[Multiplatform] Rock Band: Soon to be available for thirty billion Euros

Even with Guitar Hero III coming down the tracks, logical progression on the Guitar Hero saga lead us to Rock Band. Video from GameSpot found its way to YouTube. Witness:

YouTube Video

With MTV on board now, the track list is already looking extremely sexy:

"(Don't Fear) The Reaper" - Blue Öyster Cult
"In Bloom" - Nirvana
"Main Offender" - The Hives
"Mississippi Queen" - Mountain
"Paranoid" - Black Sabbath
"Rockaway Beach" - The Ramones
"Say It Ain't So" - Weezer
"Suffragette City" - David Bowie
"Won't Get Fooled Again" - The Who
(and maybe "Welcome to the Jungle" - Guns 'N Roses)

Thankfully, it seems as though you won't need 3 other people to play this game, but I'm curious to see what they decide to do. Here's hoping for online, but I'm not holding my breath.

(I wonder if they'll have a cowbell add-on for (Don't Fear) The Reaper...chuckle, snort.)

Apparently I'll need a next-gen console for this, as they've only confirmed 360 and PS3 releases.

Jam it back in, in the dark.

I'm curious as to how much a complete setup is going to cost. I doubt I'll get enough friends convinced of coming together regularly with their guitars, drumsets and microphones, anyways. I see how the whole "band" thing is one of the most interesting features of this game, but it could also turn out to be a massive downside.

I was really excited about this game and the gameplay video looks fun, but if I can conveniently get Guitar Hero 3 for the PS2 and use it with my existing controllers, I don't see the point in investing probably more than thrice the money to get a similar experience with Rock Band.

There's nowhere I can't reach.

It'll probably cost ~$200 total between 4 people for the set. Assuming everything costs the same as usual musical video game equipment.

This thing is sticky, and I don't like it. I don't appreciate it.

I'd love to play something like this, but I certainly wouldn't want to pay that much for this. I think something like this might be better off as an arcade game before a home version is released.

This sort of reminds me of Steel Battalion, although I would gladly pay $200 for that - Nerd Central.

I am a dolphin, do you want me on your body?

Kensubei said basically what I was going to say minus a couple of things.

1) I wouldn't mind watching people play this, but you wouldn't catch me dead singing

2) I do believe that Harmonix said that you don't have the whole setup to play. So I'll take my Guitar and play on my own calling it Guitar Hero 2.75 (Because 80's edition is like 2.5 get it, hahaha... I'll shut up now)

3) I saw the stuff for the Singer and two guitarists but which of the three tracks is what the drummer plays?

I was speaking idiomatically.

Originally Posted by Slayer X

3) I saw the stuff for the Singer and two guitarists but which of the three tracks is what the drummer plays?

The middle track. Youll notice there are only 4 icons, with the bass drum being represented by an orange line going across the entire track.

What kind of toxic man-thing is happening now?

Originally Posted by The Dopefish

(I wonder if they'll have a cowbell add-on for (Don't Fear) The Reaper...chuckle, snort.)

I read in the latest Game Informer that they'll utilize the mic for additional percussion such as tambourine or even the cowbell.


This game has me super psyched. This is EXACTLY what I wanted out of Guitar Hero after playing it and Harmonix shall not dissapoint. This has been years in the making and this is their pride and joy so I do believe they'll pull through.

Oh yeah and your existing Guitar Hero controller will work with the game, as demostrated by the video.

How ya doing, buddy?

Jesus man, what the hell, Harmonix has gone on a SPREE!

ALL 7 or more of gameplay video one for this game has been taken down off of YouTube. The GameSpot video too. Does ANYONE have a link to this video that works anymore? I have friends that I still need to show this to so please post a link if you've got one.

Thanks

What, you don't want my bikini-clad body?

