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Rock Band 2 Times 2

October 18, 2008

First a little history. A few months back I loaned my xBox 360 to a friend so he could host a Rock Band party at his house. I sent it home with him the day before the party, he set it up, we all went over and had a great time. A couple days later he returned it to me and I brought it home and hooked it all back up. Only one problem, I was no longer able to connect to my network. I checked a bunch of settings and thought I had exhausted all my options. When I still wasn’t able to connect, I sorta gave up and just went on playing without connecting. No biggie.

Fast forward a few months. I was anxiously awaiting the release of Rock Band 2. I picked it up the day it came out, brought it hope and since I had a few dozen new songs to unlock and play, the need to access the online music store was set soothed.

That all changed last week. I received a text message that said, “Dude, Motley Crue’s Dr. Feelgood whole album available for download on Rock Band.” This comes on the heels of the Red Hot Chili Peppers’ full album being released for download only a few weeks before. OK, time to get this problem taken care of, STAT!

I thought my issue was the fact that my xBox is downstairs and my wireless router is upstairs on the opposite side of the house. So, I unhooked the wires from the TV so that I could re-wire it in a way that would let me move the xBox several feet closer to the router. Like a moron, I did this while the xBox was on and the Rock Band 2 disc was in. After moving the machine didn’t work, I checked some more settings and FOUND THE ISSUE! Hot damn! I was connected again and all was right in the world. Temporarily.

I went to the online music store and downloaded 1 of the new Motley tracks, Dr. Feelgood. Unfortunately, it seems that they have changed the way the music store works and you are no longer able to queue up several purchases for downloading in the background while you are playing other tracks. Instead, you must wait and watch the progress bar march along. Because of this I only bought the 1 song and then headed back to the game to go play it. Paxton and I log in, go to the quickplay screen and start scrolling down to find Dr. Feelgood. As we do an error message pops up saying, “This disc is unreadable. Please wipe with a soft cloth and try again.” When I take the disc out to clean it, the disc is spotlessly clean. However, about a quarter-inch from the edge, there is a ring around the disc that basically looks like somebody took a laser and carved in to it. The only thing I can figure is that when I moved the xBox while it was on, it caused something very funky to happen and I ruined the disc.

Yesterday I went and picked up my second copy of Rock Band 2. I downloaded a few more tracks today and had a great time. I’m still pretty bummed about having to buy a second copy, but I don’t think this is anything I can blame on anybody but myself. Another lesson learned the hard way.

Filed Under: Ranting Tagged With: , ,

Rock Band and the Downloadable Content

January 9, 2008
Rock Band Drums

I sure love the Consumer Electronics Show (CES). At first I was a bit bummed out that, even though it’s taking place in my backyard, I’m not attending. But then, by mid-day yesterday there were enough blog reports of new goodies to send a gadget junkie like myself in to an orgasmic coma. No less than 10 people sent me a link to the Alienware Curved LCD Monitor that was announced.

Today I was passed a link to a new set of prototype drums for the game Rock Band.

Rock Band Drums

While the drums certainly look awesome, I see two major issues why I could never own them. First, they look like they’ll be expensive. Second, where the hell would I put those? Unless I plan on converting my living room in to Rock Band Central 24/7, I think I’ll have to just pass on these. But, they sure look awesome!

Speaking of Rock Band, yesterday I went on to xBox Live and downloaded some of the extra tracks they made available for download. I grabbed the Metallica Pack (3 songs: Blackened, And Justice for All, Ride the Lightening), the Black Sabbath Pack (3 songs: N.I.B., Sweat Leaf, War Pigs) and Iron Maiden’s The Number of the Beast. The Maiden song is a lot of fun to play on drums. I’ve found that to be true of all the Iron Maiden songs so far. I would love to have a bunch more Iron Maiden content available. I’ll keep my fingers crossed.

