Monday, July 14, 2008

Rock Band 2 Song List & Features Confirmed

Over at the Harmonix forums, they've got the song list and feature list and... wow.

Just wow.

The first track from Chinese Democracy? Bob Dylan? AC/DC? I mean, these are all huge coups. On top of that, there are a *ton* of songs I can't wait to play, like Beastie Boys' “So Whatcha Want”, Beck's “E-Pro”, Elvis Costello's “Pump It Up”, Foo Fighters' “Everlong”, Joan Jett's “Bad Reputation”, Lit's “My Own Worst Enemy”, Mighty Mighty Bosstones' “Where’d You Go”, Modest Mouse's “Float On”, Red Hot Chili Peppers' “Give it Away”, Steve Miller Band's “Rock’n Me”, The Guess Who's “American Woman”, The Offspring's “Come Out & Play (Keep ‘em Separated)” and of course, The Who's “Pinball Wizard."

Then there are almost a dozen songs that ought to be cheesy fun, like Alanis Morissette's “You Oughta Know”, Allman Brothers' “Ramblin’ Man”, Blondie's “One Way or Another”, Bon Jovi's “Livin’ on a Prayer”, Disturbed's “Down with the Sickness”, Duran Duran's “Hungry Like the Wolf”, Journey's “Anyway You Want It”, Kansas' “Carry On Wayward Son”, Ratt's “Round & Round” and of course, Survivor's “Eye of the Tiger.” Hell, they even managed to put on my favorite song from Soundgarden (a band I'm not hugely fond of),“Spoonman.”

That's not even mentioning the numerous songs that I'm either a mild fan of or don't know that well, but will probably turn into favorites, if my experience from the previous Rock Band is any indication. And this is only the start, they're starting with 80 songs and promising 20 free downloads this fall.

Plus... *all* songs are master recordings? No covers? The ability to download the Rock Band 1 disc songs so you can have your *entire* Rock Band library playable without having to swap out discs? Improved Quickplay? Online Battle of the Bands? Customizable Setlists? Drum Trainer?

Harmonix is awesome. They made the perfect game in Rock Band... and then they managed to *improve* it with Rock Band 2. Can't wait for September.

2 comments:

Dan said...

I dunno, Randy. What with the Konami lawsuit, you gotta be ready for the possibility that there may be no second Rock Band.

Randy Lander said...

I'm about as worried about that lawsuit as Harmonix probably is. ;)

Which is to say, I don't think Konami has much of a case. And given that Rock Band 2 has the backing of Viacom (via MTV/VH1) among other major corporations, not to mention the momentum of unparalleled sales, I don't think a "give us some money" lawsuit is gonna do any real damage.