Gaming Rock Band

[Ellerby]

[FONT="Tahoma"][COLOR="DimGray"]I'm shocked there isn't already a thread for this.

[center][img]http://img252.imageshack.us/img252/6286/rockbandbg4.jpg[/img][/center]

Rock Band, if you haven't already heard of it (which is unlikely), is Harmonix's newest game (they made the first two Guitar Hero games) and I must say it [i][b]rocks[/b][/i]. Where in previous rhythm and music games, the multi player may have seemed a little dry, Rock Band completely refreshes everything.

Basically up to four people can play together as a virtual band using one of four different instruments (guitar, bass, vocals and drums). It comes packed with tons of songs (and a new song pack every week) for unlimited replay value and the vibe you get when you and your buddies are jamming along is enough to give you goosebumps.

I don't actually own the game yet (soon! I ordered it online and will be getting it in one week) but I did get the opportunity to play it a couple times at my friends house and I was really blown away. Has anyone else played this? What do you guys think of it compared to Guitar Hero III?[/COLOR][/FONT]

[Morpheus]

I've had it since it was released and it is definitely the best of it's kind. A few annoyances are present, but the setlist is amazing and playing with 3 friends is nothing short of spectacular.

Guitar Hero 3 is pretty terrible by comparison, even to the older GH games. It just has the feel of being thrown together and was in many ways a step backwards from the precedent set by Harmonix in the first 3 GH games. Neversoft proved that they didn't have a clue when it came to actually making the games. The song selection was mostly a poor attempt to make the game really hard and the covers were terrible.

[2010DigitalBoy]

[COLOR="DarkOrange"]First, let me say that my little bro owns and is master of both Guitar Hero 3 and Rock Band (though he will only play the drums because he hates the Rock Band guitar). As for how I feel about them... it's quite complex.

It goes without saying that Rock Band is, by far, WAY better than GH3. However... I just don't have as much fun plaing it I guess. However, I attribute all of that solely to not being able to go head-to-head. I only ever played GH3 on pro face off jammin out against my bros for bragging rights. All of us being on a team is fun, but just not as fun. Besides, while I get my occasional turn on guitars or drums, I'm mostly given the position of vocalist because.... I can sing. And since my brothers are as god if-not-better than me at their respective instruments, my position is set. I don't mind much because I have DREAMED of singing Welcome Home as karaoke, but I still would like the opportunity to slam my bro at it and laugh.

So until I can do battles, GH3 wil still hold a place in my heart (not to mention while Welcom Home, Tom Sawyer (despite gay-*** cover) and Black Hole Sun are all cool, NOTHING is as satisfying as beating the most manly song ever, Knights of Cydonia, covered in sweat and laughing with pride). [/COLOR]

[songsofsorrow]

Yes i've heard of rock band.I've also heard it kinda sucks, but only in some parts. take the guitaring, i heard that it lacks, and is way behind guitar hero. now as for comparing the rest of rock band to guitar hero, it's gonna be like comparing the harry potter books to their counterpart movies, yes some of the movies were good but they weren't as good as the books. I've also heard thar the vocals stink because you can't change octaves you have to sing it how it is, which is particularly hard for me since i'm a tenor/bass. So unlike karaoke revolution you can't switch octaves. Never heard anything bad about the drumming, but i'm sure i will eventually, my problem with the drums is, they are only toms and a bass, and toms are only fun with quints or quads when you are marching or in drumline, or atleast that's my postion.

Other than that i've heard that it's a pretty good game. But i just think it's a bunch of hype.

[2010DigitalBoy]

[quote name='songsofsorrow']Yes i've heard of rock band.I've also heard it kinda sucks, but only in some parts. take the guitaring, i heard that it lacks, and is way behind guitar hero. now as for comparing the rest of rock band to guitar hero, it's gonna be like comparing the harry potter books to their counterpart movies, yes some of the movies were good but they weren't as good as the books. I've also heard thar the vocals stink because you can't change octaves you have to sing it how it is, which is particularly hard for me since i'm a tenor/bass. So unlike karaoke revolution you can't switch octaves. Never heard anything bad about the drumming, but i'm sure i will eventually, my problem with the drums is, they are only toms and a bass, and toms are only fun with quints or quads when you are marching or in drumline, or atleast that's my postion.

