Rock Band 4

[Tom Servo]

Surprised to see that we have no GH/RB thread, so starting up a new one.

Harmonix had been making little rumblings about the return of the series, but now it's official, RB4 is coming to XBox One and PS4.

http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2015-03-05-rock-band-4-announced-for-this-year-on-ps4-and-xbox-one

From what I gather, they plan to have existing controllers work with the new one (which I imagine will be easier on the XBox with wired ones, the PS3 used a USB dongle so that should just port over). Pro mode for Guitar and Bass and the keyboard are out, but Pro Drums will remain (keeping fingers crossed that the wired MIDI adapter will continue to work so I can use my actual drum kit).

They're saying that the plan is to try to focus on the three things they think made the series successful: The competitive angle for the hardcore players (I'm assuming improved leaderboards and incentives for competing on those leaderboards), the party angle for players who just want to get together, get drunk, and make noise (so presumably no-fail modes and the like, things that don't punish you for not being perfect), and the campaign mode (which surprises me, I've always considered that part superfluous, but my wife I think really enjoyed that part of the game and seemed to miss it in RB3).

They're also saying that they plan to make all your old DLC still work, though that's obviously subject to licensing. I'm hearing they expect about 95% of it to carry over. On the downside, it does sound like they don't expect it to all be available at game launch but added in as they get the licensing sorted.

I am very, very excited about this.

[GreatScawt]

I'm really tempted to grab the guitar bundle. I've never owned a rhythm game with peripheral, even though I've played some of the Guitar Hero games a decent amount. I'm pretty excited about all this :up:

[Rare White Ape]

All of this for me will hinge on whether DLC songs can be transferred from PS to XB or vice versa. I have RB on the Xbox, but I now own a PS4.

[Dicknose]

I don't think the DLC will cross over brands.
PS3 to ps4 definitely, but that is just within the Sony store.

[Tom Servo]

Yep, what Dicknose said. There's no way that Sony and Microsoft will agree on this one, they want things sold through their own respective stores. Same deal with Steam. It's frustrating for me since I'd rather be playing Rocksmith on my PC, but all my DLC is tied up on the 360.

[Rare White Ape]

I fired up RB2 for old times sake on the X360.

Scrolled down to Rush. Found Closer To The Heart. Lived out all my fantasies.

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/02/Mike_Smith,_Bubbles,_April_2009.jpg

I guess I'm buying an XBone in the near future. The series is too good to miss out on.

[GreatScawt]

You have a PS4, RWA, yeah? No need to buy an X1.

[Rare White Ape]

It's about my peripherals and DLC, which are all Xbox.

[Tom Servo]

Yep, the news got me to take out the drum kit and Michele to bust out the plastic Strat and we jammed through about two hours of songs.

I cannot wait for the new one.

[Tom Servo]

Just filled out a new survey from Harmonix that specifically asked about ownership of MIDI controllers for drums. Gives me hope.

[Tom Servo]

Up for pre-order! http://rockband.com/preorder

[Tom Servo]

Got it today. First impressions are decidedly mixed, and a lot of it has to do with the XBox and having to use the stock drum kit.

First up: The drums.

I have dealt with the stock drum kits before. All the broken pedals, all the bubbling pads. There's a reason I spent a ton on a Roland TD-9. I'm now back to the stock kit.

First thing I'm noticing - you have to get almost full extension on the pedal before it'll register the next kick. This is a pedal prone to breaking, in my experience. It's a pedal that discourages a light, quick kick in favor of a long-throw, heavy kick. It is a pedal that wishes to die. My brain doesn't want to kill it, but the game punishes me for this. You have to give it a long, decisive leg movement to get it to register. If those leg movements are coming quickly, they will inevitably be strong as well. Thank god they stuck with the crappy plastic with minor metal reinforcement pedals. Honestly, did MadCatz learn nothing?

Suffice it to say, expert drums seem like a way to destroy this kit. I'm afraid to use it in a way that would score well. I miss my Roland.

Drum fill guides are fun, but it's annoying that any missed notes in a fill kill your multiplier. The fills used to be for fun, now they're just a weird part of the song that you also must play correctly.

Note: This is not an issue on the PS4. The MIDI adapter works just fine with the PS4. I never had a PS3, so I bought all three Rock Bands and all the associated DLC on the XBox, which means my DLC is transferrable to the XBone. I'm seriously considering just rebuying the DLC I really like to move over to the PS4, that's how annoyed I am at the drum situation.

Guitar: Seems overall good. Soft action on the buttons and strummer. It's got that mushy feeling that all of the RB guitars have had, but seems to work well. In some ways, I really like the freestyle solo because you do get to futz around a bit. In other ways, it feels like a cop out - I no longer have to play the crazy solo, now all I have to do is be able to play in 1/8 or 1/16 timing and I can futz around with the frets all I like and score quite nicely.

Haven't done vocals yet. Mostly because I can't sing.

I'm liking the tour mode. I think they did a good job with this, it feels less generic than the last one. The choose your own adventure aspect to it is nice. I went with one manager because she was all into style, she made all my band members dress up like SR-71 pilots. Demanded to know why we'd hire her if we didn't want to do that. Good stuff.

Auto-calibration seems good audio-wise, shit video-wise. It put me at 135ms for video, I've changed it to 75ms and now feel comfortable with it.

If you have old DLC, be ready for a shock. It doesn't automatically add itself. You have to go into the DLC menu and request to download every. single. song. On the plus side, this'll make it easy for me to go through the list, decide which purchases I actually enjoy, and tally up how much it'll cost me to ditch the XBox and move to the PS4.

I love Rock Band and have made it a point to support Harmonix, because I think they're one of the few developers out there that honestly give a shit about their fans. That said, I'm not sure this is worth the upgrade. I might feel *very* different if I was coming from the PS3 to the PS4, but right now I kinda feel like I have to start all over again solely for a nicer tour mode. I'd rather just go play RB3 with all the kit I've collected over the years.

Also, fuck them for including Imagine Dragons and that fucking "Century" song. WTF, like I don't get enough of that from just random commercials.

[Tom Servo]

Well, the good news is that I'm not alone on the drum thing. It sounds like it's a pretty widespread problem, double kicks are nearly impossible to pull off. Saw someone's temporary fix was to roll up a paper towel and tape it down just behind where the magnet and sensor are, preventing the pedal from going as far down. Basically, let it go down just far enough that it triggers the sensor and no farther so it's a shorter throw to trigger a kick. Will try that probably Thursday.

Looks like a lot of DLC isn't working right now too.

[21Kid]

Yeah... I don't think I'm going to buy all of the new gear again. If all of my old stuff worked, and I could use all of my DLC, I'd get it. But, I'm not all that jazzed about the RB4 playlist. Especially since you can't use any of the previous RB songs. :|

[Freude am Fahren]

Especially since you can't use any of the previous RB songs. :|

Wait...what? At all, or because of current bugs?

[21Kid]

I think that it's just not available yet... They might be available some day.

[Tom Servo]

You actually can use most of your DLC and it's available now. The things missing appear to be songs that only came as part of a pack, anything that's been delisted (like Metallica, for instance), and there are a few bugged ones. Most of the DLC appears to work.

The annoying part is that you have to go and download each song individually. The songs you've already bought don't just show up in RB4, which lead me to believe that the legacy DLC stuff wasn't working right. It apparently is, I just didn't know that I had to go track it all down myself.

Also, so far it looks like any wireless 360 controllers work with the XBox One if you get a "legacy adapter". Wired controllers (like the MIDI one) do not work. From what I gather, on the PS4 everything works.

For the new songs, they've brought back the "crowd sing along" part, and they did it really well. Adds a lot to the experience.

It's quite clear, however, that the release was rushed. Lots of rough edges, bugs, unfinished features. I know their plan is basically to use this as a platform and not just keep releasing sequels. I hope that means that we'll get plenty of patches down the road.

[21Kid]

I was talking about the songs from RB1, RB2, etc... that you could export and play on subsequent versions. I'm not a big fan of the RB4 playlist and I don't have that much DLC, maybe 15 songs. I was hoping to play the RB1 & 2 songs on 4. I also have the wired controllers...

So, basically all of my stuff is useless.

[Tom Servo]

So, RB1 and RB2 are both supposed to import. Or, more accurately, if you've already imported them previously, then that "purchase" is on your account and you'll get them with RB4. I think RB3 doesn't currently import, though.

[Tom Servo]

Tried padding the drum pedal...it helped, but you still can't hit any quick doubles. Also, the pads start dropping things during fast rolls. I haven't updated the firmware, maybe that'll help some, but the drums are just bad as it is. Makes the fact that I can't use my Roland kit with the XBox One version that much worse.

[Tom Servo]

Okay, sure enough, the export codes aren't working. They claim they're working directly with Sony & Microsoft to get that resolved.

[8400RPM]

Yeah sucks that they weren't ready for launch. I was going to wait a bit before getting it but there's a couple bundles locally on craigslist for $200 that have been used for just a couple hours so I might try to get one for that price.

Sounds like they are already working on a fix for the kick pedal issue. I'm pretty confident that most of the problems will be worked out eventually so not too worried about getting it early. I just bought $50 worth of half-off DLC the other day so am quite ready. Hoping the new "improved" instruments will be worth it eventually when they are working properly.

Keep posting Servo I'm following this.

[Tom Servo]

Yeah, will do. Harmonix posted on their forums/Reddit that the drum issues appear to be issues with their settings for trying to cancel out crosstalk and that they have a firmware update coming soon (now, not only do you have to install day 1 patches on your games, but you have to install day 1 firmware updates too). They claim that the pedal thing was due to adjusting it to work better for heel down drummers, but I'm a heel down drummer (especially on these fragile pedals), so I can confirm it's not helping me at all.

I'm also having some issues with the guitar that it sounds like I'm not alone in. Sometimes it just seizes up. Often times with one or more of the fret buttons pressed - it just stops responding and whatever state it was in when it does it it gets stuck in. The only remedy I've found so far is to yank the batteries, wait for the console to recognize it's gone away, then put the batteries back in and reconnect. Annoying in menus, really annoying mid-song. It sounds like this is only on the XBone.

Finally, ran into a new bug last night, not sure if it's related to trying to do a "batch download your DLC" trick that I attempted last night (go into to the store to manage your game, then there's a "ready to install" button that did install something like 24 songs, but that's nowhere near all my DLC). Every once in a while, in between songs but mid setlist, the XBone will barge in with a "This game needs to install an update". I fell for it once - it kicked me out to the dashboard, and then tried to install a single song. Doing that, it killed the game, so I lost all progress on the setlist. Not a huge deal, but it's done it a couple more times since. I can cancel out and get back into the game, but it's just yet another bug.

I have no doubt that Harmonix will fix these things, they've long been a company that seems to do whatever they can to not screw over their users. No longer being in cahoots with EA makes me think it's even more likely that this will all get fixed down the road. But, if you're mostly into drumming, there's no reason to jump on it right now. I'm hearing that's even the case if you have a better drum pedal setup - someone was using a DW pedal with a Roland KD-8 running through the that little "rockbox" or whatever it was called that converted the signal to what the RB drumset expected and then you just plug directly into the set - it's still not working right and won't pick up kicks if they're too fast. Other than the issue mentioned above, guitar works well. Haven't tried singing.

