Any one pickup Rockband today?

D

draksia

Supreme [H]ardness
Joined
Nov 16, 2000
Messages
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Just wondering if any one got Rockband yet is that so 2007 here?
 
I would have it right now if UPS hadn't fucked up and left my Band in a Box bundle in IL. :mad:
 
Picked it up at lunch, about to head home and unpack it.

The on-disc songs are all crap in my opinion, but I'm sure I will find a lot from their DLC offerings. If the instruments work well, I'll be happy... every instrument I've had, be it Rock Band or Guitar Hero, has been defective out of the box or became defective within a couple weeks.
 
Think I pretty much burned out on rock band and guitar hero. LOL

I didn't even realize a new one was coming out.

I hear everyone talking about rocksmith these days.


Enjoy the game. Sucks that you have to turn to DLC right away though.
 
I picked it up but am sort of regretting it. I have a ton of DLC on the 360, but since I picked it up for the PS4, none of that DLC transfers over. Also the instruments feel really cheap. Either I'm extremely rusty, or there's some dropping of notes, as I'm struggling with medium, whereas I use to be able to play Expert.
 
Nytegard said:
I picked it up but am sort of regretting it. I have a ton of DLC on the 360, but since I picked it up for the PS4, none of that DLC transfers over. Also the instruments feel really cheap. Either I'm extremely rusty, or there's some dropping of notes, as I'm struggling with medium, whereas I use to be able to play Expert.
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Yeah, it sucks that DLC doesn't transfer between the competing stores, but that's out of Harmonix' hands I'm sure.

Make sure you calibrate your audio/video. If you use the guitar for the calibration, it can "listen" to the audio cues and do it for you ensuring max accuracy. Made a big difference for me.
 
I really think there is something messed up in the game engine, because I was just playing RB3 on 360 a few weeks ago and I had no issues still playing Expert on guitar and drums. After several calibration attempts I am still very much struggling playing RB4 on the same TV. It kind of feels like going back to Guitar Hero 1 after playing Guitar Hero 2.

A note for those of you looking to download your DLC library:
In the game store, if you know you own a particular song but it is showing you a price instead of "Purchased," select it anyway and you'll be shown that you already own it with the option to install instead of buy. Half of my library was this way on the Xbox ONE version.

It appears the RB1 and RB2 disc songs are not yet available to download? Has anyone gotten them yet? The RB1 transfer license is on my account, along with the RB2 song download from the Xbox 360.
 
Here's my mini review after a few hours, for those interested... which doesn't seem like many people.

Controllers: I've used every RB/GH guitar, except the 'pro' versions, and this one is easily my favorite. It's built well, the strum bar is great, and the buttons are sized and spaced appropriately. The drums on the other hand are flat out broken... fills and kicks just don't register a lot of the time. This is a widespread thing and hopefully something they can fix with a firmware update.

Songs: Of the songs on the disc and the free songs from preordering, I only found ~15 to be enjoyable, and 3 of those are from previous games. It's not even a taste thing; older games had songs that I'd never voluntarily listen to, but were still fun to play. Most of these just suck. The DLC list is huge, but Harmonix conveniently ended the long-running half-price sale on launch day, so be prepared to drop $2 per song. I bought fifty, bringing my total expenditure to $350 plus tax, which is more than what I paid for the console. :(

Gameplay/Mechanics: The freestyle solos are marginally entertaining once you get used to them, and they're a lot better than trying to play the studio solos with RB's overly picky HO/PO hit detection. Load times are quick when playing, but the store load times are pretty terrible, making browsing and buying songs a chore. The auto calibration works great, to the extent where I'm annoyed earlier games didn't have it.

Overall, I don't think the band bundle is worth it at all with the current state of the drums, and the guitar bundle is really only worth it if you're willing to buy a bunch of DLC songs. I'm hoping GH is better and more entertaining with its new mechanics and button layout, but it's a shame there's no drum support in that.
 
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I'm not getting it until they bring back keyboard and pro guitar support. I have over $2000 in controllers and DLC across Guitar Hero and Rock Band. They least they could do is actually support the instruments they added in the last iteration if they expect me to continue being a customer.
 