Other than that i've heard that it's a pretty good game. But i just think it's a bunch of hype.[/QUOTE]

[COLOR="DarkOrange"]I'd highly recommend you play it before jumpiing to conclsions. Like I said before, it's infinitely better than GH. The guitar peripheral in particular is monumentally awesome. I can sing most of the songs, and on easy mode and sometimes medium, my little bro can get high scores just by mumbling. The drums are brilliant once you get used to them. [/COLOR]

[songsofsorrow]

not to sound like I made a big mistake but i did get stuck in a hole on that one. yes i know I should try it before i bash it and i'm about two weeks or so away from that chance, once we finish drumline marching and perform it all the way through. I did say other than that it was pretty good. and if you use the rock band guitar for guitar hero you can finally play on expert mode. and yes i have heard it's a lot of fun wih 3-4 people, but i heard "it's kind of boring in just one player" just quoting not trying to bash it. but once i do try it i'll tell ya

[Morpheus]

Just to clarify, the game senses pitch, not octave. You're free to sing whatever octave or combination of octaves you desire.

[Semjaza]

The weird thing about bashing the single player is that it essentially just is Guitar Hero. You progress through the songs and that's it. I noticed this in reviews... but to ***** about that not being enough is like saying GH3 isn't enough either, really. It's the same system minus the absolutely horrid guitar battles.

There seems to be this general idea that the timing is off in it too... I've heard this from several people andi it's almost taken on this mythical quality where every other person interested in the game thinks its an issue. As long as you calibrate your TV, it's fine. If you don't, well, it can be really bad. I noticed it particularly on LCD TVs.

Guitar-wise it's nowhere near as difficult. At the same time, I don't know that that's the point. It's far more a furthering of the social aspects GH started and I think the developers knew enough to keep it at some point where it's always accessible and not simply just frustrating. I imagine it's very rare to find four people who can handle instruments on expert simultaneously and do well. Either way, I don't think anyone who is amazing at GH should be approaching this expecting the same thing... it's not really focused on shredding.

Beyond that it's a lot of fun and, at least personally, I prefer the actual track listing. As far as I'm concerned Deep Purple's Highway Star makes this game.

I do play guitar against people online in this if anyone wants to hit me up on Live: Lime Balthazar. I usually do hard or expert.

[The Spectacular Professor]

[quote name='Semjaza']Beyond that it's a lot of fun and, at least personally, I prefer the actual track listing. As far as I'm concerned Deep Purple's Highway Star makes this game.[/QUOTE]

Yeah, but can you play it while simultaneously reuniting a lost pug with its devastated owner?

[URL="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bOfwEaihDWM"]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bOfwEaihDWM[/URL]

In all seriousness, though, Rock Band looks pretty awesome. If I had money to burn, I'd probably own it. I've only heard a couple of bad things and those were just word of mouth.

(And songs, buddy, if the game measured octave, how on Smurf would people like me ever get past the first 5 levels?)

[Japan]

[SIZE="1"]There are a lot of things that I do not like about this game. One is a biased opinion. With the drum, the foot petal is very fragile. If you are not gentle with it, it breaks. The drum doesn't always register your hits when you try to go 'all out' for bonus hits.

The guitar seems like it is nothing new so far. (Guitar Hero)

I always get stuck singing. <--- Biased opinion there.

This game is alright but it get's boring after a while for me.[/SIZE]

[Aberinkula]

[COLOR="1234"]I want Rock Band, no I [I][U][B]want[/B][/U][/I], Rock Band. Guitar Hero 3 is getting boring, and Rock band has more than just the guitar, which is nice. Also, I want to play Welcome Home, badly. In fact, everytime Rock Band comes into conversation I say "I want it so I can play Welcome Home.

But as of now I don't have the money, which sucks, but I hope to get it later this year, and beat the **** out off everyone who challenges me to Welcome Home.[/COLOR]

[Ellerby]

[FONT="Tahoma"][COLOR="DimGray"][quote name='songsofsorrow']my problem with the drums is, they are only toms and a bass, and toms are only fun with quints or quads when you are marching or in drumline, or atleast that's my postion.[/QUOTE]
Just so you know the drums have one snare, two toms, a cymbal and a bass pedal. As well as certain songs have hi-hat parts. When you get to do your own drum solo in the middle of a song and you're a real drummer so you aren't just wacking for points it's best thing in the world.

