Gamespot's Rock Band 2 Hands-On

[Rock Bandit]

Gamespot recently got a pre-E3 hands-on with Rock Band 2 (http://e3.gamespot.com/story.html?sid=6193439&pid=949926&tag=hotslot;img;1) and come away with all kinds of new hot and sexy info:

The first 10 songs (of 80) revealed (all masters):

Ace of Spades - Motörhead
Everlong - Foo Fighters
Pinball Wizard - The Who
Panic Attack - Dream Theater
Any Way You Want It - Journey
Chop Suey - System of a Down
Kids in America - The Muffs
Give It Away - Red Hot Chili Peppers
Hello There - Cheap Trick
Pump It Up - Elvis CostelloImpressions of the new instruments:

New guitar features: wireless out of the box, a sturdier strum bar, and an autocalibration system that will let you automatically synch your guitar to your television to minimize lag, without having to go through the tedious setup process of the original game.

The Rock Band 2 drum set will feature velocity-sensitive pads that will play "louder" in the game the harder you hit them. The pads themselves will be more muffled to cut down on the noisy clatter as you wail away, and will feature a better bounce, making them ostensibly easier to play. More after the jump (http://www.evilavatar.com/forums/showthread.php?p=1543757#post1543757).

[bapenguin]

And the new gameplay mechanics:

"[Online Band World Tour]...will be one of the biggest features in the sequel, letting you join up with bandmates all over the world to fulfill your dreams of rock stardom. Online play sounds like great fun, and the folks at Harmonix have also made the smart decision to do away with band leaders in Rock Band 2. As a result, you can change your lineup at any time without having to break up the band as a result. Better yet, any character will be able to play any instrument as you go. Combine that with new gigs, challenges (more on those in a bit), as well as new cities and venues to play in, along with the ability to hire staff, and there will be a lot to do in Rock Band 2's World Tour mode."



"In the last game, you could pick songs only one at a time; with the sequel, you'll be able to create setlists exactly how you see fit."



The Tour Challenge: A career done in the same non-linear format of Band World Tour. You cand do this either solo or with three other band members, with any mix of local and online players. The challenges themselves are structured more as "a progression web in which you can choose which path to take through the game. For instance, the bass path will let you focus on all of the best songs for the bass, while still giving you access to play the other songs found in Rock Band 2 as side challenges. In addition, Tour Challenge mode will also integrate DLC automatically when building challenges. You can also expect to play album-specific challenges, which should only grow as the list of full-length albums available as DLC continues to expand."



Battle of the Bands: "...available for one to four players, in any mix of local and online play. Unlike the progression system of Tour Challenge, Battle of the Bands is a straight-up tournament that pits your band against groups from all over the world. Harmonix will be creating new daily battles for bands to take part in; some will even have unique entry requirements, or gameplay modifiers. When playing Battle of the Bands challenges, you'll see an onscreen score, along with a score that you need to beat (such as someone on your friends list who has also competed in this challenge)."

Do we have an emoticon for "I AM CRAWLING OUT OF MY SKIN WITH EXCITEMENT!" because I could use one right now. Seriously.

[AgtFox]

No word on how many pads the drum set has yet. I wonder how different it will be from the first one outside of the muffled sound.

[Yeti2005]

A quieter drum set would be nice. I haven't been able to play since my daughter was born (for fear of waking her up during nap time).

[Wackman3000]

I hate the direction these peripheral dependent games are going. How would we feel about shelling out $50 for a new controller for EVERY game that game out?

It's stupid, and so is this garbage with peripheral incompatibility and revised "instruments" every 6 months.

[mightbe]

Do we have an emoticon for "I AM CRAWLING OUT OF MY SKIN WITH EXCITEMENT!" because I could use one right now. Seriously.
This is as close as I've got.
http://www.singularcards.com/evav/hclp.jpg

And I am right there with you. Now we just need more set list leaks.

[mightbe]

I hate the direction these peripheral dependent games are going. How would we feel about shelling out $50 for a new controller for EVERY game that game out?

It's stupid, and so is this garbage with peripheral incompatibility and revised "instruments" every 6 months.

I don't know if you haven't kept up or if you are misreading the releases. Your old instruments will work just fine. They're just offering upgrades/new versions of the old stuff.

[Karmakin]

The new gameplay additions sound great. Just hope that it has the song-list to match.

[Shrinn]

I don't care about quieter drums if I have to put a fucking sock on them to play the faster drum rolls. Fix that first.

[MosBen]

Holy shit! Dream Theater! I've been asking for this since GH1 and sent them requests since RB came out. I guess didn't realize until this moment what true happiness really is!

