The unofficial Rock Band thread.

[Brikar99]

It will be mine. Oh yes, it will be mine...

[Rincewiend]

The Guitar Hero 3 Les Paul works with Rock Band, right?!?
And will work with Rock Band 2?!?
Because then i might get them both as well...
No sense in spending more money on another guitar...

[Brikar99]

Rincewiend wrote:

---

The Guitar Hero 3 Les Paul works with Rock Band, right?!?
And will work with Rock Band 2?!?
Because then i might get them both as well...
No sense in spending more money on another guitar...

This handy-dandy chart should answer all your questions! Looks like the Guitar Hero 3 Les Paul will work with every game.

http://www.joystiq.com/Instrument-Compatibility-Matrix/

[Aragorn]

Can anyone help me with drum calibration? No matter how many times I hit the green pad when they tell me to, it tells me sorry and I have to do it again. It's that way for both tests. The green pad definitely works, because it plays no matter how hard or soft I hit it during a song, but the calibration just doesn't like me. And if I just hit the green A button on the keypad, then it lets me through.

[Aragorn]

Downloads for the week of Nov. 9:

Foo Fighters: "The Colour and the Shape"
"Doll"
"Monkey Wrench"
"Hey, Johnny Park!"
"My Poor Brain"
"Wind Up"
"Up In Arms"
"My Hero"
"See You"
"Enough Space"
"February Stars"
"Walking After You"
"New Way Home"

[Aragorn]

Downloads for the week of Nov. 16:

Dead Kennedys pack
California Uber Alles
Holiday in Cambodia
Police Truck

Mission of Burma pack
Mica
That's How I Escaped My Certain Fate
That's When I Reach For My Revolver

Century Media Girls of Metal pack
Forever by In This Moment
Closer by Lacuna Coil
Swamped by Lacuna Coil

Single
Gone by Crooked X

[firehawk12]

I'm curious to see the charts for the Metal pack just to see if I can even play them without failing. I think this is the first "female" themed pack though.

[Aragorn]

PC World article comparing Rock Band 2 to Guitar Hero World Tour, the instruments, the gameplay and so forth. Ignores the cheat codes, but oh well. Here is an excerpt:

.....

The set lists

An head-to-head critique of the two games' set lists would be highly subjective (though I could make a pretty strong case that "GHWT's" inclusion of "Beat It" is prima facie evidence of distinctly un-rock-godlike tendencies.) You can find a complete set list for all 'Rock Band' games on the associated Web site, and similarly you can check guitarhero.com for that game's songs. Some tracks, such as from the Foo Fighters, appear in both series, while battle lines are drawn with exclusive offerings by other musical acts. Missing something? You can always buy more tunes at the games' online "stores."

'Rock Band 2': Think iTunes for the gaming world. This slickly packaged marketplace hosts a huge selection of full albums and tracks that you can download into the original game or into this year's sequel. In fact, one recent release, AC-DC Live, is available as a stand-alone concert disc that you can play. And though the result will technically not be a "Rock Band" game, Harmonix (the developer) has announced that it's working on an untitled Beatles "experimental journey" that will follow the band's entire career. We don't know whether there will be any connection between the two franchises, but I just had to throw that bit of info out there for any Beatles fans in the audience before the journey launches in the fourth quarter of 2009.

'Guitar Hero World Tour': "Guitar Hero" is still working out some of the kinks -- which is to say, songs you bought in previous "GH" games don't carry over here. There are some popular song choices, but not nearly as many up front. However, "GHWT" trumps all in user content. "Rock Band" may be iTunes-ish, but "Guitar Hero" follows a YouTube model that invites players to record original tracks in Recording Studio mode and upload them for sharing with the community. Then, users download and rate submitted songs. The potential for this feature is fantastic, limited only by what people produce. Me? I'm waiting for someone to re-create "Chocolate Rain."

.....

Playing the game

There's a fundamental difference in the ways "Guitar Hero World Tour" and "Rock Band 2" play out: One punishes you, while the other is all about the music. Let me explain.

'Rock Band 2': If you were to buy the game, plug everything in and throw a party, you'd have all of the songs waiting for you and ready to roll. If you plan on hosting a few of your less-talented buddies, you can resort to No-Fail Mode, which lets everyone blast away regardless of how off-key the playing is. In short, though plenty of challenges are available for the serious gamer, you can also flip a switch and just have fun. Crazy idea, eh?

'Guitar Hero World Tour': With this game you need to unlock all of the songs you want to hear. So, if you plan to throw a "Guitar Hero" party at your house, you'll need to make sure to hold a marathon jam session ahead of time to unlock all of the songs. Arguably, performing that initial step gives players a sense of accomplishment -- a feeling that they've won the fight for their right to rock. But what about songs you don't like or don't want to play through? To unlock more of the music you want, you have to take the bad with the good.

[firehawk12]

Errr... you had to unlock songs (stupidly) in Rock Band 2 as well. Oh well.

[Hicks]

I don't have Rock Band 2, but I have the first one. Can I download the "Colour and the Shape" album for the first RB?

[Aragorn]

All downloadable songs (that you have to pay for, don't know about the 20 free RB2 songs) work on both Rock Bands. In fact, if you go to the Live Marketplace, you'll see that it's the same songs under Rock Band and Rock Band 2.

[Brikar99]

I had to go to two different Walmarts to find the AC/DC pack. And I hate shopping at Walmart in my area. I'm not sure what it's like elsewhere, but around here the employees are all invariably creepy, or barely speak english. The first store plain didn't have it, and the elderly man that was the only employee entire electronics department didn't have an explanation as to why they didn't, or if they had it out back in a stock room somewhere. The second store was crowded, and none of the three employees in the electronics department knew where the keys to the video game cabinets were, so the purchase a single game took nearly half an hour. I should've just walked out and ordered the damn thing online, but I stayed the course and stuck through it.

Now I hope to go another four years between trips to Walmart.

[firehawk12]

Aragorn wrote:

---

All downloadable songs (that you have to pay for, don't know about the 20 free RB2 songs) work on both Rock Bands. In fact, if you go to the Live Marketplace, you'll see that it's the same songs under Rock Band and Rock Band 2.

Interestingly, when played in RB2, some of the songs will have chord based touch notes. I guess that it's a big enough of an upgrade that they couldn't do it to RB1 itself.

[firehawk12]

Brikar99 wrote:

---

I had to go to two different Walmarts to find the AC/DC pack. And I hate shopping at Walmart in my area. I'm not sure what it's like elsewhere, but around here the employees are all invariably creepy, or barely speak english. The first store plain didn't have it, and the elderly man that was the only employee entire electronics department didn't have an explanation as to why they didn't, or if they had it out back in a stock room somewhere. The second store was crowded, and none of the three employees in the electronics department knew where the keys to the video game cabinets were, so the purchase a single game took nearly half an hour. I should've just walked out and ordered the damn thing online, but I stayed the course and stuck through it.

Now I hope to go another four years between trips to Walmart.

You know, in Canada they're being rented out... my problem is that the one rental store around me already rented their copy out by 12pm the day it was released. Someone was even craftier than me.

[Brikar99]

Interestingly, when played in RB2, some of the songs will have chord based touch notes. I guess that it's a big enough of an upgrade that they couldn't do it to RB1 itself.

What does that mean, exactly?