Rock Band - DLC Done Right

Reldan · 2009-09-25T23:18:12.000Z

Here’s the patch notes about the exact changes. Lips microphones now work! Woo!

Rock Band Forum:

Rock Band Network Audition Mode. Available from the “Extras” menu on Xbox 360 versions of Rock Band 2, members of the Rock Band Network can now upload songs from their PC’s and audition their songs using our suite of song audition and testing tools. Currently in closed beta, the Rock Band Network will welcome authors to open beta in the coming weeks! Find out more at http://creators.rockband.com

“Sort by Stars” in Quickplay. If you hit the “Sort” button on the Song Select screen, you’ll come to a brand new sort that orders songs by the star ratings that you’ve achieved on each song. Each star rating gets a category, as well as an “Unplayed” category for songs that don’t have a star rating recorded. Finally, you can record your progress towards gold starring every song in your library!

Background Downloading in the Music Store. Purchasing songs from the Rock Band Music Store now no longer requires you to wait for a song to download before you can download another song. You can now queue up downloads to your heart’s content, which is going to be incredibly handy with some of the amazing DLC that’s coming out over the next few weeks and months.

Xbox 360 Wireless Microphone Support. Rock Band 2 now supports Xbox 360 Wireless Microphones, like the Lips microphone. Finally, you can now have a fully wireless Rock Band experience!

Chord HOPO improvements: If you’ve played The Beatles: Rock Band, you’ll notice much more robust handling of chord hammer-ons and pull-offs. This patch implements those changes in Rock Band 2 to provide a more natural chord hammer-on/pull-off experience.

Velocity Sensitivity on Ion Drum Kits: Ion Drum kits now support velocity sensitivity in both drum fills and Drum Freestyle mode.

Cyrano · 2009-09-25T23:57:17.000Z

If the stars actually showed up, this would be a great patch. I’d like to see the them, but not enough to play through all my songs to beat my previous scores. I’m too busy with the Beatles, anyway.

delirium · 2009-09-26T00:45:27.000Z

"PR mumbo jumbo":

Finally, you can record your progress towards gold starring every song in your library!

You said it! and it’s fucking incredible it took an entire year for this to make it in there. and you still screwed it up.

I do like the sound of improved HO/PO chords. They were pretty screwey in RB2, and work a lot better in Beatles.

Reldan · 2009-09-26T11:54:07.000Z

I was hoping there was a way to quickly switch between microphones or to use more than one microphone at a time with the new patch, but it only considers whichever the first mic connected to the XBox to be the active one.

VegasRobb · 2009-09-26T16:45:11.000Z

Not a bad AiC pack. Looking forward to playing through it.

Shadarr · 2009-09-26T16:59:03.000Z

delirium:

I do like the sound of improved HO/PO chords. They were pretty screwey in RB2, and work a lot better in Beatles.

Yeah, I couldn’t get the hang of them and went back to strumming. It’ll be cool if they work about the same as regular HOPOs.

wumpus · 2009-09-30T15:28:56.000Z

Jingles: Rock Band (really quite funny IMO, starts at 3 minutes in).

http://rockbandaide.com/jingles-rock-band/

Rumored songs for next week. Seems plausible.

* Alanis Morissette – Head Over Feet
* Alanis Morissette – Ironic
* Electric Six – Dance Epidemic
* Electric Six – Gay Bar
* Electric Six – I Don’t Like You
* Flobots – Handlebars
* The Raconteurs – Many Shades of Black
* The Raconteurs – Solute Your Solution
* The Raconteurs – Steady As She Goes

WhollySchmidt · 2009-09-30T15:31:58.000Z

Gay Bar?! Wow. Did not expect that, but disappointed Danger! High Voltage isn’t included. I don’t know who the Flobots are, but everything else sounds great.

Not_One_Of_Us · 2009-09-30T15:33:43.000Z

wumpus:

Rumored songs for next week. Seems plausible.
* Alanis Morissette – Ironic

Ugh.

[i]* Electric Six – Gay Bar[/i]

Hoorah!

