Rock Band / Rock Band 2

[toblix]

So I want to buy Rock Band and Rock Band 2.

It seems I'll have to buy a set of RB1 instruments, as RB2 instruments are not available yet (and maybe never will be). My question is:

• how much do these suck?
  
• Should I start importing RB2 drums from overseas?
  
• I can use my Xbox 360 Guitar Hero 3 guitar no problem, right?
  
• Should I maybe just buy the games separately, use my GHIII guitar and buy the ION drums? Singing will never happen.
  
• I'll have to buy RB1 to get the songs from it, right?
  

This whole ordeal frustrates me so. I've sort of decided Guitar Hero is the less worthy one, but at the same time there's no fucking detective work to be done to get a workable set together and start playing. I can just go and buy a World Tour box and that's it.

But Rock Band is worth the fucking hassle, right?

[miffy495]

In order:

- Depends. Drums are cheap-ish, but except for the pedal, not bad.

- See above, only slightly better. If you don't want to go all-out on an ION kit, maybe just buy a third party metal kick pedal and use the RB1 drums.

- Yes. I still use mine.

- That really depends. If you don't like the feel of the RB Guitar (I prefer it myself, but many people don't like it) and are willing to shell out for the ION drums, go for it. I love my ION kit to pieces, but it wouldn't be worth it unless you plan on playing drums A LOT. Also, from speaking with you over LIVE, I know that you're fully equipped for singing. Your headset mic is fully compatible, just less fun to use.

- Yes, yes you do.

As for your final question, about the hassle, undoubtedly. My god, I can't even look at the GH series anymore without cringing.

[Nappi]

I bought the Guitar Hero III PS3 controller a while ago for 19 euros and have been playing Frets on Fire on my Mac to improve my skills so that I don't have to completely embarrass myself in potential parties or other events that might involve playing Guitar Hero or Rock Band. Now I'm considering buying one of the actual games, and I'm leaning towards Rock Band 1 or 2 on PS3.

However, it seems that GHIII PS3 Les Paul is the only fucking thing that is not cross-compatible! Does anyone know whether this is still the case since the most recent news I have seen are dated over year ago? There was supposed to be a compatibility patch but Activision apparently blocked it or something, and I haven't found an up-to-date compatibility chart to confirm or deny this.

If it really isn't compatible, should I just settle for Guitar Hero: World Tour (which will cost me something like 30 euros) or should I invest in one of the Rock Band games and a controller? I'm not interesting in neither drumming (at the moment at least) nor singing (never).

Edit: seems like it might have been patched.

Edited April 13, 2009 by Nappi

[toblix]

Okay, so I'll get:

• Rock Band kit
  
• Rock Band 2 game
  

And if I find the drums suck, I'll get the ION drum set. It's so weird that there is nothing available for PS3 here. They've already released Rock Band 2, but I can't get a single fucking PS3 instrument. I wonder how they expect people to play Rock Band on the PS3? Using GH instruments?

[miffy495]

I suspect as much. Weird as hell, but that's how it goes I guess. As I said, I love my ION set to death. Played for a year on the standard RB set first though, to make sure it would be worth it. As a warning, I went through 3 pedals in that time period. They lasted me an average of 4 months, with the last breaking right before I decided to just get the new kit already. I was being careful too. If you plan on drumming a lot, be ye fairly warned.

[toblix]

Yeah, I'm probably going to drum like, say, a mother fucker.

[ThunderPeel2001]

I wonder how they expect people to play Rock Band on the PS3? Using GH instruments?

Well... you can use Gh instruments with Rock Band, can't you? If you prefer them, just buy them and use them with Rock Band!

[Nappi]

Well, while digging for an answer to the GHIII PS3 Les Paul issue I mentioned in the previous post, I came across a couple of topics complaining that Guitar Hero: World Tour PS3 drums are not working properly with Rock Band either. So you should at least investigate a bit before going with the GH peripherals (with PS3 version that is).

[toblix]

For the next generation of consoles, Microsoft, Sony and Nintendo should get together and agree on a unified setup for guitar and drums, and then they should each make controllers for their own consoles. That way, we could buy high-quality original instruments, and controller manufacturers could make instruments with connectors that work with all consoles.

Or something.

[toblix]

So, should I play Rock Band first, or can I get the same single player experience through importing it to RB2?

[toblix]

Oh, looks like someone accidentally all the replies to my previous question. Let me rephrase: Should I play through the RB1 single player before playing RB2?

[miffy495]

Only if you really, really want to play Enter Sandman. Fun on drums, yeah, but not quite as awesome as Flirtin' With Disaster. I remember there are 3 songs that you can't transfer from RB1 to 2, but ES is the only one that's coming to mind. Just rent the RB disc and buy the $5 code to get all the songs on your hard drive. Then you'll be set for however long you decide to rock.

