11.3.2010

I'll come back to what Rock Band 2 is all about soon. What I wanna say is if you're still undecided on what to buy between Guitar Hero and Rock Band, go buy Rock Band. The reasons for this is simple, let me share some history:I have been a fan of the guitar hero/rock band games ever since the start, and it's awesome how far these games have come in the last few years. Harmonix brought the first Guitar Hero into the world, and man what a game. It had some issues, it was very tricky to perfect score the harder songs, but all in all it was fantastic. Guitar Hero 2 appeared 2 years or so later. With upgraded guitar controllers, and a tweaked game with more modes, and a fantastic set list,it was a perfect sequel. My GH2 guitar still works perfectly even till this day. It makes a mockery of some of the instument controllers that come with today's games.After the success of GH2, Harmonix sold the Guitar Hero brand to Activision. At the time, I couldn't understand that, but Harmonix knew what they were doing ;) They had something bigger in the works. Once that happened, not knowing what Harmonix had planned, it was a very sad day. I suspected Activision wouldn't be able to deliver a game as good as Guitar Hero 2, and a year or so later, my suspicions happened. GH3: "Legend" (Slash) of Rock appeared, and to start with all seemed well. It was still fun, but something wasn't quite the same. The new modes seemed a big too gimmicky, and actually the game didn't feel the same to play. The quick solos were too easy, they felt like all you had to do is press the buttons in sequence, no matter how late you were with it. Then games like GH: Aerosmith, GH: World Tour, GH: Metallica came and low and behold the Activision way of milking a franchise name until it's udders are bleeding!What we found out after Guitar Hero 3 appeared was Harmonix were working on Rock Band. This seemed, at the time, like it just wouldn't work. I couldn't get my head around it really, thinking that it would just be so odd playing drums using the current "gems down a road" format. But it did, and did it well. BUT here in the UK, and other regions, we never got to play it, until a year and a half down the line!! North America only release was one thing, but having Harmonix say "oh yeah it'll be coming to PAL territories soon", then 6 months later, nothing... and a year later "oh yeah sorry, erm.. yeah it will be here in a few months time, but the instruments will be sold seperately, and we'll charge you 3x more." Because of this, I stuck with Guitar Hero and I wish I hadn't now. Activisions Guitar Heros just didn't deliver the same sense of fun and completeness.Anyway, skip forward a year now, and good news!! Rock Band 2 was on the horizon, and it would allow you to use other brands of controller to play it! And it was available in the UK! Once I got that RB2 disc into the PS3, my first reaction was "finally this has been done properly." The menus are clearer and cleaner than GH. The setlist was HUGE in comparison, and DLC songs are in the plenty on the PSN store. (And significantly cheaper compared to GH DLC.) The career mode you can play single player or with mates is soooo much better compared to GH games, and the other game modes online and off are fantastic. No gimmicky Rock Battles here! I now have in excess of 250+ songs on Rock Band 2, thanks to the setlist, DLC and Rock Band 1 importing. (I bought RB1 solely for the song import.)My conclusion is that Rock Band 2 is everything you need from a music game. The songs on the disc and DLC are so widespread, that ANY genre of music that uses a guitar or band is included. From soft rock (Boston), to heavy metal (System of a Down). From pop rock (Lady Gaga) to 70s rock (Thin Lizzy). Rock Band has everything. Recently, Rock Band Network has appeared. RBN gives any band the opportunity to create their songs in to work with Rock Band, then become available for the public to download. There are currently 100+ songs on RBN. With all the choice, there is plenty for everybody. (Basically what I'm saying there is no need to buy the constant Guitar Hero: Aerosmith/Metallica/Van Halen games that constantly arrive every six months, then buy Band Hero for the pop-ier songs.) [Also don't get me started on DJ Hero, cos that's a piss-take in itself.]Since buying Rock Band 2, I have bought myself the Logitech Wireless Guitar. Mainly because I have had enough of these official controllers and some third party ones not really being up to scratch. I also have the really expensive Peak Starpex Guitar... which over the last few months has become near unplayable. I trust Logitech, all products I have from them work and still work great. So I'm giving them a shot. They also do a drum kit, so I may consider getting that too... even though its branded for Guitar Hero, with the guitar hero drums layout. Anyway.....Rock Band 2 is the choice to make in my opinion. It's creator Harmonix started the Guitar Hero brand, GH1 + 2 are still the best in that series IMO. They've taken their Guitar Hero games to the next level with Rock Band, and Activision have been trying to copy the Rock Band format ever since. With it's classy menus, brilliant and huge setlist, and really good challenge modes and party modes, it's the band game of choice. Just get yourself some decent instruments! xDOh yeah, one final note from me... Rock Band 3 has been announced for Summer 2010. Don't let that put you off getting Rock Band and Rock Band 2 mind. Rock Band 3 probably won't include instruments, and I'm almost positive you'll be able to transfer your songs and DLC from RB1+2 into RB3 when it's here.

