rockband/guitarhero/etc

[barber2006]

I've been living under a rock when it comes to these music games. Haven't played any of them in large part because I didn't have a ps3/360 until this year when my kids got one from paw paw (thanks paw paw!).

Anyways, I figure most people who are fans of these have slowly built up expansions and tracks through downloads over the years. What I'm clueless on is where to start as a complete rookie. Buy the new high priced beetles set? Find something used? Buy expansion disks or do download only? For those who enjoy these, if you had to start from scratch where would you begin?


p.s. Is there anything on the horizon that will let you play with real instruments? One of the reasons that I never played these was because it looked like I could just learn the songs on a real guitar faster than on a fake one.

[Kyo]

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[BadKarma]

What's with all these shitty topics lately

[Kaisha]

Wait for more concrete news on Rock Band 3 is all I can say.

Otherwise if you *have* to have one of the games, Rock Band has the easier entry point. Cheapest route would likely be the RB2 kit, then rent (or find cheap) RB1 so you can export the songs out of it (costs you $5 to buy the DLC key to allow you to do so), and play from RB2, which you'll use as your 'main' game to play and purchase DLC songs for.

RB Beetles is limited to Beetles-related tunes only so far, so unless you want the peripherals from that kit, I'd just stick with RB2.

The controllers are cross compatible for the most part on the 360/PS3 platforms, so you can grab Guitar Hero at a later date if you want, with the only real difference being that the drum tracks get brought down from 5 notes to 4.
(GH Drums has 3 pads + 2 cymbals to hit, RB is just 4 drums)

[Shojin]

^

Rock Band 2 is the best entry point imo, I find myself getting confused with the amount of Guitar Hero games and what is compatible with what, plus the DLC that comes out for Rock Band is compatible with both games whereas Guitar Hero has DLC for 3 different games right now.

http://www.amazon.com/Playstation-3-...2243761&sr=8-3

$88 for the complete kit is a great price if you have a PS3, X360 one is a little more expensive on Amazon. There is also a cymbal expansion kit you can buy if you want the drum set to be more like the real thing.

Just fyi, I would buy RB2 new as it comes with a one-time use code that gives you 20 free songs. The expansion discs do the same thing (AC/DC Expansion disc etc) the only one that doesn't is RB1 I think.

Rock Band 3 will probably release some time late next year, but the instruments should work for them anyway hopefullyand I'm sure the songs will be able to be imported in to RB3, so don't be scared to jump on it now.

[Vincento]

Not sure what the first two responses to this were, but these guys are right about Rock Band 2 it's a good place to start.

My first current gen rhythm game was Guitar Hero 3, and I honestly prefer it over Rock Band. World Tour is a bit easier, useful for moving from medium to hard/expert. Rhythm games in general kinda died (for me at least) about 2ish years ago.

[antihero]

GH1 and GH2 were produced by company A, then they sold the rights to company B, company B made GH3 and all of the random drivel associated with it/spinoffs (metallica, van halen, world tour, 5), and company A made rock band with the same engine as GH2 (the best engine of all). i'd look up the company names but its 2:33 am and i'm fucking wasted, just sayin'

[Shojin]

Harmonix were the original developer of Guitar Hero and the now developer of Rock Band 1/2.

[Kaisha]

All I know is, is that Rock Band 3 is going to be 'different'. Harmonix seems content milking RB right now with band-focused games (lolGreenDay), so I'm under the assumption that they have to be planning/working on something special with RB3 to make it stand out from being essentially a 'retail standalone expansion pack', which is all that Activision has been doing lately.

[Deimos]

What's with all these shitty topics lately

I don't see what's so shitty about this one, there's a ton of these games now, and it's confusing if you're just getting into them.

Speaking as someone that played these games very seriously for the last couple of years - get Rock Band 2. Ignore Guitar Hero games entirely, unless you get bored of RB2 somehow and need more songs/games to play. It's by far the best game quality-wise, and there are over 1000 songs available for it now.

[Shojin]

http://i49.tinypic.com/23uzoe1.gif

[stewie]

GH1 and GH2 were produced by company A, then they sold the rights to company B, company B made GH3 and all of the random drivel associated with it/spinoffs (metallica, van halen, world tour, 5), and company A made rock band with the same engine as GH2 (the best engine of all). i'd look up the company names but its 2:33 am and i'm fucking wasted, just sayin'

GH2/Rock Band have fucking horrible strumming engines, otherwise I agree.

[Hellfury]

"slight" necro here, about Guitar Hero games, I just ordered World Tour, Legends of Rock and 5 for PS3, but I have 2x PS3, one in France and one in Norway, can the same purchased DLC be used on both consoles (assuming same PSN account) or would I need to buy the DLC twice over? (not counting the free DLC)

I tried looking at the official pages, but I couldn't find the precise answer I was looking for with regards to multiple PS3 consoles.

[rithridan]

As far as i know (PSN) content is tied to the account it is bought on.

[Hellfury]

Ah splendid, thank you

[Hiryo]

Another cool thing is when you use one of your 5 downloads to a system under your account, anyone playing on that system can use the content, despite them being a different user.

[Hellfury]

That's pretty neat, but a bit odd that the game publishers don't complain to sony about it, you'd think this would lose them a fair bit of money, is that 5 downloads from PSN for all DLC for all games, or just for some o.O?
(the only thing I ever used PSN for before was getting Yoda for Soul Calibur )

[Kaisha]

Publishers can force a game to require you to be logged onto PSN of the account that owns the content if they want, just next to none do.
(I can only think of two titles off PSN that do, Warhawk and Final Fight)

Forcing it wouldn't be a problem aside from you having to have a stable net connection, and it'd kill off game sharing if you abuse that with friends.