RockBand.com

  • 09-10-2009 11:21 AM
    folkeye
    Okay I got to play last night:

    The game is beautiful looking and we all had fun. Thankfully I didn't have trouble with the color of the gems on the track but I did get a bit hesitant in 'Beatlemania' when the track was lit up very bright. It did hinder what I was looking at (I figured it'd be no worse than the track designs in the early GH games, but it was harder to look at). I'm not much of a drummer, so NOT having the drum fills usually caused a miss. I'm not exceptionally coordinated all the time...

    The vocals seem well done, no shaky arrow is a good thing. We tried the 3 part harmonies and I think once you sort the confusion that is the overlapping tracks and various indicators bouncing around it'll be a lot of fun (single player is same as RB2). Bummer that a single vocalist won't get that high of scores. I don't have 2 friends that will play above medium/easy... so oh well. I also have a hard time telling how much I'm onn/off pitch aside from the verdict at the end of each phrase. The pitch line doesn't change in size...or maybe I didn't notice, from easy to expert.

    The menus are very nice and easy to navigate. No clutter involved.

    Over all, I am really enjoying the game. I can't say that it will have a long term 'play frequently' value. But it will be a very nice refreshing set of music to have when RB2 needs a break, especially when the DLC albums come out.
  • 09-10-2009 11:54 AM
    Apples
    Quote:

    Originally Posted by Chairchucker View Post
    Agreed! I'm very disappointed with my apple. I prefer oranges, and 95% of fruit eaters also prefer oranges. I'm taking my business to the orange sellers down the road.

    Heresy! Quick, tackle him!
  • 09-10-2009 01:09 PM
    Tracer
    Quote:

    Originally Posted by Apples View Post
    Heresy! Quick, tackle him!

    I think you misunderstood him Apples, he said with his apple.. singular ;)

    I'm sure you're still a gem in his eyes :)
  • 09-10-2009 01:33 PM
    narumi
    She required it.
    Quote:

    cute story :) loved it

    my question is, based on hearing your mother sing the songs, do you think turning no fail mode on was a necessary precaution or do you think now that you underrated her singing talent? ;)
    I didn't think it was necessary, however my mother refused to try unless I did put the no fail on.

    Course once we got in and saw the song difficulties for the songs we love we decided we both would probably need it. (I'm still learning the guitar controller) :)
  • 09-10-2009 02:45 PM
    TurboStitchCW
    This might have already been stated, but:

    I loved the graphics, cut-scenes, venues!
    (The big elephant thing in the beginning was an amazing piece of artwork/computer animation! the clarity, the "high def-ness" of it was awesome!)

    I'm not really a Beatles fan..mainly bought the game because it was another RB game, and I wanted to expand my "music horizons" a bit, and was not disappointed!

    That being said, the gameplay was pretty good (drums, haven't tried anything else yet) the only issue i had was when you go into "Beatlemania", sometimes the high-hat notes are hard to see as well as the bass kick. Mainly because of how bright "the studio" is, yellow notes, and then when the beatlemania phrases come up while you're already in BM...it's just a blur of brightness. I missed a couple of FCs because of this.

    Not really complaining, just giving my review (opinion). Overall, I'd give the game an 8.5.
    Great job Harmonix!
  • 09-10-2009 03:11 PM
    cmenear
    I have yet to complete the story mode....

    But played the game for about 5 hours last night. Here's my thoughts:

    First, the 16 year olds that were in my basement when I unboxed it and shutoff Zombies, immediately went for my Gretsch...I told them they would have to settle for drums and the Hofner, as I was playing the Gretsch.

    When the last finally went home at 10:30, his last comment was, "I need to get some of these songs on my iPod". Win right there HMX.

    Then I was able to start story mode.

    This game, as has been stated before, is pure beauty. The graphics and the representation of the band along with the venues (and dreamscapes) are amazing. Sure, at times they can detract from the notes, but overall, it's worth it.

    The only negative I have is extremely minor...so maybe it's a neutral and not a negative. The design of the Gretsch, while beautiful, left a small crease in my forearm due to my strumming style. The RB2 strat is smooth, while the Gretsch has a very rigid frame. I know that I just need to adjust how I strum the thing, so I will live with this, because other than that, the guitar is flat out amazing. The buttons no longer click, the strumbar is perfect and the delay on the 'start' button will be a godsend for parties.

    I'm not sure how LONG this game will be in my XBOX, because I have to wait and see how the DLC is incorporated, but for now, it's not going anywhere.
  • 09-10-2009 03:24 PM
    RBRobin
    Well, I took matters into my own hands, cancelled my pre-order and drove down and bought the thing. And here I am, 46 tracks done with (for now). Plenty of photos, challenges and achievements to dig up though.

