Rock Band
”Rock Band 2 Is Only as Great as Its Instruments (Which Look Great)
A normal game demo features a kiosk, maybe a couch, and it's all a pretty ho hum experience save for the fact that you're usually playing a game that won't be released for anywhere from a several months to a few years. But when testing out Rock Band 2, it's set up on a stage with professional lights, mixing boards and speakers. And, of course, their add-on fog machine. It all reminded me how freaking expensive this whole music game madness has become, but also just how far it had come.
Official Rock Band 2 Track List (Plus Carry Over "Most" of Rock Band's Disc Tracks!)
Harmonix has officially unveiled the track list for Rock Band 2. Besides being packed with rock gods like AC/DC exclusively, GNR's Chinese Democracy's official debut, Alice in Chains and Rage Against the Machine (I'm a child of the 90's), and full backwards compatibility with all DLC songs, you can "export most of the Rock Band disc tracks and upgrade them into Rock Band 2 gameplay," giving real teeth to EA's claim that it's the "largest music catalogue" of any music game ever. One disc, all your songs, truly amazing—thanks for not screwing gamers, Harmonix. Every track and all the details below. More »Premium Rock Band 2 Drum Kit Surfaces: "Badass" Is The Word You're Looking For
I play Rock Band like a champ, and when I'm with my crew I'm usually on drums. I'm a drummer, and I love playing them, and the included drum controller always seemed just fine to me. Kotaku found this photo of the premium Rock Band 2 kit and I've decided I must have it. UPDATE: OK, so this kit doesn't ship with Rock Band 2, it's an $300 optional purchase. More »Lightning Review: Rock Band Drum Covers Dampen Your Furious Beatings
The Gadget: Stitched drum covers for Rock Band from "Premium Rock Band Drum Covers", which give you five different levels of padding for sound dampening. They come in four-color style, all-black, and four-color with a white sidewall for the Wii.
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Rock Band 2 Announced, Sets Hardware and Software Precedents
Any fans of Rock Band in the audience? I said, ARE THERE ANY FANS OF ROCK BAND IN THE AUDIENCE??? YEAAHHH!!!!!!! Rock Band 2 is on the way. Here are the full details, along with a picture of the new guitar.
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The Ant Commandos' Wireless Bass Guitar For Guitar Hero, Rock Band
One of our main complaints about playing bass on Guitar Hero or Rock Band is that the guitars aren't bass guitars. The Ant Commandos, a company that specializes in making cheaper versions of video game accessories, has just released a wireless PS2/PS3 bass guitar. It doesn't solve the problem of not being able to double-strum with two fingers, which the Mad Catz version does, but it is long necked like a real bass. The Widow Maker is available now for $69. [Ant Commandos]
Guitar Hero World Tour's Touch-Guitar Previewed (Best Guitar Controller Yet)
IGN has the first hands on with Guitar Hero World Tour, which continues the instrument one-upmanship with a touch-sensitive neck on its more guitar-sized guitar that'll let you do lots of wicked stuff like alter notes during a sustain above and beyond the whammy bar, or tap it to play like a slap bass. In the music creator, you can use it to do things like mess with the drum machine in real time, tweak loops or add sustains or staccato notes. Overall, the new guitar—and the game—sound awesome, and not just a straight rip on Rock Band, which has us excited. [IGN via Game Life]
Mad Catz' Exciting Rock Band Instruments Hit Next Week
Mad Catz has an entire set of Rock Band instruments coming next week, all with some weird features that aren't on the official Harmonix ones. Rock Band Mods found that there's the wired bass guitar, a wired regular guitar, wired microphone, portable drum kit and premium wired drums. Hit the jump to see details on these, which looks like they solve some of the small issues we've been having with our own set.
