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.
Showing posts with label Rock Band. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Rock Band. Show all posts
Monday, July 14, 2008
Wednesday, July 09, 2008
Rock Band 2 = drooool
I was excited by this last Friday, which saw not only the announcement of a couple Red Hot Chili Peppers tracks, but the upcoming, long-anticipated Who pack, as well as Rock Band 2.
In September. Only three, maybe two-and-a-half, months away. My plan was to just buy the game, but then some news leaked out today about the new instruments and they look super-sweet. I already have a wireless guitar, but I love the look of the new one, I have *got* to have the wireless drums, and so I might wind up buying the whole set... or I might buy the game and buy the wireless drums separately, if that's an option.
Then there's the rumored setlist. If even half of this is correct (and the odds seem pretty good), it's going to be an impressive setlist, just like Rock Band 1. And all downloadable content is backwards-compatible. If only the original Rock Band music could also be loaded in if you already have the game, that would be the best, but that's a minor concern.
Plus the gameplay features, seemingly incorporating a lot of what I've been hoping for. Your customized characters can now play on any instrument. You can make your own setlists. There are more categories to organize song lists by (hopefully "downloads" is one of them.) World Tour is now online. There are no more band leaders. You can switch instruments during the tour. There's a battle of the bands mode. There are mini-campaigns not just by instrument, but by decade, genre and artist. And that's just the stuff I can tell from the promo, who knows what else will be in the offering.
I will be buying Rock Band 2 the very day it becomes available. I can't wait.
In September. Only three, maybe two-and-a-half, months away. My plan was to just buy the game, but then some news leaked out today about the new instruments and they look super-sweet. I already have a wireless guitar, but I love the look of the new one, I have *got* to have the wireless drums, and so I might wind up buying the whole set... or I might buy the game and buy the wireless drums separately, if that's an option.
Then there's the rumored setlist. If even half of this is correct (and the odds seem pretty good), it's going to be an impressive setlist, just like Rock Band 1. And all downloadable content is backwards-compatible. If only the original Rock Band music could also be loaded in if you already have the game, that would be the best, but that's a minor concern.
Plus the gameplay features, seemingly incorporating a lot of what I've been hoping for. Your customized characters can now play on any instrument. You can make your own setlists. There are more categories to organize song lists by (hopefully "downloads" is one of them.) World Tour is now online. There are no more band leaders. You can switch instruments during the tour. There's a battle of the bands mode. There are mini-campaigns not just by instrument, but by decade, genre and artist. And that's just the stuff I can tell from the promo, who knows what else will be in the offering.
I will be buying Rock Band 2 the very day it becomes available. I can't wait.
Tuesday, January 22, 2008
A Gaming Weekend
Yes, technically it's Tuesday, but I have Sundays and Tuesdays off, so that's my weekend.
After watching most of the NFC championship game on a whim on Sunday (my Tivo changed channels, so I still don't know who won... guess I should check ESPN after I finish writing this), I got the bug to play some Madden. So I fired up the XBox and played a home game, Broncos against Raiders, and beat them 20-0. Given that I've been getting my ass handed to me in Madden vs. the computer (and it was even worse the one time I tried playing another person online), and I'm a Broncos fan, this was quite satisfying.
Not, however, as satisfying as tooling around Paradise City in the new Burnout: Paradise. I'm a huge fan of the Burnout games, and when I played the demo, I liked it, but the combination of wide open spaces and limited, locked demo made me wary of what the full game might look like. Nevertheless, I bought an extra (third) controller for Christmas that I never even opened, and I decided it was probably better to trade that in and pick up Burnout instead. $10 later, I'm playing Burnout.
It's a blast. I'm starting to get a hang of the open-ended city driving, and I'm loving how fast cars unlock and how easy it is to find stunts and do cool jumps. Can't wait until some friends get it so we can do some multiplayer, apparently there are co-op achievements.
