How Will Rock Band Disc Tracks Get Into Rock Band 2

By Joe Haygood | August 21, 2008

The folks over at MTV Multiplayer blog got to sit down with Harmonix to talk about how a player can get songs from their original Rock Band disc imported into Rock Band 2.

It looks like the day that Rock Band hits the streets, there will be an update available for the original Rock Band, and will add an option in-game to transfer music. When you select this option, it will ask you to enter a code that will be in your Rock Band 2 disc case. Enter the code, pay the points, and you will get the music downloaded to your hard drive.

The whole process was described on the 360, but I would assume the process is coming to the PS3 as well. Also, it is still unclear if all songs from the disc will transfer, as Harmonix has stated in the past that “most tracks will be available from the disc”. It was also interesting, because someone could theoretically rent the first Rock Band, and then use the code from Rock Band 2 to get the music imported at the cost of $5.00 vs. buying the first game.

Moving Pictures Album Comes to Rock Band

By Joe Haygood | August 21, 2008

Next week, Rock Band will be getting another album release for the marketplace. Rush’s “Moving Pictures” album will come to both PS3 and Xbox 360 versions of the game.

Two weird caveats to this album release are that two of the seven songs on the album are in Rock Band already, “Tom Sawyer” and “Limelight”, but both are currently cover versions. The other anomaly is that “YYZ” is on this album, which has no vocal track, wondering what happens to the guy that is on the mic. Does he just get to wail, or maybe they will add some sort of percussion track for the mic.

No price has been set, but most likely, it will list for 800 points or $10, which would be similar in cost to the Boston track pack which had six songs.

The Today Show Has Fun with Rock Band 2

By Joe Haygood | July 30, 2008

The guys over at the Today Show did a segment on the upcoming musical game, Rock Band 2. While they talked to a lot of different people, including people from Harmonix, the hit of the segment was watching all the Today show gang perform “Living on a Prayer” by Bon Jovi live in front of the studio. While Meredith struggled a bit, Al Roker was awesome on the drums, making me look really bad in my Rock Band exploits on the drums.

via Kotaku

Activision Says Rock Band Instruments Compatible with World Tour

By Joe Haygood | July 17, 2008

One thing that I have harped on with Guitar Hero: World Tour is that I did not want to have to buy a new drum set to play their game. When the first shots of the drum kit for Guitar Hero: World Tour came out, many people immediately saw what I did - there’s an extra pad. This immediately meant that my drum pads from Rock Band would not work with this game.

Well, that may not be the case. Today, Activision announced that all the instruments from the first Rock Band will work with Guitar Hero: World Tour. Basically, the drum notes will combine the two cymbals into one, when it detects the Rock Band pads.

Two caviats - first is that this is only confirmed for the 360, PS3 owners are still in the dark on this one, and two is that the Rock Band 2 equipment has not be certified, because it has not come out yet for testing, so it may not work. Time will tell on that one. Still, this news allows me to get more out of Guitar Hero: World Tour when I rent it (yeah, it is still not a buy).

via 1up.com

Harmonix Gives Us The Rock Band 2 Set List…In Two Point Font

By Joe Haygood | July 16, 2008

During the Microsoft press conference, Harmonix took the stage to talk about Rock Band 2, and they mentioned the track list for the game. Actually they showed the track list on the big screen. Unfortunately, it was in font so small, no one could really read the set list, because the font was so small.

Well, as of this morning, I noticed that EB Games had an update for their Rock Band 2 pre-order pages today, and that update was a full and complete set list, courtesy of Harmonix. All you have to do is click the link and scroll down to see the full list. Or you can click the jump and check out the full list. Notables include, AC/DC, Ratt, Jethro Tull, Jane’s Addiction and Norman Greenbaum. One thing that was in an earlier story we had, that depresses me now, is that the rumor of Dire Straits being in the game turned out to be false, which makes me a sad panda. Maybe they will get in there as DLC.

Read the rest of this entry »

Debut Trailer For Rock Band 2

By Joe Haygood | July 12, 2008

Fresh off its debut on Gametrailers TV, we now have the first official trailer for Rock Band 2, and to be honest, it did not exactly sell me on the game 100%. I like some of the improved visuals, but I really would have liked to have seen more of the actual game, like band screens, world tour modes, etc. Right now, this just looks more like an enhanced Rock Band 1 video sequence, nothing more.

