In Third Person: rock band 2

The Day The Music Died (Again)

Posted by Jet

Saturday, September 26, 2009

Image from IGN

After buying a whole new Rock Band 2 set just to replace my 5th broken drum set and my always-janky Rock Band 1 guitar, I am once again faced with another instrument setback.

My less-than-two-month-old guitar is broken. The strum bar has ceased to work.

Ugh. I've already gone through the process of RMA-ing it, but nevertheless I'm still extremely frustrated. I love the entire Rock Band series of games and actually prefer the feel of the Rock Band instruments over the Guitar Hero instruments. However, I don't want to put up with these hardware issues anymore. Do I go back to Rock Band instruments and hope someday they'll work properly or should I just try something else?

Labels: broken instruments, rock band 2, video games

Now Re-Loading - Rock Band 2

Posted by Jet

Friday, August 14, 2009

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Image from Blog CDN

If you're wondering how my drum surgery went, you're about to get your answer.

Since the surgery, my brother and I have been re-energized and have begun playing a lot of Rock Band 2 again. However, not because the surgery worked out.

After letting the glue dry and re-inserting the plastic butter knives for support, our drums did not work as desired. They would still drop random notes all over the place. It was at this point we decided we needed to find a new drum set for the XBOX 360 anymore. Problem is...it appears as though no retailer (brick and mortar or online) actually sells the Rock Band 2 drum kit separately. I also didn't want to spend premium dollars on The Beatles: Rock Band drum set.

So what then were we to do? Just as though God had heard my prayers, I walked into an EB Games and they had marked down the price of the full Rock Band 2 band kit for about 50% less than the original price! So essentially for the price of buying the drum set separately, we got a guitar, mic, drums and game instead.

Image from Gamespot

I know I'm late to the party on this one, but the Rock Band 2 instruments are heavenly. It feels so good to know that when I miss a note, it's because of me and not because of a hardware fault.

As for our old instruments, I gave them to my 7-year cousin. They should work just fine for his purposes.

Labels: now re-loading, rock band 2, video games, xbox 360

Rock Band Drum Surgery

Posted by Jet

Thursday, August 6, 2009

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The Rock Band series of video games are hands-down my favourite video game series this console generation. I could go on for days talking about how awesome the games are. However, this time I wanted to highlight one major gripe I've lived with since I bought the full band kit on launch day of Rock Band 1:

The Rock Band 1 instruments are some of the worst-made video game controllers of all-time.

While my guitar technically still works, the strum bar feels horribly mushy and makes it difficult to consistently hit the notes.

My drums though, have given me way more problems.

I've sent them back 4 different times over the course of 2008. All 4 sets broke. In that time I've had 3 kick pedals. All of them have snapped in half.

Unfortunately, the warranty ran out on my drums a while ago. So what am I left to do? Besides drop $100 on a new set? Attempt to fix them.

My first attempt at fixing the drum pads involved me snapping the cracked pads back together and taping them up. That worked for about...two days. Then, I got more serious.

In order to prevent the pads from cracking apart again, I taped plastic butter knives across the cracks. This worked...for about a week. Unfortunately, directly around the middle piece is a round crack where not even a broken piece of butter knife can properly reinforce.

My next step? Construction glue.

They're drying right now on the table. I'll re-enforce these with something else once the glue is dry.

My kick pedals had to go through this shoddy surgery too. In order to keep them together, I've taped plastic butter knives to the bottom of the pedal.

It's so frustrating to be in this position. I could just buy new drums, but why should I if there's a way I can fix them on my own? I know my fixes feature terrible craftsmanship, but if it works, why not? The Rock Band 2 drums as far as I know work fine, but for the millions of people who got punked by the Rock Band 1 drum set, I feel your pain.

Top image from PS3 Attitude