PS2 clarification and comments...plss..

[tolitz]

i'm planning to buy the ps2 version and would just
like to officially clarify some points first.. and ask for some
comments or suggestions...:confused:

first, would the ps2 bundle.. meaning all the
controllers.. drums.. mic.. guitar.. would work on the ps3??
i've read it on gamespot and would just like an official clarification
cause i'm planning to buy a ps3 later next year.. and just making sure it would be
a good investment..

second, is the bundle made of the same materials
as those of its counterparts in the ps3 and 360??:D
or is it a crappy version of it??:(

third, when will it be officially available on a larger scale??
i mean everywhere...
i've read some threads and visited some sites but never
had a single-uniform-official news concerning the release date..

and lastly, would a cd-less bundle be available??
(guitar, mic and drum controllers only without game CD)
cause a friend of mine is planning to buy the cd only
so maybe we could make some arrangements.

thanks a lot...
and for the people out there who have already seen, played and read about
the game feel free to reply, comment, suggest or violenty react..:)

[HMXJohnlok]

Hey, I worked on Rock Band (Project Leader), and wanted to respond to this thread to give everyone a bit of insight about how we made the choices we did in developing the PS2 version.

The PS2 version of Rock Band was developed by Pi, but we were closely involved with development and feature selection at every step. They did an awesome job, and totally delivered on the spec that we developed. During development we had to make choices to ensure the best game possible for the system. When we were addressing challenges in getting Rock Band onto the PS2, we chose to prioritize core gameplay. You can play 4-player songs at Expert, and the framerate is a reliable 60 FPS, because this was the priority for us, as it has been with every rhythm action game we've ever made.

--From a development perspective, there are two main reasons we couldn’t support character creation on the PS2 version.
1. The characters designed by the character creator on the 360 and PS3 are very processor-expensive to render, because the system was designed assuming next-gen graphics power. Down-rezzing that system to fit on the PS2 would have been a huge undertaking, and the results would not have looked good. Remember, ALL 4 CHARACTERS have to look good in Rock Band.
2. The 4-player track graphics alone are a big rendering burden for the PS2, especially at the harder difficulties when there are lots of notes on screen. For it to play well, we have to guarantee 60 FPS at all times, which in practice means that it has to be optimized for the worst-case scenario (in case you are curious, it’s Run to the Hills, 4-player, expert). The vocal pitch analysis chews up still more processing time. So, once the core game was implemented, there was very little processing power left over for complex character and venue rendering. FWIW, on-disc space was not the primary concern.
noi
Since we knew we couldn’t do everything we would have liked, our choice was to focus on the gameplay. We stand behind that choice, and we think that being able to play 4-player Rock Band on a $129.00 console is actually pretty cool. I hope this explains some of the reasoning that went into the development of the PS2. We didn’t just dump it off, we were totally focused on it, and we think we made reasonable calls, given the trade-offs we were faced with. While we would have loved to fit all of the next gen features into the PS2 version, we’ve still ended up with a great game that we’re proud of and that we think PS2 users will enjoy.

From our Project Leader Greg, give it a read when you get a chance... I'm locking this thread however since there are already discussions on this topic :)