August 4, 2008 – 6:00 am
MP3
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It’s the inaugural episode of the Fandomania Podcast! In this episode you’ll get to meet Celeste and me, and you’ll hear us talk about:
- TV shows, comics, and games we’re into
- Our religious experience with The Dark Knight via IMAX
- My disappointment with The X-Files: I Want To Believe
- Our thoughts about the Eureka season 3 premiere (spoiler warning!)
- A discussion of the Doctor Who season 4 finale (spoiler warning!) and Torchwood
- Why Joss Whedon let us down with Dr. Horrible (spoiler warning!)
- How we’ve been doing with WiiFit
- The saga of my broken Rock Band peripheral
If you’d like to send in listener mail, you can drop us a note at podcast @ fandomania.com. Who knows? We might read your letter on the air in an upcoming episode!
July 8, 2008 – 6:00 am
There’s no denying that games like Rock Band and Guitar Hero have become hugely popular and successful over the past few years, due in large part to their wide variety of featured songs and ever increasing music libraries. Since shortly after its release, Rock Band has been adding songs weekly, and the various Guitar Hero games have been expanding their songlists via download and spinoff games as well. Some of these featured songs are the master tracks, taken from the original bands’ original recordings, while others are uncanny soundalike studio bands doing usually faithful covers.
Recently there’s been a trend toward both game series wanting to drop the covers and go for master tracks only in their song collections. This has caused some trouble lately, as The Who’s much hyped full-album released of Who’s Next was canceled for Rock Band and replaced with a greatest hits compilation due to the original master tapes for some of the songs being lost. And most recently, Led Zeppelin has refused to lend their master tapes out to developers for security’s sake, so their songs likely won’t be included in the upcoming masters-only Guitar Hero World Tour and Rock Band 2. Zeppelin is happy to license out their songs for cover editions in the games, though.
So this begs the question: How much do the master recordings really matter in music video games? Is it so essential to have the original master track that the developers should decline including otherwise awesome songs just because they now shun covers?
I, for one, wouldn’t mind at all having a cover of “Pinball Wizard” on my Rock Band. After all, I’ll be the one making the music when I’m actually playing the game, and I have no illusions that I actually am an original member of The Who.
Source: Evil Avatar
July 8, 2008 – 5:00 am
I previously reported that the big Who song pack was coming to Rock Band this week. That was erroneous, and The Who will be rocking your living room next week (July 15) instead. This week’s release, now available for download on the XBox 360, includes two tracks by the Red Hot Chili Peppers and two by Rush. As is the norm now, all four are master tracks. Here’s a rundown of the specifics:
- “Snow (Hey Oh)” by Red Hot Chili Peppers - 160 MS Points ($2)
- “Tell Me Baby” by Red Hot Chili Peppers - 160 MS Points ($2)
- “Closer to the Heart” by Rush - 160 MS Points ($2)
- “Working Man (Vault Edition)” by Rush - 160 MS Points ($2)
These four tracks are available on the 360 beginning today and will be on the Playstation 3 on Thursday.
July 1, 2008 – 11:36 am
Today sees the release of the Crüefest Pack on Rock Band, which includes tracks by Motley Crüe, Papa Rouch, and Trapt. You can also nab a song by Vesuvius, from the new movie The Rocker, for free starting today. All of that is well and good, but the real Rock Band DLC news is that The Who is hitting the download scene in a big way next week.
Way back when Rock Band’s DLC system was first announced, Harmonix teased that Who’s Next would be the first full album download available. Three albums later, we still haven’t see Who’s Next, and now we know why. It seems that some of the master recordings from the album have disappeared into wherever old master tracks go several decades later. So instead of the full album, we’ll be getting a 12 song pack that features some of The Who’s greatest hits.
The Who pack will be available on July 15 for $20, with each song individually downloadable at the standard $2 a piece.
July 1, 2008 – 11:23 am
Yesterday Harmonix dropped the official announcement of Rock Band 2, the follow up to their immensely successful music game that released late last year. The second installment in the series will not introduce a new instrument, as previously rumored, but it will be improving on the instruments that already are out there. The new guitar will be a replica of the Fender Stratocaster and will feature faux woodgrain buttons. The new drum kit will be sturdier than the original (which occasionally had problems reported of the plastic base pedal mount breaking) and should be designed to be quieter in use (as opposed to the original, which sounds like a herd of elephants running through whenever it’s played).
The biggest news about Rock Band 2 is that it will be completely compatible with any songs you’ve downloaded for Rock Band 1. In fact, all Rock Band song downloads will be universally playable across both games, which means that even if you don’t buy Rock Band 2, you’ll still be able to buy and play new songs with your original Rock Band game. This is exciting stuff that works in the consumer’s favor, and it looks like it’s becoming an industry standard for music games, as Guitar Hero World Tour will be adopting a similar policy for reverse compatibility with Guitar Hero 3 downloads.
Additionally, Rock Band 2 will feature brand new online play modes and over 80 new songs, all of which will be master recordings from the bands. There haven’t been confirmations about the new online modes, but the strong hint has been that you’ll be able to play the Band World Tour mode online now. Rock Band 2’s tracks will feature more female fronted bands, as well as a number of groups that have never been featured in music games before. Harmonix CEO Alex Rigopulos says in an AP interview, “With the original ‘Rock Band,’ the focus was on innovation. With ‘Rock Band 2,’ the focus is on perfection of the experience. We’ve had a year to listen to our fans and build out the scope, depth and polish of the experience, so it feels like a second-generation band game.”
