Rock Band Review

By Tom Bramwell Published 29 May, 2008

Are you still ready to rock?

Version tested: Xbox 360

First things first, we should all thank whatever combination of MTV, Harmonix and EA employees kept us from Rock Band for six months. European gamers crave misery, and we've been deprived of it recently: Halo 3, GTA IV and Meta Gear Solid 4 have all been given simultaneous worldwide release dates, and Nintendo has even released a few things here first, like Mario Kart Wii. That was unimaginable a few years ago, so being forced to wait six months for the most anticipated music game ever, pay twice what the Americans have to and only get it on one format is much more like it. We can properly despise that and moan about it forever. Thanks guys.

Rock Band is worth getting hot and bothered over, too. It's SingStar and Guitar Hero rolled into one with a "Drum Hero" sat in the corner hammering four pads and a foot-pedal. Since Europe's is an Xbox 360 exclusive for the time being, there are none of the irritating compatibility issues with old Guitar Hero peripherals that US PS3 owners had to complain about, either, so you can dust off your GH3 Les Paul and GH2 X-plorer and put them to work again. The idea, as you know, is to form a band with three of your friends and tour the virtual world playing classic songs like Nirvana's "In Bloom" and The Pixies' "Wave of Mutilation".

Individually, the guitar, drums and vocal games could stand alone. Developer Harmonix didn't have to reinvent guitar gameplay, but it did have to change it a bit to differentiate it from Guitar Hero (despite having made that game in the first place - hurrah for big business). You still play the game by holding down one of five fret buttons on the plastic guitar neck and using the strum-bar to play notes as corresponding icons reach the bottom of a fretboard-shaped gameplay area on-screen, and you still build up star power (now called Overdrive) by completing highlighted sequences without error, activating the points-multiplying payoff by holding the neck aloft.

'Rock Band' Screenshot 1

As your band starts earning big money, you can reinvest it in important things, like tattoos and haircuts.

The whammy bar remains for bending notes, which accumulates points more rapidly when you're holding a note down. The main differences are that the Fender Stratocaster guitar has five smaller frets close to the guitar body, which can be played without strumming during hectic solo sequences, and the presence of a small effects-pedal switch on the guitar body for adjusting the sound.

Singing is similar to the PS3's SingStar: lyrics scroll left to right, and a small arrow moves up and down to reflect the pitch of your voice - the idea being to align it with what the real singer's doing. Matching the pitch during highlighted sequences builds up Overdrive, which you can activate by shouting when the background goes vomit-coloured. There are also passages where you bash the microphone head as if it were a tambourine. Drumming, finally, is closer to Guitar Hero: icons move down a fretboard and you drum the corresponding pads, hitting the foot-pedal when a broad horizontal orange line descends instead (or as well). Overdrive works in much the same way as it does with guitars.

'Rock Band' Screenshot 2

The bass part was always going to be the most boring, so remember to get that guy drunk. Or just don't invite him round.

The single-player modes are, amazingly, also a bit like Guitar Hero: you unlock tracks five at a time, with four difficulty levels to master. Songs are grouped differently for each instrument to reflect the relative difficulty of each part, so while drummers and vocalists get to sing "Say It Ain't So" by Weezer right away, guitarists won't see it until they unlock the third tier. Drumming is as intuitive as playing the guitar ever was (and remains), with practice modes to help conquer difficult tracks, and singers just have to match the pitch, meaning you can get away with some gymnastic humming if you don't know the words.

You won't want to play Rock Band on your own though. The single-player modes are fine next to Guitar Hero's or SingStar's, but they're shallow compared to the main event, Band World Tour. You and up to three friends create rock personas, picking out faces and customising physique with slider bars, and then you get to name your band. We spent at least half an hour debating this before we even started playing.

With that out of the way, you start playing small venues, one song at a time with the occasional two- or three-song set-list. The set-list concept works well, allowing you to pick from songs you've already unlocked, or downloadable content (Jonathan Coulton's "Still Alive" from Portal is free, incidentally, so grab that by default), while mystery set-lists give you a glimpse of tracks buried deeper in the game, including some of the nine songs added to the PAL version (which US gamers have to pay to download).

Playing with your friends takes a while (and a good bit of alcohol, you'll probably discover) to demonstrate its charms, but points-scoring intensifies when you go into Overdrive as a group, and it's possible to rescue band-members who get booed off by going into Overdrive quickly, so errors and inexperience aren't always fatal. Before long your drummer's juggling his wooden sticks and counting you in, the guitarist is stomping around the room during solos and the singer's able to pop to the fridge between verses, and a number of songs end on a climactic passage where you can scream, jam and hammer the drums without restraint before hitting a final note to end the song with a big rock climax bonus. There won't be too many songs you don't know, either. I'm generally considered a musical dunce in the office, but even I knew the words to around 20 songs, and recognised another dozen.

'Rock Band' Screenshot 3

After a while you unlock a jet and get to fly around the world, but sadly you don't get to slap around groupies and develop a smack addiction.

That said, you will come up against a few brick walls. The inclusion of two French and two German songs in the PAL extras, which pop up during mystery set-lists, is a nightmare for your lead singer, and set-lists require you to play through each song on the list at the difficulty you specified prior to the performance. If you end up with a third song you've never heard before, or something tricky like Smashing Pumpkins' "Cherub Rock" or The Who's "Won't Get Fooled Again", your previously cocksure guitarists and drummers may come unstuck in ways they haven't with other tracks at the same difficulty, forcing you to abandon the gig and retry from the beginning at a lower setting. And while the game fills out your band with made-up nobodies when you're down a member or two, some tracks are unsympathetic to duos; Aerosmith's "Train Kept A-Rollin'", for instance, traps the singer in a lengthy tambourine sequence while the guitarist struggles with a massive solo, and if the guitarist gets booed off there's no opportunity for the singer to save him with a stored Overdrive until it's too late.

'Rock Band' Screenshot 4

The guitar difficulty isn't quite on a par with Guitar Hero III's roughest sections, but even experts at that game will find this challenging.

Guitarists may also struggle with the Fender's strum-bar and solo frets. It's not just that we're used to RedOctane's clicking Guitar Hero strum-bar, although we are; the soft strumming of the Stratocaster makes it difficult to work out exactly when you're activating a note, leading two of Eurogamer's best Guitar Heroes to suspect calibration problems until they switched back to GH3's Gibson Les Paul, at which point the problem disappeared. And while the solo frets are a neat idea, moving your hand between them and the regular frets at speed generally results in at least a couple of missed notes or, worse, having to glance down at the guitar neck to reposition fingers. You don't see Slash doing that - although admittedly you wouldn't notice anyway because of his stupid hair.