If this game manages to meet at least half of its' potential, it might be the one that gets me to buy a 360. Guitar Hero 2 intrigues me, but the real value will be in downloadable songs (which hasn't taken off yet) and the same goes for this one. If they're bringing out, say, 10 songs or so every 2 months and they're ones I want, yeah I'll be glad to get in on the action. I think Rock Band might a little too ambitious, but I'm pulling for it.

I think what they should do is have a line-up of 200 songs or so for download and allow the user to download, say, 30 of them when they buy the game, as opposed to having a "set" line-up. Sort of like a musical MUGEN (start with nothing, then just add the tracks you want).

Jam it back in, in the dark.

A question occurred to me today when I thought about preordering Rock Band:

You're supposed to be able to play with your friends online with this game, right? I mean, that's a huge part of paying for $200 worth of merchandise. But won't each one of your friends need a copy of the game disc in order to play it on their system, effectively making everybody pay $200?

Does anyone know how this is going to be handled, on any of the various systems?

Most amazing jew boots

Depends on how much equipment they want to buy, I'd guess. I imagine the mic, drums and guitar will also be sold seperately. Maybe you could colaborate and have one person buy the game and a guitar, another the game and the drums, etc.

Though there's nothing official, my guess is the whole bundle will run about $200 and include vouchers for some downloaded material (like, say, 20 songs or something). Considering, unlike Steel Battalion, the stuff will actually have a use, it seems pretty fair to me.

It could be worse: They could force you to buy the official Rock Band amplifier too!



I'm more interested in how they'll be handling playing the downloaded music online. What if you want to play a song no one else has downloaded to their 360/PS3?

This thing is sticky, and I don't like it. I don't appreciate it.

This isn't supposed to be an official thread for the game, however if you want to discuss topics on the game, feel free to do so within this thread.

What I wanted to ask, and this may be a stupid question. But is the Special Edition of the game simply the game with the instruments? When I pre-ordered my copy at EB they asked if I wanted the SE version and I said yes. I always thought that the regular edition of the game would have been the bundle and the SE would be the bunsle with some sort of extras.

If someone could clear this up for me that would be great.

I am a dolphin, do you want me on your body?

From what I understand, the special edition comes with everything. Drums, microphone, guitar, panpipes, all that. Regular edition is just the game, then you go and buy whatever instrument most interests you on top of it.

I was speaking idiomatically.

Ok, that's what I was thinking it was. Like I said, for some reason I thought it was something else entirely and then I clued in.

I bet there's going to be a few P'ed off people on release day over not knowing that the regular version is not the bundle... we'll have to wait and see though.

What kind of toxic man-thing is happening now?

Yeah, I can't imagine how much of a headache this game will be for game store staff when it's initially released! Also threads merged. =')

FELIPE NO

Is anyone else psyched about the whole DLC deal? Aside from having a lot of stuff, the main setlist kinda sucks (though they added some cool songs at the last minute..."Run to the Hills", "Ballroom Blitz" (though not the awesome Krokus version...damn!) and "Flirtin with Disaster), but for about $8 extra, I get the guitar, drums and vocals for "Justice for All", "Ride the Lightning" (and Blackened is thrown in with the Metallica bundle, which ain't bad at all) and "Joker and the Thief". That's...damn, I want this game NOW!

I'm not an advocate for paying for additional content, but in this case, if there's a particular song I want to dissect, it's worth it.

List of songs in Rock Band - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Edit: Anyone else find it kind of strange Metallica's one of the groups leading the charge for downloadable content?

What, you don't want my bikini-clad body?

Not really because Metallica is anti-piracy. Not anti-video games. (unless I'm missing something).

