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RockBand frustration
Blasto
Registered User regular
Registered User regular
I have GuitarHero 3 on the Wii, I can get 5 stars on Medium on every song and fumble my way through Hard on most (hard is really. . .hard).
Wanting somthing more, last weekend I picked up RockBand for my xBox360. So far I feel really, really ripped off. My wife and I get home from EB and unpack the huge box, and put together the guitar and drums, and so on and start up the game. The intro is really cool and we check out the trainning so we can understand some diffrences with GH and RB. Personaly I like the Hammer ons/offs in GH3 as they are visibly easier for me to see, but thats not really a complaint. I do have an LCD TV and a Dolbyturner so I select both of those in the options, sounds and looks great.
Easy on the guitar is, well easy so I bump up to Medium and the wife plays on the drums on easy since its new. For some reason while my wife is playing the drums it wont pick up over 1/2 the hits on the pads (no one color more then the other beyond what is set in the song). Also the guitar will not regestir strums when there are a few in a row (i.e. if its one or two notes its good, but 5-10 in a quick beat and I'll miss over 1/2). Wondering if the USB hub can't take that many signals we plug the Drums directly in to the xBox. This shows a little improvment but not really (this is on easy for the drums).
After an hour of changing settings my wife gets frustrated and goes to find somthing else to do. I pick up the drum sticks and figure I'll see if I can do better. To add some background, while in highschool I was in the marching band playing the drums. I know what a roll is, triplets and so on. I did even worse, playing solo; on easy. It just wasn't taking the hits once it had to deal with more then one strike. I did some extra calabration and that did improving the timming for singles but again not a great improvement.
Two days later we give the game another go, this time the wife would like to give singing a shot so we plug in the Mic. xBox does not detect the Mic, either in the Hub or standalone. I plug in my Live headset and it detects that Mic. So I have a bad Mic, ok shit happens no problem to Techsupport I call.
Wait I have to go to a website, jump through some hoops; lots of hoops.
Some more hoops
Oh cool a number!
2, 1,1,1,transfer to india, 1,1, back to america,1,1 /sigh
WOOT a Person!
(a little exgeation)
Come to find out, my Mic, Guitar, Drums, and Hub are all bad and need to be RMA'ed. To do this RMA they want 150$ depost for the Guitar and 250 for the Drums totaling 400 bucks O_o. THE GAME ONLY COST 160NEW!
So I now have a game that doesnt work, and have to shell out 400 bucks and 2 weeks for new equipment. After reading the RockBand Forums I find out that getting a new controler might just mean I get a new broken one and have to do it again. Also since the box is open I can not just return it for a refund.
I really feel scammed.
Anyone here come accross this level of "wonderful" support?
Wanting somthing more, last weekend I picked up RockBand for my xBox360. So far I feel really, really ripped off. My wife and I get home from EB and unpack the huge box, and put together the guitar and drums, and so on and start up the game. The intro is really cool and we check out the trainning so we can understand some diffrences with GH and RB. Personaly I like the Hammer ons/offs in GH3 as they are visibly easier for me to see, but thats not really a complaint. I do have an LCD TV and a Dolbyturner so I select both of those in the options, sounds and looks great.
Easy on the guitar is, well easy so I bump up to Medium and the wife plays on the drums on easy since its new. For some reason while my wife is playing the drums it wont pick up over 1/2 the hits on the pads (no one color more then the other beyond what is set in the song). Also the guitar will not regestir strums when there are a few in a row (i.e. if its one or two notes its good, but 5-10 in a quick beat and I'll miss over 1/2). Wondering if the USB hub can't take that many signals we plug the Drums directly in to the xBox. This shows a little improvment but not really (this is on easy for the drums).
After an hour of changing settings my wife gets frustrated and goes to find somthing else to do. I pick up the drum sticks and figure I'll see if I can do better. To add some background, while in highschool I was in the marching band playing the drums. I know what a roll is, triplets and so on. I did even worse, playing solo; on easy. It just wasn't taking the hits once it had to deal with more then one strike. I did some extra calabration and that did improving the timming for singles but again not a great improvement.
Two days later we give the game another go, this time the wife would like to give singing a shot so we plug in the Mic. xBox does not detect the Mic, either in the Hub or standalone. I plug in my Live headset and it detects that Mic. So I have a bad Mic, ok shit happens no problem to Techsupport I call.
Wait I have to go to a website, jump through some hoops; lots of hoops.
