RB3, kinda excited!

[rdominick]

Well, someone had to post a new thread.

So, through the last few months, I've been, "well, yeah, Rock Band 3, sounds kinda fun, I should get that". I haven't been playing a lot of RB2 lately -- in fact, I'm so out of practice at bass and guitar that I've had to drop down a difficulty level on both.

Still, I ordered the keyboard, because Pro Keys and I've always wanted to learn to play a bit. I've also been watching a few videos and streams from folks who got the game early one way or another.

I find myself getting more and more enthusiastic about it. The changes to the gameplay -- goals, new band storyline, and so on -- all sound great, I'm really looking forward to learning keys, some of the tracks will be great for me on vox, and ... well, yeah. I just really want to play.

The game's being delivered to me at work today. No matter when it shows up, it'll be torture to wait for the end of the day. I'm driving, even though I'll have to pay $10 for it, so I can scoop C-- up and get home as soon as possible and we can start our new band. I'm actively looking forward to some of the announced DLC (Billy Joel, John Lennon). I've put aside most of the weekend to get involved in some online play...

Anyhow. Hope to see some of you around online and get some play in.

[Saccian]

Well. I think I'm done playing RB3 for the day. My feelings so far are mixed.

I found out yesterday that the new peripherals would not be available for up to possibly a week(although Rock Band Twitter seems to indicate they keyboards may be in tomorrow). Two months ago I booked off vacation so I could go nuts on Pro-Mode but I can't even play with the Mustang. I don't have cymbals yet for my Ion Rocker, I will probably order those in a week or two.

The lack of connection to the Rock Band Central server is quite annoying as I was looking forward to doing some Full Band jams with the new game. Doing the challenges would be fun too. I am still undecided on my thoughts for the new sorting method. The main menu I used was the Sort by Location option which is for the most part not available on RB3. I liked to separate the RBN stuff and now it is all jumbled in there. I wish you could say where the song came from in the standard menus. I do however like the rating system and the filtering might be OK, but I have no interest in using at this point.

While I never did much with any of my own Bands, I can see how some won't like having the ability to have a Band on the Leaderboards. Well maybe you still can, I can't connect to them so I am not sure, but I don't see how you can have more than one band on one system.

I am not so sure if taking out the Tour Mode part of the game was such a good idea. The Road Challenge part is interesting but I'm already half way though the thing. I guess there are a lot of goals I can work on afterwards but it seems like the replay value for the average person isn't going to be as big as for RB2.

So far, other gripes I have include the Guitar solo section not being as obvious. I am sometimes 10% of the way through a guitar solo before I realize that I am doing one. It may also just be me, but I can't figure out how to make my band fill ins play their specific instruments. If that ability is lost, then for shame on Harmonix. I also prefer the money gaining system for the store rather than unlocking stuff. It also seems the guitar I used on my old main character seems to haev been taken out. I seem to have bad luck with this game.

Other than all the bad stuff, I did play for 7 hours today and so far I think they did a good job with the song list for RB3. None of the songs I have played have hurt my ears so far. The Drop Out system and individual Hyperspeed settings are among my favorite settings(even though I haven't done local band play yet).

How do you find it so far rdomonick and everyone else?

[jimcallumuk1812]

I am getting obscenely jealous now – still 2 days until I get it here, although it has been posted. Is there an RB2 import for the PS3?

[tackhead311]

wow you lasted 7 hours?

I got real bored real quick probably started right away when it took me 20 minutes to design my nose. I sum it up like this even the best make mistakes. Look at the NY Yankee rotation this year even I thought that was good.

I think it will be a mistake to stop supporting RB2 ,that game is more fun to play. The menus are confusing ,all the wacky sound effects are annoying and the note highway they really had to work on that to make it worse then the Beatles. I have no idea when there is a solo,od,uni or anything like that. The most disturbing thing was on line when a band person dropped out. All the highways lifted and shifted with weird sound effects.

Keys I will never play so that was not a issue but it sure is distracting when jamming with some one on the keys with the rainbow highway.
Mad Catz guitar I got is already being sent back broken.

