Rock Band 360

Get off the damn computer, and play with your TV, it misses you!

Moderators: Funkmasterr, noel

User avatar
Winnow
Super Poster!
Super Poster!
Posts: 27525
Joined: July 5, 2002, 1:56 pm
Location: A Special Place in Hell

Rock Band 360

Post by Winnow »

Caught my first 6 phrase streak! 92% on the vocals. Yeah baby!

If you don't want to read more, here's a one sentence wrap up: Rock Band blows Guitar Hero away

I grabbed the hacked version and at first didn't think I'd be able to play. It kept saying it couldn't detect a mic and I couldn't switch to another instrument. I finally went and looked for my original 360 headset w/mic and plugged it into my controller. That was enough to get the game going.

So far, all I can so is the vocal part. I guess all the instruments have unique identifiers the game can recognize but they let people slide with either a USB Mic or your 360 controller headset.

I scored a 92% on Nirvanna's In Bloom. hehe. believe me, I sounded horrible!

The game handles the vocals great though! basically, there's a streaming bar of lyrics and a vertical line where you are to begin singing the word. the line has a range from low to high so it takes into account your pitch. I was on easy so there wasn't much in highs and lows....but! it's still rocks. It looks like you could hum your way through the song if you want as long as you start/stop the words at the right points and change your pitch to match the line.

Surprisingly, it works great and is fun. The original lyrics are playing in the background so I think that's their way of making it sound good even if you suck...but you definitely hear your own voice and man I was bad.

As with guitar hero, if you hit a string of lyrics perfectly, you get a "freestyle" section where you basically scream away or sing whatever you want for bonus points (huge room for people to make fools of themselves here...but fun!)


The tutorial was short and sweet but gets the job done. All I can see is the vocals so can't comment on drums/bass/lead.

The whole presentation of Rock Band is much better than Guitar Hero (I haven't seen GH3 so that might be better than the first two). The menus, etc are all better, along with the animated band people on screen. And there's several multiplayer game modes to keep you entertained.

Creating a character is pretty basic but better than Guitar Hero. Pick Hometown, Attitude (Rock, Metal, Punk, Goth) which impacts their animations, Weight, height, Face (Artsy, Diva, Sprite, Runaway, Belladonna, Amazon are he female selections) (the biggest change seems to be their noses), eye color, skin color, hair style (bunch of selections for hair, easiest to see from a distance) I went with the Dread Falls (pigtails of course, pink/purple). Also glasses, earrings, wrist, rings, gloves.

I checked out the clothes and there's quite a bit in various categories, top/bottom/feet with mltiple items in the rock.punk, etc etc, some with very high price tags. The clothes are all colorable to make them more unique with primary and secondary colors.

It's enough to give your character a little personality. You can further, change clothes, instruments, etc with money you earn from gigs. Also tatts, make-up, face paint, hair salon, you can even add art to your Microphone in game. Made my Mic Red with white skull and crossbones.

If you like GH3, you're going to love this game. The song sets are great.(IMO) Check them out here:

http://www.gamepro.com/microsoft/xbox36 ... 8748.shtml

looks like a lot of downloadable content, (can buy single songs) listed there as well with release dates.

I might have to buy the guitar or drums for this one. Fun times. I suppose solo, you can sing and play one instrument at the same time.

Off to go sing Paranoid from Black Sabbath.

Don't know what to say about the 159.00 price tag. I think you can buy the base game for 59.00 and then add instruments. If you're into Guitar Hero with friends, you'll be getting this for sure. Don't worry about the vocals. They'll work out whether you can sing or not. My 92% confirms that!

Radiohead Creep is after that! BOC Don't Fear the Reaper...wow. Some of my favorite songs.

Edit: man, this game is fun just playing the vocals. I've got my headphones on blasting Nirvana. Whatever they do to tweak your voice, it sounds pretty good when you're just talking during the intro, etc.

For the freestyle parts I just go, "wee ooo wee ooo" and get the bonus points. I like that the humming parts are judged by tone level so you could actually hum the entire song. The long held notes but be fun at higher levels as i'm sure the tone range is higher.

This has Wii level of local multiplayer fun written all over it.

Edit 2:

lol, spoke too soon on the vocals being easy. My balls shriveled up trying to hang on to some of the long notes with varied tone. Fucking great! Doesn't matter if you can sing the words or not, you still need some pipes to keep those long notes going. I made it through a rapid fire lyrics of a song I didn't know by going, "bah bah baaah bah baaaaah" Works as long as you have the tone right! weeeoooweeoooo works well when tying to move up and down the scales keeping the little indicator on the line. After each little section it rates you , "weak, ok, good, awesome" string the awesome's together for the bonus freestyle parts.

One things for sure, you get into the songs a lot more when singing them than when hitting buttons. Also, as part of the vocals, there's some tambourine, or other "keeping beat" parts where you either tap your microphone to hit the dots as they scroll by or tap the A button on your controller so the singer does have a little more to do.

edit 3: just finished Black Sabbath - Paranoid with a 94%.

One thing that is just plain cool is the animated drummer keeps perfect pace to the song. It looks awesome on the screen watching "her in this case" bang away on the drums. This was the first song I had time to look up and notice the animated characters. Drumming is going to rock in this game. Makes it so much better to see the characters on screen actually playing to the song correctly. Looked cool. (not a waste like it is on the first two guitar heroes)

Image


Image

Although I sounded like a dog howling at the moon, Radiohead Creep is an bad ass song to sing to in this game! Those long notes aren't happening unless you've prepped with a lungful of air, which I didn't! Got a 94% though. It there's one song I want a 100% on , it's that one. I don't care if I damage my vocal chords in the process! (and Don't Fear the Reaper as well!)

I notice on Creep that the singer lip syncs pretty well to the song and their moves coordinate with the song. Well done!