Some more hoops
Oh cool a number!
2, 1,1,1,transfer to india, 1,1, back to america,1,1 /sigh
WOOT a Person!
(a little exgeation)
Come to find out, my Mic, Guitar, Drums, and Hub are all bad and need to be RMA'ed. To do this RMA they want 150$ depost for the Guitar and 250 for the Drums totaling 400 bucks O_o. THE GAME ONLY COST 160NEW!
So I now have a game that doesnt work, and have to shell out 400 bucks and 2 weeks for new equipment. After reading the RockBand Forums I find out that getting a new controler might just mean I get a new broken one and have to do it again. Also since the box is open I can not just return it for a refund.
I really feel scammed.
Anyone here come accross this level of "wonderful" support?
Blasto on
0
Posts
RE: Timing, guitar
The HOPOs in RB require more precision than GH3; if you'd played GH2, it is very similar to that. But I agree that the notes on the chart are not as easily readable in terms of HOPO as the GH3 notes with their lovely glowing tops.
Why didn't you just take the entire package back to the store for an exchange?
Steam ID: slashx000______Twitter: @bill_at_zeboyd______ Facebook: Zeboyd Games
I did try this, EA/Rockband has told the stores not to do this. They even include a flier that says to contact them for hardware replacment. I did call the store, and tried to stress that the whole system was pretty much DoA but all they suggested was contacting EA
The Problems really show on the guitar when you need to strum 4+ notes in a row (one e and a) or 4 quarter notes or faster. It just wont take them that fast, If it can't do that there is no way it will keep up on hard+
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But the guitar strumbar? Sounds like you have a defective strumbar, which was extremely common for the RB-launch guitars.
Steam ID: slashx000______Twitter: @bill_at_zeboyd______ Facebook: Zeboyd Games
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#2 tape down the red and the green pads, because they have less structural support than yellow and blue they rattle and sometimes the piezo's will pick the rattle up, taping them down will lower the amount of rattle. once you get the lag figured out this will help tremendously for snare rolls.
#3 adjust the lag, its stupid how magical the lag adjustment is. do MANUAL adjustment, their premade settings are a joke. do manual adjustment again and again, until you start getting the same average values.
As for the guitar, I could say the same thing. The timing and look are very similar to GH, but just different enough that it takes some getting used to.
Now, for the mic, I have a very dumb question. If I'm wrong, just say "Hurf Durf Ballman" and I'll go on my merry way. I wasn't sure from your description whether or not you made sure that you turned on a normal 360 controller to use the RB microphone. Since you said you tried a headset and it worked, I have a feeling you did, but I just wanted to make sure.
Finally, those deposits for the RMA controllers seems absurd. I've only ever been "charged" $125 for express replacement, and even that wasn't ever actually charged; they only checked to make sure my account had the money before they sent the replacements. I'd definitely go to the eagames support website before I did anything else if I were you. I've gotten the idea that the phone jockeys aren't as well informed.
Man, good luck with these problems. Since I got RB back in November, it's been crazy fun for my friends and I to get together and play. It sucks to hear about stories like this.
You know about the being 100% sure about the drums working this is how I tested to see if it was some sort of decreasing sensitivity. On the song selections screen I'll hit 10 yellow, slowly, then 10 blue, slowly and I seem to end up on a different song about half the time. :P It seems like my drumming scores have decreased suddenly even on the easier songs. Has anyone else noticed this?
Also, I just read a thread at rockband.com ( a pretty detailed one [here]) that basically says that sometimes the red and green heads pick up extra vibrations from the yellow and blue drums so they mentioned sort of taping them down so that they only register when hit. You might want to try that out.
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Steam ID: slashx000______Twitter: @bill_at_zeboyd______ Facebook: Zeboyd Games
Anyhow, I think my RB is from release. Do people who picked up RB early on have the same problems?
Steam BoardGameGeek Twitter
edit: my friend's game worked fine. Not worth the price though.
Yeah, but if your two options are sending it to EA or watching it collect dust, which would you prefer more? It's not like EA is going to prance off with your $400 dollars laughing like maniacs.
Steam BoardGameGeek Twitter
Still, $400 for replacement equipment. I think the OP isn't as informed as they need to be. So I'll stick to grumpy, self-righteous indignation...
And to perhaps clear some things up, the charge they are asking you for is for 'rush shipping'. This is where they send you new equipment and place a hold charge on a credit card. You then have, I believe, 30 days to send in the old, broken equipment and the hold charge is removed and everybody is happy. Or you could do it the old way and send in the broken stuff and just wait for them to send the new ones and there will be no hold charges placed on a credit card.
