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Rock Band is the upcoming guitar-drums-bass-microphone music game from the makers of Guitar Hero I&II. This thread is the discussion of it.

The big wigs in the guitar industry seem to have high hopes - Harmonix has confirmed to GameSpot that it has signed an exclusive deal with Fender Musical Instruments to feature its guitars exclusively in Rock Band, as well as to base the upcoming guitar peripheral for the game upon the company's most famous model, the Stratocaster.

It's not the guitar formula or models that I'm worried about. In fact, the bass, guitar, and microphone have all been explored stateside. The drumkit, however, has not; MTV had a bastadized drum game that sucked, and Drummania hasn't been released here. Here's hoping Harmonix kicks it with a bass pedal as well as they do with a guitar!

Aww, no more Gibson guitars?

See, this could prove that the super session stuff would have done well if it were brought over here

maybe this'll get konami to import more games! (we can hope)

Guitar Hero > Guitar Freaks
So it's only logical that their version of a drum game will be better than Drummania.

danc1005 wrote:Guitar Hero > Guitar Freaks
So it's only logical that their version of a drum game will be better than Drummania.

or, if anything, just americanized...

danc1005 wrote:Guitar Hero > Guitar Freaks
So it's only logical that their version of a drum game will be better than Drummania.

How is it better?

SoDeepPolaris wrote:

danc1005 wrote:Guitar Hero > Guitar Freaks
So it's only logical that their version of a drum game will be better than Drummania.

How is it better?

In his defense, I'll agree that GH > GF. Just play a full night of one and a full night of the other, and tell me which you enjoyed more. There are a slew of reasons, although it doesn't necessarily make GF a bad game at all.

The latter statement, though, doesn't really make sense. They're two entirely different games, one of which we don't even know anything about yet. The Rock Band's version of the drums may be horrid, as I fear; if your right and it blows DM out of the water (which is a huuuuge feat), then I'll be one happy camper.

SoDeepPolaris wrote:

danc1005 wrote:Guitar Hero > Guitar Freaks
So it's only logical that their version of a drum game will be better than Drummania.

How is it better?

Better song selection, better note-scroll layout, and, of course, 5 buttons, which leads to potential for more challenging songs. All my opinion, of course. I've also had relatively limited experience with GF.

danc1005 wrote:

SoDeepPolaris wrote:

danc1005 wrote:Guitar Hero > Guitar Freaks
So it's only logical that their version of a drum game will be better than Drummania.

How is it better?

Better song selection, better note-scroll layout, and, of course, 5 buttons, which leads to potential for more challenging songs. All my opinion, of course. I've also had relatively limited experience with GF.

Uh, yeah...I'm gunna have to sorta...disagree with you on the first two.

The song selection is more American friendly. That doesn't necessarily make it "better". I'll admit that I enjoy most of the Guitar Hero songs. I also enjoy many, many of the GF/DM song selection. There's also a whole helluva lot more of those. I wouldn't really give either the advantage in terms of song selection, but then I tend to enjoy the vast majority of Bemani music. I've been known to queue up entire IIDX, DDR, and pop'n soundtracks and just listen to them. I'm sure I'm not alone. Having licenses I'm familiar with (and which fit the "guitar" genre well) is nice, but I like original songs, too. I also wish there was an option to play shorter cuts of the songs - full length versions just get too long and repetitive for a game, in my opinion.

As far as the note scroll, it's the one thing about Guitar Hero I utterly abhor. It's 3D for the sake of being 3D. It was clearly designed to look cool while being mostly non-functional. The gameplay screen only uses about 1/6th of the screen for actual gameplay info - the rest is worthless graphics. At least the movies in GF/DM are sometimes funny, and the note scroll is a heck of a lot easier to read. GF has speed mods, too.

Now, 5 buttons I can't really argue against, though I will say that GF uses its 3 buttons in a very different way. GH has some more realism in it, but don't be fooled into thinking that it's harder than GF just because it has more buttons or anything like that. What seems to have happened to GF is the same thing that has happened to most of these music games: people have gotten so good at it that you have to make the charts insanely hard (to the point removing musical authenticity) to keep them challenging to the better players. It remains to be seen how far GH will be able to go with its extra 2 buttons in terms of preventing this.

That's really why I would consider GH to have a better song selection, is because they're more "guitar-themed" songs (and licensed). However, with the note scroll, I find the GH format easier to read, and, although for the most part you can't CHOOSE your speed mods, it automatically scrolls faster when you go to higher difficulty levels, and there's always the "Hyperspeed" cheat.

There's plenty of "guitar themed" songs in GF/DM. The songlist is NOT the same as DDR/IIDX/pop'n (though there are crossovers). The vast majority of the songs in GF/DM do lend themselves well to the guitar (and drum) type game that they are on. The ONLY thing it's lacking is a list full of exclusively licenses you're familiar with. There are plenty of licences on it you will recognize, but, unlike Guitar Hero, which was made specifically for the US market, it doesn't contain only such songs.

I really would not say either has a "better" songlist.

Now, as for the note scroll, I really can't see how it's easier to read than a 2D scroll in ANY way. In fact, the stupid in-game interface is probably the reason I don't play it more than I do, but to each their own, I guess.

Now, Guitar Hero wins on play mechanics. 5 buttons, "hold" type notes, and the whammy bar are all nice enhancements over Guitar Freaks.

Eh, I was not very impressed with GH.

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!

Licensed music = bad. Why have the DDR home versions sucked after MAX and MAX2? Too much licensed music. I don't like GH music at all =(

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! :shock:

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.

Look into what even a pop'n mini costs (about $70-80, plus shipping from Japan). A JP IIDX KOC was comparable, though cheap (due to markdowns) US beatmania bundles have made importing those obsolete. Guitar Freaks controllers (when you can find one) are usually in the $40-70 range, depending on model, manufacturer, location, condition, etc.

Now, if you want to see expensive, look at a DA or Ransai pop'n ASC or perhaps a custom built IIDX ASC. The Konamistyle IIDX ASC is on the order of $350 shipped to the US from Japan. Good custom ASCs (built in the US, and usually of higher quality) are usually about $250-275 plus shipping.

If you want a really good controller for Drum Mania, you're looking at a MIDI drum set, which will set you back about $850-1000, and that's if you're lucky. A Guitar Freaks ASC from Konamistyle is on the order of $200-250, IIRC. Even the cheap-o (and just about unplayably small) original home controller for DM will run you about $70. KeyboardMania controllers are in a similar ballpark.

If you think about it, how much does just another DualShock 2 cost? They're upwards of $35-40, and those are extremely mass market devices. Spending $70 on a controller that is custom made for a single game isn't outlandish (given that the game itself costs $50-60). Since you'll need a whole bunch of controllers for a whole setup (presumably two guitars, a drum set, and a microphone or two), I can see how the whole setup, including all controllers and game, could top $300. That's just how these games are.