New games this week: Rock Band 2 edition

by Justin McElroy { Sep 15th 2008 at 9:15AM }

We were about to say that the time has come to dust off all your fake instruments for Rock Band 2, but if you're anything like us, you haven't given them a chance to acquire any signs of disuse. But somehow, "Get ready to go about your regular routine except with a different disc in the drive" just doesn't have the same pizazz.

Even if you have no interest in pretending to play music, there's a lot of goodness on the release shelves for you. You could pretend to be an über-powerful Sith with Force Unleashed, an ATV driver with Pure or a creepy, gun-toting, irradiated hobo with S.T.A.L.K.E.R. Clear Sky. Decisions, decisions!

Gallery: Rock Band 2

Xbox 360:

Rock Band 2
Star Wars: The Force Unleashed
Battle Fantasia
Armored Core: For Answer
Pure

PS3:

Star Wars: The Force Unleashed
Armored Core: For Answer
Pure

Nintendo Wii:

Rebel Raiders
TNA Impact!
Star Wars: The Force Unleashed
Kidz Sports: Crazy Golf
Igor
Zoo Hospital
TNA Impact!

PS2:

Speed Racer
Star Wars: The Force Unleashed
Naruto Ultimate Collection
Pac-man Power Pack
Namco Classic Fighter Collection

PSP:

Yggdra Union
Star Wars: The Force Unleashed
B-Boy

Nintendo DS:

Dragon Quest IV
Di-Gata Defenders
Drawn to Life: SpongeBob SquarePants Edition
Star Wars: The Force Unleashed
Animal Paradise
Unsolved Crimes
My Secret World By Imagine
Red Bull BC One
Line Rider 2 Unbound
Igor
Happy Cooking
Imagine: Fashion Designer New York

PC Games:

Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning
S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Clear Sky
The Price is Right
Pure
Everlight
The Witcher Enhanced Edition
Crysis Warhead
The Settlers VI Gold
Discover
Line Rider 2 Unbound
Hell's Kitchen
Cooking Academy

Tags: newgames, rock-band-2

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

FOXHOUND @ Sep 15th 2008 9:24AM

Another ARMORED CORE game?
Hopefully I can rent it, since I'm still playing CASTLE CRASHERS, NHL09(Be a Pro mode is a-mazing) and will start FORCE UNLEASHED later tonight... no room for much more at the moment.

xGeneral DEATHx @ Sep 15th 2008 10:01AM

Castle Crashers is hella fun online when multi-coop works. What's your XBL tag?

FOXHOUND @ Sep 15th 2008 10:39AM

XBL/PSN = makioholic
I'm off shift @ 4PM EST... should be home roughly 30 minutes after that. Feel free to add, though I think I have you on PSN already. :]

Muffin Lad @ Sep 15th 2008 9:24AM

Yet does AUS even have Rock Band 1 yet?

The Dom @ Sep 15th 2008 9:31AM

Was going to buy the force unleashed, but found out its only an 8 hour game with little replay, so not worth $60 for me. It's getting mediocre reviews to boot as well.

A. Mowen @ Sep 15th 2008 9:37AM

I am so excited for Rock Band 2! I love playing that game because more than one person can play at a time. So if you have a party a lot of people can all join in at one time. I also love how it is a group effort because if one person really stinks, then everyone else has to help recover them. I do not actually have this game myself but all of my friends do. It is also nice because it is kind of like a real band. Everyone has to contribute in order to make a good group. I think Rock Band is the new “in thing” and I think it will carry on for many generations. And not only is this game extremely fun, it is also pretty challenging for most people. I think this game is great for anyone to play because it can help us learn things about ourselves and our pop culture.

DCBlack @ Sep 15th 2008 3:45PM

Remember kids, don't smoke crack.

Veko @ Sep 15th 2008 9:43AM

Yay, Crysis Warhead! Just waiting until Wednesday to get it off Steam.

