RBA Readers’ Favorite (and Least Favorite) DLC of 2011
Last week, we asked the readers here on the site about their favorite “week” of DLC. It was a big poll, with 53 different answers, but was met with nearly 1,300 voters casting almost 2,700 votes. While many of the top vote getters didn’t really surprise us, there were a few that did. My assumption was that among the Rock Band faithful that visit the site here, we wouldn’t see many artists that were criticized among the comments here and on RockBand.com, but that wasn’t necessarily the case. Let’s get on with it, shall we?
Top 10
10 (Tie) – The Clash’s “London Calling”
10 (Tie) – Yes
10 (Tie) – Nirvana
9 – Ozzy Osbourne
8 – Def Leppard
7 – Billy Joel
6 – Linkin Park
5 – Coldplay
4 – Heartache Duets Pack
3 – Red Hot Chili Peppers
2 – Queen
1 – Rush: 2112
It’s no doubt that December had some strong DLC offerings, with two weeks from that month taking the top two slots. Coming in first was Rush’s 2112, and WoahThere nailed it: 2112 was my favourite, not only because Rush is one of my favourite bands, and not only because the song is awesome, but also because it only cost 440 points for the 20 minute song, I have the option to play only parts of it, and I got pro upgrades with it basically for free. And its amazing. And so is Rush.
Queen came in second with another solid DLC offering. Gameboy673 comments: The only song I didn’t know was Long Away, and the only ones I weren’t excited for were that and Radio Ga Ga (which I grew to like the next day). Seven Seas of Rhye, The Show Must Go On, Don’t Stop Me Now, Bicycle Race, and I’m In Love with My Car? Yes please.
Combined with the Red Hot Chili Peppers, this seems to give further evidence that Guitar Hero was smart to go after these two fan favorite artists. OsagaTheGreat makes some great points: Awesome selection of songs. Parallel Universe was an odd (not the most popular song off Californication) yet amazing choice. The I’m With You tracks played extremely well. By The Way even has a PRO Bass solo!
The Heartache Duets Pack coming in so high at fourth place was was a surprise to me, but most people that bought and played through it know that it is damn fun to play with friends. As sgtdrill commented, Heartache Duets, no contest! Not only was it a great selection of songs, but RB is one of the top leisure activities for my wife and I. This pack was tailor-made.
Coldplay and Linkin Park didn’t get the best reaction from the community when announced, but they came in pretty high in this poll, which goes to show you that just because many people complain, doesn’t necessarily mean that a lot more people aren’t loving it.
The remaining packs are all very recognizable artists, and don’t really surprise me for making the top 10. I was glad to see a tie for #10, which means we were able to shoehorn an additional two artists in (all of which are very critically acclaimed and deserve to be on the list).
Now let’s move on to the…
Bottom 10
10 – Limp Bizkit
9 – Singles (Beastie Boys, Heart, James Brown, Rufus)
8 – Stone Sour
7 (Tie) – Bob Marley
7 (Tie) – Singles (Grand Funk Railroad, J. Geils Band, Joy Division)
7 (Tie) – Country Track Pack 2 Export
4 (Tie) – Singles (Anberlin, Mastodon, Ohio Players, Relient K, Tommy Tutone)
4 (Tie) – Roy Orbison, Kiss
4 (Tie) – Singles (P.O.D., Erasure, Frankie Goes to Hollywood)
1 – Singles (OK Go, The Police, War)
We start off with Limp Bizkit, although I do concede that the tracks were pretty fun to play (in a nostalgic sort of way), but definitely understand them making the list.
One of my personal faves, Stone Sour, fell on to this list, so I definitely won’t be expecting more from them, unfortunately.
The big surprise on here is Bob Marley, but when you look at the songs offered in the pack, which would be obscure to all but the biggest of his fans, I can understand why he showed up.
Not sure if the Country Track Pack 2 Export made this list because of the handling of the export with “RB3 Versions,” if people don’t like country music, or the song selection was subpar… could possibly be explained by all of the above.
