The latest news on the Rock Band 2 front covers the instruments and a few confirmed song tracks. There have been rumors flying around the Internet about the “leaked song tracks” for the next release with absolutely no confirmation. Now, however, we have solid proof on some tracks and some equipment changes.
First, all instruments are backwards compatible. That’s key to the success of Rock Band because fans of the original ponied up a lot of bones to grab themselves the original Rock Band kit. However, there is an incentive to upgrade your equipment in some regards.
If you like the original Rock Band guitar you’re going to love the new one if only for the color updates, wood grain and actual look and feel of a real guitar not a “toy.” As you’d expect (or hope) the new guitar will be wireless, finally, and will have a sturdy strum bar with even quieter buttons. Wireless alone is a great selling point but quiet buttons is important for folks like me who play the guitar like it was a jackhammer and can easily interrupt the drummers concentration during a difficult set.
The drum kit has been improved as well, with a re-enforced foot pedal to avoid the ease of breaking the plastic “toy” version of Rock Band original. As a person who’s busted up their drum petal and forked out cash on eBay for a wood solution, this is more great news. The drum kit will also be wireless which is great for those of you, like myself, who have kids that run through your line of site or dance while you’re playing. Nobody likes their Xbox 360 being flung off the shelve due to tripped cords.
The drum kit will have quieter pads and a velocity sensor; again, your old kit is still usable without these enhancements but the desire to upgrade if you’re a dedicated fan will be high.
The song tracks currently confirmed:
- “Panic Attack” — Dream Theater
- “Chop Suey” — System of a Down
- “Everlong” — Foo Fighters
- “Kids in America” — The Muffs
- “Give it Away” — Red Hot Chili Peppers
- “Ace of Spades” — Motörhead
- “Hello There” — Cheap Trick
- “Pump it Up” — Elvis Costello
- “Anyway You Want It” — Journey
- “Pinball Wizard” — The Who
This is a great indication to where Rock Band 2 is going, mixing up a great selection of artists with classic hits like Anyway You Want It and Pinball Wizard to newer late generation X music like Give it Away and Chop Suey. Talented artists like Dream Theater are sure to keep Rock Band 2 a challenge to all gamers.
Other great improvements being a World Tour mode now accessible online and the removal of the “Band Leader” concept which always locked you into an instrument once you created a band.
NOTE: Xbox 360 will have a timed exclusive on Rock Band 2, arriving later in the year for the Nintendo Wii and PlayStation 3.
Checkout the full feature set so far explained at Kotaku.
Interesting, the dynamics of the group didn’t change a lot.
@Wasteland: Fallout as the spiritual of Wasteland? It makes a bit of sense; when you started to describe the game I scrolled up again: I initially thought you were describing the wrong game 🙂
@Dashboard update gives Indie Marketplace more visibility
I wonder, is it that the indies managed to pull enough money to actually deserve the extra visibility? And by ‘deserve’ I don’t mean the politically correct version of deserve.
If you ask me, the answer is yes, they do manage to pull in cash.
… :O Baby Makers Extreme had a sequel?!
@Call of Duty: Black Ops 2 outed by Amazon France:
Activision canceled advertising campaigns on that site? Really? Didn’t the tabloid stars teach them that is bad to f**k the press?
@Electronic Arts terminates “free Battlefield 3 for preordering Mass Effect 3” deal early
Hmm … I bet it is an exploit. Dice is just the developer, it’s the publisher that calls the shots on what and how gets sold, so I don’t think it was Dice who got upset.
I say it is an exploit.
@Alan Wake on PC because Remedy “a nagging little kid” to Microsoft
Hmm, lemme guess, they [devs] caved in and opted for an XBox exclusive for a little extra cash from Microsoft. Now they ran out of that said cash and they need to make more sales …
I liked the Max Payne games and I was quite excited about the game when it was announced. Now … meh … bad decisions have their consequences, and I think the devs will feel that. I mean there is a reason why others release their games AT THE SAME TIME ON ALL PLATFORMS, not two years later.
