Rock Band/Guitar Hero - Discuss DLC, forming bands, and which is better.

[Giancarlo]

I'll probably get GH5 tonight, we'll have to all organise a jam session. I have always actually had trouble playing online in GH:WT, I think it's my time zone, never seem to be able to find a game.

Word. Do you have World Tour DLC? I have the imported disc songs (thanks Blockbuster) but am still looking to add a few friends who actually have DLC before buying any.

I'd have to play pretty late to catch up with you over there in future time. You're in GMT +10 right? I'm in GMT -4 so when it's 10pm you're at noon. Let me know how your schedule works. I can play until midnight most nights except Mondays...which is Tuesday afternoon for you?

 

[Vasco]

I'll probably get GH5 tonight, we'll have to all organise a jam session. I have always actually had trouble playing online in GH:WT, I think it's my time zone, never seem to be able to find a game.

If only you had it for xbox Damnit!

 

[Casio]

Word. Do you have World Tour DLC? I have the imported disc songs (thanks Blockbuster) but am still looking to add a few friends who actually have DLC before buying any.

I'd have to play pretty late to catch up with you over there in future time. You're in GMT +10 right? I'm in GMT -4 so when it's 10pm you're at noon. Let me know how your schedule works. I can play until midnight most nights except Mondays...which is Tuesday afternoon for you?

I start work at Midday, I'm usually up till about 2am most nights. And wake up at about 9am.

 

[Ardius]

I got The Beatles: Rock Band Tuesday night and finished the Story mode last night (netting the trophy for completing Story Mode within 24 hours of starting it), and now have to go through the challenges to finish unlocking everything.

It should be noted for fans of the music games that The Beatles is obviously intended as an easy entry for new players to the genre who are only in it for The Beatles. Easy difficulty also creates No Fail Mode, and a full difficulty rating is equal to maybe a 3 or four star difficulty rating in Rock Band 2. Nothing in The Beatles approaches the similar difficulty of 5 stars or five pentagrams. However, it does have the modifier to speed it up, so you can make it more difficult for yourself.

So, while veterans can adjust the game to their skill level, in the end this game is not primarily targeted for them. It is targeted to The Beatles fans. The visuals are stunning and unlocking informational tid bits with photos and videos (like the Ed Sullivan Show rehearsal or them preparing for Shea stadium) along with the studio chatter between songs is amazing. The production value is off the charts and I now understand why this had to be standalone without compatibility with the rest of the series. This could not be done with the current setup of any of the other games in the genre.

So far I have only played guitar and bass and I imagine drums may be a bit more challenging. In some cases, a lot more. I look forward to doing the vocal career too.

But I hope that soon the DLC will start flowing because my wife seems to think that the lack of Hey Jude is a disaster. She still enjoys it more than regular Rock Band/Guitar Hero because she knows more of these songs (I can't help it that she's never heard of Boston or Rush and her The Who knowledge doesn't go beyond CSI's theme song).

I've been repeatedly told that the vocal harmonies are what make the game, so I suggest you try those as well

 

[FoolKiller]

I've been repeatedly told that the vocal harmonies are what make the game, so I suggest you try those as well

I am going out of town to visit friends and taking the game with me, so I will likely be trying that.


Also, I found that both Singstar Microphones work with the game, so if you have those and the Rock Band microphone you can have all three vocals without buying a thing.



DLC Update

Guitar Hero

• “Beautiful Thieves” by AFI ($1.99) (£1.59/€1.99)
• “Girls Not Grey” by AFI ($1.99) (£1.59/€1.99)
• “The Missing Frame” by AFI ($1.99) (£1.59/€1.99)
• AFI Track Pack ($5.49) (£4.39/€5.49)

