A Look At Rock Band 2's Drum Trainer, Battle of the Bands 46
The folks at Kotaku sat down with a copy of Rock Band 2 and took a look at some of the game's special features. The Drum Trainer will let you practice your beats, fills, and freestyle playing, while Battle of the Bands will let you compete against others using a new set list every week. Perhaps most interesting is the ability for Rock Band 2 owners, for a small fee ("less than $5"), to import songs from a Rock Band 1 disc.
"There appears, as of now, no DRM tracking on anything to indicate you rightfully own the disc you want to export. So if you missed out on the Rock Band party last year and want to play the old songs, too, all you have to do is rent a copy or borrow someone else's. It doesn't seem Harmonix [is] too concerned, however, as they're happy you already paid the licensing fee and bought Rock Band 2!"
$5 dollars to transfer all the Rock Band 1 content (Score:2)
IS AWESOME
I thought they'd make you re-buy them as DLC or something. It's a great move, I think.
Now, if I could pay just $5 dollars and get MP3s to play on my ipod...
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Now, if I could pay just $5 dollars and get MP3s to play on my ipod...
????????
MP3s play on ipods for free.
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You'd be amazed how many people don't realize that iPods are not a bastion of exclusivity that people think they are. That both iTunes and iPod can speak MP3 if you just ask them to is something routinely missed by Apple haters.
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I think you're being overzealous in your defence of Apple as well, because I'm pretty sure the guy was talking about paying $5 to be able to play all the rock band music on his iPod. He should have said "the MP3s".
Note that I like Apple, I just don't see how iPods or iTunes (of which I use neither, I use Songbird and VLC on my MBP) playing MP3s has anything to do with this, it's getting totally offtopic :p
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No getting off topic would be doing something like saying ipods suck because they don't play .ogg and .flac!
Cause damnit I'm not paying for music until they give it to me almost free in a open and lossless format that my audio player can play without eating up battery life like whoa and makes my penis larger!
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Wouldn't rockbox be able to do all these things? ;)
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Your way:
Now, if I could pay just $5 dollars and ((get MP3s to play) on my ipod)...
Mex's way:
Now, if I could (pay just $5 dollars and get MP3s) to play on my ipod...
$5 dollars to transfer all the Rock Band 1 content (Score:2)
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Considering that Aerosmith has that exclusivity contact with Activision now, I think Train Kept a Rollin' is highly likely to not be allowed to transfer. Harmonix had to renegotiate the rights, so I figure Aerosmith had to say no.
I'm not feeling too bad about missing that one, though it was fun on vocals.
A nice cap of the event (Score:1)
Steven from bluesnews been to a demo, this is his recap: http://bluesnews.com/cgi-bin/board.pl?action=viewthread&threadid=90547 [bluesnews.com]
Wha....? (Score:1, Insightful)
Why in hell would I pay a company $5 more dollars for the same songs?
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Because the time of switching games and rebooting and going through the menus twenty five, a hundred, or five hundred times is actually worth MORE than $5 to someone... Having a full time job greatly increases the value of time (because you have less and you make more).
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or because my xbox 360 won't load my rockband one disc anymore or DREs mid song, which is weird because it loads every single other game in my collection just fine :_(
See, that is a clear sign from the gaming gods that you should buy RB2 and buy the songs. No, it clearly isn't an elaborate trap set up by the developers to steal more of your cash...
Here are Harmonix's options (Score:5, Insightful)
1. Disallow import of old songs into the new game. Block ears while gamers whine.
2. Write software which transfers old songs to new game. Donate this programmer time to The Kids or whatever.
3. Write software which transfers old songs to new game. Hit the user for the price of a Big Mac, and watch a huge portion of your users kick in for it.
Which of these is the best plan for Harmonix's continued existence?
Re:Here are Harmonix's options (Score:4, Interesting)
This is the problem. They already had that to a degree. Since they designed the DLC to be forward compatible, it couldn't have been that bad.
My guess (I may have read this somewhere) is it is the music licensing fees that the cost covers, not the dev time. When the licensed the tracks they were licensed for Rock Band, not Rock Band 2. So to play them in the new game, they needed to re-license them.
Really the only choices were 1 and 3. I'm REALLY glad they chose three. Harmonix is so cool. Now if I could just get the songs from GH 1 and 2 in the game (I know some are DLC, and it would be impossible since they aren't seperated or noted for the extra instruments)...