---
Here's a good overview of the World Tour Mode:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WHfsbbRSgVA
User avatar
Janx
Almost 1337
Almost 1337
Posts: 537
Joined: July 3, 2002, 1:44 pm
Gender: Mangina
XBL Gamertag: Janx
Location: Memphis

Re: Rock Band 360

Post by Janx »

Yeah game blows GH3 out of the water easy. Drums are a BLAST..but god damn if my leg doesnt want to cooperate with me. Was able to beat it on medium using drums, but the second I went to hard I failed in epic proportions.

Still working on Green Hills on expert/guitar, jesus the last few % of that song is a pain in the ass ;(
User avatar
Boogahz
Super Poster!
Super Poster!
Posts: 9438
Joined: July 6, 2002, 2:00 pm
Gender: Male
XBL Gamertag: corin12
PSN ID: boog144
Location: Austin, TX
Contact:

Re: Rock Band 360

Post by Boogahz »

Winnow wrote:Here's a good overview of the World Tour Mode:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WHfsbbRSgVA
Tour mode sounds pretty damn cool!
User avatar
Funkmasterr
Super Poster!
Super Poster!
Posts: 9005
Joined: July 7, 2002, 9:12 pm
Gender: Male
XBL Gamertag: Dandelo19
PSN ID: ToPsHoTTa471

Re: Rock Band 360

Post by Funkmasterr »

Janx wrote:Yeah game blows GH3 out of the water easy. Drums are a BLAST..but god damn if my leg doesnt want to cooperate with me. Was able to beat it on medium using drums, but the second I went to hard I failed in epic proportions.

Still working on Green Hills on expert/guitar, jesus the last few % of that song is a pain in the ass ;(
Damn, I heard the guitar was easier in this than in GH so I thought I might have a chance at beating it, but if it's giving you trouble there's no chance in hell, lol! I am waking up at 530 on my day off tomorrow to get to gamestop and buy this and mass effect right when they open (mostly because my reserved copy of ME will be released and sold if I don't pick it up first thing tomorrow, and it's sold out everywhere here). I am excited to have people over tomorrow night and start playing the band world tour!
User avatar
Funkmasterr
Super Poster!
Super Poster!
Posts: 9005
Joined: July 7, 2002, 9:12 pm
Gender: Male
XBL Gamertag: Dandelo19
PSN ID: ToPsHoTTa471

Re: Rock Band 360

Post by Funkmasterr »

I was reading the rock band forums last night to try and find out about any issues w/ the guitars. I did find that it seems like there are some bad guitars going out in the initial batch, but it doesn't seem to be the majority. From what I have heard Harmonix is going to be offering free exchanges for anyone with a bad guitar from the release shipments as long as you send it in before June, and a few of the people that had posted said they already had a response from Harmonix saying their new guitar would be to them in 3-5 business days, so if this is true it's nice they are at least responding to it like they actually care.

Hopefully I'll have good luck, I'll post once I've used it :)
User avatar
Janx
Almost 1337
Almost 1337
Posts: 537
Joined: July 3, 2002, 1:44 pm
Gender: Mangina
XBL Gamertag: Janx
Location: Memphis

Re: Rock Band 360

Post by Janx »

User avatar
Winnow
Super Poster!
Super Poster!
Posts: 27525
Joined: July 5, 2002, 1:56 pm
Location: A Special Place in Hell

Re: Rock Band 360

Post by Winnow »

Damn, the drums look like fun and a great addition to the guitar! That guy said he was a drummer RL in the comments.

At what difficulty level does the foot pedal come into play for the drums? I think that might kick my ass when things speed up in the higher levels.

Rock Band is going to be big in bars, much like Karaoke IMO.
User avatar
Janx
Almost 1337
Almost 1337
Posts: 537
Joined: July 3, 2002, 1:44 pm
Gender: Mangina
XBL Gamertag: Janx
Location: Memphis

Re: Rock Band 360

Post by Janx »

It comes into play @ easy just not as often. Me and funk we're jam'n earlier (assuming hes ToPShoTTer or whatever, been awhile) and I managed to do black hole sun and another on hard. Had to skip a mess of notes to get through it though and just play the easy beats =/

Hardest part is hitting the kick pedal on an offbeat. Really screws me up.
User avatar
Aslanna
Super Poster!
Super Poster!
Posts: 12372
Joined: July 3, 2002, 12:57 pm

Re: Rock Band 360

Post by Aslanna »

Looks like it could be interesting. I'm not sure I'd be coordinated enough for that. At least a good song selection from the last truly great Metallica album.


(People who say that's 'The Black Album' need to be shot!)
Have You Hugged An Iksar Today?

--
User avatar
Fash
Way too much time!
Way too much time!
Posts: 4147
Joined: July 10, 2002, 2:26 am
Gender: Male
XBL Gamertag: sylblaydis
Location: A Secure Location

Re: Rock Band 360

Post by Fash »

After seeing the drum youtube, I've got this on order.
Fash

--
Naivety is dangerous.
User avatar
Winnow
Super Poster!
Super Poster!
Posts: 27525
Joined: July 5, 2002, 1:56 pm
Location: A Special Place in Hell

Re: Rock Band 360

Post by Winnow »

I've got to get the drums to play Don't Fear the Reaper if nothing else. I just scored a 99% (32 phrase streak) on my first attempt (easy) but was watching the drummer on screen. It looks like a great song for drummers, an instrument on this particular song I hadn't noticed played such a big role up until playing this game. Also, Reaper is the best cowbell song ever. Singer is in charge of the cowbell so I was busy in this song!

Up next is San Fransisco. Great set including Faith No More - Epic, R.E.M.- Crush, Soundgarden- Black Hole Sun, RHCP - Dani California (hope they don't sue!)
User avatar
Sylvus
Super Poster!
Super Poster!
Posts: 7033
Joined: July 10, 2002, 11:10 am
Gender: Male
XBL Gamertag: mp72
Location: A², MI
Contact:

Re: Rock Band 360

Post by Sylvus »

I was thinking about buying this for my brother's kids for xmas, but after watching that video with the drums I kind of want to buy it for myself now.

