PS2 GAME RECOMMENDATIONS |

[#] Rock Band Track Pack Volume 1 (MTV Games, PlayStation 2, 2008)

Twenty all-new epic rock tracks as performed by the original artists!

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These Rock Band Track Packs were a real joy to have as a young marf, stuck on last gen hardware with no way to play all those tons of cool DLC songs the 360 and PS3 kids were getting. Each one is a set of twenty DLC tracks, wrapped up in a quick standalone setlist that doesn't require the original game to play. This first Track Pack was actually exclusively released for the Wii and PS2 (later ones would be released for all four systems, with the songs exportable to the full game for the 360 and PS3), demonstrating the concept.

The setlist is mostly wall-to-wall huge tunes, an eclectic mix of tracks from pop punk (blink-182's "All the Small Things", Paramore's "crushcrushcrush") to 90s alt (Oasis' "Live Forever", Stone Temple Pilots' "Interstate Love Song") to some golden oldies (David Bowie's "Moonage Daydream", Lynyrd Skynyrd's "Gimme Three Steps") to much more recent rock (Queens of the Stone Age's "Little Sister"--not to mention Wolfmother's notoriously difficult "Joker and the Thief"). It's a fun set! The only real letdown is the Grateful Dead track "Truckin'"--overly long, like a lot of the Dead's tunes are, I wish we got "Casey Jones" from the same pack instead.

This disc is built on the same last-gen engine as the main game on PS2, so do know you're still getting the video backgrounds, shitty Practice Mode, and limited Guitar Hero II-like tier progression system (though that's not really an issue--can you imagine having to do the world tour thing with only twenty songs?) as it. What I find most interesting were the minor graphical and technical improvements Pi Studios made to this port over Rock Band PS2, notably in the instant song restarts over that game's loading-delayed ones. Very nice. This is a highly playable set (I gold-starred most songs basically first try) of really good tunes, and that's all there is to say about it.

(This review equally applies to each successive Track Pack. Check out the setlist, and if the songs appeal to you, give it a go. They were on autopilot for these, understandably so.)

Recommended for... rockers who aren't ready to go home yet.