Rock Band Thread (DLC Priced, Cheaper than GHIII)

[unwinddesign]

True that! I played that thing at my best buy and HATE IT. Just feels really cheap and poorly made. Hopefully I'll get used to it though cause I'm sure I'm gonna use it.

Goddamnit, I wish people would stop spreading misinformation.

The units at Best Buy weren't the same build quality as the final product. They were rushed out to give the public a taste of what's up with Rock Band. Factor in that people trash the instruments, and it's not a fair comparison at all.

On most of the reviews I've read, the Fender has been noted as looking almost like the real thing and feeling sturdy and closer to a real guitar than the Gibsons. Some people prefer them to the RedOctane version; most people, being used to the old guitars, prefer the feel of them. General consensus is that the Stratocaster is slightly inferior to the Gibsons, but by no means a piece of crap, as has been readily reported by internet posters and numerous Guitar Hero fanboys.

I'd say give them a true shot, and, if worst comes to worst, sell the Stratocaster and use the GH2 or GH3 controller. If you're on Xbox 360, of course, because otherwise you're fucked.

[otaku]

The Kmart I work at has two bundles for 360. Then we have about 6 or so copies between the 360 and ps3 (game only)

[meancode]

I have to disagree. The strum bar is very different. But once you get better, it is much easier to hit a string of notes close together, not o mention hammer ons and pull offs. It also doesn't go clickity-clack, clickity-clack.

[misfits859]

Picked mine up at Wal-Mart this morning. 360 version. Apparently they received between 30 and 50 units which surprised me. Feel like I should have picked up an extra box to ebay...Can't wait to get home and try it out.

\\^_^/

[carlcarlson]

I got three, two 360 versions and a ps3. course, I am visiting my parents, and didn't bring my 360 home, so I can't play. ah well, that box is pretty.

[Vectorman0]

Why did you get three?

[carlcarlson]

Why did you get three?

my buddy wants one, but doesn't have the cash right now, so one of the 360 versions is on hold for him. The first place I went only had the ps3 version, but I bought it to use as trade bait for anyone with an extra 360 version. now it will just go up on ebay I suppose to help pay for the one I'm keeping.

[Eternal Tune]

We ended up not camping. Out of curiousity we went to the Wal-mart near my house after 12:30 and they still had a few left. Oobgarm and I both bought one. Sadly they are Christmas gifts to each other....so they will be sitting in my garage for a bit.

If they start selling for crazy amounts of cash, my copy is being sold. I'll just play with his until I can get one.

[Oobgarm]

Turns out that 387 Best Buy stores didn't get any or much of their intended inventory, and mine was one of them.

Thery're not making any guarantees when they're coming in, but they should be there by the end of the day tomorrow.

But at least I could get the cool branded drumsticks and guitar strap. :rocker:

[MoreEbolaForYou]

i just went to walmart when they opened in the morning and they had tons of them sitting there. bought one for xbox360, and had to go right to work for the day. i can't play until i get home from work, and that is pretty painful to say the least.

[misfits859]

First impressions...Well, I'm having a tough time getting used to the drums. And medium with the guitar would be what I consider easy on GH. Gonna take a little getting used to but I'm in for the long haul.

[Dragon Warrior Jasen]

I live in Italy (Thanks Navy) so mine got shipped today.... I'm always a week behind you guys! I also purchased mine for XBox 360, solely because Live is better than PS3's online system IMO. I did get GH3 for PS3 though, just to keep the trend of having GH on PS.

Random Off topic, did they release GH 80's edition as a big box with a guitar in the States? I was at a local Saturn store here in Naples and they had a PAL version of 80's edition as a set with a guitar...

[Kitsune Sniper]

Random Off topic, did they release GH 80's edition as a big box with a guitar in the States? I was at a local Saturn store here in Naples and they had a PAL version of 80's edition as a set with a guitar...

Nope, they didn't sell it with a guitar here. I think it's because it's not even a full game. :p

[Dragon Warrior Jasen]

Hmmm... got it. Back to Saturn i shall go... of course next week when I get back from Belgium.