After waiting a while for the songs to download, I finally got to play the Metallica songs. First I played Blackened on Medium. Holy crap! That song was hard. I got 4 stars, but there was a section where I wasn’t sure I was going to pass the song. I played the other two songs and got 5 stars on each. I then went back and 5 starred Blackened as well. I have no idea what those songs are going to be like on the Hard level, but I can see myself failing them a few times before being able to beat them.

If you have Rock Band and xBox 360, you gotta go grab the Metallica songs. They are awesome to play and a definite challenge. Tonight I’ll try them on hard and see how well that goes…

Filed Under: Entertainment Tagged With: ,

New Years Eve Party

January 1, 2008

It’s been a long standing tradition that on New Years Eve, rather than go out and brave the wild and crazy parties, instead we invite over some friends for some games. This year was no exception.

Yesterday started with me returning to work after 9 days off. It ended up being a half-day and we were let go at 11 AM. That gave me enough time to deal with approximately 1000 emails I had received over the past week. The funny part was, out of all of them, there were less than 10 that I actually had to reply to or deal with in some way. After work a small group of us went over to Buffalo Wild Wings for some lunch and a few beers.

We did a little bit of shopping for the party and then came home to straighten up the house. I then took a 2 hour nap in preparation for staying up late. I don’t know if there is anything I enjoy more than a nice mid-afternoon nap.

People started showing up shortly after 7:00. We had some snacks and then I made a batch of Strawberry Margaritas. I haven’t made them in quite a while, but I sure do enjoy them! I normally add a little bit of sugar, but forgot in the first batch. I was reminded of that fact and fixed the situation for batch #2.

When Sarah showed up, she had brought a bottle of Jager and also some banana flavoredMalibu rum, which I had never had before. She mixed a drink for Chris with some rum and OJ. Wow was that good! I’m talking DANGEROUS good. Tastes like candy, but puts you on your butt after you realize you’ve had 3 glasses.

Another drink that I tried last night for the first time was Tequiza. It’s beer made with blue agave. It has a hint of lime flavor as well. I may just have to pick up some of those for the next poker night. It was really good!

The group had a good time playing Rock Band. We all took turns on drums, guitar, bass and vocals. Rock Band is the ultimate party game. Several times we had 4 players playing and a group of people watching and singing along in the background. They even let me butcher a few songs on vocals. I may not be able to sing, but I was still able to get a 98% score singing Radiohead’s Creep. I was pretty stoked on that!

We also played a game called Taboo. I found out something quite interesting about that game. I am way better at playing that game after having a few drinks. I have played the game before and have NEVER done so well.

Thanks to those of you who came over to share in the fun of counting down the end of 2007! I had a great time. I look forward to many more opportunities to get together with you all again in 2008!!

Before I go, here’s a video of Paxton on Guitar, Me on Drums, Craig on Bass and Ashley & Marcia on Vocals playing the Clash’s Should I Stay or Should I go. Enjoy

Cheers.

Filed Under: General Tagged With: , ,

Family get together

December 22, 2007

Last night we had an early Christmas celebration with my mother-in-law and both brother-in-laws and their families. One of the B-i-Ls is going out of town for the holidays so this was going to be our last chance to see them before Christmas.

As soon as they got here, Rock Band was in full effect. It is such a great party game. The funny part was that before anybody had tried it, they all kept saying that they weren’t going to sing. But, as soon as one person did it, everybody else wanted their turn at it. Who cares how bad you sing? Just get up there and belt it out. Have fun. And that’s what we did.

I was pretty stoked because after everybody tried the drums, most people decided to stick to guitar or vocals. That meant I got to stay and play drums on almost every song. Damn, Metallica’s Enter Sandman drives me nuts. There is one section on it that just confounds me. Even on the easy level. Though, I did move up and play on Medium for a bunch of the songs.

