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Rock Band Platform |OT|

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GH2 was probably the only game where I could say I enjoyed playing the majority of the tracks. Rock Band 1 had a pretty good setlist, though not nearly as diverse with too much filler. Rock Band 2 seems like half of the damn soundtrack was thrown in at the last minute without Harmoix thinking, "Will people enjoy listening to this?" (AKA, half the female bands).
 
Just checking this thread after a 3 week hiatus. I hate being at school. And WHAT THE FUCK WHERE IS ALL I WANT I WANT IT.
 
I think the proof of my GH2 statement is in how polarizing it is here. You are either saying it's the worst or the best. I'd fucking say that PROVES it was way too focused toward a specific group.

ahoyhoy said:
GH2 was probably the only game where I could say I enjoyed playing the majority of the tracks. Rock Band 1 had a pretty good setlist, though not nearly as diverse with too much filler. Rock Band 2 seems like half of the damn soundtrack was thrown in at the last minute without Harmoix thinking, "Will people enjoy listening to this?" (AKA, half the female bands).
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RB2 has a VERY weird song selection. Good stuff, but confusing shit, too. But that's fine, to cover their bases. We could be talking about different songs, mind you.

GHWT's is much more appealing to me, though. Even though it's less songs I want.

GoutPatrol said:
Just checking this thread after a 3 week hiatus. I hate being at school. And WHAT THE FUCK WHERE IS ALL I WANT I WANT IT.
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Be patient, it'll happen. Right now the only artists that really got promoted over multiple weeks were the Police and NIN.

Although I'm angry that they haven't been releasing packs as much, it doesn't save me money. :|
 
From what I played in RB2, the starting songs are REALLY BAD (except for Float On).

Hopefully I unlock better ones. I miss the linear career.
 
DGRP said:
From what I played in RB2, the starting songs are REALLY BAD (except for Float On).

Hopefully I unlock better ones. I miss the linear career.
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RB2 is strange, because the songs may be fun, but not really fun to play.
 
DGRP said:
From what I played in RB2, the starting songs are REALLY BAD (except for Float On).

Hopefully I unlock better ones. I miss the linear career.
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Yeah, in terms of guitar the starting songs aren't much fun. My favorite part of RB2's setlist is that the later songs are really fun on guitar. Battery, Painkiller, Panic Attack, Peace Sells, among others are awesome.
 
DGRP said:
From what I played in RB2, the starting songs are REALLY BAD (except for Float On).

Hopefully I unlock better ones. I miss the linear career.
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Yeah there's a lot of boring old songs in there. My friends and I kept shouting "booooring!" way too often when going through the career/challenges.
 
Man, I'm surprised so many people have issues with the way songs unlock. It didn't even cross my mind and I had pretty much everything unlocked before I knew it. I just played BWT, and when a song I hadn't played yet became available, I played it. I really didn't even have to play as many repeats is I did in RB1 BWT.
 
M3wThr33 said:
Not in terms of appealing to a general population. It's WAYYYY too focused.

Look at their choices.

Foo Fighters? MONKEY WRENCH
Aerosmith? Last Child
Cheap Trick? SURRENDER
Alice Cooper? Billion Dollar Babies
Alice in Chains? Them Bones.

I can go on, but when I think of these artists, I don't immediately think of those songs. I don't want to play Tattooed Love Boys when I want to play the Pretenders, I want Brass in Pocket.

GH2's list was appealing to a single group of people and basically just their elitist wet dream songlist.
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GH2 is great because of this. Back then, Harmonix picked songs because they thought the charts would be good. Unlike now, when it just seems to be a lucky coincidence if a song is fun to play.

Rock Band 1 has a fucking awful tracklist, by comparison. Surrender is more fun to play in GH2 than most the songs in RB1's first 4 tiers.
 
TheGreatDave said:
GH2 is great because of this. Back then, Harmonix picked songs because they thought the charts would be good. Unlike now, when it just seems to be a lucky coincidence if a song is fun to play.
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That's the downside of having to cater to 3 instruments and a singer. GHWT is falling into the same pitfall.
 
M3wThr33 said:
Not in terms of appealing to a general population. It's WAYYYY too focused.

Look at their choices.

Foo Fighters? MONKEY WRENCH
Aerosmith? Last Child
Cheap Trick? SURRENDER
Alice Cooper? Billion Dollar Babies
Alice in Chains? Them Bones.

