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Rock Band 4 |OT| We're Putting The Rock Band Back Together

FyreWulff

Member
http://www.harmonixmusic.com/blog/whats-coming-in-october-rock-band-rivals-features-revealed/

Everything is legit from the leak also

RBrivals_preorder_CRM.png


No new songs I guess isn't an issue but I hope Harmonix does something with the exports for those who lost out on the codes.

Gold Sword guitar is only available to those that already own RB4. Can't get it from just buying Rivals
 

komarkaze

Member
Since Harmonix doesn't give a crap about having masters anymore, does that re-open the possibility of songs from Led Zeppelin? I recall that deal fell through because the band didn't want to give access to their masters.
 

vg260

Member
Since Harmonix doesn't give a crap about having masters anymore, does that re-open the possibility of songs from Led Zeppelin? I recall that deal fell through because the band didn't want to give access to their masters.

Dunno. Even with Zeppelin, if they don't use the masters, I couldn't care less, because anyone can make customs with their own mp3s that way already. They're removing any sort of incentive to actually buy the official versions by their trend of non using the actual stems.
 

Calcium

Banned
It's really fucking stupid to not have any new music in the expansion. They don't want to divide their playerbase? What the fuck does that even mean? It's already divided with all the exports and the whole catalogue available via DLC. Oh, I get a hamburger t-shirt? All is well. Nevermind.

Harmonix....what the fuck....?
 

Rodeo Clown

All aboard! The Love train!
$30 is a really steep price for this thing that doesn't include any new tracks.

I don't play online, so I'm basically paying for the right to play the Rock Band 3 single player again and getting more updates in the future? Gross.
 

FyreWulff

Member
$30 is a really steep price for this thing that doesn't include any new tracks.

I don't play online, so I'm basically paying for the right to play the Rock Band 3 single player again and getting more updates in the future? Gross.

QOL / bugfix updates will continue to be free to everyone. Only full new game modes will be locked behind the expansion.

So for instance there's going to be a library/sorting/etc update that comes out the same time as Rivals that's free to everyone. But modes like Rockumentary and Rivals and stuff similar to Brutal Mode would be expansion-required.

So those of us that choose to pass on Rivals aren't locked out of all updates, just new gameplay modes.
 

CloudWolf

Member
Yeaaaaah, I'm really not sure about this. I like a 6 or 7 of the pre-order songs and the Rockudrama mode looks slightly fun, but is it really worth 30 bucks, especially with those tracks also coming through DLC?

It's really fucking stupid to not have any new music in the expansion. They don't want to divide their playerbase? What the fuck does that even mean? It's already divided with all the exports and the whole catalogue available via DLC. Oh, I get a hamburger t-shirt? All is well. Nevermind.

Harmonix....what the fuck....?

The 'not want to divide the userbase' shit is one of the weakest exuses I've heard so far. It's not even that the userbase is already divided, Rivals itself divides the userbase into those who have online multiplayer and those who don't. Hell, you could even just include those songs and then later release them through DLC for the rest of the players who didn't get Rivals like they did with Blitz and Green Day.
 

pacman85

Member
$30 is a really steep price for this thing that doesn't include any new tracks.
But it does? It includes 10 tracks as a "pre-order" bonus. Once they lay-out everything on the table that this includes, if you are interested in it, why would you NOT pre-order it? It's not like this is some brand new unknown game that could be terrible and you are blindly pre-ordering it. I pretty much want all those tracks so I'm looking at this like I'm paying $10 for these new modes.
 
Livestream is at 4pm est today. They'll show off the new career mode, and we'll see the new interface.

Also the standalone guitar is a deep red. Looks nice. I'll probably get the band bundle anyways.
 

pacman85

Member
Well I guess we now know 6 weeks worth of DLC content with the announcement of the 12 pre-order bonus songs. So the only way to get those 2 Amazon exclusive songs (3AM and One More Night) is to get ono of the HARDWARE bundles from Amazon correct? I only want to spend $30 on the digital expansion pack (all my instruments still work fine).
 
I have no friends on Xbox that play RB4, so if any of you guys would like to add me so my friends leaderboard is not just my score my gamertag is Foulger . I'm just an average player so it's only for fun. Thanks. :)
 

FyreWulff

Member
Well I guess we now know 6 weeks worth of DLC content with the announcement of the 12 pre-order bonus songs. So the only way to get those 2 Amazon exclusive songs (3AM and One More Night) is to get ono of the HARDWARE bundles from Amazon correct? I only want to spend $30 on the digital expansion pack (all my instruments still work fine).

