Did you know that 9.09.09 is going to be a huge day for the Beatles? For the first time ever The Beatles are issuing their remastered Catalog in both Mono (for you purist) and Stereo on CD. It’s widely expected that The Beatles music on iTunes will finally be announced at today’s Apple’s music event and there’s a little game called The Beatles: Rock Band. A few weeks ago I did an interview with the game’s producer Josh Randall – who must have one of the coolest jobs in the world.
1) Can you talk a bit about how this entire project came to be? Did you pursue the Beatles or did they come to you?
The concept actually came about because of a chance meeting during the family vacations of Van Toffler, President of MTV Networks Music Group and the Harrison family, Olivia and Dhani. Dhani Harrison is a fan of Harmonix and its history and reputation for developing music games. From that conversation, MTV Games and Harmonix worked with Apple Corps to make the dream a reality.
2) Why do you think the Beatles chose you guys over your competition?
I think from our first meetings with Apple Corps, it just made sense. We were able to engage those guys on a creative level that I think made them comfortable. As our organizations got to know each other better, we grew a mutual respect for one another, and things fell into place.
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Tags:
Hollywood Insider,
Music Games,
Rock Band,
Video Games
Well, what do we have here. Several websites are reporting that the rumored full Beatles Rockband setlist that’s been going around is actually real. I generally don’t like to cover rumors, but this seems to be fact (confirmed by Game Informer) and I fully expect the Rock Band folks to send out the official press release tomorrow or Monday. If this is true, the 45 song Beatles disk is pretty rocking. Take a gander after the break.
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Tags:
Music Games,
Rock Band,
Video Games
I think I’m about through with the music genre. I still love me some Guitar Hero and Rock Band, but I think after Guitar Hero Smash Hits comes out in a few weeks I’ll about at my limit – there’s just to many titles and tracks to keep up with. But before I do, I took Rock Band Track Pack: Classic Rock for a spin and it’s good. I’ve always said that Guitar Hero is the better game, while Rock Band has always been the better music “simulator.” This time out the “game” elements has been streamlined and improved upon. This slimmed down version isn’t clutter like the main game and several things that I didn’t like about Rock Band like the way it handled Achievement Points, Scoring, and other simple game elements like progression are much better. I have over 300 Rock Band Tracks and to this day I have yet to finish Rock Band 2 because of the ridiculous way it pulls songs from all the tracks to make up each tour destination. This Track Pack set strips out all of that and takes it back to the basics. You now get achievement points for actually doing well in the game.
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Tags:
Harmonix,
Rock Band,
Video Games
I’ve always been more a fan of Guitar Hero than Rockband, even though I recently purchased about 40 tracks. I just find I prefer the balance on GH to RB. RB’s normal level is way too slow and easy, while the hard level is way too hard – I can’t hit that stupid orange note. I’m not at E3 this year and I find out The Who is going to play the Rock Band Party. The f’ing Who? Even though I get invited to this stuff, I still somehow miss out the really cool events. It’s The Who! Anywho (get it?) They are releasing a best of set this week. Check out this awesome track listing.
The Best of The Who Rock Band Edition (1600 MS points / $20) — All songs are also sold individually (160 MS Points / $2)
- "Amazing Journey"
- "Baba O’Riley"
- "Behind Blue Eyes"
- "Eminence Front"
- "Going Mobile"
- "Leaving Here"
- "My Generation" (LIVE)
- "Real Good Looking Boy"
- "Sea & Sand"
- "Summertime Blues" (LIVE)
- "Who Are You"
- "Young Man Blues" (LIVE)
The folks over at Joystiq went that extra mile and posted up video of all these songs. So check it out at Here.
Tags:
E3,
Music Games,
PlayStation 3,
Rock Band,
Xbox 360
Awhile ago I talked about a little company called eMedia Music, they specialize in creating self-paced music training CD-Roms and DVDs. I recently reviewed their Piano and Keyboard method cd-rom and it was really good, if a bit dry. After playing the heck out of Guitar Hero and Rock Band, I got it into my head that I wanted to learn how to play the Guitar. So once my buds at eMedia sent me a copy of the Essential Rock Guitar method DVD, it sat on my shelf for several weeks before I finally got around to purchasing my first Guitar. Being left handed my choices were limited, when I walked into the music store, they had ONE left handed Electric Guitar and ONE left handed acoustic guitar. After holding the acoustic one, I decided the thin electric one would be for me. The minute I held it, I was like, hmmm…This doesn’t feel like my Guitar Hero guitar. I went home and popped the Rock Guitar DVD in and slowly followed the instructions. The DVD is over two hours and teaches you everything you need to get start. My issue with it was, that it was really dry and bland. It’s all text and tutorial based.