These problems can be overcome, though. Less forgivable is the inability to switch your band leader to a different instrument. Others can just make a new character and play something else if they fancy a change of pace, but if you started the band and you're the singer, the singer you must remain. We understand that switching around isn't very rock n' roll, but we're playing a videogame, not posting demos to EMI and cursing NME for saying our gig was rubbish (and your gigs won't be rubbish - the grainy visuals, multiple camera angles and crowd singing along when you're nailing everything is a delight). Not being able to continue Band World Tour online is also disappointing - there are multiplayer modes for face-offs with single instruments, and a quick-play band mode, but progress can't be shared unless you're all in the same room.

More promising for Rock Band's long-term prospects is the music store, which acts as a shop-front for MTV's growing catalogue of downloadable songs. Maybe it's just us, but the quality ratio seems a bit low at the moment, despite the enormous volume (including two full albums - one from Judas Priest and one by The Cars), although the 54 licensed songs on the PAL disc and another 13 indie songs should last you a good while without too much repetition, and with downloadables offered at 160 Microsoft Points per track (GBP 1.36 / EUR 1.92 in real money) the asking price isn't too high.

Sadly though, that isn't something we were ever likely to say about the game overall. Even if you shop around, you're still unlikely to get any change from GBP 140, which is a ridiculous amount of money to spend on a videogame and some plastic instruments, especially when the guitar is a poor substitute for the one you bought last year.

Assuming you can get by with the Xbox Live headset for vocals (although where's the fun in that?) and some Guitar Hero axes and just buy the drums and game, you're still going to pay upwards of 100 quid. People often ask us if we think price should be a factor in game reviews, and our answer's simple: it's worth mentioning if it's extraordinary. Rock Band is extraordinarily expensive.

'Rock Band' Screenshot 6

The spectre of Guitar Hero World Tour hangs over Rock Band like a cheaper, sexier little flirt. Let's hope the Rock Band drum-kit's compatible.

As we put it when we reviewed the PS3 version on import last Christmas, it's the most ambitious music game ever, and in some ways that's more trouble than it's worth. Guitar Hero's success with a large, bespoke peripheral defied convention, but it didn't shatter it; getting people to buy a drum-set, new guitar, microphone and separate 40-quid game in the sort of numbers MTV and Harmonix want to be counting up to is still a task on the same scale as getting The Stone Roses back together. Or getting The Rolling Stones to go away. Asking us to spend all that money for a game that isn't that brilliant unless you've got two or more people in the same room is another thing entirely.

We do recommend Rock Band - it's outrageous, hilarious and memorable, and the best four-players-on-one-screen multiplayer game since GoldenEye - but you shouldn't buy it until you've thought long and hard about what else you could spend the money on. If you're talking about spending 100 quid on Xbox 360 games, there are plenty of three- or four-game combinations that represent stunning value by comparison, and as long as Rock Band's priced the way it is now, that's the yardstick by which it has to be measured. If after all that you're still ready to rock, we salute you.

8 / 10

Read the Eurogamer.net scoring policy
Picture of Tom.

About Tom Bramwell

Tom is Operations director of Eurogamer Network and Editor-at-Large of Eurogamer.net. He joined the company in February 2000.

Read more articles from Tom by visiting the Tom Bramwell archive page.

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Comments (125) Latest comment 4 years ago

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

  • magicpanda #1 4 years ago

    1st

    /knob

  • Dizzy #2 4 years ago

    Wasn't this going to be 150 quid?????

  • Paukl #3 4 years ago

    There's no way I will be buying this.

    Paying double for a game that's six months late? Surely before a shafting like that Harmonix could at least have bought me dinner first.

  • syphaa #4 4 years ago

    PLEASE for the love of god...why do the admins not delete all posts like this first post...

    Anyways...I have been "Rockin' since launch day and have a couple of mates who also bought the full set.
    The World Tour feature is awesome! I completed the solo drum tour last night and am looking forward to starting the guitar solo tour, as said in the review, the solo career is no way near as deep as the world tour multiplayer.

    Amazing fun though! [My ankle hurts from repeditive bass pedal syndrome!]
    Edited by 1 at 29/05/08 @ 11:10

  • magicpocket #5 4 years ago

    This is the future of post-pub gaming.

    It quite literally rocks and i'll happily be chasing all the achievements for it :)

  • Kill_Crazy #6 4 years ago

    I think it should be marked down to a 6 for unoriginality.

    /Hasn't read article, can't be bothered

  • magicpocket #7 4 years ago

    @ syphaa

    Dont be just a boring old c nut. It's a tradition innit.

  • McBradders #8 4 years ago

    Do like the game.

    Do not like the price.

    But after £100 for one set of maraccas back in the day, this aint really that bad.

  • ZuluHero #9 4 years ago

    can you still play solo's on a standard GH guitar? If so do you just press thefret buttons or do you have to strum as well (like GH)? Im a little hazy regarding that?

    If so i might just get a solus edition for now. Which will be a complete 180 for me :)

  • Surferrosa #10 4 years ago

    OMFG! Magic Panda you are teh moron, etc, etc. :p

  • Machetazo #11 4 years ago

    "crowd singing along when you're nailing everything is a delight"

    ^This. :D An elating moment, if ever there was one!

  • optimusprym8 #12 4 years ago

    got the solus edition, played a bit, then the itch to play drums was too much and had to resort to get the whole instrument pack. Anyone want to buy a RB guitar? :p

  • Garulon #13 4 years ago

    "can you still play solo's on a standard GH guitar? If so do you just press thefret buttons or do you have to strum as well (like GH)? Im a little hazy regarding that?"

    The GH2 and GH3 guitars work great on it, they're way better than the fender that comes in the instrument pack.

    If you have a GH guitar, just buy the solus pack and you can play with GH and sing along with the headset. Amazingly you can sing+play (I'd recommend the wireless headset or a microphone stand for that though.

    You'll crack and buy the drums eventually though.

  • Garulon #14 4 years ago

    I love this game. I especially love the crowd singing along.

  • dk_rare #15 4 years ago

    Do you get any blood leaking from your anus after you pay for it, when EA finally pull out?

  • Kon #16 4 years ago

    Expensive game is expensive.

    /passes

  • Erinan #17 4 years ago

    there are plenty of three- or four-game combinations that represent stunning value by comparison

    Well, I have to disagree there. Not many games manage to last more than two weeks for me and I have been playing Rock Band for more than four months now (on the PS3), several hours per week. Heck, if I had to choose one game I would play for my whole life, that would be it (sorry, MMOs, don't look at me like that). Amazing fun with 2+ players, if music games are your thing.

    Yes, the price is amazingly expensive in Europe - but it is still worth it. And the downloadable songs are quite good to me, I must have bought half of them so far (More than a feeling and Message in a bottle have to be bought).

  • SentientNr6 #18 4 years ago

    excellent review. won't have to bother to consider buying it now. Thanks!

  • Spielo #19 4 years ago

    "Are you still ready to rock?"

    No, I'm boycotting it because I refuse to be ripped off, even though I would really like to get it.

