Don’t matter, JSG, but thanks for thinking of me, anyway! 
Also, BigNik: :D:D:D
That’s a very old phrase, my friend!
The other version goes like this:
“I don’t know whether to shit or go blind!”
Your Pal
Quasi
Also dating back before the invention of laser eye surgery, then?
Yes, I know the phrase, I was just pointing out the fitness of claiming that you’re confused because of your antiquity and the need to wind a watch. It was a turn of phrase that required remark, if you will.
And I’d offer to drop by and step you through it, but I can’t find my snorkel and it’s a hell of a swim.
So, not only do I get to be a Beatle, I get a sex-change operation thrown in for free?
Today (actually yesterday) my husband brought in the XBox and the (generic) guitar controller. He has informed me that he did, indeed, pre-order the game. He also exclaimed over the price. I reminded him that I generally just want a box of chocolates for my birthday. We got into a discussion as to whether or not I will get my birthday present a couple of days early this year. I think that I prevailed, by reminding him that I have usually been willing to wait for presents, and anyway I need to make sure that the console and controller and game all work properly.
According to the sports medicine facility, this is currently being determined.
Just a reminder about that - if you decide that you like the idea and want to try something a little more well-rounded than the Beatles, Rock Band 2 is very much worth a shot and can be picked up reasonably inexpensively these days.
Also, the drumming is horribly addictive. Y’know - if you want a real birthday present now that your early one’s already been played with.
Snarky, but remarkably honest - if Guitar Hero had licensed the Beatles.
I might very well pick up another music playing game. You might be underestimating my love for the Beatles, though, and my capacity to immerse myself in a game to the exclusion of all other activities for months…or years.
Love for the Beatles, maybe - but I’m giving this game a miss because I can’t work it into the social game of Rock Band 2 that a group of us have ongoing. We get together every couple of months to further our progress through the touring “career mode”, and I don’t think that the Beatles game would stand up to more than one or two playthroughs in that environment.
Now if they would let us export the Beatles tracks into the main game, it’s a different story. I’ve put down a pre-order on Lego Rock Band, which I’m only ever going to use as a track pack.
I’m serious about the drums, though. Best part of the game, especially if you can talk the other players into letting you do a Phil Collins.
I’m a solo gamer. I have medical conditions which mean that sometimes I’m pretty much confined to a bed or chair for days at a time, and I am simply not able to host or go to someone else’s gaming group. I can’t play WoW, for instance, because I know enough about the game that I know I really need to be in a guild, and I wouldn’t be able to make a commitment to a guild. I’ve had to give up playing D&D because I’d have to spend half of the session in the bathroom, or I wouldn’t be able to make it to the game at all. I used to play D&D two and three times a week, for four to eight hours at a time. I’ve had to give this up.
If I have to drop the controller and run to the bathroom and spend a couple of hours in there while I’m playing solo, that’s no big deal. But I won’t ask other people to put their game on hold while I deal with my problems, I just don’t feel that it’s fair. And besides, it’s rather embarrassing.
There are medications I can take to temporarily control this, but the side effects are horrid.
We have gamers with a baby, and it’s essentially the same thing.
I know, I know, but hear me out.
Under Rock Band’s band system, we have 7-8 players, who rotate through the four instruments. We meet at my place (I have this power because I have the console, the disc and the drum kit), and rotate through the day. Some people won’t sing, some people only sing. One guy only plays guitar or bass. The singer starts to lose their voice (usually after a Bon Jovi number), they rotate out and start drinking alcohol until they don’t care any more. I take a couple of hours out of the middle to cook lunch, but the band goes on. The baby starts screaming and both of the parents - OK, the mother - is playing, we pause it and someone takes over her part. My back gives out while I’m drumming, I go lie down on the couch and do vocals for a while.
In short, we can do it without everyone needing to be on board all the time.
Alternatively, if you get yourself a gold (i.e. paid) membership to XBox Live you can do it all online from the confines of your bed. You can’t make it tonight? Three members of the band can still go on. The problem is that they’ll need to buy their own drinks. And, of course, four friends are easier to synchronise than a guild you don’t actually know.
I think that you might be surprised how social it can be.
