Lego Rock Band Pros and Cons

[adamlathrom]

Surprised I didn't see a thread on this yet, but what are your LRB pros and cons?

Pros:
I love the scores and the stars in quickplay how they alternate, would be nice to see both at same time, but this is a step in the right direction.

The story is pretty neat so far, the Ghostbusters thing was nice. My wife said, "Aww, how cute." LOL.



Cons:
Not having all my songs being playable (I understand why, but I'm 27 years old dangit :p)

Hammer ons and Pull offs aren't as noticeable as RB2 (I'm sure I'll get use to it but it would have been better if they would have used white instead of grey on the edges of the lego).


I'll come up with some more but I'm tired and if there is a thread of this already can a mod please move it.

[ghostofjarjar]

Pretty much my same opinions. I'll add on the Cons of no Leaderboards or Online co-op.

[playmike]

PROS:
the way new songs are introduced / unlocked. just.... perfect. ghostbusters and monster come to mind :)

super easy setting

auto kick drum

song multipliers via entourage/staff

reduced strobe light effect

CONS:

no online play. no XBL? fine. but i should still be able to play with my friends,

[dady5000]

PROS:
the way new songs are introduced / unlocked. just.... perfect. ghostbusters and monster come to mind :)

super easy setting

auto kick drum

song multipliers via entourage/staff

reduced strobe light effect

CONS:

no online play. no XBL? fine. but i should still be able to play with my friends,

CONS:
NO ONLINE PLAY huuuge con.
Reduced Strobe light effect is a con for me

Everything else is a pro. Awesome except the lack of online play.

[Skode]

What is an auto kick drum?

[jimbury]

the only con for me so far is having to wait another 4 weeks for it to come out.

[G_tarRoCK3R]

What is an auto kick drum?

Does the bass for you, only hit the pads

[ThunderCurls]

No exporting for the Wii.

[NoThru22]

PROS:
This has the best tracklist I've ever seen in a music game. I like every song I know and I am looking forward to playing the handful (if that) of songs I don't.

CONS:
No online and no leaderboards (was really looking forward to the leaderboards.)

[Blazez]

Thats what Exporting is for, only reason beatles has a Leaderboard.

[JoshVanHalen87]

i dont really care about online nor letterboards soo no cons for me, well, except i dont have the cash to buy it right now :(

[InsanityEx]

For Wii:

Pros:
- Summer of 69
- Lego Queen

Cons:
- No export
- No online
- No DLC*

* not yet confirmed.

[beingmused]

For Wii:
Cons:
- No DLC*

* not yet confirmed.

All family friendly DLC is LegoRB DLC - why would they make songs just for that one game, when they can count for both??

[T-Hybrid]

Surprised I didn't see a thread on this yet...
Why are you surprised? The game only launched officially like 8-9 hours ago (if you had a midnight release site). Otherwise many of the stores that would sell it aren't even open yet.

[Zidane]

Pro: Queen

[v1g1lance1]

Did I miss something? I thought we could export the tracks to RB2 for $9.99?

[eke826s]

I can't wait to get home to play this. It sounds to me like it will be more enjoyable and longer lasting than Beatles. More along the lines of the "platform" thing. I don't think I'll mind all that much that some songs don't import in. I don't download a lot of the kind of stuff that would probably be held out. No online play stinks a little bit because I want to play with friends, although my friends are cheap and probably won't buy it anyway.

[PNT510]

Did I miss something? I thought we could export the tracks to RB2 for $9.99?

Not for the Wii version.

[moose39]

PS3

Pros:
--Export
--Jimi Hendrix

Cons:
--One Jimi Hendrix song

[T-Hybrid]

Pro:
My reservation is waiting for me at BB today.

Con:
I can't go get it until around 5 or so.

[NickyStardust]

i dont really care about online nor letterboards soo no cons for me, well, except i dont have the cash to buy it right now :(

Same here...and I'm still getting it lol.

Finally getting to play some Incubus in RB will be awesome.

I just hopes stores around here have received it though...BB and Futureshop's websites have no info if they got it in stock.

