Rock Band 4 announced

If Guitar Hero sorts their shit out with DLC, I could actually prefer GHL to RB4. This is terrifying.

I really hope the guitar solo thing is optional. Between that and the lack of online play at launch, E3 has not been good for Rock Band news.

This doesn't reassure me but at least they're trying to make it more than just "mashy mashy"

i can't wait to add an endless feedback solo to every song in the game

i would love this if it was just used to replace the big ending thing, but replacing every solo with it fucking sucks, seriously. they should at least make it optional.

(1m23s if the timestamp doesn't work)

FREESTYLE MODE IS CONFIRMED OPTIONAL. ROCK BAND 4 IS SAVED.


Other things: 

• All Rock Band/Guitar Hero wireless guitars will work on Rock Band 4 provided you're using the same brand console as those controllers are designed for (360 to X1 or PS3 to PS4, of course)
  
• Ambitious plans for online that won't be disclosed until later. 
  
• Lack of song/career information is largely down to wanting to use E3 to focus on major gameplay changes (understandable really)
  

Definitely a reassuring Q&A. Still want to know more about online but I guess that'll come at Gamescom or whenever.

thank the lord

did you watch the rest is there anything else notable

just edited in a bit more but there's not tooooo much else.

Guess I need to buy another Explorer. The Xbone has USB ports still, right?

Not sure but I'd assume so. Might grab an Explorer too, I imagine they're cheap these days.

>Alabama Shakes – Don’t Wanna Fight
>Death from Above 1979 – Trainwreck 1979
>Benjamin Booker - "Violent Shiver"
>Mark Ronson ft. Bruno Mars - "Uptown Funk"
>Queens of the Stone Age - "My God is the Sun"

Great choices.

Overall the info rollout Harmonix has taken for this game has been much more tasteful than the way Activision's been taking for GH Live, which looks like some awful freeware Facebook app bullshit being sold as a full retail title, with awful gameplay changes and DOZENS of shitty metalcore songs. Playing along to music videos? What the fuck?

>tfw switched from XB360 to PS4 so can't transfer all my DLC or use the old peripherals

Guess I'll have to start all over again, which is kind of exciting I suppose, but damn...

To be fair to Guitar Hero, that "playing along to music videos" stuff is apparently a way of basically testing out DLC tracks for free. Which is pretty cool. 

Instead of just watching music videos though, players can join in any song currently on air and play right along. If you like the track, then you can buy it to have access to in your offline song catalogue.
http://www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/2015-06/18/guitar-hero-tv-explained

The rest sounds like Rock Band 2's challenge system, just with music videos in the background. Which is no big deal to me, people have been saying since the first Guitar Hero that it's what's on the note track - not behind it - that matters, so while some people will no doubt find it cool, it doesn't really strike me as something to criticise if you don't.

More information from E3 (full article here):


Rock Band 4 Hardware

What hardware purchase options will be available at launch?

• Guitar and disc bundle
  
• Band in a Box bundle
  
• Xbox One Legacy Adapter
  
• For those who bought PAX East guitars, those will be delivered by October 6th
  
• Standalone disc
  
• Digital download
  

What hardware will not be available at launch?

• Standalone guitar
  
• Standalone drums
  
• Standalone mic
  
• Any bundle featuring a digital download code for the game, rather than a disc[This isn’t a locked-in option, but they are looking at it]
  

Per MadCatz: “The plan for hardware is just supporting these two bundles at launch. The earliest we’re looking at doing standalone hardware is Christmas or Q1 2016.”

How different do the new instruments feel?

The guitar buttons feel much nicer. They know how to sink in instead of tilting in on one side. The tilt sensor works flawlessly with even a slow tip(no more racing to the skies!). The strum bar does not click, but it feels much sturdier in its slot.

The drum pedal did not break from use from the several days of E3. Drum pads seemed to have nicer bounce. Both the red and green pads still shook from hard enough hits, sadly. Hopefully the plastic is stronger and won’t crack, at least.

The microphone did not invite itself to activate OD when someone breathed too close to it or if an insect flew by.

Rock Band 4 Software


Band World Tour is being called a Musical RPG, a lot of people wanted Rock Band World to be that years ago, so…?


“We haven’t called it a Musical RPG, that’s other places! We definitely are looking at more narrative hooks, branching paths, that kind of thing.”

What’s the deal with online multiplayer?

“That, it’s a numbers thing. We’ve done the math. We know exactly what it’ll cost[a lot], how many people it takes[decent chunk], how long it will be[several months]. On our Amplitude Telethon, we had a few other developers call in and they spoke very frankly about online multiplayer. For Octodad, they said it took their team something like eight months and $200,000 to even get that, and Rock Band is a lot more complicated than that, what with latency and score tracking and DLC library size. And the question was, would we make that cost back from it?”

“Probably not.”

“No. But I’ve been pushing all the feedback from that news, I know a lot of people want it, I would love to include it. But at the very least, it cannot be fit in by launch.”

Rock Band 4 Songs/DLC


How often is DLC going to come out with Rock Band 4?

“We haven’t decided on that yet. We kinda set a high bar with 281 weeks of weekly content, though.”

“Forums seemed to agree that just regular releases would be enough.”

“Oh yeah, we’ll definitely do regular at least. Just don’t know what intervals.”

Are we going to get prediction threads again?

“Could, if people want that.”

“Seems to work for Rocksmith.”

“Yeah, but it also makes that chunk of people get way too hyped up for no reason and then they just badmouth the news.”

“Like when the all-Pro pack was going to be Led Zeppelin and you got us Def Leppard?”

“Oh god, yeah.”

New press releases and articles say 1,500+ songs instead of 2,000+, what’s going on?

“That is more of a silly distinction. Our original headcount we used as a number was the number of offers for the storefront, so packs and albums counted in that. The plan is still all official Harmonix DLC will be moving forward, we didn’t accidentally lose hundreds of songs this month. We’re submitting songs right now to make sure we have as many as possible for launch, we aren’t stopping.”

With your new focus on generation-long support, what kind of expansions are we talking about?

“Oh, it’s a lot of things. Some stuff that isn’t even songs. Venues, clothing. We may have some stuff planned for launch/shortly after.”

Are there any exclusivity contracts still out there?

“To my knowledge, no, but I also don’t write them. Unless you’re in the room signing them, who knows. But I don’t think so. Still, it takes more than that to get some music. If certain bands didn’t like what they saw from it, they may not want to do it anymore regardless.”

“Like Van Halen, who didn’t even get to have their game sold?”

“Yeah, that’d be really sad if we couldn’t get Van Halen.”


There’s a lot of references to artists in that trailer, comments on any? Foo Fighters seemed an obvious one, but we could have guessed that anyway.

“Yeah.[Wait, did he confirm Foo Fighters as a disc artist? That’s not big/surprising news, but it is something] There’s a lot of references. Some are red herrings.”

Miscellaneous Questions

Rock Band 3 had a lot of songs on it that were weak on many instruments, are you gonna fix that for 4?

“Yes. The amount of directions we had to go in in 3 kinda caused that, but with Rock Band 4, we’re working towards a setlist that is quality for every part.”

Now that Xbox One has backwards compatibility, are you gonna put anything on it?

“I dunno, depends on how much work it takes.”

“Microsoft apparently just comes up to you and asks yes/no.”

“Oh, well then maybe!”

“Does that include Rock Band 3?”

“We may not even be able to do that one since it was at the tail end of our Viacom ties.”

“They might be able to prevent it?”

“Entirely possible.”[This is what happened to Ultimate Marvel vs Capcom 3, it can’t be on the list since Capcom doesn’t have the Marvel license anymore]

Who is your favorite forum poster and why isn’t it Lawdog?

“It’s Lawdog.”

“Oh, really?”

“No.”

So, I've been thinking.
Won't this whole "freestyle guitar solo" shit just make it harder to license songs? Bands HATED when Harmonix added big rock endings to their songs, and this is even worse. I certainly wouldn't let my songs be in Rock Band 4.
And they have to relicense the WHOLE library of DLC/disc tracks, which may end up with immeasurable casualties.

These are optional. Big rock endings were not. Simple as that, really.


And everything they've said makes it sound like the DLC relicensing is going well, but I guess we'll find out if anything changes there. Only thing which sounds less concrete is the fate of RBN tracks.

That doesn't matter. Using the whammy bar was optional, but The Beatles wouldn't allow it. They also wouldn't allow drum fills.

This is a step above that. This will be a huge point of contention, and even if the Guitar Hero exclusivity agreement is all dead and gone, all hope for Van Halen is dead and gone.
Don't even get me started on, like, Jimmy Page.

They could, I imagine, just not include custom solos in songs if told to. It's probably a lot easier than disabling the whammy bar.

Here's an in-depth look at how the guitar solo thing works:

https://youtu.be/LVSLQCc5crU

Actual playing starts at about 1:50.

more rb4 songs are going to be announced today

JOSIE'S ON A VACATION FAR AWAY

Toys in the Attic: 8/10
Friday I'm in Love: 10/10
Feast and the Famine: 0/10
Your Love: 10/10
Miracle Man: 10/10
Brown-Eyed Girl: 9/10
Metropolis whatever: 8/10

feast and the famine should have been dlc and they should have saved holy diver for the disc

haven't heard the rest but i don't want to spoil the songs for myself by listening now
>judas priest song from the new album
oh boyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy

18 Jul edit:
miracle man is MUCH, MUCH better than i remembered, as i said last time i remembered it existed (holy shit maybe this game will actually get me to be able to REMEMBER this song for fuck's sake)
metropolis is pretty cool

"a ton" of songs being announced tomorrow, apparently

Hey gang!   We’re psyched to announce a whole bunch of new songs from the Rock Band™ 4 setlist, including music from Arctic Monkeys, The Black Keys, Fall Out Boy, Rush, and more! Stay tuned throughout the summer for more song announcements.

Below is a full list of the just-announced tracks:  •    4 Non Blondes – “What’s Up?” •    The Black Keys – “Fever” •    Disturbed – “Prayer” •    Duck & Cover – “Knock Em Down” •    Eddie Japan – “Albert” •    Fall Out Boy – “Centuries” •    Halestorm – “I Miss The Misery” •    Heart – “Kick It Out” •    Heaven’s Basement – “I Am Electric” •    Lightning Bolt – “Dream Genie” •    Rick Derringer – “Rock and Roll, Hoochie Koo” •    Rush – “A Passage To Bangkok” •    Scorpions – “No One Like You” •    Slydigs – “Light The Fuse” •    Soul Remnants – “Dead Black (Heart of Ice)” •    System of a Down – “Spiders” •    White Denim – “At Night In Dreams”

I am so fucking happy with this announcement.

I actually haven't heard most of those songs.

Fever: 3/10 (mediocre song off the band's worst album)
Centuries: 0/10 (probably the most annoying song in history)
Kick it Out: 10/10
Rock and Roll Hoochie Koo: 10/10
A Passage to Bangkok: 8/10
No One Like You: 9/10 (hoping for more Scorpions as DLC)

I've probably heard What's Up, since it's, like, super-famous, but I don't remember it at all.


Also:
>Duck & Cover
>Eddie Japan
>Heaven's Basement
>Lightning Bolt
>Slydigs
>Soul Remnants
>White Denim

LITERALLY WHO

Eddie Japan is some Boston band which I mistook for being a guy from Boston at first and almost hella embarrassed myself to Bran

Heaven's Basement are great and I Am Electric has been one of my go-to songs for Rock Band wishlists since I first heard it, mainly because I never imagined it would actually make it into one. The guitar and drums should be hella fun.





That Lightning Bolt track is gonna be the hardest drum song in the game. Soul Remnants are pretty typical death metal but the guitar should be fun.

I have heard that song before; it was in Need for Speed Most Wanted: A Criterion Game. I agree that it's pretty sweet, I just didn't know the name at all.
I was more preoccupied being impressed by Weatherman.


Also if you call your band Eddie anything, I don't think it's embarrassing to be referred to as a single dude. Like Alice Cooper.

4 Non Blondes - What's Up
Fall Out Boy - Centuries

Nearly vomited in my mouth when I saw these.

Those Lightning Bolt and White Denim tracks are super left-field surprises that should be a ton of fun to play. The rest is whatever. Probably the weakest songlist reveal so far.