Rock Band

• “666″— Anvil ($1.99) (£0.99/€1.49)
• “This Is Thirteen”— Anvil ($1.99) (£0.99/€1.49)
• “Metal on Metal”— Anvil ($1.99) (£0.99/€1.49)
• Anvil Pack 01 ($5.49) (£2.49/€3.99)
• “Hand Me Down World”— The Guess Who ($1.99) (£0.99/€1.49)
• “No Time”— The Guess Who ($1.99) (£0.99/€1.49)
• “Rock Your Socks”— Tenacious D ($1.99) (£0.99/€1.49)
• “Tribute”— Tenacious D ($1.99) (£0.99/€1.49)
• “Pick Me Up”— Dinosaur Jr ($1.99) (£0.99/€1.49)
• “The Wagon”— Dinosaur Jr ($1.99) (£0.99/€1.49)

Rock Band Unplugged (also available from PS3 storefront)

• “Bring Me to Life”— Evanescence ($1.99) (£0.99/€1.49)
• “Back from the Dead”— Spinal Tap ($1.99) (£0.99/€1.49)

 

[LaBounti]

I've tried the vocals in Guitar Hero Metallic and I'm hooked, songs like "Nothing else matters", "Unforgiven", "Unforgiven III" "Sanitarium", "King Nothing" All great songs on vocals IMO.

Going to try "Fade to Black" and "Memory Remains" some time tonight. I also play on Hard.

 

[FoolKiller]

Well, my visit with friends went over well. They loved singing along with The Beatles, although they discovered that they are the kind of people that think they know the words to songs but don't.

They also had some weird notion that quietly mumbling into the microphones will work just fine. Once I encouraged them to get into it, and turned the mic sensitivity up, they started doing really well.

So, it is now "old people that remember seeing The Beatles on Ed Sullivan" approved.

 

[UnoMOTO]

👍

Dear Guitar Hero® Fan,

Thank you for purchasing Guitar Hero® 5 and for deciding to take advantage of the Guitar Hero® Van Halen® offer.

We have received your redemption materials so we know you're ready to rock! Your game will be packed and shipped to you soon.

We hope you're as excited to play Guitar Hero Van Halen as we are!

All the best and keep rocking,
The Guitar Hero Team

 

[Giancarlo]

I got that e-mail too. 👍 Hello $60!

On another note, i beat the endless setlist 2 on expert drums the other night.

 

[FoolKiller]

DLC Update:

Guitar Hero 5

• “Avon” by Queens of the Stone Age ($1.99) (£1.59/€1.99)
• “How to Handle a Rope” by Queens of the Stone Age ($1.99) (£1.59/€1.99)
• “Mexicola” by Queens of the Stone Age ($1.99) (£1.59/€1.99)
• Queens of the Stone Age Track Pack ($5.49) (£4.39/€5.49)

Rock Band

• “U Suck” — Just Kait ($0.99) (£0.99/€1.49)
• “Knight on the Town”— Kula Shaker ($1.99) (£0.99/€1.49)
• “Hey Dude”— Kula Shaker ($1.99) (£0.99/€1.49)
• “So Cold”— Breaking Benjamin ($1.99) (£0.99/€1.49)
• “I Will Not Bow”— Breaking Benjamin ($1.99) (£0.99/€1.49)
• “The Diary of Jane”— Breaking Benjamin ($1.99) (£0.99/€1.49)
• Breaking Benjamin Pack 1 ($5.49) (£2.49/€3.99)
• “A Looking in View”— Alice in Chains ($1.99) (£0.99/€1.49)
• “Check My Brain”— Alice in Chains ($1.99) (£0.99/€1.49)
• “No Excuses”— Alice in Chains ($1.99) (£0.99/€1.49)
• “Rooster” Alice in Chains ($1.99) (£0.99/€1.49)
• “Would?”— Alice in Chains ($1.99) (£0.99/€1.49)
• Alice in Chains Pack 1 ($8.49) (???)

Rock Band Unplugged

• “Monkey Wrench”— Foo Fighters ($1.99) (£0.99/€1.49)
• “Lonely as You”— Foo Fighters ($1.99) (£0.99/€1.49)

 

[FoolKiller]

Here's some news on Lego Rock Band:

http://www.destructoid.com/family-friendly-rock-band-dlc-playable-in-lego-rock-band-151719.phtml

Family-friendly Rock Band DLC playable in LEGO Rock Band

You know what’s awesome about Harmonix? They’re truly committed to the idea of Rock Band as a music platform. (Of course, that doesn’t include The Beatles: Rock Band, but I think most of us can agree that Beatles is much better off as a self-contained ecosystem -- it’d be pretty damn silly to see Rock Band 2’s Fritzi Kostopoulos drumming along to “Come Together.”) LEGO Rock Band is the newest addition to the family, and for ten bucks, you’ll be able to export all of the on-disc songs to your hard drive.

