Tag Archives: Rock Band

BGB at LGF: Rock Band 2 Event and Interview

By Jonathan Cresswell | October 30, 2008

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By wonderful coincidence, EA held the first UK preview event for the upcoming sequel to Harmonix’s fantastic band game Rock Band at the same time as BGB is in London! So, I headed on down to the event to go hands on with the improved sequel, and talk to lead designer Dan Teasdale.

Rock Band 2 is more of a ‘touching up’ of the first game than bringing many new features to the table. There are things like the improved career mode, drum trainer, but the day was mainly about the new hardware and the sheer range of tracks available to play. The standard drum kit is now quieter, with improved, velocity sensitive pads which are much nicer to play on with the improved bounce and feel, and similarly the sunburst Fender Stratocaster has been touched up with a bit more of a firm strum bar and fret buttons which are really nice to play on: and it’s my favourite guitar so far.

However, the true star of the show was the gorgeous Ion Drum Rocker. It’s pretty much a real electronic drum kit… now, sure, it’s expensive ($300, no UK price or date available right now) but it feels worth it – the pads are really high quality, and playing with cymbals is great fun (despite there being no cymbal cues within the game). If you regularly play drums in the game, it’s worth considering as the quality there is so high. Despite the fact that the one at the event wasn’t assembled perfectly and so the arm with the red pad and yellow cymbal slid around and fell off mid-song (I’ll be honest, it didn’t stop me trying to hit it).

I also sat down with Dan Teasdale from Harmonix in a ten minute interview, where we cover the big picture with Rock Band 2’s EU release on all platforms, the latest update on Rock Band Japan, and the lack of European focussed tracks… as well as the finer details that anyone playing the game might be bugged about, such as stars on the quickplay menu, cymbal notation in gameplay and patching Rock Band 2 on PS3 to support Guitar Hero: World Tour’s drums. If you understand those last few things, it’s really worth listening to when things head down the slightly more nerdy end of the conversation…

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New Rock Band Album DLC Announced

By Jonathan Cresswell | August 28, 2008

Entertainment Weekly has revealed the titles of 6 upcoming albums to be added to the Rock Band’s music store, where new content can be purchased for use in the 4-player band game.

Coming to the store later this year will be Foo Fighters (The Colour and the Shape), Red Hot Chili Peppers (Blood Sugar Sex Magik), Jane’s Addiction (Nothing’s Shocking), Megadeth (Peace Sells… But Who’s Buying) and Stevie Ray Vaughn (Texas Flood), as well as a greatest hits collection from No Doubt.

The next album due for release was this Tuesday with Moving Pictures by Rush, which would have seen the debut of instrumentals in the game, but has been delayed due to technical difficulties: making it the first Tuesday since the American launch that Harmonix hasn’t had new content on the store. However, they do keep up their weekly record as a 3-pack from upcoming MTV Band of the Week (ugh) Locksley is going up today instead.

There’s a good set of albums there, though there is still one question to be asked: what happens when a track is on one of the albums, but is also on Rock Band 2’s setlist (for example, Everlong)?

Oh, right, one more, when the heck is Europe getting Rock Band 2?

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Rock Band 2 – 80+ Master Tracks on Disc

By Mark Brown | July 14, 2008

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Harmonix and MTV Games have unveiled the entire setlist of rock and roll tunes that will be avaiable on Rock Band 2’s disc.

Comprised entirely of master recordings from some of rock’s most prolific and untouchable artists, including AC/DC, Guns N’ Roses, Bob Dylan, Metallica, Pearl Jam and more, Rock Band 2 will deliver the most impressive and largest music catalogue of any music-based videogame ever.

Rock Band 2 will be an Xbox 360 Exclusive when it launches this September.