How playing Guitar Hero 2 makes me want to try Rock Band

By Stephen Munn | July 11, 2008

This evening I popped over my brother-in-law’s new home for a visit. It was a visit, like so many such visits are, that ended up having something of a gaming subtext. As a man who’s been on Guitar Hero since its origin, Adam has every Guitar Hero game on PS2 (he hasn’t yet picked up Aerosmith, but he will), along with a couple of RedOctane’s wireless controllers for the system. He also owns a Wii and plans on a 360 in the future, but as he’s invested so much already in the PS2 guitars, there’s no desire to dump more money until Activision stops publishing on PS2. He’s thinking practically here.

Adam’s in a good position to make the transition to Rock Band when Activision abandons his platform. The peripheral quandary tends to trouble us all, I think. What do you do when you change franchises? What about systems? A lack of standards in all this makes sense, but it doesn’t make things easier for Joe Consumer. Hi, I’m Joe Consumer. Yes, that’s my real name. No, my mom was not cruel, why do you ask?

The recent podcast and some other comments I’ve made might make it appear that I favor Guitar Hero over Rock Band, but I’ve never played Rock Band. While I insist that MTV’s brand is not showing the initiative in functionality that Activision’s is, I can certainly appreciate that when it comes down to gameplay, Rock Band is more fun just based on the experiences of others. That makes sense, as Harmonix is there. It’s too bad they aren’t working with RedOctane anymore, who are the other real stars of the show.

One thing I noticed while playing Guitar Hero II tonight on Adam’s PS2 was how much better the game looks than the Wii version of Guitar Hero III. It’s irritating to me that Neversoft’s Tony Hawk-style deformed characters (note singer Trapjaw on loan from He-Man and the Masters of the Universe) have infiltrated Guitar Hero and the game’s feel is just not quite as tight as its prequels were.

Of course, the Wii version of Rock Band is a wash, so I’d need to pick it up on PS3. But then, there’s that peripheral issue again. Do I sell Guitar Hero III and dive head-first into Rock Band, inferior instruments and all?

End rant.

Konami Gets Lawsuit Fever

By Joe Haygood | July 11, 2008

Konami opened up a can of lawsuit whoop-ass today on Harmonix, MTV and Viacom, all part of the immensely popular Rock Band video game.

Konami alleges that two of their patents were violated by Harmonix and company. The first patent mentions “simulated musical devices”, while the second one covers “music rhythm-based matching games”. While at first glace, the lawsuit brings up memories of Gibson and their lawsuit against Activision over the guitar simulation, there is another twist to the story, that may not bode well for Activision. Engadget noticed that Activision made a note in their Gibson lawsuit, that specifically mentions the Konami patent, in relation to their instruments, make one wonder if Activision has already negotiated a settlement with Konami over this very patent.

Rock Band 2 FAQ

By Matthew Kellar | July 9, 2008

Rock Band 2 is a lot closer than one might think, yet info on what the game will offer has been somewhat inconclusive. Luckily, a recent press release from Electronic Arts and Harmonix has cleared up some ambiguity while continuing to leave room for some uncertainty. Certainly, all will be revealed at next week’s E3, but for now we will attempt to divulge what we know so far.

Read the rest of this entry »

MTV, Harmonix, EA continue conspicuous assery toward Wii

By Stephen Munn | June 30, 2008

As the Wii version of Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock is the strongest selling version of that game, it’s become obvious to everyone with a pulse that the makers of Rock Band completely missed the boat by not delivering their game to Wii owners in a reasonable timeframe. After an embarrassingly late PS2 port was announced for Wii with an insulting feature set lacking most of what makes Rock Band worthwhile, Activision came forward and stole the game’s lunch money with an incredible list of promises for the Wii version of Guitar Hero: World Tour.

It’s also quickly becoming apparent that Rock Band’s makers have no intention of fighting to get that lunch money back. Now that Rock Band 2 has been announced, we might expect EA and MTV to be doing their best to try to step up with a Wii version that matches the PS3 and 360’s feature sets. Alas, mention of the Wii version of Rock Band 2 is being presented very much as an afterthought, which is not promising: the 360 will get the game, followed by PS3, and (eventually) Wii. Sound familiar? It’s the same song we got last year.

My initial shock gave way to the realization that with the original Rock Band in stores less than two weeks right now for Wii, hyping Rock Band 2 for Wii would be a very bad idea. I suppose we could all hope they have their act together more than it seems, but let’s be honest: their ship has sailed. Harmonix invented Guitar Hero, but Activision studios Neversoft and Vicarious Visions are working much, much harder to bring the games to everyone. If World Tour lives up to the claims of its publisher, EA and MTV are in for a bruising.

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