Cleaning House: Threevue Review: Rock Band 2

Believe it or not, quite a few things happen behind the scenes here at Threevue HQ. For instance, did you know that we spend lots of time procrastinating, napping, and dry-heaving from worry worting? Bet you didn’t. And because we’re so busy, sometimes we let reviews of games slide right through the cracks. Cleaning House is a feature in which we attempt to right the wrongs of our past, and provide you with some quality, half-assed product. Enjoy!

Russ:
I was ready to wait until Rock Band 2 hit the bargain bins before picking it up. Really, the first Rock Band was enough to wet my whistle – the weekly downloadable content didn’t blow me away every week, but what came available was good stuff. In its first year, I was treated to full albums by The Pixies, Foo Fighters and The Cars, while getting some pretty solid packs from the likes of The Police and Oasis, too. My drums worked fine, and I had two fine plastic guitars to tide me over. I knew that there were some slight tweaks but overall it was the same game with a bit of a makeover. But yeah, then I had it in my hands one day while shopping and I said, “ah, what the hell”, and went for it.

What I didn’t realize was how significant all the slight tweaks were. The single-player world tour is much like the multiplayer one found in Rock Band, which brings awesomeness to your TV without having to rely on other people. In other words, you can rock when you want to rock. Being able to create setlists and change instruments on the fly are also welcome additions. There are several new features that I haven’t even tried out yet, like the drum tutorial or the ability to play drums along with songs on your iPod. Ultimately, this means that I still have more adventures to uncover in the weeks, months and years to come. Couple this with the fact that you can play your RB1 songs and DLC means that this game has moved beyond a “game” status and into a “music experience”. Man, just writing about it makes me want to plug it in right now; and that’s saying something.

96/100

Tyler:
Rock Band 2 has gone and accomplished the goal that Rock Band tried to achieve, which was to make a more contemporary and widely appreciated group music game. Guitar Hero has its perks, but all in all it just seems like it’s the first generation of an iterative game. I mean, you could even call the games themselves platforms. I speak best in analogies:

Guitar Hero is to Rock Band as Myspace is to Facebook.

Myspace isn’t really a bad site, it’s just that Facebook came along and did the whole social networking thing better. If Facebook never existed we’d be very happy with our Myspace.

What I’m trying to say here is that Rock Band 2 is my favorite game to play with a room full of friends. The song selection is the best out of any game out there and the constant stream of DLC is giving this game legs longer than Dikembe Mutombo. The main problem I have with the game are the less-than-extraordinary chord progressions of many songs (being that the guitar is the main instrument in the ensemble), and I don’t feel that I “solo like a bastard” as much in RB as GH.

88/100

Cheapskate: Rock Band Special Edition +RB2 for $79

MTV is currently selling a doozie of a package: Rock Band Special Edition (which includes the first game, a microphone, guitar and drum peripherals) and Rock Band 2, all for $79 with free shipping. The package is available for both Xbox 360 and the PS3.

If you’ve never dipped into this series, now is the time to do it. Admittedly, the Rock Band guitar is kind of shitty, but you can find replacement guitars online for pretty cheap.

Next Week’s Rock Band Downloads List Is Slightly Semi-Inducing

Reading online that next week’s Rock Band downloadable tracks are right up my alley: alt-country and Jimmy Eat World. Remember back in ’07 when I said that JEW’s second album, Clarity, would be awesome on Rock Band? Someone’s listening, if only slightly.

Truth be told, I only really like the first alt-country song (taken from DBT’s latest album, Brighter Than Creation’s Dark), and “Lucky Denver Mint” is the only must-have JEW song (although “Sweetness” is damn catchy and might be fun to play), but it’s a nice change of pace from the unremarkable, unwanted garbage-spewing that has drenched the catacombs of Harmonix for the past few weeks.

Alt Country Pack (680 / $8.49)
* “3 Dimes Down” by Drive By Truckers (160 / $2)
* “Can’t Let Go” by Lucinda Williams (160 / $2)
* “People Got a Lot of Nerve” by Neko Case (160 / $2)
* “Time Bomb (LIVE)” by Old 97s (160 / $2)
* “Satellite Radio” by Steve Earle (160 / $2)

Jimmy Eat World Pack (440 / $5.49)
* “Futures” by Jimmy Eat World (160 / $2)
* “Lucky Denver Mint” by Jimmy Eat World (160 / $2)
* “Sweetness” by Jimmy Eat World (160 / $2)

My Faves: Old Songs In A Whole New Light

We here at Threevue loved us some Guitar Hero II, and it still holds a special place in our hearts thanks to its awesome song list, logical icon placement, and overall feeling of freshness.

Something I simply love about Rock Band 2 is its inclusion of “Carry On Wayward Son” by Kansas, a track originally featured on Guitar Hero II. It’s awesome to be sifting through dozens of new tracks only to be greeted by an old friend, now a master track, with the ability to play the drums, too. Same thing goes for The Foo Fighters’ “Monkey Wrench”, which just wails as a master track compared to the watered-down Guitar Hero II cover, but unfortunately you’ve gotta shell out $2 for that one because it’s DLC.

Give Me The Mic!

Completing the circle of fake instrument nerdery, look what Mark got today.

I thought about getting the Logitech mic that has the buttons and everything on it, but it was twice as much money, and frugal is one of my middle names (Mark Anthony Danger Frugal Alowishious Hill).

Others Go To 11, I Only Get To Go To 3

Very shortly after my last RB2 post I realized that I was going to be playing the game a whole lot, and knowing my neighbors, I already had noise complaints inbound. So I took a quick trip to my local Stop for Games, and picked up the drum silencers you see above.

The moment I installed them and banged out my first couple para diddles, I got mad at myself for not buying them a long time ago. What’s even better than how much quieter it is when I hit them, is how it makes the sticks bounce back, making them feel infinitely more authentic and making drumroll actually doable.