The full songlist continues, after the jump

1. AC/DC “Let There Be Rock”
2. AFI “Girl’s Gone Grey”
3. Alanis Morissette “You Oughta Know”
4. Alice in Chains “Man in the Box”
5. Allman Brothers “Ramblin’ Man”
6. Avenged Sevenfold “Almost Easy”
7. Bad Company “Shooting Star”
8. Beastie Boys “So Whatcha Want”
9. Beck “E-Pro”
10. Bikini Kill “Rebel Girl”
11. Billy Idol “White Wedding Pt. I”
12. Blondie ” One Way or Another”
13. Bob Dylan “Tangled Up in Blue”
14. Bon Jovi “Livin’ on a Prayer”
15. Cheap Trick “Hello There”
16. Devo “Uncontrollable Urge”
17. Dinosaur Jr. “Feel the Pain”
18. Disturbed “Down with the Sickness”
19. Dream Theater “Panic Attack”
20. Duran Duran “Hungry Like the Wolf”
21. Elvis Costello “Pump It Up”

Read More »

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[E3 08] GameTrailers Official E3 Trailers

By Mark Brown | July 12, 2008

GameTrailers.com has a bunch of exclusive trailers for games that will be shown at E3 next week.

BioWare’s upcoming fantasy epic, Dragon Age: Origins, is poised as a spiritual successor to the Baldur’s Gate series. Origins, planning to be darker and more mature than High Fantasy, will be a PC exclusive.

This Rock Band 2 rendition of Foo Fighter’s Everlong doesn’t show off many new features of the band sim sequel, but we should receive a full list of tweaks and changes next week.

Finally, a trailer for EA’s spooky third person shooter, Dead Space. A sci-fi horror game, Dead Space features bucket loads of blood and gore as you must dismember alien tentacles… tasty!

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Rock Band 2: The Opening Act Announced

By Mark Brown | June 30, 2008

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Harmonix has officially announced Rock Band 2, titled Rock Band 2: The Opening Act. The game is intended as a polished and perfected version of the recently released (in Europe, that is) band simulator, Rock Band.

“As successful as the original Rock Band continues to be, we’ve now had the benefit of the last eight months to listen to our fans’ requests and to build upon that foundation,” said Alex Rigopulos, co-founder and CEO of Harmonix. “Rock Band 2 is a second-generation band game that will elevate the music game experience to the next level.”

Answering the million dollar question right off the bat, Lead Designer Dan Teasdale confirmed that all downloadable content for Rock Band will be playable in Rock Band 2, and vice versa.

The bundle will also feature improved instruments (but will be compatible with your original drums, guitar and mic) and will likely improve on navigation, add online World Tour and include “new ways for you to transition from Expert to real instruments”.

IGN – Rock Band 2: The Opening Act Interview »

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Free Disturbed Rock Band Tracks

By Mark Brown | June 3, 2008

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Up now on the Xbox Live Marketplace are some brand new Rock Band songs from Disturbed and Jimmy Buffett. While the Disturbed tracks are already cheap (at 80 points each, or 240 for the pack), the band wants to give away two of them for free!

Ok, so you’re supposed to buy their album from Best Buy first, but all I have is Tesco, HMV and Subway, so I guess I’m allowed to take advantage.

Head to Distubed 1 Xbox.com, enter “1lfa89″ and receive your download code. Shove this in your 360 and you’ll be the new owner of some pretty crappy songs!

Cheap Ass Gamer – 2 free Xbox 360 Rock Band songs with Preorder of Disturbed’s new cd »

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Motley Crue: Rock Band Outsells iTunes 5:1

By Mark Brown | May 24, 2008

mcrue.jpg Maybe we have underestimated just how big these new music distribution methods can get…

In the first week of sales for their new single, Saints of Los Angeles (Mötley Recods, 2008) sold 10,000 copies through digital music stores such as iTunes and Amazon.

During that same period, the Rock Band edition was bought and downloaded a whopping 47,000 – on Xbox 360 alone!

With music piracy so unmanageably commonplace in the 21st century, even the convenience of iTunes can’t save the industry. On the other hand, you can’t pirate Rock Band songs.

How many record labels must be lining up at Harmonix’s door this morning?

Reuters – Rock acts ringing up sales via video games »

By the way: Rock Band is out! Did you buy it? What do you think? Leave your thoughts in the comments below.

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Rock Band DLC – Available Now

By Mark Brown | May 20, 2008

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Can’t wait for Rock Band to come out on Friday? How about filling up your hard drive with some songs you can’t play yet? Harmonix and EA have released almost every single song that have appeared on the American Store, ready for the game’s European release.

