Rock Band 2 Not Competing With Guitar Hero: World Tour

Developer Harmonix will not compete with Guitar Hero: World Tour, according to Dan Teasdale, lead designer of Rock Band 2. That’s strange since both games allow players to recreate a band using instruments. Teasdale thinks otherwise:

“At least from a design perspective, we’re going after two completely different audiences. Rock Band is about an authentic band gameplay experience. We want people to have fun at parties, and we want to reach a wide audience.”

In addition to the Rock Band series, Harmonix is ​​also responsible for the first part of the Guitar Hero series. According to Teasdale, Harmonix really has a different emphasis now that will make Rock Band 2 sufficiently distinct from Guitar Hero: World Tour. What’s more, the Harmonix team is so qualified that they don’t need to look up the Guitar Hero: World Tour comparison, Teasdale said. He also illustrated that:

“Call of Duty and Halo are both great franchises you can enjoy. It’s the same with Guitar Hero and Rock Band.”

Rock Band 2: The Opening Act is a game that transfers the musical boyhood dream in a virtual form to the next-gen consoles. The Rock Band games are being developed by Harmonix, a developer who pioneered the Guitar Hero series. The game can be played with four people who use controllers in the form of instruments (microphone, two guitars and a drum kit) to imitate music from major rock stars. The vast majority of the songs contain heavy rock, of course, but genres such as classic and country are also included.

Rock Band is not a game, Rock Band is a music platform. Rock Band 2: The Opening Act is therefore not a normal sequel, but an ‘update’ of the platform. New are a slicker interface for managing your band, a laundry list of new songs and a set of new plastic instruments to get out and about. But because it’s all part of one platform, you don’t have to buy new instruments, or re-purchase songs to play them with Rock Band 2. Everything will work together without any problems.

The new guitar is another Fender Stratocaster, but this time with a softer neck, a better strum bar and finer *****. The drum set is now sensitive to how hard you hit, your strokes are muffled and the pedal has been drastically improved. Both are now wireless, including for the Xbox 360.

Rock Band 2: The Opening Act is out at an undisclosed date for Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, Wii, and PlayStation 2.