Rock Band 2 - Export Fee, WtF!?

So, I recently tried to do one of the Battle of the Bands in Rock Band 2. A lot of them require certain downloaded songs, which is fine, but some also require songs from Rock Band 1. A big promo thing with Rock Band 2 seemed to be the ability to export your songs from RB1 onto your XBox hard drive and then play them on RB2, right? Well, what they didn't advertise was the fact that if you want to do this, you have to purchase the export rights for your Rock Band 1 songs from the Xbox Live Marketplace. You already own Rock Band 1, but in order to put MOST (not even all) the songs onto your Xbox so that they are playable with Rock Band 2, you have to pay 400 Microsoft Points! That's about $6.00, which is not crazy expensive, but considering you already bought both RB1 and RB2, it just seems somewhat ridiculous for them then to ask for more money! If you need the songs from RB1 to play RB2 to it's full potential, they should have been included on the RB2 Disk, or the exporting should not have a fee! I understand that it's probably some licencing thing that requires you to purchase the exporting rights, but it should either be included in the price of the game, paid for by the company, or the songs from Rock Band 1 should not be required to do anything in Rock Band 2. I'm kinda pissed about it. I needed the Garbage song from RB1 to do a Battle of the Bands, but in order to get it, I would have needed to fork out 400 Microsoft Points, which I decided was too much!

Let me know if you agree/ disagree and if anyone actually paid the $6.00 to play the game you already owned. I admit that I almost did, lol but then was too angry.

Must Have Songs For Rock Band

Alright, so I know I have blogged about Rock Band so many times already, but here's another one! I decided rather than just commenting on all the new songs they bring out, that I'll make my personal favorites list! Then, as they come out with new must have songs, I'll just add them to my list. A lot of my opinion of a song will be based on how much fun it is to sing, because that's what I do most in Rock Band, but I do usually try it on Bass and Guitar as well if I like it enough.

So, in order of their release as downloadable songs, here are my favorites!The ones in pink are the ones that I actually listen to on a regular basis outside the game as well as play the sh*t out of on Rock Band. =)

3's & 7's - Queens of the Stone Age
Little Sister - Queens of the Stone Age
Sick Sick Sick - Queens of the Stone Age
The Kill - 30 Seconds to Mars
Dirty Little Secret - All-American Rejects
Move Along - All-American Rejects
Song With a Mission - The Sounds
Don't Look Back In Anger - Oasis
Live Forever - Oasis
Wonderwall - Oasis
Ten Speed (of God's Blood and Burial) - Coheed & Cambria
CrushCrushCrush - Paramore
Beethoven's C*** - Serj Tankian
More Than A Feeling - Boston
Still Alive - GlaDOS
It Hurts - Angels and Airwaves
Hysteria - Muse
Indestructible - Disturbed
Inside The Fire - Disturbed
Afterlife - Avenged Sevenfold

Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock vs Rock Band

Guitar Hero III VS Rock Band

So, I got Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock just after Christmas. My little brother had gotten it as a gift and we tried it out Christmas day. He played the guitar and I used the controller. I thought it was really fun, but didn't have much time to get into it that day. I didn't mind using the controller, and found it easier to begin with than the guitar that he had, so I went out and bought the game, but didn't get myself a guitar. I figured I'd try the whole thing with the controller and then fork out the cash for the actual guitar. The songs seemed easier to play if I knew them already, so I thought I'd learn them all before attempting them with the guitar.
I didn't like how you really couldn't customize your character at all, and the only thing you could change on your guitar/bass was the type and paint job. I've always gotten into games more where you can really make your character look original. I wasn't really fond of any of the Guitar Hero characters either, I kind of liked Midori, but my brother always used her when we were playing, so I ended up using Casey Lynch most of the time. She was alright, but I found I got really board of her by the end because she only had a few different outfits.
A thing I did really like about the game was the achievements. They were just fun things to do (or try and do) and it was cool that there were "hidden achievements" too. I remember getting 99% through a song and then failing and being really frustrated until the little thing popped up and told me I had gotten one of the hidden achievements for almost finishing a song, lol.
I played through the game on easy first, and it really wasn't challenging at all, but was still entertaining. I then played through the game as cooperative on medium, and it was harder, but I still never had to take advantage of the "practice" mode to beat it. I liked that there was a cooperative multi player, but that you could also play against your friends. The battles were pretty cool.
After beating the medium career easily, I decided I'd try the hard one. It was so much harder, lol. I couldn't get through most of the songs using the controller without causing myself some serious finger pains, so I thought it was maybe time to get the guitar.

