Yeah, I think you still need to buy songs in advance of parties (I'm doing just that in the coming weeks for a friend who specifically wants to sing a bunch of Billy Joel tunes). Thankfully, on PS4 at least, buying songs is way way way faster than it was last generation. Buying an individual song from within RB3 took…

Drums still have a "pro" mode with the cymbal attachments, and the new drum set seemed to have a sturdier build for attaching those add-ons (in the off chance that you have the cymbals but need a new drum kit). You can no longer use that high-end ION electronic drumset that worked with older versions of Rock Band,…

I mentioned the game to a DJ friend last week and she was excited for the exact same reason. I downloaded the stems from TV On The Radio's "Wolf Like Me" that way a while back and listening to the separated parts was fascinating.

Here's a quick video of that PS4 lightbar feature I mentioned.

I believe you're thinking of the new Guitar Hero and its "GHTV" mode. From what I've heard, that's sort of a free-to-play model, where you can play whatever is currently streaming on their MTV-style broadcast for free or you can earn credits in-game (or buy them with real dollars) to rent-or-buy the songs of your…

RB4 still supports the pro drums with the cymbal expansions, though they don't support the ION drum kit anymore.

In my opinion, Rock Band is usually more of a family-friendly party atmosphere while Guitar Hero is more of an I AM A ROCK & ROLL GOD vibe. They both have their benefits. I personally prefer Rock Band because they tend to allow more flexibility for pop and indie rock while still allowing for punk and metal, so friends…

Harmonix have said game exports are on their way soon (except for RB3 which they still haven't quite worked out but are working on). Unfortunately, it sounds like the PS4 store architecture isn't as friendly for bundles of songs, so they may need to be redownloaded one-track-at-a-time. Not sure about XBox One, but…

I was a Kickstarter backer for this and I'm really enjoying the whole project so far and will definitely renew my subscription after the one I got through the crowdfunding campaign ends. I actually just showed the first two issues to a friend two days ago when she assumed that "romance comics" were just illustrated…

Now that video games are being featured in museums and art galleries, I love that we're getting installation art as video games. Really psyched to check this one out.

I recently upgraded to the New 3DS with NFC support and was suckered into buying five packs of the cards (no duplicates!). They're cute, but 100% inessential and so far don't seem to add anything desirable to the game. The most I've done is be able to call up specific villagers who haven't appeared in my town yet and…

Who you callin' "ol'"?

According to the devs, any computer from the last eight years should be fine, but click there to see the actual required specs.

Oh, good to know. I was playing a 100 Mario Challenge the other day and one level was a single screen with at least twenty enemies glommed together, including a magikoopa who—three lives in a row—disappeared the axe. I was dying just from fireballs and hammers, but after noticing the disappearing axe I just said…

On the review copy, at least, Easy stopped unlocking costumes after 18 clears, so I've been grinding Normal on the retail just to be safe. I hope Normal doesn't have a cap that requires me to clear Expert for more. I've completely rebuilt one of my favorite stages from the review build except it needs a dog costume…

I thought it unlocked separately from a pack, like it unlocked after a set period of time that you've been building. When it unlocked for me this week, it was a minute or two after I'd already started working with that day's content pack.

When I got my retail copy, I focused on clearing Expert mode as soon as possible, thinking there would be fewer intentionally-hard-as-balls levels and more levels-that-are-just-kind-of-tricky-but-not-enough-people-have-cleared-them-yet-to-qualify-as-"normal". I couldn't get more than halfway through expert during the…

Here are two revised versions of stages that were included in my review.
Mario Kart 8(bit): 9762-0000-003F-E1F2
Seven Paths of Relative Horror: 9F31-0000-003F-A6FB

Yes! John McCrea uses this in so many Cake songs. When I've seen them live, the crowd gets so hyped when they see him pull it out, and he slaps that thing with such bravado, it's like a force of nature.

In particular, the Mario Kart stage (see above video in review) is fully built with a few extra bits of polish, but I haven't unlocked the character skin yet so I'm waiting on that before I upload.