ROCK BAND

I LOVE YOU ROCK BAND

you getting this, antexit?

I can't believe I've been waiting for this for so long.

Oh yes, I preordered it like three months ago, Will. I am a 30-year-old man whose living room will soon be full of toy musical instruments.

To be fair, I was already a 29-year-old with a living room filled with toy musical instruments, so this isn't going to be a big stretch for me.

If you ever need another toy instrumentalist I live in Mile End and am only one xbox message away from ROCKING THE LOL OUT

Pretty much the instant it comes out on wii.

BOOO I REFUSE

I wonder why they would announce DLC before the game has even come out.

It actually comes out the same day the game's released, I think. And they didn't announce it, it was a leak.

I wonder why they would release DLC on the same day that the game comes out. (I know the answer why, thanks)

It leaked to the official xbox magazine?

"Timmy and the Lords of the Underworld" – Timmy and the Lords of the Underworld

this has got to be a joke.

Why a joke? Guitar Hero 1 or 2, I forget, had that Strongbad "Trogdor" song.

i think one. two had a Spinal Tap song tho!

You get an achievement in GH2360 if you beat the Trogdor and Dethklok songs.

GH80s also had the Limozeen song.

Let's see here:

FUCK NO * "Are You Gonna Be My Girl" – Jet

Hell yeah * "Ballroom Blitz" – Sweet

Enh. * "Black Hole Sun" - Soundgarden

Sure. * "Blitzkrieg Bop" – Ramones

Bleah * "Celebrity Skin" – Hole

Enh, could be worse. * "Cherub Rock" – Smashing Pumpkins

Not my first choice but okay * "Creep" – Radiohead

Bleah * "Dani California" – Red Hot Chili Peppers

FUCK THIS * "Dead on Arrival" – Fall Out Boy

Not bad * "Detroit Rock City" – Kiss

Fuck yeah, now we're talkin' * "(Don't Fear) The Reaper" – Blue Öyster Cult

Hmm. Okay. * "The Electric Version" – The New Pornographers

Enh. * "Enter Sandman" – Metallica

sure. * "Epic" – Faith No More

Why not. * "Flirtin' with Disaster" – Molly Hatchet

Enh. * "Foreplay/Long Time" – Boston

Okay. * "Gimme Shelter" – Rolling Stones

Not bad. * "Go with the Flow" – Queens of the Stone Age

???? * "Green Grass and High Tides" – The Outlaws

Can't remember this one * "The Hand That Feeds" – Nine Inch Nails

Pfft. * "Here It Goes Again" – OK Go

??? * "Highway Star" – Deep Purple

Enh. * "I Think I'm Paranoid" – Garbage
Why this one? * "In Bloom" – Nirvana

Why this one? * "Learn to Fly" – Foo Fighters

Okay. * "Main Offender" – The Hives

Sweet. * "Maps" – Yeah Yeah Yeahs

Heh. Sure. * "Mississippi Queen" – Mountain

Enh. * "Next to You" – The Police

Could be worse. * "Orange Crush" – R.E.M.

Okay. * "Paranoid" – Black Sabbath

Why not. * "Reptilia" – The Strokes

FUCK yeah. * "Run to the Hills" – Iron Maiden

Excellent * "Sabotage" – Beastie Boys

Enh. * "Say It Ain't So" – Weezer

Bleah. * "Should I Stay or Should I Go" – The Clash

Okay. * "Suffragette City" – David Bowie

Heh. * "Tom Sawyer" – Rush

Sure. * "Train Kept A-Rollin'" – Aerosmith

Bleah. * "Vasoline" – Stone Temple Pilots

haha. * "Wanted Dead or Alive" – Bon Jovi

Which version? * "Wave of Mutilation" – Pixies

Enh, okay. * "When You Were Young" – The Killers

Nah. * "Welcome Home" – Coheed and Cambria

Okay. * "Won't Get Fooled Again" – The Who

??? * "Highway Star" – Deep Purple

You don't know Highway Star!?

"Green Grass and High Tides" is a pretty awesome song. Not much singing in it though, I don't think. And imo Highway Star is the only even remotely tolerable Deep Purple song I've ever heard. Why is that horrible band so popular?

It's weird that there are multiple career mode songs that are on both RB and GHIII.

