Rock Band 2 details: wireless instruments, playlists, drum trainer

by Christopher Grant on Jul 9th 2008 11:29AM

Let's get this out of the way first: Rock Band 2 isn't the innovator Rock Band 1 was. But if it walks like Rock Band 1 and rocks like Rock Band 1, then what makes it Rock Band 2? If you're afraid of getting a glorified song-pack, Harmonix has a handful of new features in store that they hope will assuage your fears, and they all seem to revolve around the user experience. That means no new instrument types and no fancy, new graphics, but a whole lot of what you love about Rock Band 1 has been fixed up and added onto. We got a chance to check the game out at EA's EA3 event last month and EA shared a fact sheet with us that lays out all the new features.

The sequel's major feature seems to be "backwards compatibility" – that means all your previously purchased DLC will work, no need for redownloading or authorizing. It just works. The same philosophy extends to your equipment: all of your Rock Band 1 equipment will work with Rock Band 2.

Rock Band 2

Just because the equipment looks identical, doesn't mean it is. While the hardware they had on hand at last month's EA3 event wasn't final, and wasn't even playable, that didn't stop us from fiddling with the display models they had. The wireless guitar (yeah, the Xbox 360's default guitar is wireless now) promises to have a "sturdier, more precise feeling strum bar" as well as "quieter buttons" while the new wireless drumkit (yeah, it's wireless now) sports a metal-reinforced pedal, along with "quieter and more natural feeling drum pads" which, oh yeah, are now velocity sensitive. They also spoke of the drumkit being "expandable with third party options," but we'll have to wait to see those. One final hardware upgrade is the guitar's "integrated calibration tool" – a tiny camera which can be held up to your display to instantly calibrate the game – a godsend for anyone who brings Rock Band to a friend's place.

Harmonix has also added more character customization options – while leaving everything from the first game – and now that your characters can be multi-disciplinary, we may actually use this feature. No longer will your Cobra Commander drummer be confined to the skins alone, he can pick up a guitar or take his rightful place behind the mic. Now that you've got the band you want, take the whole game online in a multiplayer Battle of the Bands contest "that will be generated by Harmonix on a regular basis." You'll also be able to bring your band online in World Tour mode, one of the original game's most oft-cited shortcomings. Lastly, one of the most interesting new additions to the game's many modes: a drum trainer which "gives players a step-by-step lesson through the basic beat and fill vocabulary any real world drummer would know." See mom? It's educational.

They've also streamlined the song selection screen, making it look nearly identical to the game's store: album art is displayed alongside the tracks, making it quicker to scroll and catch something you want to play. Another welcome new addition: custom setlists. Want to blast through a dozen of your favorite songs without stumbling through the song and band selection screens? Make a playlist for more rock, less management. Speaking of songs, though RB2 promises 80 tracks on the disc (in addition to whatever you've already downloaded of course) they were only showing off 10 tracks:

Dream Theater - "Panic Attack "
System of a Down - "Chop Suey"
Foo Fighters - "Everlong"
The Muffs - "Kids in America"
Red Hot Chili Peppers - "Give it Away"
Motörhead - "Ace of Spades"
Cheap Trick - "Hello There"
Elvis Costello - "Pump it Up"
Journey - "Anyway You Want It"
The Who - "Pinball Wizard"

We're eager to learn more at E3 but, right now, we've got that feeling that everything being added in Rock Band 2, save for the substantial song selection, could have been accomplished with a patch or update. While Harmonix hasn't categorically denied it, most disappointing is an apparent inability to access all your music from the Rock Band 1 disc in Rock Band 2. For example: you've purchased The Pixies seminal Doolittle album, but only downloaded 14 of its 15 tracks; "Wave of Mutilation" is on the disc, you see. So, when Rock Band 2 rolls around, those 14 tracks are seamlessly swept into Rock Band 2's library, but your experience is incomplete. For us, our dreams of a music "platform" were inexorably tied up in our ability now, and going forward, to access every Rock Band track we'd purchased to date from one elegant interface, without switching discs. Here's to hoping Harmonix has another trick up their sleeve.

Tags: BreakingNews, EA, EA3, Electronic-Arts, Harmonix, MTV-Games, PS3, Rock-Band, Rock-Band-2, Wii, Xbox-360

Reader Comments (86)

Does anyone know if RB2 will have play lists in the quick play multiplayer mode? Whenever I have friends over and we play, I really want to be able to go into quick play and make a play list instead of scrolling that track list after every song.

