We knew it was coming, and it’s here. Rock Band 2 will be out in September for the Xbox 360 and somewhat later for the PS3. Rock Band DLC will work with Rock Band 2, and vice versa. The old instruments will work, but the new ones will be better (it will be tough to be worse than the original guitar, at least for the 360).
Having abandoned my Xbox 360 Rock Band to my son, I’d love to pick up the stuff again anew for the PS3. Problem is, the drum set for Guitar Hero World Tour looks better and they have a generally nicer feature set.
Decisions, decisions. I would really like to get back into Rock Band, but GH4 looks great and I really don’t want to have multiple drum sets around. Snazfg mentioned in a comment that controller manufacturers should try to make their controllers work with all systems when possible. I know they probably can’t, but it would be nice. I love these GH-type games, but constantly buying controllers is making me ill. And broke.
9 thoughts on “Rock Band 2 announced”
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It’s absolutely possible to make all of these things cross-compatible, but they won’t do it. Why should they when they can continually get you to buy new ones?
The USB standard is right there to be used if they want to do it. It’s all about “protecting” licenses and taking our money.
If there was a standard, I would totally buy controllers that were of high quality and lasted longer, even if they cost more. Then I wouldn’t have to repurchase or relearn every time a new game or update came out.
Well, I wish they would, too.
You know, I haven’t tried just plugging the Xbox 360 drum controller into the PS3. I wonder what would happen?
And that’s what happened to Jimmy Hoffa.
Perhaps an explanation for this startling example of how mixing tech can foul things up.
September 2008? So they are doing a preemptive strike before GH4 comes out in October? That makes it a little easier to stay loyal to RB, I just wish they’d remake the drumset to be more like GH4’s. I’m talking out my ass anyway I’ll likely end up buying them both. All insignificant to diablo 3 being announced anyway.
@Genda
Sure its possible to make the controllers compatible, but in the case of the GH4 drums, there are more pads than there are in Rock Band ( 3 drum heads and two cymbals + foot pedal I believe ). This means that the new GH4 drums could POSSIBLY be made to work in rock band, since there are only 4 pads + pedal on the rock band set, but you woudl be missing an input going from a rock band set into GH4.
Personally, I just prefer rock band to guitar hero in general. Like Capn’ Angry I will likely break down and get both, but I am more excited about RB2 than I am about GH4. YMMV.
Okay, let me go on record as saying I don’t like GH3 much. The characters seemed more robotic, and that boss battle thing was just WTF… I HATED that. I don’t want to battle someone, I want to play music. The rumor that we can expect more totally stupid, lame boss battles in future Guitar Hero titles just pisses me off.
I really like Harmonix, the Harmonix Guitar Heroes and Rock Band. I totally want to support them. But fcs… my living is going to be stuffed full of drum sets and guitar controllers. I hope AT LEAST that the guitar controllers are all compatible with each other.
I’m pretty much a Harmonix supporter and have been since Frequency. I won’t touch GH4 with a ten mile long pole unless it was somehow able to match the quality I know will be in Rock Band 2 — which I doubt it will do.
Plus, all my DLC is going to be compatible with RB2 so that’s a very big reason to go with — and stay with — the Rock Band franchise. They’ve already said that Rock Band DLC is for the franchise and not even just RB1 and RB2. So when RB3 eventually rolls around it should still work, which is double extra bonus.
Also, I hate the GH4 drum design. How the hell are you supposed to follow any of that nonsense?
I wish I could transfer all the DLC from Xbox to PS3.
I also wish either RB or GH4 would have a foot operated hi-hat. I don’t know how they can claim to duplicate a real drum set without one.
The feature set for GH4 is ambitious; the ability to compose your own songs is important. I will likely be getting both. I did not like Activision’s GH3, but I will give them another chance with GH4. I will be skipping the Aerosmith, etc editions of GH3, unless they come out with one for Blue Oyster Cult or Led Zeppelin. I might get it used for the PS2.