It feels strange, at least to me, that Rock Band 4 has already been on store shelves for close to two months. After all those years of waiting, the past few weeks with the game have just flown by. As we approach the two month milestone, though, Harmonix has offered up some details on the first major patch.
Currently set to be released on December 8th, the update introduces several new features and tweaks that were sorely missing from the original release. The big addition, at least the biggest that Harmonix is currently willing to talk about, is the implementation of score challenge options. While not the online play many are waiting for, these suite of options are designed to bring more competition to Rock Band 4.
Players will now be notified as soon as they pass a friend’s score on a specific song, as well as given the option to jump right into a track if you notice you have been out-scored. And once they get that high score back, they can send a randomized taunt to their opponent in order to show them who’s boss.
The December update is about more than stoking the flames of competition, though, as several new features should prove to be beneficial to all. Calibration for instruments, which has proven to be problematic, will be improved, while the new auto-kick mode for drums could help introduce a whole new audience to the instrument.
For the stat-heads out there, the patch will also reintroduce detailed song results to Rock Band 4. While Harmonix didn’t provide full details, hopefully this means we will now be able to see how many notes we hit, as well as how long our biggest combo was. Playing off that, for the first time in franchise history, full combo tracking will now be implemented. Now you’ll be able to track whether you are on track to 100% a song, as well as being able to see it recognized on the song selection menu.
Rounding out the new features are the introduction of variable track speeds and new Rock Shop items. As someone who plays with Breakneck Speed on, the ability to set how fast the track moves has long been one of my most desired features. For those that complained about the skimpy amount of options available in the Rock Shop, Harmonix has heard you loud and clear. The patch will introduce a “handful” of new clothing and instrument options for you to use.
On top of the features being added to Rock Band 4, the patch will also come with a handful of bug fixes, which Harmonix has detailed.
- Packs and Albums in the XB1 in-game store are back in the store and contain content.
- Fix to prevent hitches for PlayStation 4 players with 2000 Friends.
- Leaderboards no longer mix player scores and percentages from different performances and instead show only the info for the single performance with the highest score.
- Game no longer crashes when the vocalist joins a song that doesn’t have a vocal part.
- Band History stats now list the correct total number of Rock Shop items.
- Improvements to microphone lag.
- Improvements to tambourine hit sensitivity
- Adjustments to track transparency
With Harmonix set to continue to support the title into at least 2016, we will continue to bring you all the latest Rock Band 4 news, so stay tuned.