vtjustinb
10-29-2007, 03:20 PM
I'm happy to hear about everyone's great experiences with the RB demo, but unfortunately mine wasn't so great. I was really excited when I learned a local Best Buy had the demo, so after work I headed over to check it out.
I'll forward this with saying I blame all of this ordeal on Best Buy's execution of the demo. I feel confident in the retail version of RB, and I'm still really looking forward to picking my copy up. Anyways, the person in front of me on drums was definitely struggling, so I didn't think much of it, but as soon as I sat down to play In Bloom something was very wrong--the lag was terrible. I literally had to play off the beat to register a hit (on the eh's and ah's) which was kind of interesting but definitely awkward enough to keep from really enjoying the song.
The demo was set up on a 32" LG LCD using the integrated speakers, and had several default calibrations settings available (LCD A, LCD B, High Audio Lag, CRT, etc.), but after trying every setting in the game (manual calibration was unavailable) we could not get the drums to line up at all. I got a song in on guitar, but all in all the experience was pretty frustrating/disheartening so I packed it up.
I think the thing that irks me the most is not the lag, because I feel confident in RB's approach to handling lag calibration, but it's that Best Buy is trying to generate hype and sells for a game and they debut it in this essentially broken unplayable form. I don't know if it was the TV they chose, or a defective demo unit, but they definitely shouldn't have put that demo out as important as first impressions are.
This is definitely an isolated incident, but it was a pretty frustrating first impression worth talking (*****ing I guess :P) about.
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From a drummer's perspective though the drums felt great. The pads were more dead than a lot of common pad surfaces (Real-Feel or Heavy Hitter practice pads, v-drum mesh head), and you won't get a whole lot of assistance on upstrokes from rebound--if you want to do any double-strokes you'll have to throw in a little more backfinger. If I had to make an analogy to what it felt like, it's pretty close to drumming on a head that's barely tightened.
The noise was actually pretty loud. I have a pretty thin practice pad (1/4" gum rubber on top of wood) and the RB drums were a lot louder. Not as loud as neoprene, but definitely louder than a normal gum rubber practice pad.
Also, I felt like the sticks definitely need replacing when you get your copy. They were 5A-sized, but felt a little short (that might be because I've been using marching sticks for the past decade which are typically 17") which might not be a bad thing. I'm sure it's somewhere they had to cut costs at, but my sticks weren't matched and the texture of the wood was pretty brittle. I think personally I'll use 5B or bigger just to get a little of the rebound feel back.
All in all I'm beyond psyched for rocking out on these songs on the drums. i think it's going to be everything I've hoped it will, even if the BB experience of the demo was less than stellar.
I'll forward this with saying I blame all of this ordeal on Best Buy's execution of the demo. I feel confident in the retail version of RB, and I'm still really looking forward to picking my copy up. Anyways, the person in front of me on drums was definitely struggling, so I didn't think much of it, but as soon as I sat down to play In Bloom something was very wrong--the lag was terrible. I literally had to play off the beat to register a hit (on the eh's and ah's) which was kind of interesting but definitely awkward enough to keep from really enjoying the song.
The demo was set up on a 32" LG LCD using the integrated speakers, and had several default calibrations settings available (LCD A, LCD B, High Audio Lag, CRT, etc.), but after trying every setting in the game (manual calibration was unavailable) we could not get the drums to line up at all. I got a song in on guitar, but all in all the experience was pretty frustrating/disheartening so I packed it up.
I think the thing that irks me the most is not the lag, because I feel confident in RB's approach to handling lag calibration, but it's that Best Buy is trying to generate hype and sells for a game and they debut it in this essentially broken unplayable form. I don't know if it was the TV they chose, or a defective demo unit, but they definitely shouldn't have put that demo out as important as first impressions are.
This is definitely an isolated incident, but it was a pretty frustrating first impression worth talking (*****ing I guess :P) about.
-----
From a drummer's perspective though the drums felt great. The pads were more dead than a lot of common pad surfaces (Real-Feel or Heavy Hitter practice pads, v-drum mesh head), and you won't get a whole lot of assistance on upstrokes from rebound--if you want to do any double-strokes you'll have to throw in a little more backfinger. If I had to make an analogy to what it felt like, it's pretty close to drumming on a head that's barely tightened.
The noise was actually pretty loud. I have a pretty thin practice pad (1/4" gum rubber on top of wood) and the RB drums were a lot louder. Not as loud as neoprene, but definitely louder than a normal gum rubber practice pad.
Also, I felt like the sticks definitely need replacing when you get your copy. They were 5A-sized, but felt a little short (that might be because I've been using marching sticks for the past decade which are typically 17") which might not be a bad thing. I'm sure it's somewhere they had to cut costs at, but my sticks weren't matched and the texture of the wood was pretty brittle. I think personally I'll use 5B or bigger just to get a little of the rebound feel back.
All in all I'm beyond psyched for rocking out on these songs on the drums. i think it's going to be everything I've hoped it will, even if the BB experience of the demo was less than stellar.