PiERiT said:
Here's my mini review after a few hours, for those interested... which doesn't seem like many people.

Controllers: I've used every RB/GH guitar, except the 'pro' versions, and this one is easily my favorite. It's built well, the strum bar is great, and the buttons are sized and spaced appropriately. The drums on the other hand are flat out broken... fills and kicks just don't register a lot of the time. This is a widespread thing and hopefully something they can fix with a firmware update.
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I am the opposite I hate the Rockband guitars the Guitar Hero 2 wired one is by the best IMO. The switches feel so sloppy to me on this one.
 
draksia said:
I am the opposite I hate the Rockband guitars the Guitar Hero 2 wired one is by the best IMO. The switches feel so sloppy to me on this one.
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The GH3 Les Paul was my favorite prior to this. They are different but both great in my opinion. I hated the RB1 and RB2 guitars.
 
draksia said:
I am the opposite I hate the Rockband guitars the Guitar Hero 2 wired one is by the best IMO. The switches feel so sloppy to me on this one.
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I'm a fan of both the GH2 guitar and the wired Stratocaster that came with RB1. Along with my drum kit, my keyboard and my Pro Guitar these are not supported in Rock Band 4. My microphones and my Precision Bass are the only instruments I even have that are supported in RB4.

Way to support your longtime fans and the people excited about actually learning and playing real instruments using your platform, Harmonix.
 
I like the RB4 guitar well enough, but the drums seem really finicky when it comes to registering red and green (the outer pads.) I have to really wail on the pads to get them to register.
 
Armenius said:
I really think there is something messed up in the game engine, because I was just playing RB3 on 360 a few weeks ago and I had no issues still playing Expert on guitar and drums. After several calibration attempts I am still very much struggling playing RB4 on the same TV. It kind of feels like going back to Guitar Hero 1 after playing Guitar Hero 2.
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Are you using the same type of input (Hdmi) on the same port on that TV? Most TV's can be configured to handle each port differently.
 
My calibrations feels messed up as well. With RB3 (PS3) i can play the game fine without any calibtration, and the auto calibration puts it between 20 and 30 ms. With RB4 (PS4) my calibration numbers are almost 200 ms(!) and the game is impossible without making huge calibration corrections. With the calibrations it is playable however it doesn't feel right. It isn't the display, I can play other twitch reaction games fine from the PS4. RB4 feels unresponsive, I am using PS3 instruments and I don't know if that affects anything.

I played a shit ton of RB3 over the past few weeks as well, so I am familiar with it. Both consoles are using the same HDMI port.

And the system for retrieving previously purchased DLC is garbage! Why can't I just get an option for showing the songs I already purchased?!? The included songs are very compared compared to past games, I've only succeeded in downloading 8 previously purchased songs out of about 75 purchased.
 
Since I got Rocksmith, playing with toy instruments isn't the same. I am slowly learning to play from memory, and the game helps motivate me.
 
I can play a some 4 string bass IRL however I have a ton of fun playing Rock Band with friends. It's a rythm game, not a play real music game.
 
ocellaris said:
I can play a some 4 string bass IRL however I have a ton of fun playing Rock Band with friends. It's a rythm game, not a play real music game.
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RB3 totally was though. It taught me how to play piano and I still learn new songs this way. The Pro Guitar mode was very cool too, but eclipsed by Rocksmith at this point. Removing Keys in RB4 was a huge goof by Harmonix, but I can only hope support will be patched in later or something.
 
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CEpeep said:
RB3 totally was though. It taught me how to play piano and I still learn new songs this way. The Pro Guitar mode was very cool too, but eclipsed by Rocksmith at this point. Removing Keys in RB4 was a huge goof by Harmonix, but I can only hope support will be patched in later or something.
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RB4 is in a very sad state right now, I wouldn't count on them patching in anything major at this point. I am a bit worried for a franchise at this point...
 
So, I have Rock Band 1-3 for the 360 with the old tracks imported into RB3.

How does this work with Rock band 4 if I buy the Xbox One version? Does it download the old tracks, do I have to create some kind of RB account, or do I pop the old disks in? Any charge for doing it?

Any feedback on the new instrument packs? Do they include a keyboard?
 
