My copy of Rockband arrived yesterday and I tore into the box with much vigor. What seemed like 3 hours later I was still tearing into the box but the vigor was all gone. As a guy who took a course in package design on the way to getting his BFA, I feel comfortable telling you that, in my opinion, the person or persons responsible for designing how the various items were packed into the Rockband box should be fired. Or worse... they should be made to go to people's houses and unpack Rockband for them.

So, after wrestling with the various boxes, ridiculous amounts of tape, twist ties, and instruction leaflets (each taped into their own little baggies), I was finally able to lay eyes on the much anticipated, at least in this house, Fender Stratocaster controller. Initial impression, good. That impression waned. Where I like the new larger size guitar, the plastic of the guitar's neck just feels cheap. And where I adore the new, easier-to-grab, non-clicking strum bar, the clicking fret buttons drive me insane. Now, I don't mind the buttons being flush with the fretboard. That's pretty cool in my opinion. But, I can't help feeling that I would like to have a bit more of an indicator nub on the yellow button so that I can work my hands back into position. I also love the look of the body, but there are problems here as well. In its top most position the effects pickup switch hits my pinky while I'm strumming and really gets in the way when I'm trying to use the whammy bar. Finally, I think I've been babied by GH3's Les Paul. It's wireless. Rockband's Fender is not. And where the mic cable seems to be a mile long, the cord for the guitar feels entirely too short.

On to the drum kit. This unit is nifty, but a few changes would have made it AWESOME. For my money, a cup to hold the drumsticks would have made a huge impact on my "putting it away" impression. I also would really have liked to seen some forward thinking on the item where the drum kit served as the usb hub. I love the "floating" pad design of the drum heads. But, when I sat at the drums, I really wanted them to surround me some more. If I could just move the pedal (which seems a little too tight) forward a bit, I could accomplish that feeling. Please note: I am NOT a drummer. So folks with real kits are probably mocking me as they read this.

As far as the game itself goes, the UI navigation is NOT great. As a matter of fact it's pretty much shamed by the ease-of-use of GH3's UI. The songs are nice, but seem to have been over simplified at least while playing the guitar. I had to turn off easy because I was nodding off. And Medium didn't catch my attention over much. I'm thinking I might have to move to Hard just to see some challenge in the game play. Before you say "Well, Woody it's because you're too good at the other guitar games" I assure you this is not the case. I am mediocre at best. I have a bad case of fumble fingers. I just don't process the notes fast enough. Anyway, I don't mind that the scrolling on-screen fretboard has been "cleaned up", but someone needs to be smacked for making hammer-on/pull-off notes a touch smaller rather than finding a more intuitive way of indicating that you can ho/po the note. And bleaching out the color of Starpower Overdrive building notes, meh. That and sustained notes could have been handled better as well. These issues aren't as apparent in the Drummer mode. Maybe that's part of the point, to unify the bars visually as much as possible. **shrugs** I just don't know. I haven't played the game with a full band yet. I really DO like how they show your progress toward 5 starring songs though. That's a cool new addition.

I have not, for the sake of the ears of Taks and Ash, tried the singing portion of the game... yet. So I can not comment on that aspect of the gameplay.

Ultimately I think I'm going to get over being too picky and really enjoy the game. At the moment I'm convinced that I built Rockband up in my mind so much that it's virtually impossible for it to have met my expectations. Once that fades I should really be able to get into the meat of the game and gameplay itself. Who knows, Harmonix may offer downloadable options to change the look and feel of the UI and some of the gameplay/graphical elements. But, I honestly don't think there's any hope for the game's packaging. And, until someone posts a fret button mod to quite them down, I'll probably be playing the game with my Les Paul.

I'd give the game, so far a 8 on a 10 point scale. Some minor corrections to graphics and hardware would make it a 9.5 easy.

And just in case any Harmonix folks happen to read this writeup, let me end with a bit of begging:
PLEASE change the blurred crowds in the lead-in to the songs. My eyes try to bring them into focus and it gives me a colossal headache.