And as I was going offline for the night, I checked XBox Live on a whim to see if there were any new songs for Rock Band. I didn't really expect there would be, but there was a new pack of Oasis: Wonderwall, Don't Look Back in Anger and one more I can't remember. I dug the hell out of that Oasis album, so I downloaded that one too... now I just need to play it.
But first I need to find out who's playing in the Superbowl. And maybe finish watching Scrubs Season Five on DVD, and catch an episode of Cupid.
After watching most of the NFC championship game on a whim on Sunday (my Tivo changed channels, so I still don't know who won... guess I should check ESPN after I finish writing this), I got the bug to play some Madden. So I fired up the XBox and played a home game, Broncos against Raiders, and beat them 20-0. Given that I've been getting my ass handed to me in Madden vs. the computer (and it was even worse the one time I tried playing another person online), and I'm a Broncos fan, this was quite satisfying.
Not, however, as satisfying as tooling around Paradise City in the new Burnout: Paradise. I'm a huge fan of the Burnout games, and when I played the demo, I liked it, but the combination of wide open spaces and limited, locked demo made me wary of what the full game might look like. Nevertheless, I bought an extra (third) controller for Christmas that I never even opened, and I decided it was probably better to trade that in and pick up Burnout instead. $10 later, I'm playing Burnout.
It's a blast. I'm starting to get a hang of the open-ended city driving, and I'm loving how fast cars unlock and how easy it is to find stunts and do cool jumps. Can't wait until some friends get it so we can do some multiplayer, apparently there are co-op achievements.
And as I was going offline for the night, I checked XBox Live on a whim to see if there were any new songs for Rock Band. I didn't really expect there would be, but there was a new pack of Oasis: Wonderwall, Don't Look Back in Anger and one more I can't remember. I dug the hell out of that Oasis album, so I downloaded that one too... now I just need to play it.
But first I need to find out who's playing in the Superbowl. And maybe finish watching Scrubs Season Five on DVD, and catch an episode of Cupid.
Sunday, January 20, 2008
The Perfect Storm of Inside Joke Theatre
Well, it was a pretty big weekend for me, and there are new things to talk about in comics, TV, movies, videogames, family and politics. In other words, every single thing I write about on this blog will be contained in this post. Feel it's mighty (yet inconsequential) power!
So TV, first off. I watched the second episode of The Sarah Connor Chronicles, and I'm pretty much convinced that if the strike wasn't on, and there were a lot of shows competing for my time, this one wouldn't make the cut. The cast is a little bland (even Summer Glau, who shines in her brief moments, is not getting enough chance to show off) and the stories seem a little low-key for a story about the end of the world. I love the idea of using time travel to place agents on key missions, but so far that idea has shown a lack of imagination in execution, and worse, I get the sense that they're not thinking all the implications through, which is death for a time travel story.
It's not a bad show, by any means. But it's up against my fondness for Terminator and T2, and even the things I liked about T3, and that's a pretty rough bit of competition. I'll probably give it a couple more episodes to hook me on the same level The 4400 did (decent, not great, good for filling time), but I'm not dying to watch the episodes or anything.
In politics, the big news is that Clinton won the Nevada primaries, another disappointment for us Obama supporters. Obama's camp is saying that they actually won the primary, with more delegates, so it's not over by any means, but we're starting to get into that "Well, to understand who won you need a doctorate in American political machinery" territory that's just frustrating to follow. Suffice to say, I'd been hoping that the Iowa victory was a signifier that he was going to have the nomination sewn up, and it still looks like a pretty serious fight. I think the Democrats may yet again take an election that should be a cakewalk (if they'd run Obama or Edwards) and turn it into another stunning snatch of defeat from out of the jaws of victory (I don't think Clinton can beat McCain, who is showing surprising strength in the Republican primaries).
I still believe in Obama, and he's still the only person I *want* to vote for. I'll hold my nose and vote for Edwards if he's there instead, or McCain if he's up against Clinton, and if none of those choices are available, I'll probably be voting independent and nursing an even more shattered faith in our electoral system.