Is it way too hard for like a 7 and 9 year old? It looks like it might be...
"It's like these guys take pride in being ignorant." - Barack Obama

Go Blue!
User avatar
Funkmasterr
Super Poster!
Super Poster!
Posts: 9005
Joined: July 7, 2002, 9:12 pm
Gender: Male
XBL Gamertag: Dandelo19
PSN ID: ToPsHoTTa471

Re: Rock Band 360

Post by Funkmasterr »

Janx wrote:It comes into play @ easy just not as often. Me and funk we're jam'n earlier (assuming hes ToPShoTTer or whatever, been awhile) and I managed to do black hole sun and another on hard. Had to skip a mess of notes to get through it though and just play the easy beats =/

Hardest part is hitting the kick pedal on an offbeat. Really screws me up.

Yeah that was me you were playing with :) Holy shit that drummer is nuts, I honestly don't think any amount of practice would get me to that point, lol!

Green Grass and High Tides on expert is a hard damn song, Janx got through it with me - he whooped ass through the whole song, I didn't have to save him until the very end! I think he'll get it, but I'm not so confident, lol!

The one thing thats taking some re-adjusting for me in rock band is chords, in GH3 they made chords way easier and I have gotten used to that, rock band is more like GH2 in that respect - you have to be dead accurate for chords making them much harder.

So far it's a blast, I haven't tried singing yet, but I've gone through the guitar on hard and drums on easy :)

I haven't had any issues with my instruments yet, I'm just not liking the strum bar on the Rock Band guitar as much as the GH ones, but I'm getting used to it.
User avatar
Boogahz
Super Poster!
Super Poster!
Posts: 9438
Joined: July 6, 2002, 2:00 pm
Gender: Male
XBL Gamertag: corin12
PSN ID: boog144
Location: Austin, TX
Contact:

Re: Rock Band 360

Post by Boogahz »

Can the GH2 guitar be used with this game? I have no idea why I started wondering that...
User avatar
Winnow
Super Poster!
Super Poster!
Posts: 27525
Joined: July 5, 2002, 1:56 pm
Location: A Special Place in Hell

Re: Rock Band 360

Post by Winnow »

Woo 100% on Dani California! As I expected, I do well singing to RHCP. (whether I sound good or not). I like Anthony Kiedis' style.

Image

This game does give a new appreciation for singing, drums, etc.

Whenever I'm able to watch the screen closely, it's cool to see how well Rock Band syncs the animated characters to the music. It will focus on the right character most of the time during their big parts and the lip syncing is close,the drums look right on, and the guitar parts you can't see the hands but their movements are right for the songs. Big improvement over GH IMO.

Had to change my hairstyle to something more conservative. Getting along in my career and all!

Image

Those boots cost me $309!

Image

ImageImage

Edit: it's really hard to get a good movie of the screen with my crappy camera but I wanted to show how well the characters sync to the music.

Here's a (really bad quality) video of me in game play (minus my singing of course) to show the characters in action while the song plays. Watch the drummer, the singer, and there's even one part the guitar syncs pretty well.

The audio's coming from my headphone so that's as bad as the rest of the video. You can get an idea of how the vocals work though by watching the bottom of the screen. It's four 10 second clips combined so disjointed as well. (15mb)

http://winnow.veeshanvault.org/files/no ... b_full.avi
User avatar
Winnow
Super Poster!
Super Poster!
Posts: 27525
Joined: July 5, 2002, 1:56 pm
Location: A Special Place in Hell

Re: Rock Band 360

Post by Winnow »

Ha! Made a slightly better video than the one above. Still very bad but shows more of what you see on screen with your character and rest of band. (22mb)

http://winnow.veeshanvault.org/files/no ... _full2.avi

I didn't realize that the items you get after completing song go into your wardrobe. I thought they were just unlocked so you could buy them. Now that I know I have some clothes, I can change a bit. I'll go with something more casual for RHCP song next time.

Image

Image

That's enough of getting in touch with my feminine side for one night.

Got to admit, the syncing to the Ballroom blitz in the video is pretty good! You can see at the end of the video what it's like to fail a song (since I wasn't singing!)
Sabek
Way too much time!
Way too much time!
Posts: 1702
Joined: July 8, 2002, 4:31 pm
Gender: Male
XBL Gamertag: sabek
Location: Columbus, Oh

Re: Rock Band 360

Post by Sabek »

Boogahz wrote:Can the GH2 guitar be used with this game? I have no idea why I started wondering that...
Here is a link to the Wiki for guitar compatibility.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guitar_con ... patibility

According to it both GH guitars will work but you dont get the "guitar effects" that you do with the rock band guitar.
Sabek
Just Sabek
Image
User avatar
Funkmasterr
Super Poster!
Super Poster!
Posts: 9005
Joined: July 7, 2002, 9:12 pm
Gender: Male
XBL Gamertag: Dandelo19
PSN ID: ToPsHoTTa471

Re: Rock Band 360

Post by Funkmasterr »

Sabek wrote:
Boogahz wrote:Can the GH2 guitar be used with this game? I have no idea why I started wondering that...
Here is a link to the Wiki for guitar compatibility.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guitar_con ... patibility

According to it both GH guitars will work but you dont get the "guitar effects" that you do with the rock band guitar.
That is correct. However it doesn't work both ways, my rock band guitar would not work with GH3.
User avatar
Boogahz
Super Poster!
Super Poster!
Posts: 9438
Joined: July 6, 2002, 2:00 pm
Gender: Male
XBL Gamertag: corin12
PSN ID: boog144
Location: Austin, TX
Contact:

Re: Rock Band 360

Post by Boogahz »

Yeah, that shows up in the wiki link he provided. Do any of the songs require the effects? Since the Rock Band guitar isn't recognized by GH2 or GH3, I really don't want to get the "special edition" and have another guitar sitting around that will work with one of three games. I would almost rather just wait on the drums to be sold separately.
User avatar
Funkmasterr
Super Poster!
Super Poster!
Posts: 9005
Joined: July 7, 2002, 9:12 pm
Gender: Male
XBL Gamertag: Dandelo19
PSN ID: ToPsHoTTa471

