Post by The Chupster on Sept 15, 2008 9:20:57 GMT -5
Well... um... it's Rock Band.
Basically, they made it easier to jump into quickplay (for those that just wanna play the game without going through a million menus, or for when you're having a party or the like), and they made World Tour Mode the default gameplay mode. As far as I can tell, there isn't any single-player guitar modes or drum mode- there's Band World Tour Mode, which you can play by yourself or with up to 3 friends, on or offline.
Characters are no longer tied to a particular instrument, so you pick your character to play as (created or premade; the game has a bunch of premade 'jobbers' that you can select from) and play whatever instrument you're playing, simple as that. You can also create enough characters to populate your band and then have them stand in whenever no one else is playing, so creating the band of your dreams is entirely possible- just keep in mind that you'll have to play as them a bit to get enough cash to get them the outfits you want.
There's a drum trainer that teaches you some standard fills and lets you work on your skills, as well as the ability to load up any songs from your hard drive or a usb device and playing along with. Or you can just bash the skins and play around that way.
There are also challenges, which are kind of like... well, I'm not really sure. The way they sounded in previews, it was sort of like achievements- play these songs along with any rules they throw at you, and then you get set on a leaderboard against, well, all the bands that are playing online. Or something. Well, I've only done a couple of these challenges, and I haven't seen a leaderboard or anything, so I dunno. Basically, it's just a setlist that you play as well as you can, I guess. And they're dynamic, appearing depending on what DLC you have and what challenges Harmonix decides to throw at you on any given day. But you can just ignore them if you want. I know I am, at least so far.
Apparently a good bit of the setlist is locked at the beginning, and I'm not entirely sure what you have to do to unlock them- I'm assuming playing through Band World Tour. So you won't be playing the new Guns N' Roses single off the bat, or Fleetwood Mac.
Still, it's pretty much the same game it was before, with some minor improvements. The price is worth it for the new tracks alone- 80 on-disk tracks + 20 free tracks coming before the end of the year; that's pretty impressive for $60. Cheaper than the DLC, anyway. And with it you get the ability to go through Band World Tour with your friends, and get rid of that nasty-ass Guitar Hero-style single player junk.
Overall, if you're a Rock Band fanatic, it's a no-brainer.
Unless the universe doesn't want you to play it, like me, lol- the day it comes out, we get record wind from the hurricane that knocks out the power yesterday until 4am this morning, and then when I started playing, my carpal tunnel- which hasn't bothered me in a good couple of years- started acting up, making three of the fingers on my left hand numb and killing my ability to play the game. Wow. Sweet. LOL
UPDATE:
Apparently, some of the challenges fall under the "Battle of the Bands" category. Basically, Battle of the Bands is a mode where you and your band (or just yourself) play a song, and get entered onto a song-specific leaderboard. While you're playing, a little bar at the top lets you know how close you are to trouncing the other band.
I hadn't tried the mode yet, but in single-player, I ran into something new- one of the venues had a new event called something like "es ta Gamestop." It was an online Battle of the Bands in my Band World Tour! 3 songs, 2 of which I hadn't unlocked yet, made up the Battle- RHCP's "Give It Away," Ratt's "Round and Round" and Pearl Jam's "Alive." At the opening screen it shows a vs. screen with each band's name and artwork, then it's pretty much just single player with a bar. I beat the shit out of the bottom band though- I passed up their whole score halfway through the first song, LOL. Pissed me off though- it won't let your band play if your name isn't considered "classy," so my singleplayer band, Wet Fart Riot, had to be changed to Wet F. Art Riot. The logo of a sea monster bent over and spraying diarrhea on a wall was thankfully intact, though.
Overall, I came in somewhere around 3600 out of 5700- not bad for a guy whose 'band' is just himself!
But according to the challenge screen, if you attended some Gamestop conference, you could play for prizes, but if not, just for kicks. Still, neat, and it shows that World Band Mode is going to have some unique challenges rolling in, if you have an XBox Live Account.