With all this, you would think that neighbors would be happy for me, but no, THEY STILL COMPLAINED!, and building security came up and asked me to “turn down my stereo.” What a bunch of jerks.

For Me About To Rock

Ok, after playing only two songs in my first Rock Band 2 sesh, I have to take a moment and post about how effing rad it is. I created my character that looks just like me but with a swarthy mustache, and  I created a band (Giant Pwner), and set out on my first tour. I played Eye of the Tiger which is as awesome song, and then played one of my favorite jams of the late 90′s, My Own Worst Enemy, which I had no idea was even on there. Actually, I haven’t really looked at the complete song list, so everything is a mini-surprise.

Even the opening cinematic with the two bands rocking on the cars on the highway was cool, and I usually hate things like that.

Encore!

I didn’t think I would be buying another game for a long, long time, well at least until March, but today I proved myself wrong by buying Rock Band 2.

The stars were aligned for this one. I was at the mall, I was feeling good about a new haircut, and a friend had just texted me about how fun it was to play one of the songs, so I couldn’t resist. I really didn’t need it, seeing as how I haven’t played Rock Band in any real capacity in a long time now, but it’s one of those games that has so much fun packed within that it’s a must-have for any game library. I’ll probably start the song transfer and fire it up for the first time on Saturday.

Yeeeeeh-haaaaw!!!

I know Russ is excited about the Rock Band Country track pack coming out on the 16, but I certainly am not. It’s “Rock Band,” not “Country Jamboree.” Plus, how are they going to translate fiddles, banjos, jugs, and washboards to the RB peripherals?

The Rock Band crew needs to stop wasting their time on lame things like songs by the Dixie Chicks, and finally get us that Best of Meatloaf album. Then I’ll finally buy Rock Band 2.

Cheevers: 35g for $2 (Rock Band 2 trick)

Here’s a quick way to unlock both of the “Flawless Drumming: Scored 100% notes hit as a drummer on Expert” achievements in Rock Bands 1 and 2 (10g and 25g, respectively).

First, you need to buy Nirvana’s “Polly” from the store for $2, if you haven’t already. It’s a good song, don’t worry. You have heard it before, right? You did live in the 90′s, right, right? Next, play the song on Expert on both games. As long as you know how to hit a total of 8 notes in 3 minutes, you should do okay. Bam, 35g!

My Faves: Rock Band 2 = Expectedly Awesome

I spent some time with Rock Band 2 today, and as expected, it’s pretty sweet. A few things that you may not know about the experience:

1. The single player campaign has been amped up significantly. It’s now a lot like the “world tour” that was in RB1 but without having to play with other people. You can set up setlists and challenges (“battle of the bands”, etc) without having to play multiplayer. That’s a big plus for me, since most times I just want to rock out without having to coordinate schedules with a friend. Plus, in order to continue accumulating fans in RB1 you would have to play on harder difficulties – this one doesn’t force it on you.

2. There’s only one career – none of that easy/medium/hard/expert stuff. You select your difficulty before every song. What this means that if you regularly play on hard (like me) but get stuck on a certain song, you can just play that one on medium and continue on. In the old Guitar Heroes and RB1, I would always get stuck at a certain tier/song. Not anymore!

3. I imported all my RB1 songs into RB2 for the modest price of $5. What’s awesome is that you can go into your data management blade in the X360 dashboard and delete songs you don’t want. You know all those crap “local” band songs that are on all Harmonix releases? Consider them toast. And “Green Grass and High Tides”? Peace!

4. There’s a free-play mode for the drums (something I really wanted in RB1), but not only that, you can plug in your iPod and play drums along to all your songs.

For Those About To Rock…

I bought a little game called Rock Band 2 today while shopping for domesticating things like a tool chest, spackle, and drywall anchors. I haven’t opened her up yet but I know it’s going to be pretty sweet. Funny thing is, I still feel like I have more to do in the first Rock Band – I never played a career on vocals, for instance – but with RB2 already out I really can’t get excited about going back to #1. Honestly, I would prefer that Harmonix release a Rock Band game every two years instead, so that way they have a lot more time to improve upon the game, and we have a lot more time to get excited.

Cheapskate: Rock Band 2 Wireless Drums? No Thanks.

So yeah, that title just about wraps it up. I love Rock Band, and I will buy RB2 just as quick as I can find it, but I DO NOT want wireless drums. You may ask me, why wouldn’t I want wireless drums?

And to answer your question, a question: why would you WANT wireless drums?

I don’t want wireless drums because a) they use batteries that I don’t want to waste money (or time charging) on, and b) I’m not going to be walking around while I play the drums, like I do when I play the (rightly) wireless guitar. So, what’s the point?

My Faves/My Gripes: Six Best, Worst Rock Band 2 Tracks

Okay, so the whole on-disc tracklist for Rock Band 2 came out today. There are a total of 84 tracks – some good, some bad. Here are the six I’m looking forward to the most, and the six I’m dreading the most:

My Faves
Beck – “E-Pro”
Fleetwood Mac – “Go Your Own Way”
Foo Fighters – “Everlong”
Modest Mouse – “Float On”
Nirvana – “Drain You” (Wait, does this mean it’s not coming as DLC?)
Soundgarden – “Spoonman” (ALL MY FRIENDS ARE INDIANS!!!)

My Gripes
Disturbed – “Down with the Sickness”
Dream Theater – “Panic Attack”
Guns N’ Roses – “Shackler’s Revenge”
Linkin Park – “One Step Closer”
Panic at the Disco – “Nine in the Afternoon”
Steely Dan – “Bodhitsattva”
…plus all of the “Bonus Songs”

Keep reading for the full list: