Just picked this up as well and having a blast with it. Played it on the weekend until six in the morning with friends and beverages and loved it. Like others have said the guitar line is easier but whatever... that's not the point of the game.

If you are a new and stuggling with GH this game works well as an intermediary step. If you are having a tough time working the orange key in GH, play the hard songs in Rock Band first. They introduce the orange button as well but since the songs are easier you can more easily get used to the new fret.

My only problem with the game is with the Band World Tour. In order to progress you need to continue to increase the difficulty of the game or you cannot gain new fans to open new venues. Once we were instructed to move up to hard my buddy couldn't incorporate the orange fret (even on base) so we had to keep playing at the same level for the night. It would have been nice to have continued to move up but allow him to keep his instrument on medium. Not a huge issue but a bit of an irritation.

Took me two times to pass GGaHT, but otherwise, yeah, same thing for me. The long fast stretch at the end on that song is tough. Can't imagine it on Expert. I will say while I can pass Enter Sandman, the intro part ain't pretty.

For drums, one thing that made it a lot easier for me, is I now have my foot pressed down on the bass pedal as the default. Maybe other people know that already, or do it instinctively, but when I started playing I would always have my leg up, and only press down when there was a bass note. My leg would get really tired this way. Now I just lift my foot and drop it back down quickly, which is way easier.

Drums becomes much more fun on the harder levels when you're hitting more of the notes in the song.

We had a Rock Band party for New Year's Eve, which was a big hit. Had a lot of people over who had never played it before, and on easy at least, most people can make it through a song with the guitar. 9/10 can't get 50% through a song on the drums on easy though.

My only gripe at this point is the lack of DLC. I thought they had promised full albums for download, shortly after launch, like The Who, Who's Next. I hope they start delivering more soon.

nolan, I too became instantly better when my roommate told me to keep my foot down on the bass pedal. Also, I beat GGaHT on hard on my first try and had a 4x multiplier for most of the fast part at the end despite not being able to do it on easy. It's amazing how quickly you get used to playing this stuff if you keep at it.

gonna try out the bass pedal down default

upto 25 5* on medium(of 33songs played) 4.5 on GGaHT which means if I have the urge to 5* everything I have to play that terrible song again

just started working on hard

one thing that pisses me off a ton, is terribly placed drumfills, if you have 0 notes to play on overdrive they ****ed up hardcore, happens a bunch, and often when you do have notes its in terrible spots for 8x

I dunno, they've already got 40 songs out in a few months, which is better than GH2 and GH3 combined.

This should be standard. Without being able to relax your leg I can't believe your knee hasn't exploded.

i dunno. i play with my foot in the up position, but i actually play drums.

I've gotten comfortable playing with the pedal halfway down. Then the bass hits are short and less stiff.

i am really enjoying the DC. Move alone on ex drums is a lot tougher than i thought. I really like the Rush DC. I wish they would just release Retrospective I and II for DC

All in all, this game is sweet.

Anyone have tips on the GGaHT ZigZag solos? They're the only thing precluding me from completing guitar on expert..

My current strategy is to run one finger up and down the solo frets on the crapicaster.

Know if you are better with descending or ascending scales. Then just ignore the note in the middle. Hitting 3/4 of the notes will last you

Don't know if you guys have seen these but there are a couple of bass drum mods out there:
http://www.engadget.com/2008/01/05/r...al-drum-pedal/
http://rockband.scorehero.com/forum/...pic.php?t=2226

Yeah, I do agree that's cool, I just wish they hadn't hyped the full album thing so much if they weren't going to deliver on it. You can still go to Rockband.com and see news releases from Sept even mentioning it.

That's really my only gripe though, still love the game.

WTF is with the non-melodic vocal stuff? It seems like I crash and burn on that no matter what I do... tried singing, tried speaking very clearly and rhythmically, tried stressing the vowels, tried stressing the consonants. Sabotage is like a big cluster**** of randomness where what I get credit for has nothing to do with what comes out of my mouth.

Thank you, I thought I was the only one with this problem. I can't figure out how you nail those sections. Is it based on the timing of your words? Volume? I can 5* basically every song on medium singing, except for Sabotage.

Found a thread on scorehero about the talking stuff:

http://rockband.scorehero.com/forum/...pic.php?t=1610

I still can't get anything to register consistently despite having read that whole thread and tried out some of the tips.

ugh the jump to hard on drums is brutal

can't consistently double kick, or get leg independence on fast songs(probably have to just suck it up and spend a lot of time in practice mode)

just got down with electric version and jesus christ, it took me a while on medium to get the hang of things, but the curve seems much slower this time around(and I need to learn it, because we don't get anymore fans with me on medium bastard game)

When playing in the Band World Tour is it not possible to play all of the songs and complete the tour with one of the members on medium. The guy we have playing the bass line isn't much of a video game guy but he's having fun playing Rock Band. The problem is that he simply is not going to advance from medium to hard.... ever. We keep getting messages that we cannot gain any new fans or unlock any new venues/songs until the band has a whole increases the difficulty - it's just not going to happen.

Is there not a way to move through the World Tour without having to constantly ratchet up the difficulty.

just let him practise by himself for an hour on hard? saying he will never get better is ridiculous. assuming he gets a little bit better there are also at least two other players who should be able to carry him through songs he finds difficult.

Yeah the jump from medium to hard on the guitar is tough ... but the bass is REALLY easy in rock band.

Heh. You haven't met the guy. I'm sure with a little practice he might be able to pull it off but that isn't going to happen. Like I said, he isn't a big video game guy - he works, has three kids and all the time consuming things that come along with them so video games aren't on the top of his list.

But he does enjoy getting out every now and then, having a few beers and playing Rock Band with us. I was just wondering if there was a way we could move through the tour without increasing the difficulty so he could play a more of the songs without having to invest the time practicing. I didn't think there was but sometimes I'm surprised by the amount of stuff I don't know.

cant you just play it with the other bandmates when hes not around and unlock some more stuff? `

I need some more drumming help....

I'm at the point now where I have pretty good independence with the bass pedal and playing on- or off-beat stuff is pretty comfortable. However, now I have a problem with anything that requires a fast double or triple kick on the bass drum. Tunes like Epic on Expert just crush me because I can't keep a combo going... I pass no problem but get crappy scores.

I used to play with my heel down and then activating the pedal with the muscles in my ankle. I read some posts on scorehero about the heel up method and it seems like that is pretty popular so I'm in the process of switching. Will this give me more speed for the quick double and triple kicks? At the moment, I feel like my control isn't as good with the heel up method but expect that'll come with practice... but the speed isn't really there at all so maybe its not worth the effort?

Any advice would be appreciated...

Saw this the other day from Kotaku. I don't have Rock Band, but it might help.

http://blog.wired.com/games/2008/01/...and-featu.html

ghazban,

yes, exactly. it's 100 times easier to do a quick double hit with your heel up. basically you're hitting the pedal more with the ball of your foot. i dunno what more to say... you'll get it.