Smile and Nod: Is it Too Loud, or Am I Too Old?

[sammyfreak]

My problem with Guitar Hero games is that:

A. I never wanted to be a Rockstar
B. I suck at rythm games
C. About two good songs per game

I R teh alternative!

 

[sandswipe]

----(think Chuck Barry, Beatles, ELO, Hall & Oates, New Wave 80's stuff, B-52s, The Cars, some pop-metal like Bon Jovi, etc.)

The Beatles are insane and expensive, but they're in talks. As for New Wave, the Police have five songs for DLC, and we're getting a Devo pack. The B-52s have a song and a promise of more to come, the Cars have AN ENTIRE DAMN ALBUM in Rock Band, which ties them for the band with the second-most songs in the game right now, and Bon Jovi have a song on the disc.



One of the biggest advantages of Rock Band is the DLC. The base setlist is nice, but on PS3 and 360 you can sign on and customize it. Love the Pixies? Buy Doolittle and rock out to Tame, Silver, and Monkey Gone to Heaven. Hate the Pixies? Skip the week and buy the rest of those Judas Priest songs you missed, or that Monkeys song from a while back, or the first Grateful Dead six pack, or the Jimmy Buffett pack. They're low on grunge and funk, but every single song that has those four instruments has a realistic chance of being DLC (as long as Aerosmith didn't write it and the masters are usable).
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_songs_in_rock_band#Downloadable_songs

Guitar Hero is fun, but when you're playing with three friends, scrolling through a hundred songs to construct a 3-song make a setlist and realizing that you really, really like eighty of the songs instead of just sort of having them, that's pretty awesome.

 

[Break]

You stick a five year old in front of a drum set and a guitar, and which do you think he's going to want to play?

I think that's more a measure of the level of skill involved than anything else, my friend. Five year olds can't fret.

Eh? When did hitting things with sticks stop being fun? I don't understand.

Likewise, wailing into a microphone trying to find the right pitch to satisfy the computer is hilarious. Getting someone to take the mic is just a matter of either finding someone that can sing, finding somebody who isn't all uptight and boring, or waiting until everybody's drunk enough to not care about sounding bad.

My brother brought visited a while ago, and he brought Rock Band with him, with a full set of peripherals - give or take an appropriated Guitar Hero controller. People were lining up to get on the drums. We had a great time. And that was ages before we broke out the beer.

While the article was good, and everything, I can't quite see where all the problems came from. The drums are a decent mimicry of an electric drumkit, the singing on easy mode is lenient enough to assauge fears of ruining the song, and pretending to rock out on the guitar solos using the five new frets is great. It's such a ridiculous parody of a real rock band, that if people are worried about making fools of themselves because of such a thing, well... Your friends sound kinda boring.

 

[Juan Regular]

Am I the only one here, who actually does play a real instrument?
I play the guitar in one band, drums in another and some bass and piano for myself and I guess since I'm playing for 12 years now, I can call myself somewhat advanced. But still I have to say, that I enjoy playing both the games. I know what it's like to be on stage in front of 800 people and everyone's going wild. Those games both simulate that very well to some level. It's of course not nearly as intense, but it's still somewhat the same feeling. That goes for the drums and for the guitar. So, even though I play all those instruments and now what the real deal is like, I still enjoy playing GH or RB. For me it's a reminder of all those great gigs I've been lucky enough to be a part of. I think it can actually be more fun if you do play an instrument for real because of that. We just can't have a gig three times a day (though I'd welcome the challenge).

And being a drummer kicks ass by the way. It's the most fun instrument to play. Especially live. With a guitar you always have to think about what you're doing and stay somewhat concentrated, but with the drums it's different. As soon as you've mastered a new ryhtm, you can play it as easy as walking down the street. There's no real need to concentrate, you can just bash those toms and snares and cymbals and rock out. It's definitely the most fun of all instruments. But all drummers should try and play some guitar as well, so they can contribute to the band in more than just rythm. I write about a quarter of the band's songs in which I play the drums, so I don't have to hear any drummer jokes.

And that's why I'm much cooler than all of you, harharhar!

 

[Nadsat]

No-one likes us drummers ;_;
On the other hand, you'd be damned to find a better drinking partner than a drummer, which, after all, is why anyone forms a band in the first place.

 

[Ian Dorsch]

Am I the only one here, who actually does play a real instrument?

No.

But I do agree that drums are awesome.

 

[Caradas1030]

MotherFuck what you said about drummers. But other than that, yeah, I kindof agree

 

[Son of Makuta]

And being a drummer kicks ass by the way. It's the most fun instrument to play. (...) As soon as you've mastered a new ryhtm, you can play it as easy as walking down the street. There's no real need to concentrate, you can just bash those toms and snares and cymbals and rock out. It's definitely the most fun of all instruments.

QFT. Russ, as a drummer and an Oxford student I feel somewhat insulted by your article. We aren't all alcoholic no-hopers with zero prospects in life other than sitting morosely at the back of a stage watching while the rest of the band gets laid. I'm not proficient enough at other instruments (I've played piano and guitar in the past, didn't give up willingly on the latter) to write full songs like Juan Regular here, or at least, not so much that I can do it on the fly. I'm sure I could given time. I do, however, come up with all of the drum parts for the band, and am regularly complimented on them by the others.

And I'd love to have a thrash at Rock Band. Sure, electric drum kits don't give you the same feel that you get from a real one. Sure, I don't have my 3 cymbals + hi-hat, my beloved Pearl double bass pedal (which I still suck at...) or the four cowbells I bolt onto random places on the kit to increase my arsenal of textures. But I'd still rather play those four little discs than a guitar. Or sing, for that matter. And I bet it'd be a blast.