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.
Hi guys.
As always: thank you very much for the episode 🙂
I am playing not that much at the moment, but some rounds of Magic the Gathering Arena and some rounds of WoW are always there 🙂 I also started playing Itorah, which is a very nice Metroidvania game.
Regarding your topics:
Walking Simulators: I really like those games. For me games like “Life is strange” , “Journey”, “Heavy Rain” or “Detroid become human” were awesome and i played all of them. Most of them have a fantastic atmosphere, good story, awesome music and i did not get bored or it feels repetitive.
Fifa:
I cant describe how less i care about that 😀
I never played any Fifa since i had one about 20 years ago for the PS1. The best soccer game of all time still is “World Cup” for NES oder GameBoy 🙂
Starfield:
It seems that i am the only person who is not hyped for that game … nearly all my friends are waiting for it since it was announced.
All the other topics:
Cant say anything useful or interesting about them… sorry 🙂
Keep healthy and keep on with the good work guys.
Greetings from germany,
Ralf
I’m hoping to see Starfield footage at the Microsoft/Bethesda show in June, even if the game is delayed.