Somebody Posted September 19, 2008 Report Share Posted September 19, 2008 Rock Band 2 Harmonix, MTV Games, and EA return with the sequel for Rock Band. Rock Band 2 ships with 84 new songs on the disc, is backwards compatible with all Rock Band 1 DLC, and allows you to import most songs off the Rock Band 1 disc for an additional fee. Platforms: PlayStation 2, Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, Wii Publishers:: Electronic Arts, MTV Games Developer: Harmonix Music Systems, Inc. Genres :Music/Rhythm Original US Release: Sept. 14, 2008 ESRB: T Images: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Somebody Posted September 19, 2008 Author Report Share Posted September 19, 2008 Rock Band 2 Review by Jeff Gerstmann Rock Band 2 offers a great package of new music and a bunch of great enhancements to the core game that make it a terrific purchase whether you're already well-versed in the genre or looking to get started. Rock Band 2 isn't a vast overhaul of the Rock Band formula. Instead, it's a set of intelligent updates to the progression and periphery of the game designed to make sure you get to see the cool stuff, regardless of how you're playing. If you spent a serious chunk of time trying to play Rock Band with other players, you probably remember how much of a pain it could be to get the right band members together into the right band, or how much of a hassle it was to play the Band World Tour mode when you were missing a key member. All of that madness is gone, replaced by smart solutions that are almost enough to make the first game obsolete. The streamlining done to the Band World Tour mode makes it the main way to play, regardless of the number of players available. You can play it alone, or with up to three other players. Also, those additional slots can be filled with any mixture of local and remote players. So if you and two friends want to play and no one wants to sing, you should be able to hit "find players" and get matched up with a willing vocalist online. Yeah, it still looks like Rock Band. Beyond making it easier to get a group together, the World Tour hasn't changed too much. It's still about going from city to city, earning upgrades like a bus or a plane, playing mystery setlists, and building your band up by earning fans, money, and stars for performing. In addition to unlocking new cities to play, you also unlock the ability to hire staff members, which can give you a bonus to the number of fans you get, or give you more special opportunities, like charity shows or music video shoots. If you mainly played this mode in the original Rock Band, you won't see a ton of changes here. You will see more of the little things that make the entire game seem like it was crafted by a passionate group of people that really understand the subject matter. When you see your band's new merchandise girl described as an "unofficial band den mother... a den mother who is always trying to make out with you," it's plainly obvious that these people have been there. That really goes a long way. The new guitar has sensors on it that make calibrating your setup a snap. You use your created band in more ways this time around, including a set of local challenges that give you a tiered set of things to complete. This concept goes online with the new Battle of the Bands mode, which has the potential to be a very big hook that keeps you coming back. With Battle of the Bands, the designers back at Harmonix are able to configure and launch timed challenges with a variety of criteria. You're able to participate in the challenge again and again, with your best performance going on the leaderboard for that challenge. The challenges seem to be really configurable, ranging from individual songs to sets that include songs from Rock Band 2, the original game, or downloadable content. Some challenges are locked to solo performances on specific instruments, while others let you take any number of players in. Some of them force specific difficulties, or keep score in alternate ways, such as the longest streak on guitar, or the number of stars earned over the course of multiple songs. Even if you don't really care about the gameplay changes, Rock Band 2 is still a good value if taken merely as a set of new songs. The game comes with over 80 songs on the disc, and they're all from the original artists. There's a lot of variety covering multiple decades and genres, and you can check out our info page on the game for a full song list. Some of my favorites include Round and Round by Ratt, Spoonman by Soundgarden, and Cool for Cats by Squeeze. The key to the material is that most of it's actually fun to play. It's a true testament to how much fun playing the game actually is that it can make you forget that Paramore is, you know, awful. Heck, even the kind-of-bad new Guns N' Roses song that makes its legal debut in the game is OK in the context of the game. The game also comes with a code that will be used to download an additional 20 songs. The details on what those songs are and when they'll be available haven't been announced yet. The code does seem to be a one-time use sort of deal, though, so consider that if you're thinking about buying a used copy. You'll occasionally get to shoot a music video, which results in some different on-screen effects. Rock Band 2 is probably the smartest music game to date when it comes to handling songs from previous games. The game contains the same music store interface that was patched into the original game, and anything you might have purchased for the first game is automatically made available in Rock Band 2. Additionally, you can take your original Rock Band disc and purchase an export license for five dollars. This lets you copy all but a few of the songs from the first game onto your hard drive, and Rock Band 2 sees those just like it sees downloadable tracks. That means that you could have hundreds of songs available to you all in one game. It's a daunting list when you see it all scrolling in front of you on the song select screen, but the game lets you sort the songs in a number of different ways to make it easier to find what you want. The game mixes the old stuff into the game pretty well, occasionally including it in mystery setlists and letting you choose it at will when creating a set of songs or just playing the quickplay mode. Outside of the new songs and gameplay changes, the game also has a hidden, sinister motive: it's trying to create a world of drummers. Though just playing the game and working your way through the different difficulties would make you more able to work both arms and one foot with more style and expertise, Rock Band 2 has a drum trainer mode that lets you try your hand at playing different drum parts and fills at different tempos. The fills seem more focused on making you not sound