Rock Band ROCKS!

We got a copy of rockband at the office today and that game f-ing ROCKS. It is an absolute blast playing the full band together. Even watching is fun.

I'm envious now. I had to intentionally not buy guitar hero, I'd get way to addicted to it. Same thing with Rock Band, I'd lose sleep and use all my PTO just to play 'one more song'.

However, pitching in a few bucks for a friend to get it is on my list of priorities. :rockin:

i love this game. got it this morning and me and 3 friend haven't been able to stop until just a little while ago.

I want this SO bad. Now that I have a PS3, it IS in my near future.

It looks awesome, and the fact that you can download all the extra songs really makes it a killer concept.

Well, SWMBO agreed to pull the trigger on the Rock band Bundle. We are having an x-mas party here Saturday night, and some fun, music loving friends are coming over, so we though this would be cool entertainment for the drunken and buzzing adults. I've been playing non-stop for quite a few hours. It is so addicting. I've dabbled in some medium difficulty--it is quite a jump from Easy because I'm not so dextrous with my pinky finger. Easy is pretty do-able though, for most every song. SWMBO is really good at teh drums, I'm pretty good on teh guitar and vocals. I wish you could play bass on a solo tour, but oh well. I tried a QOTSA song on difficult just for kicks--there is NO WAY I'll ever be able to play that. Ridiculously fast.

Killer game, it really is.

P.S. I downloaded a few extra songs, the Queens of the Stone Age bundle and Wolfmother's Jpoker and the Thief. DAY-UMM is that one hard, even on easy.

I just don't see the appeal. It looks pretty stupid actually. Grown adults doing karaoke/air guitar to a video game version of silly pop-songs ?? - no thanks. I'll just stay in my garage and play real music on real guitars.

Mutilated1 said:

I just don't see the appeal. It looks pretty stupid actually. Grown adults doing karaoke/air guitar to a video game version of silly pop-songs ?? - no thanks. I'll just stay in my garage and play real music on real guitars.

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Same here. I'll stick with my 5 guitars.

It's like they say...if you ever see a guy playing air guitar he really doesn't know how to play one...

Mutilated1 said:

It looks pretty stupid actually. Grown adults doing karaoke/air guitar to a video game version of silly pop-songs ??

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Doesn't much appeal to me, either...until after a few six packs...

I love guitar hero and I can't wait to try rock band. I never understood the dislike of these games from the real guitar players. I have played guitar/bass/drums since high school and I find that the game is fun in a totally separate way. I also played football in high school (long time ago) and I enjoy the occasional Madden NFL or NCAA PS2 football game. I guess I've never killed stormtroopers, but I do enjoy a game of Battlefront. Everyone has their escapes.

uwjester said:

I never understood the dislike of these games from the real guitar players. I have played guitar/bass/drums since high school and I find that the game is fun in a totally separate way.

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Exactly.


Even professional musicians have been known to comment on the fact that it is a fun game. It's NOT playing an instrument. It's playing a musical game.

If you haven't TRIED the game and have just poo-pooed it because it's a toy you are missing out.

I've always thought the Guitar Hero games were a blast. It's a lot of fun to sit around w/ the guys and get drunk and see who can play what. The only part that sucks, as with all video games, is when some 8 y/o kid smokes your ass effortlessly. I f-ing hate that!!

I gotta say my fave song is "Fire it Up" by Zakk Wylde. :rockin: I could play that one over and over again.

bob

uwjester said:

I've never killed stormtroopers

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Lord knows I have.

Yuri_Rage said:

Doesn't much appeal to me, either...until after a few six packs...

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that can't improve almost anything can't it ?

Mutilated1 said:

that can't improve almost anything can't it ?

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Even fuzzy grammer.

We're in the minority here I guess. We got the game and took it back the next day. The strum bar on the guitar would constantly stick in the down position (very frustrating) and the drums sounded like you were beating on plastic (probably because that's what you're doing). I have a friend who loves Guitar Hero and, having seen both of them, he doesn't care for Rock Band either.

