Rock Band!

NotorietyH

Okay so I posted on the playstation thread that I got Rock Band from the States and it is beyond awesome, absolutely fantastic, I'd recommend getting it as soon as is humanly possible. I haven't played the guitar a huge amount on it, a it is definitely easier than GHIII, which is a good thing if you ask me. The note charts seem much more logical than GHIII too, and you feel more like you're playing along with the song, rather than randomly hitting buttons with a song in the background. The drums are simply outstanding and the most fun I've ever experienced. My shoulders are in bits, my ankle is kinda sore, and my wrist aches after playing them solidly for the last few days, but I just can't stop playing them.

Anyway, if anyone has any questions about the game or anything, feel free to ask and I'll answer them the best I can.

TheDoc

me and my mates are interested.

obviously we arnt gna physically meet up every time we want to play, can you play with your band across xbox live from our consoles at home?

also will nat effect this ? if so we are buggered

as usual

Smellyirishman

I was looking at importing this but with all the hardware troubles I think it's best to wait until we see an EU release plus I want that metallica DLC. GH 2 and 3 should tide me over until we see it over here (whenever that will be) but as soon as it's out I will be jumping on it, looks like great fun.

brianon

I think the PS3 version is region free but the 360 is not. I'd have imported it if it was

Never been looking forward to a game more

NotorietyH

[DM]-TheDOC- wrote: »

me and my mates are interested.

obviously we arnt gna physically meet up every time we want to play, can you play with your band across xbox live from our consoles at home?

also will nat effect this ? if so we are buggered

as usual

Yeah you can do band quickplay online, where you invite your friends and you can go and play songs away on that. You can have 2 or 3 people in your house and one online or any similar combination if you want. Unfortunately the pretty extensive Band World Tour mode is only availible offline, and isn't availble in single player. There are talks that they will possibly patch in World Tour online, as they wanted to put it in but didn't have time pre-launch. I wouldn't hold my breath though.

Smellyirishman wrote: »

I was looking at importing this but with all the hardware troubles I think it's best to wait until we see an EU release plus I want that metallica DLC. GH 2 and 3 should tide me over until we see it over here (whenever that will be) but as soon as it's out I will be jumping on it, looks like great fun.

Well *touch wood* all my equipment is working great at the moment. I've played with the guitar for about 4 hours, and I love it, the non-click, tighter strum bar had a nice amount of tension, has pretty much the same resistance of an acutal guitar string. You can actually just pluck it to strum if you want. the fret buttons are nice and flush too, they're like piano keyboad keys and make moving up and down the buttons simple. I thought it would take some getting used to but I managed to get 100% on Maps on hard on my first go. So it just suits my style of play I guess.

Appartently the guitar strum bar issue is with the first production batch as Harmonix have admitted there was a fault in that run. Subsequent runs have fixed the problem and as far as I know it's only some of the launch products that were effected. Hopefully my guitar is one of the later ones as the warranty doesn't cover me in Ireland.

The drums are fantastic, there's an issue with the drum pedal snapping apparently, but I've been playing my constantly (12 hours a day) for the last two days and it seems fine to me, again hopefully it means this is a later production model and I can't actually see where the thing would actually snap on my one.

Luckily my credit card started working by pure chance on the US Playstation store a coulpe of weeks back, so I can get the DLC, which is a great bonus, I was happy just having Rock Band early

brianon wrote: »

I think the PS3 version is region free but the 360 is not. I'd have imported it if it was

Never been looking forward to a game more

yeah the 360 version isn't region free, but the PS3 version is, plays perfectly on my system and just wanted to mention I set the lag calibration for LCD TV and haven't had to tweak the lag in the slightest.

Oh and the game is freakin' unbelievably awesome in almost every way. It took about 40 songs before I came across a song I didn't like and with the DLC I can't see myself every getting sick of the game. So far I've mainly played solo and had a couple of games where I took guitar and a buddy was on drums and it was great fun. Had a few online full band quickplays and it was even more fun so I can't even imagine how fun it's going to be when everyone's in the room. As of this moment the GHIII Les Paul doesn't work with the PS3 version, but by fluke does with the 360 version. It seems like they're working on a patch so hopefully in a couple of weeks I'll be able to have the full band experience!

