I finally got to play Rock Band at a friend's place over the weekend. It's very fun. I had never played Guitar Hero before, so my skills on the guitar were pretty crappy for the first few songs. By about the fifth song I could get through some of the simpler numbers on easy and sometimes medium difficulties.

The drums were a cinch for me on most of the songs, which I half expected since I've played "real" drums for a few years. Some of the faster tempo songs (Maiden, Ramones) pushed me to my speed limit, but I was able to get through most of the songs we played on medium or hard difficulty.

I concur with those who've said that the drums are the instrument that most closely map to real-life drumming ability. It definitely forces you to develop limb independence once the level gets medium or higher. I'd love to see them add a left foot pedal for hi-hat and double bass in the future.

What surprised me a bit was how easy the vocals are. I was able to get 70%-80% on the hard level of many of the songs, and I have no vocal talent whatsoever. What I can do, however, is see the little triangle thing pointing and telling me I'm flat or sharp, and change my voice accordingly. Does it take the little hint thingies away on expert level? Seems to me a vocal "expert" should know whether they're singing on key or not.

Anyway, fun game. Looking forward to its Wii release.

No, singing on the expert skill level simply grades the pitch and phrasing even harder. Other than that, it's the same user interface.

Still love the game. Have less time to play it lately, but will get back into it more in April after I finish the album.

I'm raising this thread from the dead to point out that Rock Band 2 for PS3/360 is only $109.99 this week at Toys R' Us, and you get a $25 gift card as well.

Wait another two weeks and it should be even cheaper then!

That's with the wireless guitar and drums? I already have the game, but that's a decent price to get a wireless guitar and wireless drums. Still want to get a wireless mic, supposedly compatibility with the "Lipps" microphones is coming soon.

We got Guitar Hero III: World Tour (full pack with new guitar, drums, mic) as a Christmas present, and we are loving it! I don't know Rock Band, but I guess it's the same sort of fun

Yeah, wireless guitar and drums. I got up early on Sunday to make sure I got mine, and it was the last PS3 version in stock.

I don't even have my PS3 yet, but it's supposed to arrive tomorrow. I was looking forward to the Wii release of RB2, but Sony has a credit card that gives you $150 off a PS3, and then with a Dell 20% off coupon, I end up paying less than $200. Not bad for a Blu-Ray player and, oh yeah, a game system. And I hear it runs Linux, too!

Comparing the Wii RB2 with the PS3 RB2 andf I have to say the PS3 version guitars are more solid. I have had the PS3 for a while so have up until now gone for GH1, 2 and 3 and RB, but my in-laws have bought a Wii for Christmas so I was tempted to get RB2 for it.

Don't think I will - but I will get Super Mario Galaxy :-)

The biggest problem with the Wii isn't the controllers, it's the lack of a hard disk; i.e., no huge downloadable song library.

I thought RB2 for Wii wasn't being released until Thursday.



Definitely, being limited to what fits on an SD card was a factor in my decision as well. I'm surprised Nintendo haven't come up with a storage add-on yet, but then again, I was also surprised to see a third Holiday season where it's near impossible to find Wii systems in stores, not to mention the insane supply problems with Wii Fit and Mario Kart Wii.

If I read/heard correctly you can download songs and play them from a SD card on the wii version and those are pretty cheap. Not saying I would choose that version but if you only had a wii it sounds ok.

So do you have Lipps ? I have been thinking of getting a karaoke game. Sing star has better reviews but those aren't always right.

Depends entirely on where you buy things from. Had a good play on RB2 for Wii on Saturday :-)

I got my PS3 yesterday and had some fun playing RB2 with my fiancee. The one thing I didn't realize is that you need to have a copy of Rock Band 1 to get the tracks from that game; they're apparently not available via the Playstation store, which is a bummer.

I guess I need to buy a used RB1 copy just so I can import the tracks. Or maybe I could rent it, but my guess is everyone else on the planet is trying to rent it right now for the exact same reason... I wonder why they're not offering them as DLC?

I would guess licensing issues.

Possibly licensing issues, as Bitt said, however, I could swear they said that the extra money you pay to Xbox to import the RB1 tracks (there was some small nominal fee) was supposed to cover the re-licensing. Plus, if they did re-offer the songs as DLC, they would stand to make *more* licensing money. So that doesn't make a huge amount of sense.

I'm guessing it's more to prevent confusion, to keep people from accidentally buying a song as DLC that they already own on a disc. (That double-jeapordy thing is already a problem with album packs versus single songs anyway.) And also, possibly, to drive up sales of the leftover RB1 discs.

Maybe it's a code compatibility thing: Offering the RB1 songs as DLC might break the RB1 software somehow?

Bah. Whatever it is, it's annoying. I love some of the RB1 tracks, but I wasn't looking forward to buying the game just to get them.

Anyone think any of the game rental services (GameFly, etc.) are worth a damn?

For those Wii owners not dissuaded by the lack of storage, Rock Band 2 for Wii gets a darn good review at IGN.