Harmonix releases Rock Band 2 update

By Robert Purchese Published 28 September, 2009

New modes, features, functionality.

Harmonix has released a significant patch for Rock Band 2, which adds and fixes a swathe of features. It's out now on Xbox 360 and is apparently in certification for PlayStation 3.

Chief among them is a new Audition mode for the Rock Band Network, where users can upload songs from their PCs to try them out using the game's tools.

The Network is currently in closed beta, but opens up in the coming weeks according lead designer Dan Teasdale on the Rock Band website (spotted by Joystiq).

Background downloads and the ability to stack multiple songs will soon be reality, and the patch also enables Xbox 360 wireless microphone support.

Hammer-on and pull-offs are being improved, too, and the Ion Drum Kits will soon be velocity-sensitive. Finally, there's a Sort By Stars option coming to the Quick Play mode, so you can see which songs you have played and mastered at a glance.

Picture of Robert.

About Robert Purchese

Bertie is Eurogamer's Senior Staff Writer. When he's not hunting down news stories he's often found playing with his kids or gabbling about fantasy games and strange online worlds.

Read more articles from Robert by visiting the Robert Purchese archive page.

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Comments (19) Latest comment 2 years ago

Comments threads automatically close after 30 days, but please feel free to continue chatting on the forum!

  • Toothball #1 2 years ago

    Pretty decent update. Had been waiting for the wireless mic part for ages and had picked up a pair to go with The Beatles. Good that they're useful for Rock Band now too. Background downloads I wasn't expecting but is very welcome.

  • barnard666 #2 2 years ago

    sounds good - I wish they'd get rid of the drum fill bit though...its really crappy and whilst I play a drum fill and hear the beats out of my TV half a second later it just ruins all my fun

  • Sir_TimAlot #3 2 years ago

    Damn!!!! ffs fix the cymbals add-ons for lefties you plebs.....

  • paulf #4 2 years ago

    more importantly you can now get 'Tribute' by Tenacious D as DLC

  • terminalterror #5 2 years ago

    The sort by stars is better than nothing, but fundamentally broken as it doesn't take difficulty into account, so you have no idea whether a song has 5 stars because you have aced it on expert or because you aced it on easy.

  • Toothball #6 2 years ago

    @barnard666:

    Have you seen the drum overdrive mechanic in The Beatles? A glowing green note appears in place on one other note, rather than covering a whole section with a fill, which it quite like. The fills are amusing if you've got a little creativity to go on, but I do find myself being lazy with them and just tapping a couple of pads and waiting for the green note at the end.
    Edited by 2 at 28/09/09 @ 10:43

  • kinky_mong #7 2 years ago

    Some good changes but I wish the Music Store bit could be updated to be better. I tried to download some older DLC last week and it was no where to be seen on the game's music store, so I had to trawl through the marketplace on the dashboard to find them.

  • Doctor_What #8 2 years ago

    All I want is a better framerate on the PS3 version. That would make me a happy chappy.

  • Ace_McCloud #9 2 years ago

    What do you mean by "background downloads" and "the ability to stack multiple songs"? Maybe stupid questions...

  • Rpt81 #10 2 years ago

    What do you mean by "background downloads" and "the ability to stack multiple songs"? Maybe stupid questions...

    On the former, if you buy something, you have to sit on the download screen and wait for it to complete before you can play it. If you go back into the game, it just sits on pending until you exit RB2. Therefore, background downloads would mean you can buy something, then exit the music store and keep playing while the song downloads.

    I presume the latter means you can add a bunch of songs to a basket and then check out at the end, rather than having to go buy, download, buy, download.

  • Ace_McCloud #11 2 years ago

    Ah, thanks for that!

  • frycrayola #12 2 years ago

    Sort by stars is a great addition. For too long, the illogical, unnormalised scoring was the only indicator if you'd played a song, with no way of knowing if you'd five-starred it.

  • curtlikesmeat #13 2 years ago

    Did they fix the female singers singing male songs thing? Can you now have a male and female singer in your band? They're probably saving it for RB5 or something - back of the box feature!

  • Eraysor #14 2 years ago

    The sorting by stars is delicious.

  • Obit #15 2 years ago

    Wish they'd let us use our xbox 360 headsets as microphones, like the Guitar Hero games. Oh well.

  • Dr.Mott #16 2 years ago

    The sorting by stars feature is broken. It only puts songs into a star category if you beat your previous score on a song. So, if you did particularly well once, and are unable to do that well again, it shall forever remain unplayed, according to the game. Which is depressing.
    Edited by 1 at 28/09/09 @ 14:21

  • Sonic_D #17 2 years ago

    Wireless mic support at fricking last...!

  • frycrayola #18 2 years ago

    That's a bit crazy there, Mr Mott*. Looks like I'll have to start beating old scores.

    *I refuse to acknowledge your doctorate til I see some proof.

  • itsgood2slide #19 2 years ago

    "Wish they'd let us use our xbox 360 headsets as microphones, like the Guitar Hero games. Oh well."

    Rock Band 1 let you do this. Presumably Rock Band 2 does too..?