is more ideal than $170.

Of course, with the complaints about how flimsy the RB stuff is, perhaps a happy median should have been sought after.[/QUOTE]

Naw, they tried to bring the games stateside and failed miserably with a failure to localize properly (Karaoke Revolution aside). Konami is a retarded, there's no doubt about it.

Good peripherals have NOTHING to do with Japanese games like you're trying to imply, but good peripherals don't usually come cheap. You seem to have this part confused =p

For the price of Rockband, the drums are adequate. I have never claimed that guitar freaks is superior to Rockband or Guitar hero, it just predates them. Drummania VS Rock Band is another story, but quickly becomes irrelevant since the proper drummania experience either requires a cab or the yamaha set.

In comes the DJ Dao which has the potential to work with both Rock band and Drummania as a great periphial (contingent on cost) for the home, so I don't see why you have to come in brining up shit I haven't even talked about.
 
[quote name='Zoglog']Naw, they tried to bring the games stateside and failed miserably with a failure to localize properly (Karaoke Revolution aside). Konami is a retarded, there's no doubt about it.[/QUOTE]

Which came stateside? Was this just an arcade thing?
 
[quote name='VanillaGorilla']I don't see that as a bad thing. As long as they keep them all at a fair price, I would love to see some more downloadable content, especially from bands and artists I actually like. Sorry, David Bowie isn't really my favorite.[/quote]I agree. A continuted emphasis on quality tracks and variety will make for an awesome long-term life for the game. If they can keep up the weekly updates of songs that'll be great.

I'd easily buy the whole of both the Blue and Green Weezer albums, some more Bon Jovi (falsetto, here we come!) and Police would be great too.

Anyone mess around with playing and doing vocals? I did it last night. It adds new challenge to medium guitar. ;)
 
[quote name='daroga']Anyone mess around with playing and doing vocals? I did it last night. It adds new challenge to medium guitar. ;)[/quote]I tried Easy Vocals with Medium Drums. It's easily 10x harder than rubbing your stomach and patting your own head.
 
I don't see that as a bad thing.
Click to expand...

Rock Band and Guitar Hero are genre-specific. You limit yourself to only songs of that genre. If Harmonix and MTV are literally going to go for 1000 songs, how many well-known mainstream songs of past and future are going to make it in? And what about the indies, who have an even more variable degree in quality?

Harmonix needs to find songs that work and that they work WELL, as well as have them in demand.

As long as they keep them all at a fair price, I would love to see some more downloadable content, especially from bands and artists I actually like.
Click to expand...

By your logic, you agree to be enjoyed by repetition. Guitar Hero 3 doesn't even have a REAL different gameplay mode other than versus. GuitarFreaks/Drummania have a nonstop mode. Why doesn't GH/RB have a marathon/nonstop/course mode at the very least?

So you beat Through the Fire and Flames on Expert. Whoopee. What else is there to do? See, if you were playing Konami's game, you'd reach this song as the final song in a course with a stricter lifebar, the notechart's notes shuffled around, and have various visual modifiers to screw with you. Right now, RB/GH is Super Mario Bros. while Konami is SMB3 or even Super Mario World.

If you're all going to be satiated by 1000 rock songs, I'd be worrying about the variety and creativity of the notecharts. There's only so much you can do. I'd rather see MODES than Rock Band approaching the bullshit charts of GH2/3 (read: Expert).

The only thing that came stateside was one of the first iterations of GuitarFreaks, which didn't go so well. But Konami is location testing GF/DM V4 here, which you should all look into.

Keep in mind this:

Konami's approach: Game about the guitars and drums, makes/uses songs that have a prominent or central focus around them, regardless of genre.

Harmonix/Neversoft: Game about rock music and ONLY rock music, focuses on the "experience"...which I doubt many of you buy into.
 
[quote name='daroga']I like rock songs. That's why I bought Rock Band.[/QUOTE]

I like all kinds of genres, as long as they sound good to me. But I want to do more than just conquer the hardest chart. I want that game to chew it up, spit it out, and make me do it again. Differently.
 