The process works the other way around, too -- but with an interesting wrinkle. LEGO Rock Band will be able to read the DLC songs on your PS3/360 hard drive, and it’ll let you play “family-friendly” tracks in the game. (They’ll show up in the song select screen as regular old DLC.) Don’t worry; this doesn’t limit you to stuff like SpongeBob SquarePants’ “The Best Day Ever.” As long as a song doesn’t contain objectionable material -- such as, say, “Beethoven’s C*nt” by Serj Tankian -- it’ll be fine. For example, “Baba O’Riley” by The Who isn’t what you’d call a kids’ song, but it wouldn’t make your grandmother blush or anything, so it’s playable in LEGO Rock Band.

In addition, LEGO Rock Band will include its own music store, which will only sell songs that fall under the same age-appropriate guidelines. (LEGO Rock Band is rated “E10+” for “Everyone 10 and older.”) Plus, since a lot of the DLC has already been censored for the “T” for “Teen” rating of RB and RB2, you’ll have more songs to choose from than you might expect -- the Red Hot Chili Peppers’ “Sir Psycho Sexy,” for instance, is pretty much an instrumental as it is. So even if your pre-teen son starts scrolling through the LEGO Rock Band Music Store when you’re not home, he won’t be able to buy anything that might cause him to ask you where babies come from.

Our full LEGO Rock Band preview will be up in an hour -- be sure to check it out!

As a future parent I find this news to be kind of exciting.


And the song list.
http://kotaku.com/5379562/lego-rock-band-ships-with-45-songs-music-censorship

LEGO Rock Band Ships With 45 Songs, Music Censorship
By Brian Crecente, 8:00 AM on Mon Oct 12 2009, 7,218 views

LEGO Rock Band will ship with 45 songs including tunes from Queen, Vampire Weekend, Katrina & The Waves and, of course, Bon Jovi. But you will only be able to purchase family friendly music from the Rock Band store.

LEGO Rock Band's support of Rock Band store purchases is limited to only those songs "identified to be suitable for all ages," according to a press release.

"Those cleared songs are the only tracks that will appear within the LEGO Rock Band store for purchase. The LEGO Rock Band store will continually highlight any new family-friendly tunes that can be played across the Rock Band platform as they are released for Rock Band. "

While I understand why Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment and MTV Games might think this is a good idea (and maybe this is a ratings issue), shouldn't they let parents make the decision on which music their children can listen to?

Songs included on LEGO Rock Band can be transfered to your hard drive to play on other Rock Band games for $10.

Here's your full listing of songs for the game due out on the Playstation 3, Wii and Xbox 360 this holiday.

• All American Rejects, "Swing, Swing"
• The Kooks, "Naïve"
• The Automatic, "Monster"
• KoRn, "Word Up!"
• Blink-182, "Aliens Exist"
• KT Tunstall, "Suddenly I See"
• Blur, "Song 2"
• Lostprophets, "Rooftops"
• Bon Jovi, "You Give Love a Bad Name"
• P!NK, "So What"
• Boys like Girls, "Thunder"
• The Police,
• "Every Little Thing She Does Is Magic"
• Bryan Adams, "Summer of 69"
• The Primitives, "Crash"
• Carl Douglas, "Kung Fu Fighting"
• Queen, "We Are The Champions"
• The Coral, "Dreaming of You"
• Queen, "We Will Rock You"
• Counting Crows, "Accidentally in Love"
• Rascal Flatts, "Life is a Highway"
• David Bowie, "Let's Dance"
• Ray Parker Jr., "Ghostbusters"
• Elton John, "Crocodile Rock"
• Razorlight, "Stumble and Fall"
• Europe, "The Final Countdown"
• Spin Doctors, "Two Princes"
• Everlife, "Real Wild Child"
• Spinal Tap, "Short & Sweet"
• Foo Fighters, "Breakout"
• Steve Harly, "Make Me Smile"
• Good Charlotte, "Girls & Boys"
• Sum 41, "In Too Deep"
• The Hives, "Tick Tick Boom!"
• Supergrass, "Grace"
• Iggy Pop, "The Passenger"
• Tom Petty, "Free Fallin"
• Incubus, "Dig"
• T-Rex, "Ride a White Swan"
• Jackson 5, "I Want You Back"
• Vampire Weekend, "A-Punk"
• Jimi Hendrix, "Fire"
• We the Kings, "Check Yes Juliet"
• Kaiser Chiefs, "Ruby"
• The Zutons, "Valerie"
• Katrina & The Waves, "Walking on Sunshine"