[Mushroom]

Pros:
New Character Creation System
45 Great New Songs
Stars in Quickplay
Rock Challenges
Export

Cons:
Semi-Expensive Export (I'll probably leave it for a while)
DLC Filter blocking some of my favourite songs
I probably won't be able to get my hands on it until Christmas

[Behonkiss]

Pros:
My favorite setlist in the series so far
Good/funny presentation
Rock Challenges
Export
Star tracking built-in

Cons:
No online play or leaderboards
Not nearly as many songs as games in the main series
Not all DLC is compatible

[Bullseye]

Wow, I haven't seen any cons that would make me regret this. Online play has never been a selling point for me. No leaderboards, ha! Like I'm going to be in the top 100 of anything...could care less. I'm guessing the biggest CONs will be those 2000 era songs that grate on my nerves, but they're probably someone else's PROs.

[Booker]

Con: Living in the UK and having to wait till the 27th to get it :(

[NickyStardust]

Just picked this up...daam can't wait to get home!!

[princeofcups]

Pro:

Con:
- Terrible setlist. RB2 > BRB > RB1 > LRB
- Terrible graphics. Never understood why anyone would want to see toys dancing around. And yes I played with Legos when I was a kid.
- Same old game. No real improvements. Songs still locked.

Sorry, not a game for me. Just another distraction on the long road to RB3.

[adamlathrom]

Why are you surprised? The game only launched officially like 8-9 hours ago (if you had a midnight release site). Otherwise many of the stores that would sell it aren't even open yet.

Yeah, now there are a million of them going around. I was just surprised that it was 4 hours after launch that nobody was discussing.

[bradjfowler]

PRO
Being able to export the whole lot into RB2 and not having to actually play a Lego game.

CON
Having to wait until the 25th in Australia to get it (but at least we do get it this time, unlike RB2)

[Reedus]

pros:

they are legos.
very clever story presentation (especially ghostbusters).
being able to rename and customize your entire entourage/road crew.
many of the old rock band clothes/instruments are recreated in lego form.
despite not jumping for joy for the setlist, finding out that almost every song is really fun to play.
the nice surpise to find RB1 disc songs and dlc show up automatically (wasn't really clear on how that worked - I assume we wait till next week when us PS3ers can also import RB2 disc songs.)
some really nice and very animated venues.

cons:

the very clunky way the band roster system works in this game. it's a lot of trouble just to customize the NPC bandmates.
the criteria for "approved" songs from other RB's/DLC is confusing, to say the least.

that's all I can think of. I'll have to play through the game a lot more to see if there's anything else to add.

[InsanityEx]

All family friendly DLC is LegoRB DLC - why would they make songs just for that one game, when they can count for both??*sigh* I wish I knew:(

[aspiring]

pros:

I assume we wait till next week when us PS3ers can also import RB2 disc songs.)

HUH'? I think your confused. You can "export' your LEGO songs to RB2, but there is NO WAY to export your RB2 songs to LEGO.

[Pyrettablaze]

Con: In RB1 and 2, if you have to play only the RED cord, you can hold down the GREEN and RED. In LRB you can not do that.

Pro: Velosity sensor is working on the PS3!

[MnTwinzFan]

Pros:
If you fail out, you have the chance to save yourself
Great set list (Two Princes & Walking On Sunshine are my current favs. Wife loves KT Tunstall, but personally, I'd rather see Black Horse and a Cherry Tree)

Cons:
Not being able to export till Thursday of next week


Still, a huge win all around.

[JPSChampagne]

Con: In RB1 and 2, if you have to play only the RED cord, you can hold down the GREEN and RED. In LRB you can not do that.

Pro: Velosity sensor is working on the PS3!

Whoa, whoa, whoa, hold on, wait, what?

I haven't heard about that. That's a HORRIFYING gameplay change.I will never touch a single song when I get this game if that's actually how this works.

[InsanityEx]

Whoa, whoa, whoa, hold on, wait, what?

I haven't heard about that. That's a HORRIFYING gameplay change.I will never touch a single song when I get this game if that's actually how this works.I wanna join the whoa-ing! :eek: What has TTGames done to Rock Band?!

[Pyrettablaze]

Since RB1 and 2 worked that way, I was just used to how it operated. As I am sure that it really does not matter much to me since I will import them into RB2 once I finish LRB, none the less, some will see it as a difference maybe not a real 'con' so to speak.

[cherokeesam]

Con: In RB1 and 2, if you have to play only the RED cord, you can hold down the GREEN and RED. In LRB you can not do that.