I’ve had a baby, too, and it’s not at all the same thing. Babies can be babysat. NOBODY ELSE can go to the bathroom for me, and stay there for hours. Nobody else can lie down for me for three hours. And that’s the key. I’ll have to spend hours or days with my conditions, and I can’t play at all during that time.
I’ve talked about my various conditions on the board, but I haven’t disclosed even a quarter of my problems. But they’re real, and talking about them depresses me. Just take my word for it that I really and truly cannot get together with people on a regular basis, even if it’s only every other week, unless I’m willing to load up on medications which will mask the symptoms for a while, and which will cause excruciating side effects later.
If I could get together with people on a regular basis, without suffering the side effects, I would have been playing D&D for the past decade.
Well… damn.
First, of course, virtual hugs, Lynn.
Second, considered a Play By E-Mail game?
… you’re still an admin? You would take on the headache of keeping us all in line???
Jesus, Lynn! I think you may have just touched my heart!
Bill
This might be the first band game that’s fun to watch as well as play. I wish I could focus on the backgrounds but I have to keep watching those colored blocks drop.
It also might be the easiest of Harmonix’s games so far but I think everyone knew that was a given going in. I usually hover on that tough to cross border between medium and hard when it come to guitar (I can go up about half way before the wall hits) but here I’m breezing through the higher tier songs on medium.
This is the first Rock Band game where I know the songs well enough to sing along. In the other releases I might have known three or four songs out of the fifty-some included. So doing vocals is a big change for me. I haven’t had a chance to try harmonies yet but hopefully tonight when I wake up I’ll be able to give it a go. I also desperately need a mike stand now so I can play guitar and sing…
Quasi, FWIW, there’s a mode included with the game where you can just play along with the song without any concern of screwing it up.
-
E-Sabbath, thanks for the reminder about the Strat and the game. We’re having a bit of a “cash-flow problem” right now and it’s tough even coming up with the $15 bucks a month for WoW, but I wrote down what you said and that’s what I will get when I can.
-
JSG, thanks for the reminder about the “non-screw up mode”!
Thanks
Q
Not having the game, I heard on a podcast this morning that there isn’t “tiering” in this game the way you might expect - it’s all chronological and easy and difficult songs are scattered throughout for each instrument.
Sorry to hear it, Lynn, and I don’t want to trivialise the problem, but you’d be surprised how easy it is for one person in a group to slip in and out for a few hours (although you might want someone else to be the “lead” person who has to stay logged in). You might also find that if you’re laid up (and I don’t know exactly what your problem is), you could still do vocals in an online group from your bed. Lord knows I have when I couldn’t stand up because my back went out. This is, of course, predicated on someone carrying the 360 into your bedroom for you and your having enough ethernet cable to network from there.
I’m really glad to see Hey Bulldog on that list. It’s one of the most underappreciated Beatles tunes.
My husband and I played for about 3 hours tonight and I think got through I’m guessing about 3/4 of the game. so fun. We both love it and said the same thing Just Some Guy did, we want to watch the background, but we have to focus on the note highways. I’m looking forward to having a party where we can switch off the instruments so I can just watch the game.
And we both want to sing, so I’ll probably go pick up another mic and a couple of stands soon. My husband was playing guitar tonight and played about 3/4 on medium and 1/4 on hard. I played drums about half of the songs on hard and half on expert. I picked up the Ion Drum Rocker a couple of months ago and just adore it. We didn’t have a mic plugged in, but we were both singing along anyway.
My hubby is a big Beatles fan, and I’ve always been kind of ‘meh’ about them until the last few years. I’ve learned to like a lot of their stuff, and hearing little things in the songs thanks to the game tonight only helped me appreciate them more.
It gets two (sore) thumbs up from me.
The story mode isn’t tiered in terms of going from easiest to hardest but each song is ranked on a scale of 0 to 5 for each instrument and the band. And the quickplay feature lists them in tiers. So while the ranking isn’t used the same way as other rhythm games it is still there.
So I have a wired mike. I GUESS it plugs into the controller, I don’t know. I’ve looked at the various XBox forums, and the instructions. I can’t even get into the game, it insists that I connect a mike or three, but when I do connect a mike, the game insists that I need to plug one in. Am I supposed to plug it into the guitar or something? There’s only one socket on the guitar, and the game doesn’t acknowledge that there’s a mike there, either.