More Rock Band Thoughts

As we speak eager rockers are shivering in the cold, waiting for their copy of Rock Band. Meanwhile, I'm safe and warm continuing to digest the game. Some additional thoughts:

Singing is intensely personal. I think this is why I hate the song selection in so many karaoke games, but tend to like the Guitar Hero and Rock Band track lists. Because merely hopping in as session guitarist or drummer is so much more detached than actually having to speak, nay, croon song lyrics. Maybe it's just me, but being forced to sing crappy songs by The Ok Go, The Killers and Coheed and Cambria puts me in a foul mood. Failing said songs straight up pissed me off. I never felt such emotional responses to songs in the Guitar Hero games. I just bit the bullet and powered through the crap as fast as I could.

On a similar note, both Rock Band and Guitar Hero slot their crap songs around the 3/4 point of the playlist. They frontload the game with really kick-ass songs, saving some of the real rockers for the final push. But there's a spot, right where the turning point would be in a movie, where they slam you with a whole tier of stinkers. In Guitar Hero games these are usually the all-metal tiers (which I like but most people abhor). Sure, this observation is totally based on opinion, but I'll bet dollars to doughnuts that this is the game designer's strategy.

I'm a little worried how smoothly our characters are going to travel. Will I be able to bring my decked out drummer to a friend's house to rock? Will my wife be able to earn achievements on her profile while we work together on a band tour? I'll be investigating these soon.

And if you're scoring: I finished the vocal tour on medium, drums on easy and am working my way through guitar on hard -- The New Pornographers track is kinda tough.