Nate said:

We're in the minority here I guess. We got the game and took it back the next day. The strum bar on the guitar would constantly stick in the down position (very frustrating) and the drums sounded like you were beating on plastic (probably because that's what you're doing). I have a friend who loves Guitar Hero and, having seen both of them, he doesn't care for Rock Band either.

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Supposedly the first version guitars have had some problems, but the company has been real nice about sending new ones.

The thing that sucks about the PS3 version is no other guitars are compatible with teh game. The 4 player band is an impossibility until they start selling guitars separate from the bundle, which hasn't happened yet. That suxxors for my party Saturday night.

What really sucks is for the people who bought just the game without teh instruments. WTF are they supposed to play with if the guitar hero guitars won't work?

Stupid marketing by the manufacturer.

On a more positive note, my SWMBO isn't a video game player in the least, but she keeps asking me if we can play Rock Band. She kicks serious ass on the drums.

Dude said:

On a more positive note, my SWMBO isn't a video game player in the least, but she keeps asking me if we can play Rock Band. She kicks serious ass on the drums.

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My SWMBO is totally going to come over and read this. She keeps hinting at the fact that the Wii looks like fun. Neither of us want to spend the ~$600+waiting for one this Christmas. I've suggested the PS3 a few times, and I just saw that they're making six-axis controllers for the PS3 (Wii ripoff). Hmm...

Dude said:

Supposedly the first version guitars have had some problems, but the company has been real nice about sending new ones.

The thing that sucks about the PS3 version is no other guitars are compatible with teh game. The 4 player band is an impossibility until they start selling guitars separate from the bundle, which hasn't happened yet. That suxxors for my party Saturday night.

What really sucks is for the people who bought just the game without teh instruments. WTF are they supposed to play with if the guitar hero guitars won't work?

Stupid marketing by the manufacturer.

On a more positive note, my SWMBO isn't a video game player in the least, but she keeps asking me if we can play Rock Band. She kicks serious ass on the drums.

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I heard that some piece of the original company broke off and made Rock Band and the guitar for Rock Band just isn't as good. I'm borrowing my friend's Guitar Hero this weekend to give it a shot.

Mutilated1 said:

I just don't see the appeal. It looks pretty stupid actually. Grown adults doing karaoke/air guitar to a video game version of silly pop-songs ?? - no thanks. I'll just stay in my garage and play real music on real guitars.

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I agree even though I'm not a musician. I played guitar hero for about 3 minutes and thought it was the dumbest thing I'd ever played. Different strokes for different folks I guess. Plenty of people don't like the games I enjoy either.

When I first saw my friends playing Guitar Hero, I thought they were homos. Then I had a few beers and they convinced me to try a song, and I was hopelessly addicted. I have played guitar since I was 12 years old, and this is still a blast for me. One of those friends just bought Rock Band, and I can't wait to go over and jam. I have found that my friends who actually play guitar (including myself) pick the game up much faster than those who don't play. Try everything at least once.

olllllo said:

Even fuzzy grammer.

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...and fuzzy spelling.

Nate said:

We're in the minority here I guess. We got the game and took it back the next day. The strum bar on the guitar would constantly stick in the down position (very frustrating) and the drums sounded like you were beating on plastic (probably because that's what you're doing). I have a friend who loves Guitar Hero and, having seen both of them, he doesn't care for Rock Band either.

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I'm on my second RockBand. I took the first one back after playing 3 songs. I started playing the strumbar by pinching it and moving it, so I think I mongoloided it. (Although, I don't think that should be an excuse. Kids are going to beat this thing up worse than I would.). My second guitar, I got more into playing it like a guitar (strumming). Being a (an ok) guitar player, I felt more comfortable strumming it as if I was holding a pick.

Responding to the other (and I'm sure better) musicians that are hating on the game: It's a game, it's definitely not like playing guitar, but I think my playing experience helps in the game. (The natural slide of playing the power chords (Green Yellow to red blue, etc) or performing the (flawed) hammer on/pull offs.

I think the drums are as close to the real thing as a game is going to get, and I think real drummers will appreciate the "realism" more than an actual guitar player will.

