Current mood:	musical
Current music:	Nine Inch Nails - The Perfect Drug

Rock Band
God damnit.

So, I'll admit that I was a big fan of Donkey Konga (wiki, amazon), but none of the other rhythm games have ever interested me. I tried DDR (www, wiki, amazon) once or twice and just didn't like it at all. My cousin got Karaoke Revolution (wiki, amazon) for Christmas last year and we had some fun fooling around on that, but not enogh that I'd want to own it. I never tried Guitar Hero (www, wiki, amazon). The whole thing always seemed so silly because it was so much NOT like playing a guitar and I just didn't have any interest in it at all.

But when Rock Band (www, wiki, amazon) was coming out and they starting announcing artists that would be in the game, I saw that Nine Inch Nails (www, wiki, amazon) was going to be represented. That got me a little interested, but not interested enough to buy it or anything. That'd just be silly. I figured it was just a cross between Guitar Hero and Karaoke Revolution. Then a couple weeks ago, they came out with the first Nine Inch Nails track pack. That interested me enough to invite John to bring his 360 over so I could give it a try. I mean, I sing along to NIN all the time. I did okay at Karaoke Revolution. I've been told I'd make a good front man. I figured I could rock some vocals.

Turns out I'm a drummer.

I tried the vocals on a couple of songs. It measures not only that you're getting the syllables right, but that you're getting the pitch right (octave doesn't matter). Apparently I suck. I mean, I didn't run through the tutorial or anything, but I was playing on Easy and I failed out of the song pretty much every time. So I got bumped off vocals and onto the drums.

Did I say god damnit already? God damnit.

This was Thursday. I bought the game on my way home from work Monday after spending the entire weekend daydreaming about drumming and wrestling with the fact that I was actually going to spend $150 on a rhythm game. Holy shit it's fun. I spent at least five hours on it Monday night. Last night I had to stop after about two hours because I had spent an hour trying to get five stars on The Perfect Drug on EASY and I was worn the fuck out. That song is rough. For reference, he's someone doing it on EXPERT.


God damn. I only had time for one song this morning, but I'm working my way through the Solo tour on Easy. I'm not even going to touch Medium until I can get five stars on everything on Easy. Don't ask me why, it's just what I'm doing.

Oh yeah, and you can completely customize your character. Gender, height, weight, face, hair, clothes, accessories, instruments, tattoos. The tattoo designer is awesome. They have tons of art from different artists and you can put it together however you want. You can use the same interface to design t-shirts and decorate your instruments. I'll try to post a picture of my drummer tonight if I can get a good shot.

I haven't even tried the guitar yet. I probably will at some point. And I'll definitely buy a second one when they come out so someone can play guitar and someone else can play bass.

The song list is pretty damn impressive, and new songs are released weekly. So yeah... Rock Band = Awesome. And it's far from just being a cross between Guitar Hero and Karaoke Revolution. If anyone wants to come over and play, just let me know. I've gotta get back to work now so I can get home in time to play a few gigs in Chicago between packing and trivia night.