Rock Band 3

[wonderpug]

I thought that RB3 keys would be all about the pro mode, but I tried expert non-pro keys last night and it's incredibly fun.  I expected it to be basically like playing a whole guitar song with the solo frets, but it's got a decidedly different feel.  The biggest change is that it does away with the guitar charting rule of non-overlapping notes.  You could do a yellow blue orange chord, then shift yellow blue to red green while keeping orange held the whole time.  The song I was playing last night would do this shifting multiple times.

I really did thing non-pro keys would have a boring fisher price piano feel, but it's a ton of fun. 

[sgoldj]

Is there a way to have multiple bands in RB3? I can't see an option for it.

One thing someone mentioned as being not in the game that I definitely heard last night was the crowd singing along.  It's a little more subtle now, but it definitely happened.

I heard it with Wanted Dead or Alive.  Might it be part of the older track?

[jersoc]

Yeah, pretty sure the older tracks with sing along will still have it. The new tracks just appear to have cheering.

[jersoc]

hey guys, quick question that for some reason I can't find the answer to. Can you play more than 2 guitars at once? Possibly bringing this to a halloween party and I can't lug my drums along.

[wonderpug]

hey guys, quick question that for some reason I can't find the answer to. Can you play more than 2 guitars at once? Possibly bringing this to a halloween party and I can't lug my drums along.

You'd use one guitar for guitar and the other for bass.

[Harkonis]

he said more than 2   Not sure if you can or not.  I think one of the GH games let you play with 4 guitars if you wanted, people just play duplicate parts

[Clanwolfer]

Holy cow - is this game ever -good-, in all respects (that I've been able to try so far). Got some drums in and those are as good as I remember - keyboard is good, though I've mostly been trying Pro on Easy and Medium where I'm clinging to life for most of the songs. I'm hoping that that (plus practicing in the Training mode) will help me slowly get competent.

Exporting the RB and RB2 soundtracks was well worth it. It's going to be a long time before I get sick of just those playlists and have to throw more DLC in.

What difficulty do most people end up 'settling' on? I could just barely scrape by on Hard difficulty for easy songs in RB1 on guitar, it seems harder for some of the DLC and RB3 songs - but I've never really had the urge to go over Easy on drums, and keyboards I really want to strive to get better on the Pro mode (maybe eventually to Hard).

[The Grue]

I guess a lot of people must not be playing on Pro Drums because I just got #10 on the leaderboards on one song and #22 on another.

[Clanwolfer]

I guess a lot of people must not be playing on Pro Drums because I just got #10 on the leaderboards on one song and #22 on another.

I'm not sure what's up with the leaderboards, unless the sales are awful or people just haven't played much. I got #1 in easy drums on one song - maybe I'm just the only one still playing Easy.

[CeeKay]

I think the second solo in Freebird just sprained my fingers....

[denoginizer]

I guess a lot of people must not be playing on Pro Drums because I just got #10 on the leaderboards on one song and #22 on another.

I was number 1 on pro drums for Vaseline as of yesterday.  And I didn't even gold star it.  I think there are so many songs out there that people just haven't played through most of them yet.  It's a good time to get high on some leaderboards before people start putting up crazy scores and figuring out the optimal overdrive paths.

[shon]

I would be playing the Pro drums if they would release the midi box.  I have a real electronic set and really want to play in that mode but can't.....

[jersoc]

I guess a lot of people must not be playing on Pro Drums because I just got #10 on the leaderboards on one song and #22 on another.

need my 3rd cymbal :|

Do i need another kick pedal or is that optional?

[DonD]

I don't know if it is just because I haven't played Rock Band in oh..6-8 months or so..or if it's some charm of RB3, but I bought this yesterday and spent the next 5 hours or so playing.  I didn't pick up the keyboard since I have a full sized keyboard and hope to use that once the adapter is released.

I played mostly drums, a little bit of guitar, and a lot of singing.  I had hoped to sing vocals/backup with my wife, but apparently you need an actual mic for both singers (I have one USB mic and the other I was trying to use was the one that plugs into the controller).  The game wouldn't recognize the controller-mic, even though I remember using that with previous versions of RB.

I imagine the game has not sold that well (to date) since I placed #1 on a couple of songs and top 10 on a bunch of songs, even if I only 4-starred the songs.  I think the real draw of this iteration is the Pro guitar, and not being available at release is certainly disappointing.

