Rock Band Unplugged dated, detailed Comments by Tom Bramwell

a) what's the point?

b) Kryponite is one of my favourite songs to drum IRL. I was actually playing it about 14 hours ago, by coincidence, very handy for working on off-beat triplet accents and whatnot. So WHY do they bring it out on the one version on which it is POINTLESS? Cunts.

Ohh Kryptonite, nice.

More Black Tide and Tenacious D? That's going to be epic on the 360 when the DLC finally arrives.

Freezepop!

Also @Zomoniac:

It looks like the main purpose of this was to continue what they started with Frequency and Amplitude. That alone would have been fine, although I guess the Rock Band label on it won't do it any harm.

I'm a whore for all things Rock Band so might actually pick this up.

Assuming its got a feel of Amplitude/Frequency about it, it'll finally be worthwhile charging my PSP again :o)

"AFI - "Miss Murder"

I've played that somewhere, either Rock Band or Guitar Hero.

So not that exclusive really.


@Zomoniac

"a) what's the point?"

Are you really asking what the point is of a new portable game?

Less Talk More Rokk. Excellent, more Freezepop, and this was great on GH2.

I won't be bothering with Unplugged though, my Rock Band experience is all about the instruments and the multiplayer.

@ Kangarootoo

It was in GH3.

And pointless in that they put great exclusive songs on a version that will be rubbish compared to the other two. I've played Parappa on PSP and GH on DS and both just felt wrong.

@Zomoniac

Going by the gameplay movie, this is really just Frequency / Amplitude with a Rock Band skin on it. The player switches between all instrument tracks, including the vocal line.

I think it could work quite well on PSP, mainly because it isn't exactly the same experience as you would find on a living room console.

I absolutely love Frequency & Amplitude, so this has jumped right to the top of my Most Wanted list.

If EA allow you to use the same purchased tracks as for the PS3 version then this would be a GOTY candidate in my eyes.

Can't deny that some DLC connection between this and Rock Band on PS3 would be nice, but would leave quite a lot of 360 owners in the lurch. Seems a little unlikely though, as I'd imagine the games use completely different note charts.

I can see the review already

"Well. Its Frequency/Amplitude again with a Rock Band shell and its being released in Europe at the same time, but Harmonix are still c**ts. 2/10"

@RobotRocker

/confused

I thought that Activision were the villains in guitar game circles (for their stroppiness over cross platform controller licensing)? What have Harmonix done wrong recently?

I thought that Activision were the villains in guitar game circles (for their stroppiness over cross platform controller licensing)? What have Harmonix done wrong recently?

They are. And for other reasons. People are just still perplexed by EG's GH-bias (or rather that GHWT came about 8 places above RB2 in their 2008 top 50 despite everyone in the world other than EG realising it's vastly inferior in every way).

@Zomoniac

That is why I was confused about RobotRocker taking umbrage with them.


As for bias, I think you are falling into the usual behaviour on here of calling bias when someone doesn't agree with you. Surely we can be a little more objective about these things?

Guitar Hero as a franchise brough the genre of guitar games to the masses (regardless of who owns them now). If you ask anyone on the street in the US about Guitar Hero, they will likely know what you are talking about. The same can't be said for Rock band outside of gamer circles.

Guitar Hero 3 had Slash in it ffs. Is that not significant? Gameplay is not the only factor when deciding these lists surely.

Plus the fact that people will always disagree on gameplay anyway. Many people prefer the gameplay of Guitar Hero to Rock Band. That isn't bias, it is simply preference. EG's list was THEIR list. It wasn't ours, we didn't vote for it. Should they try and predict the majority view of their readership, or simply tell us what they think in their own minds?