Rock Band 2 will ship first for the XBox 360 in September and then later in the year for the Wii, Playstation 2, and Playstation 3. There’s no comment yet on how much the game will cost or exactly what configurations will ship. It’s safe to guess that there will be a big bundle that comes with all the instruments, as well as a standalone game and the ability to buy the instruments separately, though. The September release will put Rock Band 2 on the shelves a month before Guitar Hero World Tour’s October release.
Source: Yahoo! News and IGN
June 27, 2008 – 2:26 pm
Harmonix has announced next week’s Rock Band releases, which will include a three-song “Crüefest Pack” as well as an additional free song. Here’s what will be on tap:
- “Down at the Whisky” by Motley Crüe - 80 MS Points ($1)
- “Time Is Running Out” by Papa Roach - 80 MS Points ($1)
- “Who’s Going Home With You Tonight” by Trapt - 80 MS Points ($1)
- Crüefest Pack - All three of the above songs for 240 MS Points ($3)
- “Promised Land” by Vesuvius - Free
It’s interesting to note that you don’t get any sort of discount for purchasing the song pack this week. Usually you’ll get a little bit of a price break for buying the songs all at once, as opposed to individually. Then again, the pay track are only a buck a piece this week, so you can’t complain too much (unless you’re not a Crüefest fan). The free song is from the new movie The Rocker, and in my opinion there’s no such thing as a bad free Rock Band download.
Source: RockBand
June 24, 2008 – 5:45 am
Starting today on the XBox 360 and Thursday on the Playstation 3, you’ll be able to download the full album Doolittle by The Pixies, as well as a pack of three songs from Weezer’s new Red Album. Here’s a rundown of exactly what you’ll get and what you can expect to pay:
The Pixies:
- Crackity Jones - 160 MS Points ($1.99)
- Dead - 160 MS Points ($1.99)
- Debaser - 160 MS Points ($1.99)
- Gouge Away - 160 MS Points ($1.99)
- Here Comes Your Man - 160 MS Points ($1.99)
- Hey - 160 MS Points ($1.99)
- I Bleed - 160 MS Points ($1.99)
- La La Love You - 160 MS Points ($1.99)
- Monkey Gone To Heaven - 160 MS Points ($1.99)
- Mr. Grieves - 160 MS Points ($1.99)
- No 13 Baby - 160 MS Points ($1.99)
- Silver - 160 MS Points ($1.99)
- Tame - 160 MS Points ($1.99)
- There Goes My Gun - 160 MS Points ($1.99)
The whole Doolittle album is available as a big pack of all 14 songs for 1520 MS Points ($18.99).
Weezer:
- Dreamin’ - 160 MS Points ($1.99)
- The Greatest Man That Ever Lived - 160 MS Points ($1.99)
- Troublemaker - 160 MS Points ($1.99)
The pack of all three Weezer songs is downloadable for 440 MS Points ($5.49).
All the tracks released this week are master recordings from the original artists. Sadly, there’s no “Pork and Beans” from Weezer in sight.
June 10, 2008 – 6:30 am
Four new tracks are available for download on Rock Band this week, all from small bands promoted by MTV2. Here’s a rundown of what you can get and for how much:
- “Moving To Seattle” by The Material - 80 MS Points ($1)
- “A Clean Shot” by The Myriad - 80 MS Points ($1)
- “Bullets and Guns” by Them Terribles - 80 MS Points ($1)
- MTV2 Pack (includes the above three songs) - 240 MS Points ($3)
- “Girls Who Play Guitars” by Maximo Park (not included in the track pack) - 80 MS Points ($1)
These tracks are available starting today on the XBox Live Marketplace, and they’ll be downloadable on the Playstation Network on Thursday.
June 5, 2008 – 4:21 pm
Harmonix has been shopping around ideas to consumers via a recent survey in the hopes of getting input on the packaging for the sequel to the immensely successful Rock Band. The survey contains two box art possibilities for Rock Band 2 and has folks pick which is their favorite. Aside from the obvious packaging critiques, it’s worth noting that both boxes show a singer, drummer, and two guitarists. This is the same configuration as the original Rock Band, possibly negating the rumors that a keyboard peripheral will be added for the second installment. All of this is very early in the cycle and not at all finalized, so take the art and its implications with the proverbial grain of salt for now.
Source: XBox360Fanboy
May 21, 2008 – 1:20 am
Next Tuesday, May 26, you’ll be able to download the second full album release for Rock Band. The much anticipated Who’s Next album by The Who still hasn’t surfaced, but instead we’ll be getting The Cars’ self titled album. The track list follows:
- All Mixed Up
- Bye Bye Love
- Don’t Cha Stop
- Good Times Roll
- I’m In Touch With Your World
- Just What I Needed
- Moving In Stereo
- My Best Friend’s Girl
- You’re All I’ve Got Tonight
The individual songs will be downloadable for 160 MS Points ($2), and you can get the entire album for 1200 MS Points ($15).