Re: Rock Band 360

Post by Funkmasterr »

Boogahz wrote:Yeah, that shows up in the wiki link he provided. Do any of the songs require the effects? Since the Rock Band guitar isn't recognized by GH2 or GH3, I really don't want to get the "special edition" and have another guitar sitting around that will work with one of three games. I would almost rather just wait on the drums to be sold separately.
No, the effects are not necessary at all. I haven't messed around with them much at all, so I'm not sure if it changes it all of the time, or just when you use the whammy bar.
User avatar
Winnow
Super Poster!
Super Poster!
Posts: 27525
Joined: July 5, 2002, 1:56 pm
Location: A Special Place in Hell

Re: Rock Band 360

Post by Winnow »

The key to doing well on the vocals is to sing the cross gender lines (for you) as loud as you can with your front door open:

Hole - Celebrity Skin
When I wake up
in my makeup
It's too early for that dress
Local property values may plummet but you'll score better!
User avatar
Winnow
Super Poster!
Super Poster!
Posts: 27525
Joined: July 5, 2002, 1:56 pm
Location: A Special Place in Hell

Re: Rock Band 360

Post by Winnow »

Engadget has a nice photo gallery showing closeups of the Rock Band Packaging and equipment:

http://www.engadget.com/photos/rock-ban ... t-our-pad/

Drums look pretty solid to me.
User avatar
Funkmasterr
Super Poster!
Super Poster!
Posts: 9005
Joined: July 7, 2002, 9:12 pm
Gender: Male
XBL Gamertag: Dandelo19
PSN ID: ToPsHoTTa471

Re: Rock Band 360

Post by Funkmasterr »

Two things that have been progressively bothering me more (especially now that I am stuck on the last song on expert and probably won't ever beat it.)

1- The one thing that would help me a ton on the song is to use the second set of frets lower on the neck of the guitar, and I've tried, but there is just one problem... THEY'RE TOO FUCKING SMALL. My entire finger doesn't even hardly fit on one button, and I can't keep track of where they are because of this. There is plenty of space for them to have made another set of full size fret keys - and the only reason they would have done this intentionally (that I can think of) is a retarded one. This reason would be to make it more challenging.. and considering the difficulty of the solos in this song, and in some of the other songs in the last set - this is completely unnecessary.

I think that they still feel some kind of duty to put content into the game for the 12 year olds and autistic people that can fly through the game on expert, but they really need to understand that they don't. Those people can go play guitar hero on the hyperspeed modes if the challenge is really that important to them.

2- The chords. Finally with Guitar Hero 3 a light bulb flicked on in someones head and they realized what I stated in the previous paragraph. Summary: The game is too fucking hard for 80% of the people that play it, especially chords.

They made chords easier and made it so you don't have to actually hit the notes during a chord at the precise millisecond that they cross the line. This made a lot of songs possible (with practice mind you, it didn't over-simplify them) that I wouldn't have been able to beat with the GH2 mechanics, and I'm sure this was the case for a large amount of people.

So Rock Band comes out and what did they do? Use similar mechanics for chords to what GH2 uses, now im back to having extreme issues doing any hard chords and it pisses me off.

I guess I just don't understand this extreme stubbornness the different developers making the guitar games seem to have about difficulty. There is no other genre of games that is like this (the only game I can think of in the past few years I haven't been able to beat on every difficulty is Lost Planet), and I don't see why these need to be different.




Other than those two major gripes of mine I am enjoying the game a lot, and I'm looking forward to trying the drums on a harder difficulty and trying the singing (or humming :) )
User avatar
Winnow
Super Poster!
Super Poster!
Posts: 27525
Joined: July 5, 2002, 1:56 pm
Location: A Special Place in Hell

Re: Rock Band 360

Post by Winnow »

Funkmasterr wrote: I think that they still feel some kind of duty to put content into the game for the 12 year olds and autistic people that can fly through the game on expert, but they really need to understand that they don't.
Maybe they should have a setting above Expert titled, "For 12 Year Olds and Autistic People" but you couldn't earn any achievement points from the level. I doubt autistic people really care about achievements so it would work out.

I wonder when they'll start selling the drums alone for Rock Band. I'm betting it will be a few months.
User avatar
Funkmasterr
Super Poster!
Super Poster!
Posts: 9005
Joined: July 7, 2002, 9:12 pm
Gender: Male
XBL Gamertag: Dandelo19
PSN ID: ToPsHoTTa471

Re: Rock Band 360

Post by Funkmasterr »

Winnow wrote:
Funkmasterr wrote: I think that they still feel some kind of duty to put content into the game for the 12 year olds and autistic people that can fly through the game on expert, but they really need to understand that they don't.
Maybe they should have a setting above Expert titled, "For 12 Year Olds and Autistic People" but you couldn't earn any achievement points from the level. I doubt autistic people really care about achievements so it would work out.

I wonder when they'll start selling the drums alone for Rock Band. I'm betting it will be a few months.
haha! I have no issue with there being like one achievement for a "Autistic" difficulty level, but not 20 achievements that require you to beat the game on expert like in guitar hero, thats just stupid.

What I have been told by the people at Gamestop is the instruments will start shipping separately sometime in Feb.
User avatar
Fash
Way too much time!
Way too much time!
Posts: 4147
Joined: July 10, 2002, 2:26 am
Gender: Male
XBL Gamertag: sylblaydis
Location: A Secure Location

Re: Rock Band 360

Post by Fash »

Funkmasterr wrote:haha! I have no issue with there being like one achievement for a "Autistic" difficulty level, but not 20 achievements that require you to beat the game on expert like in guitar hero, thats just stupid.

What I have been told by the people at Gamestop is the instruments will start shipping separately sometime in Feb.
I still say you shouldn't need to nor be able to get every achievement.

