Rock Band

[Ritterin Sophia]

So I got Rock Band Special Edition for XBox 360 last Friday. Me and my best friend love the game (I play guitar he plays drums), our only problem was that it forces your to up the difficulty or you can't get anymore stars or fans from performances in Co-Op World Tour, this isn't a problem for me as on even the most difficult songs I can skirt along with a 3-Star performance, but the drums are hard as hell for casual players like us.

Anybody else get it?

[DPDarkPrimus]

Yes, I've had it for a couple weeks now. The buggy voice chat over Live makes it a lot harder to have fun with the people on my friends list, but rocking with folks in the same room is awesome.

Now if Utsanomiko or Spanky could learn to stop sucking when playing the drums I could sing or do guitar more.

[Stark]

What's the accuracy like using a regular headset when singing? Apparently you can use the wireless headset, but I'm curious if it works as well as the regular one.

[DPDarkPrimus]

Never tried it, and I don't really see any point in doing it unless you were going to be playing another instrument at the same time.

[Stark]

No offence, but DUH. I thought that would be obvious. OF COURSE we want to do two things at once. Don't get Flash started on the necessity of a harmonica attachment.

The sound quality on the headset is passable, and since I imagine you can turn the singer down ingame it just depends if the game can properly analyse the input, and I can't see any reason why it would be a problem. Doing two parts on expert simultaneously will be fun.

[Ritterin Sophia]

Now if Utsanomiko or Spanky could learn to stop sucking when playing the drums I could sing or do guitar more.

Props to Uts and Spanky then, those drums are hard, I tried them a couple times on easy and the drum track was about as clustered as the guitar one is on medium.

Never tried it, and I don't really see any point in doing it unless you were going to be playing another instrument at the same time.

That'd still be problem, what with the cowbell/tambourine/clap parts.

[DPDarkPrimus]

Props to them for sucking? Whatever.

And you don't have to do the "cowbell" parts in the vocal track. It says right in the tutorial that your energy won't go down if you miss them, in case you want to play another instrument at the same time.

[Spanky The Dolphin]

Have you RMA'd you guitar or drums yet, DP?

We got one on launch day though have it set aside for Christmas, so we'll have to take care of the hardware issue pretty ASAP.

Anyway, I thought the game was a blast when Uts and I tried it out with DP last Monday, and ended up going through some killer withdrawal that first week...

It's funny how I failed so horribly trying Guitar Hero II--as in just did not comprehend what I was supposed to do at all--this past summer, but was able to jump right into bass and guitar on easy for Rock Band. I think I'd be able to work my way into medium or normal or whatever pretty well, who knows what after.

And by sucking with the drums, DP means that Uts and I just totally failed at them, because we just couldn't get our head wrapped around the coordination effort required: not only do you have to keep track of a entirely separate limb, but it's as if the bass drum is its own, isolated beat. And for some reason we just can't do that.

I'm pretty psyched by the DLC selection, too, though it (and the eventual sequel for that matter) could use some Pat Benatar, more REM, more Blue Öyster Cult, and definitely Led Zeppelin...

[TheFeniX]

It's funny how I failed so horribly trying Guitar Hero II--as in just did not comprehend what I was supposed to do at all--this past summer, but was able to jump right into bass and guitar on easy for Rock Band. I think I'd be able to work my way into medium or normal or whatever pretty well, who knows what after.

The Guitar Hero games have become progressively harder. The only reason GHII is anywhere near GHI in difficulty is because of the improved hammer-on and pull-off system. I downloaded a few GHI songs off XBLive to play on GHII and could 5 star most of them on expert fairly easily, on hard it was no problem at all.

Rock Band is the easiest Guitar Hero game to date on either Guitar or Bass. There isn't one song on hard that completely blows me away, unlike Guitar Hero III which just loves kicking my ass every chance it gets. I almost broke my guitar in half trying to beat "Devil went down to Georgia" on Hard in the final battle. I finally got it, but not without a serious blow to my ego.

Anyways, Rock Band is possibly the best game to learn guitar on.