[toblix]

So there's no single player stuff unique to RB1 that I won't get by just importing it, like stages or characters or whatever? I mean other than what you mentioned.

[miffy495]

Content wise, it's just 3 songs that won't transfer to your hard drive if you try to. Everything else goes straight over without incident. I haven't touched the RB disc since getting RB2, and I was playing some of the songs from it earlier tonight. Interestingly, some of the DLC that was available before RB2 came out is optimized to work with some of the features unique to the second game. I'm specifically thinking of Hammer-on chords, which are in 2 but not 1. Some songs released as far back as September use them, but the game came out 2 months after that. Just get 2 and you'll get the full experience.

Career mode is a bit different. In RB1, you couldn't solo the world tour mode, and had to have someone to play with in order to go through it. RB2 adds the solo career mode as well as a challenge mode that lets you work through specific sets on various difficulty tiers. Honestly, if you miss out on the career mode in RB1, you're missing out on the only part of the game that wasn't awesome. Don't feel too bad about it. 2 is much, much better. And, as a bonus, if you import the songs from RB1, you don't need to go through and unlock them all. They're right there from the word go.

As for characters, they're all customs, so there's no set characters you'd be missing out on at all. In RB1 you could unlock some special instruments by finishing the solo setlists on Expert, but you can't bring those over to 2 anyway. I prefer the unlockables in 2 regardless, but that's just me.

[toblix]

Played this last night, and had one bitch of a time with the controllers, selecting/creating players, logging in, etc. Playing was awesome.

[toblix]

Okay, so what's the best way to shut the drum set the fuck up? Is there a pack of adhesives I can buy or something?

Are there any must-do mods other than silencing the drums?

[miffy495]

Yeah, there are a bunch of head silencers you can buy. Don't know how well any of them work, honestly, as my solution has always just been to turn up the volume until it isn't an issue anymore.

[ThunderPeel2001]

Unfortunately I have yet to see a silencing mod that actually works (for me, at least).

[toblix]

Anyway, just ordered the ION kit. I'm so screwed with regards to storage space.

[toblix]

Currently playing through the solo drum career thing on easy. It's really fun, and the challenge curve is about right. For the most part It feels more like a pattern matching game than playing the drums, though. If I start playing by the drum track I fail right away, because lots of complicated shit is represented by one single red note. I know it was like that in Guitar Hero as well, and it didn't feel like you were playing the guitar until a ways into medium. I hope (and expect) the drum feeling to become more authentic as I get closer to the end of easy / a ways into medium.

Also, I swear the drums are ignoring quite a few of my perfect hits.

[ThunderPeel2001]

Anyway, just ordered the ION kit. I'm so screwed with regards to storage space.

Holy crap, you're really going for it! I'd love an ION kit, but I just can't justify it (I don't have enough spare time to make it worthwhile). I'd love to learn drums, though, and apparently Expert = Real drummer.

Completely Off Topic: But I have to ask you something. I just read a bizarre "fact" in a recent issue of Shortlist and I have know if it's true or not... The article was about Easter traditions in different countries and it claimed that in Norway, Easter is the time of year traditionally reserved for reading Crime Novels.

Please tell me if this is true or not! (It sounds absolutely ridiculous.)

[Horticulture Tycoon]

I'm so tempted to buy that ION kit as well, I'm to the point where I can play all but about two songs on Expert without too much problem (fuck you, Dream Theater!) and I feel like I should really buy something more akin to a real drum kit so as to not waste this otherwise pointless ability I've cultivated. I'll be very interested to hear what you think of it toblix, because I can't decide whether it's worth spending the money or not.

[toblix]

The article was about Easter traditions in different countries and it claimed that in Norway, Easter is the time of year traditionally reserved for reading Crime Novels.

Please tell me if this is true or not! (It sounds absolutely ridiculous.)

This is completely true. Norwegians traditionally read a lot of crime novels during Easter. The term for it is påskekrim ("Easter crime"). Also, all the television channels show a bunch of crime mini-series, and each year there's a new mini-crime-story on all the milk cartons (Norwegians also drink milk like mother fuckers) written by some Norwegian author. This year it was Erlend Loe.

Also, during Easter, crime is allowed in Norway.

[ThunderPeel2001]

Holy crap... that's so odd (I'm ignoring the last bit). Why?! Why oh why oh why???

[Nappi]

Seems quite appropriate when you think of it, really. After all, according to The Bible (by God, dictated but not read) Jesus was a convicted criminal, and his arrest, trial and punishment play an important role in our Easter tradition already.