[Angelus073]

Quote from the Gamespot article about new drum kit:-

'Although it won't have any additional pads, the Rock Band 2 drum set will feature velocity-sensitive pads that will play "louder" in the game the harder you hit them. The pads themselves will be more muffled to cut down on the noisy clatter as you wail away, and will feature a better bounce, making them ostensibly easier to play. '

[AgtFox]

Quote from the Gamespot article about new drum kit:-

'Although it won't have any additional pads, the Rock Band 2 drum set will feature velocity-sensitive pads that will play "louder" in the game the harder you hit them. The pads themselves will be more muffled to cut down on the noisy clatter as you wail away, and will feature a better bounce, making them ostensibly easier to play. '
Thanks much, I quickly read this early this morning. No additional pads creates an interesting situation with GH: World Tour's 3 drum/2 cymbal setup and whether it will work with RB2.

[CES]

Well, that setlist is a large step in the right direction, lots of good stuff to play. Dream Theater is going to be real fun, though there wont be any Rudess-inspired insanity sadly.

[absolut taco]

Quote from the Gamespot article about new drum kit:-

'Although it won't have any additional pads, the Rock Band 2 drum set will feature velocity-sensitive pads that will play "louder" in the game the harder you hit them. The pads themselves will be more muffled to cut down on the noisy clatter as you wail away, and will feature a better bounce, making them ostensibly easier to play. '
The velocity-sensitive part makes no sense to me. It sounds like I'll be able to change the volume of the songs' drum tracks, but why? I like the fixed drum volume in the RB1 drums, so I won't be buying new drums.

[Cupelix]

I don't care about quieter drums if I have to put a fucking sock on them to play the faster drum rolls. Fix that first.
Heh, I did that to my drum set at home too. Works shockingly well - and the quieter drums are a nice side effect.

Totally awesome preview of the set list! Some hard stuff in there, particularly for drums.

[Hexxagonal]

I think we can predict it now. Rock Band 2 WILL have the greatest setlist of all time (for guitar games).

[Bahamut]

Looks like this gives some fuel for the rumored Rock Band 2 setlist leak (http://www.gametab.com/news/2649929/)

[Lord_Don]

Fuck this shit, I just spent $130 on the first goddamn game less than a fucking year ago.

[Roc Ingersol]

Fuck this shit, I just spent $130 on the first goddamn game less than a fucking year ago.It's completely optional. The DLC is cross-compatible. The only thing you miss out on by not buying Rock Band 2, are the interface tweaks, and the 80 masters.

If you ask me, 80+ masters and those tweaks are easily worth $60.

Also, the Onion AV Club has a preview as well:
http://www.avclub.com/content/node/82519And about the drums. Clearly, the addition of a drum kit marked a new direction for the franchise: while the guitar loosely simulates and abridges the experience of playing guitar, the drum kit is a drum kit, and the game represents an actual set of training wheels for up-and-coming percussionists. Rock Band 2 takes this a step further with the addition of an actual drum training program. I watched Teasdale demo this, and it resembles the game's practice mode, but with a large library of basic beats and fills: "Simple 8th Note Hats," "Robot Rock," "P-P-P-Panama!", "Upbeat Hats 1," and so forth, all playable on three kits – electronic, vintage, and "trashy." There's also a freeplay mode, where you can play drums over mp3's that you've ripped to your console.

[biosc1]

I wonder if the rumour about the controllers being wireless is true or not? I didn't see a mention of it in the Gamespot article and I can, hopefully, take that as a sign that they weren't allowed to talk about it. Guilty through silence ;)

[biosc1]

I wonder if the rumour about the drum controllers being wireless is true or not? I didn't see a mention of it in the Gamespot article and I can, hopefully, take that as a sign that they weren't allowed to talk about it. Guilty through silence ;)

Edited...finally, I've fallen victim to the non-editable news item :(

[beefyjr]

Thanks much, I quickly read this early this morning. No additional pads creates an interesting situation with GH: World Tour's 3 drum/2 cymbal setup and whether it will work with RB2.

All signs point to "NO." My guess is Activision will do everything in their power to prevent that from happening, and since the layouts are so different, you probably wouldn't want to anyways.

Also, I won't be happy until "We Want Fun" by Andrew WK is in Rock Band 2. Make it fucking happen, Harmonix!

[Wolvie]

The auto-syncing-stronger-fret-bar guitar, and the quieter pressure sensitive drums sound nice, but the online Band world tour is whats I'm excited about. I was pissed when I couldn't play with the guys on my friends list and have to settle with local players... which more often then not ended up being my wife. Don't get me wrong, I love the woman, but it'd be nice to play a full band with other people.

[AgtFox]

All signs point to "NO." My guess is Activision will do everything in their power to prevent that from happening, and since the layouts are so different, you probably wouldn't want to anyways.
I'd say all signs point to yes since Harmonix is more open with compatibility on its side than Activision is on its side. Also, I need to decide which drum kit to get so I don't end up having 3 drum kits that I have no room (or money) for. I plan to get both RB2 and GH: WT.

