At that price I would be tempted, but the problem is I never invest enough time in these games to make it worthwhile. My Guitar Hero axe is woefully underused.

The potential shipping and import charges terrify me. Think I'll be waiting for the PAL version.

and while you wait... I'll be ROCKING!

So will I, except on Guitar Hero III, which is actually rather good.

and DRUMMING!

but not SINGING!

I wasn't going to sing...until I found out Bon Jovi were in it.

JibberX is about to Elite, and I need a singer. If you bought the game and the mic, Jibs gets the game and...

ah fuck, it would be region locked wouldn't it. Damn you EA.

I'll gladly sing in your band (is this forum becoming gayer by the second or what?).

We will have to arrange a band 'practice' when you get your import version.

bagsy singing and the eye makeup.

....

....

yeah I said makeup.

Last panel:

http://www.penny-arcade.com/comic/2007/08/10

Whoah...posts jump to the bottom of the thread when you edit them. Is that meant to happen?

Err no it's not. Papercut. Papercut! Papercuuuuuuuuuuuut!!!

The date gets updated.... so unless you have replied to the comment directly above, it gets dropped down and the thread gets marked as updated.

So it is sort of meant to happen.

http://uk.gamespot.com/news/6180056.html

23rd November, $169 for game, drum kit, guitar, microphone - not bad at all!

I'll be going PS3 in that case, maybe pick up the game only in the UK if song packs are a problem.

Very excited:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EIlr9aZBAHc

Not sure about the character designs though, preferred the more stylised look of Guitar Hero. Better than the deformed freakery of GH3 still.

~I can't wait to see this. PSCYHED!

HYPED!

ready to rock \m/

SIG DECLINED BY ADMIN DUE TO IMPROPER CONTENT AND NOOBISHNESS

Guiter Hero III is out. Fuck that.

Extreme excitement!

http://blog.wired.com/games/2007/10/gallery-rock-ba.html

Logitech mics again, I have three of the buggers already. Karaoke is go.

Just need to find somewhere actually taking orders for it now.

Hmmm...

http://www.amazon.com/MTV-Games-Rock-Special-Edition/dp/B000TSX3TS/

Yeah, screw it - I'm in.

were all the peripherals the same over the 2 platforms?

I got the impression they were.

I also saw some exciting pictures of a USB hub?

Nah, PS3 stuff is bluetooth, 360 stuff is proprietary MS wireless (or wired).

Not sure if wired USB devices would work on both. The USB hub is in the 360 pack, because the 360 guitar is wired (and the PS3 one is wireless).

we need a matrix!

So do the drums have rumble?

No, but they have six axes.

can anyone think of anyone interested in this:

http://gadgets.boingboing.net/2007/11/06/phase-guitar-hero-cr.html

spoon?

Yeah, so Rock Band is really great, but on the PS3 there ain't many compatible guitar controllers.

Hence:

http://www.destructoid.com/rumor-activision-behind-rock-band-ps3-compatability-patch-delay--58054.phtml

which is a little less of a rumour than it was - apparently a patch is pending release to add support for the GH3 guitar to Rock Band. It isn't entirely clear if/how this has been blocked though.

If Activision have tried to block the compatibility patch, considering red octane made their start ripping off konami bemani controllers it would be hypocritical: Xtreme!

Currently there are no standalone guitars, so no PS3 bass players. This patch would encourage RB owners to buy GH3 even. So the logic is a bit screwy to say the least. On the other hand, Activision clearly need to separate the two clearly in order to maintain 'brand identity' ie. guitar games equals Guitar Hero. Interesting to see what happens.

Is this another case of the PS3 getting the bollox version of a game?

Sorta. In terms of peripheral support I guess, otherwise I don't think there is much to choose (from what I've read).

Cool. I guess you can't Rock out online with peeps playing on different versions of the game. Although isn't this going through EA's servers? I suppose the 360 version is through Live to EA much like the slightly odd online implementation in Burnout 3 on XBox. Therefore no interoperability

I think Xbox Live means pretty much no interoperability.

Walled Garden for Live... good and bad.

Who wants to play with the PlayStation scum anyways, I mean come on... branding issues all over the place.

Oldish news now, but it seems Activision were behind the block of the Rock Band patch:

http://community.rockband.com/vbforum/showthread.php?t=15440

which is pretty pathetic. The only thing I can think is that they are worried people would buy GH3 just for the guitar, and never buy any additional GH3 songs, which might make sense if the margins were thin on the GH3 bundle itself.

Activision have now made a statement blaming MTV/Harmonix for refusing to 'reach an agreement':

http://www.1up.com/do/newsStory?cId=3165032

Smells like refusing to license the GH3 controller, or something along those lines. Nice.

Sony, meanwhile, have not really known what to do about the whole thing:

http://www.1up.com/do/newsStory?cId=3165012

Guess this is one area where MS's tight control over 360 controllers has actually benefited people, although that seems to have provided little more than expensive peripherals in the main...

Still no resolution on guitar compatibility, which is frustrating. Prices and dates have been announced for the Rock Band stand alone controllers though:

http://uk.xbox360.ign.com/articles/847/847492p1.html?RSSwhen2008-01-24_122900&RSSid=847492

Feb 12th drum kit, April 1st (wtf) for the wireless 360 guitar, unclear for the ps2/ps3 guitar. Great.

2.5 million song downloads though - wow:

http://uk.music.ign.com/articles/846/846875p1.html

Here is a nice play guide by Harmonix themselves too:

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

Wii bound apparently...

Like I say, box it with a Rock Band SDCard and you can have all the downloads you want.

EA, initiative and porting are not words seen together often. Unless Harmonix are doing it all?

They farmed out the PS2 port, so possibly not.

Sounds like no DLC for the Wii version then - complete balls up.

Also, pricing for the 360 version announced in Europe, 23rd May:

http://www.eurogamer.net/article.php?article_id=130927

£180 for the full set - what the hell are they playing at? That is more than double the US.

Sept pencilled in for the PS2/PS3 release, doh.

Still, at least we have the closing song from Portal for free download for with US versions... well you do if you have a US 360. PS3 shop is frozen for two weeks while Sony make it work properly. Bastards.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GEXHuAOK1HM

Need to get that Rush pack!

Some news around that Harmonix would be all over the Wii if it had a HDD....

http://www.computerandvideogames.com/article.php?id=186489

There is a case that there should be in Wii SD card downloadable accessable gubbins.... but I reckon you could sell a RockBand 8gig SD card for the content easily enough, and somehow maybe integrate that into the rather bloated pricing structure they have already.

Rock Band is already a fairly "premium" product anyways, 1gig SDcards are going for a fiver these days!

There is a 2GB SD card size limit at the moment, and that might even be a hardware limitation.

Song downloads are about 50MB a pop though, so I agree it shouldn't really stop them. I think Harmonix want to be able to patch the game too, which could be it - they have just released an integrated shop in a patch (although the patch is quite small).

It does sound like an excuse more than anything else.

What about the USB port? Could simply stick an encrypted 8Gig USB flash drive/dongle in there. Could even package it to look like a plectrum or something

Now announced for Japan:

http://www.rockband.com/forums/showthread.php?t=53655

ooh.

Some interesting news on PS3 guitar compatibility:

http://blog.us.playstation.com/2008/08/18/ps3-music-peripheral-compatibility-update/

I read that as Sony accepting some responsibility for the current mess, good-o.

... and guitar compatibility patch will finally be released this Thursday:

http://www.rockband.com/forums/showthread.php?t=77842

along with RB2 dlc compatibility updates.

How strange.