30.11.2008

The title might seem like a bit of an overstatement, but I'm serious. I'll be playing this game more than every other game combined until Rock Band 3 comes out. It really is that addictive!For people who don't know what this is, it's a rythm game. Pick up the plastic instrument of your choice (guitar or drums) then hit the notes as they pass their targets, or grab the mic and sing as pitch-perfectly as you can (only pitch matters, so you can still score high while sounding truly awful.) Read a professional review of Rock Band 1 for a more in-depth explanation; I would go into it here, but it makes for boring reading (and you probably know how it works anyway.)The things that make this game so awesome are: a)how easy it is to play, b) how difficult it is to master, and c) how great the (constantly expanding) soundtrack is.Concerning c), this is the best soundtrack I've ever hear in a video game. Out of the 84 on-disc songs, I dislike just 1. Of course everyone has different opinions when it comes to music, but there really is something for everyone. Blondie, Megadeth, Panic! at the Disco, the Grateful Dead, Bob Dylan... the range and quality is incredible.But still, 84 different songs can only be played so many times before you're bored of them, no matter how good they are. That's where the music store comes in. There are over 300 tracks availible to download at the time of writing (check Wiki for the full list) with more added every Tuesday. Songs are usually 160 MS points each, but you get a discount if you buy them as part of a pack (e.g. 3 song packs are usually 440 points.) It's a good deal I think, but these micro-purchases can quickly build up into a noticable strain on yor wallet. But still, this is one area where Rock Band wins against Guitar Hero - the fact that all RB songs can be purchsed individually means that you're never forced to buy a whole pack just for the one song you want. Neversoft seem to be trying to emulate the Harmonix way, which is a good thing, but they haven't quite got it yet.Another area where RB performs better is the presentation. The graphics and overall atmosphere of a performance in Rock Band are incredible. Venues look spectacular but realistic. Drummers hit the right drums to the music, guitarists hold the right frets and pluck the right strings, vocalists are perfectly lip-synched, and every song has an individual light show for every venue. The crowd even sings along when you're doing well. It's all pretty impressive to watch. Whereas Guitar Hero... well, it kinda looks like a catoonists impression of a rock concert, with animatronic musicians placed on the stage.But what does presentation matter? It's the gameplay that counts, and Rock Band 2 has a few single (or multi) player modes that will keep you playing for ages. World Tour mode sees your band (of 1 to 4 people) start in a local club and eventually work their way up to huge arenas around the world. (Note: Unlike in RB1, World Tour mode can be played online now, as can all other modes.) Challenge mode is more linear - complete these songs, unlock those songs - with challenges designed around a particular instrument, genre, or artist. For example, buy the Boston track pack and you'll have a Boston challenge, or play the drums and do the drum challenge.The third mode (excluding quickplay) is Battle mode. This is pretty cool - new battles with particular themes are put up every day, and you're supposed to play through the songs adhering to whatever special rules come with it, like longest streak wins, must play on Expert, must have a vocalist... You score will then be uploaded to the online leaderboards and you have to get it as high as possible by the time the battle is taken offline. It's a simple concept, but it's cool to play through sets of songs with particular themes or special rules then see how you compare against your friends list/the world.I need to mention the difference in note charts between GH and RB. People generally said that RB1 was too easy and GH3 was too hard, but RB2 has got it perfect. Plenty of songs for the complete begginner (plus no-fail mode) and loads of songs for the expert (who will also appreciate the wonderful Breakneck speed, the RB equivilant of Hyperspeed.) In my opinion, GH:WT is still a bit over-charted (you play more notes than you actually hear) and is a bit too forgiving with the timing. That doesn't make GH any less fun - it just makes RB seem better.Anyway, I feel like I've gone on for ages without actually saying much, so I'll end by saying: You should buy this. You were probably considering Guitar Hero as well, but buy this (unless you really do prefer the GH:WT soundtrack.) I don't wanna bash GH (it's still fun) but this is the better sounding, better looking, funner, more replayable game.Oh, but the official instruments aren't out until December. All old GH and RB instruments with work fine with it, though, as will the new GH things.