  • grimly_reaped #20 4 years ago

    If you've got the money, it's worth it! I'm a GH addict, but I'm really getting into the drums ... I don't think you'll catch me singing anytime soon though!

  • Wickerman #21 4 years ago

    'The bass part was always going to be the most boring, so remember to get that guy drunk.'

    This is a fact.

    As the bassist of the group I found myself hitting the alcohol hard in an attempt to stem the frustration of frequent waits to actually start playing, monotonous note charts (not a dig at the game by any means), and the venting of my band mates when I cranked the difficulty up to make 90% of the songs a challenge to play only to come across the dreaded 10% that are a sheer bitch to play - causing the entire band to fail half way through multiple song sets more than once (which is a dig at the game - random set lists do not make stepping up to a higher difficulty and challenging oneself fun in the least)...

    *goes in search of more alcohol now rant is over*

  • Johnson #22 4 years ago

    It is expensive but it is the best game ever and you'll keep playing and you totally won't regret it.

    /fulfills his EA plant comment quota.

    £140 for a video game = no thanks. £140 for a game selling for half that in the US = no thanks, you greedy pig fuckers.

  • Lebowski #23 4 years ago

    Wait for Guitar Hero 4, thanks. Better and bigger drums, more reliable kit and I don't get shafted by EA just for living in Europe.

  • evilidler #24 4 years ago

    Are we ready to rock? No, we're not! The stores around my parts say "end of August/early September" :(
    I'd be ready to get a game-only pack if they did bother to sell me the game, though.

  • kangarootoo #25 4 years ago

    "European gamers crave misery"

    Amen to that.

  • Garulon #26 4 years ago

    "Wait for Guitar Hero 4, thanks. Better and bigger drums, more reliable kit and I don't get shafted by EA just for living in Europe. "

    Fuck Guitar Hero. This game with a GH3 controller alone is a better game than GH3. Better performances, better song lists, way more songs to download, better game (solos are scored based on completion, Big Rock Ending is magnificent), and less sexist crap. Plus all the performers in Rock Band have lovely CHiPs-like teeth.

  • Ceatlan #27 4 years ago

    Can you play the world tour part with less than 4 players or do you have to have all 4 ?

  • VicViper #28 4 years ago

    I was just going to get the game, seen the Drums and cracked, I was trading in some game I didn't play anymore anyway so the game n drums came to about £60 anyway, given how fun I'm finding the drums I think it was ok for the price, if it was only at £140 though then it would have been no way and as the 360 controllers have to adhear to the Microsoft standard input system the drums will probaly work with guitar hero 4, even though early prices show that that will be even more expensive than rock bands kit

    Now wheres my western DJ Max/Beatmania/DJ Hero?
    Edited by 1 at 29/05/08 @ 11:51

  • Ignatius_Cheese #29 4 years ago

    I'm completely in love with this game.

    The gloss is taken off ever-so slighly by the price but, hey, what price can you put on pure enjoyment? My main annoyance is that EA are still distributing the original drum model that launched with the game over the pond and warranted a large number of returns/mods etc. to fix the problem.

    EA did set up a returns programme for the drum issue State-side but appear reluctant to do the same over here, judging from the e-mail response I got from them...

  • mingster #30 4 years ago

    so why not just buy the US version and import it.. is it region locked?

  • Scrumhalf #31 4 years ago

    I bought it and am really enjoying, but I do not have that tight a budget so it was an easier decision for me than for others.

    On another point I really like the RB guitar, yes it is plasticky, and actually prefer the softer strum, but then I am probably never going to play on expert so maybe the millisecond difference doesn't seem to matter so much to me.

  • VicViper #32 4 years ago

    The game's region locked, I don't think the instruments are though

  • Erinan #33 4 years ago

    Can you play the world tour part with less than 4 players or do you have to have all 4 ?

    You just need two players. Or one if you're willing to play an instrument and sing at the same time. Or play two instruments at the same time. Now, that would be impressive ;)

  • craft418 #34 4 years ago

    ive got the game too and i think its amazing value for money believe it or not! im actually a real guitar player but i cant stay of the drums!! having an amazing time with it and worth every penny!!!

  • Chtulie #35 4 years ago

    If you're talking about spending 100 quid on Xbox 360 games, there are plenty of three- or four-game combinations that represent stunning value by comparison

    Can we have a few examples of these amazing 360 games that can be played with a bunch of friends in the same room?

  • magicpanda #36 4 years ago

    "OMFG! Magic Panda you are teh moron, etc, etc. :p"

    All true :D In my defence, that's the first time I've ever done that since the internet was invented.

  • jidnffc #37 4 years ago

    This is the most fun I've ever had with my 360. Got flat mates who hadn't touched a console, Guitar Her or otherwise, loving it as well. Personally if it hadn't been released at a lower price in the states first I doubt people would have kicked up such a fuss over price. Essentially, it's 3 games. GH, Singstar and a new Drum Hero, and then all of them combined.

    Also, does no-one else play the solo frets with their strumming hand a la Dragonforce? It saves the time lost moving from two sets of frets.

  • Toothball #38 4 years ago

    I picked this up first thing on Friday and haven't looked back. Sure it cost, but I've been enjoying this so much I don't really care. Had a few lengthy band sessions with a group of friends who also got their own sets. It got tiring after several hours, but we pressed on for the sake of the fans.

    It feels so much better than Guitar Hero had become. Simple things like the unobtrusiveness of the interface make me happy. All the "100 Note Streak!" messages that GH throws about had become annoying, and returning to an absence of these has been very refreshing. In contrast, Harmonix seem to get the simple things right, like the readout of how close you are to the next star, and subtle power bar that starts to pulse when it's ready, rather than adding a over dramatic effect.

    Probably my favourite thing about it is that it features Freezepop. That for me was the biggest flaw with Guitar Hero 3.

  • Marviewarvie #39 4 years ago

    Got my copy of the game through yesterday, purchased from a guy on Ebay so not to add to EA's sales figures. Had the instruments sitting here for a couple of weeks thanks to my good mate who works on cruise ships. Works out roughly I've weighed out £105 for the whole lot with 2 spare guitars from GH 2 & 3.

    It's great fun, had 3 of us playing it, and rocked out (really badly) most of the day. Big question, is it worth the £105 I paid? Hard one. Drum kit can be uncomfortable, the kick pedal absolutely crucifies your calf/thigh/groin depending how you're using it. Not only that, the cable that it uses is like a fucking bungie cord which if you move your foot the slightest amount away from it, it moves into a position that's impossible to use (depending of course where you put the pedal in the first place). As for the guitar, I used it for 2 songs before putting it down and picking up my Explorer and using that for the rest of the day. The strum bar don't "feel" right and the god awful fucking clicking of the fret buttons on the Fender will turn off a lot of the GH people me thinks. A word for the fret buttons I would use is "sticky". Mic's a mic. Pure and simple. Although do bear in mind, to use the mic, you must CONNECT A CONTROLLER to the console. It's not mentioned in the PAL instructions, and don't seem to be mentioned in the Septic instrument bundle.