Rock Band is an excellent game...when the peripherals work. It is unfortunate that you've encountered the worst of luck with the quality of the controllers. But they have acknowledged that there are problems and offer solutions. This is not a scam.
EDIT: Which is only an issue if they want the rush service. Don't they still do it the old fashioned way?
Do not engage the Watermelons.
support.ea.com/rockband
Go through the steps there and at the end, if your shit is broken, it'll cough up a phone number. The two times I've RMA'd something (bass pedal and microphone), I've been forwarded to a live english speaking person. Both times, I didn't have to return anything back. For guitar or drums, however, they will probably send you an empty box and then return you a working (maybe) guitar/drumkit afterwards.
Your issue with the microphone isn't common at all so you'll get sent a working one soon enough. Keep in mind you need to have a controller with the mic, don't think just plugging the mic in will let you navigate the menus.
I have contacted EA about the game and its hardware. Yes sending them off for replacment is better then having a paper weight. The problem "I" have is I already spent 160ish on the game yet for the RMA they are going to hold more money then what the game cost in the first place. Since I have a Visa "Debt" card over a creditcard they actualy take the money out of my account and it gets returned when the charges "falls off" some 30 days later. So for awhile it does in fact cost me some green.
One youtube video really shows my problem with the drums.
(no this is not me)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EAWd7nTAK0Y
It isn't everyone that has issues with the drumkit. Mine from December have worked perfectly although I did mod the bass pedal after breaking the last one.
Guitar is probably a bigger issue. Part of it has to do with the design and the other is people not accomodating the visual lag and/or thrashing too hard on the axe.
@Blasto: I have RMA'd the guitar before with the express route, and they don't hold your cash for long. The charge fell off my account after 3 to 4 days at most.
And yeah, make sure that when you have the mic plugged into the Xbox that you have a standard xbox controller powered up and signed in. The mic all by itself will not be recognized. The person who intends to sing must also be using a standard controller so they can navigate menus and pick difficulties and the like.
Still, it sucks so many people have to juryrig their instruments to get them to work right, sounds like pretty shit quality. Granted controllers will break down eventually but has it even been out six months?
THE END.
No when there's a big ass sticker on the box that says "DO NOT RETURN, CONTACT EA" or something to that effect.
I dispute your claim based on second hand experience.
I dispute this claim as a person who worked in retail. We won't take it if EA tells us not to.
Wherever you worked must just make up return policies on the fly - as somewhere like Best Buy has to adhere to the rules they set out ages ago and are posted throughout the store.
If some doofus was trying to deny the return - make a stand until they process it, or go to another location for the same store. Seriously, it's right on the receipt. You have a right to return a product - for any reason generally, but especially if it is defective.
If THAT wasn't going to work for some reason, you could just do a chargeback - assuming it was purchased on a credit card (and anything non consumable should be)
your wife may have not hit the pads hard enough to register a hit or if you are going by missed notes i know rb is pretty sensitive on timing for drums. I can do them on hard now but if you don't pay absolute attention to whats on the screen you won't hit the note. The thing that sucks about rb's drums is that when doing it correctly it sounds off from the music
No it doesn't. You should adjust your lag calibration.
essentially you want to tape it such that the skin (the surface you hit) is not sticking as far out of the rest of the drum.
so you probably want to tape all the way around the drum. make it tight but not too tight.
alternatively you could take the skin off, grab the foamy part from inside, and cut it thinner, then put it back together, keep in mind that this more than likely voids your warranty the taping solution does not void your warranty.
Except that it doesn't cover some of the common problems suffered by people, it just has one problem per instrument.
Rock Band DLC | GW:OttW - arrcd | WLD - Thortar
Oh yeah, and my friend had to send back his drums.
0431-6094-6446-7088
Still waiting for a release date.
A friend of mine is going to bring over his GH Guitar for the 360 and we'll see if my Guitar is bad or I just need to get used to the new timming.
*I have seen people call BS on the 400$ to RMA. I do get it back, I understand that. But I do have to let them put a "Hold" on that money to get replacment controlers and its Higer then the game costs new. That is what I am disagreeing with.*
And NO I can not return the box to EBgames, they will not take it, exchange it or anything short of trading it in for "Credit". It is an "Opened" video game so nogo (the sicker on the box also says not to return it).