I checked the Buzzkillaz gamer score last night on Xbox Live and… well, we’re lacking. It showed that we’d unlocked everything up to the tour jet, but all those solo achievements were missing, since we’ve been playing it in band mode since we got it.
I’m nothing if not dutiful, so I took up guitar and prepared to shred through the solo guitar track (but before this, I put two layers of blankets beneath the drum kit, though I didn’t have the nerve to play them… it was after Heroes, so pretty late). I was plinking along on hard through the songs I’d played a dozen times on drums, but it was boring. Rock Band songs are pretty boring solo all around, so far… or maybe it’s just because I played them so much.
I red-buttoned back out to the menu and chose to join an online band as a guitarist.
Seconds later, I was plomped into a band with Stonecoldkilla and Stonecoldkil(1)… what a coincidence, both having the same name… (1) was the drummer (on medium), and Killa and I fought over lead guitar, him at medium and me at hard.
Killa went right for the most difficult songs – songs I’d played neither on drums nor guitar. I did my best at them – I’m no Cuppy, but I usually finished at x4.
These people were probably in the same room… there was no excuse… the drummer just couldn’t handle the songs Killa was choosing. Time and time again I’d lift my guitar to save him… and then we’d fail the song. Eventually I just red-buttoned all the way out, left the group.
The online experience was just like the solo experience, except sometimes the other instruments would stop playing and the song would end. None of the excitement of playing with three other people in your own home, with neighbors banging on the door screaming for you to stop making so much noise :)
Having some random stranger make the song selections very definitely felt like giving up some important bit of control, too.