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AceyBongos is some MS social marketing manager or somesuch.
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What has anything from there got to do with what we are discussing? You seem keen to ram home the point that what one person likes isn't what you like, well consider that yourself - you also keep positioning your own personal dislikes as objective fact here! :P
See this is where I can't understand your logic. Take out keys (a whole new instrument) and Pro (which is an enormous and significant addition, which does cost money but hey so did all the multiple plastic GH/RB guitars, drums, cymbals, pedals, thrones, microphones, mountains of DLC etc etc from the previous games) and you have nothing new to offer other than on-disk songs. Which pretty much alone was always enough between GH 1-3, and for me is still a decent selling point. Except that isn't it, is it? You also get vocal harmonies (which you also discount for some reason) the new career paths (which you don't like as much as before so that doesn't count either) and the streamlined difficulty options, drop-in drop-out gameplay and song sorting, amongst other tweaks (all of which doesn't count for... some other reason)
As for the graphics and animation, worse? Really? Some of the videos are pretty wild if that isn't your thing but... IMO there have been noticable improvements throughout, is this a common complaint?
But the guy who was asking was actually specifically interested in those peripherals, the keyboard in particular. And the bolded part - not only is that wrong from a plastic guitar point of view (again, IMO - I've spent hours enjoying the career goals) by limiting the instruments you play you are actively denying yourself the majority of the game. Like I've said - that doesn't mean the content isn't there - we would scoff if any of the larger review sites claimed to be reviewing a major release having only played through the first level.
Pro drums are awesome, singing in harmony is cool, keys are nifty too but the Pro Guitar modes have blown the fucking doors off what these games were previously capable of. And I say that as both a gamer and a musician. All the 'fun' things from a 5-button controller translates across to the six string, with a pile new reasons to get excited too.
Shame you can't enjoy Pro mode too, for whatever reason.
I don't know of any guides specifically for pro mode but honestly? The in-game practice mode can be incredibly useful for learning songs in my experience. I haven't dug into it a lot for pro guitar yet but it's unquestionably helped me pick up some of the tricker songs on pro drums.
And Santa you're by far one of the most helpful people I've seen in these threads but I suspect the reason you're butting heads a bit right now is because when you say this: Even though from the context it's clear to me that you're expecting the reader to instert "in my, Santa Claustrophobia's, opinion" I can see how someone might not do that. Which means to them it may come across as you presenting your opinion as objective fact and I think we've all been subjected to offical forums enough to know what kind of shitstorm that usually brews up :P
At this point it's pretty clear there's just a fundamental disagreement on the value of RB3. Which is totes cool. This is where we're all supposed to just agree to disagree, Rock the Fuck Out and then bang some groupies backstage or something I think.
Whcih songs (or parts of songs) are giving you grief?
I'm going to try ditching medium and work through hard now.
Take On Me would be awesome and fun at parties.
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I don't recognize any of the other bands on there besides A-Ha. What hits do the others have?
EMF's big hit is Unbelievable.
You'll probably know Live by I Alone. I'd prefer Lightning Crashes.
Poison is a hair metal band featuring Bret Michaels. Biggest hit? Every Rose Has Its Thorn.
Puddle of Mudd is connected somehow to Fred Durst... So who cares what they've done? (However, Control is their first hit. So maybe you know that?)
The Vapors is Turning Japanese.
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Speaking of which I need to find a way to convince my friends mother to come next time we get together. Last time we managed it he was staying with his parents for a couple of weeks before deployment so we took over their basement for a night (along with their 55" tv and ridiculous sound system).
His mom sang a half dozen songs on expert and knocked them all out of the park including at least one she'd never heard before. I don't think she realized I wasn't kidding when I said "That's was really awesome. So that's 6 down only about 550 more to go" :P
Store is back up!
Picked up the new Ozzy stuff, and then a pile of Pro upgrades - Rooster, I Walk the Line, Black Magic Woman, Love Will Tear Us Apart, and just for the sheer lolz, Through the Fire and Flames. Gonna have to play that with 'no fail' on, heh. Grabbed a load of Queen stuff too, while I was there.
Now have 534 songs, 117 of which feature Pro guitar parts.
Every Rose Has Its Thorn is probaly Poison's most well know song but Unskinny Bop, Talk Dirty To Me and Nothin' But A Good Time were all relatively big too.
Puddle of Mudd's most well known song is probably She Hates Me but they had a fews tracks off that album that did well and a few off their albums that came after that too iirc. They're basically a benign alternative rock group. I can see some of their songs being a quite a bit of fun to play though.
The Vapors... well, ok yeah Turning Japanese is really it :P
*edit* Damn you Fraggle. You got my hopes up that the PSN store was finally functoning again
Anyway, I'd prefer the opening three-song suite from EMF's Schubert Dip album. I even went so far as to make it all one track as an Mp3. Twelve plus minutes of goodness right there. Instead we'd likely get Unbelievable and the ensuing complaints about the edit.
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I can pass Yoshimi Battles The Pink Robots on Expert with four and a half stars, but can't even do anything with a lot of single notes, even on medium. Power chords and regular chords (other than G barre chords and up) don't really face me, but damn those single notes.
As someone who was really mainly just a standard guitar player, trying out Pro Keys pretty much transitioned me into mainly a pro keys player. Now I'm not completely awesome yet, I've only had RB3 and the keyboard for about 3 months. Within that time though I've gotten to the point where I can pretty much sightread and play pretty well most songs from WARMPUP to MODERATE difficulty on Expert Pro Keys. And this is with no prior keyboarding knowledge/skills.