[quote name='Nohbdy']I like all kinds of genres, as long as they sound good to me. But I want to do more than just conquer the hardest chart. I want that game to chew it up, spit it out, and make me do it again. Differently.[/quote]Some of us haven't a prayer of conquering the hardest difficulties on anything so the way it's setup is alright with me. ;)

But, I certainly wouldn't complain if they added in some different game modes down the line.
 
I don't care if it's the hardest chart or not, I just want the game doing something else with it.

You know, this also brings up the issue as to the difficulty of future DLC. Will everyone appreciate a variety of Expert-level songs or do they all have to be bullshit hard?
 
[quote name='Nohbdy']
So you beat Through the Fire and Flames on Expert. Whoopee. What else is there to do? See, if you were playing Konami's game, you'd reach this song as the final song in a course with a stricter lifebar, the notechart's notes shuffled around, and have various visual modifiers to screw with you. Right now, RB/GH is Super Mario Bros. while Konami is SMB3 or even Super Mario World.
[/QUOTE]
Notes shuffled around? "Visual modifiers"? Sounds like the boss battles in GHIII (see: awful).
I've drained dozens upon dozens of hours into the Guitar Hero series, and outside of the boss battles, it has never gotten stale. I took me months to get to the point of being able to even finish a song on Expert, and now the drums in Rock Band brought me right back to infancy.
How many thousands of hours do you need to get out of one game, that the hundreds of songs available, with hundreds more to come, aren't enough? I don't think songs need to be boarderline-impossible to be fun to play, and as long as they keep putting out decent tracks, everyone is going to get his or her money's worth.
 
Notes shuffled around?
Click to expand...

GH only mirrors the notecharts. In GF/DM, the notes can be randomized as far as any of the available lanes using any of the the notes. If a part of a song has 3 red notes in a row in one lane in the normal chart, you could spread them out over three lanes as Yellow-Green-Red, Y-G-Y, R-G-Y, etc.

"Visual modifiers"?
Click to expand...

GH can make the notes disappear entirely. GF/DM can make the notes do that OR have speed mods (up to 10x in .5 segments instead of GH's double [2x] speed), make the notes appear suddenly, make the notes disappear before they reach the strumming zone...
 
[quote name='daroga']Why would you want to do things like that?[/QUOTE]
Challenge. What else? This is done in ALL of Konami's music games. The game can set them in a predetermined manner or the player can set them at their own discretion in a normal round or when possible.

It's also a measure of skill.
 
[quote name='Nohbdy']Challenge. What else? This is done in ALL of Konami's music games.

It's also a measure of skill.[/quote]Then I don't understand your comparison to Mario 3 or World at all. There's no "advanced" mode to those games.

If you're that itchy for a challenge, learn or get better at real instruments :) Far more rewarding and beneficial than wasting tons of time mastering rhythm game tracks.
 
My comparison was that GH/RB was a base and GF added onto that base with its own features and such.

Oh jeez, the "real instruments" card. I thought we could avoid that.
 
I just personally don't see the point of investing hundreds of hours into a rhythm game at all. They're a lot of fun to play for a while a certainly a blast with a group of people to play, but I don't understand wanting to achieve this level of perfection in a game.

Of course, I don't understand MMORPGs either. Maybe it's the same concept.
 
fuckING AMAZON!!! I've had RB preordered for months, and my shipment was delayed AGAIN, shipping Dec. 6. I was pissed I wouldn't get it by Thanksgiving, and now I wouldn't be surprised if it is closer to Christmas. If it wasn't for my store credit paying for it, I'd cancel right away. argh
 
So.

fuck Green Grass.

harder than Freebird on Guitar/Expert. It's the only song I haven't yet beaten in the tour. Not as hard as ...And Justice For All, but that one's optional.
 
[quote name='Logain8955']So.

fuck Green Grass.

harder than Freebird on Guitar/Expert. It's the only song I haven't yet beaten in the tour. Not as hard as ...And Justice For All, but that one's optional.[/quote]That's the one I'm stuck on with the drums. I always get screwed up around 70%.
 
[quote name='mykevermin']Which came stateside? Was this just an arcade thing?[/QUOTE]

They brought guitar freaks over via arcade and it probably failed miserably because they stopped it after 1 mix. "hip-hop mania" aka beatmania actually did more decently.

I have very few complaints about the rockband guitar, the strum bar leaves some to be desired but it's not all that bad as long as it doesn't break.

