Harmonix\'s new project: \'Rock Band\' for XBOX 360 & PS3

[davepeck]

this will be what makes me finally buy an XBOX 360.

from the latest Game Informer:

One disk with 4 separate campaigns. Guitar, Drum, Bass and Vocal. Each can be played on its own from start to finish, in addition, a full band game is designed to allow for one huge co-op playthrough.

- Will feature full support for four player online play on both 360 and PS3. Any combination of on/offline play will work and each player can pick their own difficulty setting.

- Flexible community system will allow you to find bandmates anywhere in the world

- There will be a way for you to share your band\'s triumphs with the world, but the details are still under wraps.

- Musical fret-boards are now transparent so you can see more of the background visuals. Guitar is on the left side of the screen, Bass on the right and drums down the middle. Vocals scroll from right to left along the top of the screen.

- Guitars and Bass now have 10 frets. 5 for the regular sections of the game and 5 for the newly designated solo sections.

- Whammy bar is back as is the tilt to activate rock band\'s version of star power

- there is a five way switch on the guitar that allows for 5 different self-applied effects to the sound.

- Singing is now more in depth. There is a phoneme detector that will pick up individual vowels and consonants you say. Build up enough highly judged phrases and you\'ll be able to sing free-form. If you do well enough in free-form, then you\'ll trigger the vocalist\'s version of star power.

- Microphone doubles as a tambourine on many songs to combat super long guitar solos where the singer doesn\'t have much to do.

- Drums are apparently insane. You use actual sticks and hit one of four colored pads in front of you, in addition to a kick pedal attached to the drumming unit. Drummers will also have the ability to do fills etc. in their own little free-form section, do well and you\'ll trigger the drummers version of star power.

- If one person fails, the whole band does not fail, their section simply turns gray and they have to sit out the rest of the song unless one your band mates initiates star power, which will bring you back into the fold.

- If all bandmates can reach the end of a song, you\'ll be greeted with one huge free-form jam session.

- There will be a character creation system, and you can create multiple avatars that play different instruments.

- Four themed clothing stores in addition to licensed guitars and pedals and other rock paraphernalia.

- A full set of mo-cap stage movements have been added for each instrument. You can decide whether your vocalist moves like Axel Rose, or stands his ground like Clapton.

- 40 performance venues planned

- All peripherals will be unique to each platform. This isn\'t the developer\'s decision. Apparently MS peripherals require special circuit boards.

- You\'ll be able to craft your own band logo

- The HUD in the screens isn\'t final but is a good indication of what you can expect

- 4 songs announced in the article, not sure if this is new or old but whatever.
Weezer - Say It Ain\'t So - Original Master Track
Black Sabbath - Paranoid - Original Master Track
The Who - Won\'t Get Fooled Again - Original Master Track
Nirvana - In Bloom - Original Master Track

INSTRUMENT DESCRIPTIONS

Sorry I can\'t post photos so my descriptions will have to suffice

Guitars/Bass

Guitars are an exact 3/4 replica of a Fender Strat.

Xplorer guitars will work for 360 owners, but you may not be able to pass on all the new stuff this model has.

Five familiar buttons near the top of the neck, five buttons near the body of the guitar. You will use these new buttons during specially designed solo sections using ONLY hammer ons and pull offs, no having to worry about your strum bar. Signature Fender 5-way switch has been added. By shopping at the in game store you\'ll be able to purchase several virtual effects pedals such as Flange, Wah, Chorus and Echo. These can be applied during your song by setting the 5 way switch to the desired effect.

Microphone

There will eventually be a Rock Band branded Mic

Other USB mics will be supported, but Harmonix will probably NOT allow the use of the 360 headset due to its low fidelity. Mics will be usable as tambourines during certain songs.

That\'s all for mics!

DRUMS

The picture of the drum peripheral in the mag is not final.

It consists of four pads, a kick pedal and legs for the enire unit to stand on. Think of it as a TV dinner tray stand only cooler

Leftmost pad (red) is your snare drum, everything else doubles as toms and cymbals depending on the song.

A set of real wooden drum sticks will ship with the unit.

A piece of the stand can be taken off so that the unit can sit lower, or on a coffee table.

There is a kick pedal

If you play drums in this game on hard or expert, then you\'re really playing the drums. Apparently you could sit down at a real set and play the same songs.

[Spacey]

looks really cool. might breakdown and buy a gaming system and come out of retirement.

[davepeck]

Rock Band guitar....





scans of the magazine article...
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v601/alex21/2ccd149967c5f5c4abff67d74b398d0ca83.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v601/alex21/01d6041b5eb745ec9c573d9d80a3088f7e1.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v601/alex21/32fe040b5fa23b9c72bb9736f56287f0754.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v601/alex21/6.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v601/alex21/5.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v601/alex21/3.jpg

[weekapaug19]

wonder how much this will cost, and I wish they had it for PS2

[Spacey]

wonder how much this will cost, and I wish they had it for PS2

buy xbox and buy the game. spend money so that Gates can be even wealthier.

[davepeck]

Three more confirmed songs:

David Bowie - Suffragette City
Mountain - Mississippi Queen
The Hives - Main Offender

100+ downloadable songs in the first year.

Of the eight announced songs so far, six of them are the original masters ("Won\'t Get Fooled Again" from The Who, "Suffragette City" from David Bowie, "Don\'t Fear the Reaper" from Blue Oyster Cult, "In Bloom" from Nirvana, "Main Offender" from The Hives, and "Say it Ain\'t So" from Weezer), with only two covers ("Mississippi Queen" from Mountain and "Paranoid" from Black Sabbath). Obviously, that\'s a pretty good ratio and Harmonix says that it will continue to go after originals songs wherever possible.

