Blackened !

Wonder how any of the Metallica songs will work on drums, unless you have to jam your foot like a maniac on the bass pedal...

Bah. Where are "Master of Puppets", "Whiplash", and "Welcome home"?

Those are the the songs I want.

Sweet, can't wait to play it!
Unfortunately Mass Effect is the same week... sigh.

i dont know paying the extra 50 or .99 because your not just listening to music. But hey if they can make it cheaper but reasonable for all of us then great. Can't wait until it comes home. sucks amazon wouldn't send it a week early. Unless... i post some sad sober story that will allow me to play it early

BOWIE!!!!!!

*creams pants*

@Kirbytheslayer: Did... did you just "bah" Blackened?! *reaches for ban user link*

I was kind of hoping for And Just For All as a full album, but I'll take what I can get.

@jynxycat:

My friend is a drummer. Had lessons since he was six. The only guy I know who can play techno on a drum set.

The guy used to say "If Larz Ulrich can drum to it, a retarded monkey could drum to it."

I have about as much rhythm as a three legged camel, so I have to take his word for the quality of Larz ability.

I wonder how this affects multi-player... will it be a DS kinda scheme where you can temporarily download the song or does everyone involved have to download the song separately first?

Ehhh, this is only marginally better than Guitar Hero's pricing.

@McWhertor: It's "...And Justice For All", moron. Get your shit together.

Yeah it's pretty much known that Lars is quite a bad drummer ... Maybe he's good when not drunk but I don't think it ever happened ...

@McWhertor: Noo! No ban.

Blackened is great and all, but I really wanted "Welcome Home"

I've been waiting to yell out the word "Santarium" forever, and now I'll probably have to wait longer.

how lucky we are to pay for content that would come free without XBL.

hooray. =/

another load of features cut from a retail release to be sold for extra later, and the idiots cheer and buy!

@this_is_sparta: well as long as it has a comparable song list to similar games that didnt come with DLC, i dont see how you can complain (guitar hero had like 30 + 17 bonus songs if i remember correctly)

@this_is_sparta: Yeah... I forgot my free iTune pass in my other hat too. Now I can't find anything for free anymore since Xbox Live launched... I bet it'll be free if I get a Wii or a PS3 :)

@McWhertor: You're being too hard on yourself, man. I find your behavior to be utterly inappropriate!

@PapaBear434:

So is like this dude in a famous band that is better than Metallica?

Or one of these "lessons since a wee one" and a hopeless dreamer bashing all that is not him?

Cause if this guy isnt Neal Peart or Vinnie Paul, I dont think there is room to bas Larz.

$1-$3 for single songs? Why can't they just make them all $1? :/

@this_is_sparta:

Oh yeah? So retail games would have tons of extra songs in them? I do recall games having "expansions" or even "sequels" to accommodate these feats.

@this_is_sparta: While I understand your problems with DLC there are a few point to remember when dealing with this sort of content. First off is that their are royalties involved. Harmonix cannot simply just throw whatever song they want into the game, they have to pay for each and every one of them. When you figure that you're average itunes download is about a buck and the record industry doesn't think you should be able to listen to it on any more than 1 device YOU OWN it seems logical to assume that dealing with them isn't very easy or painless for MTV Games or just about anyone else (artists included). Also factor in the amount of work that has to go in to syncing,noting,ect. and paying another .50 to a buck really isn't that big of a deal. If Harmonix threw too many songs on there right up front they'd be paying monumental costs just on licensing alone. By doing it this way they can stay relatively safe and we still get 54 songs right off the bat and don't have to wait around 3 years for Rock Band 2 to keep ourselves busy.

honestly, the problem is one of economics.

they're trying to reap alot of money off a few people... that's the goal of DLC, to capitalize on the people who buy the game...

but if they just gave these tracks away with retail or for download later, they'd end up generating more hype and selling more copies in the first place...

instead of milking alot out of a small group of consumers, they'd milk a little out of a larger group of consumers.

this is called 'economics of scale' =)

growing gaming, making more money and making it more affordable to everyone happens via an economy of scale approach.

it makes it cheaper and more accessible, while still generating more revenue.

that's the problem with DLC as it stands. it's elitist rather than populist, and pushes gaming away from the mass market.

Originally the only reason they let Lars in the band was because he had a drum set. He wasn't that great of a drummer. The guitarists make up for that of course =)

@BPMΩ: Not all songs are equal.

I'd pay $3 for "Welcome Home". I would not pay $3 for St. Anger.

From that comes their logic. Rape em on the awesome, give away the lame.

@BPMΩ:

Cause the cool ones will be $3 and the shitty ones $1 (joke).

It probably has something to do with how much royalties each band gets. Thus the scale in price so MTV/EA/Harmonix/MSFT still get their same cut.

@BPMΩ:

because i think people are ripping the song apart and are making sure that its on rythm. I think thats the biggest reason. I mean if you want to listen to it sure it could cost a dollar but your paying for others worked hard to do to get it playable

@McWhertor: haha that "..." is the most important part!

Hmm, I wonder if the PSN will have the same stuff released at the same time? Lots of people were surprised to see GHIII content on both consoles at the same time...

Reason I care is, I have to decide which console to buy for. Have both pre-ordered at the moment, but do I buy for my 360, or for my PS3??