You sure about that?

Because HOPOs wouldn't be able to work at all on that system. And the charts posted show the HOPOs clearly working. I think you must be mistaken on that count....

[bbruce9911]

I find once star power is engaged it is really difficult to see the notes, especially with some of the things going on in the background...i wish they would give players the option of upping or dropping the transparancy of the note chart....

also really hard to see the hopo

[Pyrettablaze]

I will go back to it tonight and check it again. Leaving the HOPOs aside, since I slide and was dropping them like crazy, I tried something simple by just holding down the green the whole time and I was dropping all other notes because it would recognize me holding down the GREEN and RED when it was only calling for RED. In RB2, you can do that without any problems.

For instance, in Satch Boogie, the section with all the HOs, you can just hold down the Green or Red (I forget which one at my desk here) and then just tap the other colors just fine even when the G or R color was not called for so long as the colors that are requested are in front of the yellow fret.

So the software will read the fret board like this it would seem. In RB2, if the game is requesting the blue fret, the system first checks to see if you are holding the orange fret, if not true, it checks the blue fret, if true then you have success.
It does not seem to check the remaining colors to see if they were being held down.


In LRB, it seems that is is going beyond that and saying this,
if( !Orange && Blue && !Yellow && !Red && !Green ) Success = true;
else Success = false;

(![color] would mean that the fret is not being held down.)

[dman7529]

I'm liking the game so far, but there are some pro's and con's.

Pro's:


The Rock Den is great! One stop area for the rock shop, practice area, viewing cut scenes, managing the band, and moving to the venue select! This is definitely something I want to see in RB3!
Being able to customize the different areas of the Rock Den.
The Rock Challenges have been good so far! I really loved the Ghostbusters one, and watching people pop out from the sides, top, and bottom of the screen to yell "Ghostbusters!" :)
Being able to buy multiple entourage members, each with their own special thing.
Being able to customize entourage and band members.

Con's:


The overly saturated 2000's setlist (23/45). It could've been more balanced, even it is targeted at young kids.
The customization can be a bit clunky at times.
I found the vocals rather hard, almost on par with GHWT and GH5.
Unlike RB1 and RB2, you can't see what you need to do, to unlock gigs in a venue.

[MooTrain]

Pros - Awesome dreamscape-like levels; Really cool level design overall.

Cons - The whole DLC debacle - it utterly kills the game for me, and I wish I had not purchased the game. Having over 50% of my DLC not available really kills the game for me. I just downloaded about 30 new songs and most of them simply aren't available. Only 19 of the songs I exported from RB1 are actually available (I think I have 49 on the drive). So even though I appreciate the cool new levels and outfits, I don't get to enjoy them because we're pandering to the marginalized. I have no idea which songs are missing - I just know I'm missing a lot of songs.

Speaking of the songs I just downloaded - The Queen debacle. I know there's multiple threads about it. However, the songs being grayed out without explanation in the game is just stupid.

I should just export the songs and put them onto my RB2 disc. However, I'm completely bored with RB2 and hoped that Lego Rock Band would be the refresher that I was longing for.

[Kidmitt]

Pros:
-The classic songs everybody knows
-In the 2000's over-saturation I've never heard of, my wife has actually heard and knows the words to a number of songs, which justifies the purchase a bit more
-Rock Den is cool. So is customization.

Cons:
-Awesome is no longer good enough for a mediocre vocalist like me
-Lack of female faces (at least early on, just finished Ghostbusters yesterday)
-Skin color is part of the clothes. At least where I've gotten you can't have a black face without yellow skin on the arms unless you want to wear Mothership Q's shirt. Same goes for females since they're all fleshy tones so far. Maybe this changes down the road.
-I wish I could customize the vehicles. Maybe you can and I haven't found it yet.

[randrac]

Overall, a fun game still, but I was mildly disappointed.

Pros:
1. Lego theme is incorporated well
2. Animations are funny
3. What songs we do get to import, imported seamlessly
4. "Hard" guitar seems a bit more balanced than on RB2 - It may be just my imagination, but in RB2 I am struggling to make the leap from Medium to Hard on guitar. The speed increase plus introduction of Orange plus possibility of triple chords throws me on some more difficult songs. On Lego RB, I was able to score above 90% on a Hard 5-Star song that didn't feel inappropriately labelled. I think in RB2 they have always needed a setting between Medium and Hard that adds the Orange fret, but not the increased speed that accompnied it.