So to take away all the things to appealed to me on RB2 and try to sell me on something like learning a instrument is a tough sell. From a creators stand point it seems less like a party game and now more work to play the game. I am having a hard time that this will expand the fan base. Hard core people will like it but I think its rather challenging for some one who never played Rockband before.

What ever this spade thing is it has got to go!

So I hope Rockband 4 brings back the band . That was the idea right create a band and rock the world?

My summary is the franchise took more of of a step back then a step foreword.This looks more like a cash grab then anything else.

Pros
kinda learning a Instrument depending on which one you play.

Cons
career mode gone
on line play not as fun
no more score duels
Using real money to buy clothes fail

[vw_fetish]

I'm really enjoying the game so far. The new menu system takes some getting used to, but I love how any player can jump in/out at any time. I had a bunch of friends over the last couple of nights and it made things much easier when people wanted to switch instruments/mics/difficulties/etc in the middle of a setlist. And THANK GOD for the great local jam we had since the stupid RB3 Rock Central Servers were down for most of the day. HMX's RB2/3 online servers have been a JOKE. Utter embarrassment! Server admins should be fired immediately!!

Things I like:
- Setlist is fantastic (IMO)
- Individual track speeds!
- Cutscenes
- "Loading additional contents" happens in the background
- Instant leaderboard stats for individual instruments
- Extra stats are nice
- "Spades" system adds nice twist to gameplay on tour. Not just about highest score.

Things I dislike:
- Streak sound effects on Band Challenges (UGH!!!)
- Terrible sound lag on Drum Fills
- Song title display too brief at beginning of songs
- No display of bandmate names anywhere!!! I liked letting people know I have DLC!

Things I'm not sure about yet:
- Animation
- Character Creator (still can't make a heavy person, wanted to recreate Wesley Willis on keys)
- Songlist Sorting
- Not sure, but are we stuck with a single band? Haven't tried to create more than one.

[Saccian]

I like the PRO's and CON's method. I decided to write it down myself and find I have more CON's so far. Maybe once I get PRO instruments it will even out a bit. Here is a listed version of my take:

PROS
- Pro-Mode(at least I think it will be)
- New Keyboard Instrument(at least I think it will be a neat addition)
- Individual Hyperspeed
- Post Pause backtracking
- On Disc Setlist
- Lot's of Goals to work on.
- Guitar Trill feature. Haven't had much experience with it yet but it looks neat.
- Drop Out Feature
- The cutscenes are pretty cool.
- Some of the trippy backgrounds are neat.

CONS
- No Hyperspeed for Practice Mode
- Note Highway seems shorter
- Too many bright flashy animations makes it hard to read note chart
- Lack of obvious solo markings for the Note Highway
- Delayed Song Information
- No Band Career Mode
- Initial On-line play(didn't work for me at all)
- Instrument delays
- RB2 Export Issues
- Character creator is missing a lot of items from RB2
- Lack of Character personality types
- Solo Vocal chart being on the top. For some reason the Friends coming online message really messes me up.
- Can't assign band fill ins to any instrument(at least I can't figure it out). I found this maddening that my drummer was always the singer.
- Background noise during song selection on Quickplay is way too loud and annoying. I don't see why it has to be related to your band.

On the Fence:
- Song Sorting. I think I lean more toward dislike but I'll give it time to get used to it.
- Road Challenges. They are OK. It feels weird to not always focus on getting top score. It is not a replacement for Career mode though. Reminds me of GH2 career mode gameplay.

[vw_fetish]

Oct 27, 2010 11:35:04 GMT -5 Saccian said:

For some reason the Friends coming online message really messes me up.

Are you talking about the brief pause when the message pops up?

This has always affected me. I think this is more an issue with the Message Notification system. If you completely disable "Message Notifications", then no more freezing issues. Not only does the popup from friends coming online/offline mess me up, I get freezes when I get messages or my bluetooth headset notifies when the mic is active/inactive. Freakin' ANNOYING!!!

[Saccian]

It doesn't usually freeze for me. It just takes up half the vocal chart so all I see is this big grey blob covering the upcoming lines and with my current singing skills it affects me a lot. I could always turn that option off as you mentioned if I needed to though.