The Roy Orbison/Kiss week seemed to miss, as well. As it was Orbison’s second pack and had smaller hits, I can understand the lack of enthusiasm, but I thought there were more Kiss fans that would have voted this higher.
Finally, we have FIVE weeks of singles in the bottom ten, which doesn’t necessarily surprise me, either. These weeks are good “palate cleansers” and are a way of “shotgunning” a lot of random songs (sometimes one-hit wonders) at us. The odds of liking all the singles is pretty low, so I can understand why people would have a hard time voting for them.
I also find it ironic that the lowest voted week was for DLC released on March 15th… Beware the ides of March.
We’ve included the full results of the poll after the break for reference. Let us know what you think in the comments!
| Votes | DLC | Week | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 217 | Rush: 2112 | 12/31/2011 | |
| 200 | Queen | 12/6/2011 | |
| 182 | Red Hot Chili Peppers | 8/30/2011 | |
| 137 | Heartache Duets Pack | 2/11/2011 | |
| 126 | Coldplay | 10/18/2011 | |
| 108 | Linkin Park | 1/11/2011 | |
| 97 | Billy Joel | 3/22/2011 | |
| 93 | Def Leppard | 8/9/2011 | |
| 91 | Ozzy Osbourne | 5/31/2011 | |
| 90 | The Clash's "London Calling" Album | 2/1/2011 | |
| 90 | Yes | 7/26/2011 | |
| 90 | Nirvana | 9/20/2011 | |
| 88 | Soundgarden | 7/19/2011 | |
| 81 | Roadrunner Records (Dream Theater, Opeth, Trivium), Starship | 11/29/2011 | |
| 66 | Stevie Wonder | 11/15/2011 | |
| 56 | Jimi Hendrix | 12/20/2011 | |
| 54 | Fleetwood Mac / Stevie Nicks | 4/12/2011 | |
| 49 | Avenged Sevenfold, Live, a-ha, Cumbawamba | 6/14/2011 | |
| 48 | David Bowie | 1/25/2011 | |
| 48 | Foo Fighters, Lordi, Run-DMC | 5/10/2011 | |
| 42 | Depeche Mode, Death Cab for Cutie | 3/8/2011 | |
| 37 | Incubus | 8/23/2011 | |
| 36 | Rush, Black Veil Brides, Volbeat | 12/13/2011 | |
| 35 | Blink-182, The Clash | 10/11/2011 | |
| 33 | Nine Inch Nails | 3/1/2011 | |
| 30 | Pantera, Peter Frampton | 5/17/2011 | |
| 30 | Lady Gaga, Foreigner | 5/24/2011 | |
| 30 | Fueled by Ramen Records | 12/27/2011 | |
| 27 | Breaking Benjamin, Papa Roach | 11/1/2011 | |
| 26 | Pat Benatar | 2/22/2011 | |
| 25 | Bruno Mars, Rise Against | 6/7/2011 | |
| 24 | Weezer, Janis Joplin | 9/13/2011 | |
| 24 | Slipknot | 9/27/2011 | |
| 22 | Singles (Dragonforce, Jefferson Airplane, Blood Sweat & Tears, Santana) | 3/29/2011 | |
| 22 | 3 Doors Down, Poison | 6/28/2011 | |
| 22 | Singles (System of a Down, R.E.M., Buffalo Springfield, The Vapors) | 7/5/2011 | |
| 22 | Fall Out Boy, Deep Purple | 8/16/2011 | |
| 21 | White Zombie, Rob Zombie, The Darkness | 10/25/2011 | |
| 20 | Johnny Cash, RB2 HMX Bands Export | 1/4/2011 | |
| 20 | Singles (Culture Club, Faith No More, Loverboy, Phish, Stone Temple Pilots) | 5/3/2011 | |
| 20 | Nickelback | 11/22/2011 | |
| 19 | Cheap Trick, EMF | 9/6/2011 | |
| 15 | Puddle of Mudd, Maroon 5 | 6/21/2011 | |
| 12 | Limp Bizkit | 10/4/2011 | |
| 10 | Singles (Beastie Boys, Heart, James Brown, Rufus) | 8/2/2011 | |
| 9 | Stone Sour | 1/18/2011 | |
| 7 | Bob Marley | 2/8/2011 | |
| 7 | Singles (Grand Funk Railroad, J. Geils Band, Joy Division) | 4/5/2011 | |
| 7 | Country Track Pack 2 Export | 11/8/2011 | |
| 6 | Singles (Anberlin, Mastodon, Ohio Players, Relient K, Tommy Tutone) | 4/19/2011 | |
| 6 | Roy Orbison, Kiss | 4/26/2011 | |
| 6 | Singles (P.O.D., Erasure, Frankie Goes to Hollywood) | 7/12/2011 | |
| 3 | Singles (OK Go, The Police, War) | 3/15/2011 |
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Well no surpises there..
