Rock Band 2 update brings new features & improvements

September 28, 6:14 AMVideo Games ExaminerJason Evangelho

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The gang at Harmonix has been busy. After gifting music & rhythm gaming fans with the well receivedRock Band Unplugged and the universally acclaimed The Beatles: Rock Band, the Cambridge, MA based game development company just unleashed a comprehensive free update for Rock Band 2. 

Over the weekend, Dan Teasdale (Rock Band 2 Lead Designer) posted a detailed update on the official Rock Band forums. In it, he announced that the update is now live for the Xbox 360, and in the review process for the Playstation 3. Simply insert your game disc and you'll be prompted to install the patch. 
 

Here's a breakdown of exactly what to expect: 

Rock Band Network Audition Mode. Available from the “Extras” menu on Xbox 360 versions of Rock Band 2, members of the Rock Band Network can now upload songs from their PC’s and audition their songs using our suite of song audition and testing tools. Currently in closed beta, the Rock Band Network will welcome authors to open beta in the coming weeks! Find out more at http://creators.rockband.com

“Sort by Stars” in Quickplay. If you hit the “Sort” button on the Song Select screen, you’ll come to a brand new sort that orders songs by the star ratings that you’ve achieved on each song. Each star rating gets a category, as well as an “Unplayed” category for songs that don’t have a star rating recorded. Finally, you can record your progress towards gold starring every song in your library!

Background Downloading in the Music Store. Purchasing songs from the Rock Band Music Store now no longer requires you to wait for a song to download before you can download another song. You can now queue up downloads to your heart’s content, which is going to be incredibly handy with some of the amazing DLC that’s coming out over the next few weeks and months.

Xbox 360 Wireless Microphone Support. Rock Band 2 now supports Xbox 360 Wireless Microphones, like the Lips microphone. Finally, you can now have a fully wireless Rock Band experience!

Chord HOPO improvements: If you’ve played The Beatles: Rock Band, you’ll notice much more robust handling of chord hammer-ons and pull-offs. This patch implements those changes in Rock Band 2 to provide a more natural chord hammer-on/pull-off experience.

Velocity Sensitivity on Ion Drum Kits: Ion Drum kits now support velocity sensitivity in both drum fills and Drum Freestyle mode.

Overall, it appears to be a beefy update that adds some longevity to the game, and gets things prepped for the exciting Rock Band Network.