I figure GameStop would be breaking down any traded-in bundles and selling everything separately. If anyone trades it in, that is.
Fash

--
Naivety is dangerous.
User avatar
Winnow
Super Poster!
Super Poster!
Posts: 27525
Joined: July 5, 2002, 1:56 pm
Location: A Special Place in Hell

Re: Rock Band 360

Post by Winnow »

Funkmasterr wrote:
What I have been told by the people at Gamestop is the instruments will start shipping separately sometime in Feb.
What would be funny is if all Console and Computer games started shipping in boxes the size Rock Band comes in. It would put their little micro sized mall stores out of business as they couldn't keep enough inventory.
User avatar
Funkmasterr
Super Poster!
Super Poster!
Posts: 9005
Joined: July 7, 2002, 9:12 pm
Gender: Male
XBL Gamertag: Dandelo19
PSN ID: ToPsHoTTa471

Re: Rock Band 360

Post by Funkmasterr »

Fash wrote:
Funkmasterr wrote:haha! I have no issue with there being like one achievement for a "Autistic" difficulty level, but not 20 achievements that require you to beat the game on expert like in guitar hero, thats just stupid.

What I have been told by the people at Gamestop is the instruments will start shipping separately sometime in Feb.
I still say you shouldn't need to nor be able to get every achievement.

I figure GameStop would be breaking down any traded-in bundles and selling everything separately. If anyone trades it in, that is.

I will never agree on the achievement thing.. Achievements have ruined the way I play video games and they are my main concern. I am ok with missing one or two, but not 20 because I can't beat the game on expert.
User avatar
Fash
Way too much time!
Way too much time!
Posts: 4147
Joined: July 10, 2002, 2:26 am
Gender: Male
XBL Gamertag: sylblaydis
Location: A Secure Location

Re: Rock Band 360

Post by Fash »

Hehe... achievements are the last of my concerns... The only game so far that I've really wanted achievements in is Marble Blast Ultra (damn you Waran! :D )
Fash

--
Naivety is dangerous.
User avatar
Boogahz
Super Poster!
Super Poster!
Posts: 9438
Joined: July 6, 2002, 2:00 pm
Gender: Male
XBL Gamertag: corin12
PSN ID: boog144
Location: Austin, TX
Contact:

Re: Rock Band 360

Post by Boogahz »

One more controller question. I guess Winnow would be the one to answer this one, but can you do the drum portion with the normal controllers? I almost picked the game up today, but I noticed that the version without instruments has a disclaimer saying you must have the drums, microphone, or guitar to play. I don't want to go buy it this week and have to wait three months for the drums to be sold separately ><
User avatar
Winnow
Super Poster!
Super Poster!
Posts: 27525
Joined: July 5, 2002, 1:56 pm
Location: A Special Place in Hell

Re: Rock Band 360

Post by Winnow »

Boogahz wrote:One more controller question. I guess Winnow would be the one to answer this one, but can you do the drum portion with the normal controllers? I almost picked the game up today, but I noticed that the version without instruments has a disclaimer saying you must have the drums, microphone, or guitar to play. I don't want to go buy it this week and have to wait three months for the drums to be sold separately ><
You can do the vocals by using the standard headset that plugs into your 360 controller and use the controller for the (tambourine, cowbell, shaker, whatever oddball instrument the vocal person might play from time to time)

The guitar and drums aren't playable using the standard controller.

I'm still having a great time with the game but you might not want to get it until you have a GH guitar or can buy the drums. If it turns out you don't like singing, it won't be much fun for you!
User avatar
Jice Virago
Way too much time!
Way too much time!
Posts: 1644
Joined: July 4, 2002, 5:47 pm
Gender: Male
PSN ID: quyrean
Location: Orange County

Re: Rock Band 360

Post by Jice Virago »

My wife and I have been banging out on the PS3 Version. Some basic observations:

1) The guitar sucks balls. The strum bar is a wet noodle and double strumming is virtually impossible. We are getting a replacement one shipped out to us.

2) The PS3 GH3 controller does NOT FUCKING WORK with this game. Major fuckup on Harmonix part and out Rock band oriented New Years party just took a major hit, unless we want to drop $100+ on some fucked up piece of shit on Ebay. Mind you, we bought GH3 on PS3 (after already getting it on the 360) specifically to have additional guitars. Fuck you EA, Harmonix, and Sony for the massive pissing war that lead to this.

3) The Vocal parts are annoying on the covers, because you will try and sing it like the original artist only to get dinged because the cover guy did something gay. I could also live without the fucking "Cowbell Hero" sections making me fuck up my microphone, but I guess they didnt want the singer to be bored? In some instances, the voice recognition software tends to be too picky (especially on expert) for what I would consider the average voiced person to be capable of. Static Scroll in multiplayer would be nice, as would have an actual musical score for those of us with real musical ability who don't nessecarily know the fucking melody and lyrics to Courtney Love songs.

4) The Drums are stupidly hard compared to the other parts. You start off having to do all four notes and pedal on easy and it gets logorithmically more brutal from there. The kick pedal is also fairly flimsy and uncomfortable to use if you are larger than say an anorexic pothead waif from california.

5) Aside from the broken double strumming, the guitar parts are way too easy, especially compared to the other parts. If the strum bar actually worked, I would have crushed this game on expert, already.

Those issues aside, it is a fun game, but whoever plays drums needs to know what they are doing. The character customization is interesting, but I kind of miss the preset characters of the GH games, because they look a lot less generic than Emofag and Mangina twig bitch. Song selection is actually superior to GH3, especially in the area of downloadable content.
War is an option whose time has passed. Peace is the only option for the future. At present we occupy a treacherous no-man's-land between peace and war, a time of growing fear that our military might has expanded beyond our capacity to control it and our political differences widened beyond our ability to bridge them. . . .

