The last time I whined about Rock Band, I split up my suggested improvements as stuff that could be patched, stuff that needs to be sold, and stuff that might as well wait for the sequel. I have a few more, but I think it's all patchable, knowing what I know about the super-easy and non-complicated way that video games are manufactured. Because I know that.
The in-game store is a great idea, and it looks really slick. I love that the store displays original album artwork and plays sample cuts. This eliminates the need for me to keep checking the iTunes Music Store when new Rock Band tracks are announced, to see if I want Blondie's "Call Me." (I did.) It also shows a difficulty chart for each instrument.
But the interaction with the PlayStation Store is all clunked up. If you click to purchase, it jumps out to the Store interface and expects you to buy that track immediately. If you want to go back and add more songs, it doesn't work like an online shopping cart. It forgets the first song you wanted.
I guess this isn't a big deal if you have a solid amount of credit on your PS Store account, but I rarely hold a balance. Plus, you still need to trigger the download... so it's not really time-efficient to tag songs one at a time in the Rock Band store. The last time I bought songs, I used the Rock Band store to identify what I wanted, then skipped all the way out to the PS Store proper and added everything to my cart for one big purchase. How was that a smooth user experience?
The in-game store arrived as part of a patch a few weeks ago... hilariously, Rock Band now has an embarrassing habit of stacking loading icons. IE, you get the little drummer guy in the center of the screen when it is loading, then a second drummer shows up lower right with the explanation "loading additional content."
But speaking of all that DLC we're enjoying... say I'm choosing songs for Solo Tour mode, why in the hell must I scroll through the entire list of songs in order to reach the downloaded tracks? What a pain in the ass. Harmonix has to know that, by this point, we're mainly playing the new stuff over the original songlist... so how about patching the navigation to get us to the DLC songs faster?
I'd like to see the whole selection screen overhauled. Not only for ease of use reasons, but also to incorporate the album covers and difficulty charts available only in the Rock Band store. A full disclosure of the challenge level would be cool for mixed-skill groups looking to put together a perfect setlist.
Additionally, these screens could also all use an HD upgrade. I don't know what resolution the menus natively run at, but that undulating banner looks like total shit in 1080p. The game itself looks fine - in fact it looks wonderful after a weekend playing Guitar Hero III on Wii, which looks like toasted asscrackers - but the text menus really ought to be quite a bit sharper.