You should totally jump into Rock Band 3 with Pro Keys, because its refreshing and it feels more rewarding than your standard five gem guitar because you are actually learning various chords, scales, and other good stuff like that.
If you do get it, here is one important thing:
- Use one hand. Pro Keys charts are charting the right hand only, using two hands cheats yourself at learning the keyboard properly and develops bad habits in keyboard playing overall. There are exceptions to this. One off the top of my head is Centerfold. There are other songs that downright require you to use two hands, but those are mostly littered in the Rock Band Network Store. All the on disc max difficulty songs for Pro Keys are capable of being played with one hand.
Yeah singles are harder, I think I know what you mean.
It's like, when you play for real, playing runs and stuff - you get that immediate feedback to what you are playing. When I hit a bum note IRL I instantly adjust my fingerings to compensate or move my hand position. With the string mute engaged it can be REALLY HARD to correct mistakes and 're-orient' your hand to the correct position.
I can't think what songs have these single notes off the top of my head - name some tracks and I'll have a go at them later, see what we can figure out.
I'd buy the shit out of that album. Please Pro Chart for Lightning Crashes. Hell, I'd even take Freaks and Dolphin's Cry.
Double-fuck HMX and whoever else is responsible for this crap! Liking three songs is simply not enough to want to pay that much for the other five songs.
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I post the above, then check out the RB Forums:
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I'm not sure how often this would affect me, with a lot of bands I either buy the whole pack or don't bother, or we get a bunch of singles which I pick and choose from. I'm sure there have been instances where I'd have been miffed though, had this practice been used often before.
No worries Santa I was just trying to elaborate a bit more.
My sympathies that you only like three of the songs in the pack, had my fingers crossed you'd enjoy more of them.
@ lionheart: I would absolutely love it if they did a Throwing Copper album release but I refuse to get my hopes up on that until I have reason to.
most likely scenario imo was that one of ozzy's people was looking at the sale numbers from the first pack and saw something like: then used music company logic to decide "hey, if the only way to get the one song is to pay for 7 others, people would always do it every time. clearly there is no value difference."
And Ozzy's voice is pretty whiny even at the best of times. I like the No More Tears album and a few things here and there (I'd have bought Crazy Train if it hadn't been on the disc.), but the rest doesn't really speak to me. Certianly not enough to pay $13.50 for this pack. Maybe if it had, say, Perry Mason and some of the Sabbath stuff I enjoy. But it doesn't.
Anyway, for me the issue has been settled. I gave it a shot and simply won't be buying the pack. The one song I did like would only crack the 'maybe' list if it was included in a Pepsi Promo or something (that's how I got Bang A Gong...) I hate to be all passive-aggressive about it, but at least it's a good thing for people who really like it.
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The fact is, forcing someone into a bundle to get the hits may be a good way to get some bands on board that might be hesitant to sign on otherwise. Some bands really prefer to have their stuff heard as albums. Other bands might want to promote a new album but realize that those tracks won't sell when put head to head against their well known classic stuff. It's a selling tool that might be helping them keep companies interested in Rock Band now that the music genre has simmered down.
For example, AC/DC has come up as a beneficiary of this. Bundling the albums as a whole just like they like. 'Hypocritically', I wouldn't mind since I like them and all, but it would be so much harder to figure out how many sales are lost because people don't like the whole album.
The big fans will buy the album pack anyway and the 'casuals' will buy the songs they know. Over time they may even pick up the rest of the singles or buy the pack as it grows on them. But how many people will simply avoid the thing altogether since they don't want to pay $20 (for example) for a collection of songs they could probably live without?
Which is better in the long run? 10,000 people buying the pack or 10,000 people buying the pack and however many others buy the singles?
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And if it is, then the Wii is OP.
Don't think it's a place I'll often post in, though. :P
Although being able to check all the songs you've recently played with goals completed and stuff is pretty cool.
The idea of forcing people to buy filler just to get the hits is part of the reason why record stores are failing. People are tired of this kind of shit and started shifting to things like iTunes for a reason. If they think they can make up the difference by force-bundling songs to a highly, highly limited market, then they deserve everything they get when it all comes crashing down around them.
And HMX should know better than to fully participate in such a scheme.
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It's not the worst official forum out there (ask a Mass Effect fan...), but it is a wretched hive for scum and villainy. A forum based around a game that is based around the all too personal nature of music appreciation. What could go wrong?
Hell, I wish I could ignore the whole Beatles sub-forum...
However, when the My Gameplay page works, it's a decent set up. (Unfortunately, it's still a bit buggy. It tracks every song result you have and sometimes thinks you did it ten times in a row.) The best feature was the ability to take band/avatar pictures for RB2. But that's gone now.
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Guess not many people have them yet then :P
Edit: Hmm... In terms of band scores, I was ranked in the late 500s. So there are easily over 600+ folks who owned and scored with these already. Just not with pro guitars. Wonder what the actual number of downloads is?
Also Bartholamue - 'Mama I'm Coming Home' is pretty good practise for single notes.
The real tricky thing about the leaderboards is that it will never show the whole story. About the only thing you can really get from them or places like Keldon is a relative popularity. And the crazy thing is taking into account that some consoles might be reporting multiple scores and some people might actually go online to buy content, but manage to never, ever connect Rock Band to the Rock Central servers.
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