    So again, is it worth £105 that it cost me? I'd say toss a coin. No getting away from the fact it's great fun with people all in the same room but is a bit lumpy on the price front. Good drums, but can be uncomfortable. Unless I have a great change of heart, the guitar is a right bag of shit so any GH player would be better off using those controllers. And the mic is a mic.

    But is it worth it at £180 that the trio from hell want you to spend on it? Hell fuck god no. Like I said, I'm struggling to justify it at £105, so think long and hard if you're toying with the idea.

    Hope this helps for the "undecided" people that may still be out there.

  • madgerald Verified Studio Head of PR & Marketing, Colossal Games LTD #40 4 years ago

    I didn't want to be shafted by EA with the price so didn't buy it. The missus however didn't seem to mind getting taken from behind by the power of EA so she bought the band in a box and game for £150 with 2100 MS points for free (soon spent them on DLC).

    I have to say that it is sooo much better than GH. The silent strumming is great; I can actually hear the song and not a click click clickity click. The song choice is also better I feel - bands and songs I've actually heard of (Oasis song pack is a must-buy).

    For me, the drums are the big selling point - going to invest in a proper drum stool as my posture on a dining room chair is rubbish (and it looks bad).

    I felt the review missed one crucial section; the customisation of your character and their implementation in the loading screens. There are 4 or 5 different clothing stores to visit with most items of clothing available in a user-selected colour scheme. Make-up and tattoos can also be applied; with the latter being very customisable in scale, rotation, colour and positioning. This of course has no effect on your ability to play the game but is a nice piece of icing on an already sweet cake.

  • tonynibbles #41 4 years ago

    Too late, too expensive, not out on PS3 (importable anyway) or PS2.

    Frankly, GH4 drums pwn Rock Band and its awesome-looking-but-SHIT-guitars anyway.

    Sorry Harmonix, but *Screw EA*

  • Fab4 #42 4 years ago

    I'd rather pay the money to get new strings for my guitar and a midi keyboard.

  • Freelancepolice #43 4 years ago

    @lebowski

    GH4 is more expensive in USA than rock band, what's to say it won't be the same over here?

  • RedPanda #44 4 years ago

    Post deleted at 14:31:59 28-01-2012

  • Wendelius #45 4 years ago

    Got the Band in a Box edition on Tuesday, set it up yesterday (lots of unpacking!) and rocked the night out with a singer, a guitarist (who promptly went back to the Les Paul) and a drummer and we had tons of fun. This game is definitely worth the asking price (from online retailers, not RRP) and will be played for a long time.

    I like that it's not a guitar clicking pissing contest, which is the way GH seems to be headed and all the nice features (like the unobtrusive UI, the crowd singing, the intro to a gig, ...).

    You'd have to be a very grumpy old man to not enjoy Rock Band with some friends. Can't think of many alternatives to co-op play on the 360 that would be as much fun.

    Wendelius

  • muscleblade #46 4 years ago

    Dont mind the price, but i do mind the delay so i wait for GH4.

  • KreyAtiv #47 4 years ago

    I'll just get the game as I still have the GH2 and GH3 Guitars. Not too fussed with the microphone as I don't/can't sing.
    Although the drum kit may be interesting but I don't have the room for it.

  • Batfink #48 4 years ago

    Me and the missus already loved GH, but this kicks it out of the playground. No more passing the guitar back and forth (or playing boring basslines). She likes to sing, and I like to drum, sometimes we play guitar. Even when it's the same old songs (mississipi queen again?!) it still feels much more fun. Can't wait for saturday to fill the band out and add loads of booze to the mix :)

  • MrMarbles #49 4 years ago

    Interesting how it ultimately comes down to value:

    I still play my copy virtually every day six months down the line, and I know I'm not the only one.

    I've certainly spent more in total on games released since that are currently gathering dust.

  • Rodafowa #50 4 years ago

    Rock Band cost me slightly more than a family meal at a local eatery for a game that every single member of my family absolutely loves, and that we have all been playing together for five straight days and counting. I wouldn't go so far as to call the game a bargain, but in terms of the amount of entertainment it's provided I can't fault it. And that's coming as someone who's been largely stuck as the bloody bassist for almost a week.

    There are plenty of problems and irritations with it - I actually like the non-clicky strumming, but the solo buttons are completely pointless and the repositioning of the start and back buttons on the guitar make it next to impossible to find a comfortable angle for the whammy bar that doesn't result in you accidentally hitting buttons you shouldn't. The guitar part is too easy, although that does give me the incentive to finally make the jump to Hard difficulty so for me it's a feature not a bug. The fact that the number of fans your band can get is limited by the lowest difficulty setting that anyone in your band has is well-intentioned but a mistake, in my opinion. I'd like some extra faces and a few extra options in the clothing and makeup areas for your musician, although the create-a-rocker section is largely bloody brilliant. I'd absolutely love the ability to plug headset mics into the guitars/drums and have the rest of the band sing backing vocals.

    That's all largely nitpicking, though. I found GH3 almost completely joyless - a largely rubbish track list, ridiculous difficulty spikes, clunky unfair unintuitive note placement, rampant misogyny and those bastard BASTARD boss-battles. Compared to that - compared to anything, reallly - Rock band is just SUCH good fun. As the review says, it's a lot of money to shell out (and a lot of space it takes up, incidentally) and if you don't have access to at least two other people who'll want to regularly get together and play I don't think it justifies the cash. If you do, though, you're going to get a whole lot of fun for your money.

  • WickedDeeJ #51 4 years ago

    Applause to Tom for finally saying what no reviewer has said: "No, even though it's good, it's not worth it at that price." And in quite a stylish way.

  • Freelancepolice #52 4 years ago

    Rodafowa speaks the truth

  • AllenSpawn #53 4 years ago

    @mingster.
    This is not region locked on ps3. And you can pick it up on ebay for 120 delivered! This game is worth it for drums alone. I've had it 6 months now, and still play it every week.

  • Chalee #54 4 years ago

    Hang on a sec!

    What do you mean the inclusion of a German and French songs is a nightmare? Aren't you guys called EUROgamer ?

    You bad, bad people.

  • Freelancepolice #55 4 years ago

    @muscleblade

    wait, what?


    what?

    you're ok to pay the price but because of the delay (which is now over) you're now going to wait(!) even longer for a game not even out state side (which is pricier over there)

    .....what?

  • frycrayola #56 4 years ago

    Although the incredible hike on the US price is abominable, this game's still well worth the £160-odd quid I've paid for it so far (game + tracks), and that'll continue to climb.

    It's an amazing party game. Everyone's interested, everyone wants see. I found people lost interest in Guitar Hero too easily, they'd drift away when someone's playing, but Rock Band's more inclusive nature alleviates that. The vocals give it an extra oomph too - a good singer is always nice to hear, a bad singer is often hilarious.