Don't let the GameStop guy know I'm getting it off Steam, though. He doesn't realize people download full games online. That's not until 2020.

sweetmlasses @ Sep 15th 2008 9:56AM

Just picked it up yesterday. The game froze on me at the start of three different songs. It recovered after a couple of seconds. I'm exchanging it for a new copy today. Has anybody else had this problem?

edgore @ Sep 15th 2008 10:32AM

Nothing yet - hopefully you just have a janky disc.

sweetmlasses @ Sep 17th 2008 9:08PM

My new copy works fine so far. I played for about four hours without any problems.

samfish @ Sep 15th 2008 10:00AM

...now that I no longer have school calendars to gauge the summer months by, I go by when good games start coming out again. Summer is definitely over.

I'm torn between buying Battle Fantasia this week or Wario Land OR Samba next week!

Mr Khan @ Sep 15th 2008 11:00AM

You could certainly support a diet of Wario Land + Samba, though i know nothing of Battle Fantasia, so i don't know if it could be supported alongside it

Still debating Samba myself. Probably just give it a rent in the end.

John Z @ Sep 15th 2008 10:18AM

My wallet is bleeding. Rock Band 2, Dragon Quest 4... and this is just the beginning.

quasebrasileiro @ Sep 15th 2008 2:46PM

Have you played any of the more recent Dragon Quest games? I haven't played since it was called Dragon Warrior for the NES. I loved that game but didn't realize until recently that the series still existed under a new name.

Dash @ Sep 15th 2008 10:27AM

Spongebob Drawn to Life? What?

And to think at one time Drawn to Life looked like a nice concept...

j.howlett @ Sep 15th 2008 10:31AM

rock band 2 is out all ready? kind of snuck up on me, hadn't heard much about it. probably because it's on the 360. if i had som cash i'd pick up an older game or two like burnout paradise or warhawk. i am curious about AC

k. poggiali @ Sep 15th 2008 10:32AM

[I'm a sketchy spammer and I've been banned.]

Dirty @ Sep 15th 2008 11:00AM

Thanks for the insight.. anonymous EA employee.

Hilary @ Sep 15th 2008 10:37AM

[I'm a sketchy spammer and I've been banned.]

samfish @ Sep 15th 2008 11:13AM

What the hell?

canzonetta @ Sep 15th 2008 10:40AM

[I'm a sketchy spammer and I've been banned.]

samfish @ Sep 15th 2008 11:15AM

Rock Band sucks and so does your spam.

Now go away, spammer, lest I track you down and shove the Rock Band box up your ass!

dakranii @ Sep 15th 2008 10:49AM

I just bought the first Rock Band and it's arriving today, coincidentally. It's on Wii so it isn't the full fledged experience, but I'm just getting prepared for 2 when it comes out in Nov. I figure the instruments aren't really upgraded much, so I might as well get Rock Band 1 cheap, then just buy the disk when 2 comes out. So I should be rocking this evening. :-)

Farseer (GDI) @ Sep 15th 2008 10:55AM

Is it just me, or do a number of comments in this section appear to be RB2 marketing spam?

Don't get me wrong, I love RB and I just picked up RB2 yesterday, but still - marketing spam is not cool.

Dirty @ Sep 15th 2008 11:02AM

Seriously. Its like the EA marketing team got online and wanted to do some sweet "viral" marketing on the hip blog. Look at us we are the most "1337" marketing team evar.

Makes me wanna puke.

j.howlett @ Sep 15th 2008 11:04AM

i was just thinking that. i just saw a report about that company that tracks down bad stuff and helps clean up your image and another that goes around posting good stuff about you personally or a company

Ryan @ Sep 15th 2008 11:06AM

It's not just you.

RobLink (Alex Kidd incarnate) @ Sep 15th 2008 11:17AM

That's just what I was thinking. Everyone here knows the benefits of Rock Band, we don't need to be preached to, despite the fact that the new one's just come out.
As Harmonix say, it's a platform rather than a single game, and I'm sure a good percentage of us have bought into that platform now, and will continue to do so.
Spammers begone!

Christopher Grant @ Sep 15th 2008 11:32AM

Yeah, three separate accounts all started today preaching the wonders of Rock Band 2? Spam. And banned. Be sure to keep reporting those comments -- totally helps me weed them out.

And leave the Rock Band 2 praising to the editorial staff, morons. Everyone in the universe loves the game – the more you "infiltrate" blogs or forums, the more distrustful people will be of the product you're ostensibly helping to promote.