I thought so too, but all the crossovers are only songs you can play except as 2-player careerists in GHIII, so it doesn't affect most players at all.

all the crossovers are only songs you can play except as 2-player careerists in GHIII:

Not true!

"Cherub Rock" – Smashing Pumpkins: GHIII 1p career
"Mississippi Queen" – Mountain: GHIII 1p career
"Paranoid" – Black Sabbath: GHIII 1p career
"When You Were Young" – The Killers: GHIII 1p career

And then:
"Ballroom Blitz" – Sweet (the shitty cover of this song was on GHII:80s)
"Reptilia" – The Strokes: GHIII 2p bonus track
"Sabotage" – Beastie Boys: GHIII 2p bonus track

You don't know Highway Star!?

i've heard it, but i can't remember it offhand

Pretty sure the version of "Wave of Mutilation" they have is the Doolittle version (not the slow surf one), as I think that was the one in the demo kiosk that I played. It's a great song either way, though.

The crossover of songs between GH III/RB isn't that surprising - I started noticing a year or so ago that multiple music games are able to afford/get the same song in a short period of time - like it's out there for sale, so developers snatch it up. Hence seeing stuff like "Highway Star" or "Rock This Town" in several titles in the last 3 years.

If i actually could afford a next gen system I'd be slobbering all over this. Pixies! New Pornos! Weezer! Rush (though a cover, I think)! Black Hole Sun! I love music games, but you're lucky if you can get 1 for 3 good songs on a soundtrack - and RB/GHIII often includes the masters instead of cheap covers.

Also: why the hate on Deep Purple? Machine Head is classic.

Rock Band delayed in Canada until Dec. 19?

http://www.joystiq.com/2007/11/11/rumor-rock-band-delayed-in-canada-until-dec-19/

I played the drum demo at Best Buy and it was fucking sweet. Real wood sticks! I played "In Bloom", "Tom Sawyer", and "Paranoid".

I didn't understand what it wanted me to do when there were solid bars (just roll, I guess?), but I could fall back on, like, actually playing the parts! It was good practice!

I'm probably playing the full version tonight. Should be fun!

I am not playing this game for a month and I'm not happy about it at all.

the canada thing is definitely happening then?

Yup. The DLC was just priced, and it's cheaper than the GH songs and you can get one at a time rather than the packs if you want.

Just to be clear, I plan on only playing this game at Best Buy.

Someone (Matt, I'm looking at you) know when this is coming out on the wii?

I think it's interesting that the mechanics of playing guitar in this game has nothing to do with actually playing guitar, but playing with sticks is playing with sticks.

Did they have the bass pedal set up at BB? I'm interested to see how that works. How do they represent it on the screen?

I think the solid bar is the kick drum and the demos are setup to autoplay that.

I think you're right, judging from the youtube videos. They didn't have the pedal at the store.

With the pedal, it would be dangerously close to actual drumming. I wonder how many kids are going to make the leap from playing Rock Band >>> "I could really do this".

They say on Expert you're actually playing the drum charts, so you could sit down at a set just the same.

Review on IGN now up. They like it.

I'm gonna shake you ya ya ya ya, ya ya ya ya ya ya, IM A HIGHWAY STAR!

man, even the songs that kingfish didn't like are pretty good.
Vaseline, In Bloom, Orange Crush, Enter Sandman, Black Hole Sun...

the only thing that I see as a problem is that some of the songs are too chill. but that's good because faster songs seem to get annoying quicker - on the contrary, faster usually means more fun.

I always think there is something strange about hardcore Blue Oyster Cult and CCR fans by the way.. Actually all rock with strong southern influences (I rather listen to The Who myself).

wait a second... someone was dissing Deep Purple!

"Green Grass and High Tides" is a pretty awesome song. Not much singing in it though, I don't think. And imo Highway Star is the only even remotely tolerable Deep Purple song I've ever heard. Why is that horrible band so popular?

-- antexit, Saturday, November 10, 2007 3:45 PM (1 week ago)

I have the greatest hits and I must say that My Girl From Tokyo, Sweet Child in Time, Stormbringer, Space Truckin', Speed King, Fireball, Strange Kind of Woman. I won't go on because they are cool in the funniest rockenest sense of the word.

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I am not prepared to defend my opinion of Deep Purple.

