ROOOOOOOOOOOOOOCK BAAAAAAAAAAAAAAND!

[Pumpy Tudors]

Originally Posted by SirFozzie

(yes, this is a Geek joke)

Is it ever...

[MJ4H]

Originally Posted by rkmsuf

Triumph the Insult Comic Dog needs to attend a session of a few friends playing this game together.

haha yes or the midnight release lines.

[Calis]

Well I was wrong, I was able to get a copy(well able to get someone else to grab me one right when Best Buy opened, and it sounded like the went very fast.)

Now if work would just end so I could play it.

[BigMak]

If you were going to play in single player mode and not with 2 or 3 others, would this game or Guitar Hero be the one to get?

[hawk4669]

Well, you can look at it a couple of ways.

If you are a single player, but want more variety (i.e. singing, playing bass, or drums....not just guitar), then buy Rock Band. But, if only playing guitar is good enough for you, then go with Guitar Hero.

For multi-player, Rock Band is a lot of fun. My wife and I have been playing a bunch this morning and having a blast. Also, now we have a "band" with my 8 year old daughter on lead vocals and are having fun with that as well.

Guitar Hero is tried and true, and we're still in the novelty phase of Rock Band....but I don't think you can go wrong with either one.

Just my two cents.

Cheers!

[SirFozzie]

BTW, best Drummer joke I've heard so far..

Q: What does it mean when your drummer is drooling out of one side of his mouth..

A: It means that the stage is lopsided.

[Raiders Army]

Man, I don't have any rythmn: the drums are still pretty difficult. I think it's because you're trying to use your hands and foot at the same time.

Anyhow, my microphone isn't working. Has anyone else had that problem? I plugged it into every usb port and the 360 isn't recognizing it. I plugged it into my computer and my computer recognized it, so I'm pretty sure it's not a hardware issue, but it's also not a port issue.

[SirFozzie]

One thing I've learned, being lead guitar.. you will save your teammates ass if they fail. the drummer and vocals have to wait to special sections to activate overdrive.. you can activate it any time, and you have the most opportunity to build up Overdrive to bring them back in. We just played "Epic" and our drummers failed out twice, but any time I noticed his gauge drifting lower, I'd hold off on activating overdrive ,and be ready to bring him back into it if/when he failed.

[Ironhead]

Originally Posted by Raiders Army

Man, I don't have any rythmn: the drums are still pretty difficult. I think it's because you're trying to use your hands and foot at the same time.

Anyhow, my microphone isn't working. Has anyone else had that problem? I plugged it into every usb port and the 360 isn't recognizing it. I plugged it into my computer and my computer recognized it, so I'm pretty sure it's not a hardware issue, but it's also not a port issue.

I read that you need to have a controller plugged in (wired or wireless) in order for the system to recognize the mic.

[SirFozzie]

BTW, there is an update already out for Rock Band. No idea what it fixes.

[Flasch186]

what about a review foz? What do you think of it

[Raiders Army]

Originally Posted by Ironhead

I read that you need to have a controller plugged in (wired or wireless) in order for the system to recognize the mic.

Thanks. I went to the website identified on the pink "STOP" piece of paper and it said the same thing. Going to try it out now.

[SirFozzie]

Quick Review: It is made of awesome and win.

Further review will take me about 15 minutes to type up.

[SirFozzie]

Not So Instant (but still pretty Quick) Review:

To say I had high hopes for Harmonix's latest and greatest offering, ROCK BAND, would be an understatement. This is from the group that created the first three games in the Guitar Hero series (Guitar Hero, Guitar Hero II, and Guitar Hero Encore: Rocks the 80's). But this was something completely new. Not only could you rock out on guitar and bass, the game comes with a drum set and a microphone, for the full out rock experience.

Fair warning, the box is heavy (the folks at the GameStop where I purchased the game said the box is somewhere in the range of 25 or so pounds, and I don't have any reason to doubt that), and if you're not mechanically inclined, you may want someone else to set up the drums for you.