[tackhead311]

The olny 1 band thing is really kinda bogus.
The new vocal thing is kinda guitar hero like.singing is not fun at all.
And online play on being 4 people only getting solo scores for them selfs that really is lame.
Set list for me is OK . If i was to cherry pick I would probally wind up with 20 songs.
The between song screens are LAME and are rather old in about a hour.
Animations are more bizzare then good lol.

[rdominick]

I'm actually really enjoying RB3. The obvious frustration is the difficulty in getting and remaining connected to the servers -- I haven't been able to successfully play online just yet. (Well, that and the extreme amount of time it took to download the RB2 export. I'd almost rather return to actually having a patch really export it. 2GB over PSN is just ridiculous.)

I really like the new Goals, and appreciate that now, friends who are playing on Easy and Medium can feel like they're contributing to unlocking stuff. C-- will really dig trying to complete the goals for easier-tier Bass and Vocals, and I know she'll like some of the DLC goals -- like, say, "The Final Nerd", where you have to play 5 RBN songs from Jonathan Coulton or Parry Gripp.

Not really sure about the Road Challenges, been kind of saving them for local play. I did accidentally level my band up by doing other stuff, so I'm glad that you can replay the cutscenes. I do like the choice of challenges at each stop. I'm looking forward to the linking and sharing of challenges.

The overshell and new menus are great; the seeming lack of loading screens is also really welcome. (I will miss the trivia facts, yeah.) Keys are a lot of fun, though even Easy Pro is kicking my ass.

I guess I'm just happy with the upgrade, overall. Looking forward to trying it out online sometime soon! This morning at 6am when I was looking to see what the trophies/goals were for the RB2 export I got connected just fine, so we'll see...

[skk817]

Of all the little things that I don't care for in the new version (which have already been pointed out here) the only thing that's made me angry to the point if not playing (had to quit or my copy of rb3 might've been taken to a quiet empty field where I would take a blunt instrument to it until it was dust) is the issue with servers. Yes, I was upset that I couldn't connect to friends and play, but was consoled by the fact that I could at least work on solo stuff until they get it fixed....

Until I found out that no scores achieved without being connected to the server will register - even after the server comes back up! If you're connected when the song ends it will count. I only found this out after playing all the Avenged Sevenfold songs right away when I couldn't connect to anyone and then checking the leaderboards the next day .. and nothing.

So for me the fun was playing with other people (oops can't do that!) or advancing my solo career (nope can't do that either!).

There's a lot to like about rb3, but I just can't be positive about it for the moment.

Sorry for the long rant but my expectations were so high for rock band 3 that I fell really hard when it didn't to meet them.

[Saccian]

Well it has been five days of playing and I would say that most of my disappointment has faded. It definitely helps that the servers are working.

I just wanted to comment on how my views may have changed for my personal CON's I mentioned previously.

- No Hyperspeed for Practice Mode
* Haven't used it yet but I think I need to slow down the solo in Crazy Train as I haven't been able to figure out the note sequence as they are all bunched together. Will be even worse without hyperspeed so not sure if practice mode will be of any use.

- Note Highway seems shorter
*I've adapted now but I would still prefer them to go up a bit higher and be less transparent. When the screen is white it is hard to see the notes.

- Too many bright flashy animations makes it hard to read note chart
*Mentioned this already. Still hard to see when strobe lights are flashing. This existed in RB2 for me though too.

- Lack of obvious solo markings for the Note Highway
*I would still prefer a change to this. Unison overdrive bonus sections have a yellow hue over the note highway, a light blue one could work for solos.

- Delayed Song Information
* This is only an issue for Random song play. More of an issue if going Random on QP. I would still prefer it to come earlier though.

- No Band Career Mode
* I haven't touched challenges since opening day. Still miss this mode.

- Initial On-line play(didn't work for me at all)
*It works now and if playing with friends is pretty cool. It needs some serious reworking to make playing with random people easier. A brief tutorial for people logging online for the first time would have helped too. BQP is a steep learning curve.