They will be made available on the regular store later
 

FyreWulff

Member
https://www.reddit.com/r/Rockband/c...tary_new_campaign_in_rock_band_rivals/d5i7az9

All guitar bundles get a mail-in offer for a free mic (Limited time offer, while supplies last, etc.)


also no 360 wired instruments via the PDP Ion/MIDI adapter due to MS policy

Yeah, we were initially hoping to support everything, but through the certification process with Microsoft we weren't able to include wired guitars or non ION/Midi drums.

official response on "why no RB music pass"

It's not a bad idea at all, but I can't see this coming any time soon. Our licensing agreements with artists/labels don't support this, and we'd need to go to every single artist in the catalog to get a new agreement.
 

FaintDeftone

Junior Member
I'm always down for more Rock Band, but man that price is a little much. I would have felt better paying $20 for it. A lot of this shit should have been in the base game to begin with. Still, being the Rock Band whore that I am, I'm sure I'll buy it.
 
Ew, so those Rockudrama live action video character segments are part of the game?

Yuck. Those are cringe-worthy.

See, i loved Roundabout, and if its similar to that, i'm fine with it. It may not be, but that worked for me personally.

Far as the non-master stems, yeah i do think its odd, but i have to wonder if the custom scene being cool with it didn't give them the idea to pursue it. I'd be curious to see the sales breakdown, since something tells me casual players won't care much (though, maybe that really isn't the main market now, so it might not be the best call)
 

FyreWulff

Member
See, i loved Roundabout, and if its similar to that, i'm fine with it. It may not be, but that worked for me personally.

Far as the non-master stems, yeah i do think its odd, but i have to wonder if the custom scene being cool with it didn't give them the idea to pursue it. I'd be curious to see the sales breakdown, since something tells me casual players won't care much (though, maybe that really isn't the main market now, so it might not be the best call)

I'm still curious as to if it's truly all they have, or if certain songs have semi-usable stems they use for charting but the final is EQ'd or flagged to not solo instruments to hide the fact that the stems lack full separation.

The vast majority of Beatles was like this but was hidden well due to the removal of drum fills and whammying.
 

vg260

Member
The vast majority of Beatles was like this but was hidden well due to the removal of drum fills and whammying.

I give them a pass on the Beatles, but not for 90s one-ht wonders and other miscellaneous stuff. Maybe after seeing the response to GH Live, they just said screw it, the casual players don't care, and we need the money. It's sad to me though if due to the turnover, they adopt that philosophy, as it goes against the core concept of the game. But whatever, I'm a broken record on this.
 

FyreWulff

Member
I give them a pass on the Beatles, but not for 90s one-ht wonders and other miscellaneous stuff. Maybe after seeing the response to GH Live, they just said screw it, the casual players don't care, and we need the money. It's sad to me though if due to the turnover, they adopt that philosophy, as it goes against the core concept of the game. But whatever, I'm a broken record on this.

Yeah, some super recent stuff not having splits is.. really weird.

edit: livestream should be starting shortly

https://www.twitch.tv/harmonix
 

CloudWolf

Member
The non-master tracks that are truly baffling to me are Get Lucky, the Cranberries songs and the Gin Blossoms songs. Get Lucky because we know the masters exist, they were leaked on the internet a while ago, so Rock Band not using them is completely weird and those other two because we have a song from both artists with full masters, but somehow the other hits by those bands have no usable masters, seriously?
 

Calcium

Banned
My drums are broken again. I really, really don't want to go through getting them replaced again. Such a pain in the ass. Might just sit out until the new instruments are out. Shame.
 

Gleethor

Member
Some of the preorder songs are solid, but not including any songs in the expansion itself just feels like a complete misread of why people play Rock Band. A solid set of 15-20 songs included would've been like a second chance for the current, lacking 65 song RB4 setlist.

Do the goofy mockumentary campaign if you want, that's fine. But none of the things included with rivals currently sound like they're worth $30. Online included makes it a bit more palatable but that's not even coming til 2 months after the expansion launches, at the earliest.
 
Some of the preorder songs are solid, but not including any songs in the expansion itself just feels like a complete misread of why people play Rock Band. A solid set of 15-20 songs included would've been like a second chance for the current, lacking 65 song RB4 setlist.

Do the goofy mockumentary campaign if you want, that's fine. But none of the things included with rivals currently sound like they're worth $30. Online included makes it a bit more palatable but that's not even coming til 2 months after the expansion launches, at the earliest.

I'm fairly stunned by this. I've supported Rock Band 4, but adding 10 new tracks and locking it behind preorders seems crazy to me without any new songs in the actual expansion itself. Rock Band 4 was already pretty light in terms of tracks, I was really hoping they'd add closer to 20 tracks.