In videogames, I've been downloading new songs for Rock Band, and wow is it dangerous how easy it is to get new content for the XBox 360. I bought a bunch of new songs, they're all a lot of fun (my favorites are the Police three-pack and "Gimme Three Steps" by Lynrd Skynrd, but Blink 182's "All the Small Things" is quite fun too) and I keep watching for new songs, which seem to appear about every two weeks. I'm already looking for the next opportunity to throw a Rock Band party. Best videogame ever.
This weekend was the 1st anniversary of my owning Rogues Gallery. Well, technically, I signed the check and ownership papers on February 19th, but we jumped the gun by a month for scheduling reasons. To celebrate, we had a party on Friday night and Saturday afternoon, which featured game demos, creator signings and lots more. It went very well, and I'm pretty proud of how the store has developed. Some highlights:
*On Friday night, I got to play Zombie Fluxx with several of my customers and friends, and we had a lot of fun. Fluxx, for those unfamiliar, is a card game by Looney Labs wherein the basic rules are "Draw 1, Play 1" but there are Rules cards that change that (and many other rules) throughout, and Goals that generally include having two or three "Keeper" cards on the table. The goals, rules and Keepers change throughout the game, and it's a fun bit of chaos. Zombie Fluxx adds zombies to the equation, and is even more fun than the original.
*Also on Friday, I had organized an expedition to see Cloverfield with guests Greg Pak and Scott Kolins (and his wife), several of my staff and a couple of my customers. I got about 30 minutes in (right about when the monster shows up) and had to leave the theater, because the jerky camcorder filming style was about to make me sick. This is the second time this has happened to me, the first was with the Bourne Ultimatum. So now it's not just first person shooters I can't see, it's some films. Stupid motion sickness. At any rate, everybody else seemed to enjoy the movie, and there were a few good trailers, which included the Star Trek teaser (pretty effective, and I'm not a huge Star Trek fan in general), the Iron Man trailer (again, I love this trailer) and the Jumper trailer (looking forward to this one as well). Kind of surprised there hasn't been a Hulk teaser or trailer at this point, though.
*On Saturday, we had a signing in the store with Greg Pak, Scott Kolins, Matt Sturges and Paul Benjamin. And for part of the time, we also had The Defuser, the winner of the second season of Who Wants To Be A Superhero? and an Austin local. It was a lot of fun, and Scott drew a sketch of The Flash for my daughter Katy, which she loved. Greg, despite being a writer, likes to draw Hulk pictures with his signature, and so he drew a backer board sketch of Hulk for my daughter as well, and she loved that too. She also got a picture with The Defuser, and she was just elated to meet a real live superhero.
*We had a good event, which also included our "Hulk Smash" sale (wherein everyone who bought something smashed one of four styrofoam cups, Hulk style, to win something written on the inside), our writing contest to start defining our roguish mascot, Maximillian Larch and our second miniatures painting contest.
With the anniversary event done, it's time to start looking forward to our next store event (probably Free Comic Book Day in May) and throw myself a bit more into my duties on STAPLE!, the independent media/small press comics show that is having its fourth year in Austin on March 1.
And now I leave you with three trailers that I caught last night, all of which I thought were pretty good.
This was my favorite. Tina Fey and Amy Poehler? That's enough right there. Holy crap, Maura Tierney is in it too? And Romany Malco? And guest spots by John Hodgman and Sigourney Weaver? Promising.
This also looks like fun, and I'm really intrigued the notion of John Krasinski and George Clooney playing off each other. The fight scene at the end cracked me up.
I love Judd Apatow and his production company, and I'm a big fan of both Kristen Bell and Jason Segel, but this didn't crack me up like the trailers for 40 Year Old Virgin, Knocked Up or Superbad.
