Music Gaming Goodness: Rock Band 2 Rocks The House
by Derek Wilson on October 24, 2008 1:25 AM EST- Posted in
- GPUs
The Drum Trainer
Many, including ourselves, have talked about the potential for Rock Band not only to get people into drumming, but to help them learn as well. The drum controller is close enough to a real drum kit that people playing the game might accidentally learn a few things about playing drums. Unfortunately, teaching things like posture, fundamentals and technique isn't something Rock Band focused on.
With Rock Band 2, Harmonix made up for their lack a tiny bit by offering a Drum Trainer mode. The Drum Trainer consists of a few dozen different selectable beats that constantly loop until you hit stop. Tempo and the sound of the kit can be altered as well. This mode, as opposed to playing through a song, has the potential to teach people how beats feel to play rather than how to just play what they see. Playing the drums is more about timing and muscle memory than reflexes, and helping people move away from a play-what-you-see style will help people actually become drummers. If they want to.
In spite of the fact that you have the ability to move at your own pace and practice common beats, Rock Band 2 won't tell you if you are using a poor grip, moving your arms too much or if you are not using the bounce of the drum to your advantage. All of these things are important for people who are serious about playing, and learning poor technique can really get in the way down the road.
So the drum trainer is definitely a step in the right direction. It teaches you some rudiments without telling you what you are really learning, and it helps make the repetitive process of really learning how to play something a little more fun. But it still doesn't make Rock Band 2 the be all end all of learning tools for drums. In future versions, we would love to see some thing like some video tutorials of how to sit, hold your sticks, hit the drums, and all that good stuff. Just making the information available in the game would go a long way to helping save people from the need to un-learn things down the road.
Honestly, the best tool that Harmonix provided with Rock Band 2 isn't something that is geared specifically toward learning drums. Curious? Read on.
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7Enigma - Saturday, October 25, 2008 - link
A buddy sent this to me a couple weeks ago. Insane drum playing on Expert in RockBand.http://gamerblips.com/video/this_calling_5gs_all_t...">http://gamerblips.com/video/this_calling_5gs_all_t...
And just to give you an idea of how difficult this really is to play (if hearing it didn't quite sink in):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=whkXozib-0g">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=whkXozib-0g
silversound - Friday, October 24, 2008 - link
Anybody have any ideas about the guitar hero world tour?Im planning to buy a RB2 bundle or world tour bundle since they are at the same price. Which one is better? Most of my friends got RB, any thoughts?
DerekWilson - Saturday, October 25, 2008 - link
i'll try to get some quick thoughts on GH4 up after we get ahold of it.if your friends have RB 2 and want to play with you online ... then ... i'd prolly go with RB 2 :-)
if you guys get together and play with eachother, it might be nice to add some variety and pick up GH4 so that you and your friends can play a little of both.
GhandiInstinct - Friday, October 24, 2008 - link
Where's the hi-hat pedal?Electronic drum kits have 2 pedals.
crimson117 - Friday, October 24, 2008 - link
"In songs with 16th notes or triplets, there still isn't much that gets by without being fairly accurte." ...unlike the Anandtech spell check process :)JarredWalton - Friday, October 24, 2008 - link
Okay, I may not be the most up-to-date in terms of bands and such, but the number of songs and even band names that I recognize from the RB2 list is amazingly small. Half of the bands/groups I recognize then have one of their B-sides or some other unknown song on the list. RB1 was pretty bad in that area, but RB2 takes it to a new level. Plus there's the "20 free songs" you can get - but I don't recognize a single group or song on that list! If I were to want to pretend to be a rock star, I think I'd prefer to "cover" songs that I actually know. Guitar Hero seems to do a lot better in this regard; Harmonix appears to have cut costs by choosing cheap/free songs to license.Myrandex - Friday, October 24, 2008 - link
I felt the same way until I played it, then I realized that I recognized a lot more afterwards. also as the author mentioned, I eventually obtained a greater appreciation for certain songs or even certain aspects of songs. There are definitely songs that I didn't know that I like quite a bit after playing RB2.And for the 20 free songs, I am greatly looking forward to Static-X "Push It". I love that band and I could think of at least 8 songs that I'd gladly pay for to be in the game (with Push It being one of them).
I recognized some other ones, but not too many. I don't know if the list that I saw was actually finalized or not though. The one song that I was looking forward to the most in RB2 was Linkin Park's One Step Closer. I could think of probably 15 LP songs that I'd also pay for in there.
Jason
jnmfox - Friday, October 24, 2008 - link
+1 to the comments & +1 for more LP songsheadbox - Friday, October 24, 2008 - link
Rock Band is genius- it gives all of the untalented people something to do other than waste money on instruments and annoy their neighbors. It's so well made that people can actually pretend they have some talent, allowing tone-deaf people who can't keep a beat to still have fun with music.headbox - Friday, October 24, 2008 - link
I'd like to add: Rock Band is to music what FPS games are to military training.