Unlocking all songs???

[Tokarchuk]

Hey... I'm getting Rock Band for christmas and I am planning to do the tour mode with my friends and I've heard that it gets very repetive by playing the same songs over and over. So i think I heard something about completing it on solo mode.... so my question is does it matter what instrument or skill level you do it on and does it unlock all songs?

Thanks a lot!

[Hozuko]

Doesn't matter, any diff. and any instrument. The easiest by far is just singing on easy mode. At least in my opinion.

[capasdilemma]

Doesn't matter, any diff. and any instrument. The easiest by far is just singing on easy mode. At least in my opinion.

Wrong. I mean I'm sure you're wrong, although for some reason -- maybe because it's so early -- I'm drawing a tiny little blank, so you're 99% wrong. In solo mode, DLC is always available at any difficulty and I think all bonus songs are unlockable at any difficulty, but not all included songs are unlockable on easy. At least not as lead guitar. Maybe as vocals, but I don't think so. All are unlockable on medium, which if you complete the game on medium, the game design considers you have "beat the game", you know, though it's not so much a game you beat per se.

And be advised if you have to do medium on any instrument to unlock all songs, singing on medium difficulty is not so easy. I'm more the, ah, Will Sheff -- but not even that on key -- style of vocalistic. I have serious problems with some songs in medium. Kurt Cobain I can do pretty easily, but like Bowie, oh dear lord. My wife can ace all the female vocals on medium, even Courtney Love; and she does a smash job with some of the high-voiced male singers like Geddy Lee (Rush) and Eric Bloom (Blue Oyster Cult), but others, it's really hard for her. Our 13-year-old daughter can bail out some songs you wouldn't think she could. But singing on medium can be rough. For example, my wife and I had to duet Bowie's Heroes (DLC), me playing lead guitar and singing the low parts, her singing the high parts, to get through on medium in band tour mode. We should have shot a video of it, it was hilarious.

My opinion: guitar. If you're new to music games, start on easy; you'll enjoy it. Then to unlock the rest, start over in medium, you'll pick it up pretty fast. Drums, my wife insists the lead guitar is much harder, but I find the drums more difficult; but I didn't really give them much of a chance -- you know, guys, lead guitars, kind of a theme. But if you go mad for the drums right off the bat, that might be your best bet. Or if you can really sing well, across styles and vocal ranges, by all means sing on medium.

Be warned: if you're new to music games or just not mad, lunatic play 24/7 with games, Vasoline (STP) and Enter Sandman (Metallica), on medium will rough you up a bit a few times. Otherwise the last set is not too bad, but the last song, not to give everything away, it's just a marathon, so take a break before you hit it.

And, yeah, now I'm sure the second poster was wrong, at least about guitar solo mode, because Vasoline and Enter Sandman weren't even available to play when I ran through RB on easy. Easy took me like no time, no fails, no repeats but I've played GH. Medium, only had to repeat Vasoline and Enter Sandman, Vasoline a couple times.

Good luck. It's fun. You'll love it. Merry Christmas.

[Black Flame Zealot]

capasdilemma is 100% correct on the way the songs are structured for unlockables. Easy on vocals/drums/guitar will give you a different mix depending on what role you're in, but you won't play the final three tiers of songs in the core game - you need to go to Medium for that.

I'm in the "never played a music game before RB" camp, and I found singing on Medium to be easiest for me. However, I was very familiar with about 80%+ of the songs in the game. I didn't even bother with Easy for vocals, but I did slog through Easy and (just finished) Medium on guitar. Yeah, Vasoline and Enter Sandman (only available in the solo tour at Medium+) nearly killed me. I estimate that I played Enter Sandman about 85 times through a combination of practice/solo tour before I got it down. I'm also working through the solo tour for drums on Easy, but that seems to be the hardest for me so far (although I've only spent about 2 hours playing drums in total).

If you know a lot of the songs and can keep your pitch, vocals will probably be easiest. If you have good manual dexterity, guitar will probably be easiest. If you have a good sense of rhythm, drums will probably be easiest.

[Harsher]

Wait if he wants to unlock all the songs in the game he must play on medium or higher, easy mode you only get like 42 songs I think and there's like 58 if I remember correctly. Those numbers could be off but you have to play medium or above to unlock all songs.

[capasdilemma]

If you know a lot of the songs and can keep your pitch, vocals will probably be easiest. If you have good manual dexterity, guitar will probably be easiest. If you have a good sense of rhythm, drums will probably be easiest.

Spot-on advice. Take me for example, I know a lot of songs, like all of them that came with RB but I can't carry a tune in a bucket, so I can sing on easy, but struggle with a lot of songs on medium. My sense of percussive rhythm is only average, so I'd have to work a bit with the drums. So it was the guitar. I have a fairly limited reach, but I took private piano instruction for eight years, still play, and I play guitar some, so I've learned to deal with my limited reach; if it's the only way, I shift hand position when I shouldn't -- my piano teacher used to practically hit me for this -- but I taught myself to shift and get back. Plus I've played GH so I know the basics of these games.

But singing on medium, as posted by Black Flame, probably the first play to try. Most people can sing better than I. I actually can manage if I practice with a coach or helpful listener. But I have some fairly severe hearing loss in both ears, so on pitch to me is not on pitch in reality, therefore I need a guide listener. Too bad there's not a 50-song Tom Waits, or even maybe a lot Dylan, collection in there for vocalists; that I could roll through on hard, I expect -- I smoke cigarettes, so that would actually help on the Waits tracks. Ha.

I'd add to Black Flame's advice, as witnessed by his diligence with Vasoline and to a much greater degree Enter Sandman -- which, by the way, both kind of slam you out of the blue -- if you practice with the guitar, you *will* get through unlocking all the songs on medium. And then you can play them on easy for fun to your heart's content. And remember DLC, some is hard, some easy, but all of it is immediately available, no difficulty settings required.

Not to gush, but this is all really a testament to Harmonix genius with music games. They are games, and there are elements of timing -- you know, proper button at correct moment -- and there are conceits to make the hard settings harder than perhaps the real songs themselves. But the games are also very musical, and it's up to the individual. I have friends who have mastered the double-strum; they just destroy the tough metal songs on hard or expert. But in GH2, Allman Brothers' Jessica, they *hate* that song even on medium. I just love that song and have forever. On medium, I can play big chunks of it without even thinking, wander around as far the USB cord will allow, not even look at the screen for some stretches, five-star it. But throw me one of those final-set metal tracks, I stumble through and barely survive.

You're going to have a blast with RB. I can almost guarantee it.