Is no one excited for the Drum Trainer?

Maybe not real drummers, but still. I'm very interested in this feature.

I'll admit though I'm jealous of GH's music maker.

I'm excited for the drum trainer. Anything that will help me get through the next difficulty setting. The training mode is hit or miss for me at the moment.

The only thing I'm really disappointed in is that Panic attack is gonna be in it because I want Guitar Hero 4 DX

top 4 things:
backward compatibility
character transfers for different instruments
drum trainer
DREAM THEATER!!!!!!!!!!

instant must-buy in my book.

i'm just curious to see if they'll allow transferring of RB1 characters to RB2... they said that all the same customization would be in RB2 that was in RB1, but there's even more, so it's theoretically possible... right?

Will the Rock Band 2 game disc work with Rock Band 1 Instruments?

I haven't seen anyone answer this question yet? If not, I can't see anyone who spent $170 on RB1 spending ANOTHER $170 on RB2 even if you could get some trade value for your current instruments.

Harmonix needs to hurry up and announce Metric in Rock Band 2. "Dead Disco" and "The Police and the Private" on the disc and everyone can forgive any shortcomings.

I was really hoping for cymbals on the drum kit. I'll have to wait to see some third party kits.

Can I make a big fat guy with it? I was pretty let down with Rock Band 1's character creator. The tattoo tool was the shit, but I want an avatar that looks SOMEWHAT like me. Not an anorexic dude with a big barrel chest.

"For us, our dreams of a music "platform" were inexorably tied up in our ability now, and going forward, to access every Rock Band track we'd purchased to date from one elegant interface, without switching discs. Here's to hoping Harmonix has another trick up their sleeve."

HUGE COSIGN. Please Harmonix, take heed. This would be a reward to your fans for being patient and supportive through the very rocky Rock Band 1 launch!!!

I'm glad there are two different franchises in the music genre so they can both innovate and then steal the other's innovations, so we get some great feature.

I'll be buying it, but disc only. These 'new' instruments don't seem worth another purchase, and I'm still skeptical of their quality. I'll stick with the new Red Octane stuff and my old RB drums.

I'm still hoping that they bring out a solo world tour mode. Sometimes I want the challenge of band world tour mode without getting the whole band together.

IMO it seems that RB2 IS just a glorified song pack. (As was GH to GH2). And yes I did read the article. IMO GH:WT is what RB2 should be. And don't call GH:WT a "rip off" of RB. It improves on everything.

-You can now activate star power at any time with drums or mic.
-The song maker is pure genius. I am a huge supporter of user generated content and with this the song library will eclipse RB2's.
-The drums seem to be far superior on GH.
-The guitar from GH3 to GH4 is a vast improvement. They changed the entire layout and added a touch pad. The RB2 guitar is just the RB1 guitar with a new coat of paint and a better strum bar.

Don't get me wrong I love RB but you cannot argue that GH4 is a major jump compared from RB1 to RB2. Also the timed exclusivity with the Xbox is crap. There is NO reason for this other than trying to rush the game out the door before the competition (GH4). Though I have to admit that I love that RB2 has a huge song list.

I will be getting RB2 and GH4.

It's a major jump for Activision, RedOctane and Neversoft, but I'd be shocked if they did it right. Guitar Hero 3 was a misstep for the series, no matter how you look at it, and the Les Paul has proved to be a lot less durable than the Xplorer by most accounts, including my own experience.

I think World Tour will be a decent game, and I'm really excited to see if Neversoft can make a compelling song creator, but Harmonix hasn't made a bad game (discounting the abortive Guitar Hero 80s) in their company's history, whereas Neversoft (no doubt pressured by Activision) drove Tony Hawk into the ground. I think Harmonix tends to know what it's doing.

That said, I hope World Tour is the vast improvement everyone wants it to be. I want a competitive market where both companies are constantly innovating and perfecting. I can't think of anything more awesome than two rock-solid music game series on the market; sure, it means investing in two franchises, but if by some miracle Neversoft gets it down I'd never be bored again. :D

Sorry for the wall of text. It's clear to me now that I think too much about video games and I'm going to escape to solitude in the mountains of Nepal to re-examine my life.

I don't understand why people say GH3 is the worst. To me its the same game with easier hammer ons and online (both improvements). IMO it is the best game in the series. People give the excuse of "over charted". GH2 was also over charted. Prime example is Gemini. That was disgustingly over charted and they put in notes that didn't even exist!

