Rock Band: Harmonix tops itself

[Bahamut]

That's pretty much what I said. Also, if they have lobby chat, which they should, just ask who will do vocals. If some little kid swears up and down he does the world's best Ozzy Osbourne imitation, leave and find another game.

That makes me happy that I have XBox Live - you talk via mic so you'd hear what the guy sounds like before he actually starts singing.

[AMT]

Wow, I'm surprised so many people here are excited for this, given the fact that this is a music based community. Guitar Hero was definitely a fun game, but assuming a similar price range for the rest of the instruments, and the task of finding other people to play with, it seems like it would be so much more productive to just start an actual band. The songs already take time to practice, and I'd rather spend the time practicing playing the real song instead of a simplified version of it on a plastic instrument. Anyone else feel the same way?

[sephfire]

The practice you have to put into these games is nothing remotely close to amount of time and dedication you'd have to put into mastering a real instrument (and nowhere near as expensive as trying to equip and run a decent band). These games allow even the casual music lover to get a taste of the thrill of nailing a huge solo in front of a cheering crowd. Even most start-up bands don't ever get to experience that.

[Citris]

The practice you have to put into these games is nothing remotely close to amount of time and dedication you'd have to put into mastering a real instrument (and nowhere near as expensive as trying to equip and run a decent band). These games allow even the casual music lover to get a taste of the thrill of nailing a huge solo in front of a cheering crowd. Even most start-up bands don't ever get to experience that.

Exactly. I am very excited to see where this game goes.

[RealFolkBlues]

Well put, sephfire. Combine this with just a little sense of the theatrics (playing behind your head, behind your back, etc.) and you can be fairly impressive to a lot of folks in a fraction of the time it would take to not look like a jackass with a real instrument.

Also, distance is lame. Sure, we could trade tracks across the intarweb and so on, but ultimately we would pretty much have to meet up, and that can get tricky. So, this seems like a good alternative for a lot of folks.

[Domukaz]

Still doesn't beat making your own music.

[sephfire]

Still doesn't beat making your own music.

It often comes veeeeeery close. And during those writer's-block days, it's twice as good.