Post by Gilvan Blight on Apr 23, 2009 9:34:56 GMT -5
Okay I had a rather lengthy review written up for this already but lost it due to an IE error. Very frustrating. Here's a shorter version.
[glow=blue,2,300]Summary:[/glow]Due to hating the sound of the Rock Band one drums and doing some research on silencers I decided to upgrade my RB 1 instruments by buying the RB2 special edition. This included the game, a new mic, a new wireless guitar and a new set of wireless drums. A USB hub was not included like the first one as only the mic needs a port now. This also included batteries for the wireless components.
[glow=Green,2,300]The Good:[/glow]
Drums: The new drums are wireless, which is a bonus in a house with a little girl and a cat. They are also at least 50-70% quieter then the RB one drums, which is awesome. In addition they are velocity sensitive and rebound a lot better then the old ones (good for rolls even when you aren't that good at them yet like me). One thing I didn't know I was getting with them is expansion ports for adding Cymbals. A rather cool bonus. They also look a lot better then the old ones with black pads, that include a reinforced sweet spot on each pad. Lastly the kick pedal is greatly improved with a metal plate covering the length of it.
Guitar: wireless which is good and looks a lot nicer. The best feature though is a sensor for calibrating the game to your TV and sound system. I can't believe how far off my settings were. I'm amazed that anyone could even play this game with my settings.
[glow=yellow,2,300]The Bad:[/glow]No actual gameplay change on the guitar. Sure it looks better and it has that great autoconfig thing but there don't seem to be any actual gameplay improvements with the guitar. Drum slide. Now I wouldn't actually complain about this if I had this problem with the RB1 set but I didn't. I've noticed that as I am playing drums the set slowly moves away from me and turns on the right side (kick pedal side). This gets rather annoying and I will probably have to add something to the bottom of the stand for playing on my carpeted floor. Not a huge issue by annoying until I find a solution. I would expect this issue with the set, but never had the problem with the RB1 set and I can't see what they changed.
[glow=red,2,300]The Ugly:[/glow]The Mic in this is pointless if you have one already. The only actual change is that there was a plastic bit on the cable that had a huge RB Mic logo on it, this is 80% smaller on the new one, though it doesn't seem to make any difference. This wouldn't even be an issue if there was away to play Duets or some other way to have two singers in your band but that's currently not a RB option. What really frustrated me is that I had originally bought this at Best Buy as an Open Box item, but when I got home the Guitar Didn't work so I had to return it, I then bought a copy from Zeher's down the street. What the piss off was is that both versions were different and the best buy one was better. The differences I noticed were both with the drums. The Best Buy set had nicer drum sticks. They were lacquered and had a new logo on them. The best buy drum stand also had notches on it which would be great for re-setting your drums to the perfect spot after someone messes with them. What's odd is there was no differences in the boxes or packaging so it seems to be a crap shoot when you buy whether or not you get the new and improved stuff.
[glow=purple,2,300]Overall:[/glow] If you don't have RB1 instruments this is a no brainier, don't even bother with the RB1 set. If you do have the RB one set then you have some choices. If you really enjoy playing drums then I strongly suggest picking this up (or at least the stand alone wireless drums if they are ever not out of stock). The new drums are great compared to the old ones, especially if you get the improved set. The rest of the set isn't really that much better though. I loved the autoconfig on the guitar but once that was done I would have been happy with the old one. It would be great if you could rent the new guitar, bring it home and calibrate then return it. I will probably continue to use the wireless guitar hero guitars to play my copy of RB2. The mic is pointless if you already have one. So overall if you drum get a new set of drums somehow. The new set may be worth it for you or just picking up new drums could make you happy. You should be able to get pretty good money for your old set still and you will end up with a sealed copy of the RB2 game so that re-coups most of the cost of the new set making it seem worth it to me.
[glow=blue,2,300]Summary:[/glow]Due to hating the sound of the Rock Band one drums and doing some research on silencers I decided to upgrade my RB 1 instruments by buying the RB2 special edition. This included the game, a new mic, a new wireless guitar and a new set of wireless drums. A USB hub was not included like the first one as only the mic needs a port now. This also included batteries for the wireless components.
[glow=Green,2,300]The Good:[/glow]
Drums: The new drums are wireless, which is a bonus in a house with a little girl and a cat. They are also at least 50-70% quieter then the RB one drums, which is awesome. In addition they are velocity sensitive and rebound a lot better then the old ones (good for rolls even when you aren't that good at them yet like me). One thing I didn't know I was getting with them is expansion ports for adding Cymbals. A rather cool bonus. They also look a lot better then the old ones with black pads, that include a reinforced sweet spot on each pad. Lastly the kick pedal is greatly improved with a metal plate covering the length of it.
Guitar: wireless which is good and looks a lot nicer. The best feature though is a sensor for calibrating the game to your TV and sound system. I can't believe how far off my settings were. I'm amazed that anyone could even play this game with my settings.
[glow=yellow,2,300]The Bad:[/glow]No actual gameplay change on the guitar. Sure it looks better and it has that great autoconfig thing but there don't seem to be any actual gameplay improvements with the guitar. Drum slide. Now I wouldn't actually complain about this if I had this problem with the RB1 set but I didn't. I've noticed that as I am playing drums the set slowly moves away from me and turns on the right side (kick pedal side). This gets rather annoying and I will probably have to add something to the bottom of the stand for playing on my carpeted floor. Not a huge issue by annoying until I find a solution. I would expect this issue with the set, but never had the problem with the RB1 set and I can't see what they changed.
[glow=red,2,300]The Ugly:[/glow]The Mic in this is pointless if you have one already. The only actual change is that there was a plastic bit on the cable that had a huge RB Mic logo on it, this is 80% smaller on the new one, though it doesn't seem to make any difference. This wouldn't even be an issue if there was away to play Duets or some other way to have two singers in your band but that's currently not a RB option. What really frustrated me is that I had originally bought this at Best Buy as an Open Box item, but when I got home the Guitar Didn't work so I had to return it, I then bought a copy from Zeher's down the street. What the piss off was is that both versions were different and the best buy one was better. The differences I noticed were both with the drums. The Best Buy set had nicer drum sticks. They were lacquered and had a new logo on them. The best buy drum stand also had notches on it which would be great for re-setting your drums to the perfect spot after someone messes with them. What's odd is there was no differences in the boxes or packaging so it seems to be a crap shoot when you buy whether or not you get the new and improved stuff.
[glow=purple,2,300]Overall:[/glow] If you don't have RB1 instruments this is a no brainier, don't even bother with the RB1 set. If you do have the RB one set then you have some choices. If you really enjoy playing drums then I strongly suggest picking this up (or at least the stand alone wireless drums if they are ever not out of stock). The new drums are great compared to the old ones, especially if you get the improved set. The rest of the set isn't really that much better though. I loved the autoconfig on the guitar but once that was done I would have been happy with the old one. It would be great if you could rent the new guitar, bring it home and calibrate then return it. I will probably continue to use the wireless guitar hero guitars to play my copy of RB2. The mic is pointless if you already have one. So overall if you drum get a new set of drums somehow. The new set may be worth it for you or just picking up new drums could make you happy. You should be able to get pretty good money for your old set still and you will end up with a sealed copy of the RB2 game so that re-coups most of the cost of the new set making it seem worth it to me.