Tuesday, October 23, 2007

Rock Band Update: The Bummer Edition

All right, let's get his out of the way. John Harwood, who as I type this is probably working on a tri-state strategy to get Rock Band early, sent me a link to a series of videos called "How to Play Drums," which are here.

That's totally ridiculous, of course--just as ridiculous as me using my left hand for the mouse to build up my coordination for, um, playing the drums.

John Harwood: a bad influence.

There was one very good of news from Harmonix last week, and one piece of very bad news. The good news is that the official release date has been moved to November 20. Not only does this mean we won't have to fight the Black Friday crowds to pick up the game, it also means we could have the best Thanksgiving night ever.

Then there's the bad news. In a post in the official Rock Band forums, it was confirmed that Band World Tour, which is the mode I was most looking forward to, will not be online. That means if you want to have a band and play through this mode, all players have to be in the same physical location. You can still play online with other people in Quick Play mode, but it's going to really limit the band element of the game, at least for me.

I have no problem with this feature not being included--the game has a huge amount of content as it is--but it should have been announced sooner. Good grief, there's a dedicated forum called "Band Wanted" at the Rock Band forums--clearly, people believed this was in the game, and have from the outset.

If the feature was just cut a few weeks ago, then just tell us it was a late scratch. But if it was cut months ago, it should have been announced then, not now. Besides, now I have to buy snacks and cold drinks for John, because he'll be living at our house for a few weeks until we finish that mode.

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