The ability to drop in/drop out of songs is nice, but it could be a bit less intrusive to the person already in.  Let the joiner/quitter have his lane highway pause and resume, but don't affect me as I'm playing the tune.  In other words, make it seamless to the person already in.  It's already a step in the right direction, but I don't want to be interrupted as I'm playing.

[Purge]

The controller mic stopped working as soon as harmonies were added (Beatles, for instance, doesn't work with headset mics). We discussed it a few pages ago.

The mics for Lips work well for the mic, but I still use the "A" button on the controller for the cymbals.

It'd be nice if Kinect would integrate to allow you to tambourine on your hip, or hit a MadCatz cowbell.

OMG Peripheral overload!!!

Spoiler for MadCatz always...:

reminds me of Dr. Claw

[DonD]

I missed that discussion.  In any event, after a quick trip to Best Buy, I now have a 2nd mic and cymbals.

Rock on.

[Clanwolfer]

The decision has been made that, even pending Pro Guitar, a 2nd regular guitar is needed, due to the extensive nature of the non-keyboard playlist (and I really, really don't feel like 'playing' guitar on the keyboard). Any recommendations on foot pedals to trigger overdrive for my wonky old RB1 guitar? Is the standard Mad Catz one fine?

Or am I just missing a 'trick' to easily trigger it? It seems to take some real thrashing about to do it.

[wonderpug]

I hit the back button with the palm of my right hand.  It's a subtle enough movement that I can do it in the middle of a lot of notes without it breaking streak, as typically would happen when I'd try tilting.

[Clanwolfer]

I hit the back button with the palm of my right hand.  It's a subtle enough movement that I can do it in the middle of a lot of notes without it breaking streak, as typically would happen when I'd try tilting.

I'm experimenting with that now. It's an adjustment for me as I typically strum upwards - to do that motion I'm having to strum downwards, so I miss notes plentifully. It's worth a shot though.

Also, the 'new game' shiny happiness just wore off in a big way - I found a load screen (roadies loading amp) that now hard-locks my XBox no matter what. Installing the game to see if it will help, but it renders some songs unreachable. FURIOUS.

Edit: Installing the game seemed to work. Still furious though. I hate freezing console games. I HAVE A PC FOR THAT!

[jersoc]

wait, you can activate SP with the pedal on a guitar? how? my guitar is janky and sometimes tilting up won't work

[wonderpug]

I hit the back button with the palm of my right hand.  It's a subtle enough movement that I can do it in the middle of a lot of notes without it breaking streak, as typically would happen when I'd try tilting.

I'm experimenting with that now. It's an adjustment for me as I typically strum upwards - to do that motion I'm having to strum downwards, so I miss notes plentifully. It's worth a shot though.

I can't picture how you're holding your right hand.  I hold the strum bar as if it was a guitar pick, between my thumb and forefinger. Whether I'm strumming up, down, or in the middle of tremelo picking, I just need to twist my wrist slightly to get my palm to mash the back button.

[wonderpug]

wait, you can activate SP with the pedal on a guitar? how? my guitar is janky and sometimes tilting up won't work

There's a mystery port you can plug your drum pedal into. Pretty sure it's not in the RB1 guitars.

[raydude]

I love how the game tells you where you rank on the leaderboards right after you play through the song.  I'm not sure it's always 100% accurate.  But having the instant feedback is still awesome.

Yeah, and in addition to that it tells you whether or not you beat the score of someone on your friends list. I was playing through the Pro Keys easy goals and found that occasionally I'd need X amount of points to beat wonderpug. That kind of spurred me on to try and do better 

[skystride]

I think the real draw of this iteration is the Pro guitar, and not being available at release is certainly disappointing.

Yes, the RB3 software release is pretty disappointing to me compared to the excitement after watching this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-2JxcujIGhw&feature=related

[Pyperkub]

So, anyone have any tips on Pro Keys hand placement?  Admittedly I've only gone through some of the trainers, and I'm playing around with keeping my right thumb on middle c, but that was tricky for at least one of the warmup songs on easy, and I'm not really certain where to place my left hand.  Also, I haven't taken piano lessons in almost 30 years...  any tips out there?  Is it going to vary by song?

Found it - designed for Right hand only.

