Rock Band (and really, the entire Harmonix guitar based rhythm game series) has been a long time favorite of mine. I have played and enjoyed every single version of it, from the number main series, to The Beatles: Rock Band, Green Day: Rock Band, even going so far as to spend a good deal of money on DLC that I barely played. With the announcement that all of those songs would transfer over to the latest game, I was completely excited. Not only that, all the plastic instruments I have lying around (aside from the keyboard) would be compatible! Sounds great, right?

Well, the devil is in the details as they say... I like trying out the new guitars they put out, so I put in a pre-order for the guitar RB4 bundle and it arrived today. After getting the game installed and remembering how to sync controllers on the Xbox One, I got it started. Then the problems started.

Turns out the 130 bucks I spent on the game and guitar don't get me a vital piece of the promised pie. You see, in order for old wireless instruments to work on my Xbone, I need something called a "Legacy Adapter," which is included with the base game. It is not included with my bundle. Not only that, it turns out my expensive ION drum kit doesn't function at all with this game. Spectacular, so now I have one mic, one guitar, down from my RB3 set up where I had a guitar, bass, drum kit, 3 mics (only one of them works because only one of them is a basic USB mic), and an occasional keyboardist.

Also, all that DLC you have? It's slowly being rolled out and it seems that the Xbox system has a problem remembering which ones exactly you've paid for... not all of them show up as "purchased." Oh, and if you want to download them, you have to scroll through the store and click on each one. Individually. There is no option I can find for sorting them into "songs what I own" or "things we have a record of you paying for." This wouldn't be a huge issue if I had a small library, but according to RB3's library function, I have 1,161 songs. Let's discount the ones on the actual RB3 disc, that still leaves me over 1,000 tracks to individually go through and click on and tell the system to start installing. And none of my 40+ Green Day tracks show up as purchased, despite the fact that I've played through the full albums at least once each on both Green Day: Rock Band and Rock Band 3 (I had lots of time back then).

Finally, character customization... so far doesn't seem great. One of Harmonix's key selling points in their games is self expression, but at the start of making your character, your hands are severely tied in this regard. You get four hairstyles. You get no choices about height or weight. You get no choice about clothes. All of that is dependent on you starting a band and getting to touring, which I guess I see the point of, but it's shitty that you can't make a duder (or lady duder) who looks like you from the outset. Just so disappointing.

Harmonix, I like you guys. You stumbled across an amazing formula for Rock Band after leaving Guitar Hero to different folks, but man you're making it hard to love you today...

The game plays fine, btw. It sure is more Rock Band. Nice and tight. The solo stuff seems interesting and I'll try it out when I'm less angry.

Dude... the individual song downloads sounds rough.... The adapter thing I'm shocked about especially since the bundle is so much more expensive than the base game. I can only imagine how horrible it will be just trying to get one since it seems like Xbone version of standard physical copies are already severely limited so just purchasing the adapter seems like a pipe dream . I just checked Madcatz site and adapter is $24.99 but OoS, I hope this isn't another smash bro's Wii U/GC controller adapter situation where folks buy them up and sell for 4x the prices cuse not enough are made.

Good luck! And if you have it go play "The Trooper" for me! I would hope all the Maiden's songs made it through. *crosses fingers*

@junkboy0: thanks man... Just a bummer of a day. I think I got most of my songs downloaded now, except for the Green Day tracks and all the songs from Rock Band Blitz, which the system doesn't think I've purchased... Sigh.

And I do have "The Trooper," but I remember most Maiden being very difficult, so maybe o hard instead of my usual expert.

I know your frustrations, but at the same time....

The thing with the Legacy Adapter sucks, but that's (a) more the fault of Microsoft, as on Playstation Legacy Instruments work out of the box and (b) Harmonix was very very open about the features and limitations of Legacy Instrument Support. There is no reason to expect any legacy hardware support by default, so i honestly think you should've checked beforehand.

As for the DLC, yes that is being slowly rolled out, but at the same time, the legacy DLC support is REALLY GOOD once you compare it with games like Rocksmith or Just Dance. AND previous DLC is oftentimes updated for the new Solo Feature and previously nonexistent Harmonies. Especially considering Harmonix is basically "Indie" now and has no backing by major publishers, while at the same time, as you said, a gigantic backlog of thousands of songs, that is impressive. RB1, RB2, Blitz and Song Pack DLCs will become available over time, with RB3 songs being "worked on" (as there aren't working export functions for that, that's a bit trickier, and HMX never promised availability in the first place)

I know that it is a bit frustrating that you can't go on business as usual with RB4, but considering that we're talking about a platform shift as well as major publisher shifts, you really need to cut Harmonix some slack here, even in consideration that not everything is ready by launch.

(Can't talk a lot about Gameplay and In Game Features though, Mad Catz messed up Hardware production and shipment for Europe, delivering not even enough stock to cover pre orders, so i'll have to wait)

Still better than GH's support. (I dont have a PS4 to export my PS3 stuff so I dont really have much to say)

I assume the thinking there is that you're buying a new guitar, you won't need this adapter as it would be a needless expense for most people in your situation. I've kind of poked around a little bit on the store to see what the process of downloading old dlc would be like, and it seems like a real pain. If it were easier it might get me to pick up RB4 a little sooner.

Man, I just can't count on pulling together people in my house enough to buy this game when it has no online play. It kills me, but this might be the only Rock Band game I don't buy.

@frybird: Yeah, I know... all good points. I've come to terms with it all and have accepted that it's probably my fault for not paying attention to the later info after submitting my preorder back when they first became available. I agree the DLC support is amazing, I spent the evening going through the store and picking it all up again, happy that I get to have my library (mostly) on the next console and that new music will be coming.

Sorry to hear that your order has been delayed. I maintain that the playing of Rock Band is still solid as ever, the new features are an interesting addition (particularly the vocal improvisation stuff) and once I get an adapter and perhaps a new drum kit, it'll be business as usual for me again. I was just venting my day one frustrations. I have to keep reminding myself that this is a platform that will (hopefully) be improved on as we go.

@mortuss_zero: I hear ya on that one. If your use case required online play, it's probably not worth picking up, honestly, but I never really played the online stuff too much. I think Drew talked about playing it with family when he gets together with them and that's basically how I play RB, though I do enjoy jamming on new songs by myself with guitar and mic on (mic stands are a fun addition that force you to do two things at once... and actually know the vocal part since you can't look away from the notes for too long). It's basically a game I play when I have family and/or friends over or when people have parties and ask me to bring my set up.