Cokes Reply:
January 11th, 2012 at 2:17 pm
There is one surprise.
20 people voted for Nickelback.
Croq Reply:
January 11th, 2012 at 2:26 pm
Would have been 21 had I remembered to vote…
expertwinSH Reply:
January 11th, 2012 at 2:30 pm
Actually two. The other being that Limp Bizkit wasn’t higher on the bottom ten.
If I may cast a late vote, I’ll untie The Clash and move them up one vote
>_>
Vampire-Jekyll Reply:
January 13th, 2012 at 1:05 am
Ditto, although Heart of Sunrise by Yes was probably my most played song last year.
The least voted it seems, was for me a pretty decent week, just that HMX picked a wayyyyy wrong song for Ok Go. Literally any other song of tehirs would have been better IMO. We need stuff from there first two albums, Here It Goes Again has gotten overplayed after 4 years now. The list seems about how I would have ordered them. Overall 2011 wasn’t bad, just a little bit underwhelming, but there were some fantastic weeks.
RockBandAide Reply:
January 11th, 2012 at 2:27 pm
Again, don’t think Harmonix is the one with sole decision making authority on what songs an artist gives to Rock Band. The record companies have final say.
RBand24Fan Reply:
January 11th, 2012 at 2:33 pm
Very true,I just saw that it was on Twilight. I hope thats not the reason we got it, I’ll just hope for better songs in the future.
I find it interesting that three of the four the weeks I remember the most complaints about (Lady Gaga, Nickelback & Fueled by Ramen) didn’t make the bottom 10 and the fourth (Limp Bizkit) just barely made it.
I also wonder if 2112 would’ve still made number one if it wasn’t so fresh in everyone’s minds. I don’t doubt that it would’ve made the top 10 but I’d be really curious if it would’ve done quite as well if it had been released in the middle of the year instead.
Nick Reply:
January 11th, 2012 at 2:27 pm
2112 would have done well regardless. There are a number of mid-year packs that did well. I doubt it would have done less than 1st even if it was the first week of January release.
Mcmax3000 Reply:
January 11th, 2012 at 2:32 pm
Like I said, I have no doubt it would’ve been top 10 for sure as it had been requested for ages but I still wonder how much of a bump it got from being so recent.
rdm99 Reply:
January 11th, 2012 at 10:52 pm
Nothing against the band or the song, but I’m just curious: where do people know it from? Obviously I’ve heard of Rush and many of their songs, but before it was in Guitar Hero I had never heard of this song(s). Being 20 minutes long I can’t imagine it was played on the radio or in movies, TV, etc. So I come back to my original question: Why are so many people familiar with 2112?
Mcmax3000 Reply:
January 12th, 2012 at 12:05 am
I was kind of wondering the same thing. GH: WoR is the only reason I had ever heard of it before the RB release.
Toothball Reply:
January 12th, 2012 at 10:05 am
I heard them play it live last year in Glasgow. Good show, they also played the whole of Moving Pictures on top of all sorts of other tracks from their catalog.
Nick Reply:
January 12th, 2012 at 12:23 pm
Any reputable rock station plays the first two movements (Overture/Temple of Syrinx) on pretty much a regular basis. Of all the Rush songs, this is one of the most-played ones that I know of.
