Rock Band 2

Rock Band 2 is a music video game developed by Harmonix Music Systems, as the sequel to Rock Band. The game software was released in North America for the Xbox 360 on September 14, 2008, with individual instrument peripherals also available at this date, while the software and hardware bundle will be available on October 19, 2008. Versions of the game for the Wii, PlayStation 3 and PlayStation 2 platforms will be released later in the year. Rock Band 2 allows players to perform in virtual bands by providing up to four players with the ability to play three different peripherals modeled... (More) Rock Band 2 is a music video game developed by Harmonix Music Systems, as the sequel to Rock Band. The game software was released in North America for the Xbox 360 on September 14, 2008, with individual instrument peripherals also available at this date, while the software and hardware bundle will be available on October 19, 2008. Versions of the game for the Wii, PlayStation 3 and PlayStation 2 platforms will be released later in the year.

Rock Band 2 allows players to perform in virtual bands by providing up to four players with the ability to play three different peripherals modeled after music instruments (a guitar peripheral for lead guitar and bass guitar gameplay, a drum peripheral, and a microphone). These peripherals are used to simulate the playing of rock music by hitting scrolling notes on-screen. In addition to the 84 songs included on the game disc and 20 free downloadable songs, hundreds of additional downloadable songs are being released for the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 versions; all of these songs, existing and future, are compatible with all Rock Band titles. Rock Band 2 will feature improved drum and guitar controllers, while supporting older controllers, as well. New features include a "Drum Trainer" mode, a "Battle of the Bands" mode, online capabilities for "World Tour" mode, and merchandising opportunities for the players' virtual bands.

Rock Band players use peripherals modeled after musical instruments to simulate the performance of rock music. Players must play these instruments in time with musical "notes" as they scroll towards them on the screen. Rock Band offers single-player and multiplayer gameplay for lead guitar, bass guitar, drums, and vocals, allowing for any combination of parts to play as a band.

During song performances, Rock Band displays up to three tracks of vertically scrolling colored music notes, one section each for lead guitar, drums, and bass. The colored notes on-screen correspond to buttons on the guitar and drum peripherals. Along the top of the screen is the vocals display, which scrolls horizontally. The lyrics display beneath green bars, which represent the pitch of the individual vocal elements. The remainder of the screen is used to display the band's virtual characters as they perform in concert.

During cooperative play as a band, all players earn points towards a common score, though score multipliers and "Overdrive" are tracked separately for each player. Overdrive is individually collected by players during select portions of a song by successfully playing all white notes within that section (guitar and bass players can also use the guitar controller's whammy bar to extract Overdrive from white sustained notes). Once a player's meter is filled halfway, they can deploy their Overdrive, resulting in the "Band Meter" (which tracks how well each player is doing) changing more dramatically. This allows players to strategically use Overdrive to raise the Band Meter and pass portions of a song they otherwise might have failed. In solo play, a player deploying Overdrive doubles the player's score multiplier. However, in band play, a player activating Overdrive instead increases the score multiplier of the entire band to two; individual players can coordinate their Overdrive activation to achieve multipliers of four, six, or even eight.

Each band member can choose the difficulty at which they play (spanning Easy, Medium, Hard, and Expert). If a player does not play well enough and falls to the bottom of the Band Meter, they will fail out of the song and their instrument will be muted from the audio mix. However, any active player can activate their Overdrive to bring failed players back into the song, "saving" the band member. However, a band member can only be saved twice; after the third failure, they cannot be brought back for that song. Failed players continuously drag the band's Band Meter down until they are saved. If the player is not saved before the Band Meter reaches the bottom, the band fails the song. Bonus overdrive can be gained by playing "Unison Phrases", and more points can be achieved with "Big Rock Endings." (Less) Developer: Harmonix Music Systems - Released: 2008, Sep 14 - Genre: Music - Platform: Xbox 360,Playstation 3,Nintendo Wii - Submitted By: drew