So I picked up Rock Band for the Xbox 360

[August Gales]

Perhaps being an actual musicians makes these excursions away from an actual instrument more difficult then need be. I have indeed been enjoying my time playing Rock Band and for those would be Guitar Hero's, Rock Band is pretty similiar to what you would expect.
As a drummer I was certainly amped up to play the drum portion of Rock Band, but I must admit it pretty much feels nothing like playing real drums. The bass drum pedal was a nice touch that add a bit of realism to the experience, but over all it becomes not much more then a novelty and perhaps its best trait being that it teaches ordinary people coordination.
The guitar portion I found rather enjoyable, zipping through songs like And justice for all, Ride the Lightning, and Blackened. The strum bar on the Fender strat is a bit flaky, but the 5 extra buttons placed further down the neck add alot of flexibility to get through solos. Haven't tried the vocals yet...
Rock band is a pretty solid experience to be had outside of Guitar Hero and a fun way to kill time waiting for the next band practice, but perhaps adding some black metal/death metal tracks and a bit more polish could really help this series along. Could you imagine if that added some Opeth tracks?!

 

[opeth_353]

It always looked like it was a poorly thought out idea to me.. I mean, doesn't it cost a bombshell in the first place? I was always skeptical about how the drumming side would pan out.. And the fact is, most people can't sing well at all.

 

[JohnInDarkness]

While not Rock Band, I recently played Guitar Hero III at Best Buy and I must say, I was hooked. Fun.

 

[August Gales]

I myself just played through Guitar Hero 3 for the Xbox 360 last night on the medium difficulty and did have quite a bit of fun. Though I enjoyed the Rock Band song list overall a bit more then the Guitar Hero 3 tracks, I will say that there were quite a few enjoyable songs at the end of GH3. Slayer Reign in Blood, Metallica One, Muse Knights Of Cydonia, to name a few of the stand outs. Can people honestly score well on that Dragonforce song? I thought my fingers were going to set on fire.
In defense of Rock Band's drum portion, I will say that I believe that I received a faulty drum kit. Many of the hits were simply not registering correctly which drastically decreased the fun. I sent in the kit to get a replacement through the EA games warranty program and will hopefully receive it again soon. I actually had to send in the guitar as well after finding out that the original shipment had a number of faulty strum bars that were being reported, so it seems that as well could drastically improve the level of fun.
I will say that dealing with the warranty portion was rather painless, even though it certainly is no fun having to deal with warranties straight out of the box. I guess they say that the only ones that was effected were the launch batches.
Rock band actually is quite fun once you get past its technical difficulties. Hey... Feels like being in a real band... Wait..!?

 

[August Gales]

I attempted the Dragonforce song on expert difficulty for Guitar Hero 3 and received a 1% completion.

 

[Seanindarkness]

Herman Lii would be proud

 

[August Gales]

I've pretty much come to the conclusion that the the GH3 les paul is far superior to the Rock Band Fender Strat. One adavantage that the strat has is the second set of frets, but the Les Paul registers far better and and feels quite a bit more durable.

 

[JohnInDarkness]

I played the drums portion of Rock band recently and I tell you, I WAS ON BEAT during those steady beats and that damn thing was not registering my hits as on cue. Erg. I sucked.

 

[Seanindarkness]

you fail at virtual life John!

 

[August Gales]

That was how I felt. You can get used to playing the drum portion, but the hits really don't register as they should. My only suggestion is to play it on expert difficulty and you will find it to feel quite a bit more natural.

 

[MichellesGhost]

John did suck at this game, While I kicked ass at the vocals. not really actually. I wasn't able to get through most of the songs because it was difficult to continue when john got kicked out. It is rather interesting keeping the little arrow thingy exactly level.

 

[opeth_353]

I want a ps2 with shadows of the colossus and ico

 

[August Gales]

In all of the PS2 games I have played, I would probably rate those games in my top 5. Ico in particular is probably one of my favorites, if not the favorite among PS2 games. Some other good games I suggest from various categories are Okami, Rygar, FFX, FFXII, Odins Sphere, Resident Evil 4, Disgaea, Socom, among many others.

 

[Seanindarkness]

I want a ps2 with shadows of the colossus and ico

*dangles Shadow of the Colossus in front of your face*