Posts Tagged ‘rock band

18
Jul

Cheapskate: Rock Band 2 Wireless Drums? No Thanks.

By Russ Crandall 0 Comments
Categories: Cheapskate, Editorials and Games
Tags: , ,


So yeah, that title just about wraps it up. I love Rock Band, and I will buy RB2 just as quick as I can find it, but I DO NOT want wireless drums. You may ask me, why wouldn’t I want wireless drums?

And to answer your question, a question: why would you WANT wireless drums?

I don’t want wireless drums because a) they use batteries that I don’t want to waste money (or time charging) on, and b) I’m not going to be walking around while I play the drums, like I do when I play the (rightly) wireless guitar. So, what’s the point?

14
Jul

My Faves/My Gripes: Six Best, Worst Rock Band 2 Tracks

By Russ Crandall 0 Comments
Categories: Games, Music, My Faves, My Gripes and News
Tags: , , ,


Okay, so the whole on-disc tracklist for Rock Band 2 came out today. There are a total of 84 tracks - some good, some bad. Here are the six I’m looking forward to the most, and the six I’m dreading the most:

My Faves
Beck - “E-Pro”
Fleetwood Mac - “Go Your Own Way”
Foo Fighters - “Everlong”
Modest Mouse - “Float On”
Nirvana - “Drain You” (Wait, does this mean it’s not coming as DLC?)
Soundgarden - “Spoonman” (ALL MY FRIENDS ARE INDIANS!!!)

My Gripes
Disturbed - “Down with the Sickness”
Dream Theater - “Panic Attack”
Guns N’ Roses - “Shackler’s Revenge”
Linkin Park - “One Step Closer”
Panic at the Disco - “Nine in the Afternoon”
Steely Dan - “Bodhitsattva”
…plus all of the “Bonus Songs”

Keep reading for the full list:

Continue reading ‘My Faves/My Gripes: Six Best, Worst Rock Band 2 Tracks’

13
Jul

Rockin’ In The Fake World

By Mark Hill 2 Comments
Categories: Editorials, Games, Music and News
Tags: ,


I’ve had a Rock Band resurgence in my life lately, due to some friends that have come over to my apartment ready to rokk. I even downloaded the B-52’s “Roam” yesterday, so a fellow rock star and I could play it for the first time at the same time. This has me pretty excited about any forthcoming Rock Band 2 announcements that may come out this week’s E3.

One interesting (though not completely awesome) thing I read on Xbox 360 Fanboy just now, is that the Madden 09 soundtrack will be available as DLC in the form of a few songs being released a week. There aren’t many specifics regarding the deal like price or anything, but the Madden 09 soundtrack has been released, and there is absolutely nothing that I would even consider downloading from it.

30
Jun

Potential My Gripe or My Fave: Rock Band DLC Song Transfers (Updated)

By Russ Crandall 0 Comments
Categories: Games, Music, My Faves and My Gripes
Tags: , ,


Update: YESSS! Rock Band 2 was just announced, and that “all the current and future DLC will be compatible with both versions of Rock Band, as well as the same instrument controllers” - so put this in the “my faves” grouping.

I have to hand it to Rock Band-developers Harmonix - they’ve always done right by me. Whereas I feel gypped by the monster that is Activision and Guitar Hero III, Harmonix has always seemed to give us what we want (but sometimes not when we want it). Their DLC songs are cheaper (and usually better than the crappola offered by GHIII), and the full-album DLC idea is just about awesome.

But we’re at a crossroads, folks, and I bet you didn’t even know it. What happens to all my DLC content when Rock Band 2 comes out? I have at least 30 songs downloaded so far, and I’m sure there’ll be more to come. Considering that the average song costs $2, that’s $60 in DLC investment alone. It would be awesome if I can play the songs that I already paid for in Rock Band 2 (maybe even with whatever new features the RB2 will have?). I don’t want to have to pop the old Rock Band back into my Xbox 360 just to play some old songs - I want them to follow me to my new profile. Let me build a DLC library!

26
Jun

My Faves: Top Six (Actually) Classic Albums For Rock Band - Indie 90s Edition

By Russ Crandall 1 Comment
Categories: Editorials, Games, Music and My Faves
Tags: , , , , , , , , , , ,


I, like Tyler, feel that the folks behind Rock Band may not truly understand what a “classic” album is. Judas Priest? No, sir. That being said, I’m here to give them a little free advice, in the form of lists of albums that should become fully-downloadable DLC albums.