[davepeck]

Harmonix, the leading developer of music-based games, and MTV Games, a division of MTV Networks which is a division of Viacom (NYSE: VIA, VIA.B), announced today that one of the most influential records in rock history, The Who’s iconic Who’s Next, will become the first full length album available as a digitally-distributed game level for the upcoming videogame Rock Band™ - a first ever offering for a videogame. In addition to announcing full-length album availability, MTV Games and Harmonix also announced the first 16 Rock Band songs, spanning every genre of rock from alternative to classic to heavy metal. As previously announced Electronic Arts (NASDAQ: ERTS) will serve as the exclusive distribution and marketing partner for Rock Band, managing distribution for the game in US, Europe and Australia.

“Offering entire albums for play on the Rock Band platform is a monumental step forward in Harmonix’s ever present quest to provide new ways for people to interact with music and creating the most authentic music experience possible,” stated Alex Rigopulos, co-founder and CEO, Harmonix. “This will give players the opportunity to play through the entire album set list of arguably some of the most influential rock albums of all time and brings them one step closer to what it feels like to be a true rock star.”

Who’s Next will be the first album available for Rock Band owners to purchase soon after the game’s release with new content planned every week following Rock Band’s launch this Holiday. Universal Music Group along with other top record labels and music publishers announced earlier this year an unprecedented partnership with Harmonix and MTV to provide music for Rock Band, with this artist being the first of many being announced in the months ahead.

“Rock Band empowers users to interact with the music they love in a completely new way. This type of consumer engagement is vital in today’s marketplace. We fully support licensing opportunities that allow consumers to have their music their way and it’s a home run because of its cultural relevance,” said Mike Davis, EVP/GM, Universal Music Enterprises.

"The Who\'s Who\'s Next is crystallized as one of the great moments in music history," stated Jeff Yapp, EVP, MTV Program Enterprises. "This is the first of many legendary albums available for download in Rock Band as a digitally-distributed game level. This enables us to connect music fans and gamers with the artists and songs they want to play so they can experience these historic moments through Rock Band.”

The Who’s Who’s Next (1971 Release)

1. “Baba O’Riley”
2. “Bargain”
3. “Love Ain’t for Keepin’”
4. “My Wife (Entwistle)”
5. “The Song Is Over”
6. “Getting in Tune”
7. “Going Movile”
8. “Behind Blue Eyes”
9. “Won’t Get Fooled Again”

Influential British rock band The Who, featuring legendary guitarist Pete Townshend, has agreed to make its 1971 album Who’s Next the first downloadable album available for Rock Band gamers. Considered by many to be The Who\'s greatest album, Who\'s Next has also been named one of the best albums of all time by VH1 (#13) and Rolling Stone (#28).

Here\'s a list of the first 16 "official" songs, in addition to The Who album:

The Who - "Won\'t Get Fooled Again"
Mountain - "Mississippi Queen"
David Bowie - "Suffragette City"
Black Sabbath - "Paranoid"
Blue Oyster Cult - "Don\'t Fear the Reaper"
The Ramones - "Rockaway Beach"
Rush - "Tom Sawyer"
Bon Jovi - "Wanted Dead or Alive"
Metallica - "Enter Sandman"
Nirvana - "In Bloom"
Stone Temple Pilots - "Vasoline"
Weezer - "Say It Ain\'t So"
Foo Fighters - "Learn to Fly"
The Hives - "Main Offender"
The Strokes - "Reptilia"
Queens of the Stone Age - "Go With the Flow"

the drums:

[davepeck]

10 new songs announced...
* "Gimme Shelter" by the Rolling Stones
* "Highway Star" by Deep Purple
* "Should I Stay or Should I Go" by The Clash
* "Epic" by Faith No More
* "Cherub Rock" by Smashing Pumpkins
* "Creep" by Radiohead
* "Sabotage" by Beastie Boys
* "Are You Gonna Be My Girl" by Jet
* "Here It Goes Again" by OK Go
* "The Hand That Feeds" by Nine Inch Nails


november can\'t come soon enough.

[leith]

Grateful Dead added

Hell yeah!!!!!!! 18 tracks. I call Bob\'s spot!

[Spacey]

why don\'t you guys learn how to play real instruments???

there is going to be an obese generation of electronic musicians from these games.

[leith]

why don\'t you guys learn how to play real instruments???

there is going to be an obese generation of electronic musicians from these games.

Bah! I own a keyboard and have played harmonica on stage a few times but I can\'t just cruise over Peck\'s house and jam ya know?

Sheesh!

[Spacey]

why don\'t you guys learn how to play real instruments???

there is going to be an obese generation of electronic musicians from these games.

Bah! I own a keyboard and have played harmonica on stage a few times but I can\'t just cruise over Peck\'s house and jam ya know?

Sheesh!

lol.

just stepping on some sack.

could you both plug in and play over the internet on this game, kinda like Madden and many of these other games?

[leith]

why don\'t you guys learn how to play real instruments???

there is going to be an obese generation of electronic musicians from these games.

Bah! I own a keyboard and have played harmonica on stage a few times but I can\'t just cruise over Peck\'s house and jam ya know?

Sheesh!

lol.

just stepping on some sack.

could you both plug in and play over the internet on this game, kinda like Madden and many of these other games?

Yeah that\'s actually the whole point of the game\'s creation. Should be veddy interestin\'.

[Spacey]

thats actually a very cool concept.

interesting indeed.

[davepeck]

i really can\'t fucking wait. i may even pick up my xbox a month early and just get GHIII on there.