So, this is really very fun. The Expert song maps for guitar are a lot easier than on GH, but the guitar is harder to play, so it winds up being even harder than GH at times. The vocals are really difficult above Medium, and the drums are pretty scary for a guy like me who's never played drums before. I played exclusively on Easy after one disastrous try on Medium. My drummer friend, on the other hand, played successfully on Expert without struggling too much.

IMPORTANT QUESTION - is this going to lead to a resurgence in unironic use of those electronic synth pad drum sets in bands in the next three to five years?

oh god :(

"The V-Drums feel more natural to me, you know, cause I learned on Rock Band."

To be honest, I have truly been hopnig that these would make a comeback since 1992 when I first saw a commercial for kids' ones, and again in 1998 when I got to play some at Science North in Sudbury, Ontario. Completely unironically then AND now.

Well a Fender guitar has already been modded to work with GH, so maybe someone will do the same with Rock Band and a Simmons kit.

The tracklist on this thing really sucks.

Have played with the keyboard round at a friend's, and speaking as a non piano player, normal keys is much the same as guitar, was playing on expert no problem. Pro keys otoh - gah! Impossible! Are there tutorials to e.g. tell you which finger to hit which key with, or whatever?

Only thing I'm finding jarring is that on a real piano, if I hit a wrong note, I can tell whether it was a tone too high or a semitone too low or whatever, then adjust accordingly. In this, if I hit a wrong one, I just get that CLUNK noise, so recovering is a lot more difficult.

It has the same problem for guitar, unfortunately. But that's the part that makes it a game instead of playing an instrument I guess.

why is drumming so hard on this

was successfully making my guitar gently weep but my drums were howling in agony

What level are you playing it on? I think easy is actually a little harder than medium in some ways because so much of the drum beat is missing.

Yeah, there's a whole bunch of pro keys lessons built in - scales, chords, fingerings etc. Find them a bit tedious to trawl through myself (just doing it for the achievements bah) but I can imagine them being great for a keyboard beginner.

so if get RB3 - all the songs on my hd from RB2 are available yes? What about the songs on the RB2 disk? Do I have to rip them to the hd?

Almost all the downloaded rb2 songs can be transferred over. the ones that were on the original game soundtrack cannot.

I dunno whether it's different for RB2, but I've managed to import all the songs from Lego Rock Band into RB3. It's a bit of a faff though, first I needed the code from the card that came in the original Lego Rock Band pack, then I had to put that code into their website to get a Live Marketplace code I could redeem, then that allowed me to spend 800 points on a track ripper thingy which I had to download to the xbox, then it let me put in the LRB disc and rip the tracks from there onto the hard drive. I'm sure there must be an easier way.

Method also varies for each console.

I like rb3 so far. They pro keys are fun even though I'm not that good at them. I find that practicing the songs at 70% speed is more engaging than the scales/tutorials. I still need drums. And maybe the fancy pro guitar. But I will probably just get frustrated by it.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pikWPRVFWJE

Took me many years, but I finally have been playing this game. Grinding through World Tour mode in RB2. Getting bored of guitar pretty fast - I'm at a bad difficulty spike, where Medium is boring but Hard is generally too tough for to handle. Lovin' drums though, probably because I can't play them at all in reality!

I hit the same issue with guitar. I actually had to relearn medium with my pinky on the orange button and work the index to cover both yellow and red. Kinda haven't played in a long time, but it's been summer vacation.

The Guitar Hero guitars are much easier to play, though they look more toy-like. My friend had a wireless Guitar Hero guitar that worked with Rock Band. It was my axe of choice.

Yeah, the mistake a lot of folks make in switching from medium to hard is trying to get the pinky to take on the extra load. Matt's right, much better to give the shifts to the index.

Yeah, I use the GH3 Guitar still. The best.

prooobably shouldn't have waited until a few hours before the end of the sale but whoops

virtually all RB1+RB2 era DLC is on sale, 50% off. just picked up a bunch of singles, thinking about dropping on Doolittle or Blood Sugar Sex Magik ($10 each). any recs on fun to play tracks?

doolittle has a ton of tracks that are boring as hell to play. nothing happens in them.

oh yeah, you did say something about that a few years ago in this thread... mmm.. guess i'll pass. i got enough stuff tonight anyway

Gouge Away, Debaser, and Here Comes Your Man are all great fun of course, but even those have very simple charts.

i'd probably get them if i wasn't playing these pretty much by myself... as you're bring up the issue, i can see how they might not play that well. still hemming and hawing over BSSM.

also on topic - how's Rock Band Blitz?

dunno, heard it was okay?

if they had done this sale two years ago i would buy a ton of them. but i haven't played any fake instrument games in like a year.