Full Albums – 1,200 Points Each

Judas Priest – Screaming for Vengeance (1982)

Special Track Packs – See Individual Prices

Harmonix Pack 01 (240 Points) – “Rock Rebellion” by Bang Camaro, “Shake” by Count Zero and “Sprode” by Freezepop
Grateful Dead Pack 01 (800 Points) – “Casey Jones”, “Sugar Magnolia”, “Truckin’”, “Franklin’s Tower”, “I Need a Miracle” and “China Cat Sunflower”
Boston Pack 01 – “Hitch A Ride”, “Something About You”, “Rock And Roll Band”, “Smokin’”, “Peace Of Mind” and “More Than A Feeling”

Read More »

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New Releases – These go to Eleven

By Mark Brown |

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Spotlight: Rock Band
The ultimate band mash-up, Rock Band’s harmonious quartet is set to be the headline act in the rhythm game space. With 67 songs chosen specifically with four instruments in mind, and over 100 (and counting) downloadable tracks on the Xbox Live Marketplace, MTV’s colossal influence over the music industry utterly dwarfs all other music titles.

The £120 (RRP) instrument kit features a Fender Stratocaster guitar, a four piece drum kit (with foot pedal) and USB microphone. Budding bassists have their pick of any three guitars available on the market, as both Guitar Hero instruments are compatible.

Amazon is offering the game for £39.99 and the three instrument kit for £99.99.

Play.com is also offering the game for £39.99 and the three instrument kit for £99.99 Use promotional voucher code “NEWPLAY08″ to receive £2 off.

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Xbox 360
Rock Band
Final Fantasy XI 2008 Edition
Xbox Live Arcade: Penny Arcade Adventures: Episode One (1600 points, May 21st)

Playstation 3
Haze

Nintendo Wii
Secret Files: Tunguska
Battle of the Bands
WiiWare: LostWinds (1000)
WiiWare: Dr. Mario & Germ Buster (1000)
WiiWare: Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles: My Life as a King (1500)
WiiWare: Star Soldier R (800)
WiiWare: Toki Tori (900)
WiiWare: TV Show King (1000)

PC
Final Fantasy XI 2008 Edition
Age of Conan – Hyborian Adventures
Trackmania United Forever

Nintendo DS
Secret Files: Tunguska (BGB Review)
Fizz

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EA Concretes Upcoming UK Releases

By Mark Brown | May 13, 2008

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Electronic Arts has announced firm release dates for their next batch of upcoming summer releases.

Battlefield: Bad Company – June 27th (Xbox 360 and Playstation 3)
A comical take on private military corporations with house destroying explosions and plenty of tanks.

Burnout Paradise – June (PC)
Free-form racing, smashing and crashing across the entire Paradise City. PC version promises user content and downloadable items.

Command & Conquer 3: Kane’s Wrath – June (Xbox 360)
Expansion Pack for 360 strategy title, Command & Conquer 3, Kane’s Wrath introduces a Global Conquest campaign and sub factions.

Mass Effect – June 6th (PC)
PC version of Bioware’s Space Epic lets you assign commands all over your keyboard for a better combat experience.

Mercenaries 2: World in Flames – September 5th (Xbox 360, PS3, PC and PS2)
Sandbox, open world action title with destructible environments, air strikes, tanks and plenty of fire.

Rock Band – TBA (Wii)
After Harmonix’s musical extravaganza, Rock Band hits Xbox 360 on May 23rd, the Wii will see the next release later this year.

Spore Creature Creator – June 17th (PC and Macintosh)
Get your hands on Spore’s deep and creative creature studio, ready to import your beasties into the full game in September.

Spore – September 7th (PC, Macintosh, DS and Mobile Phones)
Sims Creator, Will Wright toys with evolution, space travel and god in this ambitious biological simulation. On September 7th, the race will be on to see what Will has put in the centre of his universe.

EA wants to make sure you don’t forget about their other titles coming out late 2008 and early 2009; Battlefield Heroes, Battleforge, Command & Conquer: Red Alert 3, Dead Space, Mirror’s Edge, Skate It, Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning and Left 4 Dead.