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Today's Pimpage: Ted is wearing a "Hitchhiker" shirt from Threadless.Com

Yo Man trust me the idea of the drums surounding you is an ok thing. I'm a Totaly drummer and i cant feel at home till i have to turn to hit some drums. My teacher Steve Hollingsworth from 5 man electrical band agrees with me slightly

The rock band/GH/DDR genre games aren't my thing, but I enjoy watching people play them. I'd probably do better if I could find where they keep the "Execute" button stashed, but no luck yet. =p I have a small suggestion for ya though, about the small guide nub on the yellow button. Stick one of those paper O's on it that you can get for reinforcing binder paper. Might help you just enough.

Ah, so you're the person who was actually able to buy a copy.

$170 for a game... I recall the days when $170 would have been considered way too expensive for a SYSTEM.

And as cheap as the plastic stuff is I seriously doubt it costs anything near $170 to produce. The local Best Buy stopped putting out a demo set because after the fourth one in a row broke down in less than a day it was just advertising how cheap and non-functional the game was.

People were literally overheard saying things like "Wow $170 and the demo is busted and the game is only out less than a few days"..."No, dude, this is the THIRD one to break so far!" "Wow... I'm not paying $170 for THAT!"

Great marketing guys at Rockband's makers... raise expectations then release something that withers under the expectations (as Woody has expressed) and, to top it off, has the durability and lasting ability of a defective dixie cup.

No wonder they make it so hard to get out of the box... it delays how long you find out how much it sucks just before it falls apart in your hands.

Ah well...

Picked up a copy of Rockband for myself as well since I had it on reserve.

This wasn't worth the purchase price.

As you pointed out, the guitar itself feels cheap, it looks good though. Ingame, the guitar parts got the shaft, even on Hard/Expert I found the guitar parts much simpler than GH3 which was a disappointment, but I suppose they are trying to get a band feel, not just Guitar.

The drums. Ugh. Where to start. Short of Hard/Expert with the bass pedal, it's just too easy. Way too easy. Boringly easy. When they toss the bass pedal in and you get into the higher difficulties, it actually becomes a challenge. I think the drums got all the difficulty love for this game.

As for the singing, bunch of us got together and tried this out. I volunteered first, then my friends made asses of themselves shortly after. Unlike Karaoke Revolution, you can't mumble. Hell, you can't even sing low. You have to make the game hear you or it hurts you, suffice to say the game requires some vocal volume if you plan to have someone doing the singing part.

The music isn't bad, but I don't like having to repeat tracks to unlock new ones. I won't spoil the track list, but don't get bummed by the basic songs. The ones you unlock later make it well worth it.

Overall, I like GH3 sooooooooooooooo much better than this, both playability and in graphics. This is a good party game, but stand alone by yourself, bleh. Go play GH3.

Rating: 7.5/10

Shame that such an expensive game is made so cheaply and no options to customize the positioning of certain items.

Well, hopefully once enough bitching reaches the ears of the company things will be changed and corrections made. Maybe a second release of the hardware or more likely improvements saved for rockband 2.

Rockband was pre-ordered on the company credit card a long before some of the issues began to surface. And since it qualifies as a business expense, there was no reason to cancel the pre-order.

As it is, the game is more enjoyable, atleast for me, on "Hard" using the Les Paul. The drums are the drums. Once I figure out a semi-proper way of sitting at the things, I should be fine. I don't seem to have to struggle to get my hands back in place so far. And a real guitar doesn't have a nub. So, I won't get too sour about that. We'll see how it all plays out as I get to harder songs though. My position may swing drastically. But, without some changes, I'm glad I caved and bought Guitar Hero 3.

I don't think it's the stuff being made cheep Vs. the idjits who sit and wail on the displays. Where I work, our display has been working fine even after someone wailed on it so hard they broke one of the drumsticks.