Once you get everything set up (the XBox 360 version comes with a four-port USB Hub, so you don't go completely bonkers), it's fairly easy to load up and to start rocking. Within 5 minutes of final assembly, I was logged in and rocking out to Bon Jovi's "Dead or Alive".

The solo experience is good.. the game will seem easier to the folks who have played through the Guitar Hero series (especially Guitar Hero 3) on the guitar and bass parts.. but that's ok.. so far, it seems very flowing in tunes.

In Solo Tour mode, you work your way up the ladder of difficulty of songs for your instrument in either guitar, drums, or vocals. Each group of songs is progressively "harder" for that instrument (for example, "Dead or Alive" is in the apprentice section of drums, but in a higher section for guitar.

The meat of the game, is the Band World Tour mode, which needs currently two or more physical players at one location (the game does not ship with it enabled for online multiplayer, but Harmonix and EA have promised it in a patch somewhere down the road.)

You earn stars by playing at various cities.. you chose where to start amongst all the cities listed in the game (for example, Boston or New York City), and the cities that you play in determine the songlists you will face. For example, if you're in New York, you might see a lot of East Coast songs on your set list.

As you get better, you can unlock more places to play (3 arenas per city), and be able to travel to more cities and grow your Rock Band's legend.

One neat thing about the game is the savior system. If at any time, one of your band members (whether near or far), fails out of the song, you have approximately 30 seconds to rescue them or you all fail the song, but if you sacrifice some of your overdrive (Rock Band's version of Star Power, generated by playing certain highlighted sections of the song perfectly), you can bring them back into the song.

With 45 licensed tracks (most of which are master versions, right from the original recordings), 13 bonus tracks (from Harmonix's many many bands), and a whopping 15 or so songs available already as Downloadable Content, (prices are about $2 for one song, $5.50 for a three pack), and a number rumored to be in the triple digits of add on songs down the road, there is a ton of variety.

The Verdict: Rock Band is a game made of pure distilled awesomeness. It is a perfect party game (whether in one place or over your favorite system's online service), and it is a paradigm shift in how games are viewed. I would not be surprised to see this become a World Of Warcraft-like money maker for Harmonix and Electronic Arts.

[SackAttack]

This is the kind of game, I think, that all of the Gamenikki staff who play need to submit their own impressions of.

I think EA sent me another Rock Band bundle on 360, though. I have to talk to Dave, see if he's going to be able to use it. If he can, we are so doing Gamenikki Rock Band.

[Calis]

The patch probably has something to do with a pretty widespread issue with guitars not reading a downstrum or something along those lines. It was a problem I know a lot of the displays were having and heard about people having it as well. I expected it was a hardware issue, but Harmonix said there'd be a patch and look like there is, so good deal if anyone had that issue(haven't ran into it personally).

Played for about 3.5 hours or so tonight with a small group of us. We rocked out minus a bassist, but I must say it was a blast. The people I played with haven't played any of the Guitar Hero games and aren't gamers in the least but they were able to pick it up pretty well and managed to play through Easy with very few failures(Except Drums...drums are a beast, and even I came very close to failing on easy with them a couple times. They are very tough, but also far and away the most fun instrument out of the group.) I think Bass on most songs on the easy settings is a great way to introduce non-gamers to the game, as it's really simple to play for the most part and they can move up from there.

Probably going to end up as one of the best party games of all-time, I can see it being busted out quite often at parties. The drums are just amazing, and I can see taking a long time to master.

[Raiders Army]

I got the mic working. Funny, I don't think I downloaded a patch. Anyhow, I'd agree that this game rocks (no pun intended). I've played guitar, drums and even sang a little. I try not to get upset with my kids as they play guitar and sing, but it's pretty easy since they can pick their difficulty level on the multiplayer single song mode.

We're also using the guitar from GH2 to play bass, but the other guitar that came with the game became quickly forgotten since my kids liked the GH2 guitar better. The Rock Band guitar looks better IMHO.