Domingo said:
So, I have Rock Band 1-3 for the 360 with the old tracks imported into RB3.

How does this work with Rock band 4 if I buy the Xbox One version? Does it download the old tracks, do I have to create some kind of RB account, or do I pop the old disks in? Any charge for doing it?

Any feedback on the new instrument packs? Do they include a keyboard?
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Songs that you Downloaded should be appear as purchased in the song store but you will still have to download individually. I believe there is some licensing issue that prevents them from being imported automatically.

I don't believe the songs from Rockband1-3, Beatles, so on are available yet.
 
If the songs from the older games aren't there yet, I'll just hold off 'til they either get them or the game drops in price. I only downloaded a handful of paid songs, so that doesn't really mean much to me.
 
Domingo said:
How does this work with Rock band 4 if I buy the Xbox One version? Does it download the old tracks, do I have to create some kind of RB account, or do I pop the old disks in? Any charge for doing it?
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There is no way to get RB1, 2, or 3 on-disc songs into RB4.

There is no keyboard support in RB4.
 
Domingo said:
If the songs from the older games aren't there yet, I'll just hold off 'til they either get them or the game drops in price. I only downloaded a handful of paid songs, so that doesn't really mean much to me.
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I wouldn't hold your breath. There are licensing issues that prevent the tracks from the discs from being imported. Now that Harmonix has cut ties with both EA and MTV Games/Viacom, the prospect of new contracts for the games they published is very slim. I'd expect the most popular songs from the on-disc back catalog to get RB4 versions available as DLC at some point, which happened for some old on-disc songs when RB3 came out.
 
A lot of their initial selling points for this new game were that you could play all of your old favorite songs. The initial write-ups all mentioned that they weren't sure how the old songs would transfer over, but that they would.
If they can't, no thanks.
 
Domingo said:
A lot of their initial selling points for this new game were that you could play all of your old favorite songs. The initial write-ups all mentioned that they weren't sure how the old songs would transfer over, but that they would.
If they can't, no thanks.
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Harmonix was a bit disingenuous by eluded to the fact that songs from previous games could be imported, they were just working out the details...

Turns out the whole thing was a big fat "No" for all previous games >_>
 
There are reviews saying that you can import tracks from the old games (at least RB1 and RB2) as long as you're on the same platform. Is this a hidden option or was it removed? I'd take 2 out of 3 rather than none.
 
Domingo said:
There are reviews saying that you can import tracks from the old games (at least RB1 and RB2) as long as you're on the same platform. Is this a hidden option or was it removed? I'd take 2 out of 3 rather than none.
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It's supposed to become available eventually after the licensing issues are resolved as long as you already applied an export code to your XBL/PSN profile. If you don't already have the export codes purchased for RB1, you just need to fire up your old 360/PS3 and purchase an export code. For Rock Band 2 and Lego, tracks will supposedly be added automatically for everyone who imported them to RB3 at some future date. If you never exported RB2 or Lego before, it cannot be done at this time since codes are no longer available. Apparently some people have gotten lucky contacting EA and demanding a code for RB2, but no one has had success with Lego RB. There is no way at all to export RB3 tracks since export rights were (apparently) not negotiated for the on-disc tracks.

Even if you have the codes applied to your account, you still must wait for Harmonix to complete license negotiations before any of the tracks will show up in your library. There is no timetable for when this might occur.
 
ocellaris said:
RB4 is in a very sad state right now, I wouldn't count on them patching in anything major at this point. I am a bit worried for a franchise at this point...
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Well Harmonix has said that the first big content patch for the game will come out on December 8, and will include online modes among other things. It can be found in a post on the HMX blog. I believe that they plan to update the game like a platform on a regular basis this time instead of releasing a new title every 1-2 years.

Domingo said:
So, I have Rock Band 1-3 for the 360 with the old tracks imported into RB3.

How does this work with Rock band 4 if I buy the Xbox One version? Does it download the old tracks, do I have to create some kind of RB account, or do I pop the old disks in? Any charge for doing it?

Any feedback on the new instrument packs? Do they include a keyboard?
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The instruments are pretty solid, but the kick pedal for the drums is still pretty shitty. The pad surface on the drums is much improved. It seems like they decided to go for bounce and responsiveness over the quietness of the rubber pads previously.