So, anyone else... Rock Band? Awesome?! I have been so excited about this game... I feel like a 10 year old waiting for xmas bc of this game, and I LOVE IT! I have the Taiko Drum Master game and that is addictive and fun, so I can only imagine banging "close enough drums" with real sticks is going to be SICK!

[misfits859]

I'm likeing it. Turned it up to hard and it became a bit more "fun". The drums (I'm no drummer) are definitely gonna take some practice for me to get good at. I'm DL'ing the Metallica pack as we speak and plan on getting Roxanne (for my wife's pleasure) next. If they keep the DL's fresh then I feel the game has some real potential.

[norkusa]

If you're a Sam's Club member, RB is only $149.46 there. I saw at least a couple pallets of the 360 version for sale today. Didn't see any PS3's though but I didn't really look around that hard.

If you're a Costco shopper, I hear it's $159.99 there.

[Overbite]

If you think that song is super hard, then you must suck at music/rhytm games.

http://img81.imageshack.us/img81/2227/iseebj6.gif

I made a guitarist that looks almost exactly like Poison from Final Fight, so thats' cool.

The drums are kicking my ass on expert so I have to play them on medium/hard. It's the bass pedal that's doing it :(

I suppose it's just like playing GH for the first time. I started out on medium and then I was able to play on expert just fine.

[misfits859]

I got the Metallica 3 pack downloaded and I'm happy to find out that it is the original tunes and not covered. Now, I'm guessing that all DLC will be original recordings...? Anyway, if you're an old school Metallica fan then the songs are from Lightning and Justice and should whet your appetite. ...And Justice For All was a fun play through on guitar. I also tried to drum it and got booed off the stage within one minute. I'm guessing that it's going to be a treat to watch someone drum this one on expert level, My brain isn't accepting the fact that I need to kick the bass while drumming and the timing is realling effing me up. I may have to take a break and play some Drake's Fortune just so my right foot and hands can rest lol.

Edit:

Crap, my guitar's strum button's down strum is effed up...It's only working ocassionaly when I strum down. I checked around on some game sites and it seems I ain't the only one that's having this problem. My Les Paul works fine with the game so that's good.

[slip81]

am I the only person that's getting this game for the PS2?

[otaku]

bought mine tonight played a half hour, pretty sweet.

[misfits859]

Ok, it's been a marathon tonite. My wife, daughter and I have played non-stop for about 6 hours. I play some form of guitar while they sing. I'm drunk as a barrel full of monkeys and having a good time. We're inviting friends over Friday night for a Rock Band drink-a-thon. Party game of the year!

[Overbite]

am I the only person that's getting this game for the PS2?

The PS2 is the only system I could buy this for and even I won't get it for that, there's just no reason to. No downloads, no online, no updates. Save up and get a 360.


For the record my bro bought this and I play his copy :P

[Damaniel]

The drums are very accurate and seem well made too. However, the drum parts of the songs don't seem to be as hard as the guitar parts; I scored 97% in Expert mode on my first try, and this is coming from someone who struggles to pass the first couple of tiers of Guitar Hero III on expert. Of course, this could just be the song I played, since the drum playing in "In Bloom" isn't all that complex.

Now that I've had a chance to play with the pedal, I officially retract my statement. It took me about half an hour before I could even pass a song on Medium, because my foot wanted to follow what my hands were doing. I'm now to the point where I can score over 90% on most of the songs I've played so far, but I'm not sure I'll ever be ready for Hard. ;)

I also tried singing for a while. I've played Singstar, but I like the Rock Band singing interface better. The one thing I haven't tried yet is the guitar (other than at the Best Buy demo), so I can't really make any other comments here.

I'm also glad to see that they have downloadable content for the Xbox 360 version -- and more than the total amount that Guitar Hero III tracks that they've released so far. At this rate, I'll end up filling my hard drive (and emptying my bank account) in a few months.

Overall, it's really fun! Now I just need to get more people over here, since there were only two of us tonight. At least my band already has a full-time singer. :)

[unwinddesign]

Wow, it looks like Harmonix straight up lied.

My guitar is pretty fucked up and it's been played with for about 4 hours total. Strumming, either way, seems to work only at random. It's not a lack of skill [playing on Hard, for the record], because the Les Paul worked fine and both me and my buddy had issues with the Strat.