Blitz is pretty good fun, it's really just Amplitude 2, if you ever played that. I seem to suck at it. Was thinking it'd be more fun if I had friends to compete against, I'm the only person I know playing it so far, so yeah, if you all join in that'll make me happy. Until you all beat me.

Think I spent something like £30 in that sale this week, AM AN IDIOT. Did pick up the whole of Doolittle, don't really mind playing simple parts if they're in songs I like hearing anyway.

Oddly enough, the sale we discussed is still going, just unadvertised

Finally tried out Rock Band Blitz. Yup, it's just the newest in the Frequency/Amplitude/Rock Band mobile series, but hey, it's good, cute. Was very very happy when I realized "Death On Two Legs" was in this (and if I ever open up my RB 3 kit, I can play it in that too!)

I always enjoyed playing this, but I never feel like getting out all the crap I need to play it. Plus I have the wii version and you have to put the wiimotes in the guitars. Pain in the ass.

I started playing Pro Guitar on RB3 last night:

http://cdn.arstechnica.net/GAMING/PROGUITAR.JPG

As a person who does not play guitar in real life I am finding it very very difficult to train my dumb hands to do things, but the tutorial system is very good imo.

that isn't my dumb hand ftr

genuinely curious how your experience will be. learning to play/fret guitar is rough

At the very least it's nice to not have to worry about developing calluses. The strings are soft, with a lot of flexibility.

Where did you pick the guitar up? I've been close to buying a kit and starting on pro drums recently but prices seem pretty nuts these days.

Acquired it from a friend. The non-pro Rock Band 2 guitar I bought last year cost more than it did retail, and was not in mint shape to say the least. (Rock Band 3 guitars are hard to find, pro or otherwise, because the game sold so poorly.) One of the benefits of the Pro guitar seems to be that no one really put much mileage on them because of how much harder they are to learn to play.

Yeah I can't find drums or pro guitars for sub-£100 anywhere, and can't bring myself to pay over around £40 for either. Meanwhile the pro keyboard (which I bought day one for some crazy price and love) seems to have dipped below £20 now, which is infuriating.

Been playing quite a bit recently though - turned it on last month for the first time in at least a year and found my pro keys ranking had dropped from the 400s to the 800s. Was incensed, have clawed my way back to the 600s now, but the problem at this stage is that the songs I haven't already got decent scores for are the songs I just don't like listening to, so have tended to avoid playing. Makes it a bit of a slog from here on.

Oh and the other thing I did recently was figure out how to add all the tracks from RB1 and 2 to my library. First was easy, just picked up a used copy for a couple of quid and then the game lets you export everything to your hard drive. Second one, I didn't even need to buy the game - there's a code system but there are dudes on ebay selling that code for around £6.

It's a real bummer how this stuff just disappeared from stores shortly after Rock Band 3 came out. I've resorted to checking ebay and gumtree every now and then in the hope that another kid has moved out of home, because I'm not paying $100 for a plastic keyboard.

http://www.ndolger.com/configuring-usb-keyboard-with-rock-band-3/

Huh. Didn't realize they started putting out DLC again last month.

They did, and somehow it broke all the leaderboards (on 360 at least). Pretty infuriating.

http://madcatz.com/rock-band-is-back/

wow that gabe guitar looks horrible
if they make good on legacy controllers and DLC working, that would be great
(too bad I jumped ship from Xbox to PS4)
and they dropped keyboard, it looks like?

Yeah, no to cross platform DLC compatibility, unsurprisingly. And honestly I'd consider buying an Xbox One just for this one game, if it wasn't for the fact they're dropping keys. But without keys I just don't want this, regardless of platform.

