The unofficial Rock Band thread.

[Hermiod]

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.

Rock Band can't claim the high ground here, not after the first game. Harmonix carried their policy from Guitar Hero II of making some songs inaccessible to people who play on Easy.

Ultimately, people who play on easy and people who play on expert both paid their £39.99. I'm glad to see Rock Band 2 has corrected this.

 

[scorpius1701]

I have a Wii, does anyone know if when i get RB2 will i be able to download all those songs that came out on DLC for the first Rock Band? The wii does not allow dlc for the first game unfortunately.

 

[firehawk12]

They're still doing track packs, so I'm not sure. I guess it would take some work to go back and redo those songs and it might not be worth it to do it.

 

[Hermiod]

I got Rock Band 2 today. It's not clear how I'm supposed to unlock new tracks. I've completed some of the challenges in single player, up to the supposedly Impossible ones but I still haven't unlocked all the tracks.

It looks to me like I'm going to have to spend a lot of time playing the same songs over and over again.

 

[Aragorn]

Fastest cheat way (though you'd have to do it every time), go to the modifier screen and use this code -- Red, Yellow, Blue, Red, Red, Blue, Blue, Red, Yellow, Blue.

Fastest in-game way, go into the challenge mode and play every decade set.

 

[Aragorn]

Downloads for the week of Nov. 23:

The Killers pack
Mr. Brightside
Spaceman
Smile Like You Mean It

Yngwie Malmsteen pack
Caprici Di Diablo
Damnation Game
Red Devil

Singles
Soundgarden - Jesus Christ Pose
Soundgarden - Pretty Noose
Lamb of God - Laid to Rest

 

[Hermiod]

Fastest cheat way (though you'd have to do it every time), go to the modifier screen and use this code -- Red, Yellow, Blue, Red, Red, Blue, Blue, Red, Yellow, Blue.

Fastest in-game way, go into the challenge mode and play every decade set.

I'll take the second option. I didn't see where you'd asked the same question above until I'd already posted. Thanks.

 

[Aragorn]

Xbox Live Marketplace Black Friday price... for something no one wants...

All That Remains Pack 01 -- 290 points

Deal runs Friday to Sunday, for Gold members only.

 

[firehawk12]

Next Week:

• Children of Bodom - Are You Dead Yet? ($.99/80 MSP)*
• Finley - Tutto E' Possibile ($.99/80 MSP)*
• Platero y Tu - Hay Poco Rock N Roll ($.99/80 MSP)*
• Squeeze - Tempted ($.99/80 MSP)*
• Tokio Hotel - Ready, Set, Go ($.99/80 MSP)*
• The All-American Rejects - Real World ($.99/80 MSP)*
• Miranda Cosgrove - Headphones On (free)
• Naked Brothers Band - Body I Occupy ($.99/80 MSP)
• Naked Brothers Band - I Don't Want to Go to School ($.99/80 MSP)

 

[Aragorn]

Downloads for the week of Dec. 7:

No Doubt: The Singles 1992-2003
1. "Just a Girl"
2. "It’s My Life"
3. "Hey Baby"
4. "Bathwater”
5. "Sunday Morning"
6. "Hella Good"
7. "Underneath It All"
8. "Excuse Me Mr.”
9. "Running"
10. "Spiderwebs"
11. "Simple Kind of Life"
12. "Don’t Speak"
13. "Ex-Girlfriend"

1600 points ($19.99) for the pack or 160 ($1.99) each.

 

[firehawk12]

Other than Spider-webs, which I guess I technically already have in GHWT, is there anything else worth getting?

 

[TheBrew]

"It's My Life" would be fun for parties.

 

[mrcoaster]

We'll be getting the whole No Doubt album (think I've bought four other full albums so far). Most of the songs are pretty good, and the daughter and gf will like all the tracks quite a bit. Every week there's at least something that we like for DLC. I think we may clip 400 tracks in our personal RB library next week or the week after (the country DLC coming on the 9th).

Rented GHWT, after deciding that I probably wouldn't play it as much as RB, and not wanting to waste the cash... Played it two days and sent it back. Done with it. It's just not as fun as RB. It's easy to see which game was made by musicians and which game was made by Activision's crew.

 

[firehawk12]

http://majornelson.com/archive/2008...-o-the-week-rock-bank-foo-fighters-album.aspx

Foo Fighters album is 5 bucks off this week. I might grab it even though I don't know if I like any of the songs.

 

[Aragorn]

I'm not getting Foo Fighters. Not a fan of the songlist. I've decided I don't want to pay for songs for the sake of having them. I made a mistake downloading Garbage's song, and that was a waste.

 

[Aragorn]

Downloads for the week of Dec. 14:

Country Pack

• "Mud on the Tires" by Brad Paisley
• "Hillbilly Deluxe" by Brooks & Dunn
• "Free and Easy (Down the Road I Go)" by Dierks Bentley
• "Sin Wagon" by Dixie Chicks
• "Gunpowder & Lead" by Miranda Lambert

 

[Smiley]

I would love playing all five of those songs, but I'm not going to buy the game just for that. Rock Band and/or Guitar Hero should put out a whole game of country songs.

 

[mrcoaster]

We've had a blast playing the No Doubt tracks. I think we're up for four of the five country songs, even though I'm not a huge country fan. The songs all seem decent enough to listen to, so that's good enough for me.

 

[Brikar99]

I hope they don't make too much of a habit of interrupting the rock with more country and junk.

 

[Aragorn]

I think if they got the heavy metal version of Ice Ice Baby, sales would be off the chart.

That and Stan Bush's "The Touch."