Boo EA and Harmonix for putting out a shit product and then claiming the demo problems were just that -- pre-production issues that would be fixed. Bullshit, I say.

Too bad, because before it started giving me wankery, I liked the strum bar more than the Guitar Hero 3 controller. Seemed more like playing a real guitar instead of clicking a button over and over again.

[Rob2600]

Now that I've had a chance to play with the pedal, I officially retract my statement. It took me about half an hour before I could even pass a song on Medium, because my foot wanted to follow what my hands were doing. I'm now to the point where I can score over 90% on most of the songs I've played so far, but I'm not sure I'll ever be ready for Hard. ;)

I haven't played Rock Band yet. What is the drumming like? Do you have to play eight notes on the hi-hat with one hand while hitting the snare drum with the other?

[geneshifter]

Wow, it looks like Harmonix straight up lied.

My guitar is pretty fucked up and it's been played with for about 4 hours total. Strumming, either way, seems to work only at random. It's not a lack of skill [playing on Hard, for the record], because the Les Paul worked fine and both me and my buddy had issues with the Strat.

Boo EA and Harmonix for putting out a shit product and then claiming the demo problems were just that -- pre-production issues that would be fixed. Bullshit, I say.

Too bad, because before it started giving me wankery, I liked the strum bar more than the Guitar Hero 3 controller. Seemed more like playing a real guitar instead of clicking a button over and over again.

Wow, that's too bad man. I've been reading some pretty bad horror stories about RB all day. Seems they have really bad quality. Guitars not strumming, drum pedals reaking, etc... Thank goodness I waited on this. I knew that piece of crap at Best Buy was a taste of the real build quality.

[boatofcar]

Not to mention saying a guitar made for a rhythm game "feels more like a real guitar" is like saying a coffe maker looks more like a microwave than a refrigerator. Just make a plastic guitar thats in the same general shape as a real guitar that works well with the game--don't try to make it into something it's not.

[Lothars]

Not to mention saying a guitar made for a rhythm game "feels more like a real guitar" is like saying a coffe maker looks more like a microwave than a refrigerator. Just make a plastic guitar thats in the same general shape as a real guitar that works well with the game--don't try to make it into something it's not.

Exactly, It's annoying especially since it seems to be constantly brought up

[unwinddesign]

It really does feel like a real guitar. It feels substantial in your hands. I have a real Strat [as I'm sure more than a few people around here do too]; I should know that much.It goes a long way to locking you into the experience; your "instrument" looks like the ones the characters are holding in the game [not to mention several iconic rockers of modern times and yester-year].

It doesn't look like a toy or a piece of crap; the 360 Guitar Hero controllers have always looked like both [the latter is debatable, the former, well, it's a fact]. However, they can take a hell of a lick, and I haven't seen one break under normal play. Irony strikes.

Luckily, I can just send it off to EA for a replacement, and then I'll unload it on eBay come Christmas time. Why people are paying $80 for a wired piece of crap is beyond me.

In any event, the man's question at the beginning was answered, so I supposed this all redundant. I'd sell the Fender before it breaks, but that's just me. Everything else in the kit seemed fine. Mic seemed as heavy as a real one [probably because that's what it is...], and worked fine. Drums had no issues other than I sucked at them [ha!]. I call shenanigans on whoever they contracted to manufacture the guitar.

[unwinddesign]

I'm not a drummer, and I suck at the game, but there's a combination of single hits, double hits (i.e. "snare" + "cymbal" or w/e), single hits + kick drum and double hits + kick drum. All those at various rhythms.

But yeah, there's stuff like what you described, where you have a 1 - 12 - 1 - 12 (1 = hi hat cymbal, 2 = snare) etc. beat going in the song and that's what the drum line translates to on-screen. Pretty cool stuff.

I like the singing the most. I 5* "Dani California" on Hard. Probably my favorite song in the game. Almost failed that Garbage song because of the speaking parts being pitched for some reason...and I'm a guy. Somehow nailed the high pitched singing portions of that track, though...hmmm...