Vampire-Jekyll Reply:
January 13th, 2012 at 1:15 am
Too be honest I’ve never heard any part of 2112 played on any of the classic rock stations in my area (which is a damn shame). I always thought it was so ingrained into pop culture that people nowadays just downloaded it or purchased the album. I honestly can’t think of any other reason why I bought the album but I’ll never forget listening to it the first time, and I’ve always said that despite the 20 minute length, it’s one of the catchiest or most memorable songs I’ve heard. Simply an incredible epic that has stood the test of time, and very well defined the careers of Lee, Lifeson, and Peart.
Not too surprising on the results, even given the “how could people possibly LIKE “, some choices I felt were pretty good, but just outshined by a lot of other releases. Stone Sour for instance, had two really good songs in the pack, especially for vocals- but I wouldn’t have considered voting for them just because there were choices I did like better to use my three votes on.
The singles weeks I’m not surprised about. They usually have a wide variety, and its hard to pick the entire week’s release even if you really LIKE one of the tracks from that week, you have to consider the others which may not really be all that great. The first Rush pack also had some rather less interesting releases along with it, but had to be considered (probably bringing that Rush pack down).
About KISS: The reason it’s so low here is probably that the version of Rock’n Roll All Nite, must be the worst performance of that song from KISS ever. I have listened to 40+ versions from official and bootleg recordings as well as when I attended their concerts, and the RB version is by far the worst! As for Roy Orbison, I’m actually preferring the second pack to his first one.
Bob Marley on the other hand is probably rated low for two reasons: 1. It was released not too long after the first one, and I think it p****d off a lot of people that these more unknown songs got the Pro (Keys) treatment whereas his first pack with all the hits didn’t (It was released just before RB3). 2. I don’t think that many people actually listened to the songs. It’s just as good as his first pack, even though the songs are less well known.
Divinekaos Reply:
January 13th, 2012 at 2:22 pm
You are spot on about KISS. I’m a HUGE fan but that was a poor choice. I’d also love a live version of Black Diamond at some point.
I was glad to see so many “classic” artists make the top 10. I really hope that trend continues.
I’m calling it: Rush fans are also hackers.
RockBandAide Reply:
January 11th, 2012 at 2:40 pm
If they were, their other week of DLC in December would have been higher than 23rd place.
Nick Reply:
January 11th, 2012 at 2:55 pm
Sore loser much? Rush is one of the most talented artists out there. Get over it.
NV_Mathemagician Reply:
January 11th, 2012 at 4:14 pm
If that’s true, I’d be careful about what I say about Rush and their fans.
Vampire-Jekyll Reply:
January 13th, 2012 at 1:19 am
*Comment Deleted*
I wouldn’t put too much stock in these numbers tho. Why? The Dragonforce week received 20 votes, yet Through The Fire And Flames was one of the most played songs, according to HMX. Same with Lady Gaga, Nickelback and Avenged Sevenfold, and those are packs that sell incredibly well or have huge playtime. So I wouldn’t lose hope on not seeing more Stone Sour.
On an unrelated note, and sorry to be the one to ask it but it makes you wonder how a Muse pack would do on a poll like this, but at this point, as much as I would love to see more Muse, I think this world will see the Cubs win the World Series (probable) and Tim Tebow come out of the closet (never gonna happen) before I see any other Muse DLC.
RockBandAide Reply:
January 11th, 2012 at 2:59 pm
The reason why Linkin Park was on the most played Top 10 is MUCH different than why Dragonforce was on the same list. People that like Linkin Park will listen (and play) them ad nauseam (that’s the only explanation for all the air time they receive on radio). People playing Dragonforce so much is probably because they’re trying to FC a ridiculously and notoriously difficult song.
The two different lists aren’t designed to be complimentary, considering they are comparing different things, so there’s no reason to discount the validity of either list. Each list is indicative of two different metrics among two different groups; one being the total population playing the game, and the other being a sample of that population who is more engaged in the on-line community and visits this site.