My biggest issue with the song list is the Rascal Flatts version of Life is a Higway. Tom Cochrane's version is magnitudes better.

 

[UnoMOTO]

My girlfriend picked up GH Metallica yesterday! 👍 It's hared to believe that in a very short time I already have four GH games and Van Halen is in the mail.

So What level do you guys play at? I can get 100% on easy quite often. The medium level usually gets me 75% to 85%. I haven't finished a career mode on medium yet but that would be my goal before I try any thing at hard. Expert, forget it....I don't have that skill.

 

[FoolKiller]

My girlfriend picked up GH Metallica yesterday! 👍 It's hared to believe that in a very short time I already have four GH games and Van Halen is in the mail.

So What level do you guys play at? I can get 100% on easy quite often. The medium level usually gets me 75% to 85%. I haven't finished a career mode on medium yet but that would be my goal before I try any thing at hard. Expert, forget it....I don't have that skill.

I can often pull 100% on medium guitar, but have trouble with the speed of hard. I am at about 85% medium on drums, but I have to sing on easy.

 

[LaBounti]

Expert Guitar, Hard Drums and Med-Hard Vocals. I've kinda fallen of the rythym games lately, its just those two darn real guitars I have that keeps my hands busy.

 

[Giancarlo]

Expert everything in Rock Band. Not so on Guitar Hero because it's borked in terms of difficulty..I can only do expert bass and drums for GH5.

 

[dcalde78]

I'm looking to buy one of these two sometime soon, and I'm undecided on which I can get. Can anyone give a fair, unbiased opinion on each and suggest one to buy?

 

[FoolKiller]

I'm looking to buy one of these two sometime soon, and I'm undecided on which I can get. Can anyone give a fair, unbiased opinion on each and suggest one to buy?

Unbiased: Core gameplay mechanics are nearly identical with a few minor differences here and there. Due to DLC there is a very minimal difference between even the song choices, the main exceptions being the single band titles (Aerosmith, Metallica, Van Halen, The Beatles). The main differences are the features and career layouts. Rock Band is a little more free roaming in the career mode while Guitar Hero (can't confirm GH5, but someone else can) is more linear.

The truth is that if you are only interested in playing the games from the moment the full band aspect was brought into it then buying any of the newer instruments will work with either title from World Tour and Rock Band 2 to now. If you are looking at the 360 there is full instrument compatibility on all the titles. I posted the PS3 instrument compatibility chart a little while back.

So, you can buy Guitar Hero 5 or Band Hero with the instruments because you prefer their songs but still buy and play The Beatles Rock Band without buying any new instruments. Or you can buy Rock Band 2 for its song list and still play GH: Van Halen.

The main difference between the two is that Guitar Hero has a song creator so that anyone can make music and upload it for others to play for free. Rock Band has a professional music creator allowing actual musicians to put their music into the game and then sell it as DLC, earning them some money.