There is not one person I know that prefers RB to GH3. In fact I brought in GH3 for the last day of school (for chemistry) and I asked everyone "RB or GH3?" Everyone said GH3.

BTW I don't think your post was a wall of text lol. A wall of text is a post that is not separated in to paragraphs and is usually a 10-lined run on sentence.

Needs:

KMFDM, Ministry, Mindless Self Indulgence (pre-If), better NIN, other industrial rock

Personally, I'm just waiting for harmonix to get the right idea and and a 2nd guitar line so people can play in 5 person bands! (I hope it happens soon!)

Finally online BWT! Now if only they could fix the stupid "can't connect to session" bullshit then I could actually play online.

Also cool is the fact that my charcter can now play whichever instrument. I honestly hated having to make 3-4 different characters and not being able to have the same name. It'd be cool to do something similar to Dream Theater/Nightmare Cinema.

Love the playlist feature. It would make playing through an entire album so much easier but I have to agree with Joystiq. If the RB1 on-disc songs are unavailable as dlc it would be disappointing for no other reason than playing through Doolittle in it's entirety, what with Wave of Mutilation being on said disc.

I'll most likely be picking up the bundle again just for the new instruments/warranty. I need another guitar and I doubt my current drums will last that long.

Solo Bass Tour? Didn't hear anything on that. One can only hope.

What's this I hear about Battle of the Bands? Sounds like a blast.

The only thing they need now is the ability to have two singers at once, you know like background vocals, and the game will be perfect.

I wish there was a way we could trade in the RB1 instruments and pay a little bit to get the new ones. I want the new drums

no, what would be really great is if they let you trade in your old instruments and get the new instruments for free. and yes, i know. im a noob for not knowing how to respond, but i leterally just found this site, so dont blame me.

since this is a straight up upgrade, EA should have a method of providing the whole RB1 tracklist for download (in parts) on the XB/PSN stores, but allow those who bought the first game to send in their RB disks to EA for a voucher for these songs. Its the perfect method of stopping ppl from trading it in (and losing revenue from being out of the loop of used game sales) and it encourages current owners of the game to upgrade considering they are not losing anything.

Huh... brainstorm.

What if RB2 let you install all the actual game data on HDD, then all the tracks on RB2 were treated as DLC, but on disc.

That way you could install RB2 onto your HDD, then leave RB1 disc in the machine so it has full access to both at the same time. You just boot to the HDD version of RB2.

Well... pending you have the space for it... I do.

One thing I'm curious of: Will the new instruments(that guitar is smexy) work with RB1? they seem to be essentially the same design. that would give me an excuse to by the new one, as long as I could use it with 1.

I'm hoping for some for of communication for online multiplayer. Contacting your opponent outside of the game to discuss which song to try next is not elegant at all.

Far as I've seen, the ability to keep all of the songs that you got in the first game is the first feature to come up whenever the sequel is discussed. I'm sure if they can make it happen, E3 is the place to announce it.

Right now, theyre building hype to keep pace with the rapid release of all the guitar hero games, and to stay in the minds of gamers. That's doing well, with the slow leak of tracks, but to truly overtake the series, I think they'll be announcing this at E3. It's a big opportunity for them to maintain their audience, and even enlarge it. Doesn't matter if your a businessman, or a fan who just wants to see the most they can from this series, This is the biggest opportunity they've got, and I dont think they'll miss.

I'll be buying the disc but will stick with my 'forever-warrantied' instruments and a GH2 guitar. Sounds good to me.

My wallet says wait for Rock Band 3 to get new instruments. I'll probably pick up the disk though.

All instruments are cross-compatible (RB1->RB2, RB2->RB1), all DLC also.

For RB1 disc tracks on HDD, I had an idea, EA-style: you can rip those from your RB1 disc (30MB * 58 tracks = 1.8GB, more or less), and every x days, you'll have to pop in the RB1 disc to prove you still have the game.
It's a quick check, but it makes sure that the person still has RB1 after ripping the songs.

Several people have said RB2 is just something you'd find in a free patch, but would a free patch include 80 songs?

I'm of the opinion that there's plenty of new features in this game to make it a worthwhile sequal.

