Harmonix has announced today that Rock Band 2 will be releasing this September for the Xbox 360 and later for other consoles. Not too many details released, but there's some very exciting things mentioned for current RB owners and some things that are very interesting for any rhythm gamer as well:
All Rock Band DLC is compatible with all Rock Band games. The Harmonix team's promise of Rock Band being a "new music platform" is holding up strong.
"New ways to enjoy all of your music library" promised, giving potentially more replay value to old DLC.
Instruments will be revamped for a new bundle, but all old instruments will still be compatible with the new game.
Online play modes say to be vastly improved, and the new World Tour mode sees many new improvements based on player feedback.
New features to help players transition from difficulty to difficulty, as well as helping players transition from "expert to real instruments"(!).
Guitar/vocals combo play was also mentioned as having new features added.
Also worth noting is in the IGN interview, a list of bands were mentioned by the interviewer:
Agent Orange
The Beatles
Built to Spill
The Buzzcocks
Journey
Led Zeppelin
Modest Mouse
Pavement
The Replacements
Tool
The Harmonix rep responded by saying that some of these are "bands that are on the Rock Band 2 disc", which given that list is pretty nice conjecture-wise. A few keen-eyed internet folks have also noticed that in one of the screenshots, the lyrics are for Nirvana's "Drain You" from their album Nevermind, which may be hinting at a release of this long-expected DLC album.
Exciting stuff, should be interesting to see what gets revealed further at this year's E3 and when the game releases.
I'm sure visual change as well as functional. Because you can't say that all the Les Paul's functioned very well. Buttons broke, wammy bars broke on alot of my friends guitars who I know personally. Then for the rest of the world..
Posted by jbean3535 - Mon 06/30 2008 - 10:31 AM [ quote ]
If you've already downloaded a song for the original "Rock Band" — at about $1.99 per track, which can't be transferred to an MP3 player — it will immediately be loaded into your "Rock Band 2" song list without needing to be repurchased or re-downloaded. It's the first time such retroactive compatibility has been introduced in a music game.
Already done. DDR Universe/Ultramix series
The official announcement of "Rock Band 2" means the industry's rhythm game rivalry will enter a three-way matchup this fall against Activision and RedOctane's latest "Guitar Hero" title and Konami's new-music-game-on-the-block "Rock Revolution," which will use the Wii's controllers to simulate air guitars and drums.
By Rock Revolution, they mean that game that Disney is doing with no special controllers? Hahah
Posted by n00b - Mon 06/30 2008 - 10:45 AM [ quote ]
backword compatible DLC? way to lie to us on DDR freak konami, way to lie.
By Rock Revolution, they mean that game that Disney is doing with no special controllers? Hahah
Ultimate Band isn't using special controllers. If you saw the video of it, you would've known that.
Uh yeah, that's what he said. The article mixed up Rock Revolution and Ultimate Band.
Anyways, I really don't see the point of Rock Band 2, unless they have some amazing mind-blowing new features, otherwise why not just release everything as DLC?
and lets say there are 70 songs on the disc, for 60 bucks.
would you rather pay 2 bucks a song?
This is true.
Not to mention that there are indeed improvements that could be made to the game as a whole that warrent a whole new release.
When they say changes to online play, I hope they do something to discourage leaving in the middle of a fucking match. Seriously, online play is unplayable.
For changing world tour mode, I hope they'll make a single player equivalent this time around. WT was the most exciting thing about Rock Band until you realized that you had to have 2+ players to play it. Some of us live alone. :/
CStar is right. Solo tour was kind of boring cause you really didn't have anything to look forward to but getting all the new songs and golden crap. Playing World Tour would definitely take time and leave you coming back to keep playing. Hopefully World Tour is accessible single player. Regardless, I will be picking this up. I'm very excited to see The Beatles and Led Zeppelin listed as artists on this game. Finally my dreams can come true. :)
shocked they didn't announce online Band World Tour. it's the only "duh" feature that needs to be added, and it would cause more "Can't wait for RB2!" and less "Why the hell do we need this?" even as a huge RB fan, i'm currently in the latter category until they actually give us some details on why we should care. all we have in concrete is that it's coming out.
i also would love to see single player Band World Tour. trying to get multiple people that have the spare time and desire, all simultaneously, to do the endless setlist (hell, even a lot of the double digit setlists) is a hell of a chore.
i would really like to able to customize your supporting band in single player. or at least the option to have all computer characters completely randomized.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Mr. Bojangles
They're actually touting 120 songs on-disc in a few places.
that would be absolutely insane. 120 songs for $60=50 cents per song. and when more than half of those songs would be licensed...i don't see it happening. not that i wouldn't love to see that, of course.
Slap "While my Guitar Gently Weeps" in there and this is an automatic no-brainer purchase.
Posted by Angel Jin - Mon 06/30 2008 - 07:57 PM [ quote ]
Quote:
Originally Posted by Mr. Bojangles
They're actually touting 120 songs on-disc in a few places. Plus after almost a year, an engine refresh is going to be nice.
is that a RB2 claim or GH:WT? I figured GH:WT would do it to hold people off until they can figure out a way to shell out DLC.
Harmonix ftw. All my DLC will work on the new game and the DLC you buy post-RB2 launch works on RB1. I'm sure everyone can guess that OBWT will be added to the game, and they've also mention several new play modes. that should be fun. and with a drumkit like this one coming out, i'm already sold.
i've also heard that there's no real cosmetic changes to the game. they just added alot of stuff. i'd really like to see the game run at 60FPS though. That would make the visuals fairly cool....then again, watching some of those effects while someone plays a solo is pretty awesome as well just as it is.
btw, when i mean i've heard, i mean i read the full interview on IGN. This is the only game that makes E3 exciting.