John Reply:
January 11th, 2012 at 4:33 pm
Not trying to discount it, but more to add perspective. Between this, stuff like the most played as mentioned in the podcast, numbers such as the ones on scorehero for total scores and such combined add a much more broad picture. Then again, release dates tend to help skew some results. After all, if my math is correct, 740 votes were cast for packs released from November until the end of the year, a two month span including the two most popular packs, while from January and February there are a total of 445.
If we compare the numbers by quarter, the votes split more towards 535 in Jan-Mar, 403 for Apr-Jun, 707 for Jul-Sep & 927 for Oct-Dec. If I counted all of this correctly, there were barely as many votes cast for the last 3 months as there was for the first 6 months of DLC.
One last note: the Roadrunner pack is basically composed of singles, same as the Fueled by Ramen pack and Duets packs. The Avenged Sevenfold week also did decently even though that also was a singles week as well. And So it may be more of a case of the content of the packs as well as the singles in said packs being bundled up. So, it could stand to mention that if the week has singles, offering them on a bundle might help move more tracks that otherwise wouldn’t sell. That may have been part of the root of the experiment with the Ozzy pack, which ranked quite high.
Nick Reply:
January 11th, 2012 at 5:11 pm
On the other hand, it could be skewed against the first half of the year as that was when Harmonix was finishing up the DLC they got the rights to under Viacom, and maybe that batch was just less appealing overall than the DLC Harmonix pursued themselves.
We can dissect this to death, but in the end it just is what it is. I get the impression though that there are some people hell bent on thinking that there is some sort of bias against some DLC they thought should have won.
First off, thanks for the mention!
I can’t say I disagree with the top three, after all I did vote for them. I am however surprised with the bottom 10 though. Beastie Boys tracks were fun for parties (at least by me they were), Heart is still one of my most wanted bands and one song does not do them justice, James Brown was good on all instruments. The only song that week that wasn’t stellar was Rufus and even that wasn’t bad.
Roy Orbison pack, while it was not as great as his last pack, was still fun. I think what gave people a bad taste was the KISS live tracks. I know that they take what they’re given but if you want to go for live KISS than you should use the Alive! album.
Wasn’t too familiar with the OK Go track and didn’t pick it up so I can’t speak into that. The Police songs we’re not bad. Every Breath was a song on my wish list for a while so that was nice to get. WAR was an extreme case of “Oh THAT song!” for me and it was quite fun on vocals.
What really surprised me though was that, given the negative reaction, Nickelback did NOT make the bottom 10.
Anyway, just my thoughts. You’re allowed to disagree.
Ospero Reply:
January 11th, 2012 at 6:36 pm
Say, now that I see your post here, which is your primary instrument? Because I’d actually rate “Parallel Universe” among the bottom 10 of the year purely based on its guitar and (to a slightly lesser extent) bass tracks, right alongside “Don’t You Want Me” and “Edge of Seventeen”.
OsagaTheGreat Reply:
January 11th, 2012 at 8:31 pm
My primary instruments are guitar and vocals. While Parallel Universe is a strum-fest I personally found it fun and it’s one of those songs that has been big at my Rock Band parties (partially due to the fact that my friends and I are HUGE Chili Peppers fans). As the only one of my group that plays solidly on expert guitar I found it was helpful in teaching them to alt-strum. I can see where you are coming from though and I don’t necessarily disagree as I do find it to be an annoying song to play on occasion (especially after a few strum-fests) but as a whole I felt it was a good addition to the Rock Band platform.
Ospero Reply:
January 12th, 2012 at 10:09 am
Ah, that explains it. I definitely see where you come from on this – I guess I shamelessly overrated “Otherside”, my personal favourite from that pack.
Well my favourite two weeks: Stevie Wonder and the Poison/3 Doors down weeks didn’t make the cut. :/
I am quite surprised by Stevie Wonder. A very well known artist with 5 solid hits, but hey, this is a year poll, and DLC has been excellent this year.