Anyway, I've had the most fun with the vocals so far (although I only play those solo), guitar comes in second (some fun songs to play, some not so good ones too), and drums come in a big fat last, since I suck at them. Also, the song "Sabotage" or any song by the Beastie Boys is hereby declared illegal to be included in another rhythm game. I mean, honestly, what the fuck. That song sucks, and we played it about 5 times in Band World Tour over the course of 4 - 5 hours. Which brings up another complaint: with 45 songs, why the hell does the game make you play the same 10 for 3+ hours before you can play more in different, "bigger" venues? That's just crap. You can only play "In Bloom" or "Maps" so many times before they become boring.

[otaku]

bought mine tonight and have got some time into it, love the drums! My GH3 guitar does indeed work and I much prefer it to the fender. The fender looks and feels like crap and I don't expect it to last long. Probably gonna see about selling it or maybe keep it around for the occassional visitor (mostly just gonna play with one other person and then via live)

[GrandAmChandler]

Threads merged.

-GAC-

[misfits859]

My guitar's strum seemed to work at random for awhile last nite before totally becoming umplayable. This was within a few hours of opening the box. If I didn;t have a GH3 guitar I would be beyond pissed off. From all the complaints available with a search of the popular gaming forums, I simply cannot believe that this issue escaped quality control. Which leads me to believe there was little of that...

[norkusa]

My guitar's strum seemed to work at random for awhile last nite before totally becoming umplayable. This was within a few hours of opening the box. If I didn;t have a GH3 guitar I would be beyond pissed off. From all the complaints available with a search of the popular gaming forums, I simply cannot believe that this issue escaped quality control. Which leads me to believe there was little of that...

That really sucks. So the whole thing about the retail guitars being better build quality than those shitty demo guitars was B.S. then?

[Oobgarm]

If it's of any interest, the little round sticker that was on the bottom of the box for our demo at Best Buy, indicating the QC check date, was marked as early September. I've seen posts of ones that are all the way up to early October, so I don't think it's a matter of prototype vs. production models. It's a manufacturing flaw, no doubt.

[kingpong]

My quick review after a few hours last night:

Don't care for the way you switch between instruments in single player, which is especially annoying because despite all the hype about being a party game, 90% of time everybody spends on this game will be single player. Also rather lame that you have to create different characters for each instrument, especially when you don't care at all about the characters - I just want to play the game, I don't care about character fluff!

The guitar aspects are OK. Definitely one step below GH in difficulty. Don't care for the look of the notes as much as GH, and I haven't seen a HO/PO yet. Maybe the tutorial shows how to recognize them, but they all look the same to me. The solo buttons are absolutely useless. Forget that they exist and just play the solos like normal notes. Also ignore the effects switch, as the difference it makes is negligible. No problems with my strum bar so far.

Drums are the most fun and by far the hardest. Pedal should attach to the crossbar more solidly, but otherwise the drums are nice, though loud. Sensitivity is odd though. In the menus the slightest tap registers. In-game I tend to hit quite a bit harder, yet more than a few hits failed to register. Hitting softly didn't help.

Vocals are what you would expect them to be. If you've played the Karaoke Revolutions games it is the same thing but you'll find it extremely easy. If you can get a platinum record on easy in KR, you can 100% everything on Hard in Rock Band (haven't tried expert yet). Thankfully they managed to get "star power" right with the vocals - while it is an odd way of activating it, your accumulated power isn't wasted during idle sections like it does on the other instruments or in GH.

So basically you have
Guitar Hero N simplified 1 level of difficulty
+ Karaoke Revolution Rock simplified 2 levels of difficulty
+ Drummania (haven't played it to know how it compares)

So you're getting 3 games + instruments for $170. That's actually a heck of a good deal considering games are $60 these days. I'll probably DL My Sharona and Jukebox Hero tonight, but the rest of the DLC is sort of crap.

Now to figure out how to unlock all the songs so tomorrow for Thanksgiving the family can play the songs they want without having to put up with the idiocy of some tour mode.

[Princess-Isabela]

beat game on drums yesterday(all 50 songs or so) on medium, perfect.
I'm getting into hard and expert ^^
drums feel really good, better than Konami's Drummania.
more Nirvana and Metallica songs would be nice(they have Metallica 3 additional songs on xbox live ready to download from what I hear), cannot wait.

[kingpong]

Just got #1 on the vocal leaderboard for Paranoid, 100% on Expert and of course activating Overdrive whenever possible. Yay me.