Cons:
1. Disappointing track list (in my opinion) - I only liked a handful of songs on the entire disc. I am a huge HMX/RB fan, but I have to say the track listing for Band Hero wins big time over Lego RB.
2. Lack of exportability at launch for PS3 - This is a big downer. I wish PS3 users would get the same treatment as 360 users. :( I had hoped to have the songs imported for a RB party I planned for this weekend, since I had assumed we would have the music imported by Thursday's PSN update.
3. Limited flexibility in character generation, at least at the start. Assuming this will improve as I collect more pieces.
4. A few songs feel like the vocal pitch tracking is slightly off in places.

[Kidmitt]

You sure about that?

Because HOPOs wouldn't be able to work at all on that system. And the charts posted show the HOPOs clearly working. I think you must be mistaken on that count....

I can confirm that this is not the case. I played the slow trill on Grace by anchoring yellow and only playing the blues, just like you can do on RB1/RB2. I can't say for the case of non-HOPOs, but I don't see why it'd work any differently there.

[Kidmitt]

4. If there is a "No Fail" mode, I haven't found it yet. My 7 yr old was able to survive on Super Easy mode, so it hasn't been a problem, but it is surprising that it is lacking a "No Fail" safety net when it is geared for a younger crowd.


That's because you can't fail. Ever. You just lose some of your score, which can be gained back.

[randrac]

That's because you can't fail. Ever. You just lose some of your score, which can be gained back.

Okay, that makes sense. Guess it would help to read the directions. :) I spent about 5 minutes searching the menus to turn it on. I'm just used to doing that when my 7 yr old plays or we have kids over. Thanks.

[folkeye]

Pros:
1. It's Lego, It's Rock Band...
2. I like the collective score system. What you score in band is the studs you receive for money.
3. The Lego humor is always awesome. The battles I've come across have made me laugh pretty hard.
4. It's got a fun setlist so far. (Nothing I've really cringed at yet.... YET).
5. Customizing most everything about your band is cool.
6. MOST my DLC transferred so that was a pro in this case.

Cons:
1. Yeah I knew there was no online play, but I wish you could at least play with the designated friends on your buddy list.
2. I probably missed it, but in tour mode I couldn't see the song difficulty before playing it so that is kind of annoying when picking play level. (I know it's there in 'build a setlist').
3. Not being able to match 'skin tone' of the characters when creating them. In Lego Starwars, and Indiana Jones they at least had it so you could swap out hands without doing the whole outfit or body, so thats too bad they didn't have this feature.
4. Many, many loading screens....

[Rock_Band_Over]

After having played,

Pro: The game is really awesome to watch for all the reasons mentioned by others (super easy + vocals create a virtual auto-play mode that makes this possible whenever you want).

Con(?): It's more fun to watch than play. I really prefer the RB chart design and most things are more streamlined in RB if you want to play sets/songs (moving from city to city is much faster than vehicle to vehicle in LRB). Am I the only one that feels like load times are kind of long compared to RB (and there's a lot more loading screens to boot)?

Still, this has to be one of the best party games for almost any group you may have over.

[Lord_Mhoram]

For me -

Cons -
I don't have much here- I never play online (360- and I don't do gold membership for live) so the loss of that means nothing to me.
I expected not to be able to play all DLC on it, so that doesn't bug me.
Chord Hopos - I strum them many times anyway so I don't see much difference there either.

Pros-
Setlist - I consider it the best on disc setlist of any music game that has come out yet (Rocks the 80s and Band Hero being the other close ones). I enjoy some metal, but I hate hate hate cookie monster vocals. So every game has at least a song or two I realy don't like to play. I like every song on Lego RB. I play these games for the music more than anything else, so that makes a big difference.

Den - I love the way this is handled, as well as the extra info in the office.

Misc - you get a louder tone when you get the fifth star. I like that. :)

[BevoTheWarrior]

The biggest con for me is the look of the HOPO notes. When they come in quick succession with the regular notes, it's hard for me to decipher which is a HOPO and which needs to be strummed, so I end up breaking my multiplier.