Only the B-i-L that is going out of town and his wife opened gifts. Mainly because we forced them to. They are basically newlyweds, so we thought it would be a lot of fun to give them a book I found called “Position of the Day“. It has diagrams for all sorts of interesting sexual positions to try during the year. One is called the “YouTube” and the picture shows both people holding video cameras. If they try that one out, I would rather not receive a link to the results. I shot video of them opening the gift. You can see it here.

Good times.

Filed Under: Family Tagged With: , , ,

Rock Band and xBox 360

December 19, 2007

After all the delays waiting for the PS2 version of Rock Band, not to mention all the features that I would have been missing had I got the PS2 version to begin with, I went ahead and bit the bullet tonight. I went out and bought an xBox 360 and Rock Band. I’m so stoked.

New Toys 

The store was out of the middle of the road sized xBox 360, so I ended up getting the Halo 3 Special Edition. It comes with a couple games (not Halo 3, which I thought was odd) a battery charger and the unit itself is green and has some Halo 3 markings. I doubt it was worth the extra bucks I plunked down, but I was on a mission… they had me by the short and curlies.

After getting home with the goods, it took roughly an hour to unbox, unwrap and hook up all the pieces. The first thing I did was set up the video camera to capture the first time I played drums. I played on the easy level and I wasn’t entirely horrible. 92% playing Celebrity Skin by Hole.

I then played a few songs with my son. We switched back and forth between drums and guitar. I tried hooking up the microphone, but it didn’t seem to be working. Turns out, if you read some instructions once in a while, sometimes they have valuable information. I didn’t figure that out early enough, so I haven’t sung any songs yet. But, there’s always tomorrow.

I asked my wife if she wanted to play the drums. She played a couple songs and enjoyed it. She even mentioned playing some more in order to get better at playing. This makes me happy.

I sure hope I’m not too sick tomorrow and not able to make it in to work… That would be a real shame. OK, fine. I have 9 days off in row starting Saturday… I guess I can wait until then to rock my face off.

We’ll see.

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Rock Band for the PS2? Probably not before Christmas

December 18, 2007

Today was supposed to be the release date for Rock Band for Play Station 2. I took an early lunch break today at work to go out and buy it. I started out at Fry’s. I’m 99% certain that the lady I spoke with had absolutely no idea what she was talking about. I asked if they had the game for PS2. She sends me to a display up front and says if there are none up there, they are out. But, the thing is, the display was for Guitar Hero, not Rock Band. There was physically no space for boxes of Rock Band to have been sitting there at any point in time. I walked around for 5 minutes and then left.

 Next I went to Guitar Center. Yes, I know they sell REAL guitars there, but last month they were selling Guitar Hero 3 so I thought the trip was justified. Especially considering it’s in the same parking lot as Fry’s. Sadly, that was strike 2. However, the guy suggested I try the new Target store on Blue Diamond.

On the way to Target, I called Game Stop. They have a shipment in route, but it’s not arriving until Thursday. On top of that, they only have enough to cover their pre-sale orders.

At Target, I thought I struck gold. I walked to the back of the store, found the game section and THERE IT WAS! I could see 5 Rock Band boxes. When I got up close, 3 of them were for PS3 and 2 of them were for XBox 360. Poop. I found another shelf with more copies for the PS3. Asking the staff at Target was as helpful as the staff at Fry’s. They had no clue.

By this time my lunch break was mostly over. I headed back to work bummed out. After work I would try one more place. Toys R Us.

After stopping at our storage unit to pick up all the Christmas decorations, we headed to TrU. We found more copies of Rock Band for the PS3, but again, not for the PS2. We asked the lady behind the counter and she said that it has been delayed and they have no idea when it’s coming in. She sounded convincing (unlike the yahoos at Fry’s and Target) but I’m hoping she was wrong.

I have Rock Band pre-ordered through Amazon.com and yesterday they updated their release date for the game to say December 28th. I’m really hoping to have the game at the house before New Years Eve. We are going to have some friends over and I’m really looking forward to rocking our faces off!

Cross your fingers for me.

Filed Under: Ranting Tagged With: , ,