  • Toothball #57 4 years ago

    Oh yeah, I'm also a big fan of the now silent strum bar. The drum kit puts out enough real life noise, so reducing this helps a bunch.

  • Progguitarist #58 4 years ago

    I disagree about the Bass parts being boring. Play them on expert and pick properly (up strokes using index and second finger) and its great.

    I had some complaints about the strum bar too, until I started playing with a plectrum, now I find it much much easier to nail the fast parts.

    Awesome game.

  • silver-jon #59 4 years ago

    I'll add my voice to the throngs saying "thanks, but no thanks." Several reasons include:
    1/ Lack of local friends who can just pop round. Sadly, any semblence of student-hood is long gone.
    2/ Desire to buy < cost of purchase. Although for once I'm quite well off at the moment, I simply refuse to throw my money at them. Seriously. £140-£150. For a game. Buying it at that price sets a benchmark of acceptance.
    3/ That Europe was kept waiting. If Europe isn't important enough as a market then let's make that a self-fulfilling prophecy.
    4/ The downloadable tracks appear (from one or two comments here) to be simply the same tracks as we've seen (AND PAID FOR!!!!) in GH1 and GH2.
    5/ Eurogamer 8/10 score (ref: point 2)

    Meh.

  • andromeda #60 4 years ago

    worse than GRiD then?

  • frycrayola #61 4 years ago

    Silver Jon, there are a grand total of six downloadable tracks that have appeared on any of the three previous Harmonix Guitar Hero games (1, 2 and 80s). These are More Than A Feeling, You've Got Another Thing Coming, Electric Eye, Message In A Bottle, Synchronicity II and War Pigs.

    Six songs. From 121.
    Edited by 1 at 29/05/08 @ 12:45

  • asphaltcowboy #62 4 years ago

    @Freelancepolice: "GH4 is more expensive in USA than rock band, what's to say it won't be the same over here?"

    Because I'm trusting Activision/Neversoft to not subsidise the Americans' purchase of Guitar Hero 4 by raping Europe. If it means that GH4 is slightly more expensive than RB for the Americans, but GH4 is less expensive that RB for Europe, I'm all for it. We will have to wait and see I suppose.

    I won't be buying at this price, but silver jon has pretty much all my thoughts on it down. Great game (and yes, I have played it) but I don't have the money, the space or the friends in close proximity to warrant it's purchase right now.

    EDIT: Typo :0
    Edited by 1 at 29/05/08 @ 13:06

  • BradMillette #63 4 years ago

    Hahaha.

    "Trusting" Activision and Neversoft.

    That's a good one.

  • spammage #64 4 years ago

    EA have to recoup the money they outlayed on all the instrument returns in the US AND insulate themselves against a repeat performance in Europe. No doubt great fun but totally unacceptable price point.

  • Nithron #65 4 years ago

    So what's the verdict: This game worth buying if all you want it for is more GH-style tracks?

  • Freelancepolice #66 4 years ago

    @asphalt cowboy

    The friends etc. argument is the one I definitely appreciate that.

    Although I certainly wouldn't trust activision with anything

  • Garulon #67 4 years ago

    "So what's the verdict: This game worth buying if all you want it for is more GH-style tracks?"

    If you have a GH2 or GH3 controller and quite liked Guitar Hero, go out and buy the solo game right now, it costs the same as GH but just pisses all over it in game terms.

    Even if all you want is more GH this game will give it to you and then some.

    If you then fancy singing, you can just use your 360 headset or any USB microphone. You only need to buy the instrument pack if you want the drums.

    It's great great fun single player, rising to an absolutely joyful occasion with two or more.
    Edited by 1 at 29/05/08 @ 13:07

  • asphaltcowboy #68 4 years ago

    I know it's a long shot, but it's so blindingly obvious that we (Europe) have a massive mark-up because the US got it so cheap, that on principle I simply cannot just roll over and take it up the 'you know what'.

    EDIT: I could get the solus pack and use my GH2 guitar and headset. But if I did that, I'd probably crack and want the drums. It's easier to just stay away!
    Edited by 1 at 29/05/08 @ 13:09

  • FTM #69 4 years ago

    thankfully I already have 2 guitar hero axes...may have to buy drum and game set though!

  • Eighthours #70 4 years ago

    I prefer the RB guitar. The lack of click-clack strum bar is one of the main reasons why. I know when I'm playing a note... I've just strummed!

  • FTM #71 4 years ago

    I take it you can play multiplayer without a vocalist..I cant sing and neither can my mates....but can you have say 2 guitarists and a drummer?

  • muscleblade #72 4 years ago

    @Freelancepolice

    I was expecting some feedback on that statement. Heres the deal. I like to play games when they are new. Even if its just released over here its still an old game imo. I rather spend my time on games like GTAIV and Ninja gaiden 2 wich are definently new games. And the price dont bother me because i have more than enough money for games. I dont have unlimited time to play games of course so i must choose wich games i would like to spend that time on. Im also a completionist so a game like GTAIV takes 2 month for me to complete fully. I probably buy GH4 even if the price is twice the price of Rockband as long as i get it at the same time as everybody else on my friendslist.

  • Masarin #73 4 years ago

    My Bloody Valentine is doing some new shows (I'm going. Yay!!!) after 16 years of abscence so we're gonna see Stone Roses get their act together sometime for sure. :-)
    I'd rather keep Rolling Stones but the Brit-lads-band Oasis could be sent directly into the sun.

  • Monkey #74 4 years ago

    I love it, play drums all the time.
    :)

  • jetsetdemo #75 4 years ago

    If you like GH and Singstar, buy it, you will not regret it for one second!

    After I found out how much this was going to be I said no way, but as always seeing the thing in the flesh made me crack and spend the cash. It cost me £110 from Gamestation I traded GH3 and GTA4 (PS3 version, I found the game play to be utter shite maybe if your under 16 it may hold some enjoyment. If like me you also don’t find this as good as you wished then it’s worth £30 to trade so get in quick) and the nice people there told me to keep my GH2 that I had brought with me to trade as it was only worth £20 and I could use the guitar with Rock Band.

    I have a wife and three kids aged 5 to 11 and they love this, I may never get a look in.

    Please it is worth it, my actual Les Paul cost 10 times as much but is no where near 10 times the fun, if I put a drum kit in the garage my neighbours would probably come round and beat me and if I was to sing on stage I would probably end up bottles of urine flying at me. So when you way it all up it’s superb value vs. fun.

  • Zomoniac #76 4 years ago

    I trust this has been substantially marked down because of the price? Because if, price aside, you think this is worse than GH3 then you are wronger than Hitler.

  • NoQuarter #77 4 years ago

    I bought the solus and use it with my GH guitars and 360 mic. Great value!

    Still want the drums though...

  • Wendelius #78 4 years ago

    FTM: "I take it you can play multiplayer without a vocalist..I cant sing and neither can my mates....but can you have say 2 guitarists and a drummer?"