Short of changing human nature, therefore, the only way to achieve a practical, livable peace in a world of competing nations is to take the profit out of war.
--RICHARD M. NIXON, "REAL PEACE" (1983)

"Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired, represents, in the final analysis, a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, who are cold and are not clothed. This world in arms is not spending money alone. It is spending the sweat of its laborers, the genius of its scientists, the hopes of its children."

Dwight Eisenhower
User avatar
Winnow
Super Poster!
Super Poster!
Posts: 27525
Joined: July 5, 2002, 1:56 pm
Location: A Special Place in Hell

Re: Rock Band 360

Post by Winnow »

The characters in Rock Band are much more interesting and involved than GH. You can choose to ignore them altogether is you wish but at least they're there.

The cowbell is simple if you use the headset/controller. I wouldn't want to tap the mic either.

The drums being a challenge is the best part about the entire game, not a negative.
User avatar
Funkmasterr
Super Poster!
Super Poster!
Posts: 9005
Joined: July 7, 2002, 9:12 pm
Gender: Male
XBL Gamertag: Dandelo19
PSN ID: ToPsHoTTa471

Re: Rock Band 360

Post by Funkmasterr »

Winnow wrote:The characters in Rock Band are much more interesting and involved than GH. You can choose to ignore them altogether is you wish but at least they're there.

The cowbell is simple if you use the headset/controller. I wouldn't want to tap the mic either.

The drums being a challenge is the best part about the entire game, not a negative.

That's the whole point though winnow, challenge is one thing, but the drums are fucking absurdly hard. I mean, watch the video that janx posted. I am willing to bet that the majority of people that buy this won't ever be able to beat the drums on hard, let alone expert.

Jice - I think you underestimate the last set.. There are a couple tough songs there. I mowed through the rest of them besides "Green Grass and High Tides" as well, but I have also played a fuckton of guitar hero, so I'm sure someone new to the game would prompltly have their ass handed to them. And again another guitar game shows the developers inability to have a consistent difficulty and the last set is 5x harder then the rest of the game combined, with the last song being 10X harder than the other songs in the last set.. As far as people on my friends list, Janx has consistently done the best on expert, and even he is getting owned on that song :)
User avatar
Truant
Way too much time!
Way too much time!
Posts: 4440
Joined: July 4, 2002, 12:37 am
Location: Trumania
Contact:

Re: Rock Band 360

Post by Truant »

Funkmasterr wrote:1- The one thing that would help me a ton on the song is to use the second set of frets lower on the neck of the guitar, and I've tried, but there is just one problem... THEY'RE TOO FUCKING SMALL. My entire finger doesn't even hardly fit on one button, and I can't keep track of where they are because of this. There is plenty of space for them to have made another set of full size fret keys - and the only reason they would have done this intentionally (that I can think of) is a retarded one. This reason would be to make it more challenging.. and considering the difficulty of the solos in this song, and in some of the other songs in the last set - this is completely unnecessary.
The frets on an actual guitar get smaller the higher up the fret you get. It's how they work.
User avatar
Winnow
Super Poster!
Super Poster!
Posts: 27525
Joined: July 5, 2002, 1:56 pm
Location: A Special Place in Hell

Re: Rock Band 360

Post by Winnow »

Beat the game on easy and watched the credits.

After being awarded some thigh boots, I decided to try and change my character into Emma Frost:

Image

ImageImage
ImageImage
Close! You can't change eye color after the initial character creation and there's no white lipstick.

Ah well, the almost White Queen looks pretty good as lead singer!

There's a song by "Fall Out Boy". That's the group that someone posted the song with "what they heard" lyrics. I almost failed the song. Not sure why they'd put a crappy lyric song from that group in the selection but overall, great songs.
User avatar
Fash
Way too much time!
Way too much time!
Posts: 4147
Joined: July 10, 2002, 2:26 am
Gender: Male
XBL Gamertag: sylblaydis
Location: A Secure Location

Re: Rock Band 360

Post by Fash »

Can't wait for this to arrive on Thursday!
Fash

--
Naivety is dangerous.
User avatar
Winnow
Super Poster!
Super Poster!
Posts: 27525
Joined: July 5, 2002, 1:56 pm
Location: A Special Place in Hell

Re: Rock Band 360

Post by Winnow »

I tried a few songs on medium. It wasn't too bad. I scored a 97% on Dani California and a 99% On Creep. Not bad,it might be hard to make it sound good with a local full band playing so I kind of get Jice's point about the lyrics. Fun though! (you can always crank up the music louder to drown out the real voice!

Here's one more (very bad quality) video showing the lyrics speed and variance on medium compared to easy: (7mb)

http://winnow.veeshanvault.org/files/no ... cs/rb3.AVI

Rock Band is full of nice little touches that personalize it. Appearing randomly when you select a song to play, you get a still picture that integrates your band into the picture. I only managed to take two pictures of the transition screens because they seem random and most of the time you get help messages instead of the pictures but these will give you an idea:

Image

It's realistic too! The guitarist got the prime spot on the loading screen pic. Look how pissed my character is about it!

Image

I didn't get to pick my band for the solo tour. They seemed to rotate randomly on me. The blonde haired black lady makes me think they might be randomly generated.
Gonzoie - Luclin
Almost 1337
Almost 1337
Posts: 697
Joined: April 7, 2005, 1:11 am
Gender: Male
XBL Gamertag: tjevolved
Location: Key Largo, Florida
Contact:

Re: Rock Band 360

Post by Gonzoie - Luclin »

I really enjoy the drum aspect of this game but i do have some cons about it..

The drum kit should really be customizable or at least adjustable based on a swivel. I feel uncomfortable with the crash symbol being on my lower right rather than upper right. The bass pedal is touchy, when i do a double base tap it tends to throw a 3rd tap in there and throw off my streak.. That was really pissing me off at one point.. I also use traditional style for holding my sticks, which doesn't seem to work too well with the kit setup.

The fact that even with Dolby surround i still make more sound just by hitting the kit than im getting with sound output really throws me off.. I tend to hear my pads rather than the music. I was wondering if there is a way to use headphones while on the drums so i can just play what i hear.