I can go on, but when I think of these artists, I don't immediately think of those songs. I don't want to play Tattooed Love Boys when I want to play the Pretenders, I want Brass in Pocket.

GH2's list was appealing to a single group of people and basically just their elitist wet dream songlist.
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I think you have it wrong. GH2's setlist seems to come out of first creating a list of artists who would appeal to the general population, then finding songs by that artist that would work best in the game.
Besides, I don't see the above list supporting your assertion. For Cheap Trick only Want you to Want Me is more well known than Surrender. Monkey Wrench is one of Foo's biggest hits, and Them Bones got more than enough radio play.
 
Besides, the track list could have been worse.

It could have been this:
51dS%2BMHY-cL._SCLZZZZZZZ_.jpg
 
TheGreatDave said:
GH2 is great because of this. Back then, Harmonix picked songs because they thought the charts would be good. Unlike now, when it just seems to be a lucky coincidence if a song is fun to play.

Rock Band 1 has a fucking awful tracklist, by comparison. Surrender is more fun to play in GH2 than most the songs in RB1's first 4 tiers.
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TheGreatDAve prroving once against his taste in music is attrocious. Are you european or something?

I decided to download the rhcp album . "They're Red Hot" is probably the hardest song i've played in rockband. The drumming is wtf, the singing is wtf, and the guitar is wtf. I haven't been able to finish it on expert... and it's only 1:30 long.

Edit: Let me reitterate this again, GH2 sucked shit cause even though they picked some good songs, the covers were worse than covers you hear at a local karaoke bar. Give me the damn masters and i'd be happy. At least GH1 had better covers.
 
M3wThr33 said:
Not in terms of appealing to a general population. It's WAYYYY too focused.

Look at their choices.

Foo Fighters? MONKEY WRENCH
Aerosmith? Last Child
Cheap Trick? SURRENDER
Alice Cooper? Billion Dollar Babies
Alice in Chains? Them Bones.

I can go on, but when I think of these artists, I don't immediately think of those songs. I don't want to play Tattooed Love Boys when I want to play the Pretenders, I want Brass in Pocket.

GH2's list was appealing to a single group of people and basically just their elitist wet dream songlist.
Click to expand...

They consciously chose not to go for the big hits most of the time and try to spread the love around a bit more to some of the excellent work by an artist that wasn't the song you always hear by them on the radio.

"Tattooed Love Boys" isn't just a much, much better Pretenders song, but frankly Chrissie Hynde apparently hates "Brass in Pocket".

The others are all pretty great and right up there. "Surrender" is perhaps slightly less well-known or just as well-known as "I Want You To Want Me" and is a great Cheap Trick song, "Monkey Wrench" was one of Foo Fighter's first big hits, "Billion Dollar Babies"... wasn't on the PS2 version so I have no idea, but it was a great song for Alice Cooper... it just goes on.

GH3 had a good setlist, but it also had the problem of thinking it was giving people the big hits that they wanted when they often didn't play nearly as well.

I also have a fundamental objection to playing "Paint It, Black" (I love the song, of course) under the concept of a guitar game. Give me Sitar Hero and I'll be happy. Sitar is awesome. I am heartened that almost every time I'm in the Haight there is a guy sitting on the sidewalk playing the sitar. This almost makes up for the corner of Haight and Ashbury being home to a Ben and Jerry's, a souvenir shop, and formerly the home of a Gap (it left and now some even more horrible "urban" "lifestyle" "art" and I think maybe even "extreme" clothing shop or something is there).
 
koam said:
TheGreatDAve prroving once against his taste in music is attrocious. Are you european or something?

I decided to download the rhcp album . "They're Red Hot" is probably the hardest song i've played in rockband. The drumming is wtf, the singing is wtf, and the guitar is wtf. I haven't been able to finish it on expert... and it's only 1:30 long.
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This isn't a question of music taste. As a playlist, I like listening to Rock Band 1, probably more than GH2. This isn't iTunes.
 
TheGreatDave said:
GH2 is great because of this. Back then, Harmonix picked songs because they thought the charts would be good. Unlike now, when it just seems to be a lucky coincidence if a song is fun to play.

Rock Band 1 has a fucking awful tracklist, by comparison. Surrender is more fun to play in GH2 than most the songs in RB1's first 4 tiers.
Click to expand...