A former co-worker who is a drummer in a band stopped by this afternoon to check out the drum portion of the game. He said it wasn't bad but not as good as Drumscape, and the whole "expert on drums is like playing the song for real" thing isn't true, pointing out numerous differences between the game and what he normally plays. He had some trouble getting used to the timing, and after watching him play Expert it is safe to say I will never play the drums on Expert.

[misfits859]

beat game on drums yesterday(all 50 songs or so) on medium, perfect.
I'm getting into hard and expert ^^
drums feel really good, better than Konami's Drummania.
more Nirvana and Metallica songs would be nice(they have Metallica 3 additional songs on xbox live ready to download from what I hear), cannot wait.

The Metallica songs are quite fun. If/when I get good with the drums, I could see me spending alot of time playing ...Justice, especially the intro.

[rbudrick]

So is this coming out for the Wii, or what?

-Rob

[Rob2600]

So is this coming out for the Wii, or what?

A Wii version has not yet been confirmed.

http://wii.ign.com/objects/897/897529.html

[Damaniel]

Just got #1 on the vocal leaderboard for Paranoid, 100% on Expert and of course activating Overdrive whenever possible. Yay me.

A former co-worker who is a drummer in a band stopped by this afternoon to check out the drum portion of the game. He said it wasn't bad but not as good as Drumscape, and the whole "expert on drums is like playing the song for real" thing isn't true, pointing out numerous differences between the game and what he normally plays. He had some trouble getting used to the timing, and after watching him play Expert it is safe to say I will never play the drums on Expert.

I'm having a hard enough time with Hard. I've beaten exactly one song in Hard (Paranoid), and I've made it about halfway through My Sharona, but I suck at most of the rest. I have a hard time making my foot hit the pedal fast and continuously, which they start to make you do in hard. Plus, they set up lots of situations where the bass pedal is played lots of times in a row, some in time with the other drum beats, and some not. I'll have to practice more, I guess. For now, I'm spending most of my time playing Medium, but my band of two has reached our fan limit and we can't open some of the other venues until I'm able to bump up the difficulty.

My sister, on the other hand, is really good at singing. She got 100% on Paranoid and My Sharona in Expert, both on her first try. She's managed to get 100% on a few songs in Hard, and rarely scores under about 97% or so on the rest. If only I could play the drums that well... ;)

[Nirvana]

I just got Rock Band today. Initial thoughts:

- The drums with the bass pedal makes it much more difficult than at the store. However, with practice, you can get excellent at coordination skills. My brother is a great drummer, so he is able to do it pretty well.

- The guitar feels MUCH better than you think o_O That Best Buy demo guitar was shitty, and people probably beat the crap out of it there. I don't get why people are having problems with it. You have to hit the strum bar a tad harder, but I play pretty aggressively, so it's great for me.

- Vocals, for me, is tough if you don't know the song. Otherwise, I did pretty damn good on In Bloom and Wave of Mutilation. Not to mention I'm sick o_O

- The multiplayer tour mode has you do a lot of stuff.

[unwinddesign]

The game hates my rapping. Hates it. My girlfriend got "awesome!" on all the rap sections in "Epic" by Faith No More, but it was giving me "weak" and "okay" most of the time. She was whispering and I was belting it like Mike Patton does on the record. What's the deal with that?

I still love singing, though. I get raped by songs I don't know on Hard/Expert, but it's still fun. Some of the parts seem off, though.

[misfits859]

"- The guitar feels MUCH better than you think o_O That Best Buy demo guitar was shitty, and people probably beat the crap out of it there. I don't get why people are having problems with it. You have to hit the strum bar a tad harder, but I play pretty aggressively, so it's great for me."

It's a hardware issue...not a problem caused by overbearing owners. Look at the sheer numbers of people who's guitars have failed already.

[Nirvana]

I can see that.

[sisko]

I found myself incredibly frustrated with the drums. As someone who can handle most rythym and groove games on the hardest level difficulty (Guitar Hero, DDR, Amplitude/Frequency, etc) I'd figure that I can at least handle the drums on medium, but I still got my ass handed to me.