Regarding the question of the week, I’m not in for the pixie diamonds.
The Duck Tales games for NES (both of them) are very good. They even kept the TV series theme song in the first game (thanks for that ending, by the way).
It really was like Paul never really left! I guess you don’t need even need him after all! Paul kind of annoys me sometimes, especially when he’s whining about something.
About Mass Effect 3, I was actually playing the multiplayer demo while I was listening to the podcast and I think it is great. About the animations and such: I noticed them too, but what do you expect out of a demo! I also noticed some improvements over Mass Effect 2, but most of them were minor.
-.- Pixie Diamonds, whatever. (No offense, Paul)
Oh and by the way Paul, I was kidding, it wasn’t actually hate mail at the beginning.
It’s been ages since I’ve commented, but that was a really great show! This episode and the original crew episode are two of my favourite eps in a long time… and neither of them featured Paul! Isn’t that telling? (How’s that for hate mail?) 😛
I happen to be a fan of Polycast, so hearing Dan on the show was a very nice surprise. It’d be great to have him on again sometime! (Btw Jonah, I seem to recall you making a guest appearance on Polycast a while ago. Am I remembering correctly?)
@Alan Wake on PC due to Remedy nagging Microsoft
I always find it interesting to hear details of the relationship between a Dev and a Publisher. I find the Retro Studios/Nintendo relationship quite interesting, since although Retro are a very successful and acclaimed studio, Nintendo seems to be very controlling of them.
But even more interesting is the Rare/Microsoft relationship, given the Rare staff leaving and speaking out against Microsoft, etc. It’s sad to see what Rare has become these days though 🙁
@QOTW
To be honest, Disney didn’t feature that heavily in my childhood. I do love Pixar though and they’re part of Disney. They don’t really do ‘Princes and Heroes’ though. So maybe Aladdin then? He was a hero I guess and pretended to be a Prince for a while too!
thank you Paul for not showing up in this podcast, i was away from internet connection for roughly a month and when i heard the 1st VGRT contest i was very sad because i didn’t got the chance to answer and now i got a 2nd chance. TY
@indie dashboard XBL
microsoft fixed the problem because indie games are money makers. simple as that. the proof is baby maker extreme 2, you just said that
@Mass effect + free bf3 no more
idk if it was a exploit on the buggy origin software but bf3 is still selling as crazy (unlike the Vita – you stopped giving weekly selling numbers, i was amused by that…) the “useful selling time” of bf3 is yet to be reached.
@QOTW (oh boy, must acquire fictitious currency)
the Hunchback of Notre Dame.
he is awesome dude!
he might have been friendzoned as hell but he is the king!!!! not only because he s the king, but he has the atributes to be the best king with includes a pure heart even after a public humiliation from the entire kingdom, just, no heartfeelings bro Q.Q
he is epic
@Duck tales
when you mentioned duck tales for the NES, this came to mind instantly: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MPkhhLC1tf8
MOON THEME EPICNESS AT IT FINEST
ops almost forgot!
Derek, Jennifer, DonDon, nice to listen to your voices again! good ol’days back
my heart is with you and your son in the battle against cancer!!!
I just wanted to mention that there are games for XBLIG that are excellent besides I MAED A GAM3 W1TH Z0MBIES 1N IT!!!1. One of my very favorite games from last year was Escape Goat (an excellent puzzle-platformer with very nice pixel art) and there’s also Curse of the Crescent Isle (a Mario 2 style platformer), T.E.C. 3001 (a 3-d freerunner with a very professional presentation and addictive gameplay), as well as many others. Yes, you do have to wade through countless flash game knock offs such as the baby launching game mentioned on the cast, but there are genuine gems to be found.
Jonah was a guest on PolyCast Episode 118 last year, as well as the show’s newest edition — Episode 141 — released yesterday:
http://thepolycast.net/polycast/season5.php#episode118
http://thepolycast.net/polycast/season6.php#episode141