Jared Rea

Honestly, what do you think I said about Rock Band 2? Somehow, I managed to withhold my, “zomg game of the forever!!1″ comments for this Escapist review.

For the kings of rhythm gaming, is this sequel enough to satiate those who have surrendered their bank accounts in the name of downloadable content while being inviting enough for those on the fence between these near $200 dollar sequels? Hell yes, it is.

I’d like to offer a small addendum: when I wrote this review, the merchandise creation tool was nowhere in sight. This has since changed along with the photo tool, as seen on my Flickr. The Rock Band website is still not particularly functional, but at least it’s coming along.

Everyone loves to hate lists and so when the GameTap elders asked me to put together one for the greatest rhythm games of all time, I decided to take it seriously. I joked that in my quest for the definitive list, I had assembled the “Council of Elrond” of rhythm gaming afficinados. Between the lot of us, we could boast nearly 60 years of play and knowledge of this single, young genre.

Shit got real and for the most part, people really appreciated it, though tons of people disagreed. Most of the outrage was over the lack of PaRappa the Rapper, which I can understand, but if you’re going for quality something like that really can’t make the cut regardless of how much I adore it myself. And for however controversial it was to hand the top honor to Rock Band only a month after its release, I stand by it, only I’d like to attach the number two.

For the record, I fought like hell to keep Bust a Move off the list, only because I think nostalgia is a bitch. Still, in the end, everyone agreed that it deserved a spot on the list, a low one at that.

I’m tossing this back online as my Pop’n Music relapse has reminded me of it and also because GameTap no longer exists, so neither does this article. The name “No Doubt, Get Loud!” is a reference to a Beatmania IIDX track, but really, it was just me giving the middle finger to Google for the sake of something catchy. Onwards!

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Thanks to the release of “Charlene (I’m Right Behind You)” in Rock Band yesterday, I’ve finally snagged an achievement that has haunted me: Flawless Groove. I come from the Bemani / Guitar Freaks school of down-strum only, so really, this was a long time coming. I’m rhythm gaming dinosaur, I know. I still refuse to touch the bar during a game of Dance Dance Revolution to this day no matter what, amongst many other superstitions and (most likely) bad habits.

But hey, good news for you up-strumming freaks like Miss Shelby. The Rock Band bass guitar is now available, featuring a longer neck and split strum bar for two-finger play. Who says no one cares about bassists?

Now that the girlfriend and I have our new place setup the way we like it, we can focus on more important stuff like getting the band back together. Yes, Friendship Adventure is back and we’ve even got a new guitarist so that I don’t have to pull double duty on the vocals (even if it does give me an excuse to break out the mic stand). That puts me back behind the drums and returning to an old problem: my faulty red pads.

I never did get a chance to send in my second kit, so instead I turned to the Internet to help solve my problems. I had heard rumors on these here Internets that a mere penny could solve my waning pads. As it turns out, the rumors are true! I looked up a video and proceeded to pry the covers off my drums by force (naturally, the only answer). Once inside, all I had to do was unscrew the sensor, replace the rubber shock pad with a shiny, US penny and put it back together. The entire operation took about 5 minutes and behold, the drum roll is back!

Now if only the download content could return to glory, too. The six pack of Boston was incredible and while “Still Alive” was cute, it was still only one song. Worse yet, tomorrows content is none other than the awful selections from the once-exclusive Official PlayStation Magazine disc. Having “Sprode” on another game is nice, I guess, but it’s been scientifically proven that any Freezepop song is infinitely superior with guitars. To what depraved favor must it come to for “Who’s Next” to see a release already?

Shortly before news hit that Oasis would be joining the DLC parade, I put in a RMA ticket for my current drum kit. It wasn’t technically broken per say, but I started to notice that I was getting random misses more and more often. So instead of waiting for it to completely fall apart, I got EA on the horn and put in for a new set.

When I did this, I had illusions of grandeur. At a New Years Eve party, someone brought a brand new PS3 Rock Band set with a manufacture date of late November. This is important because the drum kit inside was absolutely amazing. Somewhere down the line, Harmonix started using a different set of drum pads for the kits which were not only more accurate than what most of us are used to, but they were also extremely quiet. The “thock thock thock” that most people attribute to the drum kit was replaced with a very soft thumping sound as seen in most commercial and non-commercial mods.

I was incredibly stoked to receive my newly silenced, Expert destroying drum kit, only to have the new drums arrive and find out that it has the exact same problem as my current kit. Sound? Still annoying. Red drum pad? Still won’t accept proper drum rolls.

So now I have to call EA on Tuesday and see what I can do. In the meantime, one of these kits will have to suffice for the week. Papa wants some Oasis.

I remember the good ol’ days of Rock Band when Harmonix would let us know a whole month ahead of time to what tune we were to surrender our wallets. We’ve been flying at the seat of our thrones for the past couple of weeks, finding out what’s next only a few short days before release and that’s if we were lucky. Justin over at NeoGAF spotted a shot in the dark today and one that’s no longer there! Crap! Well, for those who missed it, here’s what’s on the horizon for Rock Band-

Week of January 22, 2008
Oasis Pack includes songs by Oasis including “Don’t Look Back in Anger,” “Live Forever,” and “Wonderwall”

Week of January 29, 2008
Progressive Pack includes “Siva” by Smashing Pumpkins, “Working Man” as made famous by Rush *, and “Ten Speed (Of God’s Blood and Burial)” as made famous by Coheed and Cambria *

Could they have possibly have picked a more obscure Pumpkins song? In other news, Tiff and I discovered the secret to the universe. Why don’t you go swing on a star and find out.

[Update] I was chatting with Chris Grant about this and he pointed out that while the information is gone, it still mentions Oasis right at the top. Classy!