Rock Band

[FredEffinChopin]

 

Oh yeah.

 

It look like the keyboards won't be coming back, and neither will pro guitar. The guitar and drums will be getting some slightly improved re-releases as well, the latter of which went un-detailed in the Polygon interview. The libraries will be mostly exportable within a console family, and I can see from the comments on that article that it's going to be a bit of a problem for some, as a lot of people jumped ship from MS when going on to the next gen. I get the feeling that that's one issue that will simply have to go un-addressed, as I can't imagine a way that would enable users to transfer their content over from one family to another. 

 

I'm just psyched for a new library, personally. Also this means that I won't have to keep holding onto my PS3 once I'm done playing games on it and move on to PS4. Eventually.

[TheMightyEthan]

I'm too lazy to read or watch, are your old instruments still compatible?

[FredEffinChopin]

Harmonix says it's working "aggressively" with Sony and Microsoft to make that happen.

"The Sony instruments were wireless via a USB dongle; that's pretty straightforward. Things are complicated on the Xbox side, and I'm not prepared to talk specifics yet until I understand them a little better, frankly. There's a first-party component, and a technical component being managed by Harmonix and Mad Catz that is still very much in play," Sussman told Polygon.

 

[TheMightyEthan]

Whether or not they get that working will be 95% of whether I buy this or not, because there is no way in hell I'm buying a bunch of plastic instruments again.

[toxicitizen]

I'd much rather buy new instruments than having to rebuy DLC, and it sounds like they're transferring the DLC so that's awesome. It'll be cool if my old instruments are compatible, but if the new versions have functionalities that my old ones don't, then I'll probably want to upgrade anyway.

[FredEffinChopin]

They're taking requests! And in case any of you wiseowls are thinking of yelling "Freebird!" at them, it's already done, so 

[CorgiShinobi]

Not sure if I'm willing to get back into the plastic instruments scene. I never got too crazy with the games as I was barely making enough money to buy the different instruments.

 

Heck, I didn't play Rocksmith (where you use your real guitar) for that long either. Then again, I had roommates at the time and didn't want to keep them up.

[FredEffinChopin]

Yeah, I think the majority of people who were into it are over it permanently. At least to the point of buying new editions for their own use. 

 

I, on the other hand, have been looking for an excuse to break out the Ions. The announcement alone got me putting a couple of sessions in, just out of excitement. It's pretty pathetic how out of shape I've gotten... My leg completely gave out on me during a couple of tunes (I believe the one that hurt the most was BYOB), and I just had to twitch my way through a couple of sections. Pretty demeaning. On the other hand, I came within 500 points or so of my Two Princes high score, so not everything is lost. Plus this happened last night with some random dudes online when I decided to see if anyone was playing:

 

 

Very easy song, but it's still cool when that happens.

[FredEffinChopin]

It looks like a Guitar Hero title might have been leaked, which I would find about unsurprising as I do annoying. It's totally possible that it's a coincidence, but I wouldn't be surprised to find out that it's just timed to steal some of the very little momentum that the return of RB will have. I could end up being wrong (assuming this leak is accurate at all), but I suspect that the next GH release won't be as much of a respectful and careful attempt to bring back a once-popular formula with some dignity as it will be a new skin on an old game. That being said, lots of people have spent $ on GH libraries, and it's definitely great that they have a way to carry them into the next gen. 

 

I only wish I could import GH libraries into RB games... Tool... Mars Volta... damn it.

[Hot Heart]

That being said, lots of people have spent $ on GH libraries, and it's definitely great that they have a way to carry them into the next gen.

 

Wait, I thought this was being published by Activision. That doesn't make sense.

[FredEffinChopin]

Woah, how did I not notice that correction? Fair enough haha.

 

Also, I meant to bring this up a couple of days ago. Better late than never though. There are still two days left in a DLC sale for the 360.

 

And some days before that I forgot to mention that the Wii-U isn't necessarily written off the release list for RB4. It probably is... But hey, make your voice heard if you want it.