The 90s are when things get heated. Everyone’s got an opinion. We’re still feeling the reverberations of this decade, and I can see this list changing over the years. I had a hard time fitting only six albums into one list, so I split them by popular releases and indie titles. This is the indie list. Let the comments flow:

90s! Unite!

Continue reading ‘My Faves: Top Six (Actually) Classic Albums For Rock Band - Indie 90s Edition’

24
Jun

My Faves: Top Six (Actually) Classic Albums For Rock Band - Popular 90s Edition

By Russ Crandall 4 Comments
Categories: Editorials, Games, Music and My Faves
Tags: , , , , , , , , ,


I, like Tyler, feel that the folks behind Rock Band may not truly understand what a “classic” album is. Judas Priest? No, sir. That being said, I’m here to give them a little free advice, in the form of lists of albums that should become fully-downloadable DLC albums.

The 90s are when things get heated. Everyone’s got an opinion. We’re still feeling the reverberations of this decade, and I can see this list changing over the years. I had a hard time fitting only six albums into one list, so I split them by popular releases and indie titles. This is the popular list. Let the comments flow:

90s! Unite!

Continue reading ‘My Faves: Top Six (Actually) Classic Albums For Rock Band - Popular 90s Edition’

19
Jun

My Faves: Top Six (Actually) Classic Albums For Rock Band - 80s Edition

By Russ Crandall 1 Comment
Categories: Editorials, Games, Music and My Faves
Tags: , , , , , , , ,


I, like Tyler, feel that the folks behind Rock Band may not truly understand what a “classic” album is. Judas Priest? No, sir. That being said, I’m here to give them a little free advice, in the form of lists of albums that should become fully-downloadable DLC albums.

Unlike my 70s list, my 80s list is influenced a little more by the singles that some of these albums produced, and I would be okay with skipping a couple tracks from each of these records. I must also admit that The Pixies’ Doolittle would have made this list if it wasn’t already dropping next week.

Onward, 80s!

Continue reading ‘My Faves: Top Six (Actually) Classic Albums For Rock Band - 80s Edition’

17
Jun

My Faves: Top Six (Actually) Classic Albums For Rock Band - 70s Edition

By Russ Crandall 8 Comments
Categories: Editorials, Games, Music and My Faves
Tags: , , , , , , , ,


I, like Tyler, feel that the folks behind Rock Band may not truly understand what a “classic” album is. Judas Priest? No, sir. That being said, I’m here to give them a little free advice, in the form of lists of albums that should become fully-downloadable DLC albums.

Let’s take a page from the 1970s first, okay?

Continue reading ‘My Faves: Top Six (Actually) Classic Albums For Rock Band - 70s Edition’

13
Jun

Review / My Faves / My Gripes: Rock Band’s Album Selection

By Tyler Miller 7 Comments
Categories: My Faves, My Gripes and Reviews
Tags: , ,

When news first hit way back in July 07 at E3 that Rock Band would provide full length albums as DLC, all of our heads were bedazzled with thoughts of getting to play whole LPs like Weezer’s “Blue Album” and Ini Kamoze’s self-titled debut, featuring the record shattering hit “Hot Stepper”.

Sadly, the first album released was Judas Priest’s “Screaming For Vengence”… Not a good start. I think I and every other literate, halfway intelligent non-mouthbreathing person on the Earth collectively sighed and did a slow, Three Stooges-esque face wipe in disbelief. My hopes of playing either classic rock anthems or late 90’s punk/alt/rock were dashed by patent leather and studded bracelets. I hate when people go for the low hanging fruit of track selection that is Heavy Metal. Prime example: KISS. I hate KISS. You know why? Because everyone knows who they are, but no one knows their songs. People think KISS and they think make up and costumes, not classic rock. Name me two KISS songs. “I Wanna Rock and Roll All Night (And Party Every Day)”, and…? What? That’s right, nothing. Because they suck. Now, name me one Judas Priest song. “Breaking the Law”? Good job, you must have watched Beavis and Butthead when you were younger. The same goes for The Grateful Dead and Pink Floyd to a certain extent.