The guitar also feels solidly built. The RB1 Stratocaster would bend in my hands without exerting a lot of force and creaked all the time. The RB4 Stratocaster is using a soft-touch plastic, with the buttons feeling very responsive without the loud clicking. I think the solo buttons at the bottom of the necks feel usable this time. The action on the strum bar also doesn't feel mushy this time around.

Both wireless instruments only take two AA batteries this time instead of three. They come with a micro USB plug next to the battery compartment to play wired, if so desired. It looks like the drums could work with the play and charge kit on the Xbox ONE, but the guitar won't. The double kick adapter for the drums from RB2-RB3 doesn't work with the RB4 kit.

The calibration issues just need to be looked at. I'm going to play around with it more this weekend to see if I can get it more playable.
 
As a follow-up to my last post:

I'm really at a loss with the sync issues. It felt better after playing around with the calibration settings manually for a few songs, but it got worse as I went along. I'm thinking that there has to be latency in the controllers, themselves. Supposedly there is a firmware update in testing for the drums, at least. Going to try plugging the drums directly into the console next to see if that makes any difference.
 
I think the game engine is F-ed up on PS4. I know two other people with kits and they both independently complained about feeling lag / high calibration numbers. Two of them have RB4 instruments and I have RB3 intruments with similar issues. I can fire up RB3 on a PS3 and it feels much better when using the same receiver, same receiver input, and same display.

Our setups are nothing alike...

PS4 -> Denon Receiver -> BenQ Projector
PS4 -> Onkyo Receiver -> LG Plasma
PS4 -> ??? Reveiver -> Samsung TV
 
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It's actually a core issue with both the PS4 and Xbox One. They have more input lag than the PS3 or 360 did. There is no way around that. Even on my direct, single input HDMI 1080p monitor (as zero-lag as you can get) auto calibration shows about 100ms. That's been confirmed on the official forums.
 
Colonel Sanders said:
It's actually a core issue with both the PS4 and Xbox One. They have more input lag than the PS3 or 360 did. There is no way around that. Even on my direct, single input HDMI 1080p monitor (as zero-lag as you can get) auto calibration shows about 100ms. That's been confirmed on the official forums.
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100ms+ for Rock Band or 100ms+ for *everything*? I am going to feel silly if the console has that much input lag for everything and I didn't notice, ha :eek: :(
 
ocellaris said:
100ms+ for Rock Band or 100ms+ for *everything*? I am going to feel silly if the console has that much input lag for everything and I didn't notice, ha :eek: :(
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I don't know for sure if 100ms is total input lag for every title, just that both consoles suffer from more input lag in general than the previous gen. Most people don't notice it since it's still a relatively small amount, and most HDTVs these days have decent to horrible input lag on top of whatever is built-in to the console hardware. It's sadly become kind of an accepted thing for the general console gaming crowd of today. Even for the very rare HDTV that does have good input lag, it requires changing some settings that the vast majority of console gamers don't even know about.

I'm pretty much hyper sensitive to input lag, everything I do when it comes to gaming is centered on reducing lag wherever possible. That's why I have a gorgeous 150" screen + 1080p projector home theater room but I rarely game on it because even the absolute lowest input lag projector (my BenQ W1075 being one of the best at ~25ms) is noticeable to me and it bugs me too much, at least for FPS and racing games.

Anyway, back to the RB4 topic, I have a feeling there may be extra latency due to the controllers themselves.
 
I'm using a BenQ W1070 and one of the reasons I bought it was low input lag. Feels great to me in most titles, not so much in RB4

Though I was finally able to download all of my DLC songs by doing it at 3AM over the weekend, woohoo. I completely forgot about a lot of the songs I purchased in the past!
 
ocellaris said:
I'm using a BenQ W1070 and one of the reasons I bought it was low input lag. Feels great to me in most titles, not so much in RB4

Though I was finally able to download all of my DLC songs by doing it at 3AM over the weekend, woohoo. I completely forgot about a lot of the songs I purchased in the past!
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Like I said, I am hyper sensitive when it comes to input lag so I am far more likely to be bothered by it than most :) It is definitely extremely good input lag for a projector.
 
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