7th March 2008

That's the (un)official release date of Rock Band on the 360.

Just thought you'd like to know.

Apparently they've delayed it a little as the pedal on the drumkit keeps breaking as it's a bit flimsy so it's probably a good thing for this Keith Moon wannabe right here.

What Rock Band really sounds like

Everyone and their dog is looking forward to Rock Band when it finally comes out but i've just stumbled across this. It's what rock Band really sounds like with all the clicking and hitting of the pads. You've got to admit, it puts you off just a tiny little bit...

Drummers Songs

Gamesradar has got an article on songs on Rock Band that would be great for the drummer to play. The problem is, this article was clearly written by a non-drummer and these songs are in fact completely wank to play.

Here's a real top 5 songs that are actually fantastic to play for drummers:

Fireball - Deep Purple
This song is the drumming equivalent of Through the Fire and Flames on Expert. It's really fast, really complex and really tight. Admittedly i can't actually play this song on the drums as i'd probably have a coronary half way through it.

Voodoo Chile - Jimi Hendrix
Absolutely brilliant song, and the drums have so much passion, they're loose and heavy, and this song is so much fun to play.

The Wizard - Black Sabbath
The drums lead this song, the fills during the verses are great and teach you a lot how a good fill can be applied to the middle of a song to really liven up a pretty basic tune.

Won't Get Fooled Again - The Who
This is already on Rock Band's line-up and is one of my personal favourites ever to play. Keith Moon is a legend and this song shows him in all his glory. He was the loosest drummer i've ever seen just throwing in fills and crashes anywhere he fancied and, my god, it sounds good.

Kashmir - Led Zeppelin
One of the simplest drum beats you can do , but it's just so damn strong in this song that John Bonham actually got a writing credit for his contribution. The crashes are just perfectly timed and coupled with the string section the drums really drive the entire song. Any other rhythm just wouldn't have worked.

Yet more scraps from the table

Harmonix have announced the prices of the downloadable content and also the dlc that's coming out between now and the end of the year

Rock Band will still feature preselected three-song packs for download, but they will instead cost $5.49 (440 Microsoft points on Xbox 360). Songs will also be available individually for $1.99. Harmonix has said future songs will be sold individually for as little as $.99 (80 Microsoft points), and as much as $2.99 (240 points). However, "the vast majority" will come in at the standard $1.99 price point. The developer did not say how much full-album downloads would be, or when the first albums would be released.

The DLC (Some rather nice stuff here, gotta admit, I may even actually spend money):

Week of November 20, 2007: (*--asterisk denotes a cover version)
Metallica Pack
"Ride the Lightning"--Metallica
"Blackened"--Metallica
"And Justice for All"--Metallica

The Police Pack
"Can't Stand Losing You"--The Police
"Synchronicity II"--The Police
"Roxanne"--The Police

Queens of the Stone Age Pack
"3's and 7's"--Queens of the Stone Age
"Little Sister"--Queens of the Stone Age
"Sick Sick Sick"--Queens of the Stone Age

Individual Tracks
"Fortunate Son" as made famous by Creedence Clearwater Revival *
"Juke Box Hero" as made famous by Foreigner *
"Bang a Gong (Get It On)" as made famous by T-Rex *
"My Sharona" as made famous by The Knack *
"Cherry Bomb" as made famous by The Runaways *
"Joker & The Thief"--Wolfmother

Week of November 27, 2007
David Bowie Pack
"Moonage Daydream"--David Bowie
"Heroes" as made famous by David Bowie *
"Queen Bitch" as made famous by David Bowie *

Week of December 4, 2007
Black Sabbath Pack
"N.I.B." as made famous by Black Sabbath *
"Sweet Leaf" as made famous by Black Sabbath *
"War Pigs" as made famous by Black Sabbath *

Week of December 11, 2007
Punk Pack:
"Rockaway Beach"--Ramones
"I Fought the Law"--The Clash
"Ever Fallen In Love" as made famous by Buzzcocks *

Week of December 18, 2007
Individual Tracks
"My Iron Lung"--Radiohead
"Buddy Holly"--Weezer
"Brass in Pocket" as made famous by The Pretenders *

Rock Band just gets better all the time.

Posted from gamesradar:

Is Rock Band too good to be true? Not only does it threaten to take Guitar Hero to its logical multiplayer evolutionary state, but now Alex Rigopolus - Harmonix CEO and lead drummer – tells Official Xbox Magazine (on its spiffy new website) that you’ll be able to take your band out of the game and into the real world with shirts, stickers, and - wait for it - figurines.

Rock Band gives every player the chance to customize their character, down to tattoos and face paint, save it all on the hard drive, and watch as their name appears in lights on stages, tour buses, and billboards. But Alex says “all of that stuff, we're going to be able to export to your web pages, and from there you'll be able to take your band avatars, pose them, create album covers with your band logo and different scenes with your avatars. And then you'll be able to turn that into real world stuff. For example, figurines based upon your Rock Band avatars, t-shirts with your fake band's album art and your tour dates on the back from your accomplishments within the game, bumper stickers, old records, things like that. Really cool real-world merchandise based on this fictitious band that you've created in the game.”

Couldn't be more awesome. Whether or not it will actually happen is another matter entirely. First, we gotta make it to the game's launch next week.

---------------------------------

The only problem here that I see, is that the figurines and avatars of my band would consist of a lead singer who looks like Jack Black and about as fat (edit: apparently he's not fat, he's big boned; cuddly; water retained; jolly; however you big chubbers want to approach it). A fat balding guy with his shirt off behind the drums. A tall thin guy on bass with a paunch, A short guy on lead with a paunch and a beardy weirdy with long megadeth style rock hair on rhythm, with a paunch. We're not exactly Slipknot here.