[norkusa]

Is there any way to play on Solo Tour with bass? Or can you only do drums, guitar, and mic in Solo Tour?

[walrusmonger]

my guitar blows chunks, the strum sucks and there is no way to activate star power without pressing back- but then out of nowhere it'll set off.

since ea's warranty exchange program is so good, I ordered a replacement.

my box said oct 8th on it from what i remember, or early october- maybe the earlier ones suck? hopefully the new guitar is better.

[spoon]

Is there any way to play on Solo Tour with bass? Or can you only do drums, guitar, and mic in Solo Tour?

Nope.

[gamegirl79]

my guitar blows chunks, the strum sucks and there is no way to activate star power without pressing back- but then out of nowhere it'll set off.

since ea's warranty exchange program is so good, I ordered a replacement.

my box said oct 8th on it from what i remember, or early october- maybe the earlier ones suck? hopefully the new guitar is better.

My guitar is doing the exact same thing - the strum randomly won't work, and then star power activates on its own. This all started after about 5 hours of use.

And I'm still waiting on my Les Paul guitar replacement because that one was defective too. VERY annoying. :grumble:

[ghsqb]

I've had no issues with my hardware so far (touch wood) but Harmonix/EA/MTV sure aren't making it easy for Canadians to get into Rock Band.

Nevermind we were shut out at launch (Canada doesn't get it until Dec 17th) but even though I drove down to Massena, NY on launch day to buy it, I can't access any DLC content because I'm in Canada!

How brutal is that?

Incidentally, one thing I can't stand so far about the game is the "To gain more fans you must play at a higher difficulty level" BS.
What a poorly conceived game mechanism.

[MoreEbolaForYou]

i don't think the playing at a higher difficulty level to gain more fans is a bad idea at all. my roomate has always played guitar hero on medium and would always refuse to try to learn how to play on hard. this has been for years, and he'd usually get 99 or 100% on every song. now that it depends on our band earning more fans, he's finally started to learn how to play on hard. it's a good idea to get people to step up their game.

[Dragon Warrior Jasen]

I got mine in today, which was acutally 4 days ago but I was on vacation in Belgium.

All I can say is.... SWEET. The box was ginormous, i knew it would be, but wow!

The drums are pretty good. The spring in the kick drum is a bit tight though. Singing (which is not my natural forte) was fun, and the guitar hasnt been used yet! (GH has been played alot in my house so it wasnt that exciting as the rest!)

The game is great. I need to make it through it all and then try and get some DLC!

[norkusa]

I played thru Medium and I'm about half way thru Hard. No problems yet with the strum bar but I almost wish it'd break so I can get the replacement out of the way now while it's still under warranty.

I really like the big buttons on the Strat but they start feeling real clunky while playing Hard/Expert songs. Might have to go back to using the Xplorer when playing the harder stuff.

My only gripe with the game is that it won't save my goddamn lefty preferences, so every time I start up a game, I gotta go into gameplay options and re-select Lefty. Pretty annoying but other than that, I'm having a good time with it.

[ghsqb]

i don't think the playing at a higher difficulty level to gain more fans is a bad idea at all. my roomate has always played guitar hero on medium and would always refuse to try to learn how to play on hard. this has been for years, and he'd usually get 99 or 100% on every song. now that it depends on our band earning more fans, he's finally started to learn how to play on hard. it's a good idea to get people to step up their game.

I hear what you're saying, and I don't disagree with the idea of challenging people to get better at the game.

I just don't think it's the best idea to have someone that maybe starts out on easy, play 1/4 of the game on easy, 1/4 on medium, 1/4 on hard and 1/4 on expert.

It's enough that the achievements are all weighted to the high level stuff.
They have to realize that not everyone is able, or WANTS, to play at expert level.

Especially a game you pay close to $200 for, you should be able to play at whatever damn level you want to.

[Nirvana]

I really enjoy playing this game. Whether it be on the mic, drums, or the guitar, I have a fun time. I intend on beating the game on as many different difficulties possible with the instruments. I can definitely do all of the difficulties on the guitar. I dunno if I can get passed medium on the mic and drums, though.