Would I rather be jamming with friends? Sure, but unfortunately I have more friends with 360s than I do with musical talent. Which is probably why I'm better at my plastic Strat than I am at my real Strat or Teles (For anyone who cares, I have an American Strat, a modified American Tele (with a Duncan hotrails in the bridge), a 72 Thinline Reissue Tele, a 6 string acoustic and a 12 string acoustic).

You know what the game is really missing? A-holes coming up to you and asking if they can "jam" while you're in the middle of working a club that is way too far away from home; and owned by another A-hole who feels like he's doing you a favor and way overpaying you. Yeah, I was a professional drummer once and it's nothing like a game ;-)

I just don't see the appeal. It looks pretty stupid actually. Grown adults doing karaoke/air guitar to a video game version of silly pop-songs ?? - no thanks. I'll just stay in my garage and play real music on real guitars.

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on my homebrewed tube amps:rockin:

Dude said:

What really sucks is for the people who bought just the game without teh instruments. WTF are they supposed to play with if the guitar hero guitars won't work?

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That is an issue that ONLY affects PS3 owners. Everyone else can use Guitar Hero guitars. In other words: On all other platforms (ps2, 360 and Ps3) Rock band and Guitar Hero guitars are fully interchangable. On PS3, GH guitars will not work on Rock band.

Nate said:

I heard that some piece of the original company broke off and made Rock Band and the guitar for Rock Band just isn't as good.

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Actually it's more like this:

History:
Harmonix and Red Octane are independent developers (and actually red Octane is more of a hardware developer/source company). they at one point pitched a game to Activision and became the developers for Guitar Hero. After a couple iterations of this Harmonix wanted to pursue options that Activision wasn't willing or able (I don't know which honestly) to pursue and decided to take their talent elsewhere. (Activision retained ownership of the Guitar Hero property since they paid for it). EA, seeing a way to wedge into their competitor's very lucrative rhythm game market, took on Harmonix and Red Octane.

"Not as Good":
Really, Rock band and Guitar Hero are somewhat different. Guitar Hero is challenging and amps up the challenge to the player rapidly. Rock Band tends to be more forgiving most of the time, with shorter areas that are specifically challenging. I think what this boils down to is that Rock Band is more of a 'party game' -- they way a lot fo their previous karaoke games were and DDR is focused on being--- and less of an individual challenge game. RB also gives people multiple points of attachment to the game. People can sing, play drums, bass or guitar--- so it has more attach points for people to find something they like about it. At the same time this also can be overwhelming to an individual playing the game in that there are so many choices. As much as people say they like choice, this is actually provably false--- give people too much choice and they simply fail to make any decision at all (this particular sentence is worthy of a separate and distinct thread).

Kob's Personal Views and Business Analysis:
Harmonix had their creative differences with a publisher--- that happens. So they went with another, that also happens. EA is always looking for ways to take a cut of their biggest competitor (who, incidentally, just got bigger than them---- the Activison Blizzard merger makes EA the #2 shop now). However, Rock band is, by design, less profitable than Guitar hero. There's a massive amount of development and production cost involved in making a game with not one but 3 distinct specialized hardware devices and one that they had to design effectively from scratch (harmonix had worked with guitars and mics on previous games). At the same time they had to keep unit cost down and push damn hard to make this hit market before Christmas.

This has resulted in several minor failures, which could cost EA significantly in terms of market penetration and their new property's value. Shipping of this product has been dismal. Of course the high price point is something of a barrier, as is the fact that they delayed release of the PS2 version (which GH3 did as well) which dropped their exposure to 120 million installed units of PS2 games at a critical release juncture. Also, they've been trickling it out and their first round of shipped games had bad lots of guitars. Canada has seen almost nothing of these units. In addition, Rock Band's PS3 driver has a compatibility issue with Activision's controller. There's a fix but Activsion and Harmonix/EA can't come to terms on that so it's being blocked from release. Of course, they had some early guitars with technical flaws that captured news attention on the week of release. Finally, the interface has some oddities in menu navigation that make it harder for people to make things happen the way they expect. This inhibits attachment by new players.

All of these items are small taken individually and out of context. However placed in the context of a brand new property, which required a significant capital investment to bring to market, being released in the face of a very successful competitor--- -these small issues call to question the viability of the IP as a serious contender.

