Thursday, February 26, 2009

The race to 140M

Every day, it seems that the two best Rock Band superbands "Psychadelic Byrds" and "Interrobang!" (both on PS3) are passing each other in the Leaderboards. But who will be the first to 140M?

Here are their current scores:
139,998,428 Psychadelic Byrds
139,995,659 Interrobang!

And the winner is...drumroll...
Interrobang!
140,259,288

Main Goal Reached + DLC Fun

This week we reached our main goal by gaining 235K points, and also played a lot of DLC. In doing so, we passed "Happy People Playing ROCK BAND" for 12th place.

Highlights:
- DMan has the most FCs for the third week in a row (3), followed by Raikan (1)
- We make a path for "Where'd You Go?" and it pays off, leading to our 235K point increase (20th to 4th)
- We play 20 random DLC and RB1 songs and end up finishing 1 song with more than 2M points and 8 songs with more than 1M points
- Raikan's strumbar stops working in the up direction, but he manages to finish the session well regardless!

Wednesday, February 25, 2009

Goal for tonight: small gain + DLC

This week we will have our first DLC night in RB2. Before starting on DLC, we will attempt to do a small point gain, minimally to get to 122M, and then possibly to beat "Happy People Playing ROCK Band" and "Axed".

We are currently in 20th place but there are 7 bands ahead of us with inflated scores (at positions 1, 2, 3, 7, 8, 11 and 15).

Minimum: Gain 50K points, to get to 122M
Main: Gain 150K points, to beat "Happy People Playing ROCK BAND" for 12th place
Optimal: Gain 350K points, to beat "Axed" for 11th place
Bonus: Play some random DLC

Tuesday, February 24, 2009

Total Rock, Total Rewards Rock Band Competition

From the Rock Band Forums:

[...]

Throughout March and April, seventeen Total Rewards casinos* will host local, weekly Rock Band Competitions, allowing fans of the popular game to win an Xbox 360 and Rock Band bundle as well as other Total Rewards items and Rock Band apparel and accessories. Four regional competitions will then offer customers the chance to win more than $50,000 in prizes.

[...]
I'm heading to Vegas in April, if you guys want to join, we can show them how a real Rock Band band rolls!

Friday, February 20, 2009

Full DLC session?

What's up team? Since we have to do it eventually, and we are already pretty high in the leaderboards, what do you guys think of a DLC session next Wednesday?

Thursday, February 19, 2009

Rock Band workout program

Hi, do you feel lazy and find that all you do is play Rock Band all day? Sure, if you are drumming all day, you are giving your arm muscles a nice workout, but what about your pecs and shoulders?

Worry not! The Phoenix has a solution for you:

Step 1 - Note down your score before playing the song, or use the Score Reader to find it
Step 2 - Play the song
Step 3 - Look at your new score

If you improved, you can do x push-ups and x chin-ups per y point increase.

I personally chose 2 push-ups and 1 chin-up per 10K increase. It forced me to do ~70 chin-ups and 140 push-ups yesterday!

If you do not have a chin-up bar, go buy one that you can install in a door frame. For ~30$ you will have a great piece of equipment. (And if you can afford Rock Band 2... you can afford a chin-up bar!)

Making progress towards 10th

This week we gained about 600K points, which was halfway between our main goal and optimal goal. That leaves us about 800K behind 10th place band ""COME GET SOME"", which we will attempt to pass next week.

As is becoming a weekly tradition, we again beat "Happy People Playing ROCK BAND" for 11th place, but they might return the favor before our next session. We played 14 songs, giving us an average increase of 43K per song.

Highlights:
- DMan has the most FCs for the second week in a row (5), followed by Phoenix (2), Bongoo (1) and Sylvie (1)
- Our best increases were for "Pump It Up" (164K, 37th to 7th), "Pinball Wizard" (93K, 34th to 16th), "Shackler's Revenge" (76K, 36th to 30th), "Teen Age Riot" (67K, 35th to 31st), "Ramblin' Man" (63K, 36th to 32nd), "De-Luxe" (45K, 35th to 23rd) and "One Way or Another" (45K, 37th to 23rd)
- We move up 4 ranks on "Livin' on a Prayer", with a 5K increase! :)
- Sylvie once again fills in for Raikan on Bass, who was sick
- Phoenix's pedal stops working during "One Way or Another", we pause, only to find out that a battery was stuck underneath it... how did it end up there?