Still enjoying it and playing it a fair bit, but if I didn't have faith that the issues were going to be fixed I'd probably just say to stick with RB3.

[Tom Servo]

Okay, some of the DLC does work. I just have to go through some hoops to get there - you can't go through the store, you have to go into your games, then look for add-ons via that. You get an entirely different DLC menu than the store, and that'll let you install (at least some) of the songs, just tested it with Rush's Subdivisions and it worked fine.

Instructions here: http://forums.harmonixmusic.com/discussion/259484/rock-band-legacy-dlc-updated-for-rock-band-4-now-available-for-download#latest

[Yw-slayer]

So the best thing to do is for everyone to wait and see?

[Tom Servo]

Probably, unfortunately. I'm hoping that a lack of immediate buying doesn't mean that the new game will be short lived, but at the same time it's clearly not ready yet.

Just went through a lot of DLC, found about 135 of my old songs. I had somewhere in the 700 range, so there are quite a few missing.

[Kchrpm]

One of the small but useful innovations for the Wii U (or rather the e-shop): grouping of DLC purchase/download. You can just mark all the things you want, and then confirm download/payment of them all at once, rather than going through the process separately for each one. For people that have hundreds of songs, it's going to be mind numbing.

[Tom Servo]

It is, though thankfully it's a quicker process to queue for download than it is to go through the purchase process, it only takes a couple of seconds to do that.

The troubling part is that a lot of songs just don't seem to be appearing in the list at all. I can think of a lot of songs I have that just weren't in there, not even as a paid download.

[8400RPM]

Well, picked me up a slightly used bundle for $200. Hope I don't regret it...

[8400RPM]

Didn't get too much of a chance this weekend to try it out but had a couple of hours last night. Only played with the guitar and seemed to work pretty well with auto-calibration, might need a minor tweak to be perfect.

Freestyle guitar solos are pretty lame, thankfully you can turn that option off and play the original solos like before.

I really like the gold star indicator. After reaching 5 stars, a gold line starts to form at the bottom of the row of stars and when it gets to the top you achieve gold star ranking.

Was able to download 309 of my 433 previously purchased DLC songs, better than I thought. Swervo- I learned something doing this I'm not sure you explained above: On the Xbone dashboard, if you go to Games/Add-ons and search for 'Rock Band 4' it will give you a large list of DLC that you can install if you've previously purchased. HOWEVER, it is NOT a complete list of what is available. You will need to use the Search feature within Add-ons to look for individual Bands/Songs that you didn't see before, and there are a ton more to find. I must have added 1/4th to 1/3rd of my DLC this way. There are a few songs that I found that I had purchased before but would not give me the option to Install but prompted me to buy again.

Mainly what I am missing now is RB1/2/3 songs, Green Day, AC/DC imports. Also some individual DLC like Blood Sugar Sex Magik album, Metallica and a few others. I'm pretty happy with what I was able to install after what I had heard. Took me a few hours to go through and do though but is was actually kind of fun for some reason.

Found out that I need a PC with Windows 7/8/10 to upgrade the firmware of the drums! I have Vista!!! Will have to figure out a way around that or borrow somebodies laptop I guess.

[Tom Servo]

I saw someone saying that you can get some preview edition of Windows 10 for free that you can run in Virtualbox and that will let you run the update (Virtualbox is free and available for basically every operating system).

Someone's compiling a list of the URLs for the web XBL store, hoping that I can use that to schedule songs for download. Find it here: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1Hh8Gcj02avmjkJ1GAN7p-gob1wOATvq-dYFkoDIwo8o/edit

I think you're SOL on both AC/DC and Green Day, the licensing schemes have finished with them. Metallica is also out -- anything that was removed from the online store previously won't be available for redownload on a new platform. RB1 and 2 are supposed to be up soon, though you have to have already exported them once to get the songs again, the export license has, you guessed it, expired. They say they're working on RB3 export.

[Tom Servo]

Hmm...trying to go through the online store tries to charge me for each item even if I already own it. So much for that.

[Tom Servo]

Another thing I'm noticing - it seems like every person at Harmonix who is in a band must have gotten a song into this game, and most of 'em suck. They mostly just seem to be competing for the hardest song, and a lot of them are loooooong.

[8400RPM]

Well good news the Green Day stuff is now beginning to show as "Purchased" for me so that's a relief. Also Rock Band Blitz songs transferred the other day as well. I've got about 350 of my DLC songs working now.

They also announced today that Rock Band 3 full list will be available around December 8th which is the date of their first major update. You'll need to have played the game on the previous gen console, if not you can still pick it up on the digital store until Oct. 30th. Export price will be $14.99. Not bad for 83 songs.

Was able to borrow a Windows 7 laptop to upgrade my drum firmware. Working pretty good now but jeez the audio lag in the fills is atrocious, and I have my audio set up with optical out to a D/A converter so guess that's as good as it's gonna get. Luckily it only affects fills. My guitar calibration is pretty sorted now and plays real nice, managing to get some 100% runs on expert now.

Have you tried your microphone yet Swervo? I thought it was supposed to be improved but it seems worse than the old one. First off it is very quiet even when turning Mic volume all the way up and vocal track volume down. It's also a little distorted still which they said would be improved. Then there is the worst problem of audio lag. I've heard that it could be a bug that might be improved but I'm thinking it's just the Xbox one digital audio lag problem. Makes vocals not very fun.

[Tom Servo]

I haven't, the wife usually sings and she's been so busy we haven't had much time to play.

It's coming out that there's all sorts of lag actually programmed into the drum kit. Apparently has to do with the way the pads react and some of the crosstalk avoidance. Somebody actually managed to pull one apart well enough to hook up a MIDI adapter that fires the right drum trigger on its brain when a drum trigger is hit on his Roland kit and found that there's over 100ms of delay in the pads. That would fit with what I'm seeing too...everything seems perfectly calibrated on the guitar, and drums play okay now, but I hit something and can watch the gem fall through the target line, then break after it's partially beneath it. That'd explain why it's so bad in the fills, because it can't sorta anticipate what you're going to do.

It, once again, is really making me miss my old kit. The firmware update did help a lot, but double kicks are still really hard to hit (at least they're not impossible now). There was supposed to be another firmware update a few days after the pedal one to address problems with rolls on the pads, but it's been a while now and no update.

I also hear that the Ozzy songs and Rush's 2112 (except for the extended-length-all-in-one-track 2112) are also available.

[8400RPM]

Oh yeah, I read about the Ozzy and Rush too but forgot to check for it. Thanks for the reminder!

For some odd reason I never purchased any No Doubt DLC even though I love the band. I bought the greatest hits pack the other day and wow is it fun. Spiderwebs may be one of the most fun songs I've ever played.

If that's the case for the drum lag I sure hope there's a fix for it. Thought they were supposed to be IMPROVING the instruments. Right now the only thing that's better than playing RB3 is the guitar controller, and that's a marginal improvement.

I know the game will improve but they've got a lot of work to do...

[Tom Servo]

Agreed. Right now there's nothing other than the compulsion to finish off the RB4 campaign mode that makes me want to play it over RB3. There are a few things I do like. The freestyle solos are nice when you know it's a song you like playing but the actual solo will destroy you. I love that it gives you a countdown for when the next note is coming when there's a long lull in a song for your part. The voting thing is actually kinda nice vs. jumping in and out of the set until it gives you one without any songs that suck.

I wonder if this is a lot better on the PS4. I'm more irritated than anything that I'm basically locked into what appears to be the lesser platform because I've bought so much DLC.

[Tom Servo]

Upcoming patch, targeting 11/2:

http://www.harmonixmusic.com/blog/rock-band-4-interim-patch-release-details/

Also, tried creating a character and now I get why so many people are so disappointed. There were like four possible hair styles. Two body styles, Feminine and Masculine, with no way to adjust the body type at all. It's really super limited. I'm guessing that it was de-prioritized for launch and they'll be adding more features in as they go (they have said they want this to be the only Rock Band release for this generation of consoles and that it'll be a continually updated platform), but it's really pretty lame right now.

[21Kid]

How do companies continue to make "sequels" that are worse than the previous ones. :?

[Kchrpm]

New codebase, new requirements, new graphical assets, new engines, higher salaries, same game cost, etc.

[21Kid]

I know... But, that's really the only thing they have to do. MAKE IT WORK. The format, components, style, etc... already were in place. And it's not like it's their first game on current gen systems. I think it comes down more to the ties wanting a game released on X date even though it wasn't ready. I don't know why companies still follow such strict deadlines. Haven't they seen how bad that turns out for a game? People can deal with delays. But, not many people will take a 2nd look at a game that got bad reviews originally.

[Kchrpm]

I'm pretty sure hard dates are just down to quarterly financing crap. Especially when you're relying on private parties or stock markets for your capital.

[Tom Servo]

Also, I'm sure getting it out in time for Christmas was a big goal.

[George]

A quick off-topic heads up for guitarists about this new product, the Digitech Trio.

I want one!


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X2lCedq3MS8

[Random]

"There's no computer..." Um... :? I guess he means there's no separate computer?

(This would fit your guitar thread of awesomeness, btw. Shall I move it?)

[George]

Of course, if you wish. I posted it here because it seems like there are a bunch of guitar players who post in this thread.

[Tom Servo]

Finally realized that the career mode is basically neverending. It will continually give you a new show to play every 10,000 fans, and you regularly get about 18,000 fans, so trying to finish the tour mode was really stupid. Went over to Quickplay and snagged all the achievements I can get single player (Dream Genie is a dick song, but finally 5-starred it).

I'm still enjoying the game, but there's definitely lots of room to improve. Guitar does seem to be behaving better with a decent set of batteries.

[Tom Servo]

Details of the december update:

- Score challenge features
-- In game notifications of leaderboard events, such as when you pass a friend's score.
-- Activity feed: log of your leaderboard events. Items will jump directly to song, so if someone beats your high score, you can try to get it back from there.
-- Taunt system from results screen. If you beat your friend's score, you can send a "selectable randomized taunt message" that will appear in their activity feed.

- Improved calibration.

- Variable breakneck speed, up to 2.5x normal.

- Full Combo Recognition and Indicator - The game has only ever tracked 100%, but you can get 100% without a full combo (for example, hitting a note 5 times when you were only supposed to hit it 4, the fifth will break your combo but you still hit all the notes). Full Combos will be noted on the leaderboards and an in song indicator will let you know if you're still on track for one.

- More details on song results screen. Leaderboard info and more gameplay stats.

- Player stats. Overview of where you stand vs. others on the game.

- New items in Rock shop.

- Auto-kick mode. Accessibility feature, sets the game to automatically handle the bass pedal when drumming so you only have to focus on the pads.


Bug fixes:

- Packs and albums should work again on XB1
- Fix for PS4 players with more than 2,000 friends.
- Fix crash for when a vocalist joins a song that has no vocal part.
- Improvements to microphone lag
- Improvements to tambourine hit sensitivity.
- Adjustments to note highway transparency.

They also say there's a new gameplay mode coming with it, but they're not ready to release details yet.

Seems like this update is mostly about working on the competitive side of the game. Last time I checked I have a #1 score (guitar on Nobody's Fool), so interesting to see what happens when someone beats it.