All that being said, Rock Band is still a fun game.


Disclaimer: the opinions above are mine and mine alone and do not represent the opinions of anyone else at all. The opinions above were formed using only information available on the internet from news sources that can be found by any who has access to the web. In no way should any of my statements be construed as advice, news or earnings statements. I did not represent anyone at all when I posted this statement.

Disclosure: I am an employee of one of the Activision divisions. I have never worked on or spoken with anyone who worked on any music based game made by our company or any other company.


Apologies: Sorry --- that was a long one and I see 3 distict issues that are actually pretty complicated concepts that coudl easily derail an otehrwise interested exchange of opinions and I'm really sorry if that happens.

rdwj said:

I agree even though I'm not a musician. I played guitar hero for about 3 minutes and thought it was the dumbest thing I'd ever played. Different strokes for different folks I guess. Plenty of people don't like the games I enjoy either.

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I was that way, too. I guess having played guitar, I was looking for that kind of experience. I felt like I was just turning a light switch on and off with my right hand while ringing a set of doorbells with my left!

That said, my future stepson wants Rockband for Christmas and we have tried like hell to find it for Xbox 360. No luck whatsoever!

Yuri_Rage said:

My SWMBO is totally going to come over and read this. She keeps hinting at the fact that the Wii looks like fun. Neither of us want to spend the ~$600+waiting for one this Christmas. I've suggested the PS3 a few times, and I just saw that they're making six-axis controllers for the PS3 (Wii ripoff). Hmm...

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I still want a wii for the more party atmosphere games, but the Blu-Ray player took more precedence for us. I didn't buy this thing for the games--but damn, the ones I have tried are totally kick-ass.


Regarding the difficulty--I never played a Guitar Hero game, so I am glad I started with Rock Band. I struggle mightily on some of the medium difficulty songs. I can't imagine having to move up a notch on some of those. It is still a kick-ass game. I can't wait until I can get another guitar for it though--so I can start up a real band with a damn bass player.

I unlocked The Who's "Won't Get Fooled Again" today--made the purchase completely justified. What a kick-ass song and very fun to play.

Well, after only 4 days, the guitar took a dump. A big solid, stinky duece. Pinched a giant smelly loaf.

I've already got EA sending me a replacement, but that is totally bogus. I feel for these poor kids that are getting these for x-mas and in 4 days won't be able to play thier brand new game, OR even use a GH guitar as a temporary replacement. That is so bogus.

Very glad I spent 180 bones to be a product beta tester.

EA will be hearing from me this week.

I got Guitar Hero III for my kids. It is nice to see them using the playstation again. It seems like as soon as they beat a game, they don't want to play it anymore.

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Also try, "."

Dude said:

Well, after only 4 days, the guitar took a dump. A big solid, stinky duece. Pinched a giant smelly loaf.

I've already got EA sending me a replacement, but that is totally bogus. I feel for these poor kids that are getting these for x-mas and in 4 days won't be able to play thier brand new game, OR even use a GH guitar as a temporary replacement. That is so bogus.

Very glad I spent 180 bones to be a product beta tester.

EA will be hearing from me this week.

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I couldn't believe mine was defective out of the box. You really have to wonder what in the hell they're doing in the QC department when they ship a product that has one moving part and that part doesn't get checked.

On the flip side, I tried a friend's GH II and it was a lot of fun. Amazing how different it is when the guitar actually works.

My wife got me Rockband for XMas..
I friggin' LOVE it.
I didn't get to play too much on Tuesday, but last night, her and I sat down and went at it for just short of 4 hours.
I was skeptical about playing the guitar, I didn't think I would be able to keep up, but it's been good.
I was also skeptical about her playing drums when she said she wanted to, but she's done real good.

It's funny playing the same songs over and over (and over) again to unlock new ones, then hearing the song on the radio the next day.
That happened today with "In Bloom" by Nirvana.
I didn't sing the words when I heard it.
I actually sat here and did this... "red, red, yellow, red, green, red, yellow, yellow - whamee bar, red, green"