awful whenever a freestyle fill section shows up in the real game by giving you a variety of ideas on fills. The main mode is more focused on a handful of different beats. If you can get 100 percent on a beat, it'll light up and be marked as completed. There are achievements based on completing tracks at either the middle or higher tempos. Getting more practice on the drums will certainly make you a better Rock Band drummer. And it's almost guaranteed that once you learn that level of coordination, you'll be able to approach a real drum kit with a slightly higher rate of success. But there's nothing here to explain to you what you're doing wrong, and nothing there to really teach you how to keep an internal tempo. So the drum trainer may assist in the creation of a nation of drummers... but we'll all be playing to click tracks. This pedal feels quite a bit sturdier than the old one. The hardware has also undergone another round of revisions for Rock Band 2. The drums are now wireless, requiring three AA batteries for power. The drums are substantially quieter than the kit that was initially issued alongside the original game, and the pads are velocity sensitive. That means the drums know if you're hitting them softly or wailing away, but this doesn't really have any impact on the gameplay. The kick pedal, prone to breaking on the original kit, appears to be made of much sterner stuff this time around. The guitar, also wireless, is a redesigned version of the original. The strum bar feels a lot better and, overall, the whole thing feels much sturdier and resistant to damage than the previous guitars did. Also new on the guitars is a sound and light sensor that you can use to calibrate the audio/video lag on your setup. Before, you sort of had to eyeball this stuff, with varying results. Now, you hold the guitar up to a speaker for an audio check, then up to the TV for a series of flashes that check the visual latency. This new method appears to be totally successful--I tried it on a few different HDTVs with perfect results every time. While you could certainly get a nearly identical experience with your old hardware, if you're thinking of switching to the new stuff, it's totally worth it. Considering how serious Harmonix and MTV have been when it comes to post-release support via weekly song downloads, the initial announcement of Rock Band 2 caught me off guard. Aside from being a method for offline players to acquire music, it didn't seem necessary at all. But with its large library of licensed master recordings and vastly improved approach to multiplayer play, Rock Band 2 is a terrific value at both ends. It's both a must-own for fans of the genre and a great place for new players to get started. Editorial Disclosure: We are pretty good friends with a guy who has his name in the credits of this game. The editorial staff of Giant Bomb feels that this review is free from bias, but then, you're always the last one to know if you, yourself have a bias. 5/5 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The JACKAL Posted September 19, 2008 Report Share Posted September 19, 2008 ^^ Review by Jeff Gerstman ....wasnt he kiked out already, out of Gamespot/Cnet. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The JACKAL Posted September 19, 2008 Report Share Posted September 19, 2008 This review is for the X360 release of Rock Band 2. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The JACKAL Posted September 19, 2008 Report Share Posted September 19, 2008 Why couldnt u post this in IndianVideoGamer forums praveen?? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Somebody Posted September 20, 2008 Author Report Share Posted September 20, 2008 ^^ nice way to increase ur posts saha... anyway, it doesn't matter coz its just a game thread and we dont have separate game threads for each console on GI. i'll just include the PS3 review here when it comes out. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Anmolsc Posted November 1, 2008 Report Share Posted November 1, 2008 sad news....palika shop keeper says he cannot import this one... guys please try..anyone ?//??/ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AtheK Posted November 1, 2008 Report Share Posted November 1, 2008 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Anmolsc Posted November 1, 2008 Report Share Posted November 1, 2008 he said the package is too big....he said there is 1% chance he can get one.but there is no use as the price will be about 2-3 times the original set price due to the VERY MINIMAL charges our government take from us Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AtheK Posted November 1, 2008 Report Share Posted November 1, 2008 he said the package is too big....he said there is 1% chance he can get one.but there is no use as the price will be about 2-3 times the original set price due to the VERY MINIMAL charges our government take from us well then all i can do is hunt for the game with just the guitar... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ocelot24 Posted November 6, 2008 Report Share Posted November 6, 2008 No chance of any of us getin this game unless we go abroad and then bring it back [YA RIGHT!!!] . Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Scorpio_gamer Posted February 4, 2009 Report Share Posted February 4, 2009 is it available in india?? coz i cant find it!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AtheK Posted February 4, 2009 Report Share Posted February 4, 2009 Nope it is not. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SchizoidFreud Posted February 4, 2009 Report Share Posted February 4, 2009 nope Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Scorpio_gamer Posted February 4, 2009 Report Share Posted February 4, 2009 thats sad....! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Grimmjow Posted July 28, 2009 Report Share Posted July 28, 2009 how does one know when to hit the cymbals? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rashmeet Posted July 28, 2009 Report Share Posted July 28, 2009 how does one know when to hit the cymbals? y dont u reply on psn Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Grimmjow Posted July 28, 2009 Report Share Posted July 28, 2009 but I never got any message Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rashmeet Posted July 28, 2009 Report Share Posted July 28, 2009 but I never got any message i sent 2 regarding the game only and u r playing rock band 1 right?? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Grimmjow Posted July 28, 2009 Report Share Posted July 28, 2009 yes i have both, will finish RB1 first. what did you want to ask ? I just got back from school so if u sent it earlier it must have been my bro playing Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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