I just wanted to say this because the comments are becoming boring. This really is my opinion but who else thinks the wii sucks? i mean most ppl buy play wii sports then put it away and never buy any games. maybe mario but thats it. Nintendo is gunna die away like atari did and wind up making flash games on the internet. noone is making games cause noone is buyin them. and there only good franchises are mario (which they're milking constanly) and zelda. and i can just imagine b4 they fade out they will be releasing zelda and mario games left and right. at least sony's ps3(which i own) and 360 are still getting new titles and exclusives. so now i w8 for nintendo fan boys (ages 3 and up) to start to come back at me

Ok, so let me clear things up.

1- GH3 was a total waste of like $200 (2 guitars and the game) because i clearly could have played it just the same by sticking with GH2... they were the same game!

2- Rockband was great, but the drums need improvements, and people complained about the guitars.

3- RB2 fixed the drums, the guitars, and threw in some awesome new features; yet, everyone is still whining.

4- GHWT is going to blow. From the "improvements" they made from GH2 to GH3, i look for a half ass job just trying to make more money.

oh and if you already have rockband... just buy the new drums and game disk.... MUCH cheaper than buying all the GHWT

"I wish there was a way we could trade in the RB1 instruments and pay a little bit to get the new ones. I want the new drums."

No, this would be the ultimate: if you have Rock Band, you can trade in your current instruments for the new ones for free. Sadly, that is not the case. But they should still reward us a little bit more for having purchased Rock Band. Seriously, whos with me on this?

btw, i just found this page, so dont give me crap. please?

how much cost the intruments if you have not the rock band 1 instruments

Previous 50 Comments

Rock Band 2 details: wireless instruments, playlists, drum trainer

Rock Band 2

Reader Comments (86)

Posted: Jul 9th 2008 12:16PM Brett from Atlanta said

Posted: Jul 9th 2008 12:37PM (Unverified) said

Posted: Jul 9th 2008 4:34PM Odog4ever said

Posted: Jul 9th 2008 12:52PM (Unverified) said

Posted: Jul 9th 2008 12:57PM ummhello said

Posted: Jul 9th 2008 1:00PM (Unverified) said

Posted: Jul 9th 2008 11:17PM JRock3x8 said

Posted: Jul 9th 2008 1:08PM cuteSAVAGE said

Posted: Jul 9th 2008 1:11PM (Unverified) said

Posted: Jul 9th 2008 7:26PM (Unverified) said

Posted: Jul 9th 2008 1:36PM (Unverified) said

Posted: Jul 9th 2008 1:49PM (Unverified) said

Posted: Jul 9th 2008 1:58PM saintrobyn said

Posted: Jul 9th 2008 2:05PM DanB91 said

Posted: Jul 9th 2008 2:33PM whymog said

Posted: Jul 9th 2008 2:35PM whymog said

Posted: Jul 9th 2008 3:06PM DanB91 said

Posted: Jul 9th 2008 2:10PM darkinchworm said

Posted: Jul 9th 2008 2:21PM (Unverified) said

Posted: Jul 9th 2008 2:41PM (Unverified) said

Posted: Jul 9th 2008 2:43PM quicksilver21098 said

Posted: Aug 18th 2008 12:28AM (Unverified) said

Posted: Jul 9th 2008 2:48PM (Unverified) said

Posted: Jul 9th 2008 3:23PM Lekko said

Posted: Jul 9th 2008 4:09PM Capgun said

Posted: Jul 9th 2008 4:49PM jeezy said

Posted: Jul 9th 2008 5:00PM (Unverified) said

Posted: Jul 9th 2008 5:49PM vidguy said

Posted: Jul 9th 2008 7:55PM greatslack said

Posted: Jul 10th 2008 1:42AM (Unverified) said

Posted: Jul 10th 2008 10:57AM (Unverified) said

Posted: Jul 17th 2008 3:39PM (Unverified) said

Posted: Aug 16th 2008 12:47PM (Unverified) said

Posted: Aug 18th 2008 12:38AM (Unverified) said

Posted: Aug 18th 2008 12:40AM (Unverified) said

Posted: Oct 4th 2008 1:41PM (Unverified) said

Info

Description

MSRP

Release Date

Genre

Developer

Publisher

Rating

Breaking News

WB conjures up Harry Potter for Kinect this fall

Featured Stories

Silver Lining: I Am Alive's unfeeling world

Game Of Thrones and the paradoxes of adaptation

Super Joystiq Podcast 004: 38 Studios meltdown, Gravity Rush, Civilization 5: Gods & Kings, Dragon's Dogma

Engadget

TUAW

Massively

WoW