Time to go through more tutorials 

[Pyperkub]

PS - Can't wait for Subdivisions to come out tomorrow.

[TiLT]

I'm waiting for Poets of the Fall (you know, the guys behind the themes to Max Payne 2 and Alan Wake) to release some DLC for the game. I know they've been working on it for a while, so it's probably not far away.

[jersoc]

Played  crap ton this weekend. Sometimes I like the extra challenges and sometimes hate them. It seems like it was a semi cheap way to make you play within your means. But man, getting the streak one for drums is a real bitch. I can not play songs on hard despite playing expert drums. Hard is just way, way too slow and there's so many missing notes that I do worse. So basically if it's a ridiculous song that I can beat, but not keep a streak, i'm boned out of 5 spades. Kinda lame, but those appear random so hopefully I can keep trying until I can over drive or something. That's my biggest gripe about it.

Also, was break on through put in the game just to hate on drummers? holy shit. My arm was so damn sore after that one

[TiLT]

I just did Riders on the Storm with the bass on Hard. I'm new to music games, so this was one of my first attempts going above Medium. Man, that song was torture! The bass is just repetition over and over again, and it requires enormous finger dexterity. I was sweating and cramped up in my thumb after finishing it with 3 stars. Only afterwards did I learn that The Doors didn't even use a regular bassist for that song, they used a keyboardist. Bastards!

[Clanwolfer]

I'm waiting for Poets of the Fall (you know, the guys behind the themes to Max Payne 2 and Alan Wake) to release some DLC for the game. I know they've been working on it for a while, so it's probably not far away.

Oh, awesome. I'd love to play Late Goodbye and their cover of You Know My Name.

[Harkonis]

Played  crap ton this weekend. Sometimes I like the extra challenges and sometimes hate them. It seems like it was a semi cheap way to make you play within your means. But man, getting the streak one for drums is a real bitch. I can not play songs on hard despite playing expert drums. Hard is just way, way too slow and there's so many missing notes that I do worse. So basically if it's a ridiculous song that I can beat, but not keep a streak, i'm boned out of 5 spades. Kinda lame, but those appear random so hopefully I can keep trying until I can over drive or something. That's my biggest gripe about it.

Also, was break on through put in the game just to hate on drummers? holy shit. My arm was so damn sore after that one

dont' play it on hard, you're making it harder on yourself.  Just play on expert and you should unlock all the easy-through-expert challenges.  I have only played on expert and have unlocked several hard challenges. 

[jersoc]

huh? it's not the achievements. it's the spades

[Larraque]

huh? it's not the achievements. it's the spades

Agreed wholeheartedly. There's nothing worse than learning a new instrument (pro keys) and getting one of the ridiculous streak ones. A couple of them are FC or DIE. Hey - hit a fifty note streak for 1/2 a spade. The spotlight one can also be particularly bad. We were playing with my friend and her son who's eight. He took on the challenge of regular keys on easy.  He got in the spotlight early and was never able to pass it off so we got no spades on the song.

[Harkonis]

huh? it's not the achievements. it's the spades

never even saw spades before, had only seen goals.  tried career today and found spades.  I definitely hate when games give you something that HAS to be done at a lower difficulty.  I should never be forced to play on an easier setting for any reason other than I can't play successfully on a harder one.

[Harkonis]

btw, how do I delete Visions?

[Larraque]

btw, how do I delete Visions?

It does not import with RB2.

[KePoW]

Does anyone have a full list of all the RB1 and RB2 songs that are not playable in RB3?

I've heard that Black Hole Sun and Dani California are missing, which seriously pisses me off if true...

[TiLT]

There's a detailed guide at the Rock Band site.

Man is this game addicting. Time just flies when I sit down and play it, and I don't even notice the world around me until my wrists start to hurt (on guitar) or I'm drenched in sweat from particularly challenging songs. RB3 is my first music game, and I've already started to 5-star some of the easier songs on Hard with bass. Hey, that might not be impressive to you, but it's impressive to me.

[raydude]

Did anyone else sign up to get email news from Fender about the Squier. Because I did, and the long awaited email finally arrived.

Squier Pricing and availability here.

[The Grue]

Did anyone else sign up to get email news from Fender about the Squier. Because I did, and the long awaited email finally arrived.

Squier Pricing and availability here.

IN!  As long as it was $300 or under, I was in.