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Dealzmodo: Rock Band PS2 Reduced to $100
Without Rock Band's robust download store, it's impossible to think of the PS2 version as a fully-functional rock simulator, but we're more forgiving with its new price. Rock Band PS2 is now $100 (down from $150) at Amazon and a few other retailers. Considering the price includes a USB hub, mic, drums and guitar, that's a pretty solid deal. [Amazon via CrunchGear]Rock Band Drum Kit Gets Wheelchair Accessible (With How To)
The folks at Kinetic Communications took the Rock Band Drum Kit, which totally isn't wheelchair accessible thanks to its bass kick pedal, and put $20 worth of their own accessibility mod into it to make sure it is. All it took was a doorbell, a Y cable, a pair of pliers and some sweat and they made a Rock Band kick pedal that can be activated from on the drumsticks. Super cool, Kinetic. Hit up their site to see how you can do this yourself. [Kinetic]
"I Beat My Boyfriend At Guitar Hero" Shirt
The genius behind the "I Beat My Boyfriend At Guitar Hero" Shirt is not that women can publicize their video game victories over the men in their life, but that women can publicize their video game victories over the men in their life whether or not they actually ever happened. That said, this adult adolescent male can admit that, yes, his wife can kick his ass on the drums in Rock Band. But alas, there is no shirt for that, my love. Patriarchy 4ever! [Stylin Online via ShinyShiny]More Details on the Rock Band Stage Kit
If the latest update over at Gamestop is correct, we have new details on Rock Band's upcoming stage kit, an easy way to bring real lights and fog to your otherwise fake performances. (Hey, I'm not bashing it. 99.9% of the population has failed at their dreams of rock stardom, including those who actually play instruments.) More »Ant Commandos Double Range Guitar, One Guitar To Rule Them All
Playing both Guitar Hero and Rock Band isn't much of an option for many of us living in cramped quarters, but Ant Commandos has just announced the first guitar that can support both games on multiple platforms. Their Double Range Guitar plays PS2 and PS3 versions of both Guitar Hero (I, II and III) and Rock Band. All the functionality is retained, like a second set of Rock Band solo buttons near the strum bar and distortion effects, plus you get some nice extras like wireless functionality and a belt clip that lets you spin the guitar in 360s. Available now for $59.99, here are all the unabridged details:
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Amazon Offering Cheap Music Games Today Only
It looks like Amazon will be offering deals on music-based video games all day. The Deal of the Day is Guitar Hero III on any system for $60 (that's down from $90 retail). And in addition, Gold Box offers will be running every few hours with various musically themed alternatives. 10AM Pacific offers the hint "Dude! We're putting the band back together!" Do we smell a Rock Band deal? Guess we'll know soon enough. [Amazon via Kotaku]Eight Ways to Hurt Yourself Playing Video Games
When I was talking with the SteelSeries guys about their gear, one thing they were serious about was that gaming is a sport. I scoffed. But, we've shown you how to work out with nothing gaming gear and now PC Mag catalogs eight ways to hurt yourself gaming—like any other athletic activity. Besides sore limbs via Wiitis, there's Rock Band Hand from too much drumming/strumming, WASD wrist for hardcore PC gamers (and bloggers), Burning Bladder for WoWites, and um, something that vaguely resembles epilepsy for puzzle gamers. Not featured, however, is the most notorious of Wiinjuries: More »Rock Revolution Drum Kit Confirms Absurd Arms Race
First we had Rock Band and their 5-button drum kit. Then we had the announcement of Activision's Rock Band clone (Guitar Hero IV) and its 6-button drum kit. Now, not to be outdone, we have word of Konami's Rock Revolution and its 7-button drum kit. And yes, it's all way too eerily reminiscent of "7-minute abs." More »Guitar Hero IV's Drums Will Have Six Pads, Two For Cymbals
Cymbals! That's what was missing from the Rock Band drum kit. Not missing, since some of the pads changed to cymbals whenever necessary, but it didn't have two upper pads dedicated explicitly to them. No more. Game Informer says the upcoming Guitar Hero IV will have a six-padded drum set, but a custom-designed guitar due to the legal problems Activision had with Gibson. You'll supposedly be able to create your own songs as well, but we're not sure if you can just import an existing MP3 and go from there, or if you have to create it from scratch. And by "scratch," we mean copying your favorite songs as best you can. [Primo Technology]