And by sucking with the drums, DP means that Uts and I just totally failed at them, because we just couldn't get our head wrapped around the coordination effort required: not only do you have to keep track of a entirely separate limb, but it's as if the bass drum is its own, isolated beat. And for some reason we just can't do that.

I'm the drummer in our "band," because I'm the only one who has anywhere near the coordination to work it out.

You have to learn the rhythm to the foot pedal on most songs or you'll just continue to get your ass kicked. At points, I'm not even worried about the bar on my "fret" board because I'm just letting my foot tap consistently while I worry about my drum stick placement.

The training mode brings up a good point: treat every note as it's own separate rhythm and you'll do much better. It's like learning to shift your hand down to red to nail solos, rather than just stretching your pinkey finger on guitar.

I'm finally getting to the point where I won't fail consistently on hard. There are still a few songs that throw me off, but it's really just going to take more practice.

[NomAnor15]

What is the song list like for Rock Band? Anything like GHIII?

[Hawkwings]

How are the vocal parts? For that matter, what do the drum parts look like?

[Spanky The Dolphin]

What is the song list like for Rock Band? Anything like GHIII?

Main list, bonus songs, and DLC.

For comparison, Guitar Hero III's.

How are the vocal parts? For that matter, what do the drum parts look like?

Vocals are good, and can be based on either tone or lyrics recognition, depending on the song or section of a song.

The drum pads look like this:



EDIT: Damn picture got big on me when I wasn't looking.

[chitoryu12]

How are the vocal parts? For that matter, what do the drum parts look like?

Do you mean "drum parts" as what the in-game looks like? It looks exactly like the guitars and bass (albeit with the color changes), but a verticle line across the board represents the bass pedal.

[Ritterin Sophia]

I almost broke my guitar in half trying to beat "Devil went down to Georgia" on Hard in the final battle. I finally got it, but not without a serious blow to my ego.

Serious blow to the ego? Can I take it that you haven't done 'Through the Fire and Flames' yet?

[Hawkwings]

Can any drumset players or quad players comment on the drum parts? I mean, are they basically rock grooves "converted" to the drum controller?

That controller looks really flimsy and ill-suited for a good beating with my preferred sticks. And who the hell puts their snare drum to the left of their hi-hat anyways?

Oh, and what are the Real Authentic Drumsticks that they keep bragging about? Make and model?

[TheFeniX]

I almost broke my guitar in half trying to beat "Devil went down to Georgia" on Hard in the final battle. I finally got it, but not without a serious blow to my ego.

Serious blow to the ego? Can I take it that you haven't done 'Through the Fire and Flames' yet?

By beating the game, during the credits you have the ability to play Through the Fire and Flames on the difficulty you beat the game on, without a Rock meter to fail you out.

Don't get me wrong, TTFF is extremely difficult, but I knew that going in (like I did for Jordan). DWDTG in battle mode is excruciatingly annoying due to Lou always getting the first Battle Power and 90% of the time using it just as you come up to your first battle power. That sets the tempo for the rest of the song.

I remember Lou once getting three "lefty flips" in a row on me. I can only be happy that the guitars for 360 are much more sturdy than the ones for PS2. IF not, I probably would have been down one guitar.

By contrast, there is no song in Rock Band that puts anywhere near that level of frustration on me. Normally, I'd be kind of annoyed at the lack of difficulty, but I'm not. This makes Rock Band much more of the "party game" I wanted it to be. If I want to get my ass kicked, I can load GHIII at any time. If I want to just worry about having fun, Rock Band all the way. The drums easily satisfy my difficulty desire though.

Can any drumset players or quad players comment on the drum parts? I mean, are they basically rock grooves "converted" to the drum controller?

Think of the basic Guitar Hero fret board. Now, take off the orange fret, so you have 4 buttons across the fret board. Now, when the kick drum is needed, an orange lines comes down along the fret board.

As for actually playing, that really depends on the difficulty. Easier difficulties will still throw the kick drum at you, just less often and you don't see many double kicks until you get around to Hard.

Even on Medium, you tend to play the whole of the rhythm parts, but during extremely fast drum solos, you generally do not need both sticks on one drum.