Funkula · 2009-09-30T19:11:28.000Z

Holy fuck holy fuck holy fuck holy fuck I’ve been wanting Electric Six for so long

Raconteurs and Flobots: also utterly awesome

God I hope this is accurate

Omniscia · 2009-09-30T19:46:12.000Z

Where the hell is the Queen track pack?

jerri_blank · 2009-09-30T19:55:38.000Z

VegasRobb:

Not a bad AiC pack. Looking forward to playing through it.

“No Excuses” and “Would?” are awesomely fun to play on Expert drums.

And I’m awesomely bad at both.

Kyrios · 2009-09-30T20:14:28.000Z

Wholly Schmidt:

Gay Bar?! Wow. Did not expect that, but disappointed Danger! High Voltage isn’t included.

Yup, that was my first thought too, that song would have been awesome.
Can’t complain though, more fun niche stuff, and this time it’s my kind of fun niche.

Morkilus · 2009-09-30T22:05:50.000Z

Raconteurs! And two of my favorites, as well.

Dufresne · 2009-10-02T10:42:53.000Z

Confirmed. Next week’s songs:

The Raconteurs – “Many Shades of Black”
The Raconteurs – “Salute Your Solution”
The Raconteurs – “Steady, As She Goes”
Alanis Morissette – “Head Over Feet”
Alanis Morissette – “Ironic”
Electric Six – “Dance Epidemic”
Electric Six – “Gay Bar”
Electric Six – “I Don’t Like You”
The Flobots – “Handlebars”

Definitely picking up the Electric Six, and Alanis as well. “You Oughta Know” is very popular at my place, so a little more variety there is a good thing.

Oh, and the Queen songs that will be released on 10/20 are:

Another One Bites the Dust
Crazy Little Thing Called Love
One Vision
Fat Bottomed Girls
I Want It All
I Want To Break Free
Killer Queen
Somebody To Love
Tie Your Mother Down
Under Pressure

I’m disappointed there’s no “Bohemian Rhapsody,” but I plan now on singing “Fat Bottomed Girls” at my local Rock Band Night and dedicating it to all the ladies in the house.

Shadarr · 2009-10-02T10:52:16.000Z

So despite my earlier complaints, I kind of like the fact that I have to beat my old high score to get a song to show up in the 5-star or gold star list. It adds a little extra challenge and makes it that much more satisfying when I get a song on there. It’s also got me playing some songs again that I haven’t played in months.

Dufresne · 2009-10-02T10:55:18.000Z

shadarr:

So despite my earlier complaints, I kind of like the fact that I have to beat my old high score to get a song to show up in the 5-star or gold star list. It adds a little extra challenge and makes it that much more satisfying when I get a song on there. It’s also got me playing some songs again that I haven’t played in months.

I’d agree it’s fun in most cases, but it’s frustrating on those few songs where I had an absolute miracle run and haven’t gotten close since. I’m looking at you, “Sin Wagon.”

zengonzo · 2009-10-02T11:02:44.000Z

Dufresne:

Definitely picking up the Electric Six

Hell, yes! But no High Voltage?

And I really can’t imagine how Handlebars will play - much as I love it.

Shadarr · 2009-10-02T11:13:02.000Z

Dufresne:

I’d agree it’s fun in most cases, but it’s frustrating on those few songs where I had an absolute miracle run and haven’t gotten close since. I’m looking at you, “Sin Wagon.”

I don’t mind that, because there’s still the possibility that at some point in the future I will beat my score and it will be EPIC. The only ones where I’m a little disheartened are some of the easier songs that I FC’d. Does anyone know if it counts it if you just tie your previous score?

wumpus · 2009-10-02T13:03:52.000Z

> Hell, yes! But no High Voltage?

If you listen to the Electric Six tracks it’s obvious a major factor for slection was how guitar-y the tracks are – how well they map to the classic guitar-bass-vox-drums axis. I had forgotten how much guitar Gay Bar actually had (it’s a lot!)

And High Voltage is basically a synth song.