But yeah, I hear that the DLC for RB is good, and at a decent price unlike Guitar Hero. If someone could post the DLC and prices that would be awesome ^^

UPDATE
Just answered my own question. ^^;

Week of November 20, 2007:

3-Pack for $5.49 or Individual Tracks for $1.99 Each
(160 Microsoft Points per track and 440 per pack for Xbox 360)

Metallica Pack
"Ride the Lightning" - Metallica
"Blackened" - Metallica
"And Justice for All" - Metallica

The Police Pack
"Can't Stand Losing You" - The Police
"Synchronicity II" - The Police
"Roxanne" - The Police

Queens of the Stone Age Pack
"3's and 7's" - Queens of the Stone Age
"Little Sister" - Queens of the Stone Age
"Sick Sick Sick" - Queens of the Stone Age

Individual Tracks for $1.99 Each(160 Microsoft Points for Xbox 360)

"Fortunate Son" as made famous by Creedence Clearwater Revival *
"Juke Box Hero" as made famous by Foreigner *
"Bang a Gong (Get It On)" as made famous by T-Rex *
"My Sharona" as made famous by The Knack *
"Cherry Bomb" as made famous by The Runaways *
"Joker & The Thief"- Wolfmother

Week of November 27, 2007

3-Pack for $5.49 or Individual Tracks for $1.99 Each
(160 Microsoft Points per track and 440 per pack for Xbox 360)

David Bowie Pack
"Moonage Daydream" - David Bowie
"Heroes" as made famous by David Bowie *
"Queen Bitch" as made famous by David Bowie *

Week of December 4, 2007

3-Pack for $5.49 or Individual Tracks for $1.99 Each
(160 Microsoft Points per track and 440 per pack for Xbox 360)

Black Sabbath Pack
"N.I.B." as made famous by Black Sabbath *
"Sweet Leaf" as made famous by Black Sabbath *
"War Pigs" as made famous by Black Sabbath *

Week of December 11, 2007

3-Pack for $5.49 or Individual Tracks for $1.99 Each
(160 Microsoft Points per track and 440 per pack for Xbox 360)

Punk Pack:
"Rockaway Beach" - Ramones
"I Fought the Law" - The Clash
"Ever Fallen In Love" as made famous by Buzzcocks *
Week of December 18, 2007

Individual Tracks for $1.99 Each(160 Microsoft Points for Xbox 360)

"My Iron Lung" - Radiohead
"Buddy Holly" - Weezer
"Brass in Pocket" as made famous by Pretenders *

*cover version

Jam it back in, in the dark.

I'm looking forward to this game obviously since I'm a huge guitar hero fan.

From what I've heard, only "2" versions of the game are coming out Tuesday. The Special Edition with all the instruments, and the regular version with just the game. But the thing is you won't be able to buy instruments separate until later. (possibly until February like what it seems like for GH3 Wireless Les Paul). It shouldn't be too much of a headache. I feel bad that those geeky game store clerks now have to lift a 30lb box every time they sell a bundle =p

I'm a little concerned about what I've been reading, that it isn't as hard as guitar hero 3. I assume it's mainly due to the song choices and not that they're intentionally making it easier for guitar fanatics.

But at the same time, I might enjoy it more because it's more casual. The one thing that threw me for a loop about GH3 was its insane difficulty. My hands hurt more than any song GH2 threw at me and I wasn't even finished with the last tier. It might be nice to just kick back with some friends and rock out

There's nowhere I can't reach.

This is what they mean about it being easier then Guitar Hero.

Clips: Rock Band Vs. Guitar Hero 3, Difficulty

How ya doing, buddy?

those comparison videos are concerning because it seems like you're hitting less notes on Rock Band (Reptilla is the best example) when you should be hitting "all" of them. One of the reasons I'm so good at expert and pretty crappy on lower levels is because I don't know what notes they want me to hit when I'm so used to hitting what I'm hearing.

But like I said, it should still be enjoyable.

I am a dolphin, do you want me on your body?

My problem is the same as yours concerning difficulty. Once you get to know the exact noting of a song, it's hard to play by tones again instead of individual notes. However, I can't wait till this year's new years eve party my friends and I always have, this game is going to be way better to play then GH cause it has 4 players. And I'm sure that after a couple of drinks the difficulty and the crappy singing will all work themselves out, lol.

