Rock Band 2 Software Update Notes

hmxspraynwipe · #1 09-25-2009, 12:06 PM

Xbox 360:

Hi! I’m Dan Teasdale, and I’m the Lead Designer on Rock Band 2 (HMXspraynwipe on the forums). On behalf of both the Rock Band 2 and Rock Band Network teams, I’m proud to be able to announce that we’ve finalized a software update for Rock Band 2 that addresses some common requests and adds some great new functionality!

In this latest software update, you’ll find:

Rock Band Network Audition Mode. Available from the “Extras” menu on Xbox 360 versions of Rock Band 2, members of the Rock Band Network can now upload songs from their PC’s and audition their songs using our suite of song audition and testing tools. Currently in closed beta, the Rock Band Network will welcome authors to open beta in the coming weeks! Find out more at http://creators.rockband.com
“Sort by Stars” in Quickplay. If you hit the “Sort” button on the Song Select screen, you’ll come to a brand new sort that orders songs by the star ratings that you’ve achieved on each song. Each star rating gets a category, as well as an “Unplayed” category for songs that don’t have a star rating recorded. Finally, you can record your progress towards gold starring every song in your library!
Background Downloading in the Music Store. Purchasing songs from the Rock Band Music Store now no longer requires you to wait for a song to download before you can download another song. You can now queue up downloads to your heart’s content, which is going to be incredibly handy with some of the amazing DLC that’s coming out over the next few weeks and months.
Xbox 360 Wireless Microphone Support. Rock Band 2 now supports Xbox 360 Wireless Microphones, like the Lips microphone. Finally, you can now have a fully wireless Rock Band experience!
Chord HOPO improvements: If you’ve played The Beatles: Rock Band, you’ll notice much more robust handling of chord hammer-ons and pull-offs. This patch implements those changes in Rock Band 2 to provide a more natural chord hammer-on/pull-off experience.
Velocity Sensitivity on Ion Drum Kits: Ion Drum kits now support velocity sensitivity in both drum fills and Drum Freestyle mode.

Special thanks needs to go out to the Rock Band Network team for their hard work in building the infrastructure and tools for everybody to be able to submit and sell their songs. Integrating this experience seamlessly into a Rock Band 2 update is no mean feat, and they’ve been toiling away for over a year to provide both authors and players with the best ways to experience the deluge of new songs that will be available very soon.

This update also wouldn’t be possible without the feedback and suggestions that we receive from our community. The Rock Band team reads and considers almost all of the suggestions and requests posted on our forums, and there are many details of this update that wouldn’t have been possible without the well reasoned arguments and discussion that occurs on rockband.com. Thanks again for being an awesome community!

-DanT

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PlayStation 3 (***NEW***)

Hi again! I’m Dan Teasdale, and I’m the Lead Designer on Rock Band 2 (HMXspraynwipe on the forums). On behalf of both the Rock Band 2 and Rock Band Network teams, I’m proud to be able to announce that we’ve finalized a software update for the PlayStation 3 version of Rock Band 2 that addresses some common requests and adds some great new functionality!

This update includes:

“Sort by Stars” in Quickplay. If you hit the “Sort” button on the Song Select screen, you’ll come to a brand new sort that orders songs by the star ratings that you’ve achieved on each song. Each star rating gets a category, as well as an “Unplayed” category for songs that don’t have a star rating recorded. Finally, you can record your progress towards gold starring every song in your library!
Improved "Sort by Stars" fix: Players will not have to beat a previous high score to record a star rating for their songs.
Chord HOPO improvements: If you’ve played The Beatles: Rock Band, you’ll notice much more robust handling of chord hammer-ons and pull-offs. This patch implements those changes in Rock Band 2 to provide a more natural chord hammer-on/pull-off experience.
Velocity Sensitivity on Ion Drum Kits: Ion Drum kits now support velocity sensitivity in both drum fills and Drum Freestyle mode.
Rock Band Network Store Support: When the Rock Band Network goes live, select songs will be available for PlayStation 3 users through a new storefront available in game. Stay tuned for more information closer to the launch of RBN!
SingStar Wireless Microphone Support. Rock Band 2 now supports the SingStar Wireless Microphones available through Europe! Finally, you can now have a fully wireless Rock Band experience on PlayStation 3!

We're extremely happy to be able to finally release this update for the PlayStation 3 version of Rock Band 2. We know many of you are rabid PlayStation 3 rockers, and it's a priority for us to make sure that everyone gets the best experience playing Rock Band, regardless of console. Waiting is never fun, but rest assured we are doing everything possible to reduce the time between updates for all platforms for future games. On behalf of everyone here, thank you for your patience!

This update also wouldn’t be possible without the feedback and suggestions that we receive from our community. The Rock Band team reads and considers almost all of the suggestions and requests posted on our forums, and there are many details of this update that wouldn’t have been possible without the well reasoned arguments and discussion that occurs on rockband.com. Thanks again for being an awesome community!

-DanT

**hmxsean** · #2 09-25-2009, 12:08 PM

Regarding the Star Sorting functionality-

The intended functionality is this: there is a new “Sort” category on the Song Select screen. This sort orders your songs by star ratings in a series of categories based on number of stars achieved, including an Unplayed category. It should be noted that all songs are listed as “Unplayed” when you first get the title update.

Some people have noticed that after playing a song it remains “Unplayed”. We are aware of this issue and are looking into a way to fix it. In the mean time the workaround is to beat your previous high score. If you get a higher score the song will appear properly in the “Sort by Stars” categories.

master2uall · #3 09-25-2009, 12:08 PM

Ok cool, but when does it come out for the ps3?

OrdealByFire · #4 09-25-2009, 12:09 PM

Not a bad update.

Thanks.

**hmxsean** · #5 09-25-2009, 12:10 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by master2uall

Ok cool, but when does it come out for the ps3?

When it is finished and passes through cert. We have people working daily on it (as we have for months) and hope to have it out as soon as possible.

master2uall · #6 09-25-2009, 12:15 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by hmxsean

When it is finished and passes through cert. We have people working daily on it (as we have for months) and hope to have it out as soon as possible.

Cool, thanks for the quick answer, just hope it ain't another stay tuned like the big hair bands thread. LOL.

monkeyfish · #7 09-25-2009, 12:18 PM

Awesome sauce patch, amigos. Cured 90% of the problems in the game, and you're (hopefully) working on the stars thing so people can shut up about it.

Ehfahq · #8 09-25-2009, 12:19 PM

I just want to say thank you guys for the hard work. And for getting out a patch when most companys wouldnt. Its been a year and you are still supporting.

Thanks.

adamlathrom · #9 09-25-2009, 12:19 PM

Does the stars work for multiplayer?

Edit: Regardless or not, thanks HMX for getting us what we've wanted.

quinaking · #10 09-25-2009, 12:20 PM

Take it you anti Forum Hype Machine people! You can not resist us!