I'll be putting a video up on YouTube for a buddy, just to show her the drums in action. If anyone wants me to record a specific song or anything, let me know and I'll try to post it. I'm on medium on drums and can five star almost all the songs bar a few scattered through the last three tiers. On guitar I mainly play hard, but I tried expert for a bit yesterday and managed it okay, so if yer song is in the first half of the setlist, I should be able to manage on expert.

Oh and Timmy and the Lords of the Underworld turns out to be one of the hardest songs in the game! Even on vocals because it's not measuring pitch, it's measuring word accuracy!

WarZoneBrother

i am interested in getting this game at christmas but will it be possible to get it before christmas or what? i have been looking at the price on ebay and its like 300euro shipped from usa and then i may get charged for customs. how much did it cost you for the game as i want to get it. also did you get charged for customs?

i am also getting guitar hero 3 with 2 guitars sometime this week and both games look awesome so i want to get them both. 300euro is alot for this game however. the microphone will be no use to me whatsoever so do you really need it to enjoy the game?

NotorietyH

WarZoneBrother wrote: »

i am interested in getting this game at christmas but will it be possible to get it before christmas or what? i have been looking at the price on ebay and its like 300euro shipped from usa and then i may get charged for customs. how much did it cost you for the game as i want to get it. also did you get charged for customs?

i am also getting guitar hero 3 with 2 guitars sometime this week and both games look awesome so i want to get them both. 300euro is alot for this game however. the microphone will be no use to me whatsoever so do you really need it to enjoy the game?

I'd say eBay might be your only shot at getting it before Christmas, the release was delayed in Canada, it's out in a couple of weeks so you might be able to get it from a Canadian website like videogamesplus. It ended up costing me 240 euro, luckily I didn't get caught by customs, I think because my eBay seller marked it down as a gift, because I got caught with Guitar Hero III a few weeks before.

I've actually enjoyed the microphone, I tried it out yesterday for the Band World Tour mode, playing guitar and singing at the same time, which is tough but managable. There's a fair few songs that are easy enough to sing and are fun. It comes in the bundle anyway, and that's the only way of getting the game at the moment, even when individual instruments are released if you were to buy just the guitar and drums I'd imagine it would still work out at the same price as the bundle.

There's been no word yet on whether or not they're patching the game to let the GHIII Les Paul work on the PS3 version, but I'm kinda assuming they are.

eire1

Anyone know the release date over here? It's a must have!

Bobalicious93

no official date. just Q1 2008 is all thats been said.
get your act together harmonix ffs!

NotorietyH

Bobalicious93 wrote: »

no official date. just Q1 2008 is all thats been said.
get your act together harmonix ffs!

I'd say with all the issues with the hardware and the fact that they even had to delay the release in Canada, they want to be sure they can meet demand before they announce a date for europe. So far everyone who has played it in my place has said they are going to buy a PS3 (and I'm not being all sony fanboy on them, I tell everyone that it'll be out on the 360 aswell) just so they can play the game, and that includes my mother! She loves the drums and now wants a PS3 and Rock Band for her birthday! Everyone who's played it with me here so far has neither a 360 or PS3 and some don't even have a PS2, and they all now want one just to play the game. It's huge, and I've a feeling it's just going to get bigger and bigger, could be looking at a Wii like situation.

Burning Eclipse

NotorietyH wrote: »

I'd say with all the issues with the hardware and the fact that they even had to delay the release in Canada, they want to be sure they can meet demand before they announce a date for europe. So far everyone who has played it in my place has said they are going to buy a PS3 (and I'm not being all sony fanboy on them, I tell everyone that it'll be out on the 360 aswell) just so they can play the game, and that includes my mother! She loves the drums and now wants a PS3 and Rock Band for her birthday! Everyone who's played it with me here so far has neither a 360 or PS3 and some don't even have a PS2, and they all now want one just to play the game. It's huge, and I've a feeling it's just going to get bigger and bigger, could be looking at a Wii like situation.

I also reckon it will be enormous, but don't agree with the Wii analogy. The game by itself almost costs as much as a Wii, that doesn't even include a console play it on. Straight away that puts it out of mass market reach!

So, aside from predicting the release date, can we speculate on how much it'll cost when we do get it?? I'm saving already. This game will kick all kinds of ass!!

