Jam over MP3s and created your own set-list
In my Rock Band review one of my criticisms was that a free-play drum session was notable by it’s absence. Ok, the kit is somewhat basic but there’s still enough there to have a bit of a laugh. We’re waiting for confirmation but it’s highly likely that a free-play drum section, in addition to the jam session, is going to be included in the final game… but if not, just make a blank MP3 and run that for some solo drumming goodness. Oh, and just to keep you intrigued, there’s talk that you’ll be able to assign different drum sounds to the pads and maybe even use the second kick pedal for a high hat in the jam session, but that’s yet to be confirmed.Track wise, you can do a Google for the track list so far but it is impressively large with the usual mix of tracks you’ll know on sight, tracks you’ll know once you hear them, tracks that grow on you and tracks you’ll avoid like a groupie with a bunch of cold sores. But interestingly, Harmonix are aiming to release, by Christmas, over 100 more DLC tracks, meaning there’s potentially over five hundred tracks available for Rock Band 2… phew.
With that many tracks to sort through, Harmonix have had to revamp the track the library sorting. The library now resembles the Rock Band online store and has a handy drop-down menu so you can select your preferred sorting method. As you highlight each track you get a breakdown of difficulty by instrument, as you do currently in the store. Rather brilliantly, the sorting headings, be they alphabetically by band or song, or genre, decade or difficulty, are now set lists as well. So selecting the 90’s heading will let you play all tracks in the 90’s section in one big play session. You can even create your own set list and cherry pick your favourite tracks to create the ultimate set list.