I have to agree somewhat, though Rock Band is much harder to pick songs that are fun on guitar, because they need to be fun on everything else as well. Instead of songs that are a 10 with regard to fun on Guitar, we're forced to sit through songs that are all middle of the road for all instruments. That's the price we have to pay for a less centralized experience really, is it not?
 
AtomicShroom said:
Yeah there's a lot of boring old songs in there. My friends and I kept shouting "booooring!" way too often when going through the career/challenges.
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For me, those "boring" older songs are the best songs on there, but they just aren't all that exciting to play (except on vocals). It's really a dilemma. Here are these fast, fun songs that I can't stand listening to, but meanwhile the music I like isn't suited for some instruments (drums, usually). Classic rock excels at guitar, but drums might get a bit repetitive.
 
I wish either GH or RB would come up with a way to upload songs to the game either from something like itunes. I like about half the songs, but nothing I would be really excited to play will ever get put into either game :(
 
Halvie said:
I wish either GH or RB would come up with a way to upload songs to the game either from something like itunes. I like about half the songs, but nothing I would be really excited to play will ever get put into either game :(
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Kinda difficult when you need to have the masters.
 
Petrie said:
I have to agree somewhat, though Rock Band is much harder to pick songs that are fun on guitar, because they need to be fun on everything else as well. Instead of songs that are a 10 with regard to fun on Guitar, we're forced to sit through songs that are all middle of the road for all instruments. That's the price we have to pay for a less centralized experience really, is it not?
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I dunno, it's hard to say for sure when it comes to drums, cos I can't imagine the charts in the same way, but I think the GH2 tracklist would be pretty fantastic to sing. And no worse on bass.

I don't see the divide. The issue seems to be both franchises feeling compelled to put songs a lot of people know in the game. Which I can understand. For most people the idea of a good or bad chart means nothing to them. Just a good or bad song.
 
TheGreatDave said:
GH2 is great because of this. Back then, Harmonix picked songs because they thought the charts would be good. Unlike now, when it just seems to be a lucky coincidence if a song is fun to play.
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This. Pinball Wizard is an awesome song to sing and listen to but when charted on expert guitar it translated to a strumfest of epic proportions. But my question is... is it because the newer songs are just not great for guitar or is it because there isn't as much TLC going into each song when you release two-to-five songs a week?
 
Kusagari said:
GH2 has the best songlist of any music game on disk.
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I agree. At least with the 360 version. "Possum Kingdom" is one of the greatest songs ever recorded, plus you got "Free Bird" and "Heart-Shaped Box" and "John The Fisherman" and legitimately GREAT metal like "Laid To Rest" and "Fall Of Pangea" and "Freya".

Totally aces.
 
LittleTokyo said:
This. Pinball Wizard is an awesome song to sing and listen to but when charted on expert guitar it translated to a strumfest of epic proportions. But my question is... is it because the newer songs are just not great for guitar or is it because there isn't as much TLC going into each song when you release two-to-five songs a week?
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More that the songs are chosen for reasons other than having a fun guitar track. If Harmonix made Drum Hero, we'd see a lot of difference in the track list, and very few repetitive drum charts, but that track list might not translate well to guitar, bass, or vocals.

Pinball Wizard isn't a great guitar song, but it's an awesome vocals song, and has some very cool stuff going on in the bass and drum charts. Added to this is the fact that it's a popular song, which makes it ideal at parties.

Yes, because there are four instruments to consider, no every song is great for every instrument, but Harmonix has done a great job in making sure there's a variety of good out there. They really have to balance between what's fun, what they want, and what sells, three criteria that rarely line up nicely.
 
PacoDG said:
So you know, you are not alone. I downloaded and listened to the tracks over and over again on my computer before purchasing any of them though (ended up only getting "Behind Blue Eyes" .. for now, just because I liked that song beforehand).

The two Rock Band threads here have made me:
1) Respect Paramore
2) Find The Who to be a highly overrated band (not bad in the least, just a lot of praise in their direction when I feel there is soooooo many other artists not being touched in Rock Band.. or Guitar Hero for that matter)
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There's something wrong with you. Really.
 
Jeez I can't 5 star Testify for the life of me. For some reason I find it really hard to keep a combo on the opening part and other parts like it.
 
The Who are a great band, but I feel their quality in this game is a little over rated. Don't get me wrong; Won't Get Fooled Again is the best RB1 track on every instrument, but I don't think all their pack is essential. Though maybe if I could cope with the expert drum charts more I'd change my mind.
 
