AnonymousBroccoli

I'm pretty sure the only one I've tried is Miner Dig Deep, which I saw recommended. It's not too bad. The trial didn't last long, though. http://marketplace.xbox.com/en-US/games/of...00-000058550182 200MSP is more like $2.50US, for what it's worth.

The Orange Box is $9.99USD on Steam this weekend. http://store.steampowered.com/sub/469/

http://www.rockband.com/forums/showthread.php?t=136759

http://www.rockband.com/forums/showthread.php?t=136243

There's some tricky chord changes in "Headphones On" on guitar. Some of the free and/or kids songs actually aren't bad. "Promised Land" is a little dry through most of the song, but has a decent solo. "Body I Occupy" by The Naked Brothers is supposed to be really good on drums, and it's only a buck.

New Xbox 360 Elite Game of the Year bundle: includes Halo 3 & Fable II http://majornelson.com/archive/2009/04/20/...ear-bundle.aspx

http://www.rockband.com/forums/showthread.php?t=135416

I guess the one thing to consider is that if you buy Rock Band 2 used, it's possible you won't get a code for the 20 bonus songs. It's on the back of the instruction manual, and can only be redeemed for one Xbox Live/PlayStation Network account. There's a few good tunes in there, and you can't buy them separately. The Rock Band 1 hardware is not all that great. It's not especially reliable, and there's only a 60-day manufacturer's warranty. I believe they still pay for shipping for RMAs, though, which is more than I can say for RedOctane/Activision. If you're worried about noise, the RB1 drums would be your worst option. The pads are pretty loud. Maybe check out Costco. I remember hearing about a deal on either the Guitar Hero III or Guitar Hero: Aerosmith guitar bundles for about $30. Neither game is all that great, IMO (and GH:A is either $5 or $10 at EB now), but that's a pretty decent deal even for just a guitar. If you decide you do want to go that route, I think the Rock Band 2 bundles are $150 at Wal-Mart now.

http://www.rockband.com/forums/showthread.php?t=133929

Press release for Rock Band Unplugged on the PSP, coming June 9th, with a PSP bundle announced as well: http://www.rockband.com/forums/showthread.php?t=133487 And of interest for non-PSPers:

You can now buy some Xbox Live Marketplace items (might just be Arcade games) and points via Amazon.com. US only. http://www.amazon.com/xboxlive Also, Penny Arcade Episode 1 is 800MSP this week--50% off regular price. Gold members only. http://marketplace.xbox.com/en-US/games/of...00-00005841090d

A little "Warriors of Time":

I LOVE AC/DC (Note: I do not love AC/DC.)

I guess it depends on which kit you start with. I had problems with the GH kit, making my brain remember that blue was the second pad. And the lanes alternated between pads and cymbals. I'm used to just going left and right, never mind up and down. That sounds about right. When you're playing with just the standard kit in Rock Band 2, during fills, you're just making snare and tom sounds. If you've got cymbal attachments, they'll make cymbal sounds. Unfortunately, for songs like "Everlong" or "Orange Crush", the hi-hat is still charted to Red, so there's not really any good way to set up the cymbal attachments there. I don't think you can set the cymbal attachment to red, and even if you could, the chart might switch snare and hi-hat around between red and yellow in the middle of the song anyways. I know it does in "DOA" by Foo Fighters, for example.

Two pedals would come in handy for the likes of Disturbed and All that Remains, but they weren't charted with double bass in mind. There's a lot of Rock Band songs that are very much under-charted on bass drum for the sake of a single pedal. And I think Expert+ is new with GH: Metallica.

AC/DC Track Pack $9.99 at EB Canada starting Sunday.

There is no Rock Band 2 DLC. It all works with the first and second game. No need to transfer licenses, or re-download for both games, or anything like that. (I'm not sure if it'll work with a Track Pack disc, though I kind of doubt it.) I think even the 20 bonus tracks you get with RB2 can be used with the RB1 disc. It's more the Guitar Hero end of things where you have to worry about DLC not crossing from game to game. (The exception being Death Magnetic working in GHIII, GHWT, and GH: Metallica.) And the export tool is on PS3 as well.

"Warriors of Time" should be familiar to anyone who plays NHL 09 with the default soundtrack.

http://www.rockband.com/forums/showthread.php?t=132509

http://www.rockband.com/forums/showthread.php?t=130967

Last week, Fable (original Xbox) was 800MSP (down from 1,200MSP regular... way too much for an Xbox download, IMO). This week's amazing deal is 20% off a mission pack for Battlestations: Midway. I don't know if this is going to be a regular thing or not.

Somewhat unofficial pre-announcement for this week's DLC:

I finished the album challenge, and strangely enough, they excluded "Master/Slave". It's pretty much the "Silver" of the pack, apparently. Still, I'm not sure what that's about. And this purchase puts me over 100 downloaded tracks.

Ten "Once" is sooo good on drums. I'm actually hitting a few difficult bits today too. Red to yellow to green roll at about 5:36 on "Black": http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2bdsdDkptmM And then I think I hit the similar bit once at about 5:04 on "Alive". http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q041GgzrClg