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Now if I could just get the songs from GH 1 and 2 in the game (I know some are DLC, and it would be impossible since...
Some of them are being picked up as DLC options (Ace of Spades for one)... Honestly, I'd be thrilled to buy Crossroads and Bark at the Moon (again) with the extra note charts...
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3 was Profit, right?
Layne
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Why in hell would I pay a company $5 more dollars for the same songs?
Shipping & handling?
Seriously though, it's just the license fee to get the songs into the new game, which is why they don't care if you actually own the original Rock Band at all. If they were included on the new game disk, it would have increased the price by $5.
The DLC content probably had a broader license to allow downloading, and that license allows you to get them ported for no additional fee.
Guitar in Rock Band 2 any better? (Score:2)
The biggest complaint I have with Rock Band 1 is the crappy guitar they included. I know the new one will be wireless, but will the buttons and strum bar be playable?
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The only version of these games I'd played until recently is Guitar Hero III. I got it earlier this year and have completed all but The Devil Went Down to Georgia and Through the Fire and the Flames on Expert. I tried the Rock Band guitar in PC World for a few songs and I think I actually prefer it to the Guitar Hero one. I was able to pick it up and play on expert immediately since the button spacing is about the same, though the lack of click was a little disconcerting (though I'd broken the click on my f
Uhh... wha? (Score:2)
I don't know what system you're playing on, by for my PS3, the Rock Band 1 guitar is a wireless guitar. And I don't think it's crappy at all.
The only complaint I've heard from any of my friends about the guitar is the one person who preferred the "click" action that Guitar Hero guitars have when you moved the strum-bar. (and that's just because she's a Guitar Hero addict and refuses any substitute.)
And how are your buttons not playable? I think you might have gotten some other non-standard guitar dude.
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For the PS3 wireless has always been the default for the guitars. As others have noted, they're just generally better too--much much smoother to play. Since the buttons are flush with each other you can easily slide up and down the neck of the guitar, much more so with the separated buttons on the GH controller. The initial run of RB guitars were a little buggy, which might be what you're thinking of, but they've longs since worked out the kinks. Also, the lack of clicking is a godsend--it drives me cra
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Beware! I haven't clicked that URL but nothing comes up on the googles and whois shows it was set up five days ago. He didn't mention the program's name and he posted anonymously. Not a good sign.
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Virus checkers called it clean, nothing was triggered with my spyware checks either.
It's a crappy application, reads .mus files and plays them back. Not worth the time.
sheesh! (Score:1)
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And some retailers are refusing to stock it when it is released, because of the price EA are charging and the minimum order they're imposing.
Simple solution: buy Guitar Hero: World Tour for PS3 instead. Then import the Rock Band disc only from the US.
Or, if you're stuck with X360, buy Guitar Hero: World Tour anyway, then import the Rock Band disc only from the UK. (More expensive, more delay, but hey, at least you get the game, and probably get it at a sane price, which isn't the case for the extortionately
Huh? (Score:2)
Did I miss something here?
Since when can you import Rock Band songs into Guitar Hero? Or vice vera?
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You can't. But you can use the same instruments to play both games - they're cross-compatible on all platforms (at last).
This means that you can pick the game with the better value instruments (that would be the ones for the game that doesn't have a >100% mark-up on the price outside the US and doesn't have a track record of massive failure rates) but still get the other game by buying the disc version only.
I'm using 'import' in a more traditional sense than you, I suspect. I mean buying from another cou
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Ebay it. Just have to find a seller willing to ship to Oz.
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Ebay it. Just have to find a seller willing to ship to Oz.
I'm sure lots more sellers would be willing if only the carriers would offer shipping by way of tornado - really not economical otherwise...
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They are probably having trouble tracking down all the members of Men at Work so they can get royalty agreements. :-)
Drum Trainer (Score:2)
Freestyle Mode - Just as it sounds. You're presented with a blank, scrolling note canvas that allows you to just drum away forever. No challenges here. But like with the other modes, you can select different drum samples. So if you dig 80's electronic drum sounds - and wanted to try and re-create your own cover of a certain Rick Astley song - no one will stop you. Interestingly enough, you can also play music from your hard drive to drum along with. The only bummer is there is no way to record what you've done in-game to send to friends. So expect a lot of Youtube videos this fall.
Somebody should tell Steve Wiebe [wikipedia.org].