I had heard about the game Rock Band, which had just come out. It sounded like it would be something cool to try, being basically like Guitar Hero but with singing and drums as well. The Rock Band game came with the guitar, drums and a microphone, so although it was pretty expensive, I thought I'd get the whole pack and then I could just use the Rock Band guitar to play through the rest of the Guitar Hero game. The salesperson at EB games here in town said that the guitar would definitely work for both games, so I got it!
As soon as I got it home, I plugged in my new (so much better looking than my brother's) guitar and put in Guitar Hero to test it out. It wouldn't work, saying that a "non-Guitar Hero device" was plugged in or something. Damn unreliable EB games sales people!!! I was mad, and was considering returning it because I didn't know if I would even like Rock Band, and it was a lot of money, when I read a fluorescent pink piece of paper that was stuck in the Rock Band box. . . Basically it said that the Rock Band equipment could not be returned to the store it was purchased from, and had to be sent away to the company that made them.
Needless to say, I was mad at Rock Band, and EB games, lol. I put in the game, being very cynical and skeptical by this point. Although I preferred most of the Guitar Hero songs, (some favorites being Cliffs of Dover, Lay Down, Dragonforce, Impulse, Radio Song, Monsters) I was blown away by Rock Band!!!
I had been really interested in trying the singing aspect of Rock Band, because I have always loved singing! I played the whole easy career through that night (and loved it), and then decided to try the expert career. I played it all the way through over the next few days (including the bonus tour) and fell in love with a few of the songs I had never heard before (such as I'm So Sick by Flyleaf, Brainpower by Freezepop, Green Grass and High Tides, and Welcome Home by Coheed and Cambria). Some of the songs I liked so much I went and got them on my ipod. (Welcome Home was first, and then I proceeded to listen to every one of Coheed and Cambria's songs and now they are one of my favorite bands! lol)
I then made a band with my brother, and was so happy that we could name it and design a logo for it! We called it a few different things, but eventually settled on "RockCandy", lol. It was really challenging, but so much fun (especially the Endless Set list! Which we've only finished on medium because he can't quite get through all the songs on Hard guitar).
The final nail in the Guitar Hero coffin was the fact that you could customize your character AND instruments! You could make them look as cool or as wonky as you liked, and although I still would have preferred a bit more customization in the faces at lest, I was basically satisfied. The large amount of artwork you have to choose from for your face paint, tattoos and to put on your instruments is amazing and so fun to play with! And one of my most favorite things is, you can have pink hair! I'm a sucker for any game that lets you play a character that has pink hair.
The only things I was disappointed about with Rock Band was that 1) the achievements aren't really "fun", they are just achievements, and 2) you can't have a band on xbox live with your friends!!! I looked around on the game for so long trying to figure out how to add one of my xbox live friends to my band because I couldn't believe that wouldn't be an option. It was very disappointing.
Basically, Rock Band owns Guitar Hero in every aspect. . . I've even grown to like the Rock Band songs more than any that were on Guitar Hero, and there are SO MANY downloadable songs for Rock Band that are so good (I've spent a fair bit of $ downloading some of my favorites). I'd say if anyone is trying to decide which game to buy, omg get Rock Band! And, get the instrument set as well! Singing can be easy if you only play on medium, even if you can't sing at all. The drums are hard, but really fun and get easier as you get used to them, and the guitar playing is just as challenging as Guitar Hero, but the guitar looks 100 times better!

Conclusion: Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock < Rock Band