So TV, first off. I watched the second episode of The Sarah Connor Chronicles, and I'm pretty much convinced that if the strike wasn't on, and there were a lot of shows competing for my time, this one wouldn't make the cut. The cast is a little bland (even Summer Glau, who shines in her brief moments, is not getting enough chance to show off) and the stories seem a little low-key for a story about the end of the world. I love the idea of using time travel to place agents on key missions, but so far that idea has shown a lack of imagination in execution, and worse, I get the sense that they're not thinking all the implications through, which is death for a time travel story.
It's not a bad show, by any means. But it's up against my fondness for Terminator and T2, and even the things I liked about T3, and that's a pretty rough bit of competition. I'll probably give it a couple more episodes to hook me on the same level The 4400 did (decent, not great, good for filling time), but I'm not dying to watch the episodes or anything.
In politics, the big news is that Clinton won the Nevada primaries, another disappointment for us Obama supporters. Obama's camp is saying that they actually won the primary, with more delegates, so it's not over by any means, but we're starting to get into that "Well, to understand who won you need a doctorate in American political machinery" territory that's just frustrating to follow. Suffice to say, I'd been hoping that the Iowa victory was a signifier that he was going to have the nomination sewn up, and it still looks like a pretty serious fight. I think the Democrats may yet again take an election that should be a cakewalk (if they'd run Obama or Edwards) and turn it into another stunning snatch of defeat from out of the jaws of victory (I don't think Clinton can beat McCain, who is showing surprising strength in the Republican primaries).
I still believe in Obama, and he's still the only person I *want* to vote for. I'll hold my nose and vote for Edwards if he's there instead, or McCain if he's up against Clinton, and if none of those choices are available, I'll probably be voting independent and nursing an even more shattered faith in our electoral system.
In videogames, I've been downloading new songs for Rock Band, and wow is it dangerous how easy it is to get new content for the XBox 360. I bought a bunch of new songs, they're all a lot of fun (my favorites are the Police three-pack and "Gimme Three Steps" by Lynrd Skynrd, but Blink 182's "All the Small Things" is quite fun too) and I keep watching for new songs, which seem to appear about every two weeks. I'm already looking for the next opportunity to throw a Rock Band party. Best videogame ever.
This weekend was the 1st anniversary of my owning Rogues Gallery. Well, technically, I signed the check and ownership papers on February 19th, but we jumped the gun by a month for scheduling reasons. To celebrate, we had a party on Friday night and Saturday afternoon, which featured game demos, creator signings and lots more. It went very well, and I'm pretty proud of how the store has developed. Some highlights:
*On Friday night, I got to play Zombie Fluxx with several of my customers and friends, and we had a lot of fun. Fluxx, for those unfamiliar, is a card game by Looney Labs wherein the basic rules are "Draw 1, Play 1" but there are Rules cards that change that (and many other rules) throughout, and Goals that generally include having two or three "Keeper" cards on the table. The goals, rules and Keepers change throughout the game, and it's a fun bit of chaos. Zombie Fluxx adds zombies to the equation, and is even more fun than the original.
*Also on Friday, I had organized an expedition to see Cloverfield with guests Greg Pak and Scott Kolins (and his wife), several of my staff and a couple of my customers. I got about 30 minutes in (right about when the monster shows up) and had to leave the theater, because the jerky camcorder filming style was about to make me sick. This is the second time this has happened to me, the first was with the Bourne Ultimatum. So now it's not just first person shooters I can't see, it's some films. Stupid motion sickness. At any rate, everybody else seemed to enjoy the movie, and there were a few good trailers, which included the Star Trek teaser (pretty effective, and I'm not a huge Star Trek fan in general), the Iron Man trailer (again, I love this trailer) and the Jumper trailer (looking forward to this one as well). Kind of surprised there hasn't been a Hulk teaser or trailer at this point, though.
