Rock Band - Impressions...

Diablo25 · Post by **Diablo25** » Tue Dec 04, 2007 12:43 pm

Diablo25 wrote:
Diablo25 wrote:FYI, Rock Band bundles (360) are available online from Walmart.com (7:30 PM EST 12/2)
http://www.walmart.com/catalog/product. ... id=7789034
I should have my bundle by Wednesday I'm looking forward to playing some Police songs, among others Can't wait to try the drums.

My roommate from college invited me to his house for a New Years Eve party. His wife was talking about renting a karaoke machine for the evening's festivities. I might just have something a bit better Should be a fun night.

I've never played Guitar Hero so this should be an all new experience for me. I'll be on the drums first but I'm sure I'll give the guitar a whirl eventually.

GameSeven · Post by **GameSeven** » Tue Dec 04, 2007 1:04 pm

Talking to yourself is the first sign of impending mental collapse.

Danimal · Post by **Danimal** » Thu Dec 06, 2007 1:15 pm

How does one go about getting the replacement Guitar and Drums. I've been searching google but all I can find is stories that you can get replacements, not how to get them.

Plus I am lazy

Thanks

vader29 · Post by **vader29** » Thu Dec 06, 2007 1:44 pm

Danimal wrote:How does one go about getting the replacement Guitar and Drums. I've been searching google but all I can find is stories that you can get replacements, not how to get them.

Plus I am lazy

Thanks

http://support.ea.com/cgi-bin/ea.cfg/ph ... ckband.php

Danimal · Post by **Danimal** » Thu Dec 06, 2007 2:09 pm

vader29 wrote: http://support.ea.com/cgi-bin/ea.cfg/ph ... ckband.php

Thanks!

Gurantsu · Post by **Gurantsu** » Sat Dec 08, 2007 8:07 pm

OK, I'm late to the party, but Rock Band could possibly be the best video game I've ever played. I'm totally addicted to it, and the ability to have a full "band" with your friends is an absolute blast. What a fantastic concept, and for the most part it's been pulled off brilliantly. I will be trying that drum mod though.

I'm amazed at how much some of the guitar parts really give the feel of playing guitar (I play real guitar myself). I've always been terrible at leads, mainly because I never was good at using my pinky for them, but with Rock Band it's actually giving the little finger a workout that I honestly feel will help with actual guitar playing. And the drums are for the most part an actual electronic drum set, so that will certainly give you guys an idea of what thats like (like the afore mentioned long and repetivie riff during the guitar solo... thats what drummers and bassists do man!)

I've downloaded the Police pack, as well as Fortunate Son, My Sharona, and Juke Box Hero. Having a blast with all of them. Although that Red Hot Chili Peppers song on hard is kicking my butt.

I have a friend coming over tonight, maybe we'll catch some of you guys online.

Diablo25 · Post by **Diablo25** » Sat Dec 08, 2007 10:44 pm

Gurantsu wrote:OK, I'm late to the party, but Rock Band could possibly be the best video game I've ever played. I'm totally addicted to it, and the ability to have a full "band" with your friends is an absolute blast. What a fantastic concept, and for the most part it's been pulled off brilliantly. I will be trying that drum mod though.

I'm amazed at how much some of the guitar parts really give the feel of playing guitar (I play real guitar myself). I've always been terrible at leads, mainly because I never was good at using my pinky for them, but with Rock Band it's actually giving the little finger a workout that I honestly feel will help with actual guitar playing. And the drums are for the most part an actual electronic drum set, so that will certainly give you guys an idea of what thats like (like the afore mentioned long and repetivie riff during the guitar solo... thats what drummers and bassists do man!)

I've downloaded the Police pack, as well as Fortunate Son, My Sharona, and Juke Box Hero. Having a blast with all of them. Although that Red Hot Chili Peppers song on hard is kicking my butt.

I have a friend coming over tonight, maybe we'll catch some of you guys online.

My bundle arrived yesterday but I have yet to give it a go. I put the drums together but I had too much going on last night and all day today. Gonna give it a whirl in a bit

Taking the whole enchilada to my college roommate's New Years Eve party - that should be fun. I hope I enjoy it as much as I am anticipating.

Diablo25 · Post by **Diablo25** » Sun Dec 09, 2007 2:54 am

Got a chance to play around in practice mode for about an hour or so and it was great. I sucked, as expected, but it was a very entertaining hour. Near the end of the hour I was getting a nice handle on things. I tried a song on hard just for the hell of it...yeah - back to medium

I picked up the Police song pack off the Marketplace...I'm a big fan of the Police so it was well worth the 440 pts. I'll give the guitar a try tomorrow.