I can't see McFarlane toys making these any time soon...

OMFG - Fuck Freebird, Rock Band has the greatest song ever

One word.....

Go on, say it, you know you want to!

Getting better all the time

There's an article on IGN about the vocal section in Rock Band. To activate star power (which is now called Overdrive) you sing in a bit where you not supposed to sing. Like during a guitar solo you can shout 'Lets here it from all the bitches in the house' or some other suitable singer type shout. Then in overdrive mode the crowd will actually sing along with you in the chorus and stuff.

How frickin' cool does that sound?

Coz i'm wanted, WAAAAAANTEEEEED... [everyone!] DEAD OR ALIVE!

On the down side the sarky i made earlier about it not coming out in the UK until Spring is actually looking likely. Load of foo-kin bollocks, that's what it is.

Rock Band - The Listing

Here are 37 of the 45 songs coming out on the fantastic Rock Band in November (or whenever it's released in Britain, probably next Spring or something).

Now, is it me, or is this the most kick-ass lineup ever. There's so many mental songs on here, i don't know where to begin. I actually know more than i don't. Ooooohhhh, can't wait now.

Best quote ever about the game: Harmonix representatives have suggested, "If you can play the drum parts on hard, you can pretty much play the drums [in reality]."

* "Are You Gonna Be My Girl" – Jet
* "Black Hole Sun" - Soundgarden
* "Blitzkrieg Bop" – Ramones
* "Brainpower" – Freezepop
* "Celebrity Skin" – Hole
* "Cherub Rock" – Smashing Pumpkins
* "Creep" – Radiohead
* "Dani California" - Red Hot Chili Peppers
* "Detroit Rock City" - Kiss
* "(Don't Fear) The Reaper" – Blue Öyster Cult
* "Enter Sandman" – Metallica
* "Epic" – Faith No More
* "Flirtin' with Disaster" – Molly Hatchet
* "Gimme Shelter" – Rolling Stones
* "Go with the Flow" – Queens of the Stone Age
* "The Hand That Feeds" – Nine Inch Nails
* "Here It Goes Again" – OK Go
* "Highway Star" – Deep Purple
* "I Think I'm Paranoid" – Garbage
* "In Bloom" – Nirvana
* "Learn to Fly" – Foo Fighters
* "Main Offender" – The Hives
* "Maps" – Yeah Yeah Yeahs
* "Mississippi Queen" – Mountain
* "Orange Crush" – R.E.M.
* "Paranoid" – Black Sabbath
* "Reptilia" – The Strokes
* "Sabotage" – Beastie Boys
* "Say It Ain't So" – Weezer
* "Should I Stay or Should I Go" – The Clash
* "Suffragette City" – David Bowie
* "Tom Sawyer" – Rush
* "Vasoline" – Stone Temple Pilots
* "Wanted Dead or Alive" – Bon Jovi
* "Wave of Mutilation" – Pixies
* "Welcome Home" – Coheed and Cambria
* "Won't Get Fooled Again" – The Who

Rock Band price finally announced

The price and kit and release date and all that gubbins has been announced for Rock Band.

This is all American prices and dates so i'll translate it to UK below. It's coming out on Nov 23rd, you get a WIRED guitar, a mic and the drum kit and it costs $170.

UK Translation:
It'll come out summer 2008, you'll get the same shit as above and it'll cost £170.

Hang on, where's the bloody bass? Do you have to get another normal guitar so you can have the bass in as well, that's a bit shit isn't it? So that's going to push up the price another fiddy squid.

Annoyingly enough the PS3 version is coming out at the same time and their guitars are wireless, so as you can imagine both the sony fanboys are gonna be gloating about this little detail.

The 360 wireless will come out at a later date which is as annoying as buying the box set of Spaced then they bring out the 3-disk version a month later that you have to get as well coz you feel like you're missing out.

Guess that's Microsoft: 3,229,637, Sony: 1, and you know we'll never hear the fucking end of it.

Guitar Hero III - what's the point?

Guitar Hero rocked out like the baddest mofo on the planet. Everyone can remember the sheer unadulterated joy of that first time we played 'I Love Rock and Roll' on easy after we'd carefully put our zappy stickers on.

Guitar Hero II was also cool, primarily coz it had Freebird which is pure bliss to play.

Now, this winter (or whenever they decide to release it in Britain, probably summer 08 or something stupid like that!) we're getting Rock Band which is going to be the bestest coolest game ever made. More so as I've been a drummer for 14 years so i'm finally gonna get a game that I SHOULD be good at from the get go.

So what's the point of Guitar Hero III?

Let's face it, guitar hero was always a gateway to the full band experience. It's fun, don't get me wrong. But it just gave me the itch for a Drum Hero or something MORE than just guitar.

Why don't they just bring out expansion packs for GH2 like they're planning with Rock Band? Surely it would make more sense. What else can they bring to the table other than more songs?

Loved the first 2, not that bothered about the third one. Besides, i never had the patience to get past medium so once i'd played through all the songs on that skill level i got bored and frustrated. And it makes your eyes wobbly if you play it too much. Try looking at anything else after you've been playing GH for half an hour and you'll know what i mean.

On another note, i so can't wait for Rock Band, especially if what's i've read is true and YOU CAN PLAY IT ONLINE. How mental would that be. I can get together with my band and play, all from the comfort of my living room. And maybe even impress the online community with my natural ability for rhythm and groove. Either that or get suitably embarrassed as I totally fuck it up on easy, which is more likely...