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Incoming Releases – May 2008

By Mark Brown | April 30, 2008

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Apollo Justice – Ace Attorney – May 9th / DS
What do you do when you’ve built up a series with a whole host of lovable and memorable characters? Throw them out the window, and bring in a bunch of new ones. Phoenix Wright takes the back seat (well, the defendant’s seat) as new lawyer Apollo Justice rises to the title of Ace Attorney. It’s the first installment of the text based lawyer series to be made specifically for the DS, retaining the classic style of investigation and interrogation you’ll have become used to in the first three games (well, two games if you’re not an importer), but adding a new twist with Apollo’s perception bracelet as you can look for the tiniest twitch of a lying witness.
It might not deviate enough according to our BGB Review, but if you’re ready for another day in court – there should be no objections.

Rock Band – May 23rd / 360
Become a Rock Legend and take the part of a musician, or a bassist, in a worldwide tour. In a natural evolution for Harmonix, Guitar Hero becomes a single cornerstone in a four man group as you bash away on plastic peripherals to almost 100 (with premium DLC) classics, like Radiohead, Chili Peppers and The Who. With online play, respectable peripherals (although hopefully we’ll avoid the technical issues that America faced), an incredible song line up and promises of lots more DLC; Rock Band could be the only plastic performance kit you’ll ever need.

Race Driver: GRID – May 30th / 360, PS3, PC, DS
The latest instalment of the influential TOCA series, but apparently the brand name means nothing to Codemasters who lost it in favour of throwing car related words at a whiteboard and seeing what stuck – Race Driver GRID.
Building upon the awesome Neon engine (last seen in DiRT), Race Driver boasts an authentic and persistent damage model as it adds bumps and scratches, not only to the vehicles but to the tracks as well. The game will have circuit events, street races and drift challenges in Europe, USA and Japan respectively. We’ve been invited to see the game at Codemasters later in May, so look out for previews then.

Read More »

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BGB Newswire 04: 13/4/08: Late to the Party

By Jonathan Cresswell | April 13, 2008

The BGB Newswire is a satirical look over the past week’s gaming news. This week, there’s celebrations over the EU Import Tax amount being changed, but they are quickly halted as Rock Band’s official price is announced, and a demonstration of Microsoft’s Wii Remote clone.



Stream: YouTube
Download: MP4 | WMV
Podcast RSS Feed: MP4 | WMV

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Rock Band: The Blame Game

By Jonathan Cresswell | April 9, 2008

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Even though you can buy the bundle for £133 so that you’re practically getting the game itself for free, Rock Band’s recommended retail price of £179.99 is a tough one to swallow, especially due to the worrying precedent it could set. Being European means that we’re regularly getting screwed over on prices of many things, but if that’s a light bit of sexual harassment in the workplace, this could be, as said on some message boards, “rape”. Why is it so high? Well, there are a few theories, and I’ve got one more to add to the pile…

It’s a bit perplexing where the price hike came from: but there is one simple result – the game is dead in Europe. Obviously, that’s a bit of an exaggeration: but with a more respectable price of £120 it could truly become a mass market popular product, the utterly ridiculous price here has assigned it a fate of a game that that casual consumers might have heard of, but won’t buy, leaving it only the more niche audience of dedicated fans: more along the lines of people who read this site and not readers of glossy gossip mags.
This is only worsened by the fact that the Guitar Hero series hasn’t sold as well in Europe compared to America: so people aren’t as accepting of paying increased amounts for a peripheral based music game, especially one on the sale of Rock Band.

You’d think of it as a bit of a giveaway that you’re overcharging when your game costs more than the console it’s on, and so this announcement truly came as a surprise. In fact, when the prices were leaked last week, we thought it was £130 for the bundle: and it is, so there’s no problems there. However, what we didn’t know at the time is that unlike in the States, the game is not included in that bundle. Let me ask, why?!
The simple explanation is that it makes it easier to whack up the price for a bigger profit. With the game separate the final price over here is £180, and it looks better to the consumer for the pricing to be £130 and then £50 (it’s a bit of a softer blow mentally) though it’s likely there’ll be problems in the future with people expecting the game to be in the bundle when it isn’t.