[divinechaos]

You're gonna be able to download all the songs from the first RB online and have that as your set list also. I called it first.

[Talon-]

I wonder if the rumour about the controllers being wireless is true or not? I didn't see a mention of it in the Gamespot article and I can, hopefully, take that as a sign that they weren't allowed to talk about it. Guilty through silence ;)

They're definitely Wireless. Amazon (http://www.amazon.com/Rock-Band-2-Standalone-Drums/dp/B001BX6MR0#productPromotions) has had the standalone drums up for a couple of days now.

[Tinderbox]

Looks like this gives some fuel for the rumored Rock Band 2 setlist leak (http://www.gametab.com/news/2649929/)

There's a lot of win in that setlist. Squeeze - Cool for Cats, hell ya!

[MosBen]

divinechaos, do you mean all DLC is compatible or that you can download the original Rock Band disc tunes? The former has been cited frequently (and is totally awesome), but, and maybe I'm blind, I didn't see the latter in the article.

[pomeroy]

Well...that set list is looking awful. Dream Theater? Yeah, that'll be a blast to play with friends.

[Disgustipated]

divinechaos, do you mean all DLC is compatible or that you can download the original Rock Band disc tunes? The former has been cited frequently (and is totally awesome), but, and maybe I'm blind, I didn't see the latter in the article.

I've heard both, and I'm guessing they're both true.

[MosBen]

Well hey, being able to play all the songs from RB1, including the disc material, is all the better!

And pomeroy, I'll not have you speaking ill of Dream Theater! Any more and you'll get a sound thrashing!

[Bahamut]

Well...that set list is looking awful. Dream Theater? Yeah, that'll be a blast to play with friends.

It's just one song - in addition that particular song shows a strong Muse influence.

Also 80+ songs for $60 for owners of the first Rock Band for what looks like a possibly improved experience with the songs chosen as well as more variety? Sign me up. The only thing I lament so far is the lack of Maiden & much metal in general (I still don't understand why Lacuna Coil over Nightwish), but they put in the best Priest song at least.

[pomeroy]

Well hey, being able to play all the songs from RB1, including the disc material, is all the better!

And pomeroy, I'll not have you speaking ill of Dream Theater! Any more and you'll get a sound thrashing!

Oh, I can recognize they are technically great. I just would rather listen to something with a melody.

[Deadend]

Could I use the GH4 drums/guitar with Rock Band 2? As I will have 1 set of plastic toys, and I prefer Rock Band, but I owuldn't mind paying $60 for the compettion too.

[rinichanraar]

I mentioned this elsewhere, but I totally requested "Everlong" on the Rock Band website when it first launched. They really listened to me! Nice!

[CES]

The only thing I lament so far is the lack of Maiden & much metal in general (I still don't understand why Lacuna Coil over Nightwish), but they put in the best Priest song at least.

Lacuna Coil was the template for Evanescene, a one time popular band. That's the only reason they're in.

Best Priest song? The song that should be there is Metal Gods or Living After Midnight. Plenty of thrash already in that first setlist.

I lament DT being there though. Cant flail on a keyboard like Rudess.

[Wedge]

Ok. So I won't buy Rock Band 1 then, when it releases over here in August.

[Bahamut]

Ok. So I won't buy Rock Band 1 then, when it releases over here in August.

If anything, after buying Rock Band 2, if you want the songs, buy the disc for Rock Band 1 and not the whole instrument set.

[divinechaos]

Oh, I can recognize they are technically great. I just would rather listen to something with a melody.

I really don't understand this. Are you saying the song or all of DT's music have no melody? 'Cause either way you're pretty wrong, unless our definition of "melody" is different.

[divinechaos]

divinechaos, do you mean all DLC is compatible or that you can download the original Rock Band disc tunes? The former has been cited frequently (and is totally awesome), but, and maybe I'm blind, I didn't see the latter in the article.

I know someone answered already but I meant you can download all the songs that came in the original disc, aside from the DLC.

[MurderSandwich]

They had me at "Anyway You Want It" and "Living on a Prayer" . If this doesnt come out in Australia (like RB1 :mad: ) I am going to buy a PS3 and importing it. I need this game.

[mightbe]

They had me at "Anyway You Want It" and "Living on a Prayer" . If this doesnt come out in Australia (like RB1 :mad: ) I am going to buy a PS3 and importing it. I need this game.

A buddy of mine in Brisbane said he saw a September release date for RB1 AUS.

[Camel]

I just noticed that both of those "leaked" setlists contain "Master Exploder." That...is completely awesome, and makes me feel a lot better about the setlist in general (which seems kind of lackluster to me).