Posting in here could ruin my reputation, but I think rock band is awesome!
I endorse this video game because it is a multi player game where everyone has to do their part and work as a team. Not only does it improve eye hand coordination, but teaches team work. Plus the people watching get to rock out. Win/Win.
Anyway, my younger son is a gamer. I was looking through one of his new gamer mags and saw that Rock Band 2 for wii is coming out later this year. One of the upgrades is the Ion electronic drum kit. It can be used for the game or as a E drum kit. A must have in my household.
I still will never get into playing video games all the time, but when we have family get togethers, we like to play games and interact with each other. Rock Band is a new addition.
I like Rock Band... it's fun... that Ion Kit is $300 https://www.drumrocker.com/ but it does look cool... and is probably $200 cheaper than any other E-Drum kit...
Rock Band made me remember that Guitar Hero's original intent was to be fun, not a festival of increasingly difficult rehearsed wankery.
I got five stars (Expert level) on all songs but Jordan in GHII and Through the Fire and Flames in GHIII, I've been in tournaments, etc, but it just wasn't fun anymore, so I retired from GH a while back. I played Rock Band for the first time a few weeks ago, and it's amazing. The setlist is diverse (compared to GH's notion that only metal songs have guitar parts worth putting in a game), every instrument has interesting nuances that compare directly to actually playing that instrument in real life (bass is consistently the most boring instrument in a real band, too... so here you go, your bonus can go up to 6x), and most importantly, it's fun. Really fun.
Yeah, the instrument controllers themselves are pretty shitty. The drum set is shaky at best (fully unresponsive at worst - I know I played those parts correctly), the guitar controller is vastly inferior in quality to the GH models (fret buttons too clicky, strum bar not clicky enough - no worries, just use a GH controller), and it's pretty irritating that you have to use a controller in conjunction with the microphone... but the game is so much fun, it doesn't matter.
Plus Rock Band 2 will be fully backwards compatible. And the Ion Kit looks sweet as hell. And you'll be able to freeplay drums over mp3s on your system. And they're redeveloping the controllers. Harmonix is one of the few developers out there that seems genuinely interested in the fans.
I love Rock Band. I played it on my trip to Conneticut. It was myself on guitar, my sister in law on vox, her husband on bass and my wife on drums. So it started off as surreal, seeing my wife behind a drum set even if it is one for a video game. But it was awesome seeing her get into it. And that camaraderie that came out of the 4 of us playing as a band. It was as if I was able to hand a little of that feeling I get making music with others over to my non-music making family. It was great fun. And seeing my wife learn to play drums to the point that she was surviving "Maps" was awesome.
Plus our band rocked. We were called "Censored" because the bassist's name was originally Sly Jesus and X-Box Live told us that the name wasn't classy enough and we couldn't use it. What about all those poor Latino kids named Jesus, X-Box Live? Why the hating?
Niveous wrote:And that camraaderie that came out of the 4 of us playing as a band.
That's it right there, the camaraderie. It's changed my feeling about video games. Well, this game anyway. Seeing my wife jam on bass with her backwards baseball cap on was sexy.
The drums aren't set up right for a real drummer. It took me a bit to not play the RB drums like real drums. But with Rock Band 2, you can use the Ion electric kit mentioned up yahhh ^^^. They play like a real kit.
Well, I'm not much of a gamer and it took me a few just to understand what the hell was going on, lol.
But I started by playing traditional grip cross stick and that doesn't work. You have to play like a kid beating on pots and pans, which is also fun.
Plus all the songs from the previous game are playable in the sequel.
Damn, that's a great list. It's as if they said, how are we going to get the people who don't like video games interested in buying this? Then some older dude in the back said, I know, just offer killer music that draws them to it like zombies to a mall full of people hiding.
John, you're younger than me, so please stop being an old man.
RB2? I'm not even done with RB1 yet. I hope, like GH4, they will support generic midi instruments: I really wouldn't mind playing the drums in game using my electronic kit.
john m wrote:Though I don't see how I'm being old. I'm expressing good taste.
Or old taste. There's decent stuff coming from this decade, you just have to look in the right places or have a disposition to liking the new stuff. I mostly listen to old music, but I definitely enjoy some new releases. Just not usually the stuff they play on the radio.
ps - I checked out the list, and I'm kind of pissed they put Dream Theater on there. Now every video-game joe on the streets will know their name and call themselves fans. It's like Weezer with Say It Ain't So.
john m wrote:Though I don't see how I'm being old.
I think it was when you started shaking your cane in the air and yelling at those whippersnappers on your lawn.
john m wrote:Are you saying the songs from this decade are good?
No, I'm saying the third option: that there is the same proportion of crap (90% of it) in commercial (and independent) music as there always was. We just forget the unremarkable songs and bands as the years go by. That is time's rose-coloured glasses.
Reïst wrote:I checked out the list, and I'm kind of pissed they put Dream Theater on there. Now every video-game joe on the streets will know their name and call themselves fans.
You're pissed off at your favorite band getting more recognition and exposure because it will gain them casual fans? Nice. Andrew, come back from the dark side: we cannot lose another good man to the snobs and poseurs.
RB2 is gonna be sweet.