Honestly, if what I'm seeing here is that you're a concerned drummer and I'm right, don't fret. Imagine getting to do one of your snare rolls in the middle of your favourite song.[/COLOR][/FONT]

[Desbreko]

[color=#4B0082]I got to play Rock Band a few days ago at a friend's birthday party (another friend had gotten it for Christmas and brought it with him) and it was awesome. We only had one guitar so we couldn't get four people playing at once but it was still great fun all around.

I mainly played guitar since that's what I was best at. I think I impressed people, coming in and immediately playing on medium and then telling them I'd only had about two or three hours of experience with Guitar Hero II before that. Though I immediately noticed that medium in Rock Band was not as hard as medium in GH, rocking out on guitar while friends were playing drums and doing vocals was a blast.

I also played a few songs on the drums (on easy), which was fun but I wasn't that great starting out. I was nowhere near as good as I was on guitar the first time I played GH, at any rate, though I finished the song without failing. I could keep a steady rhythm, it was just getting the timing down that was hard. So I'd be consistent but I'd be consistently off by just a bit and would miss notes. I'd really like to get some more time on the drums.

As for vocals, I failed horribly at singing Bon Jovi's Wanted Dead or Alive. I don't know what it was but I couldn't get the game to register changes in the pitch of my voice. The arrow would just stick at the same level it appeared at when I started a word and would barely move until I stopped and let it disappear before singing again. Basically I got it right the first time or I missed entirely, which didn't work out too well. It was working fine for everyone else but, seriously, my vocal range isn't [i]that[/i] narrow. :animesigh[/color]

[songsofsorrow]

[quote name='Aceburner']Yeah, but can you play it while simultaneously reuniting a lost pug with its devastated owner?

In all seriousness, though, Rock Band looks pretty awesome. If I had money to burn, I'd probably own it. I've only heard a couple of bad things and those were just word of mouth.

(And songs, buddy, if the game measured octave, how on Smurf would people like me ever get past the first 5 levels?)[/QUOTE]

Ace first of all stop watching old cartoons, don't want to revisit childhood (again)

and 8bit i know there are snare parts in regular music, but the drums do just look like toms. that was my problem. but for now i'll submiss until I play it, then it's back to OB.

[Ellerby]

[FONT="Tahoma"][COLOR="DimGray"]So, [B]who here wants to go online with me?[/B] I play Expert Guitar/Bass and Drums and Vocals on Medium (if I'm in the mood to sing, that is).

There's some really awesome DLC coming in March. I'm looking forward to the metal pack (Sabbath, Maiden and Metallica ftw) a lot. But mostly I just can't wait to play Portal's "Still Alive." [i]That[/i] will be fun.

So what kind of songs have you guys downloaded so far? Also what difficulties/instruments do you play?[/COLOR][/FONT]

[Anakoni Stark]

[SIZE=1] been playing the game for roughly a month now, with very few and short hiatuses inbetween. I finished out the guitar campaign on medium, and working on hard; as for the drum campaign I'm having a hard time with that on medium, the only songs I can play without too many flaws is [URL="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4PiHHpiOmAs"] [B][U] Maps[/B][/U][/URL] and [URL="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YU7LZts87Zg"] [B][U]Say It Ain't So[/B][/U][/URL].

I love playing the game, but I'm kinda frustrated that I have to play local matches, with my friends because I dont have live, and even local multiplayer isnt that great because the friends I play with arent that reliable.

And I'm also mad that I dont have live because the nine inch nails pack is suppost to come out next week, plus there a bunch of tunes I'd like to download too, but I'll be getting live within the next couple of months, so my bordom will finally come to an end.

[B][U]Current Playing Stats[/B][/U]

1. Guitar - Hard
2. Drums - Medium
3. Vocals - Medium
4. Bass - Expert[/SIZE]

[Asher]

About the whole GH3 and RB debate. I used to own GH3 and I now own the full RB set and I'll have my say here.

Basically, I believe that RB wins the battle hands down as someone who played the first GH onwards. I feel as if songs are much more fun to play on the guitar (Besides, if you're looking for competition, go play Tug of War or see your ranking on the Leaderboards). RB also beats out GH because Harmonix and company wanted to focus on making RB a platform and not make RB2s or RB3s. Since they release new downloadable content EVERY TUESDAY, so you will never get tired by playing the same songs over and over again. I expected GH3 to have more downloadable content, but it was never on a consistent basis and the content included songs I've never heard of before (Except the Halo Theme remix). I got bored of 'playing guitar' only in GH3 and I was excited primarily because of the drumkit. RB is the game I've been looking for because I can FINALLY play or attempt to play drums instead of playing guitar over and over again. I don't expect Neversoft to realize their drawbacks in GH3 until their NEXT game, GH: AEROSMITH comes out. Thanks, but I'll pass.