- Instrument delays
*Still no Keys or Pro-Guitars available at retail stores. *Sigh*

- RB2 Export Issues
* Have em all now.

- Character creator is missing a lot of items from RB2
* I got over it. I'll just make new ones or new versions of old ones.

- Lack of Character personality types
*This would still be cool but will likely never happen.

- Solo Vocal chart being on the top.
*I rarely sing so who cares. Never really a big deal anyhow.

- Can't assign band fill ins to any instrument(at least I can't figure it out). I found this maddening that my drummer was always the singer.
*There is apparently a quasi way of doing it but it changes for each instrument you use. It was more the fact that a male had to sing male singer songs that was causing my line up to keep switching. I prefer watching a female singer dance around the stage, oh well.

- Background noise during song selection on Quickplay is way too loud and annoying. I don't see why it has to be related to your band.
*I don't notice it anymore

On the Fence:
- Song Sorting. I think I lean more toward dislike but I'll give it time to get used to it.
*All they need is a sort by source option and I will be happy. I would prefer the Yellow button and Orange button swap places though for the guitar. Feels awkward using Orange to jump through lists while it is still the kick for drums and R1 for vox. Seems odd to change it. Separate out RBN too.

- Road Challenges.
*Have to go back and finish these off. Maybe next weekend.

All in all I don't hate the game so much anymore although I feel it could still use a lot of tweeks to refine it. Not sure if much of this will happen though.

It's sad competitive band play is mostly gone though as well as Score Duels as it will take away some of the fun from the Challenges that we have.

On the flip side, I was almost exclusively a substitute for other peoples bands and now I get credit for playing with other people so I will actually show up on the Leaderboards! My new bands name is "Saccian is Better Than Your Mom". Who knows, it might even be true haha.

Anyhow, if you guys see me online and need another member, feel free to give me a shout. I'm always up for jamming with Freddies.

[jimcallumuk1812]

Well it finally arrived on Friday and I’m enjoying it so far but I was away all weekend so haven’t played much. A couple of questions for those who have had the game longer than me:

1) Can you assign your stand ins to specific instruments as they seem to randomly play different stuff and I can’t find a way to assign a character to a specific instrument.

2) I read somewhere that not all RB1 songs are playable in RB3 – is this correct (besides the 4 you couldn’t play in RB2)?

3) No keyboard over in the UK yet – when playing online is it either 3 instruments and a singer or 4 instruments and no singer (or just one who doesn’t score)? Can it be any combination of instruments?

4) How come all the Pearl Jam tracks have harmonies but no other DLC does?

5) Are all tracks charted for Pro drums because an awful lot seem to be?

These may be obvious questions but I haven’t had a lot of chance to try it out yet.

[wadopotato79]

I can talk to 5....yep...it has been in the code since day 1. If you think about it, when they coded it, they had to assign whether a yellow, blue or green pad hit were a tom or a cymbal.

[vw_fetish]

2) Here's what we lose on the export from RB1/2 -> RB3

RB2:
* "Let There Be Rock" by AC/DC
* "Any Way You Want It" by Journey
* "Battery" by Metallica
* "Give It Away" by Red Hot Chili Peppers
* "Spoonman" by Soundgarden
* "A Jagged Gorgeous Winter" by The Main Drag
* "Conventional Lover" by Speck
* "Get Clean" by Anarchy Club
* "Night Lies" by Bang Camaro
* "Rob the Prez-O-Dent" by That Handsome Devil
* "Shoulder to the Plow" by Breaking Wheel
* "Supreme Girl" by The Sterns
* "Visions" by Abnormality
* "Welcome to the Neighborhood" by Libyans

RB1:
* "Enter Sandman" by Metallica
* "Paranoid" as made famous by Black Sabbath
* "Run to the Hills" as made famous by Iron Maiden
* "Monsoon" by Tokio Hotel (from the European version of Rock Band)
* "Black Hole Sun" by Soundgarden
* "Dani California" by Red Hot Chili Peppers
* "Hier Kommt Alex" by Die Toten Hosen (from the European version of Rock Band)
* "Rock 'n' Roll Star" by Oasis (from the European version of Rock Band)