All in all, a good buy at $170 and I know I'll definitely get my money's worth outta this game.

[SackAttack]

Yeah, the Rock Band guitar is better. I'm glad EA sent me an extra one of those to go along with the extra Rock Band kit.

We haven't had any problem with strumming on the guitar, or with the microphone.

[Vinatieri for Prez]

Originally Posted by SackAttack

Just got home from work to discover a massive package awaiting me.

Snicker, Snicker.

[Raiders Army]

When I sang, I didn't sing words at times. I just hit the right notes and sang "duh duh duh duh" like that car commercial. Honda I think?

[SackAttack]

Woo. The extra Rock Band bundle was intentional. Gamenikki Rock Band, here we come!

[spleen1015]

I emptied the box last night and assembled everything. I haven't opened the game yet, though.

After putting the drum kit together, I sat intimidated by it for about 5 minutes.

[SackAttack]

Originally Posted by spleen1015

I emptied the box last night and assembled everything. I haven't opened the game yet, though.

After putting the drum kit together, I sat intimidated by it for about 5 minutes.

Little advice - pay attention to what difficulty you're playing on. I wasn't paying attention, and played the Soundgarden track on Medium, and my right leg wanted to fall off by the time I was done.

[spleen1015]

I will definitely start out on Easy.

[Lonnie]

My strummer is already broken. It won't strum down, and the patch didn't fix it. In fact it started failing well after the patch. Good thing I have my explorer and les paul and can still have a full band while I wait on a replacement.

[SackAttack]

Yeah, I started having problems with the strummer, but have not downloaded the patch yet. Hopefully that will fix.

Oddly, after playing on the Fender for a while, once the strummer started being wonky, I found using the Xplorer easier. Don't know if it's button spacing, or what.

[hawk4669]

Rock Band (and all the Peripherals) are working great for us.

Unfortunately, my X-Box 360 picked now to experience the "Red Ring of Death" hardware failure. We got to play the game just enough to start having fun with it....now my 360 is dead.

Thank goodness that it's still under warranty. *shrug*

Cheers!

[SackAttack]

Originally Posted by SackAttack

Yeah, I started having problems with the strummer, but have not downloaded the patch yet. Hopefully that will fix.

Oddly, after playing on the Fender for a while, once the strummer started being wonky, I found using the Xplorer easier. Don't know if it's button spacing, or what.

Downloading the patch helped a little, for a while. It's not doing it as badly now, but I'm still getting weirdness. Unfortunately, as I've moved up to Hard that may just be me sucking.

[Doug5984]

Ok this might be a dumb question, but- do the guitar hero guitars work for rock band? I told my girlfriend this is what I wanted for Christmas and I'm just curious if I need to buy the full set or what. I already have 2 guitars for guitar hero. (I'm also assuming the bass is the same as the normal guitar?)

[SackAttack]

Yes, at least for the Xbox 360 version. I've heard differently about PS3, but I can personally confirm that the GH3 guitars work on Xbox 360's Rock Band.

You don't need to buy the full set if you're just going to treat it as a Guitar Hero-style game for now; only if you want the vocals and the drums do you need the full set this year. Next year, the peripherals will be available for purchase if you want to branch out at any point.

[Doug5984]

ah ok- well I want the drums and vocals, so I guess I'll just go ahead and get the full set, and that'd leave me with 1 extra guitar.

[MizzouRah]

I so want this game.

"Wait until Christmas" she says.

[KWhit]

Is there a way to 'record' the song as you perform it (especially the vocals you sing) and play it back later?

[SirFozzie]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uQ9XLiMfBRo&eurl

Holy shit..

Metallica And Justice for All on Expert Drums.

[Buccaneer]

Wow.

[MizzouRah]

Originally Posted by SirFozzie

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uQ9XLiMfBRo&eurl

Holy shit..

Metallica And Justice for All on Expert Drums.