[FredEffinChopin]

IGN interviewed a couple of Harmonix people and got details on some changes/additions in RB4. In summary:

 

Drums:

A new fill-based approach to activating overdrive, where instead of letting you play whatever in a small window, which used to throw some people off, they are are injecting fills from a group of genre-specific fills that are loaded into the game. I'm not sure how I feel about this. If you can't ruin your streak with it, and if you don't have to nail it to activate the overdrive, then I suppose it's harmless. For that though, why not just let the actual drums track remain, only with a final green cymbal hit to activate?

 

They're also making you count off the songs by hitting the green cymbal. It's cool if they do it where it makes sense, but if the drummer has to do it at the beginning of every song it's going to be really annoying. Especially if it means that drummers are no longer allowed to bang away with impunity as up until the drum track begins in earnest. 

 

Vocals:

Fan-made harmonies! Seriously, a bunch of fans added harmonies to every appropriate RB track and just handed it over to Harmonix. That's how you get shit done. So that's happening to all your old tracks.

 

Also this ill-defined sort of vocal freedom that I'll quote the description of:

“For hard and expert players, there was this premium on just hitting that exact pitch that was authored into the songs,” LoPiccolo said. “And what we discovered was that a lot of really good singers were constrained by that; they couldn’t have the kind of fun – the expressive fun – that they wanted to have as singers. So, we’ve added a feature now where as long as you’re singing in tune, you can kind of color outside the lines. You don’t have to stick with the prescribed part; you can make up your own harmonies on the fly, and as long as you sing them in tune, the game will give you credit for it. It’s a little bit hard to describe, but to actually do it, it’s incredibly liberating and fun. It’s a whole new way for singers to be creative with Rock Band.”

 

 

So there is that. 

 

And then some other vague stuff, and assurance of support for the "stage kit", which I never even knew existed until now.

Edited May 5, 2015 by FredEffinChopin

[TheMightyEthan]

Well that's neat.

 

As far as the drums overdrive thing: if I was worried about getting thrown off I would just continue the existing drum pattern through the overdrive section.  It was pretty much always enough to activate it.

[madbassman39]

Will they make cymbals actually important on their drums? Rockband 3 was pretty good, but nobody I knew had all cymbals working, so most people just ignored them and made it kind of a bust.

[Hot Heart]

Drums:

A new fill-based approach to activating overdrive, where instead of letting you play whatever in a small window, which used to throw some people off, they are are injecting fills from a group of genre-specific fills that are loaded into the game. I'm not sure how I feel about this. If you can't ruin your streak with it, and if you don't have to nail it to activate the overdrive, then I suppose it's harmless. For that though, why not just let the actual drums track remain, only with a final green cymbal hit to activate?

 

The games already had an option to turn off fills, which does exactly what you wanted; so I hope that remains. It keeps the section to play along to but it doesn't matter if you mess up. That's how I always played it, so this still sounds pretty good.

 

As for the starting a song thing, I could see it working as just showing a constant row of green notes (because obviously a drummer's still got to count you in in time) but you can play around until you hit 4 consecutive greens (or whatever works for that song's time signature)

[FredEffinChopin]

It's not what I wanted, it's what said I think seems like a more sensible alternative to the default overdrive activation than semi-random & specific fills. You're right, that mode does exist, and I even tried it once, though I forget at the moment what it is that wasn't sitting right about it with me. That reminder makes the new addition seem even stranger to me. As I said though, it's probably harmless as long as they don't make it its own challenge to complete to add to your score. I like overdrive the way it is, where activating it is little more than a matter of choosing a strategic spot that can maximize your score. I have to go back and try that other mode some time though, and see if I've warmed up to it any more.

 

As far as being thrown off goes, it's not a huge problem for me given the way I treat OD sections much of the time, but I do know what people are talking about. I experience it myself, though not all the time. It has to do with the delay in the drum audio that comes out in those little freestyle OD activation sections. I'm sure it doesn't effect most people at all, but it drove me nuts for a long time.There were times I wished I could just shut the freestyle drum audio off altogether. Like I said though, I'm largely over it. I usually just throw a few random hits in there and then listen to the song and come in w/ the green cymbal. 