TheGreatDave said:
The Who are a great band, but I feel their quality in this game is a little over rated. Don't get me wrong; Won't Get Fooled Again is the best RB1 track on every instrument, but I don't think all their pack is essential. Though maybe if I could cope with the expert drum charts more I'd change my mind.
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I actually agree. I would definitely suggest going through the list, looking at the chart of the instrument of choice on youtube and picking up some songs, but not all of them. I've never been so embarrased as when Rockband randomly picked "Real Good Looking Boy" when my football playing friends were with me. Though I did save face by singing the song with my best Herb the pervert from Family Guy impression. But that got old after the 6th minute.
 
I like Real Good Looking Boy! Songs like Going Mobile, Leaving Here and Baba O'Riley I find quite poor on guitar. I'm not sure what they're like on other instruments though.
 
Vargas said:
What are you doing exactly? I have been trying to beat Ride the Lightning since day one and I cannot get past the first solo. I only have six songs that I cannot finish and most of them have crazy solos or the just plain crazy like Constant Motion.
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One adjustment I made is to deploy overdrive slightly before the solo. It seems counterintuitive because it means it will run out earlier in the solo, but it's easier to concentrate on the zigzags when you're not dealing with deploying.
Then I just completely stopped trying to HO/PO them. If you're trying to HO/PO and you miss a note, every note between then and when you realize you messed up is going to be missed. I just strummed everything and the first time I tried that I made it past the beginning with a full crowd meter. Then just don't miss the overdrive sections after that. If you do, you're probably screwed when the other tricky part of the solo comes up.
But really, I'm just a lot better than I was the day RB1 came out. Also, I'm playing it on RB2 with hyperspeed on.
 
I pretty much feel the same way about the drum charts. WGFA is fucking awesome and challenging, while most of the other who songs are just kind of random, or a tad too fast for me to really excel on. Overall the way they made the other songs challenging didn't really make them any more fun.
 
Im having a hard time finding proper people to play with online. If anyone ever wants to play I can do Expert Guitar, Hard/Expert Drums. Havent really touched vocals or bass. my PSN is Pardia
 
guitar hero II may have an excellent set list if you are just talking about the songs themselves, but the renditions on said disk are fucking awful. cover of heart shaped box, cover of killing in the name, cover of surrender.... fucking horrible. guitar hero II sucks balls because of it.
 
Has anyone had any leaderboard problems? None of my scores have uploaded for almost a week now and its really starting to piss me off. I've always played in world tour so I don't know if that effects things...
 
FrenchMovieTheme said:
guitar hero II may have an excellent set list if you are just talking about the songs themselves, but the renditions on said disk are fucking awful. cover of heart shaped box, cover of killing in the name, cover of surrender.... fucking horrible. guitar hero II sucks balls because of it.
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I can see that being a problem for some people. Personally I don't give a shit.
 
I'm never going to finish this
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gqfZ1oP4mZM&feature=related

I can see that being a problem for some people. Personally I don't give a shit.
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They took classic songs and destroyed them to the point where the fun was taken out of them. Monkey Wrench, Heart Shaped box, and killing in the name of where just terrible and distracting.

Songwise
RB1 > GH3 > GH1 > GH2

I haven't played enough of RB2 to comment on it but it's probably in between GH1 and GH2. The only problem i have with RB1 is that it's too easy.
 
I take back what I said about every RHCP being good to get. They're Red Hot sucks to play.
But, if you might as well get the whole album; I think it's cheaper that way than just passing on one song.
 
I can see that being a problem for some people. Personally I don't give a shit.
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its not the fact that they ARE covers, its the "quality" of the covers (lackthereof). they were fucking horrible. its like saying "pizza is pizza to me! i dont' care if i have pepperoni or shit as the topping!"

horrible covers and i honestly would rather those songs just not be in the game at all. there have been some covers in RB/GH which are ok, but most of them in GH 2 are not ok in any fashion.
 
TheGreatDave said:
Covers don't bug me at all. Its why I'm getting Rock Revolution.
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Speaking of good deals and rip-offs. How many songs are in that game? And how much does the game cost?
What's the price per song there?
It seems like a lot when you are "forced" into a large song pack.
Maybe back in the "old days" of GH1 and GH2 it would have been a better deal, but not now.
 
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