Wednesday, July 9, 2008

The Latest on Rock Band 2

There's been an awful lot of info coming out this week about Rock Band 2, from the official to the wildly rumored. I figured it deserved its own quick entry.

G4 just released some official details about new RB2 features, and there's some great stuff in there! For one, not having to have a band leader is a big improvement, and the fact that your characters will be able to play whatever instrument they want. The mini campaigns that can focus on a single artist, genre, or instrument are interesting, and imply lots of downloadable song packs in our future I'd say.

In answer to Guitar Hero 4's wireless drum set, Rock Band 2 will have a wireless drum set as well. That doesn't interest me as much as the fact that RB2 will have a drum trainer mode, which I will be willing to try. The online band battles feature sounds extremely entertaining, though not something I would do, as my measley medium guitar skills would probably be eaten alive by the "real" rockers out there.

Another piece of really great news I mentioned yesterday is that Rock Band 2 will automatically import all your RB1 downloaded content.

Two versions of a leaked 60-song content list are making the rounds this week. Since claiming I wasn't going to look, I've been doing a lot of peeking, and am jazzed about what I have seen. I did notice that Crowded House is not on that leaked list. However, last night for RB1 we downloaded a couple Rush songs, and they were actually performed by Rush and not a cover band! Not to be too spoilery, but that is a good sign given that Rush is on the alleged 60-track list.

Also, Rock Band 2 is now available for pre-order.

So far, lots of information, and all of it good! Promises abound that next week's E3 will play host to even more exciting updates. Next week is going to be a flurry of stuff here, because it's also the week that Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog debuts! OH YEAH!

UPDATE: 7/13. A premium drum set, wireless with cymbals and more responsive drums, has been announced for $300. I'm out. Oh, and here's a world premier "trailer" featuring the Foo Fighters' Everlong which doesn't show much, but is still fun to watch.

2 comments:

wyatt said...

I'm really pleased that Rockband 2 isn't going to force us to buy new peripherals. I am sick of having so many plastic instruments!

Unknown said...

Totally. Though the wireless drumset is cool, we have enough trouble figuring out where to put the one we have. That's one reason I'm really on the fence about Guitar Hero 4. The whole thing is kind of weird, trying to compete in that space with such an established competitor. Rock Band is pretty de facto at this point, and unless you are giddy over being able to compose your own tracks, I can't think of anything they could add that would compel me to want GH4.