    Yep. You're free to go with any band config you like. Can be any combination of 2, 3 or all 4 roles.

    You can also run a solo career for any of the roles.

    Wendelius

  • AXLE #79 4 years ago

    I think the game is fantastic! The only slight.. and I mean slight problem is that the hammer ons and pull offs are very difficult to see and you do need to be a lot more precise than GH3.
    The drums are also very “clacky” and make a hell of a noise, I have just purchased some pads for it from America on Ebay (only £15 too) so hopefully that will drown them out a little so I can hear the songs better.

  • Razz #80 4 years ago

    Hello Europe, welcome to 6 months ago.

  • milesahead #81 4 years ago

    Note charts are more or less perfect, it's all about perfect timing. An easy song like "in bloom" for example will always be easy even on hard or expert, so no frustrating GH3 (we add notes but you can still play sloppy with bad taming)note charts!

    Downloading songs actually have a purpose, I mean 6 Greatful Dead songs and more on the way.... Try to beat that GH!!

    Complete album downloads, the Cars album is just so much fun to play!

    Yeah the GH4 drum set look really impressive, but as long as they continue to give us fucking pathetic downloads, it wont stand a chance, ever!

  • Zomoniac #82 4 years ago

    Note charts are more or less perfect

    Actually, a lot of the drum ones are miles off. All The Small Things is a rubbish chart. But the guitar ones are brilliant. I finished guitar solo tour on hard last Friday and drum solo tour on hard last night. Was fun.

  • Garulon #83 4 years ago

    "I trust this has been substantially marked down because of the price? Because if, price aside, you think this is worse than GH3 then you are wronger than Hitler."

    Absolutely I see where EG are coming from because the full game+all instruments is expensive but (a) it's totally worth it and (b) even with just the game and a GH3 guitar (which costs THE SAME as GH3) it's just bloody bloody fantasic fun. 8/10 is a travesty, and if it's just to show some gumption or whatever over a foreign company reaming out Europe by releasing a product six months late and horrifically overpriced there's erm, let's say there's a certain games console they should be beating up on.

    In fact, going by that thinking GTA IV got the same marks both platforms yet the 360 version (£160+£40) is half the price of the PS3 version (£300+£45). So what gives EG?
    Edited by 1 at 29/05/08 @ 14:23

  • MrChaz #84 4 years ago

    At £140 it was certainly at the top of my price limit but then again I'm a sucker for niche stuff like this and steel battalion.

    It was great fun to play until I realised the drums were faulty so had to send all the instruments back and now I hear rumours that the hardware is actually refurbished USA stock which might explain the ~100 returns Play.com said they'd had when I called them on tuesday.
    Shame really, it's a great game but it's really expensive and apparently still badly made. I'd still recommend it mind you but with some fairly heavy caveats.

    Oh, I would mention that listening to our singer flail wildly at the German track was hilarious.
    Edited by 1 at 29/05/08 @ 14:25

  • mattman #85 4 years ago

    @EG: It reads like both the delay and the admittedly ridiculous price point have contributed to your rating it (only) 8/10. You have every right to complain about these things and point them out to us readers, but when it comes to *rating* a game, you really should stick to the quality of the game regardless of its price tag or other circumstances of publication. The game itself is easily a 9/10, in my opinion, since it has been played so much longer than any other game since I got it in December, including (even mainly!) the solo modes, btw.

  • MikeN #86 4 years ago

    @Garulon:
    How can a game be both "horrifically overpriced" and "totally worth it"? That's a basic contradiction in terms.
    I've got the game + drums and I'm really enjoying it but I'm glad EG took into account the ridiculous pricing when scoring the review.The game's score has to reflect not just the quality of the game itself but also value for money.
    Edited by 1 at 29/05/08 @ 14:36

  • Garulon #87 4 years ago

    "How can a game be both "horrifically overpriced" and "totally worth it"? That's a basic contradiction in terms. "

    I'm only making one of those claims though, read the comment again if it'll help you.

    "I've got the game + drums and I'm really enjoying it but I'm glad EG took into account the ridiculous pricing when scoring the review.The game's score has to reflect not just the quality of the game itself but also value for money. "

    Does it? Because that's new. GTA IV got the same score on 360/PS3 yet it's RRP (at least if you were stupid enough to buy retail) was a fiver up on the PS3, which has a much higher price floor than the 360. I'm not getting into a PS3/360 pissing match but if they're going to figure out if something's worth the money now or not (which really is astonishingly subjective - I'm cash rich but time poor for example, others may be the reverse) they haven't done this before.

    I'd much prefer it if they just stuck to wether a game's worth your time or not. Worth the money is something really up to the individual.

  • MikeN #88 4 years ago

    @Garulon
    Apologies for the misunderstanding but you didn't clearly state any disagreement with the comment on RB being 'horrifically overpriced" & having a 6 month delay. EG have taken pricing into account on earlier reviews, it was one of the factors why GH:80s scored so poorly. Ignoring pricing would mean you'd have to rate xbla games on the same continuum as something like GTA, despite the fact that the xbla games are only a couple of quid. Including the cost of the console in the reviews is just a red herring, most gamers have already committed themselves to a specific console (or in a few lucky cases have both).

  • Stu #89 4 years ago

    For what it's worth, I've shelled out for this, and absolutely love it.

  • Garulon #90 4 years ago

    @MikeN, no problem thanks, I disagree that ignoring pricing means you have to rate (for example) Puzzle Quest the same as you'd rate (for example) GTA IV, as although they're different price brackets they're also totally different contexts, Puzzle Quest being a pick-up-and-play title and GTA being a blockbuster title. GH 80's is an interesting example though, thanks!

  • Garulon #91 4 years ago

    @MikeN, no problem thanks, I disagree that ignoring pricing means you have to rate (for example) Puzzle Quest the same as you'd rate (for example) GTA IV, as although they're different price brackets they're also totally different contexts, Puzzle Quest being a pick-up-and-play title and GTA being a blockbuster title. GH 80's is an interesting example though, thanks!

  • Camorrista #92 4 years ago

    That was a good last paragraph.

  • olilan #93 4 years ago

    Why are people arguing about whether this was marked down for the european price and delay when the US import got 8/10 and the euro version also got 8/10?

  • Iora #94 4 years ago

    Fiancee got me it imported from the states months back. Worked out cheaper :)
    Regardless its an awesome game, which as many have said comes into it's own with band mates and booze.

    The price doesnt seem to be that much of an issue. I sat in HMV during my lunch break 5staring songs on expert with some random bloke playing guitar. While i was there i watched the stack of boxes surrounding the kit shrink as folk took it to the counter.

    + how many games make passersby say "Damn look at that"

    Game of the year for me

    Iora working on 5staring Nine Inch Nails Perfect Drug.