Each fully interactive, multimedia lessons featuring an animated fretboard with right and left-handed views, eMedia’s multi-camera “Tri-View” video with close-ups, a song-based curriculum, English and Spanish instruction, tuner, interactive chord charts, music tracking and live performance audio. Bonus downloadable toolkit includes: metronome, personal digital recorder, chord dictionary, and digital automatic tuner. The titles in the series are Essential Acoustic Guitar, Essential Rock Guitar, Essential Bass Guitar. While the interactivity is fine, it’s just not flashy. There’s nothing there that would keep you coming back for more, unless you are really committed to learning your new instrument. Now most people don’t have the short attention span that I have, and most people who decide they want to learn to play a guitar are willing to put the work in to do it. For those people this is a great product, but I think it would work better as a supplemental to initial lessons. Especially if you are a left-handed player. While the DVD does support inverse frets, I found it hard to tell exactly what I was supposed to be doing and if I needed to reverse my fingering or if it was already reversed. The tutorials didn’t make that entirely clear. I was impressed with the fact that after only an 1/2 hr I was able to get around my guitar, and I knew some notes. When I tried out their Piano and Keyboard Method, I already knew how to play, so it was a nice refresher. Considering, I knew nothing about the Guitar, this didn’t suck me in the way I’d hoped. I think after I get my 2 free initial lessons and revisit this DVD, I’ll be rocking out in no time. I’m curious has Rock Band or Guitar Hero made anyone else consider getting a real guitar?
Final Grade B-
EM Review
By Michelle Alexandria
Originally Posted 4/6/08
Tags:
Guitar Hero 3,
Rock Band
It’s that time of the year again, where we check who were naughty or nice and reward accordingly, for the gamers in your life I’ve come up with a list of 10 titles that any good gamer must own. Here is part 1 of my 2 part guide.
Call of Duty 4
The folks at Activision have hit it out of the park with, what I think is the best shooter of all time. Call of Duty 2 for the 360 set the bar on multiplayer shooting. Before COD 2, I absolutely HATED playing shooting games, they hurt my eyes, gave me a headache and were completely unbalanced in gameplay. Call of Duty 2 for the 360 changed all of that for me. So I was waiting with baited breath for Call of Duty 3 and frankly that game was a steaming pile. After that disappointment I wasn’t looking forward to COD 4 Modern Warfare, the first time I fired up the beta multiplayer I was in love again. And ran out and purchased a copy, I didn’t wait for Activision to send me one, I spent my own hard earned cash and have been addicted to this game for the last two month. I’ve played nothing but the multi-player aspect and it’s absolutely perfect. Graphically it looks amazing, the play mechanics are flawless and in one of the more unique aspects of the game, there’s a neat level up mechanic that is addictive as heck. Even if you are a mediocre Online death matcher like myself, it’s worth sticking with a match because you get rewarded for your efforts. The points let you level up your weapons, gives you special perks like steady aim, more powerful explosives, and more. The really cool thing about the system is you get all the good perks, great guns, and red-dot scopes after only a couple of rounds of play. When I first heard about this feature, I thought the game would be just as unbalanced as Halo but it works surprisingly well. This is truly a genre expanding game that even non-shooting fans will love. [click to continue…]
Tags:
Call of Duty 4,
Enemy Territory: Quake Wars,
Holiday Video Game Guide,
Mario Galaxy,
Rock Band
Hey, Hardcore Queen here at E For All in LA, the newest Gaming event in LA. The producers of the event envision this show to be as large as E3 only focused on the consumers instead of industry folks. When I first walked into the hall, I felt like I was transported back into time. Like it was E3 all over again, even though I railed against the show every year, I find that I really miss it. There was a nice little welcome, as you walk into the doors there was a band performing music. Entering the hall you immediately realize it isn’t E3, there isn’t the E3 crowds there are no packed hallways, no circus atmosphere, outside the South Hall there was almost no indication that anything was happening within the convention center, just a couple of small tents from Novint Tech who were showcasing their amazing new Falcon PC Controller. [click to continue…]
Tags:
Civilization,
E For All,
EA,
Fatal1ty,
Guitar Hero III,
Rock Band,
Sid Meir,
The Orange Box,
The Simpsons
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