And now the best reason why RB beats GH3. The local multiplayer aspect and the World Tour keeps us coming for more. I find that the multiplayer experience with your good friends playing songs is worth the price. It's a great party game and when we first started, we felt like a fake band. "Oh, who's going to do the drum bit in this song?" because I cannot do Tom Sawyer on Hard yet. I love alternating playing guitar and drums since I can finally take a break from playing guitar. However, I HATE the bass pedal. I wished that they constructed it better, but hopefully third party companies will make their own bass pedals since you just plug it in and you're set.

Anyways, RB wins. GOOD GAME.

Edit: NIN pack is pretty good. Really fun with the vocals and drums. However, THEY PUT PIANO BITS IN THE GUITAR SECTION. Which is really surreal.

[Semjaza]

In Perfect Drug you mean? I think that was a nice touch, it gives the guitar player a bit more to do in an otherwise rather dull stretch.

I picked that up and March of the Pigs. I [I]can't stand[/I] The Collector, so I didn't bother.

I also picked up El Scorcho. Whenever Harmonix FINALLY gets around to full album releases (where the hell is Who's Next?), I really hope Pinkerton gets added.

[MaskedRider]

Personally, I prefer Guitar Hero, specificly GH3. The drums and mic on Rock Band don't interest me at all, and I hardly ever play with friends. Something about GH stands out, maybe because of how competitive it is. My goal is to beat Through the Fire and The Flames on Expert. The other thing is that I can't stand the Rockband guitar. The strum just dose'nt feel right, the guitar feels very fragile, and I prefer the notes to stick out of the guitar than going in. If the Rockband for Wii is compatible with my GH3 guitar, I'll pick it up, but only for more songs to play on a guitar. Now don't get me wrong, I know a lot of people prefer Rockband, and it's a debate that's going to keep on going. But I think I'll stick to Guitar Hero for now.

[Nomad]

[FONT="Verdana"][SIZE="1"]GHII was awesome. A new type of game (at least for me on the 360 because I never had the chance to play GH on the PS) that actually included music that I found amusing. It was fun all the way through.

GHIII was all right, I guess. Somewhat the same as the last, but with different music, which I thoroughly enjoyed. A few changes and added bonuses made this game more fun. It was great until the POS controller that came with it had to break; rather malfunction.

RB is the best. I love playing the drums. I love singing. As always, I love playing the guitar/bass. What's even better is that I get to do one of those things with three of my other friends, so there's not really a chance for many people to be left out of the fun. I know I'm not learning real instrument playing, but I don't care, I like it because it is fun.

I find that having an entire "band" together and actually playing songs you grew up with (we're all around the 20/21 age range) is a lot more fun than only have two guitars and sitting idle while you await your turn to play the same songs over and over again.

The DLC makes it even more diverse. There's something for everyone, just about.

Heh, my 2 cents. :)[/SIZE][/FONT]

[katal1st]

I love Rock Band. Finally gives a music nerd like me the chance to rock out and maybe learn a little something about instruments. If anyone wants to hook it up, gamertag is k4t4l1st on XBL.

Currently Playing:
Drums - Medium
Guitar - Hard
Bass - Hard
Vocals - Medium

[Neptune]

[FONT="Palatino Linotype"]I have to say that right now I'm really enjoying Rock Band more than GHIII, but that's probably only because I've overplayed GHIII like crazy. I usually only play Solo Tour on expert guitar, and I'm currently stuck on Green Grass and High Tides's Solo #2. Sheesh, that solo is pretty ridiculous.

I'll usually end up playing with my friends a few times a month, but not much more than that. It's also kind of a pain because none of my friends are really that ... good. They manage, but we always seem to fail the harder songs one way or another. I don't have XboxLive either, so no downloadable songs or online multiplayer for me.

[CENTER]:([/CENTER]

Currently Playing:
Guitar- Expert
Drums- Medium
Vocals- Hard
Bass- Expert[/FONT]