As a drummer myself i do enjoy the drum side of this game for the most part. Friends and i had a great time jamming. I picked it up and started in hard and some of the parts are really difficult to play on the kit they provide, but i guess that just takes some getting used to.. Once i reach expert mode i should be fine.. I tend to throw in more bass than they provide in hard mode due to them not including every bass hit.
Darttanion Romances, 70 bard (Retired)
Gonzoie Eatsalot, 65 Druid (Long been Retired)
User avatar
Funkmasterr
Super Poster!
Super Poster!
Posts: 9005
Joined: July 7, 2002, 9:12 pm
Gender: Male
XBL Gamertag: Dandelo19
PSN ID: ToPsHoTTa471

Re: Rock Band 360

Post by Funkmasterr »

Truant wrote:
Funkmasterr wrote:1- The one thing that would help me a ton on the song is to use the second set of frets lower on the neck of the guitar, and I've tried, but there is just one problem... THEY'RE TOO FUCKING SMALL. My entire finger doesn't even hardly fit on one button, and I can't keep track of where they are because of this. There is plenty of space for them to have made another set of full size fret keys - and the only reason they would have done this intentionally (that I can think of) is a retarded one. This reason would be to make it more challenging.. and considering the difficulty of the solos in this song, and in some of the other songs in the last set - this is completely unnecessary.
The frets on an actual guitar get smaller the higher up the fret you get. It's how they work.
Great, except guess what? I'm not playing an actual guitar! Playing the GH guitars and playing the real guitar are two entirely different things and have very few similarities, so why make it that one? And with a guitar it's strings, not buttons that are small enough for my fingers to cover 1.5 of, how the hell are you supposed to play that?
User avatar
Fash
Way too much time!
Way too much time!
Posts: 4147
Joined: July 10, 2002, 2:26 am
Gender: Male
XBL Gamertag: sylblaydis
Location: A Secure Location

Re: Rock Band 360

Post by Fash »

probably with fingertips.
Fash

--
Naivety is dangerous.
User avatar
Boogahz
Super Poster!
Super Poster!
Posts: 9438
Joined: July 6, 2002, 2:00 pm
Gender: Male
XBL Gamertag: corin12
PSN ID: boog144
Location: Austin, TX
Contact:

Re: Rock Band 360

Post by Boogahz »

yeah, strings ARE smaller than buttons
User avatar
Funkmasterr
Super Poster!
Super Poster!
Posts: 9005
Joined: July 7, 2002, 9:12 pm
Gender: Male
XBL Gamertag: Dandelo19
PSN ID: ToPsHoTTa471

Re: Rock Band 360

Post by Funkmasterr »

I don't get how you could honestly be trying to argue this point with me. It is a game, it does not simulate playing the guitar in any but the most basic ways - why do something like the buttons to make it harder.. If the concern was to make it just like playing a guitar a whole ton of shit would be different about the game, and I probably wouldn't be playing it.

And I use my fingertips when attempting to use those frets, I still can't hit one without hitting one next to it most of the time.
User avatar
Truant
Way too much time!
Way too much time!
Posts: 4440
Joined: July 4, 2002, 12:37 am
Location: Trumania
Contact:

Re: Rock Band 360

Post by Truant »

I'm not trying to be insulting or anything, but how big exactly are your fingers?

How do you use a cell phone, or a remote control if you can't use the upper fret buttons on the rockband guitar?
User avatar
Funkmasterr
Super Poster!
Super Poster!
Posts: 9005
Joined: July 7, 2002, 9:12 pm
Gender: Male
XBL Gamertag: Dandelo19
PSN ID: ToPsHoTTa471

Re: Rock Band 360

Post by Funkmasterr »

lol, I don't have very big fingers, at least I don't think I do. And by upper you mean? They don't play any different notes like on a real guitar, its a different set of fret keys that play the exact same notes, except they are all the way at the bottom of the neck of the guitar, they are tiny, and they are closer together than the ones further up.
User avatar
Truant
Way too much time!
Way too much time!
Posts: 4440
Joined: July 4, 2002, 12:37 am
Location: Trumania
Contact:

Re: Rock Band 360

Post by Truant »

I know. I've played it.

I said upper frets because on a guitar they play higher notes. Frets closest to the body are commonly called upper frets, and vice versa.

I think it's probably just a matter of adjusting to it. You're so used to playing the large spread of the lower frets from the GH games. I'd suggest practicing some easier songs playing ONLY the upper frets. (You can use the strum bar and the upper frets will still work on non solo sections. You don't need the strum bar on the solos, obviously.) You've just programmed your hand and the muscles there to be used to those other buttons.

One more pointer that may or may not apply. On all the youtube videos I've seen. You can HEAR the cats pressing the fret buttons. That's horribly sloppy technique. Don't ever take your fingers off the buttons. Rest them on the buttons and press them down when you need to. Raising your finger off the button in order to press the button hard (announce your presence with authority!) will only lead to you miss-hitting the buttons/hitting surrounding buttons, etc. I don't know if that will help you, but it's a common observance.
User avatar
Janx
Almost 1337
Almost 1337
Posts: 537
Joined: July 3, 2002, 1:44 pm
Gender: Mangina
XBL Gamertag: Janx
Location: Memphis

Re: Rock Band 360

Post by Janx »

Funkmasterr wrote:
Winnow wrote:The characters in Rock Band are much more interesting and involved than GH. You can choose to ignore them altogether is you wish but at least they're there.

The cowbell is simple if you use the headset/controller. I wouldn't want to tap the mic either.

The drums being a challenge is the best part about the entire game, not a negative.

That's the whole point though winnow, challenge is one thing, but the drums are fucking absurdly hard. I mean, watch the video that janx posted. I am willing to bet that the majority of people that buy this won't ever be able to beat the drums on hard, let alone expert.

