Even after three Rock Band games, Harmonix hasn’t given up on the dream of making you a rock ‘n’ roll star.
Rock Band 3, which MTV Games will publish this fall on PlayStation 3, Xbox 360 and Wii, adds a variety of new features that enhance the virtual rock star experience. Up to seven players can jam together on guitar, bass, drums, three vocal parts and a new instrument — the keyboards.
With the full band assembled, you’ll be able to rock bombastic tunes like Queen’s “Bohemian Rhapsody” and The Doors’ “Break on Through.” But in the new Pro mode, Rock Band 3 really blurs the line between videogame diversion and musicianship. Turn on Pro mode and you’re actually playing the song, note for note. The screen above shows you how the traditional Rock Band “note highway” changes to tell you exactly which keys to press. New controllers make guitars and drums more realistic, too.
Rock Band 3 will be shown in its full glory at next week’s E3 Expo in Los Angeles, but I got to try it for myself last month at a private demonstration. Bottom line: Rock Band 3 is a game that stays faithful to its core conceit of making music accessible and fun for all, while evolving in multiple exciting directions.
All of Rock Band 3’s instruments will be manufactured by Mad Catz, including the new keytar, a two-octave controller about the size of an old-school Casiotone. We played it on a keyboard stand, but you can totally rock the keytar over your shoulder with a strap if you want.
The new keyboard is also a fully functional MIDI keyboard. (Mad Catz also plans to release a MIDI Pro Adapter Box that will turn any MIDI keyboard into a Rock Band 3 keyboard controller.)
I tried out “The Power of Love” by Huey Lewis and the News, but wasn’t brave or skilled enough to tackle Pro mode keys. Playing keyboards in normal mode reduces the gameplay to five color-coded sections. As long as your hands are in the right general area of the keyboard, you’ll hit the notes.
Playing Pro drums, you’ll see cymbal notations that show you when to smash the hi-hat instead of the snare drums. (Mad Catz will release a new set of cymbal controllers for pre-existing drum sets, adding a better feel and quieter impact.)
Pro mode drumming isn’t any easier than in previous versions of the game. I got distracted by the new cymbal symbols cruising down the note highway — luckily we were playing with the no-fail option turned on.
If you’re already a great Rock Band drummer, you should have no problem conforming to the new demands of mandatory cymbal play. But if you’re like me and only ride the hi-hats for fun, there’s a whole new level of challenge to playing drums this way.
Guitar is where Pro mode really gets insane. To play a guitar track on this setting, you’ll need the new Fender Mustang Pro Guitar controller, which simulates the playing of six strings and 17 frets with a whole array of buttons on the neck.
Also, you need to be a savant. Pro mode guitars weren’t available for our hands-on experience, but we saw a video of the Dio tune “Rainbow in the Dark” and it looked damn near impossible — like trying to read tab notation on a piano roll going a hundred miles an hour.
Rock Band 3's Pro mode makes playing virtual instruments identical to playing real ones.
But then, nobody’s expected to be able to sight-read the Pro guitar tracks. It’s meant for actual students of the guitar. And if you use the game’s slowed-down Practice mode, the game packs the potential to become a real tool for learning to play music.
Harmonix says it’s working with another partner to create a controller that actually doubles as a real guitar. The Mustang Pro will work as a MIDI instrument, too.
With all this talk of new, hard-core ways to play Rock Band 3, one might think Harmonix has abandoned casual settings for wannabe musicians. Not so. First of all, the new game adopts the streamlined drop-in, drop-out gameplay pioneered by Guitar Hero 5. Players can join the band or duck out at any time, even in the middle of songs.
In the demo, Harmonix showed us off the game’s new user interface, called the “overshell.” Long story short, it makes adding players, switching instruments or signing in and out of a player profile a lot less work.
Harmonix is also making it easier to navigate the ever-growing Rock Band music library. The game’s menu gives you new ways to sort tracks, a new rating system that allows you to assign scores to all the tracks and a new, robust playlist creation system that you can edit in the game and on a new Rock Band 3 website.
Rock Band 3 is also fully compatible with all existing Rock Band tracks, a library that Harmonix says will reach nearly 2,000 songs by the time 3 launches. (Harmonix hasn’t said if it is going to update its library of tunes to use keyboards, Pro mode or vocal harmonies.)
Singers, too, have a little something to croon about. Rock Band 3 allows for the three-part vocal harmonies introduced by The Beatles: Rock Band.
Throughout our demo, we witnessed a handful of “vignettes” — live-action moments that depict your customized band members strutting in slow-mo to their next gig. These sequences are like the loading screens from Rock Band 2 come to life — and they happen throughout the game, helping you further connect with your rock ‘n’ roll alter egos.
Finally, while taste is a tough thing to argue, Harmonix still boasts the best musical lineup in the biz. Rock Band 3 will feature 83 songs by 83 bands, of which we sampled 22. I can do without Smash Mouth, personally, but there’s already a bunch of great music — much of it heavy on the keyboards, natch. Here’s the first batch of songs announced by Harmonix.
Metric, “Combat Baby”
Rilo Kiley, “Portions of Foxes”
Them Crooked Vultures, “Dead End Friends”
The Vines, “Get Free”
The White Stripes, “The Hardest Button to Button”
Phoenix, “Lasso”
Ida Maria, “Oh My God”
Juanes, “Me Enamora”
Jane’s Addiction, “Been Caught Stealing”
Smash Mouth, “Walkin’ on the Sun”
Spacehog, “In the Meantime”
Stone Temple Pilots, “Plush”
Dio, “Rainbow in the Dark”
Huey Lewis and the News, “The Power of Love”
Joan Jett, “I Love Rock and Roll”
Night Ranger, “Sister Christian”
Whitesnake, “Here I Go Again”
The Cure, “Just Like Heaven”
Ozzy Osbourne, “Crazy Train”
Queen, “Bohemian Rhapsody”
Jimi Hendrix, “Crosstown Traffic”
The Doors, “Break On Through”
Hands On: Rock Band 3 Adds Keyboards, Realistic Pro Mode | GameLife | Wired.com