26.6.2009

Well as of today we now have RB1, RB2, GHWT and GH Metallica, GHWT peripherals (guitar, drum, mic) and an extra RB2 wireless guitar, all for PS3. Frankly it was important to select the right equipment and games to be able to utilise one set of eq with both GH and RB. After several months of playing all, RB2 is the game that stepped forward compared to others with its superior library and futures.First of all, as long as you have both RB games from the same region (US or UK) and buy your key from the PS Store of the same region, you will be able to export almost all (but only a few) of your RB1 songs to your RB2 game and will be able to play everything with RB or GHWT peripherals in RB2 (of

5.6.2009

I bought Guitar hero 4 before this game came out, and I really wish I hadn't! With it's massive range of songs, massive amount of downloadable songs from the Rock Band shop, which is up-dated with new songs to purchase much more regularly than GH4 AND the added bonus of being able to transfer all songs from rockband 1 onto it. You will definitely not be complaining that there aren't enough songs!However this does cost, a song from the rockband store is usually 160 Microsoft points, and to transfer all of the rockband 1 songs to rockband 2 will cost you 250 Microsoft points, however this can hardly be considered steep seeing as there are over 50 songs on the game, you will also obviously have to own,

14.10.2009

My pre-thoughts before buying this game were centered around the available download content already out there, I mis-presumed that the content would be available for the WII straight after release, but I was wrong. Currently there are no songs available for DLC in Europe (And reading on the forums we are going to be geting a few tracks a week soon, but this puts us around 250 songs behind the US of A!)However once you get passed this issue, the game itself is excellent.Guitar Hero is fun, but RockBand2 takes it a step further giving you more feeling of being in a band (rather than just playing an arcade game for points - ala GH).The songs that come with the game are excellent and varied enough

25.6.2009

This was the first retail game I bought for my PS3 (the actual first game I bought was wipEout HD, which isn't retail). Now, four months on, I still play RB2, that's how fun it is! I've already gotten rid of Guitar Hero World Tour... but I won't go on about that game.RB2 has a beautiful interface, and I've never seen any lag at all (unlike the GH games grrr). And even better that I could import all but 4 songs from RB1 (which I bought secondhand for £10) - so that's around 200 songs to play. RB2 also gives you 20 free songs to download - wicked!The great thing about RB2 is that it lets you get on with playing the game. The main screen is extremely intuitive, and songs in the 'quickplay'

26.2.2009

now first things first i own guitar hero 2,3 and world tour and rock band 1 and 2 so i think i have the right to say that rock band 2 is by far the best out of ALL of these titles, the great thing for me is the amazing amount of downloadable content that has songs for every music fan from indie to metal, but the thing i really do love about this game is the fact that if u rent rock band 1 and are willing to pay a few microsoft points (about 600 i think?) you can get nearly every song from the rock band tracks on rock band 2 doubling your library instantly, there are about 6 songs missing but when you have over 100 more to choose from to be honest who cares? Now the things that set this game apart from world tour :- Drums,

28.1.2010

Rock Band 2 is my first RB-brand game after playing pretty near all the Guitar Hero games, so this review is mostly a comparison for anyone else moving the same way.Now that RB and GH games have good cross-brand support for the peripheral controllers, playing both types of game is a worthwile thing to do as you don't have to pay for lots of different controllers. I've played the RB2 game with the GH3 Les Paul and the GH Metallica guitars and both work perfectly.Playing the songs themselves in RB is a slightly different experience to GH. In general the RB songs have more chords to play and slightly fewer fiddly solos, so overall difficulty is about the same even though the feel is subtly different.The career mode in RB has more going on than in the GH games.