What were your three picks RBA? Did your choices make the cut?
RockBandAide Reply:
January 11th, 2012 at 3:33 pm
Mine were Stone Sour, Nine Inch Nails, and Soundgarden.
Also, was my original comment on the voting page deleted? I looked just to remember what I said about my other picks but I couldn’t find it.
RockBandAide Reply:
January 11th, 2012 at 3:44 pm
No, it should still be there. The page is set up to only show the 50 oldest comments. You can hit the “Newer Entries” link for more comments, and it should be there.
Also, it’s been awhile since I deleted a comment here. I’ll only delete comments if people get pretty vicious against each other.
OsagaTheGreat Reply:
January 11th, 2012 at 4:18 pm
Oh, OK. Thanks! Didn’t even think to check that!
Nick Reply:
January 11th, 2012 at 5:13 pm
Its always bugged me that “Newer entries” goes to the OLDER posts.
awesome to see both Rush and Yes in this list!
that stone sour pack was definitely a lot of fun on drums. also pretty solid on everything else. Even though I don’t really listen to them much, that pack was golden, and I’m disappointed it didn’t get more recognition.
Awesome job on the list nice to see some great artists at the top. But may I suggest next year having the links lead to the DLC playthrough videos instead? I feel this may pique peoples interest in a few weeks and that way they would be one click away from seeing a playthrough of it just a suggestion.
I mentioned earlier about not voting, and I think the main reason there was in trying to come up with just 3 that I wanted to vote above all others. Well that and forgetting to come back in time…
Seriously, this year of DLC, for me, has been stellar. There were a total of FIVE weeks where I didn’t buy at least one track. And, if I counted correctly, 35 (!) weeks where I bought them all.
Okay, yeah, I like a lot of varied stuff.
Thanks HMX for the songs, and here’s to hoping things continue well into 2012!
Wow. Rush, Queen and RHCP absolutely ran away with this. I figured they would finish high, but they are significantly higher than even the other artists in the top 10. Interesting how the bottom worked out too. I don’t think too many people said that OK Go/Police/War week was bad at the time, but I guess it was the one that people were just the least enthusiastic about.
Numskull Reply:
January 11th, 2012 at 7:09 pm
Shoulda been a three-pack with King of Pain…dammit!
So it doesn’t come as a surprise that all those singles weeks came near the bottom because the bottom ten weren’t the “least favorite weeks” they were the “lest most favorite weeks”. Only 3 people saying the week of Mar 15 was their favorite week doesn’t necessarily mean anyone found it their least favorite week.
A more accurate measure of the 10 least favorite weeks of DLC would have been to have a separate poll asking exactly that question.
And as for why singles weeks got the least amount of votes, it’s probably because the singles rarely had anything to do with each other. Look at the week of July 5th, which brought us R.E.M., System of a Down, Buffalo Springfield, and The Vapors. Not only is that music representative of 4 different types of music, they’re all from different decades. While each song may have found its own audience, it’s much less likely that someone will find all of those songs very appealing.
RockBandAide Reply:
January 12th, 2012 at 9:29 am
I agree with this. I tried to explain this in the analysis of the post, but must not have done a good enough job. The best way to get an accurate snapshot of DLC preferences would be to solicit and aggregate a full ranking of all 2011 DLC from the readers, which I’m obviously not going to ask people to do.
I did mention to someone on Twitter that I could do a “Most Disliked” DLC for 2011 poll, but I think this one probably suffices for most people’s curiosity. I think the moniker of “least favorite” is still accurate for the Bottom 10 list , however, as all the items on the list were chosen as fan favorites the least amount of times.
Also, a poll listing something as the “favorite” DLC can also be chosen as “most disliked” DLC, as these are not mutually exclusive things. For example, the recent NFL poll on teams showed that the Dallas Cowboys are both the 2nd favorite team (when asked which team was the favorite) AND the most hated team (when asked which team was the most hated).
