Rock Band

Elin

For the Wii or the 360? Which one and why please.

Sir Carcass

360, better DLC method

KalTorak

The Wii is sort of catching up (slowly), but yeah, if you have both then there's no reason not to go whole-hog and get the 360 version.

wunderbar

360, without a doubt.

Smug Duckling

360 is currently light-years ahead.

onceling

I admit I haven't played on the Wii but the 360 works for my life because:

- DLC is easy
- I love achievements
- My buddies can bring over their instruments (I don't have wireless for eg and some of them step way heavy on the drum pedals so I make them bring their own)
- My buddies can bring their mem card if we want to get their band cash or anything
- Find it easy to find people online to play with (although don't do that often). There's always someone online for matchups.

capnrico

360 - DLC, Visuals, and omgachievements

jclast

360 - not only is the DLC available in packs, but you can hold more of it on your console (even if you only have a 20GB drive that is 40x more space than the Wii has going for it.

Gdiguy

Well, the Wii one is made with white plastic, and thus is far better

Seriously though, if you have the option of the Wii or 360 version there's basically zero reason to not choose the 360 one

cloudeagle

360, because you can rent the original Rock Band, pay a $5 fee, and instantly get 50-odd awesome songs for use in Rock Band 2. You can't do that on the Wii.

Edit: Though to be fair, the Wii now has an option to use big SD cards for storage.

Echo

cloudeagle wrote: »

360, because you can rent the original Rock Band, pay a $5 fee, and instantly get 50-odd awesome songs for use in Rock Band 2. You can't do that on the Wii.

Care to elaborate a bit on that? I've been eyeballing Rock Band 2 for some time now.

cloudeagle

Echo wrote: »

cloudeagle wrote: »

360, because you can rent the original Rock Band, pay a $5 fee, and instantly get 50-odd awesome songs for use in Rock Band 2. You can't do that on the Wii.

Care to elaborate a bit on that? I've been eyeballing Rock Band 2 for some time now.

Sure. Just get a copy of the original Rock Band and, after downloading an update for the game, you'll be able to select an option to transfer nearly all the songs on the disk to your hard drive. The exceptions are Enter Sandman, Run to the Hills, and Paranoid (the Sabbath song, not Garbage's I Think I'm Paranoid). If you do select the option, you'll be prompted to pay a $5 fee for the songs... you'll get to download an authentication key. After you do, then you can rip away. Every song downloads as a separate file, so you can delete any songs you don't want. After that's done, they'll show up your song bank for RB2, just like regular DLC.

The best part is that it's completely kosher to rent or borrow the original Rock Band to do this... because of the $5 fee, no one involved objects. So there's no real reason to buy the original game if you want to start out with Rock Band 2 (and you do).

ApexMirage

Google luck finding a copy of it for rent - I ended up having to borrow it from a friend of a friend.

Oh, and 360.

ascannerlightly

cloudeagle wrote: »

Sure. Just get a copy of the original Rock Band and, after downloading an update for the game, you'll be able to select an option to transfer nearly all the songs on the disk to your hard drive. The exceptions are Enter Sandman, Run to the Hills, and Paranoid (the Sabbath song, not Garbage's I Think I'm Paranoid). If you do select the option, you'll be prompted to pay a $5 fee for the songs... you'll get to download an authentication key. After you do, then you can rip away. Every song downloads as a separate file, so you can delete any songs you don't want. After that's done, they'll show up your song bank for RB2, just like regular DLC.

this also applies to the majority of the rb1 dlc.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_downloadable_songs_for_the_Rock_Band_series

Echo

Ah, nice. Should be able to bum Rock Band 1 from a friend. :^:

KalTorak

ApexMirage wrote: »

Google luck finding a copy of it for rent - I ended up having to borrow it from a friend of a friend.

Oh, and 360.

Yeah, I ended up getting it off half.com for around $13. It just occurred to me that I don't have to keep it around, so I'll probably recoup a good chunk of that by reselling it.

Sir Carcass

ascannerlightly wrote: »

cloudeagle wrote: »

Sure. Just get a copy of the original Rock Band and, after downloading an update for the game, you'll be able to select an option to transfer nearly all the songs on the disk to your hard drive. The exceptions are Enter Sandman, Run to the Hills, and Paranoid (the Sabbath song, not Garbage's I Think I'm Paranoid). If you do select the option, you'll be prompted to pay a $5 fee for the songs... you'll get to download an authentication key. After you do, then you can rip away. Every song downloads as a separate file, so you can delete any songs you don't want. After that's done, they'll show up your song bank for RB2, just like regular DLC.

this also applies to the majority of the rb1 dlc.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_downloadable_songs_for_the_Rock_Band_series

Actually, there's no RB1 or RB2 DLC, it's all just Rock Band DLC. The games don't differentiate at all.