[8400RPM]

Looks like a good list. I don't think I'll be notified too many times of beating Swervo's score though... :(

Previous game imports should be coming around that time to I believe, or at least more info about it.

[8400RPM]

Sweet! Van Halen DLC today. Awesome list, will be purchasing tonight!

Ain't Talkin' 'bout Love
And the Cradle Will Rock
Dance the Night Away
Hot For Teacher
Runnin' With the Devil
Unchained

Also, RB1, RB2, and RB Lego imports coming early 2016. RB4 import still on track for December.

[Tom Servo]

Speaking of, I noticed about 90% of my DLC just disappeared. RB4 shows me as having about 15 songs downloaded. No idea what happened, and in-laws in town have meant no chance to just sit there and download tracks.

[Tom Servo]

RB3 import is now up and running. Cost $14.99, installed nice and easy. Brutal mode (where you see the notes at the top of the highway, then they disappear about 1/3 of the way down so you need to sort of memorize/play by ear) is interesting and harder than I'd expected. The new auto calibration is *much* better.

[Tom Servo]

Harmonix did an Ask Me Anything on Reddit's /r/rockband yesterday. Couple of notable things I've seen so far.

- The character creator sucks because all of the assets and studio code couldn't be carried over to the new systems. Completely different renderer and a lot of the assets were designed for lower resolution and looked like ass on the newer consoles. So, it's been built from scratch. It appears to be a higher priority item for them to build that out, so I'd expect it to improve dramatically over the next year.

- RBN tracks most likely will return. The rights issues and ability to load them in has all been solved, it's just considered lower priority than getting the RB1-3 exports working.

- Harmonix are still actively working with Microsoft on trying to get the ION drumkit working on XBox One, cite that a number of their employees have IONs and play on XBox and they're also pretty annoyed they can't use them. I'd imagine that also means that the MIDI adapter would fall into that bucket. Or at least I hope.

- Keys will not return.

[Freude am Fahren]

So this was on sale for 199.99 at game stop. I decided yesterday I'd pick it up, but was at work, so I went to get it today, and it's back to 249.99. Nevermind.

[Yw-slayer]

It's ok, bro, remember that games get cheaper over time.

[Freude am Fahren]

Ha, yeah, 199 again today at Best Buy :up: Now if I could only get my drums to connect...

[Freude am Fahren]

I should have done more research. Since i skipped RB3, I don't get any RB1 or 2 tracks in RB4.

LAME.

[Tom Servo]

I'd think you get RB1, but I might be wrong on that.

[8400RPM]

I should have done more research. Since i skipped RB3, I don't get any RB1 or 2 tracks in RB4.

LAME.

Should be available sometime this month.

[Freude am Fahren]

But I think it's too late to export, no? From what I understand, you can only get legacy content in RB4 via RB3 export. I hope I'm wrong. Most of what I read was about a month or two old.

If I can find RB3, maybe I could get RB1 songs? But RB 2 is really where it's at.

[Tom Servo]

I'm almost sure that if you exported RB1 to RB2, you get that one. To get RB2, you have to have had RB3 and exported. To get RB3, you just have to have owned it, I think they can figure out if your gamertag/psn username has played RB3.

[Freude am Fahren]

Which is understandable, but the timing makes it suck. I don't know when RB2 exports stopped, but RB3 stopped being sold less than two months after 4 came out. I wonder if I can borrow RB3 like I did with RB1. Also I wonder if there is some way to get an RB2 export still via Harmonix or something.

[Tom Servo]

I think you might be able to borrow RB3, because there's no specific code involved. Worth a shot.

Unfortunately, I think a lot of this has to do with the parting of ways with EA.

[Tom Servo]

This week's DLC is Disturbed Pack 04:

* The Vengeful One
* Immortalized
* Warrior

I'm sure it has something to do with being particularly easy/inexpensive to license, but man...four packs of Disturbed?

[Tom Servo]

Harmonix have been saying they expect to have the other exports working this month, but won't commit to a date after everyone got all bent out of shape when they were two days late with their patch last month.

[Tom Servo]

Rock Band 1 export is now reportedly available for PS4 in the US, XBone and EU PS4 to follow "shortly".

[Tom Servo]

Next Tuesday's DLC is "Grunge Singles"

* Soundgarden - My Wave
* Stone Temple Pilots - Wicked Garden
* Temple of the Dog - Hunger Strike

[Freude am Fahren]

Rock Band 1 export is now reportedly available for PS4 in the US, XBone and EU PS4 to follow "shortly".

Does that mean if I at one time exported to RB2, I can get those songs? (Xbox)

[Tom Servo]

Yes, it should. As I understand it, it was essentially a piece of DLC you purchased and it being in your purchase history is what you need.

[Freude am Fahren]

Great, I just hope they find a way to get RB2 songs in without a previous export. That setlist is my favorite. But not hopeful.

[Tom Servo]

Yeah, I think RB2 is the same boat, you have to have exported previously, but we'll know more when it comes out.

[Tom Servo]

RB1 export is reportedly now available for XBox.

[Freude am Fahren]

Not seeing it, maybe my game needs to update?

[Tom Servo]

Was able to get the RB1 songs. You have to download them one at a time. Pain in the arse...

DLC for this week.

Daft Punk ft. Pharrell Williams - "Get Lucky"
Kelly Clarkson - "Heartbeat Song"
Outkast - "Hey Ya!"

Bands on tap for Feb.

Bruno Mars
Five Finger Death Punch
Generation X
J. Geils Band
Joan Jett and the Blackhearts
Masaya Matsuura
Motorhead
Orleans
Royal Blood
Zac Brown Band

[Yw-slayer]

I hate Fool On A Stool crap. They should be ashamed of themselves for having even thought about it. Not that I'm thrilled about Rock Band (ROCK BAND!) including Get Lucky, but really, Bruno Fucking Mars??!! :down:

[Kchrpm]

Bruno Mars :up:

It's not just a rock music game anymore, hasn't been for years, get over it. It's house party karaoke. The next time I go to my buddy's house for a party, I'm going to rock out to Bruno Mars, Outkast and Pharrell Williams and have a great time.

[Tom Servo]

February patch is supposed to be out. Looks to be almost all bugfixes or attempts to stop specific tricks to inflate scores. Along with that came a full leaderboard wipe, but this patch also added the ability for them to wipe leaderboards for a specific song instead of having to do it globally.



Design Adjustments
• PLAY A SHOW mode scores now post to leaderboards
• Now possible to send Taunts from PLAY A SHOW mode
Scoring Exploit Fixes
• Fixed exploit where drummers could deploy Overdrive twice
• Fixed exploit where players could artificially increase score by exploiting calibration/breakneck speed
• Removed exploit known as “Band Overdrive Squeeze,” where players could get a higher score by strategically having a local player fail out to conserve Overdrive Energy
• Enabled individual high score resets in leaderboards going forward (to avoid full wipes in the case of new exploits)
Freestyle Guitar Solo-related Fixes
• Disabled mid-song Freestyle Guitar Solo toggling (which prevents a bunch of issues, like most of the stuff below)
• Fixed crash that could occur on songs with both Freestyle Guitar Solos and Big Rock Endings
• Fixed issue where drum streak would break on several songs with Freestyle Guitar Solos
• Drum fills now exist during certain song sections when Freestyle Guitar Solos are turned on
• Fixed tempo issues with certain on-disc songs after the first solo
• Fixed issue where Freestyle Guitar Solos were not forced on during the Freestyle Guitar Solo tutorial
• Fixed crash that would occur when switching to an authored solo from the Freestyle Guitar Solo on "Suffragette City”
Audio Adjustments
• Fixed sing-a-long volumes
• Fixed the center channel panned instruments (usually bass)
• Boosted the entire game volume
• Re-built the output structure for a better surround sound experience
• “High Score” no longer screams at you on the Song Results screen
New Stuff in the Rock Shop
• Psychonauts helmet
• Psychonauts “Whispering Rock” tee
• SCRUFF baseball hat
Other Fixes
• Fixed issue where filtering to "Nightmare" difficulty songs would jump to "Nightmare" by Avenged Sevenfold (and other similar issues)
• Fixed crash that occurred from jumping into a song directly from an Activity Feed taunt
• Fixed crash that occurred when entering Endless Solo Mode if library cursor was previously on a song that didn’t contain a solo
• Fixed crash that occurred from selecting a locked city in Career Mode
• Fixed crash that occurred when switching profiles on the “Show Complete” screen
• Fixes issue where you could send Taunts while in Career mode
• Fixed camera/animation issues in “Fever”
• Fixed stupid-looking redundant text in Showcase announcements
• Fixed issue where some shows called “All Apprentice Songs Set” actually used Moderate tier songs
• Fixed issue where drummer was “floating” during some animations
• Fixed issue where the strum bar no longer allowed you to select letters in the Search field
• Fixed missing green “Continue” icon on “Show Complete” screen in Career mode
• Fixed issue where you couldn’t back out of the “Search” function in the Store
• Fixed some issues with Activity Feed taunts not updating
• Fixed missing text in the Freestyle Guitar Solo menu
• Several localization/translation fixes
• Overdrive deployment visual effects no longer remain active for entire song if one player fails out while another player has Overdrive deployed*
Also, reiterating what we've said earlier, the leaderboards have been wiped, so they're shiny and empty and ready for you to post your new scores. Go forth and rock!

[Freude am Fahren]

Was able to get the RB1 songs. You have to download them one at a time. Pain in the arse...
EDIT: figured it out, you have to do it through the XBox marketplace, not the game. Holy shit this is going to take a while.

Still too late for RB2 and 3 songs for me though, right?

[Tom Servo]

RB2 is too late. RB3 you can get if you can track down an RB3 disc. I believe it's as long as your profile shows record of you having played RB3, you'll be able to get the export.

On the download each song individually front, what's really frustrating is that the xbox.com website doesn't seem to understand when you already own a song. It'd be so much nicer if I could type on a real keyboard when searching for each song, but the website only gives me the option to buy it again.

[Tom Servo]

Big bunch of songs this week, though I have a feeling that many of us will steer clear of this bunch.

* Bruno Mars - Locked Out of Heaven
* Bruno Mars - Treasure
* Generation X - Dancing with Myself
* J. Geils Band - Love Stinks
* Joan Jett and the Blackhearts - I Hate Myself for Loving You
* masaya matsuura - Speed Fighter
* Orleans - Still the One

[Kchrpm]

* Bruno Mars - Locked Out of Heaven
* Bruno Mars - Treasure
:up: Contacting the host of our Rock Band parties right now.

[Yw-slayer]

Bruno Mars :up:

It's not just a rock music game anymore, hasn't been for years, get over it. It's house party karaoke. The next time I go to my buddy's house for a party, I'm going to rock out to Bruno Mars...

People like you are why music sucks nowadays. Bruno Fucking Mars. You might as well "sing" James Blunt.

At least there's some Five Finger Death Punch coming out.

[Kchrpm]

People like you are why music sucks nowadays. Bruno Fucking Mars.
Go fuck yourself :)

Bruno Mars produces a style of music that has existed for decades. It's R&B. Just because you prefer rock and metal, a style of music that still exists but is just not as popular in the mainstream, doesn't mean that I or anyone else is ruining music. Get over yourself.