As for the drums, those need the most work. Gonna try to throw some foam on the drums or drumsticks to muffle the noise.
 
Well shit.

My drums just randomly stopped working all together tonight. I tried plugging them in through the USB hub, plugging them in directly, unplugging everything...they seem to have just died.

I guess I'll get EA to mail me a replacement...
 
[quote name='A Happy Panda']Sooo against my better judgment my roommate convinced me to pay $100 while he pays $70 to get this goddamn game. And man. Worth every penny. Played with the two roommates for like 5 1/2 hours. Amazing. It's too bad World Tour is kind of gimped. I can't tell you how many times we played Say it Ain't So.

Also, has anyone elses' mic been DOA out of the box? I've read that you need a controller on to make it work, but it doesn't read the mic at all. We've been playing with the headset because the game recognizes that instantly, but cannot ever find the actual Rock Band mic. Anyone know what's going on? Should I just return the whole thing to Wal-Mart and get another one? Mine had like 10 sitting on the shelf. Also, the guitar has two yellow-colored fret buttons instead of a green one on the far end. It seems like I got a fucked up bundle.

Here's the current set-up:

USB Slot 1: USB Dongle with Drums and Guitar
USB Slot 2: Mic

We've also tried, USB Slot 1: USB Dongle with all three instruments

Also, USB Slot 1: Mic
USB Slot 2: USB Dongle with Drums and Guitar

So basically we've tried everything, but to no avail.[/QUOTE]

I can't remember but there was definitely a certain order with which I had to plug them in (Mic first then controller, maybe?) I also tried some restarts in there.. basically, my Mic didn't work the first time either (despite having all 4 components plugged in).
 
Can anyone find a usb hub that works with RB and doesn't require an external power source ?

I'm running out of outlets by my TV.
 
Just got my replacment Guitar. Freakin fast. I put in a replacment order on Saturday. Hopefully this one lasts more than a day.
 
What is the turn around time on the drum kits? I put a ticket in saturday and still haven't seen anything shipped yet. The ups tracking number says that billing info received.
 
Did you do the expedited shipping where they take a credit card #? That's what I did, it says it take about 2-3 days if you go that route.
 
[quote name='Rodimus Donut']Did you do the expedited shipping where they take a credit card #? That's what I did, it says it take about 2-3 days if you go that route.[/quote]

Yeah they charged me on the 11/24 and I still dont have shit to show for it.
 
[quote name='csalzman']I bought this one before I knew that Rock Band came with a USB hub.

http://www.monoprice.com/products/product.asp?c_id=103&cp_id=10307&cs_id=1030702&p_id=2739&seq=1&format=2

Its kinda large and ugly (at least comared to the tiny rock band one), but it works just fine.[/QUOTE]

Thanks for the post, but yeah that's kinda ugly. But this one looks promising:
http://www.monoprice.com/products/p...=10307&cs_id=1030702&p_id=1479&seq=1&format=2

It looks to be about 10 bucks. That's almost worth it to help me clear up one more outlet.
 
[quote name='Nelo Ice']i wonder how long till the replacement guitars that people ordered for free get shipped[/QUOTE]

Read my post one page back.
 
[quote name='mykevermin']http://www.slate.com/id/2177432/

Ex-Sleater-Kinney member Carrie Brownstein reviews Rock Band. This is far better than any game review I've read thus far, and pretty grounded in reality.[/quote]

It kinda reads like a review for people who've already made up their minds about not liking the game or that it's a big joke or something.
 
I wonder if we will have the same problem in Canada with the instruments when it comes out in Canada.

EDIT: The return process will probably be a nightmare or non-existant in Canada too :(
 
My drum pedal snapped in half tonight...
I actually havn't heard of anyones doing this, so it was weird.

And when I went through the customer support, there was nothing for snapping the drum pedal...just if it wasn't springing back up, or if it wasn't registering.
 
No i've had a freind whos bass pedals snapped

Those things look like a Mattel toy accessory...i've been stepping on it lightly now because of that
 
For those that have had the pedals snapping: How are you using them? Do you "stomp" on them? Or do you have the pedal pressed all the way down, then lift up lightly, like you're letting off the gas a bit then going full throttle?
 
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