[carlcarlson]

I broke my out Sunday night and got in a little practice on the drums before my friends came over Monday. We played pretty much all of Monday and a good portion of Tuesday. Needless to say, I like it. A lot. I suck at singing, so that portion of the game is pretty much wasted on me, but the drums more than make up for it. The guitar is fun, though I'm not crazy about the Strat. Also, I don't like the tightened hammer-ons. It seems like I can't rely on them at all, and lots of times notes that SHOULD be hammer-on enabled aren't. I'm not sure whey they changed this so much from the system they had in Guitar Hero 2, since it worked very well. Solos are pretty annoying because of this, which sucks. Either way, though, I love this game and don't regret spending the $180 on it for one second.

[Nirvana]

Yes, that's a huge gripe of mine. It is difficult determining hammer-ons compared to Guitar Hero.

[Princess-Isabela]

just beat game on drums(hard difficulty),
working my way on expert ^^
higher difficulty levels are climactic.

[s1lence]

I think I'm in a boat by myself when I say I'm not liking Rock Band. Seems more like a big gimmick deal, LOOK GH has a guitar, BUT WE HAVE DRUMS!!!!!

It feels like a ps1, well looks like one. I know people are going to disagree with me but I can't stand it. The Hammer-ons are hard to figure out and the solo part, were you get point bonus points, is stupid. Its about as pointless as the boss battles in GH III.

[boatofcar]

Just came across this article on one musician's experience playing it:

http://www.slate.com/id/2177432/

Awesome, awesome article. Thanks for sharing that!

[Damaniel]

I've finally started to build up my coordination enough to play more songs on Hard. I can do at least a dozen at over 90% now, but some of them (any Metallica, for example) are hard enough on Medium. I can even play one song (Say It Ain't So) on Expert, but I don't think I could do any others yet.

Lately I've been trying out playing guitar and singing at the same time. Except for the problem of finding a place to put the microphone (I don't have a mic stand), I'm able to do at least a few songs on Hard/Hard. My main problem is trying to keep my eye on the guitar parts, which is hard if I don't know all the lyrics and I need to keep looking up at them.

My instruments have held up well so far. I'm not actually using the Strat since I don't like the feel of the buttons or the strum bar, but the drums and mic work great and haven't had any problems. I just use the wired Guitar Hero II guitar in place of the Rock Band one and that works fine too.

Overall, I'm glad I picked it up, and I've spent a lot of time playing it (especially when people are over and my band has more than 2 members ;))

[meancode]

Hey they finally, after 8 days, have an offical statement:

PS3 Guitar Compatibility:

Some of you have contacted us about the PS3 edition of Rock Band--from issues with guitar compatibility to frustration that stand-alone guitars and drums for Rock Band have not yet hit stores. Please know that these issues have our full attention. We are listening and we read everything that is posted on our forums. We are committed to providing the best play experience possible and working hard to ensure that we solve these problems as soon as possible. We promise to keep you updated and, in the meantime, we thank you for your patience.

Rock Band Guitars:

As sometimes happens when new products first go into manufacturing, we discovered an imperfection with the strum bar in an early production run of guitars that were shipped at launch. We want to inform you that we have since identified and fixed the issue in all subsequent production runs of the guitars. If you are experiencing a problem with your guitar or any of your other Rock Band instruments, simply visit the customer support website and we will send a replacement immediately. Harmonix is dedicated to creating 100% customer satisfaction and to those of you who've encountered any hardware issues, we are sorry for the hassle.

[carlcarlson]

this is probably a stupid question, but is there any way to disable the star power breakdowns when playing drums? I hate those areas, they always take me right out of the song and more often than not break my streak.

[meancode]

this is probably a stupid question, but is there any way to disable the star power breakdowns when playing drums? I hate those areas, they always take me right out of the song and more often than not break my streak.

Nope. I would suggest you just keep the same beat through the the free form sections until you get better at performing drum fills.