    If anything was a little bit underwhelming, it was the tempo of the songs themselves - sometimes it felt like Expert was the sure way to go throughout, and then you're all of a sudden hit with a tricky gem like Dear Prudence, and proven otherwise. Maybe my fingers hadn't woken up, but I did butcher more than a few songs on the first go. Guess that only means the real challenge remains. It's a plus you always see the meter beforehand though, so you can choose an appropriate difficulty.

    As someone who's getting used to whacking out little notes in fluent tempo, I'd say this wasn't the ideal game for me. It's not about rapidly throwing fingers around, and the pace isn't even that strict - there's no "military" pace to be had here, so you can't click in rapid succession as you would in a "modern" song (no offense intended by that whatsoever - it just seems The Beatles had their own thing going). This led to me missing quite a few notes that were just a fraction slower than what I'd come to expect.

    Design wise, I'm never sure if I gold-starred a song. I honestly can't say, the stars all look the same to me (unless they start glowing brightly when you do?). The bright pastel note gems were a little bit hard to make out at times (especially the long ones), but I only ever missed one or two for that reason, the other being my own fumbly fingers (just wasn't my day today). From what I've been able to tell out of the corner of my eye (and one quick vocals only/no fail-combination), the venues, dreamscapes and animations are all pretty gorgeous. It's especially nice to see color flow out of something that's in black and white, or just see the guys move around and play so accurately. Most of all I was struck with how smooth it was - there was absolutely nothing twitchy, delayed or stilted about the motions. Very impressive. :D Great fun to see the little chapter intros played out too - catchy and eye-pleasingly clever animation.

    There's a lot to be had yet - only just ventured into the vocal tutorials. When we get at least one vocalist going and more DLC starts to flow, I'm sure I'll really discover the game, but for now I'll rate the experience very good in leu of completely stunning.

    Keep it up Harmonix, and make sure you get Strawberry Fields, You've Got To Hide Your Love Away and We Can Work It Out in there!
  • 09-10-2009 03:35 PM
    Tastyfreise
    First Rockband Experience
    Hello, all
    This is my first experience with a rockband game or any music game period. I purchased the le bundle at Wal-mart at 12:01 9/9/09 and played for about 45 minutes (had to work the next day). I absolutely love this game. I have put in about 8 hours of total gameplay since purchase and enjoyed every single minute of it. I'm playing story mode exclusively right now on the easy setting. I try to get 100% on all parts before moving on to the next song. I'm only on Shea Stadium (its taking me a while because I'm just learning how to play)

    I love singing the vocal harmonies and the practice mode allowing you to learn the harmonies with a guide pitch is great. The drum training is also very cool. I like the beatle beats training (although I'm not very good).

    I'm having a beatles rockband party this weekend and can't wait to get multiplayer action going.

    Great Game HMX! Looking forward to lots of DLC for this.
  • 09-10-2009 03:54 PM
    PimPandoer72
    I have played the game now for two evenings and I am very satisfied with it. I own the Wii version and in my opinion it really looks and sounds great. I also like the bass guitar and the drumkit which look very good when compared to other guitar hero/rockband equipment. Thinking of buying the other two Beatle guitars as well to have a big party!
    As did the Beatles made a standard in the 60's, I think they did this again in 2009 concerning the look and feel of musicgames. I think of the dreamscape scenes wich really do ad a great atmosphere to the game. Can't wait until Rockband releases more games like this. Suggestion: RB: The Kinks perhaps??? I will buy it, that's for sure!
  • 09-10-2009 04:59 PM
    SonicRocker15X
    Honestly, after just getting the 'Day Tripper' achievement, I have this to say:

    Game. Of. The. Year.

    Honestly, I don't (in my opinion) see how anything can top this! It's the most family friendly game we'll see until LRB; I mean, it's not dark or gritty, no references, just the colorful and fun Beatles. I was never much of a Beatles fan... But honesty this is pretty much the best thing I've ever played, ever. There are NO other games coming out that people would actually recommend to nongamers. The dreamscapes are beautiful, the graphical detail is amazing, and I love how it was taken into a realistic yet semi-cartoony look, it all looks so much better than poor gritty mo-cap like GH's celebrities (bleh...). Plus the songs... Oh god, the songs. This game has ONE artist and has a good deal of variety anyway; The Beatles went through so many genres that this has too much variety to even THINK of using anything but The Beatles in the game anyway, everything is an instant CLASSIC. The DLC is bound to be as good, and the promise of more dreamscapes with them (and confirmation of such with the amazing look of All You Need Is Love) just makes me more excited. MUST BUY for RB fans and Beatle fans alike, so long as you like fun and not OMFGDIFFICULTY.

    All in all... 999/10 (lol see wut i did thar)