Now, I just need to get a band together so we can stomp the rest of those bastards- LOL
Basically, they made it easier to jump into quickplay (for those that just wanna play the game without going through a million menus, or for when you're having a party or the like), and they made World Tour Mode the default gameplay mode. As far as I can tell, there isn't any single-player guitar modes or drum mode- there's Band World Tour Mode, which you can play by yourself or with up to 3 friends, on or offline.
Characters are no longer tied to a particular instrument, so you pick your character to play as (created or premade; the game has a bunch of premade 'jobbers' that you can select from) and play whatever instrument you're playing, simple as that. You can also create enough characters to populate your band and then have them stand in whenever no one else is playing, so creating the band of your dreams is entirely possible- just keep in mind that you'll have to play as them a bit to get enough cash to get them the outfits you want.
There's a drum trainer that teaches you some standard fills and lets you work on your skills, as well as the ability to load up any songs from your hard drive or a usb device and playing along with. Or you can just bash the skins and play around that way.
There are also challenges, which are kind of like... well, I'm not really sure. The way they sounded in previews, it was sort of like achievements- play these songs along with any rules they throw at you, and then you get set on a leaderboard against, well, all the bands that are playing online. Or something. Well, I've only done a couple of these challenges, and I haven't seen a leaderboard or anything, so I dunno. Basically, it's just a setlist that you play as well as you can, I guess. And they're dynamic, appearing depending on what DLC you have and what challenges Harmonix decides to throw at you on any given day. But you can just ignore them if you want. I know I am, at least so far.
Apparently a good bit of the setlist is locked at the beginning, and I'm not entirely sure what you have to do to unlock them- I'm assuming playing through Band World Tour. So you won't be playing the new Guns N' Roses single off the bat, or Fleetwood Mac.
Still, it's pretty much the same game it was before, with some minor improvements. The price is worth it for the new tracks alone- 80 on-disk tracks + 20 free tracks coming before the end of the year; that's pretty impressive for $60. Cheaper than the DLC, anyway. And with it you get the ability to go through Band World Tour with your friends, and get rid of that nasty-ass Guitar Hero-style single player junk.
Overall, if you're a Rock Band fanatic, it's a no-brainer.
Unless the universe doesn't want you to play it, like me, lol- the day it comes out, we get record wind from the hurricane that knocks out the power yesterday until 4am this morning, and then when I started playing, my carpal tunnel- which hasn't bothered me in a good couple of years- started acting up, making three of the fingers on my left hand numb and killing my ability to play the game. Wow. Sweet. LOL
UPDATE:
Apparently, some of the challenges fall under the "Battle of the Bands" category. Basically, Battle of the Bands is a mode where you and your band (or just yourself) play a song, and get entered onto a song-specific leaderboard. While you're playing, a little bar at the top lets you know how close you are to trouncing the other band.
I hadn't tried the mode yet, but in single-player, I ran into something new- one of the venues had a new event called something like "es ta Gamestop." It was an online Battle of the Bands in my Band World Tour! 3 songs, 2 of which I hadn't unlocked yet, made up the Battle- RHCP's "Give It Away," Ratt's "Round and Round" and Pearl Jam's "Alive." At the opening screen it shows a vs. screen with each band's name and artwork, then it's pretty much just single player with a bar. I beat the shit out of the bottom band though- I passed up their whole score halfway through the first song, LOL. Pissed me off though- it won't let your band play if your name isn't considered "classy," so my singleplayer band, Wet Fart Riot, had to be changed to Wet F. Art Riot. The logo of a sea monster bent over and spraying diarrhea on a wall was thankfully intact, though.
Overall, I came in somewhere around 3600 out of 5700- not bad for a guy whose 'band' is just himself!
But according to the challenge screen, if you attended some Gamestop conference, you could play for prizes, but if not, just for kicks. Still, neat, and it shows that World Band Mode is going to have some unique challenges rolling in, if you have an XBox Live Account.
Now, I just need to get a band together so we can stomp the rest of those bastards- LOL
