Fri 22 Feb 2008
Rock Band (the multi-player game for PlayStation3 and XBox360) has been the topic on a few of the blogs I read lately. Lotsa people are jumping on the Rock Bandwagon. Koinkidinkally, my cousin Mark from Canada got a hold of me earlier, and we had the following conversation about Rock Band:
Mark: Hey I finally got around to trying the multiplayer in Donkey Konga, fun times! Also, Rock Band rules!
me: Rock Band is HARD. We were just talking about it on my friends Mike & Christi’s blog.
Mark: YA ROCK BAND IS AWESOME, not that hard! Well maybe. Depends on what difficulty you play it on. I sang Radiohead’s Creep 100% on medium! You’ve played it?
me: Yeah, it’s a lot harder than guitar hero. You have to hit it exactly on the mark or you’re scored really low. I don’t know why they make it so hard.
Mark: Really? Everyone says Guitar Hero is harder… well except for the fact that there’s more of a window for a mistake when you hit it. But there are more buttons to hit in Guitar Hero, like they come up faster and with more.. at least on hard.
me: Hard has 5 buttons. But it doesn’t demand such precision. You don’t fail so fast/easily. Rock Band, 1/3 way thru the song on easy, you fail cuz you didn’t hit them all PRECISELY on the MILLISECOND they want you to.
Mark: !!! :O On easy it’s soooo easy!
me: It may also be hard for me cuz I never know any of the songs. So I have to “read” the screen.
Mark: :O You don’t know the rock classics? Guitar Hero is supposed to be tougher cause they make you hit a lot of buttons really fast. You should sing! That’s fun too, and drumming is wickkkkkedd!!
me: I can’t drum. Too many things my body isn’t used to doing/responding to.
Mark: Hey did you at least have fun while losing at the songs?
me: No, it was freaking stressful. Cuz I was really good at GH, so I couldn’t understand what the prob was w/RB.
Mark: Wow, all my friends who were awesome at Guitar Hero found RB to be too easy…Hrm…If you’re playing on an HD TV, sometimes the calibration is off, so it LOOKs like you’re hitting the button but it’s really off. So it’s really frustrating… my friend had an issue with that.
me: But everyone else I know in CA has the same opinion as me. RB is harder cuz it demands more precision.
Mark: Wowzers! It’s like the opposite of Toronto, haha.
*some time passes*
Mark: You know what, I’m reading up on it now and it’s the same as what you said. So Guitar Hero throws more notes at you, but the accuracy is not as tight. Where Rock Band is more realistic, with less notes but forcing you to be more accurate.
me: ah HA. That means that your friends in Canada are freaks. RB was frustrating for me cuz I was like, “WTF, I HIT the damn notes, why are they failing me?!”
Mark: Awww, you gotta download the music and listen!
me: I don’t really like rock.
Mark: Fair enough.
me: if they could figure out a Hip Hop Band, I’d be SO ALL OVER that.
Mark: We were talking about that! I was talking about that with friends. But hey they patented the name “DJ Hero”. I’m excited! Really though all they have to do is add a keyboard to the game, and blizzkapow it’s there.
me: And a record scratcher DJ station.
Mark: Hells yes. I’m in.
me: And all the karaoke part entails is someone spitting into the mike rhythmically. Ptth, ph ph ptthhhh!
WELL?! All you game programmers, GET ON IT!!!
i think i’ve already seen a DDR-type video game in the arcade that had a record-scratching UI. i could be wrong — it was a long while ago. i wonder if it could gain enough mainstream popularity to bring back the DJ battles that were oh-so popular (and oh-so fun to watch!) in the 80’s.
re: RB vs. GH… i’ve played plenty of GH, but only the drums on RB. i did pretty well with the timing, but struggled with my aim. i managed to hit many things other than the drum heads =P no wonder they sell replacement drum sets! we’ll have both by the time you come visit so you can decide for yourself =)
I think I’ve seen that, too. DDR-type games in arcade version have some crazy stuff, like a keyboard one where you’re expected to hit the keys like a real piano piece.
I kept hitting the plastic rim of the drums on Rock Band, too! So instead of the nice reverberating drum sounds, I’d make “THWACK!”s. I don’t know how to look at the screen and down at the drums at the same time.
Yay, I’m looking forward to making a lot of noise and not sleeping.
I believe the game is “Beatmania” and it’s indeed made by the same guys (Konami) that did DDR and Guitar Freaks and other such rhythm games.
I also sometimes hit the plastic rims of the drums… it still registers a hit though!