[MoreEbolaForYou]

(I'm not sure why this got locked as a new topic, but whatever, Rockband instrument woes:)

Replacement 1 (Guitar): Not unusual, downstrum stopped working on the original guitar, did the online replacement and had the new guitar in literally 3 days. So far so good.
Unhappiness level: 1/10

Replacement 2 (Drums): Original drumset's yellow pad started cracking. I thought maybe I was hitting the drums too hard, so I just popped the pad off (they come off easily with no tools) and put a crapload of tape on the plastic pad so it wouldn't crack anymore. Since I did that, I've looked on the rockband forums and have learned that the yellow or blue pads cracking is a common problem. Anyway, a week or so later the blue pad stopped working at all. I popped the top of it off and could see that part of the drums must have been hitting where the wire plugs into the circuit board and almost completely broken the plug off the board. I could have easily fixed this myself, but why should I have to? I sent for a replacement. It came in about four days.
Unhappiness level: 3/10

Replacement 3 (Drums): This is where things get a little interesting. I unboxed the second set of drums and set everything up. Started a song and immediately failed. It took me a second to figure out that the bass pedal wasn't working, or if it did work it would register like 100 hits at once and make you fail instantly. I plugged the bass pedal back into the old drums to make sure that the pedal itself wasn't bad, but it was fine. Turns out the plug where the bass pedal plugs in is messed up. I messed with it for awhile and was able to get it to work by having the plug pulled out a tiny bit and angled certain way. Obviously you're hitting the dumb things though and it stops working after 5 seconds. I even tried taping it down various ways and could play a song or two, but it would eventually get messed up. Ridiculous. I'm going to send away for the third set of drums today.
Unhappiness level: 5/10

The sad part about this is I'm not even that mad. I love the game so much that I'm wasting all this time trying (and having $125 holds on my credit card for each instrument replacement, $375 hold right in time for the holidays!!) to get a full set of working instruments. God help us when the warranty runs out.

How about you guys?

[carlcarlson]

my bass pedal broke in half a few days ago. the replacement should be here wednesday I think. all of my pads seem to be working ok. my guitar has a rattle inside, but works fine. I'm going to try and break it before the warranty is up, though, because I think it's pretty crappy of them to put out all this defective hardware.

is anyone else's guitar not registering when they first turn on the system? whenever me and my friends go to play as a band we'll find that the guitar didn't "turn on" when all of the other instruments did. i can unplug it and replug it in, and it works fine, but it's kind of annoying.

[MoreEbolaForYou]

Yeah, I have to unplug the power for the usb hub before i turn on my 360 and then plug it back in after the system is on for it to recognize the instruments.

[Oobgarm]

(and having $125 holds on my credit card for each instrument replacement, $375 hold right in time for the holidays!!)

For them to put that money 'on hold' is bullshit, I think. I understand they have to protect themselves, but why not just offer a window the customer must agree upon and charge the card after that time has expired? Not everyone has the ability to allow a temp hold on their account, not to mention possession of a credit/debit card.

[MoreEbolaForYou]

The hold is for the instant replacement where they send you your replacement right away (in theory) and you send back your broken instrument after you get the new one. You can also choose to send back the broken item and then they send you the new one. There is no charge for that option.

[Oobgarm]

The hold is for the instant replacement where they send you your replacement right away (in theory) and you send back your broken instrument after you get the new one. You can also choose to send back the broken item and then they send you the new one. There is no charge for that option.

I understand that. I don't think it's cool to actually put a 'hold' on your account until they receive the broken instrument.

If you're using a debit/bank card, many banks will treat the hold as spent funds and could contribute to an overdraft. If you live check to check, such as myself, that money just isn't there to be put on hold.

They should collect your info, and then charge you after a certain time period has lapsed.

I know there's an RMA option where they send a coffin, but you'd think EA wouldn't inconvenience their customer by holding funds.

[dave2236]

My drums broke the 2nd time I hit them. The red pad doesn't register at all. Filled out the form for a 2 day replacement using my credit card and its over a week later and I'm still waiting.

Great idea for a game, truley craptacular service and product.

[MoreEbolaForYou]

That's the sad part. I feel the game itself is fantastic. I don't play video games that much, but since Rockband has come out I've played it everyday. Seems they needed to spend a little more effort on getting the instruments right.

[norkusa]

Does anyone enjoy playing on Expert with the Rock Band guitar? I like using it on the Hard difficulty but I can't play with it on Expert. The action on the buttons feel real clunky and too slow. Most of the bottom tier Expert songs I can only get 3-4 stars on. If I switch to my Xplorer guitar though, I can 5-star most of them.