*On Saturday, we had a signing in the store with Greg Pak, Scott Kolins, Matt Sturges and Paul Benjamin. And for part of the time, we also had The Defuser, the winner of the second season of Who Wants To Be A Superhero? and an Austin local. It was a lot of fun, and Scott drew a sketch of The Flash for my daughter Katy, which she loved. Greg, despite being a writer, likes to draw Hulk pictures with his signature, and so he drew a backer board sketch of Hulk for my daughter as well, and she loved that too. She also got a picture with The Defuser, and she was just elated to meet a real live superhero.*We had a good event, which also included our "Hulk Smash" sale (wherein everyone who bought something smashed one of four styrofoam cups, Hulk style, to win something written on the inside), our writing contest to start defining our roguish mascot, Maximillian Larch and our second miniatures painting contest.
With the anniversary event done, it's time to start looking forward to our next store event (probably Free Comic Book Day in May) and throw myself a bit more into my duties on STAPLE!, the independent media/small press comics show that is having its fourth year in Austin on March 1.
And now I leave you with three trailers that I caught last night, all of which I thought were pretty good.
This was my favorite. Tina Fey and Amy Poehler? That's enough right there. Holy crap, Maura Tierney is in it too? And Romany Malco? And guest spots by John Hodgman and Sigourney Weaver? Promising.
This also looks like fun, and I'm really intrigued the notion of John Krasinski and George Clooney playing off each other. The fight scene at the end cracked me up.
I love Judd Apatow and his production company, and I'm a big fan of both Kristen Bell and Jason Segel, but this didn't crack me up like the trailers for 40 Year Old Virgin, Knocked Up or Superbad.
Friday, December 28, 2007
Xbox 360
So I got what I really wanted for Christmas. My parents-in-law got me an XBox 360, and my parents got me Rock Band.
Yes, I do have the best parents and in-laws in the world.
So I finally plugged in Rock Band tonight, just to try out the solo guitar action and...
Oh.
My.
God.
This game is so good, I may never play Guitar Hero again. Downloadable songs, the ability to switch and play bass, drums or sing, plus multiplayer and online multiplayer with all of that? Not to mention I love the little tweaks to the Rock Band guitar, like the multi-mode whammy bar and the inset fret buttons, and the super-customizable avatars are awesome as well.
If anybody out there is on XBox Live, please friend me... I've put my gamertag up. I'm a pretty casual gamer, and I can't play first-person, or even a lot of third-person, shooters without getting ill, so I won't do the huge multiplayer HALO or Bioshock or Call of Duty... but I could definitely use some folks to play Rock Band online with, or people who will play with a total novice at Madden '08. I also swung by Gamestop and picked up their "Buy 2, get 1 free" used games to get Tomb Raider Legend, Marvel Ultimate Alliance (I already have it on the PS/2, but this one has Hawkeye and Moon Knight, two of my favorites) and Crackdown.
I can't wait for Burnout Paradise City. I've been digging the demo. And I'm going to buy the full versions of Catan and Carcassone at some point too.
Yes, I do have the best parents and in-laws in the world.
So I finally plugged in Rock Band tonight, just to try out the solo guitar action and...
Oh.
My.
God.
This game is so good, I may never play Guitar Hero again. Downloadable songs, the ability to switch and play bass, drums or sing, plus multiplayer and online multiplayer with all of that? Not to mention I love the little tweaks to the Rock Band guitar, like the multi-mode whammy bar and the inset fret buttons, and the super-customizable avatars are awesome as well.
If anybody out there is on XBox Live, please friend me... I've put my gamertag up. I'm a pretty casual gamer, and I can't play first-person, or even a lot of third-person, shooters without getting ill, so I won't do the huge multiplayer HALO or Bioshock or Call of Duty... but I could definitely use some folks to play Rock Band online with, or people who will play with a total novice at Madden '08. I also swung by Gamestop and picked up their "Buy 2, get 1 free" used games to get Tomb Raider Legend, Marvel Ultimate Alliance (I already have it on the PS/2, but this one has Hawkeye and Moon Knight, two of my favorites) and Crackdown.
I can't wait for Burnout Paradise City. I've been digging the demo. And I'm going to buy the full versions of Catan and Carcassone at some point too.
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