 

The concern that I have with the countoff (aside from loving to bang drums for the full minute until I come in in songs that have long intros that are drumless) is the songs in which the in-game countdown already sounds silly; usually the same ones in which I like to bang around for a bit, aka songs with long-ass drumless intros. And generally songs that wouldn't likely be counted off when a real band plays them, and where it just wouldn't make sense, such as Roundabout by Yes. It makes sense to have the clicking countdown in all songs as a marker for when the track starts, but trying to make it a part of the song itself will only work some of the time. Maybe most of the time, to be fair. It seems like it will be awkward some of the time too though.

 

I'll try to remain optimistic. They're a great team at Harmonix. I'm just worried that they might be in search of a change where it isn't necessary so as to justify a new release. No matter what though, they've got my preorder when those begin.

[FredEffinChopin]

I neglected to post this a few days ago: Some info about the "gig" structure of the campaign, which basically sounds like setlists with things to do between songs, such as vote on the next tune, engage in stage banter (.......), and I don't know. The article is there. I honestly haven't been impressed with most of what's been talked about so far, but I'm trying to remain optimistic. Really though, as long as they just give me a way to play my purchased shit on the PS4, along with a bunch of new songs, I'll be happy.

 

Which brings me to the newer news: a reveal of six of the songs that will appear on-disc:

Avenged Sevenfold – Hail to the King

Fleetwood Mac – You Make Loving Fun

Jack White – Lazaretto

The Killers – Somebody Told Me

Spin Doctors – Little Miss Can't Be Wrong

The Who – The Seeker

 

So someone loves that, someone hates it, and someone thinks it's ok. Most people still don't care haha

[FredEffinChopin]

I neglected to post a couple of updates about the game, which is a shame, as I vaguely recall being interested in a couple of them. Here is something easier to package though: more songs.

 

Aerosmith – “Toys in the Attic”

The Cure – “Friday I’m In Love”

Dream Theater – “Metropolis –  Part 1 “The Miracle And The Sleeper””

Foo Fighters – “The Feast and the Famine”

Judas Priest – “Halls Of Valhalla”

Live – “All Over You”

The Outfield – “Your Love”

Ozzy Osbourne – “Miracle Man”

Paramore – “Still Into You”

St. Vincent – “Birth In Reverse”

Van Morrison – “Brown Eyed Girl”

 

There it is. 

[Hot Heart]

Make it happen.

https://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2016/03/01/rock-band-4-pc-port-crowdfunding/

[FredEffinChopin]

Who do I have to pay extra money to to get them to update the console versions with the online component that the last three editions of the game had?

 

This is interesting though, and of course I would like it to come to PC. I'm curious to see how that particular corner of the market responds to it at this point in time. If I thought there was any chance in hell that I'd be able to access my DLC library I would actually preorder myself a copy. 

[danielpholt]

I'm thinking of dropping £40 on Rock Band 4 for the PS4 but I've got a few questions. 

 

Firstly and perhaps most importantly, we've already got a Rock Band game on the PS3 ( I think its World Tour) and we've still got a copy of Guitar Hero (2015) laying around. Is it worth the money with all that taken into account? 

 

Secondly, do we need the new guitar to play it? 

[Hot Heart]

World Tour was a Guitar Hero game, right? I used to love the GHTunes song creator for that; really wish someone would carry on that idea.

 

Rock Band was just numbered releases with the odd Green Day and whatever.

 

I played a crapton of RB3 back in the day but I've heard all sorts of issues with DLC not carrying over in Europe (because SCEE are shit) so never saw the reason to make the jump. I think most instruments carry over but there should be a chart or something somewhere.

[danielpholt]

We borrowed my GF's brothers Guitar Hero 3: LoR and World Tour disk/equipment and have been playing that for a few days now. I think the end result is that I'm going to get myself a copy of RB4 for the PS4. As much as I enjoy Guitar Hero Live, it's replayability is a bit of an issue with the way it handles it's online play. I'm just not willing to hand over money to continue to play the same 6-7 song's I'd like to play whenever I load the game up. 

[Hot Heart]

I'd be interested to hear what you think. Harmonix were always much better at "charting" songs anyway, where they managed to merge authenticity and fun while NeverSoft (or whoever was doing later GH games) went for challenge more than anything.

 

I've actually got my PS3 still set up because I played RB3 again a while back but I tend to drum so I don't think the neighbours would appreciate it if I play too often.

[toxicitizen]

Okay, now I'm kinda sad that the PC port crowdfunding failed...