I was speaking idiomatically.

Me and my friends went to Best Buy today and all tried the Rock Band demo kiosk they had set up. I don't think we have ever made bigger asses of ourselves in our lives - while having so much fucking fun.

I am so buying this shit.

What kind of toxic man-thing is happening now?

This game is awesome. Save up your money this holiday and get Rock Band instead of Mass Boredom, or Guitar Rehash 3.

First, the bad. Playing the drumset part on expert gives me falsely failed notes on at least 1 of every 20 notes. Even on parts of the song that repeat the same rhythm for about 16 measures, I will try ignoring the screen and play solely to the beat as one would in a real band, but it still doesn't give me above 95-ish%. As someone who has played the drums since 7th grade and in the high school Jazz Band for 3 years, this is extremely annoying.

Now the guitar. I really like everything about the new guitar, except the strumbar. It feels broken (it isn't, of course), and is really hard to get used to when you're used to the Guitar Hero guitar controllers. Other than that, it is great, and I love that it is a realistic size/shape moreso than any of the GH controllers. Side note: Anyone with a brain will also see how superior the 360 version is due to its wiredness.

The included 4-port USB hub is a nice and needed addition, but it is cheap, plasticky, and took awhile to get it to even work. Not that relevent though, as most people already have decent USB hubs, or are at least able to get them for $10 off newegg.

Also, there is no easy way to switch instruments, other than having everyone log out of their instrument controllers, and logging in to other ones. Very annoying when you're just trying to quickly swap around what parts you each want to play every couple songs.

Now, the good. Everything else. People complaining about the pricetag are morons. $169 is a great price for what you're getting. The vocal part is hilariously fun with how it shows you the tone you need to sing along with the tone you're currently singing, and it is not overly harsh in judging your voice as far as the score goes. And that's the opinion of someone who hates singing. The only thing I was hoping for is an option to turn off the real voice track completely and only play your own through the speakers, for laffy-taffy karaoke parties, etc.

Other than a few minor issues, the equipment included in the box seems very solid and is fun to use. The song list is pretty strong. Easily better than GH3, though probably not quite as good as GH2. The characters/stage/audience/etc have a much nicer look to them than the cartooney jokemode look of Guitar Hero. It's also entertaining to get to design how your character looks, and buy not only instruments in the store, but also a very wide variety of clothing and accessories to fully customize your character.

The DLC for Rock Band, compared to GH2/3, is an exponentially better value. First of all, you get 4 parts (with 4 difficulties each) with each song you buy, rather than 2. They're cheaper. A bundle of 3 for $5.50, compared to GH2/3's bundles for $6.25. OR you have the option to purchase songs individually. $2 a song compared to SOL (Bundles Only) in GH2/3. And there's simply more selection.

Rock Band, buy it.

FELIPE NO

I agree with every single word Tube said. This game is fucking masterful, and puts Guitar Hero 3 to shame in almost every way. I haven't gotten all the way through yet, but as someone who is really good at Guitar Hero, I am clamoring for some crazier songs. I plan to get the Metallica DLC when I get out of work, so that should tide me over nicely.

Overall, completely satisfied with this purchase. Do yourself a favor and get it.

What, you don't want my bikini-clad body?

Well Canada gets fucked again. I try not to use the "F" bomb too often but this is FUCKING STUPID!

Here's a list within the last month;

Stranglehold LE -PS3 (cancelled)
Mass Effect LE -360 (cancelled)
Rock Band -ALL (delayed till 12/20/07)

What a load of shit. If I wanted to make this into a positive thing I could think of it that they may have the PS3 GH3 guitar patched to work with RB by then. But no matter what way you look at it we got screwed.

Why do we always have to wait till release day to find this stuff out? Bullshit man.. bullshit...

Jam it back in, in the dark.