Harmonix seem like one of the good guys.. they made a SHITLOAD off of rock band, too.. but also thanks to viacom totally fucking up projections

http://www.polygon.com/2013/7/17/4532194/viacom-loses-harmonix-lawsuit-must-pay-299m-disputed-bonuses

sounds like typical corporate accounting to me, viacom "won" since they got to hold on to ~400mil over those years it was litigated

Final set list for 4:

.38 Special - "Caught Up In You"
4 Non Blondes - "What's Up?"
Aerosmith - "Toys in the Attic"
Arctic Monkeys - "Arabella"
Avenged Sevenfold - "Hail to the King"
Benjamin Booker - "Violent Shiver"
The Black Keys - "Fever"
The Both - "Milwaukee"
Brad Paisley ft. Keith Urban - "Start a Band"
Brandi Carlisle - "Mainstream Kid"
Cake - "Short Skirt/Long Jacket"
The Cure - "Friday I'm In Love"
Dark Wheels - "V-Bomb"
Disturbed - "Prayer"
Dream Theater - "Metropolis - Part 1 'The Miracle and the Sleeper'"
Duck & Cover - "Knock Em Down"
Eddie Japan - “Albert”
Elvis Presley - "Suspicious Minds"
Fall Out Boy - “Centuries”
Fleetwood Mac - "You Make Loving Fun"
Foo Fighters - "The Feast and the Famine"
Gary Clark, Jr. - "Ain't Messin' 'Round"
Gin Blossoms - "Follow You Down"
Grouplove - "Tongue Tied"
Halestorm - “I Miss The Misery”
Heart - “Kick It Out”
Heaven’s Basement – “I Am Electric”
Imagine Dragons - "I Bet My Life"
Jack White - "Lazaretto"
Jeff Allen - "Recession"
Johnny Blazes and the Pretty Boys - "Cold Clear Light"
Judas Priest - "Halls of Valhalla"
The Killers - "Somebody Told Me"
Lightning Bolt - “Dream Genie”
Little Big Town - "Little White Church"
Live - "All Over You"
Lucius - "Turn It Around"
Lynyrd Skynyrd - "That Smell"
Mark Ronson feat. Bruno Mars - "Uptown Funk"
The Mighty Mighty Bosstones - "The Impression That I Get"
Mumford & Sons - "The Wolf"
The Outfield - "Your Love"
Ozzy Osbourne - "Miracle Man"
Paramore - "Still Into You"
The Protomen - "Light Up The Night"
Queens of the Stone Age - "My God is the Sun"
R.E.M. - "The One I Love"
Rick Derringer - “Rock and Roll, Hoochie Koo”
Rush - “A Passage To Bangkok”
Scandal - "The Warrior"
Scorpions - “No One Like You”
Slydigs – “Light The Fuse”
Soul Remnants – “Dead Black (Heart of Ice)”
Soundgarden - "Superunknown"
Spin Doctors - "Little Miss Can't Be Wrong"
St. Vincent - "Birth in Reverse"
System of a Down – “Spiders”
Tijuana Sweetheart - "Pistol Whipped"
Van Halen - "Panama"
Van Morrison - "Brown Eyed Girl"
The Warning - "Free Falling"
White Denim - “At Night In Dreams”
The Who - "The Seeker"

Worst setlist for a main series title?
I mean... "What's Up?"
There's still at least a dozen or so good songs in there, but.. yeah, desire to drop $200 on a new band set is diminishing.
Also, lol at The Protomen somehow making it in there

Yeah pretty bad. Got a feeling this and the new GH are both going to flop hugely.

Dream Theater - "Metropolis - Part 1 'The Miracle and the Sleeper'"

loooooooooooool

hehe i love that choice!! would've preferred a track from Scenes from a Memory, though

That is one weird setlist. "That Smell"?!? Have they used up every single good Skynyrd song? And Suspicious Minds is a great karaoke song, but not exactly thrilling for anyone except the singer.

They got an amazing amount of success out of these games but they're crazy to think it hasn't run its course already.

will it ever again be as huge a popular phenomenon was it was circa RB2? unlikely...
(but it's in their interest to keep it going, IMO - as well as Guitar Hero - so that it might be a cultural mainstay like karaoke years down the line)
i believe that there's a lot of potential to exceed what they currently have in gameplay, interface, tracks, hardware, etc. that hasn't been explored.
hoping the revival of Amplitude does well, when it finally comes out...

https://www.fig.co/campaigns/rock-band-4-pc

Weird, desperate move coming off the disappointing holiday sales...

http://www.gameinformer.com/b/news/archive/2016/04/24/online-multiplayer-and-an-expansion-are-coming-to-rock-band-4.aspx

So they'll add multiplayer for Christmas? Maybe I can get a cheap band set by then...