Wednesday, January 20, 2010

Happy New Year! (RockBand review)

Yes, yes, I know I'm always late with my reviews and what-not. You could sue me, but I have no money to speak of. Also, this diet I've been on has lead me to having a whopper of a headache and it's only Day Two! Still, I must persevere.

As you might have noticed, I bought RockBand. Just the plain variety. I'm looking for The Beatles one was well, but then, my twenty-third is coming up in a month or so, so I should hang that idea up for my friends to see. In any case, here's what I thought of the game.

Bloody. Addictive.

There's enough variety to keep me interested between the difficulty levels and it appeals to my perfectionist nature to try for a five-star rating on every song on every difficulty. I have to say that I primarily played this game on the drums, though I did make it through REM's Orange Crush on Bass playing on Expert difficulty. That, my friends, was fun.

I do think that rhythm gaming has perhaps reached its potential for entertainment value, but with that said, I'm enjoying my drumkit so much that when I went to a friend's for a week, I actively missed it. When I arrived home, I played for about five hours straight!

So what are the drawbacks? Natural rhythm helps, especially on the drums. Also, you don't get to choose your band members, unlike Band Hero. When you aren't concentrating on hitting the right buttons, you are forced to sit through cover bands that may or may not look like the bands released the songs they are performing... though sometimes they are pretty good.

On the whole, I would recommend this game. It's a great way to pretend like you have musical talent without the years of practice that mastery of an instrument demands.

In other news, I hear back on whether I have that job as a Community Manager tomorrow. Ooh, I'm so excited!