Beatles Rock Band trailer.
Harmonix’s dedicated Beatles game is to be released on 9/9/09, to coincide with the release of their entire remastered catalog. It’s said to contain 45 Beatles tracks, and they plan on releasing the entire Abbey Road album as a download in the weeks following.
The most interesting thing about this game is the attention given to the visuals, which has been a backburner thing for previous Rock Band games (for good reason… no one really cares to see an animated redneck with a purple suit sing Aqualung). But this game looks like it follows the Beatles’ history, down to the clothing and hairstyles, the Yellow Submarine, and the look of band members. You’ve got my money, Harmonix.
PS — Ringo’s talent was underrated, and I’m stoked to play his drum parts.
Rush’s “Moving Pictures” album on Rock Band
I just received the first Rock Band Community Zine entry in my email containing the announcement that Rush’s album Moving Pictures will be released August 26th as a full album download.
I’m not a huge Rush fan in general, but I’m a massive fan when it comes to playing their songs in Rock Band. Harmonix also has a two-part interview here and here.
Guy plays 235 songs in Rock Band straight through for 26 hours straight.
Some video has apparently revealed the Rock Band 2 complete tracklist? Teh?
But with no artist names… you’re on your own to guess ‘em.
The Onion has a nice preview of Rock Band 2.
Highlights:
- Flexible Band World Tour — any number of people on or offline can join a band.
- “Party safe” mode keeps newbies from backing everybody out when you’re trying to start a song.
- Create setlists on the fly.
- “Whole album” play mode.
- More RPG-like elements in Band World Tour.
- Custom logos for your band.
- Ten new announced songs.
- All 80+ new tracks use master recordings.
- Drum kit improvements — metal-reinforced pedal; quieter, velocity-sensitive pads; wireless support.
- Drum training program with a library of basic beats and rhythms, and different kit styles like electronic, vintage, and trashy.
- Freeplay mode where you can rip mp3s to your console and play over them.
Ho. Ly. Shit. That’s a few new features. And each one of them sounds like it should be a massive improvement to the original platform.
Harmonix also mentions a “very ambitious indie initiative” they have in development now to get more indie bands to the platform. Maybe we’ll start seeing some Wolf Parade, Aqueduct, Pinback, etc.
(via)
Interesting post about how Harmonix creates the note tracks for songs in Rock Band.
IGN has the scoop on Rock Band 2 in this interview with Dan Teasdale, lead designer from Harmonix.
There aren’t many details here, but it’s still somewhat interesting if you can wade through the usual PR nonsense and the awful IGN transcription.
Holy balls. I can’t believe there are over 1 million sets of plastic toys in living rooms throughout the country. Don’t get me wrong, I would buy it too if it wasn’t so pricey, but jesus.
Let’s break down the numbers:
- 1 million bundles @ $170 each (160 for PS2) = $170,000,000
- 2.5 million tracks @ $2 each (minus some for the reduced-price packs) = another $5,000,000
In just two months, that’s $175,000,000 for EA and Harmonix for a gaming platform, not even just a game, that’s going to continue as a flourishing money tree for years. And when they add more instruments, it’s going to get even more ridiculous.