Tuesday, February 17, 2009

Goal for tomorrow: move halfway to 10th

This week our optimal goal will be to match last week's point gain of 700K to move halfway to the 10th place band ""COME GET SOME"" (in the real leaderboards). In the process, we will likely again pass "Happy People Playing ROCK BAND", which currently have about 300K points more than us.

We are currently in 16th place but there are 4 bands ahead of us with inflated scores (at positions 1, 2, 5 and 12).

Although we sometimes need a few restarts, to reach our optimal goal of 700K points, we will need an average increase of 58K per song if we play for one hour (12 songs), and 29K per song if we play for two hours (24 songs).

Minimum: Gain 300K points, to beat "Happy People Playing ROCK BAND" for 11th place
Main: Gain 500K points, a good increase
Optimal: Gain 700K points, to be halfway to the 10th place band ""COME GET SOME""
Bonus: Play some random DLC on our breaks

Here is the setlist for tomorrow (worst ranked songs, all songs below rank 30):
1. "Panic Attack"
2. "Souls of Black"
3. "Battery"
4. "Painkiller"
5. "Bodhisattva"
6. "Psycho Killer"
7. "Pump It Up"
8. "One Way or Another"
9. "Shooting Star"
10. "Shackler's Revenge"
11. "Ramblin' Man"
12. "Testify"
13. "Teen Age Riot"
14. "Livin' on a Prayer"
15. "De-Luxe"
16. "You Oughta Know"
17. "Pinball Wizard"
18. "Go Your Own Way"
19. "Our Truth"
20. "Feel the Pain"
21. "Let There Be Rock"
22. "Hello There"
23. "Get Clean"
24. "Tangled Up in Blue"
25. "Man in the Box"
26. "Hungry Like the Wolf"
27. "Almost Easy"

Sunday, February 15, 2009

Beer of the week #8

Hi, we have 2 new beers for you this week.

1) Liberty Ale: Straight from Liberty City, this is probably one of the best ales I've ever had. It has 5.9% alcohol and is pretty smooth and has no aftertaste. I recommend this one!

2) Thomas Hardy's Ale: At 11.7%, this beer is aged for a minimum of 25 years in the bottle. This beer tastes very strong and is best when served cold. It's a good idea to drink it before it gets warm. It is a bit expensive (5$ / 250ml), but its a great beer to try.

Thursday, February 12, 2009

We beat the Happy Squirting Tacos!

This week we reached our optimal goal by gaining about 700K points!

In doing so, we passed "Can't Stop Squirting", "Happy People Playing ROCK BAND" and "Taco & 3 hung lo" to go from 18th to 15th in the official leaderboards. If you remove the bands with inflated scores (including "Can't Stop Squirting"), we moved up from 13th to 11th.

We played 14 songs, giving us an average increase of 50K per song.

Highlights:
- DMan has the most FCs for the night (8), followed by Bongoo (5), Raikan (2) and Phoenix (1)
- Phoenix does a great performance on "Colony of Birchmen", leading to a big increase
- Our best increases were for "Alabama Getaway" (169K, 43rd to 13th), "Rock'n Me" (106K, 42nd to 7th), "Colony of Birchmen" (106K, 39th to 27th), "E-Pro" (93K, 41st to 21st) and "That's What You Get" (64K, 42nd to 19th)
- DMan doubles as vocalist and pathmaster for a while, his astute observations leading to some path changes that pay off nicely!
- Raikan decides to scratch his nose while playing, forgetting that lifting the guitar would activate overdrive...

Tuesday, February 10, 2009

Goal for tomorrow: another Happy Taco meal

This week our main goal will be to go from 13th to 11th in the real leaderboards by beating "Happy People Playing ROCK BAND" and "Taco & 3 hung lo".

We are currently in 18th place but there are 5 bands ahead of us with inflated scores (at positions 1, 2, 5, 12 and 15).

Keep in mind that the following time estimates change if we concentrate more on particular songs (ex: to get the right path). To reach our main goal of 600K points, we will need an average increase of 50K per song if we play for one hour (12 songs), and 25K per song if we play for two hours (24 songs).

Minimum: Gain 300K points, to beat "Taco & 3 hung lo" for 12th place
Main: Gain 600K points, to beat "Happy People Playing ROCK BAND" for 11th place
Optimal: Gain 700K points, to beat the glitched band "Can't Stop Squirting"
Bonus: Play some random DLC on our breaks

Here is the setlist for tomorrow (worst ranked songs, all songs below rank 35):
1. "Souls of Black"
2. "Panic Attack"
3. "Livin' on a Prayer"
4. "Battery"
5. "Alabama Getaway"
6. "That's What You Get"
7. "Rock'n Me"
8. "So What'cha Want"
9. "Painkiller"
10. "E-Pro"
11. "Bodhisattva"
12. "Testify"
13. "Colony of Birchmen"
14. "Psycho Killer"
15. "Ramblin' Man"
16. "One Way or Another"
17. "Shooting Star"
18. "Shackler's Revenge"
19. "Pump It Up"
20. "De-Luxe"

Friday, February 6, 2009

Beer of the week #7

Hi!