Gurantsu · Post by **Gurantsu** » Sun Dec 09, 2007 4:49 pm

My friend and I played for 4 hours straight last night and had a total blast, he being bass and me on guitar at first. We went online to form a band, but could only find one drummer who left the session when we picked Gimmie Shelter, and no singers at all.

Then we went back and forth and tried the online Tug-of-War mode, and wow, it was cool! It's basically a guitar version of Dueling Banjo's, and one of the folk I was up against picked Green Grass and High Tides, with the huge guitar solos. It was awesome, and having the characters on the screen egg each other on as they dueled on stage was neat, and made it entertaining for when you were just watching. One person was playing on expert, and holy cow they were hitting most of the notes, very impressive. Just going back and forth, her taking a riff, then me, then sometimes both at the same time, man it was a hoot.

Then I took over the drumming duties, and we hopped online again and got a guitarist to play along for a half dozen songs. Again we had fun, even if my buddy missed every one of the big endings!

And the coolest thing about the game? My wife will actually play it with me! That alone is worth the price of admission.

I'm definitely up for a poker night sometime with this one. If anyone see's me on send a long an invite, and I'll hop in if I'm able.

Now if only you could create an online band and do the whole touring thing with it, that would really rock, as well as an online battle of the bands. Lots of potential ways to play with music here!

Naples39 · Post by **Naples39** » Sun Dec 09, 2007 11:41 pm

Beat drums solo tour on medium today. Outside from a few parts on Enter Sandman and The Who songs, I feel pretty good about playing on medium now. Green Grass and High Tides remains the only song that really gives me fits. Looking forward to trying this on hard, as I'm sure it it will be much more difficult.

Also, I really wish there was a way to preview the songs that are available for download. I'm not a big music buff and can't recognize the song by name, but I'm sure if I heard most of those I'd recognize them.

webdanzer · Post by **webdanzer** » Mon Dec 10, 2007 10:45 am

I walked into it this weekend and decided to grab it, mostly because I expect it to be a blast for my upcoming holiday parties.

I've discovered that if you unlock songs on Easy they are then available for all instruments on local multiplayer, so I'm trying to blow through a quick drum tour to unlock as many songs as I can before the upcoming parties. Is there a faster way to unlock everything?

JackB1 · Post by **JackB1** » Mon Dec 10, 2007 10:57 am

Now that this game has been oout for awhile, is everyone still liking it as much? I am still contemplating picking it up JUST for the drums and for online play. I dont think my wife will be into it, but you never know. I have GP2 & GP3 so I am really only interested in the drums part of it. I haven't seen many of yu DSPers hooking up for "Poker Nights" with this...is that happening?

Post by **ScoopBrady** » Mon Dec 10, 2007 11:16 am

You guys are killing me. I still have 2 weeks before I can play this bad boy and it's been so hard not to rip open the box and play. I was in Best Buy on Friday and I decided to try the drums even though they didn't have the bass pedal. I was able to finish songs on Expert but have a feeling that it's going to be very difficult adding the bass pedal into the mix. Either way it was a blast and I can't wait until Christmas. I'll have the Metallica pack downloaded and ready to go.

Spooky · Post by **Spooky** » Mon Dec 10, 2007 11:55 am

Finished the Solo Carrer for Drums on Hard and am now halfway through on Expert. What a blast!

Two songs that scare the hell out of me on Expert are "Blackend" and "Won't Get Fooled Again". I have been able to squeek by most all the other hard tunes on Expert when just playing multiplayer or quickplay modes.

I would love to do a DSP poker night but I think why we are not seeing that occur is that the game is limited to 4 players (probably 3 since I doubt anyone will really want to sing). Kind of hard to do a 3 man "poker night".

Naples39 · Post by **Naples39** » Mon Dec 10, 2007 12:02 pm

webdanzer wrote:I walked into it this weekend and decided to grab it, mostly because I expect it to be a blast for my upcoming holiday parties.

I've discovered that if you unlock songs on Easy they are then available for all instruments on local multiplayer, so I'm trying to blow through a quick drum tour to unlock as many songs as I can before the upcoming parties. Is there a faster way to unlock everything?

Playing it on easy drums will not unlock all the songs, as there are another 10 or 15 songs that must be unlocked on medium or higher.

If you're a guitar hero vet, I recommend blowing through guitar solo tour on medium to unlock all the songs as quickly as possible.

webdanzer · Post by **webdanzer** » Mon Dec 10, 2007 12:09 pm

Naples39 wrote:
Playing it on easy drums will not unlock all the songs, as there are another 10 or 15 songs that must be unlocked on medium or higher.

If you're a guitar hero vet, I recommend blowing through guitar solo tour on medium to unlock all the songs as quickly as possible.