[Drama 313]

Great game only problem is not being able to pick and choose what songs i want to export to RB2, i dont want to be forced to have all the songs. I got no problem paying to export whatsoever, just really upset i have to take all the songs and not only a handful.

[calabrel]

I'm hoping you guys can answer these, as I have my Lego Rock Band still on order:

To preface, I have a PS3 and will be getting that version of LEGO Rock Band.

1. Auto-kick mode, can you use this for any difficulty on drums (expert included)? This would be awesome, because it'll mean that my girlfriend will stop making me do the bass drum for her while I play expert guitar... that can be difficult.

2. I'm assuming from previous posts that DLC is allowed, but not all of it. Is it also fair to assume that the auto-kick will work for that DLC?

3. Going partly with question two. Any idea how they chose which DLC songs to omit?

[AviStetto]

Pro:
E10 rating for family-friendly Rock Band. Some people are complaining that some songs can't be played in LRB. Rather than complaining about that, I laud it as a positive.

[oogabooha]

It still annoys me that there is not SP if you play the story mode...I would love to play the songs and get my scores for SH, but I cant use SP

[TKS]

I'm hoping you guys can answer these, as I have my Lego Rock Band still on order:

To preface, I have a PS3 and will be getting that version of LEGO Rock Band.

1. Auto-kick mode, can you use this for any difficulty on drums (expert included)? This would be awesome, because it'll mean that my girlfriend will stop making me do the bass drum for her while I play expert guitar... that can be difficult.

2. I'm assuming from previous posts that DLC is allowed, but not all of it. Is it also fair to assume that the auto-kick will work for that DLC?

3. Going partly with question two. Any idea how they chose which DLC songs to omit?
yes and yes for number 1 and two . for number three : they have a group of people that went through each song and decided whether it was family friendly or not , if it's not then it don't go in lego .

[BevoTheWarrior]

New con for me: "Walking On Sunshine" is a re-record.

[ScottyTheBody]

PROS:

-Fun gameplay
-modifying band mates, entourage and manager, studio, etc. are cool
-Story is cool
-albums are awesome too
-songs before 2000 are pretty good imo
-exports

CONS:

- no online play
- WAY TOO MANY LOADING screens. I spend WAY too much time waiting to play like one song.
-HO's/PO's are sometimes hard to notice from regular notes. They just don't stand out as much to me.
-albums and modifications are still too simple. I understand it is a "kids" game but it's a con for me
-songs after 2000 are pretty bad imo
-export is delayed for PS3

[raahsnavj]

Pros:
- Kid friendly. I have a 4 and 6 year old. I get frustrated trying to teach them RB2 or RB1. Super Easy mode is a flipping God send.

- Funny cut scenes. I think the whole Lego feel is a huge pro.

- Auto bass pedal. Again, thank you! Many people suck at drums (myself included) and the only thing keeping them from having any fun with them is that blasted bass pedal. Medium was too tedious and missing all the fun hand work, Hard was too complicated do to the drum pedal. Having the option to turn it on auto or not really helps lower the barrier of entry. Drums are fun again and people can finally play on Hard and Expert along with the rest of the band.

- Lots to customize, like the band den, people to hire, you can even change what all the extras look like. Wow!

Cons:
- Lots of loading screens... everywhere you go there is another one.

- Missing DLC. half of the RB1 songs are missing, as well as a LOT of the DLC I have. I know they aimed for E10 on the ESRB, but then underneath the label it says "DLC not rated by ESRB" - This means they could have slapped a E10 on the front and still allowed ALL the DLC to transfer over. It would have been easy enough to make another option on the Extras menu to filter content if they really wanted that. Password protect it if the parents are that worried...

- On the same note, dealing with song imports, no RB2 import into LRB (see closing statements of why this is a problem)

- No quick drop in, drop out of band members. And forced play of 1 singer, 1 guitarist, 1 bassist, 1 drummer. Let me play with whatever arrangement of instruments I want and make it so when someone gets bored or wants out, they can leave mid-song.

- No auto-detecting what DLC I already have on my system and saying 'purchased' in the Music Store. Just to make sure I don't accidentally
buy the same songs multiple times I'll have to just keep buying only when I put in the RB2 disc.