Though why the heck is the disc not in the bundle? Is it so you can buy only some of the instruments and the game without shelling out for the bundle…? Well, no: in America, they have the game standalone as well as in the ’special edition’, as it’s called over there. There seems to be only one possible explanation: force people to double-dip, and therefore, more profits. The instrument pack will be piss useless without Rock Band: the guitar won’t work on GH2 or 3, there’s no other drumming games, and uh, well, you get a USB mic? Yay?
Read More »

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Play.com reduces Rock Band Price – £139.99 Set

By Mark Brown |

rockbanduk2.jpgAfter yesterday’s massive news, and Rock Band’s massive price, retailers are already showing their reaction a month before the game is released.

Online only retailer Play.com is the first renowned site to offer a price, and undercuts the recommended retail price of the instrument set by £30.

Play.com has set the Rock Band three instrument pack, which includes the guitar, the drum kit and the microphone, for £99.99

Alongside the game, which Play offers for £39.99 (and likely to be echoed by other UK retailers), the whole Rock Band experience will be a much more feasible £140.

Plus! Use coupon code “experience08” (without the quotation marks) to receive an extra 5% off. Seems small, but this code will reduce the price to an even more manageable £133

Other retailers include GAME, who are offering only the game at £50, Amazon, who have not yet set a price, and Shopto, who are asking £37.99 for the game.

Play.com – Rock Band Instrument Kit – £99.99 »
Play.com – Rock Band Solus – £39.99 »

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Rock Band: May 23rd, 360 Exclusive, £180

By Mark Brown | April 8, 2008

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Electronic Arts has finally announced a release date for Harmonix’s band simulator in the United Kingdom.

Out on May 23rd, Rock Band will release exclusively on Xbox 360 with Playstation 3, PS2 and Wii versions scheduled for a vague “summer”.

If you’ve been living in a cave, on a mountain or in the big brother house for the past few months, Harmonix left the Guitar Hero franchise to Activision, jumped ship and got bought by MTV, and then with Electronic Arts distributing they released Rock Band – the natural extension of their talents bringing guitar, vocals and drums into one harmonious explosion of sound.

Rock Band’s selection of tracks is incredible in both quality (in partnership with MTV, Rock Band features mostly original master tracks of the songs) and quantity. Besides the game’s 67 on-disc tracks (9 of which are exclusive to our European version), the number of songs available on Xbox Live (or Playstation Network) is reaching 100.
On May 27th, The Xbox Live will crush under the weight of these 70 downloadable songs being released for Europeans to pick and choose from. After that, European and American owners will receive brand new tracks simultaneously each week. (Songs are 160 MS Points each, £1.36)

Price Information:
In the UK, you won’t be able to buy the complete experience in one box. The instruments will available for £129.99 and the game itself will be sold separately for £49.99 (RRP). Together, this comes to a WHOPPING £180. When your product is more expensive in pounds than the relative dollar price tag ($169.99), you know you’re abusing your British customers.

The best course of action is to go piece meal; pick up the game, find a crappy USB mic, use your Guitar Hero 2 Xplorer Guitar (Wireless Guitar will be sold separately for £59.99) and grab a Drum Kit for £69.99.

Instrument Pack £129.99 / €169.99
Rock Band Game £49.99 / €69.99
Wireless Guitar £59.99 / €79.99
Drum Kit £69.99 / €89.99
Individual Songs 160 MS Points / £1.36
Three Song Pack 440 MS Points / £3.74
Six Song Pack 800 MS Points / £6.80

It’s been a painful four months, but with a concrete release date set we can sleep a little easier at night. Make sure you post which downloadable songs you’ll be picking up, in the comments.

Update: There has been a nasty rumour circulating that we will receive songs for double the price that Americans pay. Songs are 160 points in both regions, but some song packs are introduced at 80 points and raised to 160 after a few days. There is no news on whether a similar price system will be used in the UK store.

Wikipedia – List of Songs in Rock Band »
Button Bandits – Exclusive EU only tracks revealed »
Wikipedia – List of Downloadable Tracks in Rock Band »

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