[Yw-slayer]

I don't mind R&B, and I like most of the artists he mentions as inspiration, but Bruno Mars produces low low-grade feel-good syrupy rubbish that all sounds the same. Admittedly he is better than Jason Mraz, who is the true standard bearer for fools on stools everywhere.

Still, Bruno Fucking Mars. :lol: I guess it takes all types to make a world.

[Yw-slayer]

Anyway, whatever, carry on playing that stuff and I hope you have fun. I'm not going to lose sleep over what floats your boat, particularly as Mad Catz is laying off staff.

[Tom Servo]

Harmonix are saying that RB2, Lego, and AC/DC songs are now available if you've previously exported them, but, as usual, they have to be downloaded one at a time as singles. Not sure if it's just XBox or both platforms.

[Tom Servo]

Tomorrow brings:

* Five Finger Death Punch - Got Your Six
* Motorhead - Thunder & Lightning
* Royal Blood - Figure It Out

[Yw-slayer]

Got Your Six is a great song.

[Tom Servo]

2/22's DLC

Zac Brown band three-pack
* Chicken Fried
* Homegrown
* The Wind

[Tom Servo]

Went to go do one last drum session at my current place before we move tomorrow. Asshole XBox wouldn't play nice, so now it's disassembled, and who knows if I'll ever be able to play it again. Hope I can, but feeling like it's unlikely.

[Tom Servo]

New patch. Patch notes pasted from reddit, here's hoping I don't have to do a lot of reformatting.

Career Mode
* Career Mode scores now post to Leaderboards
* Downloadable content is now playable in all paths of the Career

Scoring Fixes
* Removed drum exploit where you could get extra points by repeatedly hitting the note at the end of a drum fill
* This comes along with a leaderboard wipe for drums, pro drums, and full band scores!

New Rock Shop Items
* 5 new hair options:
** Ponied Up
** Shag Doll
** Liberty Spikes
** Fanned Mohawk
** Frizzy Stardust
* 5 new hat options:
** Snow Business Beanie
** Cold Soldier
** Cold Comfort Hat
** Viking Helmet
** Sport-Related Head Protector

General Bug Fixes
* Fixed issue with “Somebody Told Me” had missing notes when receiving Overdrive on the final unison phrase
* Fixed issue where Player Stats display white square or yellow box instead of percentage symbol
* Fixed issue with full streak Stage Presence only occurring once per show in Campaign, now making it possible to get the “Locked In” achievement / trophy
* Dropping out and back in during a Freestyle Guitar Solo causes the Performance stats to give incorrect values
* Fixed issue where Freestyle Guitar Solo toggle option was grayed out during solos
* Fixed issue where achieving a streak and dropping out during an Freestyle Guitar Solo caused the streak meter to not increment during the solo
* Fixed issue where Longest Streak was incorrect if player did not break streak before entering Freestyle Guitar Solos
* Notes at the end of “Big Rock Endings” are now counted toward the Longest Streak stat
* Fixed issue where the Options menu in the Overshell would darken when selecting Breakneck Speed
* Fixed a camera cut where the guitarist would go through the camera
* Fixed an animation issue where the vocalist would walk out past the front of the stage
* Fixed issue where the audio for Dynamic Drum Fills was playing even when a Dynamic Fill was not present after the first successful Overdrive deploy
* Fixed issue with the Activity Feed for folks who have more than 30 friends
* Fixed issue where the same song could be suggested twice when selecting an Encore
* Random band name generator can no longer create a duplicate name of a previously created band
* Encore requests are now correctly factoring out non-applicable Stage Presence awards for Solo Harmonies or Vocal Freestyle for Easy/Medium Vocals
* Fixed issue where “Band Hub” music was persisting after returning to the Main Menu
* Encores now give bonuses in Career Mode
* Personal account preferences will now save when Xbox One is powered down, including:
** Freestyle Guitar Solo toggle state
** Dynamic Drum Fill toggle state
** Breakneck Speed preference
** Awesomeness Detection preference
* Band Multiplier will no longer briefly appear as 1x before disappearing
* Fixed issue that causes stand-in character to appear in Career if you dropped in/out during a show
* Fixed issue where players couldn’t back out of narrative Tour Choice screens
* Score thresholds for star ratings now adjust when switching difficulty mid-song in Career Mode
* Fixed incorrect audio effect prompt after quitting the song “I Will Follow” during the first show of the Career

[Tom Servo]

It pains me to type this.

This week's DLC is a four pack of *shudder* One Direction.

* Best Song Ever
* Never Enough
* Story Of My Life
* What Makes You Beautiful

[Yw-slayer]

The power of Pop compels you?

[Tom Servo]

3/14 DLC

The Cranberries three-pack (they recently popped up on Rocksmith...guess they finally decided it was time to do some game licensing to make some of that sweet, sweet royalty money)

* Dreams
* Ode to my Family
* Zombie

[Tom Servo]

I have a similar setup to this guy, only with Pintech cymbals. I have played this song a ton of times and am proud to just be able to 5-star it. This guy makes the full combo look easy.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3sej5K7dFxk

[Tom Servo]

DLC 3/21 - Off The Charts 03

5 Seconds of Summer - She Looks So Perfect
Fall Out Boy - My Songs Know What You Did In The Dark (Light Em Up)
Neon Trees - Everybody Talks

[Tom Servo]

DLC 3/28 - Going Country Pack 09

Carrie Underwood - Blown Away
Luke Bryan - That's My Kind of Night
Sam Hunt - House Party

Is it just me, or has the RB DLC been kinda painfully bad lately. I know music is subjective, but it just seems kinda uninspired.

[Kchrpm]

I like the news that they are offering a complete package for the RB PC version, with all 2000+ songs that have ever been released (and they are still allowed to sell), for $2500. It's a bargain, considering each song is normally $2 each.

[Tom Servo]

Yeah...gotta say though, it's not looking likely that they're going to hit the goal.

[Tom Servo]

I ended up contributing, but they're still not even halfway there with two days to go. I'd love to have it on PC, I'm growing weary of the console antics around DLC at this point.

[Freude am Fahren]

I really miss the practice mode. Learning certain parts of difficult songs is really hard when you can't just try that part and slow it down. But allegedly it's on its way. As are setlists, which I also miss, especially since you can't just select one of your album downloads to play straight through.

Also, I'd love a PC version.

[Tom Servo]

This week's DLC is just opening up the pre-order bonus songs to people who didn't pre-order. $1.99 per song, or $14.99 for the whole pack of 30. Most (all) of the songs are by bands that have current or former Harmonix employees in them. A lot of them were on previous Rock Band games too, so this really isn't particularly exciting.

Anarchy Club - Blood Doll
Anarchy Club - Get Clean
Bang Camaro - Pleasure (Pleasure)
Bang Camaro - Push Push (Lady Lightning)
Bang Camaro - Night Lies
Lodger - Blanks
Breaking Wheel - Shoulder to the Plow
Count Zero - Shake
Death of the Cool - Can't Let Go
DnA's Evolution - The Heist
Father Octopus - Blink
Freezepop - Brainpower
Freezepop - Get Ready 2 Rokk
Freezepop - Less Talk More Rokk
Freezepop - Super Sprode
Giant Target - Signs
Honest Bob and the Factory to Dealer Incentives - I Get By
Honest Bob and the Factory to Dealer Incentives - Entangled
Megasus - Megasus
Speck - Conventional Lover
Symbion Project - Synthesized (Inside Your Mind Mix)
That Handsome Devil - Rob the Prez-O-Dent
The Acro-brats - Day Late Dollar Short
The Main Drag - A Jagged Gorgeous Winter
The Main Drag - Don't Let Me Down (Slowly)
The Main Drag - What's Your Favorite Dinosaur?
Tijuana Sweetheart - No Mercy
Tijuana Sweetheart - Seven
Tijuana Sweetheart - Trash Candy
Tribe - Outside

[Tom Servo]

Setlists reportedly coming this week.

[Tom Servo]

Setlists are definitely out. Also noticed that in career mode your overdrive no longer carries over between songs, presumably because they let you post leaderboard scores from there now. Main menu has been shaken up a bit too, now the default choice is to just go and play a song.

At any rate, new DLC as well, and it's making me feel old because I don't know who any of these people are.

The Weekend - The Hills
Twenty One Pilots - Stressed Out
DNCE - Cake by the Ocean

[Tom Servo]

4/18 - *sigh*....Justin Beiber

* Boyfriend
* Love Yourself
* Sorry

[Tom Servo]

On a more positive note, Harmonix saw a thread on Reddit and had the idea implemented about a week later. The store now has a "Last Call" section that lists songs that will soon be removed from the store.

[Tom Servo]

Only know the 4/25 DLC, nothing's appears yet for 5/2.

* The Romantics - What I Like About You
* Lamb of God - Red Neck
* Weezer - Dope Nose

[Tom Servo]

Just got this email, with the "fuck yeah" news that an e-kit adapter is coming this fall!

"Hey gang,

This month, you can expect to see tracks from the following artists:
* Deep Blue Something
* Hozier
* Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers
* Twisted Sister
* Warrant

In case you missed our barrage of (amazing) announcements from PAX East, here's a quick recap of what's to come for Rock Band 4 in 2016:

* May: Battleborn characters and double-kick pedal support.
* June: Practice Mode!
* Summer: Pause on monthly updates in anticipation of the fall expansion pack.
* Fall: Music Library Enhancements, ION and E-Kit adapter, and the expansion pack (details TBD!).
* Holiday: Synchronous Online Multiplayer

More news is heading your way at E3 -- we'll be diving into more detail about our fall expansion pack, as well as some cool new features that haven't been announced yet. As always, stay tuned for the latest and greatest from Rock Band on our Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram!"

All good stuff!

[Tom Servo]

Also of note, the May Update patch notes


New Rock Shop Items

2 new playable characters from Battleborn available in the Rock Shop!

Thorn
Miko


Double Kick Drum Pedal Support

'nuff said.

General Bug Fixes

Fixed an issue related to Drum Fills and the slop window
Fixed an issue where the arm of the bassist goes right through their own body
Fixed freezing of a vocalist animation during an instrumental part of a song
Fixed a game crash going into the Big Rock Ending on "Warriors of Time" on Expert Guitar
Fixed sound FX issues with the Add/Remove sound while in Setlists
Fixed issue with the background music slider in the Options Menu
Reduced the volume of shouting audio on the "Take Requests" screen
Fixed a game crash when loading a saved Setlist
Fixed camera issue on vocalist's face
Fixed a game crash before the Big Rock Ending in "Heroes" as made famous by David Bowie
Fixed an issue where scores disappear when pausing and resuming quickly in the middle of a drums Big Rock Ending

[Tom Servo]

I can't think of the last time I saw only two songs for a weekly DLC announcement.

5/9 - Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers


Don't Do Me Like That
Learning to Fly

[Tom Servo]

Again, two songs.

5/16 DLC

Deep Blue Something - Breakfast at Tiffanys
Hozier - Take Me to Church

[Tom Servo]

Guess we need to get used to this two pack thing.

5/23 DLC - Gin Blossoms

Hey Jealousy
Found Out About You

[Tom Servo]

5/30 DLC


Twisted Sister - We're Not Gonna Take It
Warrant - Cherry Pie


Kinda surprised these weren't already on Rock Band. They're both on Rocksmith already.