  • Emth #95 4 years ago

    "1/ Lack of local friends who can just pop round. Sadly, any semblence of student-hood is long gone. "

    Seconded, I really don't understand why you can't play the full world tour with single player, if the AI fill the other slots when it's 2 player there's no reason they couldn't fill 1 more.

    Just means I either have to force my gf to play it with me for an extended period or not bother atall.

  • stepneg #96 4 years ago

    No multiplayer worldtour online and excessive price gouging = no thanks. One of my mates bought the set and that is enough for me, no point in getting it if we can't do anything other than 1 song online.

  • Feanor #97 4 years ago

    "It's not just that we're used to RedOctane's clicking Guitar Hero strum-bar, although we are; the soft strumming of the Stratocaster makes it difficult to work out exactly when you're activating a note, leading two of Eurogamer's best Guitar Heroes to suspect calibration problems until they switched back to GH3's Gibson Les Paul, at which point the problem disappeared."

    + 1 to this. The strum bar just isn't as good as it should be, even six months on from the original release.

  • Iora #98 4 years ago

    Personally i have no issue with the strum bar. I do however dislike the new buttons. They have a silent strum yet loud clicky buttons seemed counter-productive to me. Also the fact the buttons stretch the full length of the neck means that large hands - read mine - can often press the neighbouring buttons down. That and the sharp edge of the plastic can cut into your hand.

    GH3 controller is the best one by far - Rockbands looks better but isnt nearly as fun to play.
    .
    .
    Still... Drums > All

  • Feanor #99 4 years ago

    Harmonix really now how to create note charts, unlike Neversoft.

    Neversoft did some very good note charts in GH 3, like Cherub Rock and My Name Is Jonas on Medium.

  • grussbarbar #100 4 years ago

    Dang... I can't say I blame you guys for wanting to play the game and buying it, but there doesn't seem to be much left of the outrage when the price was announced...

    I truly hope Rock Band sales are at least substantially lower than in the US. Game companies will never learn to treat European gamers with respect if we complain a lot but buy the games anyway...

  • Kyle #101 4 years ago

    Rock Band? More like Expensive Band, amirite?

  • Progguitarist #102 4 years ago

    About the strum bar...Try playing with a plectrum and watch the discrepencies dissappear.

  • Tiny_Tim #103 4 years ago

    hey, website, I was just thinking about how your scoring policy is to compare games to others that are similar and it made me think how good it'd be if you had an "you may also like" list at the bottom of each review. I come across a lot of music I never heard of before that way, it'd be good to do it with games.

  • brooza #104 4 years ago

    I have the game only (not bothered about drums, I have 2 guitars and the 360 headset works as a mic) and I can't say that I'm that keen. The song list (at least in the first 4-5 tiers) is REALLY not to my taste, and you have to play EVERY song in each tier, so I couldn't skip Radiohead.

    To be honest, the only reason I'm still playing is for the achievements and to play Flirtin' With Disaster

  • dk_rare #105 4 years ago

    Don't forget download content people. You pay 150 squid for the "complete" Rock Band experience, but before you are done with it you will have to pay another 40 pounds just to update your song list, I mean you already invested 150 notes into it, so you HAVE to go the whole hog and buy all the updates for it, amirite?

  • niteninja #106 4 years ago

    Played this today great fun,but not worth the ridiculous asking price.
    Did I mention anyone who buys the full kit gets to download nivanas song rape me for free.

  • Freelancepolice #107 4 years ago

    yeah stick it to da man wooo

  • captain-future #108 4 years ago

    I'm pleased with this review.

  • Bumhug360 #109 4 years ago

    "Yeah the GH4 drum set look really impressive, but as long as they continue to give us fucking pathetic downloads, it wont stand a chance, ever! "

    Good time to mention the Activision Vivendi merge then. Most people see merges as takeovers and think activision have just bought vivendi, not so as once the deal is done the major shareholders of the new company will infact be Vivendi and it will remain one of their subsidiaries. Another company Vivendi own are Universal Music so licensing good tracks should be a lot easier, and we are talking a hell of a lot of music that could find its way into future games [link url=ht tp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Universal_Music_Group
    ]http://en .wikipedia.org/wiki/Universal_M...[/link]


    As for Rock band, I wasnt going to get it but for no reason on Saturday woke up with an urge to buy it. Had a spare £40 cash so popped out and bought it and really enjoying it. Much better than GH2 and GH3 but still has some flaws like no online multiplayer world tour and a poor single player campaign (solo world tour would of worked much better. Also found the inclusion of French and German tracks a bit of a pain at first but its not like you have to sing the lyrics, first attempt singer tried to match the words and failed, passed the mic over to me and I just muttered and mummered a bit and got 92%. This inspired a new idea for post drink fun replacing the original lyrics with swear words

  • mkreku #110 4 years ago

    Fuck you, Harmonix & EA. That's all.

  • dnbuk #111 4 years ago

    lol@the people who aren't buying just to say "F you to EA", like you not buying it is going to dent their profits ahaha.

  • BOFH_UK #112 4 years ago

    Right, left it a day to comment to make sure this wasn't a knee jerk reaction but I REALLY don't agree with the comments on price.

    Yes it's expensive but frankly so is Guitar Hero 3. £65 from Amazon.co.uk, $70 from Amazon.com. Rock band £140 from Amazon.co.uk $150 from Amazon.com. So almost exactly the same conversion rate and the Europe release has 9 additional songs which actually pushes Rock Band into a slightly better £ to $ ratio than Guitar Hero. It's still a hell of lot of cash but it's also three very different experiences which, to get through all tracks at expert level, will have far more replay value that virtually any other game out there today. Just look at those people in this very forum that imported and are still not only playing but logging serious hours moths after purchase.

    But the real reason I feel the price shouldn't bring down the score is that Rock Band is pretty much unique in bringing people together from ALL age groups. Only thing I can think of that manages that trick is the Wii and even then it's rare to hear of people having all-night Wii sessions. It's a game that can be played, to a greater or lesser degree, by anyone of any age and you're likely to find at least one skill (singing, drumming, guitar playing) that you can do well enough to have fun with your friends.

    I guess what I'm trying to say is that this shouldn't be about the overall cost, it should be about value for money. That's why I took the leap and payed the entry fee, because I know I'll get three times (or more) the playing time out of this than a regular game, therefore it's worth three times the cost.

  • FTM #113 4 years ago

    BOFH..your price comparisons make no sense


    150 Us dollars is the equivalent of about 76 quid...but we get charged amlomst double that!


    and if those prices were reversed and the US had to pay the equivalent of what we pay at 140 quid it would be over 270 dollars.......


    how is that not being ripped off???!!! we are basically being told to bend over, pull down our pants and grit our teeth!
    Edited by 1 at 30/05/08 @ 11:08

  • grussbarbar #114 4 years ago

    @dnkbuk
    So according to you. if we don't give EA/MTV our money, they will still earn the same amount? That's not really logical, is it? Personally, I feel it is VERY important to draw a line somewhere, and show publishers we don't take things like this. Rock Band has the worst mark-up in comparison to the US price that I have ever seen. If we just take this and buy it, who will stop EA from marking up all their prices in this manner? And other publishers are sure to watch this too.
    I definitely don't want to encourage publishers to charge us more for videogames in the future and that's why I'm not buying Rock Band at this price...


