Rock out with your mates! (Rock Band (PS2))

Member Name: Russ1973

Product:	Rock Band (PS2)
Date:	04/06/09 (3 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Great fun for a group or on your own

Disadvantages: Missing online functionality of the nextgen version

This has to be the best game ever to come to the Playstation 2! I heard about this game coming out on the the nextgen consoles and was worried we wouldn't get it.

Let's get the bad bits out of the way first.....well, it's just one bad bit really and it's understandable. Where the Xbox and Playstation 3 versions can go online and purchase new song tracks for the game, the Playstation 2 version cannot. This is because the PS2 has nowhere to store any tracks you might have downloaded. I was disappointed there's not online play (player vs player) though.

Anyway, the game....You need 1 or 2 Guitar controllers, a Drum controller and a microphone and then you and up to 3 mates (4 of you in total) can 'play' the songs included on the disc.

The guitar 'playing' is nothing like playing a real guitar and it won't teach you to play guitar, it's just a fun approximation of playing guitar. It has been said that if you can play the drums on here on expert then you could play a basic beat on real drums, but I am not sure how accurate that is.

There are 4 difficulty levels, and if you've never played this type of game before you WILL have to start on easy, and you'll wonder how people manage to play it on hard mode...but stick with it and in a few days you'll get the hang of it, it just takes a little patience.

As if usual with this type of game there is a wide variety of rock tracks, guaranteeing there's something for everyone...but at the same time that means there will inevitably be tracks that you don't like too.

The general feel of the game is slick, well-presented and loading times are pretty good (especially compared to Guitar Hero:World Tour which takes ages). There are less options than on the nextgen console versions, but the core game is there and is all that really matters.

This game is amazing fun! If you can get 3 mates and all get on this game together you can't fail to have a great time!

Summary: Amazing fun! If you don't want to buy it, find a mate who will!