Overall -
Here's hoping RB3 comes out soon and fixes the cons and provides the benefit of the added features and a way to sort all the songs (and have custom rankings so I can sort based on how much I like them)

It is too bad LRB couldn't fix the DLC problem. It's has a lot more features I want during parties and get-togethers, but with all the missing songs I feel like RB took the Activision road and pushed out a poor cash-in that didn't build up the brand.

I understand with Beatles RB the pretentious licensing probably prevented integrating them into the RB brand, but this game should have been a new hub for all things RB. Instead we now have two 'separate' or 'brand destructive' games in a row... I'm worried for RB3.

[bjyaritz]

I love the fact that you can save yourself on expert when you would have failed on other RB games. I hope this will be around for new titles especially RB3. It's a real drag when you play a long setlist and get Visions or Painkiller after already playing 7, 8 or 80 songs before hand only to fail. The studs in LEGO was a great idea and maybe in RB3 they can use cash ( you loose money or band rating decreases if you need to save yourself ). It keeps the song going and all players involved don't get mad because another cannot beat the current song. Just an idea for future tiles. Everyone I have talked to loves it.

[ktmason]

Ok, here is one question i did not see answered.....can you keep BOTH LRB and RB2 on the same console and they both work? In other words....can you play RB2,....then have the kids come in and play LRB with no probs....will the LRB songs transfer to RB2 and still work in the LRB?

I know this could be a little confusing, I hope you all understand what I am asking.

[Rock_Band_Over]

Ok, here is one question i did not see answered.....can you keep BOTH LRB and RB2 on the same console and they both work? In other words....can you play RB2,....then have the kids come in and play LRB with no probs....will the LRB songs transfer to RB2 and still work in the LRB?

I know this could be a little confusing, I hope you all understand what I am asking.

If you're asking if the Lego Rock Band disc becomes useless if you export the songs, the answer is "of course not!"

The only 'restriction' I think people have been discussing is that you can only export the songs once.

[ktmason]

Ok, thanks, then my NEXT question would be......after you EXPORT to RB2, can you still INPORT to LRB???

I want to be able to play the set in RB2 for me, but want my grandkids to be able to play as much as possible in LRB.

[zachman3000]

Pros:
The Setlist, or at least half of it. Songs like Accidentally In Love, Ghostbusters, Final Countdown, all rock

The LEGO: The humor grabs me. The little movies that come inbetween venues are just absurd. The creativity alone is great.

The ROCK challenges: I didn't think much of these, until I saw they are basically LEGO Music Videos of the songs. A couple of them were weak (Breakout especially), b ut overall, they were enjoyable.
Not to mention, any game that makes playing So What by Pink mildly amusing deserves at least a rental.

Cons:
Barring DLC incompatiblity and the oddities that ensues, the game loads. a LOT. and takes FOREVER to do so.

The Setlist: There are some horrible cringe-worthy songs. I find myself wanting to hit the Short Version of some of the later-era songs just to get past them faster.

The Charts: Did HMX outsource the charting to Neversoft's GH3 team? Some of the charts in this game are downright horrid. Rooftops and Kung Fu Fighting's Guitar charts are especially worth mention. It seems like fast-chordy-sturmming songs are this games "difficulty" at times.

[Rock_Band_Over]

Ok, thanks, then my NEXT question would be......after you EXPORT to RB2, can you still INPORT to LRB???

I want to be able to play the set in RB2 for me, but want my grandkids to be able to play as much as possible in LRB.

Sure, but it's not exactly the same process... the family-approved DLC you already have for RB just shows up as available within Lego Rock Band.

So basically the 'import' is free but it's also automatic and not optional (as far as I know).

These are some lucky grandkids with really cool grandparents.

[ktmason]

Thanks a bunch RBO, really appreciate it.

I am 60....played real bass for about 30 years. Retired hippie, and retired USAF......rocked the whole time in small service member bands in Japan, Germany and Alaska.

I consider RB more of a "concert simulator" than a game. Really have fun turning up the PS3 and stereo to 95 decibles when the wife isnt home and going for it. Just made my 12 y.o. grandson a Beatles fan with TB:RB. Unfortunately, he now goes around school singing Maxwell's Silver Hammer---kinda scares me!!!!!

Again, Thanks!

Rock on

[Nev3rend3r]

i'm loving the game. My only problem is i have less than 1GB left on my 360 hard drive so it's going to cost me a crap load to export these songs. When will the 120GB drive price drop!??