DakranII @ Sep 15th 2008 11:37AM

Hope mine didn't come across as spam. I actually avoided Rock Band on the Wii for awhile because I felt it was a cash-in port. But I'm getting antsy waiting for GH:World Tour, so I figured I'd pick up a used copy of Rock Band 1 in the meantime. I like the genre well enough to get both of the new games, once more info on the Wii version becomes available.

VaultICEE @ Sep 15th 2008 7:39PM

Maybe its a Guitar Hero fanboy trying to turn people against buying Rock Band, or something to that extent...?

I dunno, thinking outside the box here.

Mr Khan @ Sep 15th 2008 11:01AM

As there is a growing disappointment in the PS360 versions of Force Unleashed, i am beginning to wonder how the Wii version will pan out.

t_m @ Sep 15th 2008 12:22PM

Well it got a 60% on gamespot. So its not much different from the other versions.

Shame, the story actually sounds pretty good for once.

Gonzo @ Sep 15th 2008 11:02AM

The Force Unleashed looked so cool, then I saw the Quick Time Events.

I am so sick of Quick Time Events, I may not even get God of War 3.

343 Guilty Fart @ Sep 15th 2008 1:13PM

Thank you. When I was playing the demo I didn't even realize they were supposed to be quick time events. I could't understand what was going on. Very poorly done.

Gonzo @ Sep 15th 2008 3:52PM

IMO- all Quick Time Events are poorly done. It just a perfect illustration of lazy programming.

To all the QTE programmers- It's 2008 people; catch up to it.

dakranii @ Sep 15th 2008 11:02AM

I have a question. Will Rock Band 1 Xbox360/PS2/PS3 guitars work on Wii? Since they're all using USB connections I wondered if they operated the same. Or will I need to buy a Wii specific Rock Band controller?

RobLink (Alex Kidd incarnate) @ Sep 15th 2008 11:15AM

No, you'll need to get the version for your specific console. The 360 has the XBox guide button, and I'm fairly sure the PS3 and Wii versions have their respective PS and Home buttons (they only came out Friday in the UK so I haven't seen them yet).

Farseer (GDI) @ Sep 15th 2008 11:15AM

I'm sorry, but you will need a full set of instruments specifically for the Wii.

FYI, Joystiq put together a nice instrument compatibility matrix that should answer any other questions you may have about the convoluted mess of the current rhythm games and their various peripherals:

http://www.joystiq.com/2008/08/19/joystiqs-instrument-compatibility-matrix-v3-0/

DakranII @ Sep 15th 2008 11:43AM

Thanks. I figured that was the case, but it just occurred to me that since the Wii version didn't use the remote to communicate, maybe it works across platform.

I had seen the compatibility matrix. Very handy for an indeed confusing topic. Glad that it's getting hammered out for the other platforms, but it sucks that it won't for the Wii version due to one company using the remotes to communicate and the other company not.

Donald @ Sep 15th 2008 11:58AM

Wait, the Wii's getting 2 SKUs of TNA Impact when one of them is enough to cause cranial bleeding?

(Wait, that's the TNA product itself...)

Dirty @ Sep 15th 2008 12:07PM

So much extreme Impact that it delivers a one two punch on the wii!

Seanemac007 @ Sep 15th 2008 12:40PM

Huh? I have to wait another month for the Special Edition?? But I want the new guitar and drums!!

Sora @ Sep 15th 2008 7:21PM

Then buy 'em separately.

FSK405K @ Sep 15th 2008 2:00PM

Sweet, Dragon Warrior 4! If only they hadn't renamed Taloon with his crappy Japanese name.

chanting: ...make V and VI...,...make V and VI...,...make V and VI...,...make V and VI...,...make V and VI...,

Arturo @ Sep 15th 2008 2:11PM

S.T.A.L.K.E.R: Clear Sky and Crysis Warhead for me yayyy

wesley johnson @ Sep 15th 2008 4:14PM

i've seen STALKER: Clear Sky, err, excuse me, S.T.A.L.K.E.R, on the shelves of two Kentucky Wal Mart's at least three weeks ago. I considered picking it up but thought perhaps these were the ones sans CD keys.

I just got the first one and like it so far. It's a bit too open ended for me, though.