ShawnRaven

I'm only gonna get the standalone version of this, given that there's only 2 people living where i am at, and we have 2 guitar controllers and neither of us can sing. It's just the ticket

VR!

faceman

Cant believe this didnt get a Q4 european release date but i guess that was to boost sales of GH3

Smellyirishman

faceman wrote: »

Cant believe this didnt get a Q4 european release date but i guess that was to boost sales of GH3

And why would their rivals want that?

GH3 = Neversoft, Red Octance and Activision

Rock Band = Harmonics, MTV Games and EA.

EA + Acitivsion != friends.

It's all very complicated, but **** got sold and people got shifted, so GH3 is nothing to do with Rock Band. (The people developing RB made GH2)


Dying for some drunken Rock Band sessions so I am.

faceman

interesting, i thought they were the same studio.

yes drunken rock band sessions is the future!!

NotorietyH

faceman wrote: »

interesting, i thought they were the same studio.

yes drunken rock band sessions is the future!!

Well I experienced a drunken Rock Band session on Saturday and it is spectacular fun. After a couple of hours you start showboating, I did a few Nigel Tuffnel moves!

We started at around 7 and finished around 3 in the morning when I had to stop playing My Sherona half way through to puke. Yes I am that rock and roll!

Smellyirishman

Activision hold back compatibility patch. Really really bad form in my opinion and I doubt they will be able to hold out long after the inevitable barrel of flak they get for this. What I can't understand however is how this makes any sense.

GH controllers not compatible with Rock Band: you need a replacement, you buy a new strat (which people are not too happy with at the moment).

GH controllers compatible with RB: You need a new controller, you buy a strat or a Gibson and considering that strats are not even available on their own yet I could see people buying GH3 just to get a guitar for a bass player as they get a guitar+game. Granted, it may also work the other way as strats can be used within GHIII but it still doesn't sit right with me.

Thoughts?

NotorietyH

^^^

Exactly, it doesn't make a lick of sense. They are doing it purely out of spite and pettiness, which is frankly pathetic. I sent a strongly worded email to them about it anyway, which is a very rare thing for me to do. I'm not going to be buying an Activision game again. If anyone is trying to decide between Rok Band and GHIII, owning both, I can tell you that Rock Band kicks every shade of ****e out of GHIII, and if you're worried about the supposed lack of guitar difficulty, there's some tough songs in there and there's loads of tough ones out already as DLC. Although with the release of Rock Band so far away over here, I imagine ye'll get both. I know I won't be getting Guitar Hero IV though. I'll just bout €100 worth of DLC for Rock Band instead :P

faceman

all yizzer rock band owners are upsetting me, we still have no release date in ireland and yizzer all going to have a happier christmas than me!

Smellyirishman

Nope, not us, their fault.

Activision wrote:

To Music Gaming Fans:

The recent announcement by MTV Games/Viacom's Harmonix division that Activision is blocking Sony from releasing a patch and their plea to enable Rock Band software to work with Guitar Hero hardware paints a very misleading picture.

In fact, Harmonix and its parent company MTV Games/Viacom recently declined Activision's offer to reach an agreement that would allow the use of Guitar Hero guitar controllers with Rock Band. We have been and remain open to discussions with Harmonix and MTV Games/Viacom about the use of our technology in Rock Band. Unfortunately for Rock Band users, in this case Harmonix and MTV Games/Viacom are unwilling to discuss an agreement with Activision.

Activision's top priority is to provide consumers with a seamless marriage of best-in-class hardware and software. We are focusing our efforts on innovating hardware and software that are designed to work together, work flawlessly and provide an enjoyable gaming experience.

Best regards,
Activision

This stinks of someone trying to make a buck, or really bad blood. Only thing I can think of at the moment is this line "MTV Games/Viacom recently declined Activision's offer to reach an agreement that would allow the use of Guitar Hero guitar controllers with Rock Band. We have been and remain open to discussions with Harmonix and MTV Games/Viacom about the use of our technology in Rock Band" Sounds to me like they want one way compatibility, which would of course benefit Activision. Thankfully I'll be getting the 360 version when it finally comes out and I won't have to worry about this.

Reganio 2

Hey Noteriety. When you buy the game do you get the mic, drums, guitar and bass with it? About how much will it cost over here do ye reckon.

