Rockstar: Old Guy Rant.

[AZhitman]

OK, so I'm a little behind the times when it comes to video games. I don't play them (even tho I got hooked on M.O.H. and Ace Combat for a month or two...)

Anyway, my son and his fiancee and his BFF are here playing Rockband.

Could that game be any more retarded?

OK, I get the singing part - You gotta sound somewhat like the original.

I even comprehend the guitar part (although I think it'd be cooler if it actually had frets to tech you how to play a real guitar)...

But WTF is up with the drums? I play a little... and I was completely lost, even on songs I can play note-for-note...

Would it have killed them to make the drum part actually go along with the song? It's totally out of whack.

Just stupid.

[sil80_chris]

It can be a b**** to play drums. Trust me its the hardest "instrument" to learn in rockband. But yeah some drum parts are actually synched with the song. I think it actually depends what difficulty you were playing on. But i haven't played for awhile so I'm not sure. What difficulty were you playing on anyways? Not expert right...

[AZhitman]

I'm pretty sure it was on the easiest setting.

[MinisterofDOOM]

Yeah, I completely agree. The game has the strongest appeal to the completely musically un-enclined. As someone who both PLAYS music and appreciates it from artistic and mathematical perspectives, Rock Band is almost unplayable for me.

I'm a guitar player. So I try and play the guitar. I can't force myself to ignore the MUSIC and focus on the game's interpretation of the rhythm. There's no consistency to the note buttons, which means there's no THOUGHT process to playing the game. You can't think ahead or anticipate from the MUSIC, you can only go based on the colored icons on the screen. The game is easier to play MUTED than with the music playing. That alone tells you how broken it is.

But even when I pick up the drums, which I don't really know how to play, that disconnect is still there. You don't need to know how to play drums to understand rhythm. But the problem is that understanding has NOTHING to do with the game. It's not about rhythm, it's about timing. I find myself falling into rhythms that fit the song but not the colored icons on the screen. The most annoying part is, that's when I'm having the most fun using the controller, and the game PUNISHES me for it.

I think THAT is the biggest problem with those band games:They are about EXACT duplication of one version of a song. There's no room for improvisation (okay, sure, there are the wannabe improv sections that last a few seconds, but even those parts don't output anything consistent or directly related to the buttons being pressed). There's no room for MUSIC. The games have nothing to do with MUSIC, they're all about timing. You could play ANY song over the game as long as the tempo matches up and no one would ever be the wiser.

[BusyBadger]

Eh, it's a simulation - and not really a good one. It was never intended to instill musical talent in anyone...or require any to play.

I no more think that a Rock Band/Guitar Hero "expert" could fill in for Alex Lifeson any more than some of these Call of Duty kids would have been anything other than a bullet sponge during Operation: Just Cause.

I also have no delusions of me lapping The Ring in 8 minutes in an actual car either.

[hitbychance]

i tried the drums last night for the first time, they are very very lame! and as for the singing all you have to do is hum in the right pitch.

[RCA]

For the microphone all you need is to maintain the same pitch.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_oFP_TH8jYY

[nametakennow]

Yeah, I've found that the rhythms and button combinations don't always match, but that the higher the difficulty, the more it tends to make sense. However, on Expert the game has a tendency to add additional buttons/strums that you would normally not strum at all (hammer ons and so forth, and don't tell me the game has them because the mechanism for doing them is nothing short of crap).

The drums are the worst for doing things that make no sense.

[AZhitman]

Eh, it's a simulation - and not really a good one. It was never intended to instill musical talent in anyone...or require any to play.

I no more think that a Rock Band/Guitar Hero "expert" could fill in for Alex Lifeson any more than some of these Call of Duty kids would have been anything other than a bullet sponge during Operation: Just Cause.

I also have no delusions of me lapping The Ring in 8 minutes in an actual car either.

Yeah. Still, it sucks.

Someone needs to invent a game that actually helps you learn to play - I'd buy it.

Have been considering buying an electronic kit for some time... maybe once we get our office moved and there's some space in the rec room.

[RCA]

Someone needs to invent a game that actually helps you learn to play - I'd buy it.

My question is why would you give Activision or Harmonix that much credit, and expect a game that was anything close to real?

[BusyBadger]

Yeah. Still, it sucks.

Someone needs to invent a game that actually helps you learn to play - I'd buy it.

I'm right there with you. The thing is that I don't think that most of the gaming demographic has the patience or persistence to stick with something like that. And even if they did I doubt the developers and producers would see much market in it. I'd love to see it, but I don't think I ever will.

The tech is certainly there for "console based instruction". With the Wii's sensor bar and the new Xbox visualization software (it's name escapes me right now, hazzard of getting older I guess - MoD will help me out I hope) I can already see some sort of home based boxing and/or Tai Chi instruction in the works somewhere. Before I stopped cycling I used RacerMate, which while not being as good as getting out on the road was better than not riding at all.

[MinisterofDOOM]

new Xbox visualization software (it's name escapes me right now, hazzard of getting older I guess - MoD will help me out I hope)

Natal.

[BusyBadger]

Thanks. I knew it had something to do with sharks.

[Empty V]

Expecting guitarists from guitar hero is like expecting dancers from those gay a** dance games. I was at UCLA last summer installing an AV system for their main rec hall. Every time I walked by their arcade there was a line of little Asian dude's just waiting to go nuts on the dance game. Just an observation, not racist. I don't get it.

[MinisterofDOOM]

I think you're interpreting what we're saying backward. We're not expecting guitarists from Guitar Hero. But one would expect a MUSIC game to have a basis in MUSIC. It does not. It's really just a gigantic quick time event with music overlaid to make it feel more interactive. At least in God of War the QTEs end with some monster bleeding profusely as I eviscerate it with its own horn. There's no evisceration in guitar hero.