jl8e

Picked it up today, and played some with ladymondegreen and akawil.

Really, it's Rock Band 1.5. Most of the rough edges are smoothed out, and there are 84 new songs in the package. (With an additional free 20-song download coming "soon".)

My biggest complaint is that it can't import your RB1 characters. On the other hand, clearer hammer-ons, bands not locked to a character, characters not locked to an instrument, the ability to pick fill-in characters so you don't get the psycho lumberjack singing, instrument-level difficulty visible while picking songs, random setlists that are restricted by difficulty (so nobody has to go through what lordess did, and have to tackle a top-level drum song on their second attempt), and a bunch of other improvements that I forget or haven't yet noticed.

I think it's well worth it if you like this type of game. And supposedly the instruments are better, especially the drums, which won't leave a trail of broken kick pedals wherever they go anymore. (I'm not buying new instruments unless the old ones die.)

Of course, I think everybody else who reads this and might get the game has a PS3, so you all have to wait a month. (Except for zrealm, who got to play before I did.)

For the first time in about a month, I'm planning to buy some of the downloadable songs for Rock Band.

And it's Duran Duran.