I only have 2 beers to announce this week, both very distinct in flavor:

1) St-Ambroise Apricot Wheat Ale (5%) - A very light lager type beer with an apricot after taste. This is very refreshing and would be great during summer!

2) Abbey Belgian Spiced Ale (6.2%) - One word: Chocolate beer (OK, that's two words.... but you get the point). It is a very smooth ale with a very good chocolaty taste.

Short post but I'm tired... :)

Enjoy!

Thursday, February 5, 2009

Main goal reached, we beat Happy People!

This week we surpassed our main goal by gaining about 600K points! We finally managed to finish a session ahead of "Happy People Playing ROCK BAND"! They also played tonight, but they ended up about 100K behind us. We played 11 songs, so that gives an average increase of 55K per song.

Highlights:
- DMan starts the session with an amazing 6 FCs in a row!
- Our best increases were for "Give It All" (139K, 39th to 21st), "Lump" (133K, 39th to 14th), "Peace Sells" (126K, 30th to 10th) and "Ace of Spades '08" (105K, 36th to 22nd)
- We're pretty much a 6-person band: Sylvie once again fills in on Bass, plus Trapper's path instructions help us get a few big increases, thanks!
- We finish with 999,842 points for "Ace of Spades '08", how close can you get...

Tuesday, February 3, 2009

Goal for tomorrow: Happy to eat some Tacos

This week our optimal goal will be to go from 13th to 11th in the real leaderboards by beating "Taco & 3 hung lo" and "Happy People Playing ROCK BAND".

We are currently in 18th place but there are 5 bands ahead of us with inflated scores (at positions 1, 2, 5, 10 and 15). We dropped 2 positions this week with "simple design" moving up and the emergence of a new band, "Extra Crispy Fraternity".

To reach our optimal goal of 900K points, we will need an average increase of 75K per song if we play for one hour (12 songs), and 37.5K per song if we play for two hours (24 songs).

Minimum: Gain 200K points, to beat "Happy People Playing ROCK BAND" for 12th place
Main: Gain 500K points, to get a decent lead over "Happy People Playing ROCK BAND"
Optimal: Gain 900K points, to beat "Taco & 3 hung lo" for 11th place
Bonus: Play some random DLC on our breaks

Here is the setlist for tomorrow (worst ranked songs, all songs below rank 30):
1. "Souls of Black"
2. "Panic Attack"
3. "That's What You Get"
4. "Rock'n Me"
5. "Livin' on a Prayer"
6. "Alabama Getaway"
7. "So What'cha Want"
8. "Painkiller"
9 "Lump"
10. "Give It All"
11. "De-Luxe"
12. "Battery"
13. "E-Pro"
14. "Bodhisattva"
15. "Colony of Birchmen"
16. "Ace of Spades '08"
17. "Testify"
18. "Our Truth"
19. "Tangled Up in Blue"
20. "Pump It Up"
21. "Psycho Killer"
22. "Shooting Star"
23. "Shackler's Revenge"
24. "Ramblin' Man"
25. "Pinball Wizard"
26. "Go Your Own Way"

Sunday, February 1, 2009

Beer of the week #6

A bit late once again (especially considering our session was Tuesday last week!) but I present to you a few great beers and one awful beer:

1) Griffon Rousse: A good reddish-brown beer with practically no alcohol (4.5%). It had a good nutty taste and wasn't too strong.

2) Try to pronounce this one very fast: Black Riggwelter. On the bottle it describes that name as meaning a sheep that fell on its back and can’t get up... At first it tasted like a very mild tasting stout (5.6% alcohol). But then, as the aftertaste slowly came, I felt like that sheep on its back... Be careful! Have some food ready if you try this one.

3) Now comes the time to announce the best stout in the world! Old Engine Oil! That’s right, don’t let the name fool you... :) The last time I found this Scottish beer in stock was last summer so as soon as I found it on the shelf, I bought pretty much all I + Raikan could carry! This 6% stout has a very pronounced taste and has the perfect balance of taste, texture and smell.