No doubt!

[Raiders Army]

Originally Posted by SirFozzie

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uQ9XLiMfBRo&eurl

Holy shit..

Metallica And Justice for All on Expert Drums.

That's insane. A few things:

He must've played drums before; there's no way he could play that well already.
What happened to his drums? There's tape all over them.
That's some wacky shit when they mute the music and you hear him bangin.
You can download songs already? I'm there.

[MJ4H]

Originally Posted by Raiders Army

That's insane. A few things:

He must've played drums before; there's no way he could play that well already.
What happened to his drums? There's tape all over them.
That's some wacky shit when they mute the music and you hear him bangin.
You can download songs already? I'm there.

He does:

Originally Posted by that guy

And yes, I play drums in real life, have been for 4+ years, so the people going on about "play a real instrument", no, sorry, I do play real drums.

Yeah real percussion skills translate to this game pretty well. The main issue is reading the different kind of "notation" that these games use. If you can do that well, these games are a breeze for people that play well.

[SirFozzie]

BTW, this game has led to the purchase of a few albums on iTunes today.

VAGIANT (Seven and FTK) Public Display of Infection
Bang Camaro (Pleasure (Pleasure), Push Push Lady Lightning), Bang Camaro
Freezepop (Less Talk More Rokk, BRAINPOWER) Future Future Future Perfect

[Calis]

Anyone try and of the DLC yet? I wondered what folks thought of it. Fortunate Son, Jukebox Hero, Bang a Gong, and Joker & the Thief all seem pretty tempting to me, and maybe even the Police pack. Just wondered if the quality seemed the same as the rest of the songs.

Hell I actually really like the selections for DLC, the single shots are great at release and I'm pretty excited for both the Bowie pack and the Black Sabbath one.

[Raiders Army]

Bought the Police pack and Jukebox Hero. They're the same quality as the rest of the songs. I'm hoping for a Bon Jovi one...we've played Wanted Dead or Alive a buncha times.

[SackAttack]

I've snagged the Metallica pack (great, but it makes my hands hurt on guitar), and Juke Box Hero.

I can't wait for the Who to hit.

[Voo]

I downloaded the Police pack and The Joker and the Thief by Wolfmother. The Joker and the Thief is probably my favorite song in the whole game, but that has a lot to do with Wolfmother being one of my favorite bands.

[Calis]

Yeah I wound up buying several, and they're very well done. The Joker & The Thief is awesome, probably my favorite one to sing now, and Bang a Gong is pretty fun as well. Haven't played My Sharona or Fortunate Son yet, so can't comment on those. Highly recommend any of them though, good stuff.

Run to the Hills by Iron Maiden might be one of my favorite all-time songs on the guitar, we just ran into that one and it was a blast.

My eyes won't allow me to play anymore tonight unfortunately.

[BigDawg]

I give the game an A+++

As a drummer ( long time ago ) I was drawn to this after brief stints playing GH. I found this a great way to get the whole family together as a father of 4 ages 20,18,15,11 its hard to find family activates everyone enjoys. But after putting this game together we found our selfs playing till 2AM in the morning.

Of course it took a while to go thru and give the kids a few lessons on playing the drums and it was fun to play songs from my youth that the kids would never lesson to before they just love now.

Is also fun to find out who has realy bad signing voices to the extent the cat went and hid under the bed....LOL

[BigDawg]

and where is the Zep Pack??

I would take out a second mortgage to get my hands on the whole Led Zep catalog for Rock Band ... hehe

[SirFozzie]

Ok, so who y'all wants to rock out with Sack and I.. today is ROCK BAND Day!

[SirFozzie]

TIMMY!

[Chubby]

I'll be buying this for PS2 game only (not the bundle) since we have 2 guitars already and we can add a mic if we really want to later. Drums seem cool but not for $150

[SackAttack]

I don't know if the PS2 version is going to be available game-only. I haven't heard anything about how it's going to be sold, only that it's going to be available in December.