Post by funkdiggity on Aug 29, 2009 22:27:34 GMT -5
This wasn't an amazing week for dlc, but it wasn't awful either. Every song had at least one chart I enjoyed, with a couple that I thought were fun on all instruments. And there were a couple charts that surprised me.
First up is Mony Mony, surely one of my least favorite songs of all time. The bass on this one is guaranteed to induce slumber, but the guitar and drums are better. The guitar chart is a little sparse, but when you do get to do stuff, its pretty enjoyable. The drums are easy, but I enjoyed them. You mostly keep your right arm on the green pad for the entire song, and I always have a good time doing that.
Rebel Yell is considerably better, and probably the best playing chart of the week overall. Bass is nothing but fast altstrumming, but there's lots of finger position changes to keep it interesting. Guitar is a blast, with the same kind of fast riffing you do on bass, but with the occasional power chord thrown in. It also features a trickier than I expected solo. The drum chart is almost identical to the one on White Wedding. A little faster, a couple of the fills are slightly more intricate, but on the whole its White Wedding 2.0. Its enjoyable as long as you aren't expecting too many bells and whistles.
Up next are the Fleetwood Mac songs. Don't Stop is one of those "terrible for Rock Band, but included because people know it" songs. Bass and guitar don't have much to do on this one, though the bass chart is at least saved by the occasional hopo. The drum chart is similar to Truckin's, only you're constantly hitting red/yellow instead of red/blue. Oh and its way easier. Not really my idea of fun, but maybe someone, somewhere will get something out of it.
World Turning is a weird song, and I can't decide if I think its really awesome or a train wreck. If you can imagine the bass chart on Hysteria or Life Is Beautiful, only considerably easier, than you can picture World Turning's guitar chart. Its good practice for songs with endless clusters of hopos all strung together. But I'm not sure that its actually fun, per se. The bass chart features a couple of hours of sitting around doing nothing. Then you alt strum really fast, throwing in the occasional power chord. I really enjoyed this one. Being asked to play that fast, and with a degree of precision was a fun challenge. A few people I've talked to about this one hated it though. So clearly not for everybody lol.
You can skip this paragraph if you're not a drummer/not interested in discussions about charting: I don't really understand the thinking that went into charting the drums for this song. For most of the song you play a looooonnng string of yellow cymbal hits. Which is fine, except every so often the sound of the cymbals changes (I'm guessing its a hi hat being open and closed at various points? I'm not a real life drummer though, so I couldn't say for sure). The charting doesn't reflect this at all. I mean, you're hitting all the notes, and you're doing it on the correct cymbal, but it feels wrong because something different is obviously being done on the audio track. Usually this kind of thing is charted as yellow/blue. That'd be a pain to play on this particular song, so they could have just done it as a straight blue note, which would require you jumping from one pad to the next. Which would be fun. I guess charting it the way they did plays right, but it doesn't match up with what they've done in the past, and it isn't as fun. Anyway, there's about 30 seconds of this song that's pretty epic on the drums. The rest of it, not so much.
The Jet song is better than I was expecting. Its mostly easy. The bass is a walk in the park, but still fun. The guitar is pretty simple, except for a little stretch at the end of the chorus, where you have to do some fairly quick switching between multiple power chords. Overall lots of fun though. The same goes for the drums. Mostly mindless, til you get to the chorus, which has a tricky disco beat/triple kick pattern. Once I got it down I had a great time with it, but its liable to trip up a lot of people the first time around.
Finally there's Tom Petty. I Won't Back Down is a waste unless you like the song. I do, so I enjoyed it. But I don't think there's anything to draw people here who aren't already fans. Very blah charting on every instrument. Running Down A Dream is a little better. Its faster, so at least the constant alt strumming on bass is kind of interesting. The drum chart is ok, though its mostly switching back and forth between two drum patterns that aren't all that exciting. The guitar chart is an easy fc, right up until you get to a surprisingly rough solo. Again, I like this song a lot, so I had fun with it. But if you're not a fan, nothings going to grab you here.
So would I recommend the dlc this week? Um, I'm not sure. I'm a fan of most of these songs, and I suspect that made them way more fun than they actually are. The charts in and of themselves are pretty dull. Rebel Yell was probably my favorite of the week though, largely because of guitar and bass chart that kept me smiling. As much as I can't stand Jet's music, their song this week is worth a look too. The guitar and bass are enjoyable, and the drum chart is a nice challenge.
