Rock Band 2

[dood gone krazee]

Re: Rock Band 2

My social studies teacher got the game today, he said its really cool. Although he's not the best rhythm-game player. :/

I wanna know other people's opinions on it before I spend the money to get it, I'm thinking of just getting GHWT, but I wanna know how RB2 is. How's the setlist/charts? Easier or harder than RB1? I hated how the game seemed so focused on the singing and drumming aspects of the game - leaving the guitar and bass charts fairly easy.

P.S. 1,000th post.

[Plaguefox]

Re: Rock Band 2

In related news, I notice that Best Buy has drum kit stool for 30 bucks.

Just so you know, I bought this "throne" and returned it the next day. It is not quality. Go to a Guitar Center or somethin' and pick up a proper one.

I'll be picking up an Ion at some point too, provided Jennifer (<3) lets me. I'm waiting for my friend Snic to order his to see it first-hand but the reviews I've been waiting for have so-far been pretty positive. My only concern—and it's a serious one for me—is that I'm a left-handed fella and the cymbal attachments don't allow for a red one. I hope they've thought of that for us backwards folks.

Edit: Oh and god-damn Rock Band 2 is awesome. Anyone on XBLA should add me, "Plaguefox", and jam out some time. I'm mostly expert drums.

[Afrobean]

Re: Rock Band 2

Just so you know, I bought this "throne" and returned it the next day. It is not quality. Go to a Guitar Center or somethin' and pick up a proper one.

But how much would a "proper" one cost? Quality is not exactly all that important to me, so long as I can sit on it and it doesn't break, I would probably prefer to save some cash, particularly after spending so much for my kit (which still hasn't shipped yet FROWN).

[PsYcHoZeRoSk8eR]

Re: Rock Band 2

Edit: Oh and god-damn Rock Band 2 is awesome. Anyone on XBLA should add me, "Plaguefox", and jam out some time. I'm mostly expert drums.

I've seen you online a few times. I'm still working my way through the tour, but we're gonna have to jam soon. I'm on guitar/bass so no problems there. It will also be cool to play with someone who's good at drums for a chance too.

Also, the beginning of the game was really really slow going, thank god for the dlc that I had stored or I would have shot myself in the foot because of all of the easy songs. But the hard songs that I have "unlocked"have been great.

I wish that Enter Sandman and Run to the Hills could have been exported.
As much as I hate RttH, it is a hard song and I guess I really like the challenge.

Also, the hyperspeed, breakneckspeed, is easily my favorite addition to the game thus far. New songs are cool and what not, the drum trainer is pretty fun, but I like that I can finally read the notes in the faster guitar solos.


Side note, I was able to complete the impossible challenge, or whatever the one with Painkiller, Panic Attack, and Visions and no overdrive, sightread. Visions was pretty stupid, mostly because it was hard. Painkiller and Panic Attack were awesome.

[Squeek]

Re: Rock Band 2

Wow.

The one instrument I feel I'd be good at is horribly dumbed down in RB2.

http://www.joystiq.com/2008/09/16/declaration-of-independence-reading-gets-perfect-vocal-score-in/

[Afrobean]

Re: Rock Band 2

Wow.

The one instrument I feel I'd be good at is horribly dumbed down in RB2.

http://www.joystiq.com/2008/09/16/de...ocal-score-in/

Uh

That's spoken word. It's not pitch relevant. One should not be surprised to see monotone getting by without trouble there, although the phoneme failure is a surprise given Harmonix's previous announcements.

Also: it could easily be on a lower difficulty.

But that aside, vocals suck and are not a worthwhile contributor to the quality of the game as a whole. They're a gimmick as far as I'm concerned.

ps ur fanboyism is showing Squeek-- GH's vocal system hasn't even had a chance to be as closely scrutinized, yet your intention is that GH is better in this respect (that is to say, you say "[mic] is horribly dumbed down in RB2", and by specifically saying "in RB2" even though the topic is already about RB2, you indicate that you are comparing RB2's vocals to something else-- presumeably GH-- that is less "horribly dumbed down").

[MalReynolds]

Re: Rock Band 2

If they had a better system, say like... SingStar, which is one of the best singing games I've ever played (and I've played pretty much every Kareoke Revolution/American Idol game out here because I fuggin' love singing), then I'd be a little more for it. It's so frakkin' difficult to fake your way through a SingStar song and still get a good score.

[Afrobean]

Re: Rock Band 2

If they had a better system, say like... SingStar, which is one of the best singing games I've ever played (and I've played pretty much every Kareoke Revolution/American Idol game out here because I fuggin' love singing), then I'd be a little more for it. It's so frakkin' difficult to fake your way through a SingStar song and still get a good score.

But how do those games handle spoken word portions? Do they grade heavily on whether you're enunciating correctly and saying the right words?