[Tom Servo]

6/6 DLC


Blues Traveler - Hook
My Chemical Romance - Famous Last Words

[Tom Servo]

6/13 DLC


Goo Goo Dolls - Iris
MAGIC! - Rude

[Tom Servo]

6/20 DLC

Imagine Dragons - Radioactive
Three Days Grace - Never Too Late

[Tom Servo]

6/27 DLC

The Killers - All These Things That I've Done
Toto - Africa

[Tom Servo]

7/4 DLC (finally, at least one good song!)


Hinder - Lips of an Angel
Pixies - Where is my Mind?

[Tom Servo]

7/11 DLC


Brian Setzer - Rock this Town (re-record)
Third Eye Blind - Jumper

[Tom Servo]

7/18 DLC


Billy Joel - Uptown Girl
Fuel - Hemorrhage (In My Hands)

[Tom Servo]

7/25 DLC


Bastille - Pompeii
The Black Eyed Peas - I Gotta Feeling

[21Kid]

FYI, for anyone interested... today only

Amazon Gold Box Deal of the Day: Save on Rock Band 4 - Band In A Box Bundle (https://smile.amazon.com/b/ref=lp_13895222011_gbps_img_s-3_5402_7802c65e?rh=i%3Aelectronics%2Cn%3A138952220 11&ie=UTF8&smid=A1KWJVS57NX03I&node=13895222011) Price: $99.99

[Tom Servo]

Oh, forgot there was news on the Rock Band Rivals front. Two main things is a new single player campaign mode called Rockudrama that's a documentary-style theme, and Rivals mode. You can get together "crews" and compete with other crews asynchronously via weekly challenges or just playing. They also promise that later there will be synchronous online play, but only if you have the Rivals expansion, which I think is supposed to cost $30.

Comes with 10 new songs:


Bring Me The Horizon - Happy Song
Capital Cities - Safe and Sound
Eagle-eye Cherry - Save Tonight
Pharrell Williams - Happy
The Neighbourhood - Sweater Weather
Of Monsters and Men - Little Talks
Semisonic - Closing Time
Sia - Chandelier
Skillet - Feel Invincible
Weezer - King of the World


(noticing I only knew a few of those songs, and of them, I hate the majority)

Amazon pre-orders also get:


Maroon 5 - One More Night
Matchbox Twenty - 3 AM


(I absolutely loathe both of those bands, so pretty much guarantees I won't be pre-ordering from Amazon).

I do like the Rivals idea, so I'll most likely pick it up.

[Tom Servo]

8/1 DLC


Counting Crows - Mr. Jones
Robin Thicke feat. Pharrell - Blurred Lines


Fucking kill me.

[Tom Servo]

8/8 DLC


Belinda Carlisle - Heaven is a Place on Earth
The Barbazons - Bad Catholics

[Tom Servo]

8/15 DLC


Tonic - If You Could Only See
Vertical Horizon - Everything You Want

[Tom Servo]

8/22 DLC

Jason Mraz - I'm Yours
Nicki Minaj - Starships

[Tom Servo]

8/29 DLC


Heart - What About Love?
Winger - Seventeen

[Yw-slayer]

I want that Belinda Carlisle.

[Tom Servo]

Weirdly early DLC for 9/2.


Five Finger Death Punch - Wrong Side of Heaven
Good Charlotte - Lifestyles of the Rich & Famous


I so hope the DLC improves when Rivals comes out.

[Yw-slayer]

I want that FFDP.

[Tom Servo]

9/12 DLC


Jason Aldean - Dirt Road Anthem
Sister Hazel - All For You

[Tom Servo]

9/19 DLC - Ozzfest Meets Knotfest 2016 Pack


Megadeth - Dystopia
Ozzy Osbourne - Road to Nowhere
Slipknot - The Devil in I


Huh, first time in a while that it's not just two random songs. Wonder what this means.

Yep, first actual pack of songs since Justin Beiber back in April.

[Tom Servo]

9/26 DLC - Back to the two-packs.


Disturbed - The Sound of Silence
Fitz and the Tantrums - Handclap

[Tom Servo]

10/3 DLC


Harvey Danger - Flagpole Sitta
Jane's Addiction - Stop


Interested in Stop, but kinda just waiting for Rivals to come out before I do much of anything.

[Kchrpm]

Finally played this tonight. Felt like playing the others.

[Tom Servo]

Yep, which is both good and bad. Good to have the series on a NextGen platform, but not much to bring people back who played themselves out on the previous ones.

I just want my drum kit to work, dammit.

[Kchrpm]

Maybe if we had gone through some gameplay mode other than the basic pick a song and play it. But it was open to whoever walked up to play at a bar, so not realistic.

[Tom Servo]

10/10 DLC


Andy Grammer - Honey, I'm Good
Shawn Mendes - Treat You Better

[Tom Servo]

10/17 DLC - Rock Band Rivals Launch Pack ($1.99 per song or $15.99 for the whole shebang)


Sia - Chandelier
Semisonic - Closing Time
Skillet - Feel Invincible
Pharrell Williams - Happy
Bring Me The Horizon - Happy Song
Weezer - King of the World
Of Monster and Men - Little Talks
Capital Cities - Safe and Sound
Eagle-Eye Cherry - Save Tonight
The Neighbourhood - Sweater Weather


The songs came for free with pre-orders. Which is why I didn't pre-order.

[Tom Servo]

Picked up Rivals. So far it's pretty entertaining. I haven't gotten to play too much, but I did go into the two big new modes, Rivals and Rockudrama.

Rockudrama is basically another career mode. It's the same "band starts out at small venues and goes to bigger clubs" as usual, but with a live action music mockumentary going on around it. Interviews with friends of the band/roadies/whoever. It actually does help add context to the career mode. Seeing the pictures of the "Owl Hall" as a run down brick building out in the middle of nowhere made the inside venue come to life a little more, and a nice touch was the documentary part talking about how there was almost nobody in the audience and just one guy who was "weirdly into it", and then when you're playing you literally hear this one voice just yelling out how awesome things are but it's otherwise entirely silent. It was a good touch. I have a feeling the replay value won't be there, but I'm very much enjoying my first playthrough of it.

Rivals is the asynchronous multiplayer thing. You get together a crew of up to 10 people and then play specific songs to rack up points to compete against other crews. Unfortunately, none of the XBL friends have Rock Band 4, so I have nobody to invite to my crew. I sent a request to join another crew but never heard back, so now I have my own crew and it's just me so far. That said, apparently I'm in the top 40% or so of crews right now.

The Rivals "event" changes weekly. This week's is "love songs", which is every song you have with the word "love" in the title. There are also three spotlight songs that you are supposed to focus on. I haven't quite worked out the scoring, but it looks like I get credit for the best score I've put up for all the songs for each instrument. Only done some guitar so far. I'm looking forward to seeing where this goes if I can actually get some suckers to join my crew.

Annoyingly, I tried to name my crew "Night of the Lepus", but was told that I had a bad word in there and couldn't do it. My guess is that the first three letters of "Night" are the issue, but that means that nobody can have a band name with "night" in it, which seems nutty.

Anyway, Rivals is pretty good and closer to what RB4 should have been when it started. I'm also hearing the new instruments are supposed to be better than the MadCatz ones, but as far as I can tell only the guitar is available and only in a bundle with the game. On the plus side, if you don't already have RB4, the bundle with RB4 and Rivals is the same price as RB4 itself, so at least there's that. Otherwise, it's a $30 add-on. Here's hoping a new drumset comes out with a pedal that doesn't completely suck.

[Phil_SS]

I've been thinking of picking this up for my daughter. Who likes to watch me play or I think she may like to play herself. Anyways, have all the old songs been ported over? I owned RB1 and RB2 and DLed a bunch of songs, are they available?

[Tom Servo]

For the RB1 and RB2, if you've previously exported them then they are available (e.g., you exported RB1 songs into RB2, and RB2 songs into RB3). I don't believe they can be exported now if you haven't done it in the past.

Except for a few specific instances where licensing prevents it, all the DLC you've purchased will still be there, though you'll have to go through the process of downloading each one. Also, this only works as long as you're with the same line of consoles. If you had a 360 and now an XBox One, then you're all good, same with PS3 -> PS4. You can't go between companies though.

Here's all sorts of info on the subject. http://forums.harmonixmusic.com/discussion/260620/rock-band-4-legacy-dlc-guide-updated-9-30-16

Other than the few Metallica tracks, I don't have any songs that didn't transfer over.

[Tom Servo]

Also of note, Harmonix has released Rock Band Companion for iOS and Android. You do an OAuth login on either PSN or XBox Live through it and it gives you all sorts of stats about your scores, leaderboard standings, crew, etc. Pretty handy if you're into the competitive side of things.

[8400RPM]

Yo Swervo- I have RB4. As soon as I get Rivals I will join your crew. You are prob the only one of my friends that have it.

[Tom Servo]

I was just about to invite you, I saw that I got you on some high score somewhere and it was the first time I'd got that notification.

You know the gamertag, crew name is "Big McLargehuge", because of awesomeness.

I'm actually really liking the new modes. I think they found a good way to expand the competitive angle to those of us who are pretty good but never going to be at the top of the leaderboards. I don't stand a chance at getting a #1 spot on most songs, but now I've got some incentive to compete against people at a similar level to me. I got my crew up to into the top 23%. Not amazing, but considering the crews can have 10 people, I'm feeling pretty solid for a single person crew.

[Tom Servo]

In an AMA about Rivals, they said that the main thing they're working on now is getting synchronous online multiplayer out before the end of the year. Huzzah!

[Tom Servo]

Crew's looking pretty solid right now, thanks 8400! Considering we've only got two people, pretty pleased with the top 9% ranking right now, and we haven't even laid down any scores for vocals on the spotlight tracks.

[Tom Servo]

Huh, can't find any of my microphones. I wonder if my wife has something to do with this.

[Kchrpm]

Wait, you guys need someone to score points for you singing? Hmmm....

[Tom Servo]

If you've got RB4 and Rivals, join my crew! I put down some (shitty) scores on hard but couldn't improve on expert.

[Kchrpm]

I don't have either, but at some point I might try to convince myself to do it.

[8400RPM]

Yeah played through the weekly spotlight songs (and a few of the 'love' songs) on guitar and bass last night and managed to FC like 4 songs on bass on the first try. Of course they were easy songs but still rare for me to get so many at once.

I'll be busting out the drums this weekend and maybe do some vocals. I guess pro drums don't count for the spotlight songs, or haven't you done any drums this week Swervo?

Was hoping for more stats and more sorting options but at least there's something.

[Tom Servo]

I don't know if the pro drums count or not. I still can't hook up my Roland TD-9, so I'm stuck with the crappy MadCatz drums. I put down some scores, but I really hate this drum kit so the scores aren't the best that one might hope for.

I haven't looked into the sorting options, but from looking at people's posts on Reddit, it sounded like they were pretty good overall. I also, however, was hoping for more stats.

Still, the new Rivals thing got me to take out the drum kit for the first time in many months and to sing in even more months, so it's doing its jobs so far.

[Tom Servo]

I don't have either, but at some point I might try to convince myself to do it.

Can verify that an RB3 Xbox 360 mic works with RB4 on the XBox One.