Personal Preference: I enjoy Rock Band more in almost every aspect (Haven't tried GH5 yet though). Others are the exact opposite. The non-linear career mode combined with the extensive DLC and song exporting (I have nearly 10GB of RB music on my hard drive) can't be beat as far as I am concerned. In the song craetion front I find myself unimpressed with the GH offerings because the best stuff out there are either copies of popular songs or guys creating their own trainers. I lack creativity, so I cant say much about their quality as some are still fun to play. I can't compare it to the Rock Band Network thing yet, as it hasn't started, but just knowing that Jonathan Coulton will be the first musician to sell music on it and that some indie labels have said that all their artists will be put into Rock Band has me already excited for that.


My suggestion: Look at song lists online and find the one that will get you the most songs you like for the least amount of investment up front. From there you can branch out and sample the other titles.

 

[UnoMOTO]

Van Halen shows up in my mail box yesterday….YEEE-HAWWW. Love it Love it Love it.

My first impressions are that the easy level is way too easy but the medium is absolutely perfect for my current skill level. In most of the other games I have there seems to be such a leap from easy to medium. It’s more work then fun sometimes, but that doesn’t happen here. Song list is great for old VH fans.

Oh yeah….and it was FREEEEEE!

 

[Loon]

When is the Beatles DLC coming out? I thought it was supposed to be released on the 20th but stills says it can't find anything.

 

[Giancarlo]

When is the Beatles DLC coming out? I thought it was supposed to be released on the 20th but stills says it can't find anything.

It came out on the 20th for Xbox 360, on Tuesday as all Rock Band DLC does. It'll be available today for PS3, on Thursday which is when the PSN Store always updates. 👍

I'm looking to buy one of these two sometime soon, and I'm undecided on which I can get. Can anyone give a fair, unbiased opinion on each and suggest one to buy?

Well both games have their strong and weak points. I'll just list those for each game.

Guitar Hero 5:

• Pretty good graphics with nice lighting effects.
• Apart from drums, the other 3 instruments i find to be much more difficult overall when compared to the average Rock Band 2 difficulty.
• To add, the vocal are very hard. The developers chart not only the lead singing but also the back up singing. You find yourself out of breath many times because you're singing too many lines per measure. The pitch line is also much, much harder to read than in Rock Band 2.
• Unlike Rock Band 2 you are not forced to pick one instrument and then can only find friends to play the other 3. Anyone can play any instrument. Yes, that means 4 drummers or 4 singers, whatever you like. And yes, it looks very silly on stage.
• The Career mode is not really all that linear as FoolKiller was saying, at least not in Guitar Hero 5. You are basically given a list of venues and then play single songs to beat "gold", "platinum", and "diamond" challenges on each song. Most songs require only "gold" to be reached in order to win some accessory or character outfit. There are different challenges for each instrument depending on the song, and some for full-band challenges.
• If you like Kurt Cobain, Carlos Santana, Johnny Cash, Matt Bellamy or Shirley Manson, they are unlockable characters in the game that you can then use online or whenever you like.
• The character creator, i feel, is quite weak for male characters. There are only a handful of items you can dress your character with that don't invole green skin, devil's wings or oddly shaped guitars.
• No one has DLC online. No one. If you see someone online that has some, you should befriend them ASAP. That being said, there are 3 or 4 free DLC packs from Guitar Hero: World Tour that you can import into Guitar Hero 5 for free.
• There's an import option for the majority of the Guitar Hero: World Tour and Guitar Hero: Smash Hits songs, which are $3 for each patch. There is also a patch to import any World Tour DLC for free.
• When playing with several people online, your "note highway" is always set on the far left. This infuriates me, personally. The notes also get really really small at times, because you can play with up to 7 others online in Competitive mode.

