I'm not allowed to say more yet...
 

...and even this may be too much, but Rock Band is absolutely going to DESTROY Guitar Hero.

I'm in absolute awe.

That is all.

You know, I'm now going to steal your brain and squeeze the knowledge of it out, right?

I remember hearing shit like this about what turned out to be the Segway.

Believe or doubt. The choice is yours.

What's Rock Band? That 360 music game where people play over XBox Live and make a full band (sing, guitar, drums)?

Tell more please!!

360/PS3, yes.

I'm under embargo until next month, so I'm really not allowed to say more than I have about it. My initial comments will have to do until then. :(

Good thing you started the thread then.

Damnit! I lost access to a PS2, but recently borrowed one from a friend that has GH 1. I was going to buy a PS2 for GH 1, 2, and eventually 80s... then contemplated a 360 for GH 2, and eventually 3. But I have a Wii, and apparently GH 3 will be out for that... so I was confused about what to do before. But now with 360/PS3 getting a potentially better music game... well, I guess it's a good problem to have. :)

You could just read this thread for more details...


http://www.operationsports.com/fofc/...22rock+band%22

additional details here
http://www.destructoid.com/tons-of-n...es-33071.phtml

there's a ton of information (and supposedly pictures), in the just released Game Informer

Considering that 95% of the time doubt ends up being the right choice...

Here is the info from the Game Informer.

hxxp://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?t=163628

Well, I'm going to wait until it comes out. Any release date announced yet? It all sounds to good to be true.

edit: too good to be true, for a decent price (<$150).

Is this like someone barging into the room with an alledged secret...except that everyone in the room already knew?

hahaha, 10 bonus points for you.

You can look at it that way if you want to, but that's really not what the intent was/is.

The fact that the game is going to be awesome isn't any secret.

Thing is, though, what I saw last night goes far beyond Rock Band. That was the highlight of my night, certainly, and the reason I geeked out enough to create this thread, but there was a bunch of other stuff too...and it's ALL embargoed. Can't talk about any of it yet (and you don't know how much that's killing me), but considering that what I had to say was "a secret that everyone in the room already knew," I figured it was a fairly harmless pressure release valve for me so I could try and get some sleep last night.

(Didn't work, for what that's worth.)

Well, if anyone has this month's Game Informer (also known as "that magazine you can never figure out why you get and then remember it's because you want your 15% off at EBGames), they have a 6 or 8 page article on Rock Band.

SI

http://kotaku.com/gaming/clips/an-ea...and-274885.php

I am sooooooo getting this, and yes friends of mine I have dibs on the drums!!!!!!


Edit: Thanks to Bill Harris for the link!

Oh man.... this could be a 360 seller for me if Wii doesn't get it.

HOLY FUCK.

I definitely want to do a FOFC band. This is a 360 seller.

I can't decide on if that video is really awesome or really sad.

Really awesome.

SirFozzie: AE, you'd better start playing that f'n guitar like you mean it! You're bringing down every member of this band!!

:)

That video is awesome. I'm not a huge fan of Guitar Hero, but this looks great.

where's the cowbell?

That's what the lead singer does when the others are having their solo moment.

The only platforms confirmed right now, I think, are PS3 and 360. Doesn't mean Wii won't, but with the DLC plans that Harmonix has, it seems unlikely unless Wii gets a hard drive.

http://ps3.ign.com/articles/801/801493p1.html

Between the video that was posted, what SackAttack has said and this preview, I am in awe of Harmonix if they pull this off as intended.

That, and Don't Fear the Reaper? I'm sold.

Seconded

One thing to read about it...another to see it in action. Should kick Guitar Hero's ass :D

Too late to vote really sad?

Too late, the votes are in, and it is officially awesome.

:)

I told you!

Just got word that the embargo is lifting as of tomorrow morning.

Not really sure why IGN got to run something prior to the lifting, but my guess is they got some hands on time separate from the event at which this embargo was imposed, and so got around it that way.

Either way, I'm about 12 hours from being able to "say something."

Preview will go live on Gamenikki at 9am PST.

The microphone serves as either the tambourine or cowbell, depending on the song.

More has been said.

A lot of that information has probably already trickled out, courtesy of Game Informer and IGN, but there might be a tidbit or two in there that's new.

Sounds like you can turn of the vocal element (Assumed from the text - The game is online, of course, and you'll be able to mix-and-match not only the number of human players).

I just hate karaoke and the thought of playing online with someone singing very badly or not even close to the right words just isn't appealing. The rest of it sounds great though...

That's what it sounded like to me, too. The vocal track will still be there, but you don't necessarily have to have live karaoke going on, no.

Thing is, the game gives you the right words in the lyrics thing up top, so what you should mostly have to worry about is somebody who just can't carry a tune.

Yo, what's up with the Gamenikki background? The light grey on white does not make for pleasant reading.

It's a well known fact that SackAttack hates people with vision problems. He calls them "Myopies"

Gotta be honest, it isn't something that has ever posed a problem for me.

We use CSS, so I'd imagine a new skin wouldn't be hugely difficult to add. Is there a specific color combination that would work better for you?

That's AWESOME! I'm gonna start using that.

um black letters on a white background?

also, can you make the text bigger? that was like an eye exam

good writeup though. i went from not caring about the game to contemplating buying a new system for it

Re: text/background, I'll look into it and see what we can do on that front.

As far as text size goes, I don't know if we can do anything there without breaking the site design. I'll talk to my tech guy, but in the meantime, the old "Ctrl+scroll" trick if you have a scrollwheel mouse should at least make things readable while I try to find out if there's anything we can do shy of overhauling the entire site.

For what it's worth, we've had to do an overhaul two or three times in the past, so it's something I'd like to avoid if necessary. Since, y'know, we don't actually PAY anybody and all that.

Dola, just in checking, it appears that the text isn't actually on the grey. the grey surrounds the white box that the text goes in.

So it seems like darkening/possibly enlarging the text and maybe increasing the contrast between the hinterlands and the white text box there might bring a better result.

Tech guy is working on a solution in the form of a new selectable skin. We'll see if he can pull a rabbit out of his hat.

i bought 2 used games from Game Stop. after a couple hours with both my 360 said it couldn't read the disc and it would time out my session on Live and bring me back to the marketplace. is this a 360 issue or was i just buying messed up discs from GameStop. i haven't experienced this with Forza2 (purchased new). i could see *some* fine scratches on the discs, but nothing i'd mark as damaging. games in question are NBA 2K7 and College Hoops 2k7.

Could be either. If your system is new, I'd mark it down to more likely something being wrong with the disc.

I know for my used game purchases, I'll typically rent the game first via GameFly. If it works fine, I'll use their "keep it" option, which is frequently much less than the retail-minus-$5 that GameStop will sell the same game for.

Just as a f'rinstance, GameStop sells NBA Street 360 used for $49.99.

I bought the copy I was renting from GameFly for $27.99.

You can do that without renting it from them first, of course, and they guarantee the condition of the discs, but you can't return the game and say "I didn't like it." Little caveat emptor there, and the biggest reason why I'll rent the game from them first.

you may have just sold me on Gamefly

NOTE: and my cosole is only 2-3 weeks old/young.