James! Reply:
January 12th, 2012 at 6:11 pm
hahahahaha (laughing at the NFL)
I also realize that a problem with asking for a “least favorite” or “most disliked” week is that, unlike football, fans of Rock Band can just pass a week up. NFL fans that hate the Dallas Cowboys can’t totally avoid seeing them play, in fact, they might even watch the Cowboys just to see them lose. With Rock Band, if someone sees a week of DLC they don’t like, they won’t buy it. Therefore, people wouldn’t vote for the worst pack, but the band they like the least.
Right?
dc32 Reply:
January 12th, 2012 at 2:59 pm
See one of my votes was 1 of the 7 people that voted for the week with Grand Funk Railroad, J. Geils Band and Joy Division, and I chose that purely for “Love Will Tear Us Apart” alone, it’s one of my favorite songs of all-time, and I didn’t care for nor buy the other songs that week. So as pack or week of DLC, it probably isn’t that great, and my vote was purely emotional on the fact one of my personal favorite songs finally came to RB. But looking at that week objectively, yeah, it really wasn’t the greatest and am not surprised it didn’t rank higher because of the variety and mixture of bands.
Jason R. Reply:
January 12th, 2012 at 7:27 pm
Yeah, I agree with this. I like singles weeks mainly because they usually have one or two songs I REALLY like. When I found out “Love Will Tear Us Apart” was coming to Rock Band, I literally did a victory dance of delight. It is also one of my favorite songs of all time. Same for “Hypnotize” by SOAD. But a lot of the other songs did not appeal to me.
On the other hand, I purchased at least four songs from the “Heartache Duets Pack.” So that week got my vote because of it’s overall quality. Man, that was an outstanding pack.
Stone Sour being so low really surprises me. I thought it was a fairly popular pack based on how many of my PSN friends have it.
James! Reply:
January 11th, 2012 at 11:35 pm
I remember there was a lot of backlash against it when it came out, none of which was directed at the quality of the band or the songs. A lot of people just seemed to be annoyed that it was a week of only 3 songs, which was seen to be too small an offering for a week’s DLC.
Numskull Reply:
January 12th, 2012 at 12:04 am
Mm. And people would eventually learn that this would stop being a really unusual situation.
Middle of the road. I can expect 2-5 downloads a month just like before.
For all around guitar and drums, the December Jimi Hendrix pack was the bestest in my opine. While 2112 had the best bang for the buck. The thing about this game is, the more you play it the better you get and the better you get the more you crave a challenge. For instance: I love Hall and Oates, but I can’t justify buying them on Rockband. The video game playability just ain’t there. And Coldplay fails on both levels!
But, whatever…
James! Reply:
January 11th, 2012 at 9:32 pm
I think part of the reason 2112 came out on top is because it was the most recent DLC at the time, and therefore freshest in our minds.
Nick Reply:
January 12th, 2012 at 12:26 pm
…Or it could be because it was among the most requested songs of all time for Rock Band, and would have done well even had it been the first release of 2011.
You’re bias against 2112 is obvious, but doesn’t explain why packs like the February Heartache Pack did so well too.
James! Reply:
January 12th, 2012 at 5:53 pm
I have nothing against 2112, but you have to admit that its recentness (because inventing words is fun) helped it become #1. Also, I never insinuated that the Top 10 was biased against the end of the year, as the top 10 seems to be evenly split between DLC that came out in the first half of the year and DLC that came out in the second.
I see that Nickelback wasn’t the worst. It seems that some people had a change of heart.
James! Reply:
January 11th, 2012 at 10:38 pm
Just because 20 people said it was their favorite pack, that doesn’t mean any of the other 99.255% of people that voted didn’t think it was the worst.
Linkin Park and Coldplay shouldn’t be in the “best” list, Beastie Boys, The Police and Mastodon shouldn’t be in the “worst” list.
Where is Death Cab? Havent they been DLC this year as well?
RockBandAide Reply:
January 12th, 2012 at 8:50 am
They came out on March 8th.