[Tom Servo]

10/24 DLC


Maroon 5 - One More Night
Matchbox Twenty - 3AM

[Tom Servo]

This week's Rivals challenge is "Songs that start with C", with the spotlight songs being Caught up in you, Cedarwood Road, and Centuries. Glad to see they're not putting DLC on there yet, but Caught up in you will be a lot harder than anything last week, and Centuries is just a horrible, horrible little song.

[Tom Servo]

Man, for some reason I just could not maintain on the long series of repeated notes on Cedarwood Road or Centuries on guitar. Those scores should be easy to top. Did well on bass though.

I'll see if I can get some drums and vocals scores in over the weekend, though hopefully that random new guy is all about the vocals and I don't have to sing that fucking horrible song. Also, I'd expect that we'll have a harder time with the rankings this week. Last week we were competing against everyone, this time we're competing against the top 30% out of the last round, so I'd imagine it'll be harder.

[Tom Servo]

I sang "Centuries" for this week's challenge just so we'd have some vocals scores. I'm pretty sure that sacrifice qualifies me for sainthood.

[Kchrpm]

So it gives you specific songs each week for each person to perform? And there is not yet a way for people to play online together?

[Tom Servo]

Yeah. There's two scales you earn points on for each week's challenge. So, for instance, this week it's "Songs in the Key of C".

One scale is your crew's overall score across three specific songs - this week it's Caught Up in You, Centuries, and Cedarwood Road. You get a combined total of the top score that was set for each instrument on each of those songs. That's your spotlight rating, and I think this week we're somewhere around the top 20% on those scores (it doesn't help that I had to do the vocals on hard and could only five star two of them...I think another shot at Cedarwood Road could get five stars, but I just suck at singing).

The other rating is the amount of experience points your crew has racked up playing any song that fits in with the theme, so songs that start with C. You get experience every time you play, plus bonuses for being the first or second member of the crew to play a song that week. Then it averages those two ratings and that's your rating for the week. If you're in the top 30%, you move up a tier. Bottom 30% gets demoted, and middle 60% just stays put. We're currently in the top 25% and can move that up by just grinding some more experience over the next day or so.

There isn't a way to play online together yet, but they're saying they're trying to have that out by the end of the year. It'll be a free update for anyone who's bought Rivals (and I believe when you buy the game now it comes with Rivals, you only had to buy it as DLC if you already owned RB4).

Rivals definitely has me playing a lot more, though man we could use a good vocalist. I really stink up the joint, and I'm pretty sure my neighbors are having to buy earplugs.

[Tom Servo]

I'm also noticing that it is rating us on if we have crimson stars. I think that's beating a song on brutal mode. I might have to try that with a song or two to see if I can crank up the score a bit.

[Tom Servo]

10/31 DLC - Surprisingly not a Halloween set of four songs.


Bon Jovi - Born Again Tomorrow
Hootie & The Blowfish 3 pack

Hold My Hand
Let Her Cry
Only Wanna Be With You

[8400RPM]

Man the DLC has really gone in the tank since RB4 came out.

I also am horrible at singing but enjoy trying when I like the song. I'll try to get my girlfriend to sing some of these, she's pretty good at it but won't sing songs that she doesn't know.

I am pretty much just contributing XP for the crew, I usually can't top Swervo's scores on any instrument. Sometimes I can beat his bass score but usually just by a few thousand, and that's only when I FC it!

The Rivals crew is also getting me to play this more often than I have been. I'll have to try that brutal mode again but from what I remember I suck at it.

[Tom Servo]

Pretty sure you got me on the Centuries guitar this week :)

[Tom Servo]

Fuck yeah, first crimson stars. Lacuna Coil's "Closer". Easy song, but still, I haven't done that yet, got me an achievement and everything.

Annoyingly, I see that when you sort alphabetically, it correctly ignores the "The" at the start of some songs, but that doesn't work right with the weekly challenge. So, for instance, on my "The Clairvoyant" slots in right between Chop Suey and Clint Eastwood, but it isn't valid for the "songs that start with C" challenge.

[Tom Servo]

VTEC, I just found out that I can make you an admin so you can add/remove people from the crew, so I've done that. I think I cranked out enough experience points this morning to keep us in the promotion zone, but I think next week we're going to hit the limit of what we can do with three people. Thankfully we've got that random guy killing it on the drums.

[Tom Servo]

Well, this week's going to be hard as fuck. It should get easier later, I'd figure we'll end up in the 3rd tier (maybe 2nd if we have a good week) once everyone settles out, but until then it's going to be artificially hard. Right now the top 628 crews are on the 4th tier (that's the highest anyone is since Rivals is only on its third week). That's out of 7,786 crews, so we're up in the top 9% right now, and our scores last week put us around the top 25%. I'm figuring we're just safe for this week, I don't think we've got much of a shot at advancing unless we get a really good vocalist or just grind the fuck out of the crew XP.

[Tom Servo]

I can't wait for the new guitars to go on sale individually. It's hard to put down high scores when your controller just stops working halfway through a song.

[Tom Servo]

Speaking of, got ahold of one of the new Jaguar controllers. It's not bad, but still has issues.

Pros:

The non-guitar related buttons (like menu, the xbox button, the d-pad) all work MUCH better than the ones on my MadCatz controller did.
The buttons are nice and quiet. That makes a big difference for Michele, the MadCatz one clicked and clacked the whole time I played.
So far it hasn't disconnected on me. That, obviously, is a huge plus. The MadCatz one would disconnect or just stop working (it wouldn't respond, even though it was connected, I'd have to pull the batteries and put them back in to get it working again) about once every three songs.
The folding design is pretty simple but feels pretty good. Neck folds back, and then there's a hefty plastic slider that you push back to lock it in place. Good for storage.


Cons:

It's really quiet. Some people need the clicky strum bar to keep time. I might be one of those people. Then again, no Rock Band guitar has had the clicky strum, you need to get a Guitar Hero one for that.
I might just not be used to it, but it feels like the strum bar is in a weird spot that interferes a bit with playing. It also interferes with the non-guitar related controls. You now have to reach over the strum bar to get to the pause button.
I sometimes had a really difficult time getting overdrive to kick in. Could be a defective unit.


On the plus side, set a new personal best on that Mumford & Sons song, but that just got us one more percentage on the spotlight scores. We're hovering at 41, 40 is the cutoff for being safe this week. Eeep.

EDIT: Just found this thread - https://www.reddit.com/r/Rockband/comments/5b3q09/how_are_you_liking_the_jaguar_so_far/ It looks like I am not the only one who has problems activating overdrive via the tilt sensor.

[Tom Servo]

Got the spotlight score bumped up to 41, but we're at 35 on XP, so looks like we're gettin' demoted.

[Tom Servo]

DLC is now being announced on Tuesdays and released on Thursdays as opposed to the previous "announce and release on Monday" schedule. So...

11/10 DLC


Fine Young Cannibals - She Drives Me Crazy
The Cure - Lovesong
Cyndi Lauper - Time After Time

[Tom Servo]

Well, I don't feel too bad about the demotion. It sounds like we didn't have a chance at the crew XP thing as a bunch of crews figured out how to cheat by finding a song that has "talky" lyrics, putting a microphone in front of a fan, and then having one of those automatic "rapid fire" controllers. You just set it on that song and then walk away, the controller keeps starting the song over and over and any noise at all (from the fan) registers a good enough for the talky parts. Saw someone on the leaderboards with ~250,000 XP (I ground for hours over the weekend and ended up with about 17K). So...I guess we'll see if they figure this one out.

[Tom Servo]

And what a difference a week makes. Can't even five star Miracle Man on guitar, our drummer hasn't played so I had to put down marginal drum scores and sing on hard, and we're in the top 3% score-wise. Go fig.

[Tom Servo]

Also of note, apparently PDP have started shipping their "wired legacy adapter". If you're like me on the XBox and were using the MIDI adapter for drums back in the day, supposedly you can just plug the MIDI into this guy and be fully back in business. Looking forward to rocking the Roland again when this comes out.

Amazon lists it as coming out on the 25th, but PDP themselves have apparently started shipping.

[Tom Servo]

11/17 DLC - 3 songs from Avril Lavigne


Complicated
My Happy Ending
What the Hell

[Tom Servo]

Harmonix are introducing some tweaks to the rivals Crew XP. One of the reasons Crew XP is part of your total score was to encourage people to explore their music library more (hence the bonuses for having the first, second, or third playthroughs). On the second week, when it was all songs starting with C, people figured out that you get the same number of points for an easy, short song that you do for a hard, long song. So, they just played Charlene, I'm Right Behind You over and over and over again (91 seconds long and not hard in the slightest). The opposite of the intended effect.

Previously, the number of points you got from a song was based on how many stars you got on which difficulty. 3 stars on medium got you 50 XP, gold stars on Expert was 200 XP, etc. Now you get XP-per-second in a song, and the amount per second is decided by the previous factors, the difficulty and your star rating at the end. For example, 3 stars on medium will get you 0.222 XP/sec, while gold stars on expert will get you 0.778 XP/sec.

So, previously, you'd get 150 XP (plus any bonuses) for 5 stars on a 91 second song or some ridiculously long song. Now, Charlene, I'm Right Behind You would get you 61 XP, I Still Believe (at 3:45 is about the average length of a song) will get you 150 XP, American Pie will get you 296 XP, and the full Rush 2112 at 20:34 will get you 823 XP.

That actually will probably give a slight advantage to longer songs, as you have less load time in between plays.

There is also a score decay for songs after repeated plays by the same crew. Plays 1-3 get the same bonuses as before (which are also XP/sec, but similar to the original 150 for first play, 100 for second, 50 for third). Plays 4-10 are scored normally, and then 11 and on start dropping at 1% per play until play 100 at which point it sticks at 90% decay.

Overall, I definitely think this is a good thing and should help smaller crews/crews that don't have all day to grind on XP. Curious to see how we stack up this week as things are starting to settle a bit.

Speaking of, we had an easy stroll out of last week, so we got promoted again. Huzzah!

[Tom Servo]

This week's challenge is all songs with female vocalists. Spotlight songs are Heart's "Kick it Out", Paramore's "Still Into You", and Halestorm's "I Miss the Misery". Nothing particularly difficult except on vocals, and given that I've got a pretty low voice and can't sing, I'm just going to try to scrape by on hard and get that out of the way.

[8400RPM]

Do you know that you can sing an octave lower, as long as you hit the right note? I have a really narrow range so I have to do this sometimes, but it is harder than you'd think.

Really enjoyed the 80's theme last week, had 194 songs to choose from. Wish I had more time to play.

[Tom Servo]

I did, and I also have a narrow range...it's a weird one too, 'cause sometimes I have to go down to the next octave when the actual tone starts going higher.

[Tom Servo]

DLC for week of 11/22


Bruno Mars - 24K Magic
Coldplay - Hymn for the Weekend
Green Day - Still Breathing


Just got an email from Harmonix with the next Rivals challenge which will be all bands/songs that are somehow color related. The spotlight songs are:


The Black Keys - Fever
White Denim - At Night in Dreams
Green Day - Still Breathing


You might notice that one of the songs is also one of the DLC songs for this week. So, that's about how long it took before they started using non-disc songs for the Rivals stuff. I knew it'd happen eventually, but I'm surprised it's happening this quickly when the teams haven't even really sorted themselves out fully.

