Ralph Carothers
Rock Band 2 launches
September 15th 2008 20:17
MTV and Harmonix released what is supposed to be the last Rock Band game to hit.
Originally, we were told they hoped to release only one Rock Band, but a bunch of the features in the game did not ship as they wanted and could not/would not be patched. (World Tour mode for example was....rigid...in what you could do with it and no online) It was a great game IMO, but obviously had its flaws.
Rock Band 2, with a few exceptions, is really looking to be the epitome of what they wanted.
First off, there is no longer the single tour mode as you know it. Quick play is there, but Single Tour is not. Why? Its been rolled into World Tour. That's right, you can now roll up your own one man band. (The game fills in others for you, or you can have others join/leave at any time.)
You're not even forced to stay within one band, even if the creator of another!
Basically, what the above does is break it from its Guitar Hero roots, a very important distinction IMO. Yes, Harmonix started the GH series, but thats now Neversoft's beast. Neversoft has had to imitate Harmonix all along the way so far as well. (And it shows) Even when GH: World Tour hits later this year, they will again be following Harmonix as they are making it an entire band as well. So Harmonix's distancing will just how much more polish they have.
The World Tour mode's only real flaw for many, is that you need to go through it to unlock songs for Quick Play. Its a nagging point, but a decent one none the less due to people wanting to play in a party situation. I really want to jump on Harmonix for this issue, but....
They also made this game incredibly packed with songs. First off, if you have the original Rock Band, for 400 live points (5 dollars) and 1.5 gb of HD space you get the entire original RB tracks minus 3. (Enter Sandman and two covers: Run to the Hills and Paranoid) If you've downloaded any songs for RB1 they also are applied to the game. (No other game has done either of these two things on a console.) You can still hit the store in game and get the older content if you have not either!
MTV has promised any future songs will work in both games as well.
So what does RB2 bring over the original next to the World Tour Online? (Which is huge btw)
Various graphical upgrades, interesting/funny side quests while working on World Tour, "managers/roadies/street teams" etc that can help you with World Tour in various aspects. (making more money, making more fans, opening venues, making more money in place of fans (aka- selling out) etc.
Graphical upgrades sometimes also come with the side quests! One example would be a film student approached my band to make a video when we set up to do a 3 song mystery setlist. They wanted to shoot it in a 60s style vid. We agreed, they randomly gave us one song, and it looked as if we were in an old 60s video. Basicaly colored filters galore, peace signs, swirls, etc. When we finished the song, the original set was still to be done, and we had a new spot show up in the venue showing that we had done the music video, presumably so we could redo it for a higher star count if need be.
There are various ladders in game, as well as challenges and battle of the bands. I've not touched many of these yet, so I don't really know what they do.
Other notable changes are things such as automatic video and audio lag calibration if you have the RB2 Strat. This one is wireless, and apparantly has a microphone embedded so it can pick up the drum beat from the audio source and therefore tell the game the latency. They also have included a variety of cheats and a "no fail" mode for people to play through. (Great for my 6 yr old!) This game also features many more female leads (or female friendly leads)
All in all, the game is definatly worth its purchase price. To make it even sweeter, the 82 songs on the disk will become 102 shortly as Harmonix promised another 20 they couldn't fit on the final disk at the time, for free!
Have to give it 4.5 out of 5. Its not perfect, and I don't think any music games will ever be "perfect" but it really strives to be.
Originally, we were told they hoped to release only one Rock Band, but a bunch of the features in the game did not ship as they wanted and could not/would not be patched. (World Tour mode for example was....rigid...in what you could do with it and no online) It was a great game IMO, but obviously had its flaws.
Rock Band 2, with a few exceptions, is really looking to be the epitome of what they wanted.
First off, there is no longer the single tour mode as you know it. Quick play is there, but Single Tour is not. Why? Its been rolled into World Tour. That's right, you can now roll up your own one man band. (The game fills in others for you, or you can have others join/leave at any time.)
Basically, what the above does is break it from its Guitar Hero roots, a very important distinction IMO. Yes, Harmonix started the GH series, but thats now Neversoft's beast. Neversoft has had to imitate Harmonix all along the way so far as well. (And it shows) Even when GH: World Tour hits later this year, they will again be following Harmonix as they are making it an entire band as well. So Harmonix's distancing will just how much more polish they have.
The World Tour mode's only real flaw for many, is that you need to go through it to unlock songs for Quick Play. Its a nagging point, but a decent one none the less due to people wanting to play in a party situation. I really want to jump on Harmonix for this issue, but....
They also made this game incredibly packed with songs. First off, if you have the original Rock Band, for 400 live points (5 dollars) and 1.5 gb of HD space you get the entire original RB tracks minus 3. (Enter Sandman and two covers: Run to the Hills and Paranoid) If you've downloaded any songs for RB1 they also are applied to the game. (No other game has done either of these two things on a console.) You can still hit the store in game and get the older content if you have not either!
MTV has promised any future songs will work in both games as well.
So what does RB2 bring over the original next to the World Tour Online? (Which is huge btw)
Various graphical upgrades, interesting/funny side quests while working on World Tour, "managers/roadies/street teams" etc that can help you with World Tour in various aspects. (making more money, making more fans, opening venues, making more money in place of fans (aka- selling out) etc.
Graphical upgrades sometimes also come with the side quests! One example would be a film student approached my band to make a video when we set up to do a 3 song mystery setlist. They wanted to shoot it in a 60s style vid. We agreed, they randomly gave us one song, and it looked as if we were in an old 60s video. Basicaly colored filters galore, peace signs, swirls, etc. When we finished the song, the original set was still to be done, and we had a new spot show up in the venue showing that we had done the music video, presumably so we could redo it for a higher star count if need be.
There are various ladders in game, as well as challenges and battle of the bands. I've not touched many of these yet, so I don't really know what they do.
Other notable changes are things such as automatic video and audio lag calibration if you have the RB2 Strat. This one is wireless, and apparantly has a microphone embedded so it can pick up the drum beat from the audio source and therefore tell the game the latency. They also have included a variety of cheats and a "no fail" mode for people to play through. (Great for my 6 yr old!) This game also features many more female leads (or female friendly leads)
All in all, the game is definatly worth its purchase price. To make it even sweeter, the 82 songs on the disk will become 102 shortly as Harmonix promised another 20 they couldn't fit on the final disk at the time, for free!
Have to give it 4.5 out of 5. Its not perfect, and I don't think any music games will ever be "perfect" but it really strives to be.
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