Aw, that stinks. Yeah, I'm a 3-4 star Expert player on the GHS (I can get through the Experts, but don't usually spend the time 5 starring them), but I was enjoying the drums because of the novelty of them. I'm actually kind of breezing through on Easy, though, so maybe I could do them on Medium instead..though I understand there are some 'roadblock' songs there.

Thanks, Naples.

Diablo25 · Post by **Diablo25** » Mon Dec 10, 2007 12:59 pm

The kick drum is definitely my weakness on drums

I'm getting decent with the drums on medium. Tried my first quickplay last night with Wanted Dead or Alive - Bon Jovi. All I can say about the game is its addictive! I keep trying to get better. The Police song pack is awesome. I haven't even tried the guitar yet.

greggsand · Post by **greggsand** » Mon Dec 10, 2007 1:15 pm

I saw some people playing this with the mic. I noticed the person's vocals sounded waaaaay burried in the track. Are there volume settings to make the vocals stand-out more??

Gurantsu · Post by **Gurantsu** » Mon Dec 10, 2007 1:28 pm

I would gladly do vocals for a poker night if I wasn't playing right below my kids room while they are sleeping. The drums are about as loud as I can get.

However, I can do it when I play ay my buddies house, as his is set up in his home theater and we can blast it as loud as we want to.

And heck, I would even keep the right trigger down if there wasn't the lag issue I read about!

Having only 4 in a band is why I would love a battle of the bands mode for online, where you could create bands from all available players, then all play the same song and compare final scores.

I've just started the hard section of the solo career after finishing the medium, and just the addition of that extra button will take some getting used to. Luckily they really do start you on songs you can handle so that helps; I don't move to the next city until I have at least 4 stars on all of the songs.

Diablo25 · Post by **Diablo25** » Tue Dec 11, 2007 1:28 am

Started a solo drum career tonight...my name is Dirk Valentine

Went through the first five songs pretty easily and its on to Chicago. I'm really digging this game. Can't wait to have a get together with some friends.

webdanzer · Post by **webdanzer** » Tue Dec 11, 2007 10:27 am

greggsand wrote:I saw some people playing this with the mic. I noticed the person's vocals sounded waaaaay burried in the track. Are there volume settings to make the vocals stand-out more??

I noticed the same thing last night. At the time it was okay because I was doing the singing, but I may want to raise that up for someone else.

I saw that there were volume settings for both the mic and the vocal track, so you could make it so that you sing louder than Bon Jovi, for instance, but I didn't see that you could raise the vocals compared to the other tracks.

greggsand · Post by **greggsand** » Tue Dec 11, 2007 4:09 pm

webdanzer wrote:
greggsand wrote:I saw some people playing this with the mic. I noticed the person's vocals sounded waaaaay burried in the track. Are there volume settings to make the vocals stand-out more??
I noticed the same thing last night. At the time it was okay because I was doing the singing, but I may want to raise that up for someone else.

I saw that there were volume settings for both the mic and the vocal track, so you could make it so that you sing louder than Bon Jovi, for instance, but I didn't see that you could raise the vocals compared to the other tracks.

My sister is a big karaoke nut & was thinking of buying this & a mic. Not sure if that would be a good idea or not?

Leebo33 · Post by **Leebo33** » Tue Dec 11, 2007 4:20 pm

greggsand wrote:My sister is a big karaoke nut & was thinking of buying this & a mic. Not sure if that would be a good idea or not?

My initial thought is to not recommend it as a karaoke only game. My wife likes to sing, but I think a lot of the enjoyment is because she is playing the game with me. I don't think she's ever played the game by herself. Plus, there are a few songs that she doesn't like to sing at all(Sabatoge comes to mind).

Danimal · Post by **Danimal** » Tue Dec 11, 2007 4:41 pm

webdanzer wrote: I noticed the same thing last night. At the time it was okay because I was doing the singing, but I may want to raise that up for someone else.

I saw that there were volume settings for both the mic and the vocal track, so you could make it so that you sing louder than Bon Jovi, for instance, but I didn't see that you could raise the vocals compared to the other tracks.

The individuals levels are in their somewhere I swear I saw it but it won't make a difference. Playing this on a standard TV I almost never hear the vocals. Playing it on a surround sound 5.1 or 7.1 system and the vocals are easily heard. I've had no luck any other way.

Diablo25 · Post by **Diablo25** » Wed Dec 12, 2007 10:51 pm

I am really enjoying this game. Its a very fun experience for someone who has never had the experience of playing an instrument. I am in the middle of a solo drum career and I can't walk away from the damn game - its addictive. The satisfaction of playing a song that you really enjoy is awesome. I am a huge Police fan so the song pack I downloaded is the tits. Don't get me wrong, I am nothing special, but I am getting better at the game with every song. I was worried I would regret buying the bundle but no worries now...just fun. I can only imagine what a get together with friends would be like. Throw in a little alcohol and it could get ugly