[Tom Servo]

Looks like most of us had little time to play due to the holiday weekend. We're still suffering on crew XP, but spotlight scores are up high enough to save us and I haven't attempted vocals yet.

DLC for week of 11/28


Kings of Leon - Waste a Moment
System of a Down - Chop Suey!
The Weekend ft. Daft Punk - Starboy


Notably, the SOAD song is a relicense after the old one expired.

[Tom Servo]

Rivals challenge for this week: Bands with 'the' in the name.

Spotlight songs:

The Both - Milwaukee
The Killers - Somebody Told Me
The Who - The Seeker


We're back to all on-disc songs for the spotlight.

[Tom Servo]

12/8 DLC - Three songs by Twenty One Pilots (which I believe means that that's a whopping 63 pilots).


Heathens
Ride
Stressed Out

[Tom Servo]

12/8 Rivals Challenge - Songs or artists with numbers in the title (including written out numbers).

Spotlight songs


4 Non Blondes - What's Up?
U2 - I Will Follow
Twenty One Pilots - Heathens


And back to having DLC in there. Might be a bad week for us...just promoted, and I really have no desire to get that song. Never heard it before and turned it off halfway through listening to it now.

[Tom Servo]

12/15 DLC


Lorde - Royals
Meghan Trainor - All About That Bass
Sia ft. Kendrick Lamar - The Greatest

[Tom Servo]

Rivals challenge this week is bands/song titles that have something to do with Royalty. Spotlight songs mercifully include no horrible DLC. Notably, that killed my thunder last week and apparently everyone else's too - none of us played any songs all week.

Spotlight songs

Queens of the Stone Age - My God Is The Sun
Avenged Sevenfold - Hail to the King
Elvis Presley - Suspicious Minds

[Yw-slayer]

Bruno Mars - 24K Magic
Coldplay - Hymn for the Weekend

Talk about lowest common denominator rubbish.

[Tom Servo]

I have to imagine they sell well. It's definitely no secret that Harmonix is struggling and the latest deal for peripherals for PDP seems troubled (for example, some peripherals suddenly becoming sold out on retailers and just straight up disappearing from PDP's site, and Harmonix employees are very, very active on the /r/rockband subreddit but noticeably absent from the PDP threads), so I'd imagine that these are good ways to bring in some revenue. As Keith has mentioned a few times, they're big hits among the people who treat the game as more like a karaoke thing than as a plastic instrument thing.

It's been interesting watching the gyrations the team is going through clearly trying to hang onto the hardcore fans while also trying to increase the mass-market appeal. Ultimately, I feel like they released the game too early, probably in part because they needed some revenue coming in. I think RB4 is a pretty mature product at this point and worth picking up, but the word isn't getting out with a lack of any sort of real media campaign and it still being the same RB4 that came out earlier this year.

Online play has been delayed until Jan. 25th, but that's the planned release date for synchronous online multiplayer. Also, that peripheral, the "wired legacy adapter", is one that I do have in my possession. It's the one that's supposed to let you use the wired MIDI adapters to hook up real drum kits. Looking forward to testing that out soon, it'd be great to plug the TD-9 in again.

[Tom Servo]

Sweet, full combo on Suspicious Minds bass, puts me in the top 100 scores for that.

[Tom Servo]

12/22 DLC - 6 songs from Aerosmith


Angel
Crazy
I Don't Want to Miss a Thing
Janie's Got a Gun
Livin' On the Edge
Rag Doll

[Tom Servo]

Rivals challenge is "bands from their hometown" (Boston).

Spotlight songs are:


Bearstronaut - Shadow
The Mighty Mighty Bosstones - The Impression That I Get
Aerosmith - I Don't Want to Miss a Thing


DLC in the list again.

[Tom Servo]

Don't think anybody did anything for Rivals last week. Unsurprising, being Christmas and all.

12/29 DLC - NYE songs


Avicii - Wake Me Up
Kool & The Gang - Celebration
LMFAO ft. Lauren Bennet & Goonrock - Party Rock Anthem

[Tom Servo]

12/29 Rivals challenge - Party Songs

Spotlight songs are:

Heaven's Basement - I Am Electric
LMFAO ft. Lauren Bennet & Goonrock - Party Rock Anthem
Mark Ronson ft. Bruno Mars - Uptown Funk


I think it's gonna be another weak week for me. Also, the theme is pretty subjective, so who knows what'll show up for crew XP.

[Yw-slayer]

I have to imagine they sell well. It's definitely no secret that Harmonix is struggling and the latest deal for peripherals for PDP seems troubled (for example, some peripherals suddenly becoming sold out on retailers and just straight up disappearing from PDP's site, and Harmonix employees are very, very active on the /r/rockband subreddit but noticeably absent from the PDP threads), so I'd imagine that these are good ways to bring in some revenue. As Keith has mentioned a few times, they're big hits among the people who treat the game as more like a karaoke thing than as a plastic instrument thing.

Yeah, I know it's tough. Still gonna bitch about it though as clearly not everyone is as :hard: and METAL!!! 11!111 !11 ! :hard: as we are!!!1!1!1!!!!1!1 :hard: :shocker:

BTW, in a few weeks, I'm going to see Bryan Adams for the second time in my life...

[Tom Servo]

Speaking of metal.

1/5 DLC - Metal


Avenged Sevenfold - The Stage
Megadeth - Trust
Slipknot - Dead Memories


In other news, added the wife to our rivals team and she did some vocals for us. I think we're safe this week, which ain't so bad considering only the rando on our team actually owned all three spotlight songs.

[Tom Servo]

This week's rival challenge is metal songs. Spotlight songs are:


Avenged Sevenfold - The Stage
Judas Priest - Halls of Valhalla
The Red Chord - Hour of Rats


I guess that last one just came out as part of 12 free songs for Rivals. I'm unfamiliar. I think this is the third week in a row with DLC in the list, so that's the new normal.

Curious to see how the spotlight songs shake out though, they'll most likely be way more difficult than previous ones.

EDIT: I hope our rando is inspired to drum, otherwise it's gonna hurt. Bad.

[Tom Servo]

1/12 DLC


The All-American Rejects - Swing, Swing
Fun. - Some Nights
OMI - Cheerleader (Felix Jaehn Remix)

[Tom Servo]

1/17 DLC


Blue Oyster Cult - (Don't Fear) The Reaper
Kansas - Carry On Wayward Son
Toto - Hold the Line


I believe the first two were both on-disc songs for older games that are now re-licensed for DLC.

[Tom Servo]

Didn't think to post Rivals challenge last week or this week. This week's is, songs from the 50s, 60s, and 70s. Spotlight songs:


Jefferson Starship - Jane
Boston - More Than a Feeling
Van Morrison - Brown Eyed Girl


Jane is DLC and one I don't have, but Michele's been doing awesome on vocals so we're in good shape at this point this week.

[Tom Servo]

1/26 DLC - Lady Gaga


Applause
A-YO
The Edge of Glory


We done got promoted again, our random had Jane and did it on guitar, but I think we would have gotten there anyway.

Online multiplayer is supposed to launch today.

[Tom Servo]

Well, that's a pisser. Online multiplayer did launch today. However, there's no matchmaking with random players - you can only play with people on your friends list (which, when it comes to RB4 Rivals, is like one person on my friends list). Also, if you're playing online, then only one person can be playing per console. For example, if me and VTEC are playing online, then my wife can't join in on vocals.

Hopefully this will be part of the next update, but the barebones staff at HMX is definitely showing.

[8400RPM]

Yeah that's pretty weak.

Sorry I've been out of it for awhile. I tend to play certain games in streaks. There was also several weeks of uninspiring themes for the challenges. I wanted to join in this weekend with the 50s/60s/70s theme but my back was hurting so kept me from it.

I'll be back!!

[Tom Servo]

No worries! I'm just stoked that with our small team we're up in the top 3% right now.

[Tom Servo]

2/2 DLC - Two Hair Metal songs


Ratt - Round and Round
Twisted Sister - I Wanna Rock


I swear these were both previously licensed. (Looks like only Round and Round was, I Wanna Rock is new). Also, we're hanging on by a thread on the Rivals challenge which ends tonight at 9PM. We just need experience points more than anything.

[21Kid]

https://www.engadget.com/2017/02/06/rock-band-vr-oculus-rift-launch-date/

[Tom Servo]

2/9 DLC - Three random songs


Cake - I Will Survive
Jason Derulo - Want to Want Me
Simple Minds - Don't You (Forget About Me)


Oddly, that Simple Minds song also came out this week for Rocksmith. Between the two games, and if you have a decent drum kit, you can learn almost every part of the song.

[Tom Servo]

Rivals setup this week is anti-love songs. Spotlight songs are:


Goddamn Draculas - Bethany
Halestorm - I Miss the Misery
J. Geils Band - Love Stinks


Yes, you read that right. Bethany repeats only two weeks after the last time it was there. Michele is still bitching about having to learn that song well enough to sing it, now she has to do it again.

[Tom Servo]

2/16 DLC - Two more re-licenses.


Panic! At The Disco - Nine in the Afternoon
Sum 41 - In Too Deep

[Tom Servo]

2/16 Rivals - Most requested songs off some weirdo's Twitch


Blues Traveler - Hook
Dream Theater - Metropolis Part 1
System of a Down - Spiders


After a solid week last week (glad to see you back, 8400!), this is almost like a who's who of my wife's most hated bands, with SOAD being her all time most hated band. It's entirely possible we may just not put down any vocal scores for the spotlight songs this week, I'm not sure she can take it.

[Tom Servo]

2/23 DLC - One new song and one relicense


Ram Jam - Black Betty
Motörhead - Ace of Spades '08


Rivals is lookin' bad for us this week, especially after we both managed to get food poisoning and spent the long weekend doing things other than playing RB.

[Tom Servo]

2/22 Rivals - Everything. Yep, all songs are up for XP. Twist is that whatever is the most played genre this week will be the theme next week. Spotlight songs:


Lynyrd Skynyrd - That Smell
Soundgarden - Superunknown
Winger - Seventeen

[Rare White Ape]

EB Games is currently having a huge sale on old-ish gaming items.

And on an unrelated note, my bank account is $150 lighter. Can anobody guess why?

[Tom Servo]

Band in a Box?

[Rare White Ape]

Hell yeah :rawk: Xbone version so I can get all my old songs that I bought back in the day.

Comes with Rivals DLC code too.

[Tom Servo]

Nice, feel free to join up with our Rivals crew if you feel like it. Both 8400 and I are admins, so you can probably find it by searching for either of us, band name is "Big McLargehuge"

[Tom Servo]

3/2 DLC - Another relicense but I think the Staind one is new.


Lit - My Own Worst Enemy
Staind - Outside

[Rare White Ape]

Nice, feel free to join up with our Rivals crew if you feel like it. Both 8400 and I are admins, so you can probably find it by searching for either of us, band name is "Big McLargehuge"

Cool man. I don't subscribe to XBL so I won't be playing anything online, but I'll join up anyway :up:

Just one quick question, can my Xbox 360 Stratocaster be used on the Xbone without any dicking around?

[Tom Servo]

Nope. You need to get the wireless legacy adapter (https://www.amazon.com/Rock-Band-Legacy-Game-Controller-Adapter/dp/B01541ACLQ) for that.

