Rock Band 2 (PS3) Update Details

Dan Teasdale – lead designer at Harmonix for Rock Band 2 – popped over to the official PlayStation Blog today to dish out details for the upcoming PS3 update. The software update addresses some common request from fans in addition to adding new features and functionality. Overall though, it’s very similar to the Xbox 360 update that hit back in September. Specific details can be found below:

• “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. Each star rating gets a category, as well as an “Unplayed” category for songs that don’t have a star rating recorded.
• Improved “Sort by Stars” fix: Players will not have to beat a previous high score to record a star rating for their songs.
• 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.
• Rock Band Network Store Support: When the Rock Band Network goes live, select songs will be available for PlayStation 3 users through a new storefront available in game. 
• SingStar Wireless Microphone Support. Rock Band 2 now supports the SingStar Wireless Microphones currently available through Europe!

As evidenced by the comments, you can’t please everyone. PlayStation.com users were quick to question why it took so long for Harmonix to show PS3 owners some love. Still, we're sure they agree the update is better late than never.

The Rock Band 2 PlayStation 3 update drops tomorrow.