Rock Band 2:

• The graphics are still nice, but the character movements do look a bit shaky at times. Especially if you look at the drummer during some of the faster-paced songs.
• The DLC list is disturbingly long. Counting on-disc songs, Rock Band is about to pass the 1,000 song mark.
• There are at least 5 new DLC songs to buy every week, whereas Guitar Hero usually limits itself to 3 a week.
• The character creator is not that easy to use, but has tons of options to dress up your character. I personally love my character.
• The overall difficulty of the instruments is a bit more manageable when compared to Guitar Hero 5, with the exception being the drums. Mastering the drums without destroying your plastic kit can be challenging.
• Online play is fantastic. People are playing all the time, usually.
• The World Tour mode is interactive, with different shows being placed all around a virtual globe where you can jump from place to place. Loading screens often include pictures of your band's characters hanging out, which gives a fun feeling of really touring the world.
• To add, the World Tour mode is usually comprised of about 3 songs per venue and 2 or 3 setlists that you can complete as well as 1 "create a setlist" show.
• You can import the Rock Band 1 songs if you have the disc for about $5. All Rock Band 1 DLC is fully compatible with Rock Band 2, and is available in the in-game store just as the Guitar Hero: World Tour DLC is available along with all new DLC in the Guitar Hero 5 in-game store (but as i said, you need the patch to play that old DLC).
• Your "note highway" is always set in the middle of the screen, so i feel that Rock Band has far greater visibility than Guitar Hero. But i have a 23" HDTV so i don't know how your TV is set up.

And that's about all i can think of right now...i own both games and enjoy them both quite a lot.

Let me know if you have any more questions.

 

[FoolKiller]

Another bonus for Rock Band 2 is that if you synch your PSN account to RockBand.com you can make your own custom merchandise, featuring your bandmates:

Pictures (free)

Shreddin' Steve

And my band: King Eight Ball

(Left to Right) Humphrey Böngart, Day Owl, Screamin' Stacy, Shreddin' Steve

Shirts

Bumper Stickers

Keychains

There's some other small items too.

But the big one of their stuff is this:

Bandmate statues:

My preview image:

 

[Giancarlo]

Oh yeah i forgot about the pictures through RockBand.com, they're pretty fun to make.

 

[Giancarlo]

I've bought DJ Hero tonight because Amazon is offering a $40 credit with purchase. I had a $20 credit lying around that i had to use anyway, so i'd say it was a pretty good deal.

 

[FoolKiller]

If you are into eye-liner wearing wanna-be punk bands (said while knowing I love the Dookie album) Green Day is getting their own standalone Rock Band game. It will be exportable to Rock Band or Rock Band 2. Now, the question is: do they decide to completely dive into Guitar Hero ridiculousness by only having half the available songs actually be Green Day and the other half have nearly zero connection to the titular band (Fountains of Wayne on GH: Van Halen...really?) or will this be more like how they did The Beatles? Better yet, does Green Day deserve a standalone title? And do we need it? How much DLC have they had by now?


Anyway, moving on. These guys combined two geeky and more money than brains activities, Guitar Hero and computer controlled Christmas light displays, and created a playable Guitar Hero Christmas light display.


Full story here:
http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/96838-Guitar-Hero-Recreated-Using-Christmas-Lights

 

[LaBounti]

Hey I finally beat Aesthetics of hate of expert! I may pick up RB 2 tomorrow for $19. And I beat Thrasher with the GH controller. Its time to conquer Sleepwalker.

 

[LaBounti]

So i got a used copy and the code for the free songs was unused, my lucky day!. I just noticed there is a hyper speed option, So it makes the hard songs easier to see the notes. I beat Sleepwalker with it. Before i could not get the main riff cuc so many jumbled notes. I also stayed in the green on thrashers mani riff, before Id be in the red the whle time. Aesthetics of hate is was a breeze now. I may get the those insane songs by the funny named guy after I beat "constant motion". the last song i have I never beat is some metallica song.

 

[Giancarlo]

In the free songs, Prequel to the Sequel is pretty fun. I'm still trying to get the hang of the blast beat on drums in the middle of the song. There is so little room for error in it...

2:32 here:

 

[UnoMOTO]

I picked up World Tour the other day and certainly love the song list. I have currently made it up to high 90% on medium for most all songs. I'll be making the leap to hard soon.

 

[Coxis]

Giancarlo:

I have the DLC for GHWT in GH5. Add me to your friends list and lets organize a few jam sessions!

If you want to, of course. I'm in CST and can play most of Saturdays and Sundays... I work every other weekday.

 

[Giancarlo]

Sorry man, i sold GH5 a while ago.