W2

RB2 is pretty good on the Wii, at least the part where notes scroll at you and you hit them is functionally identical. If you have the option though go for the 360 version, as in addition to everything already mentioned it has better instrument compatability with the 360 version of Guitar Hero World Tour (and I would assume Metallica and Smash Hits as well).

Echo

Might as well hijack this thread for another question: which guitar do people recommend?

I've played Rock Band 2 a bit with friends, and I think the guitars I like the most came from Guitar Hero.

jclast

Echo wrote: »

Might as well hijack this thread for another question: which guitar do people recommend?

I've played Rock Band 2 a bit with friends, and I think the guitars I like the most came from Guitar Hero.

When I first got RB I prefered the GH guitars as well. Give the RB guitar some time. I find that it's more comfortable to hold (bigger) and that I can do speed pick sections much faster with it. I never could get used to the solo frets though. As far as my playing is concerned they are just decoration.

Voro

My original RB guitar and the one I got after RMAing it were both crap. Terrible, terrible strum bars that only registered on the absolute extremes. You would have to hammer the thing against the plastic if you wanted to be sure it would register. Not good for the lifespan, especially on fast sections. The RB2 wireless guitar that i bought on its own works nicely, however. Strum bar is a bit improved, though I still prefer audible feedback from the instrument itself.

The wireless GH:WT guitar I got with the online WT/Aerosmith/Metallica bundle is almost better. I like the strum bar a lot because there's an audible click at both the up & down points where the strum registers. I might actually be able to learn to alternate with this one. The downside is the strum bar also squeaks, though I've only had it for a few days and it might wear in. Oh, and the pad-thing they've built in is 100% useless.

If you want reliability, there's always the tried and true Xplorer. I guess the only disadvantage is that it's wired.

Willeth

Voro wrote: »

If you want reliability, there's always the tried and true Xplorer. I guess the only disadvantage is that it's wired.

This. I recently bought a second Xplorer because I love it so much. You do get the disadvantage of not having the higher fret buttons that the Strat does but they're not necessary at all except for maybe one achievement.

wunderbar

I went from the GH3 Guitar to the RB2 one and the RB2 one is miles better. Didnt' think so at first, actually played RB2 with the GH3 guitar for the first 4-5 days I had it.

But then I started really using the RB2 guitar and never went back.

cloudeagle

I absolutely love the RB2 guitar, it's absolutely worth it. Xplorers will work fine though.

Actually, Activision overproduced the Guitar Hero 2+3 guitars, and they're getting rid of them for dirt cheap. (Yes, they work for Rock Band.) Gamestop was doing a deal where you'd get a free guitar when you bought Guitar Hero: Aerosmith for $10. GH:A kind of sucks, but $10 for a guitar is damn nice. Not sure if the sale's still going on, though.

MrDelish

Echo wrote: »

Might as well hijack this thread for another question: which guitar do people recommend?

this one

I took off the bass thumb-rest and use it as a normal guitar. It's seriously the best of both worlds, since it has the RB-style easy-press fret buttons and a clicky strum.

Echo

MrDelish wrote: »

this one

I took off the bass thumb-rest and use it as a normal guitar. It's seriously the best of both worlds, since it has the RB-style easy-press fret buttons and a clicky strum.

Oh, a friend has that one. I just haven't tried it yet, since I'm a horrible noob and got scared by the lack of colored keys. :P

I'll give it an evaluation the next time we're rock banding.

KalTorak

Echo wrote: »

MrDelish wrote: »

this one

I took off the bass thumb-rest and use it as a normal guitar. It's seriously the best of both worlds, since it has the RB-style easy-press fret buttons and a clicky strum.

Oh, a friend has that one. I just haven't tried it yet, since I'm a horrible noob and got scared by the lack of colored keys. :P

I'll give it an evaluation the next time we're rock banding.

Cool, I'd like to hear your feedback. I'm still trying to get used to the RB2 one, and the lack of clicking for audible and tactile feedback is fucking with me more than I thought it would. However, I'm still wary of third-party controllers.

ascannerlightly

@ gh:wt guitar

Voro wrote: »

The downside is the strum bar also squeaks, though I've only had it for a few days and it might wear in.

it won't. mine didn't, at least. the squeak is the plastic bar sliding around ever so slightly on the metal rod at it's center. the concave space in the body of the guitar for the bar leaves a few millimeters of space so if you play (like i do) standing up with the guitar across your midsection at an angle from right hip to left shoulder (i call it 'the skwisgar') the up/down strumming motion translates into the strum bar jiggling back and forth in line with the length of the guitar. mine squeaks like a MOTHERFUCKER! i have to crank the tv to not hear it.

Voro wrote: »

Oh, and the pad-thing they've built in is 100% useless.

more like 100% awesome. i'd love to be able to get a guitar with touchpad-only. that pad is the only way i can limp through the hot for teacher intro, but for middle-of-the-song solos i don't normally use it because i miss it with my hand and by the time i find the right hand position i'm flashing red.