26.2.2010

Having been a Guitar Hero player for quite a while (GH III, Aerosmith, Metallica and 5) I was wondering how much better Rock Band could be. Having enjoyed The Beatles: Rock Band I thought I'd get Rock Band 2... of course thats not the only reason. I wanted Downloadable Content - something Guitar Hero is severely lacking right now.I've been playing it for a month and while I can say the Guitar Hero 5 engine is better, but the overall quality of Rock Band 2 is better.I find GH5s note charts clearer and the new menu and party play systems are great - giving it a hand over Rock Bands engine - but because of GH5s very poor set list and DLC (oh, and the skipping during gameplay)

28.7.2009

According to various game / gear matrix info out there on the web, GH:WT (and only official WT) guitar and drums is meant to work with RB2 (and not RB original - change of policy from Harmonix). That means for the proce of the game we GH peeps should be able to access the tracks exclusive to RB2 and their much larger DLC (downloadable content)...and to those not looked into this, RB releases about 3 times the amount of DLC each month compared to GH.Read other reviews for playability...I dont have this YET. But wanted to ask the question if anyone has bought this on the Wii as well as RB, and simply done the registration thing and paid the $5 to unlock the RB tracks for RB2 without actually playing the original RB on its own ?Because as far as I know,

20.5.2009

Having bought Guitar Hero World Tour complete with drum kit, microphone and a couple of guitar controllers, I bought this a few months later to make the most of the various accessories and learned a couple of very important things along the way.First and foremost, the Guitar Hero World Tour drum kit works with Rock Band 2 but it does not work with Rock Band. I don't know if it's the same with the Xbox 360 version, so this information is directed at PS3 owners.Secondly, if you don't want to miss out on Rock Band completely, you can import all the songs from Rock Band into Rock Band 2. However, to do this you need to make a one-off purchase of an electronic key from Sony's Playstation Store.

12.2.2010

Well, as a guitar player - not an especially good one, I'd add - I was looking for a little more challenge out of this game than the casual player, and found the opening levels a little too easy. Also, having a Guitar Hero Controller, I can't comment on the "solo" sections, which are designed to be played on the rock band guitar controller, except to say that I've either pulled them off or limped through mst of them on "hard", so the Rock band strat isn't necessarily a compulsory purchase if you already have GH.In general however, I'd say this game is better looking, more versatile and has better tunes than GH3 and having played both, and being more of a casual gamer,

1.11.2010

So much fun for all of us 17,18,20,45 and 51. 2 guys and 3 girls plus the visiting friends.I've never been in to games consels and bought the wii fit for my wife for X-mas 2009 since then i have been drawn into the music side.The Rock band has given so much versitility being able to play alone or with others. The challenges to unlock the other songs I thought at first was a bind, seeing i didn't like some of the songs but soon got in to it. Making our own characters and competing in the world tour has been very addictive.Buying wii points was easy.Downloading the songs from the shop easy!Excellent being able to download single songs instead of buying a whole disc with only some you like.You are never to old to start playing.Best value for money i have ever spent.

12.1.2010

Rock Band 2 improves on the first Rock Band game alot because you can download lots of new songs with your SD card, battle against people online and create your own band members. There are over 80 songs and you also get an extra 20 songs which you can download for free. By early 2010 there will be over 250 more songs for you to download hopefully. The track list is awesome with some of my favourites being: "Let There Be Rock" by AC/DC, "Livin' On A Prayer" by Bon Jovi, "Go Your Own Way" by Fleetwood Mac, "Alive" by Peal Jam, "Give It Away" by Red Hot Chili Peppers and even the song "Alabama Geataway" by The Grateful Dead!Rock Band 2 really comes alive when you have got three people playing together having a ball of a time.

14.10.2009

The only similar game(s) I've played before this were GH:LoR and GH:WT. This doesn't seem to be drastically better or worse than either. I only have the GH:WT controller so I can't comment on the other instruments. I bought this title because I was led to believe it had an awesome tracklist, way better than GH:WT, but I can't seem to find justification for this. Most of the songs are obscure to my ears and not all that fun to play. Maybe I just have poor taste in music.Still, it's NOT BAD... needs the whole band, really...I've completed it on hard/most of expert but when I tried to play a real guitar I was still rubbish! How can this be? I'm an expert ffs.Unfortunately it's made me go out and spend lots of money on a real Hangstrom,

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