Rock Band

Played Rock Band last night, I seem locked at “True Skill” 32. I’d lost only one match the night before, and THAT was to those stupid freeform outros that reward those with the fastest kicks instead of those who can play musically. Rock Band keeps duels close so even if you’re way ahead, someone can destroy you if you lose the outro by just 200 points. Last night, I got 100% in five songs and aced the outro duel in one song (unusual for slow me), and didn’t lose any matches at all. I can play any Rock Band song on medium drums with nearly 100% accuracy, unless my favorite RB song, The Who’s “Won’t Get Fooled Again”, comes on. That song takes you ALL over the drum kit, probably as close as RB gets to playing a real set on medium. ...

My blog gets its share of people looking for llama sex videos and stuff, but most of the people who come here seem to be looking to have specific questions answered. So, I’ll do my best. Playing Rock Band on Xbox Live I assume you already have an Xbox Live account, and can connect to it. Rock Band has many, many ways to play online. The one you’ll want to try first is the one where you form a band with people all over the world. From the main menu, choose Multiplayer > Quick Match and then log in with your instrument. The person whose Xbox Live account it is must log in first, then any other people locally, then you may invite friends over Xbox Live, and finally search for more players over Xbox Live. If a band is looking for the instruments you have in your band, you may be pulled into someone else’s band. Regardless, only one person will be able to select the songs, and everyone must have the downloadable songs before they will be selectable from the menu. All instruments for the Xbox 360 version of Rock Band support the headset, so make sure you’re wearing it, especially for the full band mode, so you can discuss which songs you’d like to play. I personally prefer doing random ranked Tug of War or Score Duels with people. Rock Band by yourself is only half a game. ...

I finally hit 31 in Rock Band last night after about a dozen duels of which I lost two. Huh? Levels? Grinding? PvP? Yeah, this is Rock Band. If you start exploring the Multiplayer menu in Rock Band, and avoid the unsatisfying “Band” player matching, where you and three random strangers from Xbox Live slowly come to understand why people suck, you’ll come to Tug of War and Score Duel. Score Duel was unsatisfying. Tug of War is surprisingly strategic. ...

Well, if you insist upon knowing the truth, I spent the weekend learning to twirl drumsticks. Yes, really. Poring over Youtube videos, dropping sticks onto cats, sending them helicoptering across the room. I can do it, though. I can twirl drumsticks the standard (what some call, boring) way. There’s variations so you can do little quick twirls while playing that I have to work on now. And of course, the double twirl is still beyond me. Someday, maybe years from now, it will be as important to know, RIGHT THEN, how to twirl drumsticks, as it was when I taught myself the one-handed card shuffle. Well, actually, that STILL hasn’t really been all that useful (which reminds me: must practice one-handed card shuffle.) ...

There’s a lot of discussion about PvP in upcoming MMOs. How hardcore will it be, will it interest non-PvPers… It can. If the penalty for losing is not that great, I feel people will embrace it. By slowly removing the PvE experience as you level, as Warhammer is said to be contemplating, you end up in PvP quite naturally. That’s certainly how I went from a PvE EQ1 player to a RvR DAoC player. ...

Look. You don’t want to be a part of this. I’m gonna let you off easy, put up the “more” thing and everything. You can just go do whatever it is you were doing, and you’ll be safe and free. There’s nothing interesting after the break. Geez. Well, you’ve been warned. My son plays a lot of shooters on the Xbox, and as a result his language has gotten a lot more ‘mature’. I asked him to maybe tone it down, and I would try, too. I curse a little more than I probably ought to. So we’d both think about whether or not we really needed to swear before we did so. If you’re gonna drop the F-bomb, it should be a little more than punctuation. ...

Wanna know if you drum better than me? Now you can find out, if you have Rock Band for the Xbox 360 and it’s connected to Xbox Live. Sit down at your drums, choose Multiplayer > Tug of War > Ranked Match and play about a dozen matches or so on MEDIUM. Check out your ranking. Mine’s 27. It’s about a 50/50 chance I win if I play another 27. If you’re higher than that, you rock harder than me. If you’re lower, turn in your drumsticks. ...

I mentioned a few weeks back that the guitar controller that came with Rock Band broke midway through our epic struggle with the Endless Set List. It would only strum UP, and only Jazz could make that thing work. We were far from the only people to have this problem. A few nights ago, Drew went to the EA forums and got a RMA for the controller, and last night, a controller-sized empty box was leaning against the door when I got home. ...

I just finished listening to “Rose Colored Glasses” by Animal Logic – one of my favorite songs by one of my favorite bands. And I didn’t enjoy it at all. See, that’s Stewart Copeland, of The Police, on drums. And his drums are so complicated and intricate that I only hear the drums… Stanley Clarke’s bass, gone. Deborah Holland’s voice – I don’t hear it. All I hear is the pounding of the drums. ...

Yeah, i know the song isn’t THAT hard, and Stone Temple Pilots’ “Vasoline” in the same set was a lot harder, and this is mostly an endurance test with only a couple of “gotchas”, but still, this beats my previous solo score on this song by over a hundred thousand points and so… now that I’m going into the Berlin set list with some truly tricky songs therein, thought I’d mark my accomplishment :) I’m learning how to play these things! On Hard! ...