Seems like a super blatant way to get people to hand over their dollars and lock them in to ensure people don't get this on the cheap at a later date once sales have begun.
 

zulux21

Member
hmmm
not a fan of no new songs for rivals.

as for the preorder songs, two of them are must haves for me.
Of Monsters And Men – Little Talks
Semisonic – Closing Time

one is okay
Capital Cities – Safe And Sound

I would need to double check what they are how they sound
Bring Me The Horizon – Happy Song
Eagle-Eye Cherry – Save Tonight
The Neighbourhood – Sweater Weather
Sia – Chandelier
Skillet – Feel Invincible
Weezer – King of the World

I like weezer and don't mind skillet so it might be okay.

and one of them I hate with a passion and would be tempted to not preorder just to avoid having it on my download list at all :/

Pharrell Williams – Happy

I will have to see more details of the expansion, but online play is meaningless to me, and the rockumentry looks okay but not something amazing.
 

SFenton

Member
I am very wary that Save Tonight won't have proper masters, since that feels like a song that surely would have been a lock for RB1-3 (against this, so did Jane...)

I'm fine with the cost since I would have picked up all ten songs anyways, so the expansion is basically $10 for me. *shrug*

Also... Hemorrhage is the first song where I've actually been soured by no masters. Every time my buddy missed and it got filtered it sounds awful. Agh. Aaaaaaaaaaagh. I *love* the song, and I'm honestly not sure if I'd rather have it where it *wasn't* in the game, but I can definitely see a point in the future where I reconsider content if there aren't properly separated stems.

I wasn't really happy when Interpol/Daft Punk got fadeouts and I'm definitely not on the no-masters train, though I can ignore it in some cases.
 
hmmm
not a fan of no new songs for rivals.

as for the preorder songs, two of them are must haves for me.
Of Monsters And Men – Little Talks
Semisonic – Closing Time

one is okay
Capital Cities – Safe And Sound

I would need to double check what they are how they sound
Bring Me The Horizon – Happy Song
Eagle-Eye Cherry – Save Tonight
The Neighbourhood – Sweater Weather
Sia – Chandelier
Skillet – Feel Invincible
Weezer – King of the World

I like weezer and don't mind skillet so it might be okay.

and one of them I hate with a passion and would be tempted to not preorder just to avoid having it on my download list at all :/

Pharrell Williams – Happy

I will have to see more details of the expansion, but online play is meaningless to me, and the rockumentry looks okay but not something amazing.

BMTH's Happy Song is fucking garbage

what a bad list of songs
 

vg260

Member
Also... Hemorrhage is the first song where I've actually been soured by no masters. Every time my buddy missed and it got filtered it sounds awful. Agh. Aaaaaaaaaaagh. I *love* the song, and I'm honestly not sure if I'd rather have it where it *wasn't* in the game, but I can definitely see a point in the future where I reconsider content if there aren't properly separated stems.

If this was back in the old days when we were getting a massive quantity of songs and this was an old or huge artist, then maaaybe I'd be ok with things like this, but not when we're only getting 2 songs per week and this is becoming much more common. If we could have gotten a song with actual stems instead, then I definitely don't want it in as-is. We don't even know if they *could* have gotten stems if they waited/pushed harder, etc. or they just settled, which is my main issue with this. If there was more transparency, it might sit better, but they're not giving us any reason to give them the benefit of the doubt. My gut feeling is they lowered their standards due to being stretched so thin.
 

Storm360

Member
On the subject of stems, I wish they'd just not do the DIY stems and just make it like a custom song where the song doesn't mute if you miss. Maybe i'm alone in this but it's never bugged me when playing a custom/guitar hero live and it doesn't make the audio quality terrible, Get Lucky was easily the worst sounding RB DLC I've bought.
 

CloudWolf

Member
On the subject of stems, I wish they'd just not do the DIY stems and just make it like a custom song where the song doesn't mute if you miss. Maybe i'm alone in this but it's never bugged me when playing a custom/guitar hero live and it doesn't make the audio quality terrible, Get Lucky was easily the worst sounding RB DLC I've bought.

That would become terrible as soon as someone triggers a freestyle solo/drum fill though.
 
and i'm done with RB4 ! i still naively had a few hopes , despite the botched release , the bugs , despite most aspects of the game being so barebones (barely any concert stages , almost no customization) and a retreat from not only rb3 ... but rb 1 and 2 .....

