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MonMotha wrote:

Pheonixguy wrote:According to gamestop (which might not mean much) the price of all the peripherals for rock band is going to add up to over $300!

Welcome to the land of music games. It's very easy to blow $300 on a SINGLE CONTROLLER for many of these music games, let alone an entire set of them. DDR pads are unusually cheap.

Anyone remember Steel Batalion for the X-Box? That controller is STILL worth $300, and it is only compatable with the two games they made for an obsolete system (I think SB wasn't ported to 360, correct me if I'm wrong)!

It's all about demand. If Rock Band wins out at E3, you can expect to see DROVES of people willing and able to slap down $300 to play it...on that note, it's about friggin time we had a game that combined music genre games! I bet the sequel will have the arrows for DDR like KR has!

DjKARL wrote:If Rock Band wins out at E3,

Uh...what E3?

game will suck thanks to horrible drumkit design, where the hi-hat is to the RIGHT of the snare, and the hi-hat also doubles as a tom.

*genius* design. /sarcasm

liquidblue aka DBV wrote:game will suck thanks to horrible drumkit design, where the hi-hat is to the RIGHT of the snare, and the hi-hat also doubles as a tom.

*genius* design. /sarcasm

I guess that tells you then that (SURPRISE) like Guitar Hero, they're not targeting people who actually play the instruments involved...

danc1005 wrote:

liquidblue aka DBV wrote:game will suck thanks to horrible drumkit design, where the hi-hat is to the RIGHT of the snare, and the hi-hat also doubles as a tom.

*genius* design. /sarcasm

I guess that tells you then that (SURPRISE) like Guitar Hero, they're not targeting people who actually play the instruments involved...

well duh, you have to target the tons of people that wish they played in a rock band and want to be cool

...and still suck in people who actually do play those instruments and music game players just out of curiosity

A bit of a news update. 45 licensed tracks have been revealed for Rock Band.

More Info at http://xbox360.ign.com/articles/830/830709p1.html

With all this news I'm running low on how many posts I can make today.

I played a demo of this at Best Buy, the drum part is VERY VERY VERY VERY VERY Abysmal.

lgolem wrote:I played a demo of this at Best Buy, the drum part is VERY VERY VERY VERY VERY Abysmal.

Yea, I kinda heard about how bad it was. I honestly have to question what the hell Harmonix was thinking on that one.

lgolem wrote:I played a demo of this at Best Buy, the drum part is VERY VERY VERY VERY VERY Abysmal.

The one in Bloomington? If so I'd like to check it out.

Anything in particular that people are harping on?

lgolem wrote:I played a demo of this at Best Buy, the drum part is VERY VERY VERY VERY VERY Abysmal.

Really? The word I've heard so far (see http://www.scorehero.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=34391 for example), is that the drums are pretty good. But very hard. Did you just mean 'hard' when you said 'Abysmal'? Anyway, I'm definitely going to Best Buy this morning and trying it for myself.

malictus wrote:

lgolem wrote:I played a demo of this at Best Buy, the drum part is VERY VERY VERY VERY VERY Abysmal.

Really? The word I've heard so far (see http://www.scorehero.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=34391 for example), is that the drums are pretty good. But very hard. Did you just mean 'hard' when you said 'Abysmal'? Anyway, I'm definitely going to Best Buy this morning and trying it for myself.

Very hard? Nothing about that demo led me to believe that it'd be incredibly difficult, at least the drumming with the sticks. The bass pedal may add the missing difficulty as it does seem to get some liberal usage on Expert, but I was able to 98% a number of songs on Expert having never played the game or song before. And it's not like I'm a good drummer or anything, as the developers would like you to believe (seriously, they mentioned in an interview that if you could beat the songs even on HARD you could pretty much play real drums). That kick pedal better add an entire new dimension, nay, FIFTEEN entire new dimensions of difficulty or else I will be sorely disappointed by it. =(

Another thing worth noting is that most of the charts seem kind of dull and repetitive. I realize that a lot of rock drumming isn't crazy and varied, but it can sure as hell be a lot more interesting than what they present in this game, especially on Expert of all things. My biggest gripe personally is the "freestyle-do-whatever-you-want-here" sections that they put in whenever there'd be a drum break or something. It's fun and all, but on Expert, I'd rather have some kind of difficult chart there to play instead of 4 measures of free la-la time. On Expert, I expect the same kind of insanity to be found on the guitar's expert mode, not a yawnfest.

Also, it's probably just be the fact that it's a demo unit, but the pads on the drum controller aren't terribly responsive. And I'm pretty sure it's not just wear-and-tear since I played this thing the first day they set it up. I'm sure that'll be tweaked for the final release though.

So yeah, my initial impression? Not impressed.

This is starting to sound like another case of not quite getting a good blend between game and simulator. Sometimes being too accurate/realistic isn't really all that fun--at least from a gaming perspective. Part of the fun of games is the opportunity to do things that we can't do in real life...reality+, if you will.

BTW, the official DrumMania controller isn't all that great either.

Oh, and three words: "Free Scratch Zone"
(Notice that it's in beatmania, but it does not appear in IIDX. Apparently Konami agrees with you on la-la time.)

I'll never buy this game just for the fact they licensed a Hole song.

Well, after trying out the demo, I have to say I'm not all that impressed either. The most annoying thing was (as Secef mentioned) that the drums don't register very well. I was hitting them relatively hard, and it was still registering a miss every 5-6 notes or so. Ugh.

Also, I don't really like the way the drum pattern is displayed on screen --- it just looks like yet another guitar part, and there isn't really anything to distinguish it visually from the guitar parts.

Also, the drum pads themselves aren't really laid out in anything that even remotely resembles a real drum kit.

I have a feeling that things were 'dumbed down' a little bit for the demo, so as not to intimidate new players. And obviously the controller problems might be fixed in the real game. But based on what I've seen so far, I see no reason to go out and buy a PS3 or XBox 360 just for this game

A bit of an update, according to EA there is a good chance that there will not be enough inventory to meet demand for the game for the calendar year or fiscal year (which ends march) so when the games comes out those interested may want to snatch it up QUICK!

Also, some rumors of Rock Band breaking street date have been spread, the reality though is that what people are getting are merely the demo units, which isn't the full game nor full equipment so be wary if you see Rock Band for sale before the actual release date.