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November 21, 2007
For Those of You About to Rock Band: We Salute You
For many of you, this week is all about Turkey Day. For others, it's still all about The Strike. For me? This week will go down in history not because of the strike or Thanksgiving, but because the most awesome video game of all time, Rock Band, was released yesterday. I got my kit set up and ready to go within minutes, and began rocking out almost immediately.
First impressions? The drumming element is the most difficult part of the game: those of you who have never sat behind a rig before will probably struggle for a little while to get used to the kick drum pedal, but once you get into the groove, it is wicked fun.
The peripherals are very nicely crafted -- the drums are sturdy, and the new Fender Stratocaster guitar is beautiful. It feels more substantial than the GH guitar, and includes another set of frets at the bottom of the neck for those super-fast solo passages. I haven't tried out the vocals yet, but I am very excited about singing along to the Yeah Yeah Yeahs, New Pornographers, and Radiohead's "Creep." Furthermore, the wide world of downloadable content has only just begun to be exploited -- the list of upcoming tracks available through XBOX Live includes packs of three-song sets from Metallica David Bowie, Queens of the Stone Age, and Black Sabbath.
Which is more difficult overall? Guitar Hero III still rules when it comes to playing a challenging guitar simulator; the "hard" level on Rock Band was cake for me, even though I can't beat GH on hard yet. However, the added element of drums really pushes the new game into a whole 'nother stratosphere of Rock God Total Awesome Amazingness, and makes it into a completely unique challenge.
CNet News had this to say about the face-off between the two games:
it will be very interesting to see if Rock Band can come anywhere near the first-week sales figures of Guitar Hero III. My guess is it won't get there, only because of the name-brand recognition of the latter. But I'm willing to be surprised. There's definitely something to be said for true bloodlines, which is what Rock Band and Harmonix have going for them, even if they doesn't have the hit name anymore.
Both Rock Band and Guitar Hero are phenomenal games that appeal to even the most casual gamer. If you haven't tried them out, trust me: the entire family can enjoy this game, and I'm even taking it home for Thanksgiving with me. But if you're only going to buy one game and you're not a hard-core gamer? Go with Rock Band -- especially because it's a great party game to have when friends come around. $170 may seem pretty steep at first, but considering that you get the game with all three peripherals (guitar, drums, and microphone), it's a great deal, and definitely worth hours and hours of fun.
Photo of striking Rock Bander by Sonny I. LaVista for LAist.
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We'll be playing some serious Rock Band tonight at the guitar hero bar. 1941 hyperion, silverlake. 9:00pm. 21+
Joe the bartender
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"Wicked"? Really, Carrie? *pshaw* :P
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IT'S WICKED RETAAAADED!!!!
hahahah come on, I coulda said "gnarly."
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That sweater wrapped around the guy's waist looks so wrong. I just had to say.
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in his defense, i too dressed for colder weather yesterday, and i too found myself holding my jacket once it warmed up.
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Ive had the flu for the past 5 days, including my birthday, and let me just say, nothing could stop the rock band invasion. Long live the Heebtones!
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I definitely have to go along with you on the quality of the guitar controller as opposed to the GHIII controller. The Rockband Stratocaster looks and feels somewhat like a Guitar. The gaming performance is also sweet. It plays almost as well as the TAC Flying V, which is the best of the many I've used. The GHIII Les Paul model for the 360 platform is by far the nicest looking of the GH controllers but still looks like a toy (just not one made by Fisher-Price). More importantly, the GHIII Les Paul would be a very good performing controller were it not for some serious flaws due to the two-part construction. There is a small gap between the place where the neck connects to the body which slides just-so slight back and forth causing the electronic connection to be kind of there - not there while you are trying to play. For me, this is a major dealbreaker as it causes certain notes not to register at times, and also causes long notes to just drop even while you continue to hold the fret buttons. I have gone back to playing GHIII with the GHII wired X-Plorer controller.
Lastly, 2 main things I've found to be the case with playing the 2 guitar/band games:
Guitar Hero III is fun to play online and does best in the competetive multiplayer modes.
Rockband excels in online multiplayer co-op mode as it is a blast to hook up with 3 other folks and go at it as a Rock band (duh). It also helped to teach me a bit of online etiquette. When playing with the Stratocaster controller it is much more cool to switch-off between bass and guitar with the other guitarist on every song. Look for I8Snow4Aurora and we can wail away online (unlike the Monkees I'm not really coming to your town, unfortunately).