Rock Band TWOOOOOOOOO review

In a nutshell: it's more like Rock Band 1.5, but I'm having way too much fun playing the hell out of the game to be disappointed over the lack of anything revolutionary.

Out of the nutshell:

THE GOOD:
I'm loving the way they merged Solo and BWT mode into Tour, and they vastly improved the whole character/band management aspect of things. Plus, online play in Tour = instant win. Really, they tweaked the hell out of a good concept, and made it much smoother as a result. The Challenges and Battle of the Bands stuff are icing on the cake; note that if you want to unlock more tracks, the quickest way is going to be the Challenges, some of which act as the closest equivalent to Solo Tour, but with the option to go multiplayer if you like. This, plus almost all the RB1 tracks for $5, plus all the DLC, plus the upcoming free 20-pack, makes buying RB2 a no-brainer for RB fans.

THE BAD:
I guess they rushed things a bit to get this out for the release date, because Jukebox Mode is nowhere to be seen. It's even gone from the rockband2.com website. I just hope it shows up as a patch concurrent to the PS3 release, because I was really looking forward to being able to throw tracks on at a party when the mood was more talkin' than rockin'.

THE TUNES:
The music is even more of a mixed bag than before, as well. On the one hand, one of my favorite songs ever (The Replacements' "Alex Chilton") is in the game, and there's a metric assload of great 70's and 80's rock. And then there's Foo Fighters, RHCP, all good. But sweet buttery jeebus, if overproduced generic brainless soulless talentless shite like Paramore and Linkin Park are what passes for popular music now, I am damn glad I've immersed myself in indie rock and ignored top 40 radio for the better part of the last decade. And of all the Beastie Boys to throw in, "So Whatcha Want" made it in? Seriously? I have no great love for ActiBlizzard/Neversoft, but at least they had the good sense to jump on "No Sleep 'til Brooklyn" for GHWT (whose tracklist is just as much of a mixed bag, honestly). I'd have settled for "Fight For Your Right." I got something that isn't even particularly fun to play, let alone listen to.

Speaking of GHWT, it breaks my heart that they got "Hot For Teacher" and "Crazy Train" and RB2 didn't.

IN CONCLUSION:
Oh well, on balance, I'll be playing as much Rock Band 2 as I can without driving my wife insane. Must go unlock more songs!

I played this last night with some friends; my friend got it on the way back from visiting his parents. The online stuff is really amazing, and I love how they've organized the songs now. It'll tell you difficulties for each instrument and other information. I love the expanded character options (clothes, instruments, etc.) and new songs. New favorites are Smashing Pumpkins, Interpol, Duran Duran...yay. And they have Eye of the Tiger, which makes me put down the guitar and start doing pushups.

Yayyyy for the game.

How much space on the hard drive does the RB1 tracks take? Since as I understand it, you're pretty much just downloading the tracks to the HD in order to be able to play them on RB2.

I think it's about a gig and a half of space.

Already out for the 360 I see. My neighbor has a PS3 and he's seeing if he can purchase this. Seems good enough.

There needs to be a Guitar Hero: Heavy Metal Edition or Rock Band: Tribute to the Metal Gods.

**** everything else.

I'd go nuts with my Rock Band set if those came out.

Heeeeeeey I like two of Paramore's songs! :sweat:


I wanna get RB so bad...either one or two! It was sweet playing RB1 at Faiz's house...I like hearing him sing. :anime:

Initially i was planning to wait till closer to christmas to pick this up since i needed to pick up a new guitar anyway, but i bought it this morning on impulse sadly. I don't really mind the new music selection, but I'm glad i can use all the tracks from RB1, because I need the safety of having tracks that I've mastered on vocals to bring up my score from trying out new songs. Sadly... now my voice is already starting to give, I've been out of practice too long.

I played online w/ Faded and her roomates last night and it was really fun.

I'm already up to 13 achievements on the game as well. I think I only had 4 or 5 on the first one.

Yes, I picked it up a few days ago and OMFG It was TOO funny to hear my roomate 'singing'.

I nearly died laughing. I am very addicted to this now....and I have waaaaay too much fun clothes shopping for my guitarist.