Rock Band VR: Rock Band’s roaring PC debut showcases Oculus Touch’s potential

WELL, THE HALLOWED day has finally arrived. Assuming you’re willing to spend $600 on an Oculus Rift and its accompanying Touch controllers, then another $70-ish on a plastic guitar and a copy of the game, then you can finally—finally—play Rock Band on a PC.

It’s really more like a Guitar Hero game of course, and lacking the huge DLC back catalog of its console counterparts, but still. Rock Band. On PC.

Sort of.

All the world’s a stage

I’ve been messing with Rock Band VR (go.pcworld.com/rkbndvramz) off-and-on for the last two days. The first thing I’ll say: Much as I hate the idea of rebuying my entire song library piecemeal, this game desperately needs DLC. It’s been a while since I’ve been limited to only the pack-in soundtrack on a Rock Band game, and oof, it’s rough.

Not that the soundtrack here is bad. Quite the contrary. It’s basically a “Greatest Hits” collection and days. Dragonforce’s “Through the Fire and Flames” makes an appearance, as does Bon Jovi’s “Living on a Prayer,” The Killers’ “When You Were Young,” Pearl Jam’s “Alive,” David Bowie’s “Suffragette City,” and the list goes on. It’s about the safest soundtrack I could imagine, benefiting from moving to a new platform where, oh yeah, nobody owns any songs yet.