First up is Mony Mony, surely one of my least favorite songs of all time. The bass on this one is guaranteed to induce slumber, but the guitar and drums are better. The guitar chart is a little sparse, but when you do get to do stuff, its pretty enjoyable. The drums are easy, but I enjoyed them. You mostly keep your right arm on the green pad for the entire song, and I always have a good time doing that.
Rebel Yell is considerably better, and probably the best playing chart of the week overall. Bass is nothing but fast altstrumming, but there's lots of finger position changes to keep it interesting. Guitar is a blast, with the same kind of fast riffing you do on bass, but with the occasional power chord thrown in. It also features a trickier than I expected solo. The drum chart is almost identical to the one on White Wedding. A little faster, a couple of the fills are slightly more intricate, but on the whole its White Wedding 2.0. Its enjoyable as long as you aren't expecting too many bells and whistles.
Up next are the Fleetwood Mac songs. Don't Stop is one of those "terrible for Rock Band, but included because people know it" songs. Bass and guitar don't have much to do on this one, though the bass chart is at least saved by the occasional hopo. The drum chart is similar to Truckin's, only you're constantly hitting red/yellow instead of red/blue. Oh and its way easier. Not really my idea of fun, but maybe someone, somewhere will get something out of it.
World Turning is a weird song, and I can't decide if I think its really awesome or a train wreck. If you can imagine the bass chart on Hysteria or Life Is Beautiful, only considerably easier, than you can picture World Turning's guitar chart. Its good practice for songs with endless clusters of hopos all strung together. But I'm not sure that its actually fun, per se. The bass chart features a couple of hours of sitting around doing nothing. Then you alt strum really fast, throwing in the occasional power chord. I really enjoyed this one. Being asked to play that fast, and with a degree of precision was a fun challenge. A few people I've talked to about this one hated it though. So clearly not for everybody lol.
You can skip this paragraph if you're not a drummer/not interested in discussions about charting: I don't really understand the thinking that went into charting the drums for this song. For most of the song you play a looooonnng string of yellow cymbal hits. Which is fine, except every so often the sound of the cymbals changes (I'm guessing its a hi hat being open and closed at various points? I'm not a real life drummer though, so I couldn't say for sure). The charting doesn't reflect this at all. I mean, you're hitting all the notes, and you're doing it on the correct cymbal, but it feels wrong because something different is obviously being done on the audio track. Usually this kind of thing is charted as yellow/blue. That'd be a pain to play on this particular song, so they could have just done it as a straight blue note, which would require you jumping from one pad to the next. Which would be fun. I guess charting it the way they did plays right, but it doesn't match up with what they've done in the past, and it isn't as fun. Anyway, there's about 30 seconds of this song that's pretty epic on the drums. The rest of it, not so much.
The Jet song is better than I was expecting. Its mostly easy. The bass is a walk in the park, but still fun. The guitar is pretty simple, except for a little stretch at the end of the chorus, where you have to do some fairly quick switching between multiple power chords. Overall lots of fun though. The same goes for the drums. Mostly mindless, til you get to the chorus, which has a tricky disco beat/triple kick pattern. Once I got it down I had a great time with it, but its liable to trip up a lot of people the first time around.
Finally there's Tom Petty. I Won't Back Down is a waste unless you like the song. I do, so I enjoyed it. But I don't think there's anything to draw people here who aren't already fans. Very blah charting on every instrument. Running Down A Dream is a little better. Its faster, so at least the constant alt strumming on bass is kind of interesting. The drum chart is ok, though its mostly switching back and forth between two drum patterns that aren't all that exciting. The guitar chart is an easy fc, right up until you get to a surprisingly rough solo. Again, I like this song a lot, so I had fun with it. But if you're not a fan, nothings going to grab you here.
So would I recommend the dlc this week? Um, I'm not sure. I'm a fan of most of these songs, and I suspect that made them way more fun than they actually are. The charts in and of themselves are pretty dull. Rebel Yell was probably my favorite of the week though, largely because of guitar and bass chart that kept me smiling. As much as I can't stand Jet's music, their song this week is worth a look too. The guitar and bass are enjoyable, and the drum chart is a nice challenge.