WarZoneBrother

Reganio 2 wrote: »

Hey Noteriety. When you buy the game do you get the mic, drums, guitar and bass with it? About how much will it cost over here do ye reckon.

Well I will answer that for you if you want because i just got it today ..It does not include the bass but you can use the guitar from guitar hero 3 as the bass but i have yet to find out how it can be done as it aint working for me...

I would predict it will cost 180-200euro here but who knows it could be more than that but i doubth it will.

Send me your PSN addy Noteiriety and i shall play you online someday

Smellyirishman

WarZoneBrother wrote: »

It does not include the bass but you can use the guitar from guitar hero 3

You can't use the GH3 guitar with Rock Band for PS3, check page 1 for details, it's kinda an on-going fiasco.

WarZoneBrother

Smellyirishman wrote: »

You can't use the GH3 guitar with Rock Band for PS3, check page 1 for details, it's kinda an on-going fiasco.

AFAIK there was a patch released which i downloaded and it is suppose to allow you to use the guitar hero 3 controller with rockband on ps3..

NotorietyH

WarZoneBrother wrote: »

AFAIK there was a patch released which i downloaded and it is suppose to allow you to use the guitar hero 3 controller with rockband on ps3..

Activision blocked it because they want Harmonix to pay them for the GH3 controller being compatible.

Reganio 2

So you get a Mic, Drums and a Guitar then? Not to shabby, 200 quid is a bit steep but who knows.

brav

NotorietyH wrote: »

As of this moment the GHIII Les Paul doesn't work with the PS3 version, but by fluke does with the 360 version.

Its a pity Activision put the block in, but I don't think its a fluke it works on 360, as far as I know, for the controller to user the 360 it has to user certain standards approved by MS, so any game will work with all controllers.

NotorietyH

brav wrote: »

Its a pity Activision put the block in, but I don't think its a fluke it works on 360, as far as I know, for the controller to user the 360 it has to user certain standards approved by MS, so any game will work with all controllers.

Yeah that's pretty much it, also with Guitar hero II already out on teh 360, Harmonix knew that the Xplorer guitar would work with GH III so they were probably able to plan for that. It's the one bad thing about sony's open platform in regards to controller etc. But then you look at Unreal tournament III which allows for mods and keyboards and stuff to be used.

Zapp Brannigan

sony are holding up the UTIII mods aswell.

NotorietyH

Zapp Brannigan wrote: »

sony are holding up the UTIII mods aswell.

Well I assume that's for testing and stuff, but I'd heard they were ready to be put on the system. maybe it's something to do with Sony being closed this week, nothing's being updated, even the Rock band DLC is pushed back till next week.

And it's Activision stopping the Rock band patch, not Sony, the patch was approved and ready to go, even at teh stae wehere Harmonix had announced it should be on the system within a couple of hours until Activision stepped it.

cc-offe

<snip>

kensutz

<snip>

Zapp Brannigan

kensutz and cc-offe banned for one week.

Mr E

I just had a look on Amazon, and the EU date is now listed as Friday 21st March 2008.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/MTV-Games-Rock-Band-Xbox/dp/B000TT7RHG/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1?ie=UTF8&s=gateway&qid=1200929718&sr=8-1

SeantheMan

What about ppl who have no friends :P
Can the play singleplayer .....hahahahah....doubt that would be much fun
*one man band*

NotorietyH

SeantheMan wrote: »

What about ppl who have no friends :P
Can the play singleplayer .....hahahahah....doubt that would be much fun
*one man band*

Lol, well I've mainly played it single player. But the most fun I've had with it is doing drums and vocals at the same time and doing the band world tour mode by myself when my buddies aren't around. Guitar and vocals are great too, you really feel like yer on stage. Did the endless setlist on my own over christmas doing drums and vocals on medium. Must do it again no that I can get through the drum career on hard.

Bobalicious93

theres a thread on the official rock band forums asking about the release date for europe and its now over 50 pages long and its only about 2 weeks old! the thread includes a post from a Harmonix employee saying Rock Band will be released in Europe "Sometime in 2008". i dont know about anybody else but this is getting pretty god damn ridiculous now that it looks like this game wont even make the original Q1 date given by Harmonix

faceman

Any indications on price for ireland/uk yet?

Zapp Brannigan

I have a release date of 14 March in work. So hopefully they stick to that and HO aren't pulling dates out of their arse (again)