Now they expect me to pay for an expansion adding access to multiplayer features that should have been there from day one . Nope nope nope , call me spoiled , entitled or anything , it's still a big fat no . I'll just leasurely dust off the original rb4 for solo play every once in a while ...
 
and i'm done with RB4 ! i still naively had a few hopes , despite the botched release , the bugs , despite most aspects of the game being so barebones (barely any concert stages , almost no customization) and a retreat from not only rb3 ... but rb 1 and 2 .....

Now they expect me to pay for an expansion adding access to multiplayer features that should have been there from day one . Nope nope nope , call me spoiled , entitled or anything , it's still a big fat no . I'll just leasurely dust off the original rb4 for solo play every once in a while ...

They did exactly what every sports franchise does when bringing over their game to the new generation.

The difference is that the sport games will release another $60 game the year after, and will still be missing key features from the previous gen.

In this case it's a $30 expansion, instead of an entirely new entry called Rock Band 5. I'd rather have the former.
 

Gleethor

Member
They did exactly what every sports franchise does when bringing over their game to the new generation.

The difference is that the sport games will release another $60 game the year after, and will still be missing key features from the previous gen.

In this case it's a $30 expansion, instead of an entirely new entry called Rock Band 5. I'd rather have the former.

So would I, if the expansion felt in any way like it was worth $30.
 
So would I, if the expansion felt in any way like it was worth $30.

Pretty much my thoughts on this. The campaign is the weakest aspect of all of the RB games in my opinion. So a new career mode being the main focus of the expansion really doesn't appeal to me. The only reason I even really wamt to buy it is online play. Loved playing with groups and trying to get to the top of the band leaderboards.
 
They did exactly what every sports franchise does when bringing over their game to the new generation.

The difference is that the sport games will release another $60 game the year after, and will still be missing key features from the previous gen.

In this case it's a $30 expansion, instead of an entirely new entry called Rock Band 5. I'd rather have the former.

Except not really . I have not seen sports game (usually) removes existing features and modes , especially multiplayer ones and especially only to resell them later on . Hell , when PES lost some of it's customization options (coupled with many over issues) there was hell to pay and major outcries , and the expect sales results

And you say that you'd rather have that than "rb5" , but as it is , we did not even get something equal to a simple port of rb3 on ps4/xb1 ... but something inferior in many aspects .

Anyway i stand by my decision . I have done my share of support with tons of dlc since rb1 ... still enjoyed for the most part rb4 , got the export keys ... but their current model only make it certaint hat i'll stick with the original game and my current list of dlc . I won't buy additional content and dlc , the way things are . Even if i wanted to , the people i'd group online with , won't stand for it and will drop out too .
 
Except not really . I have not seen sports game (usually) removes existing features and modes , especially multiplayer ones and especially only to resell them later on . Hell , when PES lost some of it's customization options (coupled with many over issues) there was hell to pay and major outcries

And you say that you'd rather have that than "rb5" , but as it is , we did not even get something equal to a simple port of rb3 on ps4/xb1 ... but something inferior in many aspects

Madden, NHL, NBA all had features removed from them when going from last gen to this gen. And even up to this year NHL still doesn't have everything that NHL 14 had, almost 3 years ago.

Harmonix doesn't have the big publisher anymore to cover costs for expensive things, like online, which costs a lot of time and money to do.

They had a survey they sent out before the game was announced asking what was most important to players, and the top answers were that they wanted their old dlc and instruments to work. So that's what they focused on.

Since launch, they've added things in over time, and now we're at the point where they're ready to add new modes that have never been in a RB game, like the new story mode, and the Rivals mode. And obviously online is gonna be behind a paywall because something like that couldn't just be free. Online play on their survey btw was near the bottom for what people wanted, which is why they didn't have it at launch.
 

FyreWulff

Member
They've still yet to add the best feature in the previous games though:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9zm1Ie537tU

Bass boost! The weak sauce bass volume in this game is depressing as fuck.

Yessss, this. On some songs you can even hear the bassist moving their fingers up the strings (Youth of the Nation by POD is a good song for this, from what I remember) with the bass up and Bass Boost on.

Or you Bass Boost and crank up Clint Eastwood and the house vibrates along with your whammy bar on those long notes..

good times. I should just do a stream in the near future where I'm playing with the bass cranked.

edit: other songs people should Bass Boost the fuck out of:

Tell Me Baby (most RHCP songs, actually, but Tell Me Baby has a nice bounce/feel to it)
Hungry Like The Wolf
Eminence Front (takes a while to get going, though)
The Stranger
Shining Star
Good Riddance (swerve, it's actually strings, but so fun to whammy them)
Working Man
Caravan
Rime of the Ancient Mariner
Gold Cobra
 
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