NOTE: Snail Face = Bad

Screaming for Vengeance gets 5/5 Snail Faces

Continue reading ‘Review / My Faves / My Gripes: Rock Band’s Album Selection’

01
Jun

My Gripes: Rock Band “Complete My Album”

By Russ Crandall 0 Comments
Categories: Apple, Games, Music and My Gripes
Tags: , , , ,


The other day I purchased The Cars’ “Just What I Needed” for Rock Band, to the tune of $2. And then, after much deliberation, previewing and soul-searching, I decided that I would buy the whole album, which is available for $15. But it also comes with “Just What I Needed”, and doesn’t give me any discount on my already-purchased track.

So, I paid $17 for the same album that everyone else gets. Although that’s still cheaper than buying each track individually ($18), I feel like I was ripped off a little bit.

Apple has a feature where if you buy a track from them, you have 180 days to “complete the album” for a discounted price. Couldn’t Harmonix do the same?

31
May

Backwards Influence

By Russ Crandall 5 Comments
Categories: Editorials, Games and Music
Tags: , ,


Rock Band has a crazy hold on me. I just downloaded The Cars’ debut album (the music album, not the RB album), which was recently made available as a DLC purchase for the game. I actually plan on listening to the album today and seeing how much I like it and if it will warrant a purchase. I know The Cars very casually, and their biggest hit, “Just What I Needed”, I first heard from a Ghoti Hook cover about 10(!) years ago:

It’s really strange that I, a very choosy listener, am actually going to listen to an album because of a video game. What a tangled web we weave.

30
May

Guitar Hero II = Juuuuust Riiiight.

By Russ Crandall 3 Comments
Categories: Games and Music
Tags: , ,


If Guitar Hero games were the three bears’ porridge, GHII is the one that was “just right”.

I popped the game in for the first time in many months and was instantly having a good time all over again. It’s that perfect match of difficulty and accomplishment; not only that but as a guitar player, I think the layout of each song’s “gems” are placed in a genuinely compelling way.

Don’t get me wrong, I still prefer Rock Band for its content and drumming, but I must fault myself for not giving GHII its due credit. Well shit, Harmonix made both games so I’m still giving credit where credit is due, in a way.

17
May

Two Is Better Than One

By Russ Crandall 1 Comment
Categories: Games and Music
Tags: , ,


Hey readers, remember back in February when I wrote about how I was stuck in Rock Band? As of earlier today, I still had four songs to complete on a Hard career on the drums, and they are just as hard (if not harder) than they were back then.

I’ve found a solution, even if it isn’t the most honest of answers. My awesome drummer of a wife and I have been sharing one set; I take the snare (leftmost pad) and the kick pedal, and she takes the other three pads. Sounds silly, right? Silly until I tell you that we beat both “Tom Sawyer” and “Next To You” on our first try. We are currently stuck on “Run to the Hills”, and we haven’t tried “Won’t Get Fooled Again”, but I can see them both toppling soon.

17
May

Drum Kits A-Plenty

By Russ Crandall 3 Comments
Categories: Editorials, Games and Music
Tags: , ,

Honestly, I was a little annoyed with the Guitar Hero IV drum kit. Should I have to make room in my living room for two fake plastic drum toys?

And along comes Konami:

That’s the drum set for their new Rock Revolution game, coming out this fall. Look at all those pads! It makes the game seem like work or something. Not very fun.

Either way, Rock Band wins by default, because I really can’t see myself getting a whole new set of peripherals.

16
May

Delicious, Delicious Cake.

By Russ Crandall 0 Comments
Categories: Editorials and Games
Tags: , , , , , , ,


Man, I’m really stoked to have my Xbox 360 back from the dead/Microsoft.

I played a few GTAIV missions (more on that in a later post), drummed out some Rock Band, knocked out 30 cheevers in Assassin’s Creed, played a few Doom levels and then knocked out the last two Portal advanced maps. They were doozies - I spent at least 45 minutes on each of them. But it was worth the 30 extra cheevers.

But what hit me was that I really had forgotten how great The Orange Box (which includes Portal, Half-Life 2 and its two episodic sequels, and multiplayer-only Team Fortress 2) really is. And although our Threevue Game of the Year went to Call of Duty 4, both Tyler and I voted TOB as #1, while Mark who clearly knows nothing about video games voted it #5.

If you haven’t played Portal, go buy The Orange Box and play it. And play through the Half-Life 2 games while you’re at it, when you get a spare 20+ hours. It’s safe to say that the entire experience is equivalent to that picture above.

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