PS3 Rock Band 2 Patch Announced, Includes RBN!
My Rock Band roots started on the PS3, and slowly migrated over to the Xbox 360, but I still have much love for all of those rockers on the PS3. Sometimes they get neglected when compared to their more omnipresent competitor’s console.
Anyway, so I’ve heard a LOT of the PS3′ers out there grumbling about when they were going to get some Rock Band 2 patch love. It looks like your complaining prayers have been answered! Rock Band 2 Lead Designer Dan Teasdale announced on the forums this morning, as well as on the PlayStation Blog, that a patch for Rock Band 2 will be released soon. It will includes the following enhancements and tweaks:
This update includes:
- “Sort by Stars” in Quickplay: If you hit the “Sort” button on the Song Select screen, you’ll come to a brand new sort that orders songs by the star ratings that you’ve achieved on each song. Each star rating gets a category, as well as an “Unplayed” category for songs that don’t have a star rating recorded. Finally, you can record your progress towards gold starring every song in your library!
- Improved “Sort by Stars” fix: Players will not have to beat a previous high score to record a star rating for their songs. (Not yet included in the Xbox 360 version!)
- Chord HOPO improvements: If you’ve played The Beatles: Rock Band, you’ll notice much more robust handling of chord hammer-ons and pull-offs. This patch implements those changes in Rock Band 2 to provide a more natural chord hammer-on/pull-off experience.
- Velocity Sensitivity on Ion Drum Kits: Ion Drum kits now support velocity sensitivity in both drum fills and Drum Freestyle mode.
- Rock Band Network Store Support: When the Rock Band Network goes live, select songs will be available for PlayStation 3 users through a new storefront available in game. Stay tuned for more information closer to the launch of RBN!
- SingStar Wireless Microphone Support: Rock Band 2 now supports the SingStar Wireless Microphones available through Europe! Finally, you can now have a fully wireless Rock Band experience on PlayStation 3!
One thing to note (and this has been discussed previously here on the site) about the Rock Band Network on the PS3. This recent announcement mentions “select songs” will be available on the PS3, not every RBN track. I’m assuming that Harmonix will put up the more popular tracks from the Xbox 360 RBN store onto the PS3 RBN store, but that is pure speculation on my part.
No word yet on when this will go live, but as soon as I find out, I will update here.
UPDATE: According to Mr. Teasdale, Dan if you’re nasty, the patch will go live early tomorrow morning, so if you are picking up some new DLC tomorrow once the PSN is updated, it should ask to download and install the patch.
OK, sound off what you think about this latest announcement! “About time?” “Better late than never?” “What about the Wii?” Let’s hear it in the comments!
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I got sick of PS3 people complaining about not having the patch. Not because it was repetitive, which it was, but because the patch sucked. You can’t download stuff while playing the game anymore, the star integration was dumb, and the regular hammer ons are harder to hit. I’d rather have a pre-patch Rock Band 2.
Before anyone asks about when the Wii will get this stuff, I can answer: never. The way the Wii console is designed makes games literally impossible to patch.
RockBandAide Reply:
January 6th, 2010 at 9:10 am
That lack of hard drive on the Wii really hurts the console as a “non-casual gamer’s” system. I used to have a Wii, but I got rid of it… then my parents bought one.
TheSoundDefense Reply:
January 7th, 2010 at 2:24 am
Well, even if the Wii did have a hard drive, it doesn’t actually have an operating system. Wii games talk directly to the hardware, meaning they will never work with downloaded patches. If there’s a bug in the game, you have to send in your disc and get a new one; if there’s a new feature you want added, it won’t happen. Very unfortunate, but luckily they don’t have this problem with the DSi as far as I can tell.
Seriously, I think about getting an Xbox 360 just to have the most useful RB2 platform. I wish Harmonix and Nintendo would work together to fix all the DLC and RBN lameness. :/
Witticus Reply:
January 6th, 2010 at 10:14 am
@foresmac
I’m a 360 owner and I have thoughts about switching over to my PS3 for Rock Band. The main problem I have with 360, is you have to use overpriced Microsoft branded hardrives to save data, where as the PS3 is able to use jump drives, externals, and laptop hardrives to save data. I hate having to decide whether to get rid of DLC just to accommodate space for the 360, not to mention Microsoft wants you to buy entire new consoles just so you can get a 260 gig hardrive, which is not sold separately!? Especially with Rock Band Network coming out, the space issue infuriates me.
Whatever you decide to do just have fun Rocking!
foresmac Reply:
January 6th, 2010 at 10:58 am
Yeah, I basically play Mario Kart and Rock Band, so I’m guessing that the Xbox will suffice for me—it would basically be a Rock Band terminal.
jason Reply:
January 7th, 2010 at 3:47 pm
You can install any Western Digital BVS series hdd with the right hdd key. Its super easy! MS hasn’t banned ANYBODY for doing this. I picked up a 250GB WD BVS drive for 50 bucks. Haven’t looked back since! Just google replacing an xbox 360 hdd with bvs series Western Digital drive. Plenty of tutorials. Good luck!
I’m looking forward to some good and possibly less expensive songs on the RBN, but what I was really hoping for this patch was more of the Beatles improvements integrated into the game engine. Not having played it personally, I don’t know what the hammer ons are like, but I do hear it’s a lot easier to change instruments and difficulties while playing during setlists. I hate how if I’m hosting a game with friends, I need to disconnect and reinvite them (using the painfully slow friends list that can’t reorder based on play-with frequency,) just to change the instrument I’m using. Hope they decide to fix this in a later update. I really like the game itself and would rather they just keep making it better than have to start from scratch with a Rock Band 3 anytime soon.