    @BOFH_UK
    You shouldn't compare Amazon prices, since those prices aren't the prices used in all shops. To be more fair, you should compare the suggested retail prices, which are about £ 180 vs. $ 169.
    Source: [link url=http://www.eurogamer.net/article.php?article_id=130927
    ]http://ww w.eurogamer.net/article.php?art...[/link]

    I've written a pretty extensive comparison in this post on the forum on this, to see if I could find anything to justify this price difference:
    http://ww w.eurogamer.net/forum_thread_po...

  • Ryder35 #115 4 years ago

    FTM,

    What he is saying is that you are getting similarly ripped off with GH3 whan you compare UK vs US price.

    DK_Rare,

    That is hillarious, first time I have ever seen someone actually complain that there is too much DLC! No on forces you to buy it.

    For me I have had the game since November and have played it pretty much non stop. It is 3 games in one as a solo experience and completely unmatched as a multiplayer experience.

  • BOFH_UK #116 4 years ago

    @ Ryder35 - Thank you, nice to see someone get it.

    @ FTM & Grussbarbar - I'm not saying it's not an incredible rip off in terms of converstion rates I'm saying it's just the same rip off as the Guitar Hero series (and pretty much every other game come to think of it) when you look at street price. The reason it's such a major issue is that it's broken the £100 psychological barrier and everyone's over-reacting. If you're complaining about the converstion rate it's really not that much different than the norm. The reason Amazon was used was to try and give a feel of average street price (okay, web price) from a retailer with a presence in both the US and UK. Yes, you can argue that this is not the RRP but then again it's entirely possible to get Rock Band around the £125 - £130 mark as well so this is by no means the lowest price and is in-line with at least one major high street retailer (HMV - £150 including 2,100 MS Points).

    As this is just the latest example of the UK getting ripped on costs and is in line with other products in the same market (does anyone seriously believe that GH4 is going to be much less than £130 considering it's around the £70 mark for GH3 with a guitar?) then it's not, IMO, right to drop the overall score on this title purely on price.

  • Bertie Verified Senior Staff Writer, Eurogamer.net #117 4 years ago

    your previously cocksure guitarists...

    :D

  • grussbarbar #118 4 years ago

    @BOFH_UK
    Well, here in the Netherlands we very rarely see games sold much below the suggested retail price. Marking down 180 to 130 as in your example is unthinkable. Even worse, several shops and chains even sell games above suggested retail price, or at least have so in the past (I don't shop there often anymore, so I don't know their current policies).

    Anyway, I still feel it's not fair to judge prices on the discounts specific retail chains give. As far as I'm concerned, the only fair comparison in price can be done with the prices set by EA/MTV themselves. Of course, if you search long enough, and travel far enough (say you don't have an HMV in your home town?), you'll always be able to find shops that sell it for a lower price, but that isn't the norm.
    Also, if a retail chain offers a large discount, the credit should go to the retail chain, not to EA/MTV. Any discounts given by retailers should not lead to us accepting EA/MTV's pricing policy. EA/MTV are in effect saying to stores it is acceptable to charge 180 pounds; I don't think there's a good reason why we shouldn't complain about that...

    Edit:
    Be that as it may, I think you're correct in saying that value is more important than cost. I actually feel that at the suggested price point, it's probably still good value, at least it would be for me personally. My problem is the increase in suggested retail price between the US and Europe, which is very much more than with any other game I've seen before. I'm just very much afraid that us gamers buying Rock Band at the current price will give EA/MTV (and through them other publishers, the first one being Activision for GH4) a signal that it's OK to jack up the prices of games this much. I could see future games costing, for example, 65 Euros instead of 60 if enough people buy Rock Band now.
    Edited by 4 at 30/05/08 @ 16:39

  • NickD7 #119 4 years ago

    As good as MGS4 then.

  • Batfink #120 4 years ago

    @Booza:

    If you're playing Rock Band on your own, then you're doing it wrong :)

  • cnlfailure #121 4 years ago

    £150 for the game and band pack from HMV, plus £20 worth of points for gratis being the first customer to buy it last Friday. Spent an additional £20 on more DLC since then and all I have to say, it the strongest possible terms is worth every penny.

    Might be expensive compared to the price the yanks paid, but what else is new. Still worth every penny. Only down side is that the new guitar and drum kit aren't anywhere near as robust as the kit we're used to, but given the premium price I'll be taking full advantage of the warranty.

  • symmetry #122 4 years ago

    I'm not buying it till it's sub-£100 - but I'll still play it in the meantime :)

  • Stepharneo #123 4 years ago

    i have to say, i prefer the fender to the cheap feeling xplorer by far, it is a btter scale the solo buttons at the base of the neck add a level of geek cool that is too much, the game must be played with atleast 3 people, but really 4 is teh only real way to get the most out of it, obviously alcohol can help. i convinced a mate to get this instead of GH3 (he's behind teh times a bit) and along with two other friends we made a band and all of us played for 12 hours straight before collapsing and then struggling to meet up to play again at later points in the week. my only qualm is this, it has been said that if you can play the drums in rockband on hard, then you can play the drums in real life, well thats the problem right there, its too bloody difficult, unlike the fun guitars i found teh drums too hectic, though my friends all love them so maybe i'm just retarded. also those used to singstar may struggle with teh vocals on rockband at first it took me around 3 songs to get used to how it works, it looks the same but upon playing it you'll realise its a bit strange. all in all a great game especially when you have a friend to buy it for your playing delight. probably not game of the year, though there are many a big game coming out this year so teh competition is fierce, but i can think of no better way to spend time with friends.9/10

  • Ryder35 #124 4 years ago

    The drum challenge is just right IMHO. I have been playing since December, started on easy and am now on the 2nd to last tier on hard. You are not meant to be able to jump straight into hard/expert on drums unless you are a real drummer.

    On a slightly different tack: anyone see the gadget show? They had a sabbath tribute band on and the drummer only got 94% on easy! LOL. I suspect he wouls have got a higher score on expert because easy misses so many notes it is not really like drumming.

  • Rash' #125 4 years ago

    No mass produced game is worth that price.

  • SUNDANSS #126 4 years ago

    I was over in the States last week and popped into Electronics Boutique, their standard price worked out to be £30 for the game and only £25 for the drum set. I presume you can get it even cheaper from independant stores, I nearly bought the drums but seeing as my case was destroyed in the airport baggage system i thought I would not get it home in one piece. There is no reason at all for them to charge us such a high price, except that they do not care about their customers and want to rip us of to get as much profit for their corporate machine.
    I bought a Nintendo DS lite instead for £60.