Rock Band 2 software update details

Not that I’d know, considering that I lent my copy of Rock Band 2 to Mark a long time ago and now his housemates won’t let me have it back, but Harmonix has released a new software patch for the simu-rock title.  The patch fixes a fixes a few compatibility issues, a couple of gameplay tweaks and gets the game ready for the upcoming Rock Band Network.  Here’s the details as Harmonix designer Dan Teasdale tells them:

• 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!
• “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.
• 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.
• 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.

All of this sounds great, especially the DLC background downloading.  It’s no problem on my new internet connection, but on the old connection I’d invariably download all my new tracks through the Xbox console just so I could actually use my console in the proceeding hours.

The patch will be downloaded the next time you boot up Rock Band 2 and connect to Xbox Live.  The PlayStation 3 is also getting the same upgrade as soon as the patch makes it’s way through the PlayStation Network certification.  You can check out the detailed forum post here.