Unless it's wired, in which case you have to wait for PDP to actually have the wired legacy adapters again, which is rumored to be in April.

The peripheral situation on the XBone is such a huge pain in the ass that it really makes me wish I had all my DLC/older versions on the Playstation.

[Rare White Ape]

Ok cool. I'm keen to use my old Strat during some intense 4P multiplayer sessions in my lounge room just like old times. Should be fun :up:

[animalica]

Since the digital version of RB4 Rivals is now on sale I also bought it and I am glad that you can import your RB songs from previous games - but claiming RB DLC from previous games is a pain in the butt:

In your PC browser you can see all your purchases at XBL:

You can even display addons only but you can`t sort them by their respective games, it`s just chronological from new to old!
Even if you could sort the addons by games, you got to install them all manually one after the other, by adding them to your download queue.
No boxes to check and then another button to install them all in one go, no that would be too easy.

But it`s not better on the XB1:

In the RB4 song store your previously bought RB songs are listed as "Purchased" (bought but not installed) or "Library" (installed)
You can sort the songs in the store by name, band, genre etc but not by price, purchased or installed.
So again you got to find them somewhere widespread in the sore and install them again one after the other. You can be lucky if you have bought mainly packs otherwise bad luck.

Better sort options and checkboxes for easy install would be great.

And the XB1 marketplace? It shows me RB songs but I can`t sort them at all.

http://i67.tinypic.com/27yshee.jpg

Here is the official RB4 Legacy DLC FAQ:

http://forums.harmonixmusic.com/discussion/260620/rock-band-4-legacy-dlc-guide-updated-12-14-16

[Tom Servo]

Oh yeah, it's a huge pain. From what I gather it's one of the only times any game company has attempted to make DLC for a previous game on a previous platform work with a new game on a new platform. I have a feeling a ton of weird workarounds are involved. On the plus side, they actually did all that.

[Rare White Ape]

I've been looking for an app or service similar to the old Rock Band Music Store but I guess that's not a thing any more.

That app was so handy on the X360. I haven't fired up the game yet (just picked it up today) so I don't know what the sorting process is like in-game.

[Tom Servo]

3/2 Rivals Challenge - Alternative songs.

Alternative was the most played genre in last week's challenge, so it is this week's challenge.

Spotlight Songs:


Cake - I Will Survive
Foo Fighters - The Feast and the Famine
Newfane - I Recognize

[animalica]

While I am importing all my songs manually into RB4 through RB4`s store I switched to the xbox menue "Games & Apps" to see how the download is going, how much songs I got, how much space it`s taking up etc.

And when I clicked "Ready to install" suddenly there were 320 RB songs although "Ready to install" didn`t showed any numbers.

So I decided to "Install all" and now it downloads all the songs which were in the "Ready to install" list.

Seems like this is the easiest way to import all your previously bought songs into RB4 on the XB1!

2268

[Rare White Ape]

Alright, so, uhhh

Started playing this last night. It's good, just getting back into the groove, don't want to make it too hard for myself while I relearn what I had forgotten over the years, but don't want to make it too boring. Etc.

I'm once again fighting with the chaos and confusion that the Xbone's UI brings. Yes I've complained about it a lot since buying it. I don't know if it's just me or if the console is an unmitigated pile of shit. It's a real party killer if it's a Saturday night and you want to have a few drinks and play Rock Band and it has to spend 3 hours updating.

But enough about that, the problem I'm having is that I did what Animalica suggested with redownloading your old songs, but now they're not showing up in my songs list. I have four tracks from the AC/DC Live disc showing up in my game, but I count 17 of them in the list on the console dashboard. In total I've got 120 that should be there, but less than half have shown up in the game, and as far as I can tell, I can't just go into the RB store and redownload the limited ones like AC/DC.

Tracks from RB1 are in there, but what about RB2?

[Tom Servo]

Did you already do an RB2 export to RB3? I believe you have to have done that in the past to get them now.

[animalica]

I have four tracks from the AC/DC Live disc showing up in my game, but I count 17 of them in the list on the console dashboard. In total I've got 120 that should be there, but less than half have shown up in the game, and as far as I can tell, I can't just go into the RB store and redownload the limited ones like AC/DC.

Tracks from RB1 are in there, but what about RB2?

I got all 18 AC/DC live tracks in my song list.

Have you finished downloading all songs from XBL?
Have you gone back to the main menu of RB4 or have you restarted the game?
Then it should look for new titles and add them to it`s database on your console.

I got RB1, RB2, RB3, Lego RB, RB AC/DC and RB Beatles (which can only be run on the 360) and I always transfered the games into it`s successors before I had a XB1 and RB4.
To import the songs of RB3 I guess you need a RB3 savegame in the cloud.

I bought the RB3 Song Export Pack in RB4 but there was no way to install it and there was no download going on and nothing in the "Ready to install" queue.
So I fired up my 360 with RB3 and moved the savegame to the cloud.
But as before there were no songs but yesterday the 83 songs showed up in my "Ready to install " queue.

In the meantime I found a RB4 bundle with a legacy adaptor (they are getting rare and really pricey!) and I was lucky to get it for just 37 Euros.

But then I need a new drumkit again as I got the old wired RB drumkit for the 360. :(

[Tom Servo]

Supposedly the wired legacy adapter will be available again next month, but that whole thing is a mess. PDP released it late last year, they got bought up so fast they couldn't even fulfill all their pre-orders, and then they just disappeared. No responses from PDP and Harmonix, who are generally *very* active on their own message boards and places like /r/RockBand, were still posting about every other subject but very conspicuously absent from any conversation about PDP.

Only within the past couple of weeks has PDP started to respond to people's inquiries and they claim that it'll be available again in April. We'll see.

[Rare White Ape]

I've done the whole restart the game process but it hasn't worked, I even loaded a different game and rebooted the console! I've got more time today to look into it so I'll have a muck around and see what happens.

And I don't think RB3 was ever released in Australia. Not at retail anyway. It was just too expensive for the financial climate of the time for it to make sense to sell it here. But if I can somehow find a copy of the game that works in my X360 to just pop the disc in once to do an RB2 import and upload a save file, I'll be able to have both RB2 and 3 songs on my Xbone yeah? Or has that opportunity passed?

[Rare White Ape]

Heh. Two things:

I checked and it turns out RB3 was sold in Australia. I mustn't have been paying attention enough back in 2010. I'd still have to check to see if exporting songs is still valid before I buy a copy used.

And I reset my game again and it's now importing all my DLC. Why it didn't do it initially is beyond me, but it's taking forever!

[animalica]

2270

Downloading can take a while and I was already down to Ozzy Osbourne with manually downloading before I discovered the easier way to download - and then it downloaded the remaining 320 songs - and I still got 126 songs on my wishlist.

And I will see if you can import RB3 songs when you buy and play it on the 360 now.

[Rare White Ape]

My RB2 manual has a download code on the back of it that allows you to export the songs to RB1, and that code has been used previously (I tried it again today on the Xbox Store on the web and that is what it said). I presume it was me who used that code. It should be, because I bought the game brand new.

But those songs aren't showing in my history on XB1. Do I need to import them in RB3 first, then into RB4?

Man this is confusing!

[Tom Servo]

3/9 DLC - Again, a re-license and a new song.


Paramore - That's What You Get
Macklemore & Ryan Lewis ft. Ray Dalton - Can't Hold Us

[Tom Servo]

Oh, RWA, for some reason I forgot to mention this - you don't need Gold or to play online to be part of the Rivals crew thing. It's all offline/async, just your scores/plays get uploaded as you go and count for points on the team.

[Tom Servo]

3/9 Rivals Challenge - Seattle Bands


Harvey Danger - Flagpole Sitta
Heart - Kick it Out
Macklemore and Ryan Lewis ft. Ray Dalton - Can't Hold Us


I only have one of those songs, 'cause it came on the disc.

[Tom Servo]

Gonna be a weak week for us on Rivals. We only own one spotlight song with no interest in the others. That said, Michele full-combo'd "Times Like These" on vocals, then decided she wasn't topping that and we stopped playing.

Michele was all like:

https://media.giphy.com/media/beBy7w1gklos0/giphy.gif

[Tom Servo]

Nope. You need to get the wireless legacy adapter (https://www.amazon.com/Rock-Band-Legacy-Game-Controller-Adapter/dp/B01541ACLQ) for that.

Unless it's wired, in which case you have to wait for PDP to actually have the wired legacy adapters again, which is rumored to be in April.

The peripheral situation on the XBone is such a huge pain in the ass that it really makes me wish I had all my DLC/older versions on the Playstation.

PDP are now saying Mid-May for when the adapter will be available.

[animalica]

RB4 for X1 is downloading a 9.6 GB update now...

[Tom Servo]

I'm guessing it's a set of songs from a bunch of bands none of us have heard of that Rivals is getting, plus Mass Effect 4 and Archer themed costumes/gear.

[animalica]

You`re right:

http://www.harmonixmusic.com/blog/rock-band-rivals-march-update-notes/

[Tom Servo]

3/23 DLC


Kings of Leon - Use Somebody
Mumford & Sons - I Will Wait
OneRepublic - Counting Stars

[Tom Servo]

3/30 DLC


Basement - Promise Everything
Ed Sheeran - Shape of You


I just recently found out that Shape of You is the song that whoever controls the Sonos speakers at my work keeps putting on. I think I've heard it every day for the past 2-3 weeks. I. fucking. hate. that. song.

[Tom Servo]

Oh, thank fucking god that that example of everything wrong with modern pop music is not one of the spotlight songs. On the downside, I think two of the songs this week are DLC, as I only have The Cure one.

Rivals theme - British bands


Basement - Promise Everything
The Cure - Friday I'm in Love
Frank Turner - I Still Believe

[animalica]

What`s the result of hardware backwards compatibility? ;)


Peripherals maker Mad Catz files for bankruptcy. Assets now being liquidated.

http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2017-03-31-peripherals-maker-mad-catz-files-for-bankruptcy

[Tom Servo]

I know they're blaming RB for slow sales, but it seems odd when there are so many people saying that they want to buy hardware and can't find it because they didn't produce enough.

I personally think a much larger reason is how many returns they had to deal with for faulty hardware. They had such an incredibly high failure rate, it's like they had to make two or three of each item for each person who actually tried to buy one.

[Tom Servo]

4/6 DLC - Another re-license along with a new song


Blondie - One Way or Another
Hall & Oates - You Make My Dreams


To quote George Wallace - "I grew up so poor we could only listen to Oates"

[Tom Servo]

4/6 Rivals Challenge - Rock & Roll Hall of Fame inductees

Spotlight songs are:

Hall & Oates - You Make My Dreams
Pearl Jam - Even Flow
The Who - The Seeker

[Rare White Ape]

I was playing RB tonight and hit up some tunes from The Who for the first time in years. I finally noticed that the guitarist on stage does a huge leap onto their knees at the last big "YEAH!" in Won't Get Fooled Again.

So awesome.

https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-6mTyZ587naM/U4_Xe6V7bcI/AAAAAAAAA7E/6TpOXRgv7x8/s1600/vlcsnap-2014-06-01-21h08m39s217.jpg

[Tom Servo]

On the flipside, when I'm drumming on Everlong, the drummer on the screen is smiling while I'm grimacing in pain. So unrealistic.