[Squeek]

Re: Rock Band 2

Uh

That's spoken word. It's not pitch relevant. One should not be surprised to see monotone getting by without trouble there, although the phoneme failure is a surprise given Harmonix's previous announcements.

Also: it could easily be on a lower difficulty.

But that aside, vocals suck and are not a worthwhile contributor to the quality of the game as a whole. They're a gimmick as far as I'm concerned.

ps ur fanboyism is showing Squeek-- GH's vocal system hasn't even had a chance to be as closely scrutinized, yet your intention is that GH is better in this respect (that is to say, you say "[mic] is horribly dumbed down in RB2", and by specifically saying "in RB2" even though the topic is already about RB2, you indicate that you are comparing RB2's vocals to something else-- presumeably GH-- that is less "horribly dumbed down").

Read the post. It's been dumbed down from RB.

"Back in July, a GameSpy preview for Rock Band 2 claimed "the phoneme detection system used for the 'talkie' parts [in Rock Band] has been completely stripped and a new one has been put in place [for Rock Band 2]." Well, Harmonix definitely stripped out the old system, but it seems to have forgotten to put a new one in its place, as the new game seems to award perfect vocal points if it detects any noise during the "talkie" parts."

[MalReynolds]

Re: Rock Band 2

But how do those games handle spoken word portions? Do they grade heavily on whether you're enunciating correctly and saying the right words?

Yup. You tend to have to actually be in beat with the music and enunciate, otherwise you'll score low on the talkie parts.

[Afrobean]

Re: Rock Band 2

Meh

I still stand by what I said before anyway: vocals suck and are not a worthwhile contributor to the quality of the game as a whole.

And did the video even indicate any sort of difficulty level on it at all? I wouldn't be at all surprised to see that fly on the lowest difficulty, even on a not "dumbed down" karaoke scoring system.

ps squeek: any reason you used the word "is" instead of a verb that implies derivation then? For example: "vocals were horribly dumbed down for RB2," or "vocals got horribly dumbed down in RB2."

[dore]

Re: Rock Band 2

From what I can tell the talkie system is just like the singing system now where you just have to be making some sort of noise during the talkie rather than enunciating anything. Since the timing window for RB1 talkies was so ****ed up they had to really dumb it down to make it playable, rather than having songs that were impossible to FC because of a timing window that's impossible to see.

[the following paragraph is based off of reviews of top RB vocalists playing GHWT at PAX]

The great thing about RB vocals is that it allows a little interpretation. I can SING a song and still get 100%. The GHWT system is so tight that you are basically required to hum a song because if you're not pitch perfect the entire time you won't even some close to 100%. If you add any expression or inflection you will miss phrases, which defeats the purpose of singing, IMO. Hopefully they change this before they release the game otherwise it will be beyond tedious to even attempt expert vocals.

[MalReynolds]

Re: Rock Band 2

Well, I mean, on Expert Rockband vocals sometimes my vibrato will take me out of the pitch by a tiny, minute amount and lose my 100%. And it's not like you can do runs or anything outside of the free-style sections.

[dore]

Re: Rock Band 2

Well, I mean, on Expert Rockband vocals sometimes my vibrato will take me out of the pitch by a tiny, minute amount and lose my 100%. And it's not like you can do runs or anything outside of the free-style sections.

you must ahve some crazy vibrato lol RB gives you a semitone and a half of leniency IIRC

[Squeek]

Re: Rock Band 2

Meh

I still stand by what I said before anyway: vocals suck and are not a worthwhile contributor to the quality of the game as a whole.

And did the video even indicate any sort of difficulty level on it at all? I wouldn't be at all surprised to see that fly on the lowest difficulty, even on a not "dumbed down" karaoke scoring system.

ps squeek: any reason you used the word "is" instead of a verb that implies derivation then? For example: "vocals were horribly dumbed down for RB2," or "vocals got horribly dumbed down in RB2."

I said "the one instrument... is dumbed down.", so I can't use a plural verb. I don't know why I would use "was" either, since it's not like it used to be dumbed down but no longer is. When you compare it to RB1, it is dumbed down and probably will be forever since they wouldn't release a patch or anything to improve its functionality.

Knowing Harmonix, you'll have to buy another microphone for $50 to get what you should get out of the box.

also since the discussion of wt/rb/rr blends into all of these threads:

http://kotaku.com/5050749/konami-no-guitar-controller-for-rock-revolution

wait what

pps - DeepDiscountDVD is selling RB2 for $20 off the retail price. You can get the drums, the guitar, or the entire bundle $20 cheaper. Free shipping too.

http://www.deepdiscount.com/Rock-Ban...VVviewprod.htm

Their shipping is slow as hell but you get $20 off and no tax (which would be another $10-$20 depending on where you live).

This deal applies to all three consoles.