What strikes me immediately is that with 1300 voters, the winner only had 217 votes. That’s only about 17% of voters. This data once again tells us that Rock Band caters to a remarkably diverse audience that has widely divergent tastes in music and often in ways to play the game. I imagine that’s both a blessing and a curse to Harmonix in that they keep a broad appeal, but any choices they make won’t be pleasing to some parts of their audience.
Personally, I hope the Nirvana, 2112, Ozzy, and Heartache packs encourage HMX to continue to experiment with different ways of bundling and promoting DLC. With such a backlog of DLC out there now, and with a lot of players that have been playing for a long time, I think it’s much harder to move the needle and get people excited.
How about a poll for most wanted for 2012? 3 artist/single packs with 5 songs per. I’d like: 1. INXS- Suicide Blonde,New Sensation,Taste It,Elegantly Wasted & Beautiful Girl. 2. B-52s- Cosmic Thing,52 Girls,Strobe Light,Whammy! & Private Idaho (NO Love Shack,PLEASE!) 3. Police- Spirits in the Material World,DeDoDoDo…,King of Pain,Canary in a Coalmine & Synchronicity 1.
Ben Reply:
January 12th, 2012 at 5:41 pm
What’s wrong with Love Shack?
Pass on most of this, but I would like some INXS.
Just some more 80′s music would be nice, give me a reason to use the keyboard I just got.
Still waiting on more Tears for Fears!
Vampire-Jekyll Reply:
January 13th, 2012 at 1:26 am
Love shack would really help push a B-52′s pack (plus it’d be awesome to play regardless).
In my eyes, 2012 will be a success if ELP ends up on the platform.
Vampire-Jekyll Reply:
January 13th, 2012 at 1:30 am
Wait… reverse that. If ELP ends up on the platform, 2012 will be a success. 2012 can still be successful regardless of whether or not ELP will show up.
Interesting. Great to see a lot of people loving 2112. My comment even got used
A bit suprised Hendrix dlc isnt higher. That last pack was a great one. And HOLY COW is that live version of voodoo child so fun to play. People werent sure when they saw live version if it was gonna be good. Oh ya it is.
its kinda hard cause you can only pick 3. It shows which dlc people have as their favourite, but that doesnt mean more people like that, just more people are totally in love with it. If the poll was designed say where you had to rank all the dlc in your order of preferance, it would be a really different result I think especially in the middle and lower sections.
I’ll play…
Jimi Hendrix – Machine Gun
Tears for Fears – Shout, maybe Head Over Heels
Deep Purple pack – Hush, Burn, Speed King, Fireball
Golden Earring – Twilight Zone
Black Sabbath pack – Children of the Grave, Sabbath Bloody Sabbath, Heaven and Hell, something good off the new album, maybe something from their first two albums if the masters exist (or a re-record if possible)
Van Halen – “Van Halen” full album release, plus “Tattoo” to tie it in with the new album
Iron Maiden – The Final Frontier
A man can dream…
James! Reply:
January 12th, 2012 at 6:45 pm
This was meant as a response to wiibaron’s comment two up. Don’t know how this happened.
Two of my picks made the top 10, putting a smile on my face. Very glad to see Yes made it in, even if barely. I think the band’s fans are either very loyal, or ‘Owner of a Lonely Heart’ is even more overrated than I thought.
The one week I picked that didn’t make the cut (if memory serves) is the first Rush week.
Give me more good 70′s rock and I’ll be happy this year. First week is off to a good start.
Can’t wait to see what 2012 has to offer! I was playing rock band alot in 2011, but at the same time, this blind gamer decided to go for some psn downloads, and I keep going back to play shank. Dad helped me beat the game for platforming elements, but… anyhow, back to rb, I really need to get 2112. Also, a muse pack wouldn’t go amiss!
Love shack will be one for me too, now that would be very nice if it happened.
I won’t be playing rb for a while though as in a couple of weeks soul calibur 5 is coming out and it seems to have a cutscene driven story mode, which, for a blind gamer like me, I get a lot out of because well, the characters actually speak as apposed to text bubbles appearing.
One final thing I’d really like to happen for the rb series though… is a lego rock band sequel.