Jice - I think you underestimate the last set.. There are a couple tough songs there. I mowed through the rest of them besides "Green Grass and High Tides" as well, but I have also played a fuckton of guitar hero, so I'm sure someone new to the game would prompltly have their ass handed to them. And again another guitar game shows the developers inability to have a consistent difficulty and the last set is 5x harder then the rest of the game combined, with the last song being 10X harder than the other songs in the last set.. As far as people on my friends list, Janx has consistently done the best on expert, and even he is getting owned on that song :)

Drums just take some getting used to. I beat green grass and high tides on hard , 5 staring it with like 318k points my first time trying it. IMO its kinda like when you first picked up GH and could barely get through medium, now expert is no problem other then learning the fingerings. Once your foot gets into synch with what your hands are doing the drums get easier and easier.

And IMO GH3 chords on expert were fucking retarded OxOO / OOxO chords all over the place pissed me off.

I also want the ability to buy/hookup a 2nd base pedal ^^
User avatar
Winnow
Super Poster!
Super Poster!
Posts: 27525
Joined: July 5, 2002, 1:56 pm
Location: A Special Place in Hell

Re: Rock Band 360

Post by Winnow »

ANNOUNCEMENT:

Dart's tour has been canceled until further notice. The lead singer's voice gave out in New York.

---------

Seriously, playing it through again on medium, right before getting to "Dead or Alive" my voice gave out. Stockholm is going to have to wait! No refunds!

So, has anyone tried the vocals yet? I'm beginning to think the one 100% I got was rare. I got a 99% on Dani California on Medium though. It's not too hard to get 90%+ on most songs. I think medium is about right for vocals. It might be a bit much on hard or expert although I won't know until I've tried them.

There's some songs I'll never get 100% on. Garbage - Paranoid, has a series "I think I'm paranoid" and the "I'm" is way up there, which doesn't seem like it has to be for the sound but that's the way the game has it setup. I can't hit that word/tone for some reason.

Here's a couple more of the loading images:


Image


Image
The Tinkerbell nose doesn't look so hot from the side!

Image
User avatar
Funkmasterr
Super Poster!
Super Poster!
Posts: 9005
Joined: July 7, 2002, 9:12 pm
Gender: Male
XBL Gamertag: Dandelo19
PSN ID: ToPsHoTTa471

Re: Rock Band 360

Post by Funkmasterr »

Truant wrote:I know. I've played it.

I said upper frets because on a guitar they play higher notes. Frets closest to the body are commonly called upper frets, and vice versa.

I think it's probably just a matter of adjusting to it. You're so used to playing the large spread of the lower frets from the GH games. I'd suggest practicing some easier songs playing ONLY the upper frets. (You can use the strum bar and the upper frets will still work on non solo sections. You don't need the strum bar on the solos, obviously.) You've just programmed your hand and the muscles there to be used to those other buttons.

One more pointer that may or may not apply. On all the youtube videos I've seen. You can HEAR the cats pressing the fret buttons. That's horribly sloppy technique. Don't ever take your fingers off the buttons. Rest them on the buttons and press them down when you need to. Raising your finger off the button in order to press the button hard (announce your presence with authority!) will only lead to you miss-hitting the buttons/hitting surrounding buttons, etc. I don't know if that will help you, but it's a common observance.

Yeah, I have been trying to practice.. I think part of the problem also is that when I play the regular frets (lower I guess?) I don't just reach my pinky to play orange, I shift my whole hand, which is what I was trying to do with the smaller (upper) frets and I think I will need to break that habit. It's gonna take some practice though, the chords are damn tough in this game on expert.
User avatar
Funkmasterr
Super Poster!
Super Poster!
Posts: 9005
Joined: July 7, 2002, 9:12 pm
Gender: Male
XBL Gamertag: Dandelo19
PSN ID: ToPsHoTTa471

Re: Rock Band 360

Post by Funkmasterr »

Janx wrote:
Funkmasterr wrote:
Winnow wrote:The characters in Rock Band are much more interesting and involved than GH. You can choose to ignore them altogether is you wish but at least they're there.

The cowbell is simple if you use the headset/controller. I wouldn't want to tap the mic either.

The drums being a challenge is the best part about the entire game, not a negative.

That's the whole point though winnow, challenge is one thing, but the drums are fucking absurdly hard. I mean, watch the video that janx posted. I am willing to bet that the majority of people that buy this won't ever be able to beat the drums on hard, let alone expert.

Jice - I think you underestimate the last set.. There are a couple tough songs there. I mowed through the rest of them besides "Green Grass and High Tides" as well, but I have also played a fuckton of guitar hero, so I'm sure someone new to the game would prompltly have their ass handed to them. And again another guitar game shows the developers inability to have a consistent difficulty and the last set is 5x harder then the rest of the game combined, with the last song being 10X harder than the other songs in the last set.. As far as people on my friends list, Janx has consistently done the best on expert, and even he is getting owned on that song :)

Drums just take some getting used to. I beat green grass and high tides on hard , 5 staring it with like 318k points my first time trying it. IMO its kinda like when you first picked up GH and could barely get through medium, now expert is no problem other then learning the fingerings. Once your foot gets into synch with what your hands are doing the drums get easier and easier.

And IMO GH3 chords on expert were fucking retarded OxOO / OOxO chords all over the place pissed me off.

I also want the ability to buy/hookup a 2nd base pedal ^^

Yeah I played through a few songs on hard on the drums last night and I passed them with 3 or 4 stars.. I don't really have an issue with the foot anymore, just on off beats when there are two in a row (like on nirvana where there was on note/and bass then the very next note was just base, I kept fucking up big time) - I have just been skipping those though and I'm fine.

I don't know if I am not as on beat as I think I am (I don't think this is the case) or if I have a slightly bad drum set because my streaks will get broke when I'm hitting the notes. I saw a video on youtube of a guy who said his was broken and he demonstrated that the harder he hit it, the less the notes registered. Mine seems to be the exact opposite, and not as severe, but it seems like if I am not absolutely brutalizing the drums I will hit a note and it will play it twice sometimes.
Post Reply