I'd love to see "Battery" in there, although in all honesty, Metallica is pretty low on my DLC most-wanted list.

Unless a lot of tracks see that $2.99 price point, I think this makes all of Rock Band's DLC a HUGE STEAL.

GH3 DLC songs are roughly $2.00 each, but you're forced so spend $6.25 all at once for songs that only let you play guitar and bass/rhythm. And they don't work in most of the game's modes.

Rock Band DLC songs are going to mostly undercut all of GH3's content by offering cheaper songs in an a la carte fashion. Not to mention YOU CAN PLAY 4 INSTRUMENTS and each song will be usable in every game mode (including multiplayer Band World Tour).

This is pretty good news. The only bad part is ... where is Who's Next on this schedule? :(

Thats a very positive post considering it's virtually the same price as the infamous GHII DLC Though obviously there's a lot more work gone into the Rock Band ones and they are masters so there's a lot more justification for the price..just find it odd the comparison wasn't made there...

The bit that makes me sad though is that while these prices might be fine for you guys and I'd certainly pay that amount for tracks I love (and given the number they'll be releasing there's gonna be love for everyone)... the Aussie prices for the 360 will still be way higher cause of the stupid points cost :( (Xbox points cost us almost 50% more)..don't know wether the PS3 gets any similar 'love' but yeah :(

@rcomegys:

Well the guitar for the PS3 is wireless.

Something I wish was for the 360 right away. But what difference does it make I suppose when the mic and drums need to be plugged in anyhow. What is one more wire at that point.

I'm a bit disappointed with the pricing -- was hoping it'd be a bit cheaper. Honestly 440 points versus 500 isn't a huge difference.

Ideally it'd be $1.50ish per son (flat rate) with a discount for the 3-packs (say $4 instead of $4.50).

Also, I'm stunned MTV isn't seizing on an opportunity here. Aren't they partners in Rhapsody? I'd offer a slightly more expensive (or heck, the same price) to get the RB song *and* rights to the song on Rhapsody -- who knows they might actually be able to chip away at iTunes' lead taht way.

@this_is_sparta: I think you nailed it.

If they made the songs 50 cents, i'd buy pretty much everything that would ever be offered. at a buck to 3, I may get Ride the Lightning, but on principle am going to avoid buying any DLC.

Why is it that every company that offers DLC completely blows it? Make a bunch of novelty downloads for pennies. Eventually some game is going to do this and make tons of money, but until then we just have to grab our ankles apparently.

too expensive, I thought Harmonix was actually humble enough to make it 99c.

I'm excited, but I need to find room to put Rock Band. Physically in my house, and time-wise between all the other awesome games this fall.

Also, brilliant use of ASCII characters to make a symbol of rock, sir.

BLACKENED??? JUSTICE??? OH DEAR GOD KEEP ON GOING!

When that whole album (which is my fav album of all time) is available color me one happy man.

Now, get on with the Coheed. I would like to see Good Apollo I available in full.

@burgerdog: It costs $1 to download a song off of any music downloading site.
Unless you don't illegally download music, those prices hit dead on.
Considering they have to go out of their way to program so much for a single song, and they're still charging a buck, be grateful.

@EnigmaNemesis: You mentioned Neal Peart. I saw Rush live recently and I couldn't believe the drum solo he did...and he's pushing 60!

This game is going to be awesome, im looking forward to teh metallica and wolfmother.

oh hell muther-fuckin-yeah! i am so glad i have four 1600-point cards sitting here waiting for this game!

they were originally going to be used for Guitar Hero 2 DLC, but i'm not into extortion.

@Atilla_the_Nun:

I am not a huge fan of Rush. Like their music, but the lead singer/bassist is a tad annoying after a while.

But I will say Neal Peart is the best drummer to ever live in our time.

Sounds a lot like Guitar Hero's DLC pricing. Isn't GH2 stuff like $5 for 3 songs? which means that for Rock Band it will range from a bit less to a bit more.

No dice, EA, 99¢ is what the market will bear. Or at least it would if the market weren't a screaming horde of idiots.

When I was in High School, I tried to draw the cover of And Justice for All... for an assignment. It came out looking like crap. I remember the art teacher said I didn't shade it dark enough.

I was a dork.

Also... @EnigmaNemesis: I agree, Rush gets on my nerves quick... they need to do more instrumentals...

Do you Negative Nancies not understand they can't price things for nickels and dimes because IT COSTS MONEY TO LICENSE MUSIC???

@etho: It's roughly $6.25 for 3 songs.

The problem was you could only buy them in packs of 3. You'd get one song you wanted, with limited usage, for essentially $6.

@Stormrider900: it's cheaper and you get 3 times as much out of it (guitar, drums, and mic). and before anyone says "you only get twice as much because they each have bass guitar", you can't play bass by itself in either game, but you can use the mic or the drums by themselves in rock band.

@rcomegys: i'd choose 360 for 2 simple reasons:

1) you can get deals on marketplace point cards (circuit city had them buy-one-get-one-free recently). there are currently no retail cards for PSN, you pay straight up for DLC with your credit card.

2) do you want to be bothered with batteries for a wireless guitar? and the possibility of signal interference or batteries dying in the middle of a song?

I don't see anything that I want off the bat (holding out for some GN'R or Iron Maiden) but seeing the pricing schemes as they are is pleasing to the wallet.

tommy and the lords of the underworld ... ftw