Expert goes by the phrase: "You are playing every note." And you really are. Sure, you won't come out of Expert with an innate knowledge of drum playing, but I'll bet it could put you in top ten for "air drumming."

And who the hell puts their snare drum to the left of their hi-hat?

Nothing is really that concrete from what I've seen. I'm no drummer, but I have noticed that the colors don't always correspond to a specific drum. It will change depending on the song.

Oh, and what are the Real Authentic Drumsticks that they keep bragging about? Make and model?

They're unfinished wooden drum sticks with no writing that I've seen. As said, I'm no drummer, but they are the same thing used in band class.

[DPDarkPrimus]

Have you RMA'd you guitar or drums yet, DP?

The guitar has been working fine, but I decided to RMA the drums as a precaution when I found out they were the same make that others were having trouble with. Hopefully I will be receiving the replacement this week.

[Ritterin Sophia]

They're unfinished wooden drum sticks with no writing that I've seen. As said, I'm no drummer, but they are the same thing used in band class.

No I have mine right next to me. They have Rockband TM then a small picture of the drum symbol right next to it, then further on down it has the Ludwig drums brand name printed on it.

[DPDarkPrimus]

They're unfinished wooden drum sticks with no writing that I've seen. As said, I'm no drummer, but they are the same thing used in band class.

No I have mine right next to me. They have Rockband TM then a small picture of the drum symbol right next to it, then further on down it has the Ludwig drums brand name printed on it.

People have reported receiving blank sticks with their kits.

Doesn't really matter either way to me, seeing as you'll probably end up replacing them sooner or later.

[Spanky The Dolphin]

Have you RMA'd you guitar or drums yet, DP?

The guitar has been working fine,

I thought you said there was an issue with downstrum, or did you use the self-fix method to clear that up?

[Natorgator]

Can any drumset players or quad players comment on the drum parts? I mean, are they basically rock grooves "converted" to the drum controller?

That controller looks really flimsy and ill-suited for a good beating with my preferred sticks. And who the hell puts their snare drum to the left of their hi-hat anyways?

Oh, and what are the Real Authentic Drumsticks that they keep bragging about? Make and model?

The drumsticks are basically the cheapest kind you can get. They'd break pretty fast on a real set, I think.

The drums are about as faithful as you could expect for the general public: if they added the kick drum as much as you would play it in real life, only real drummers would be able to play it and that would be useless. I had to turn on lefty mode because I play open handed (lead with high hats with my left hand, snare with right.) Otherwise, it puts the high hat on the extreme right side which basically makes no sense in the context of real drumming.

My biggest gripe is the pad arrangements: they change constantly. Sometimes a pad is a high hat, sometimes it's a tom. I guess if I played it more I'd figure that out eventually, but it was frustrating. I suppose it's essential for the game, but as someone who has real life experience it is frustrating. Before I played it, I wanted to get it as an excuse to start playing real life drums again...but since I expected too much I think I'm just going to get silencer pads for a real set.

[NomAnor15]

Main list, bonus songs, and DLC.

Holy shit, that is an amazing list. And the only guy I know who has a 360 lives two hours away. Damn it all.

[LadyTevar]

Holy Fuck! They have "Tom Sawyer" on there?
Shit! Do they force you to do the 16th note bass drum beat too?

Waaaaaay back in the day, a cousin tried programing that into Midi on his Apple IIC. He had to program it in half-time just to get it to play the bass drum line right.

[DPDarkPrimus]

Have you RMA'd you guitar or drums yet, DP?

The guitar has been working fine,

I thought you said there was an issue with downstrum, or did you use the self-fix method to clear that up?

I thought I had an issue with the downstrum, but after playing the guitar for several more hours, I've concluded that it was my own imagination and that I was accidentally hitting the bar sometimes. It still happens occasionally if the whammy bar is improperly adjusted.

[Spanky The Dolphin]

Holy Fuck! They have "Tom Sawyer" on there?
Shit! Do they force you to do the 16th note bass drum beat too?

I believe on expert difficulty you're pretty much matching all of the notes.