EA:Rock Band Quick Hands-On
From Electronic Arts "We don't Heart E3" previews comes more Rock Band...
We've already regaled you with news of Rock Band's tracklist and master of ceremonies over here, so now it's time for Little Steven (Boxer in this case not Van Zandt) to give the game some hand time. Read on...
By Steve Boxer from EA3
Perhaps the most exciting aspect of EA3 was getting hands-on experience of the mighty Rock Band. As you know, it’s Harmonix’ expansion of Guitar Hero, which includes bass, drums and vocals as well as guitar. The new guitar peripheral (which, alas, doubles as the bass peripheral – Harmonix confirmed it hasn’t done a specific deal with any manufacturer of real bass guitars) is (as we all now know) an exact copy of a Fender Stratocaster, with the colour-coding on the keys on the top frets confined to either side of the neck, which makes it look a lot more authentic.
The drum kit is a set of subtly colour-coded pads plus a kick-drum pedal (an orange line across the screen denotes when you have to boot the kick). And the whole ensemble is topped off by a SingStar-style mic (although it’s less plasticky and more authentic in look and feel than what you get with SingStar).
In Rock Band, at last, you get to play actual versions of the old classics - I played David Bowie’s Suffragette City) rather than sound-alike, which helps enormously with intuitively nailing your musical part. And, as you would imagine, there’s a strong group, collective feel to the whole affair. Trying the drums for the first time in my life, I was initially so inept that the game, similarly to Guitar Hero, “Failed” me. But redemption was at hand: any band-mate activating Star Power will bring back another who has been failed, so I had another chance to get in the zone and bring back the drums. Play Rock Band with a bunch of strangers and I guarantee you’ll all be mates after just one track. And, of course, you can play it over the Internet.
By Steve Boxer from EA3
Perhaps the most exciting aspect of EA3 was getting hands-on experience of the mighty Rock Band. As you know, it’s Harmonix’ expansion of Guitar Hero, which includes bass, drums and vocals as well as guitar. The new guitar peripheral (which, alas, doubles as the bass peripheral – Harmonix confirmed it hasn’t done a specific deal with any manufacturer of real bass guitars) is (as we all now know) an exact copy of a Fender Stratocaster, with the colour-coding on the keys on the top frets confined to either side of the neck, which makes it look a lot more authentic.
The drum kit is a set of subtly colour-coded pads plus a kick-drum pedal (an orange line across the screen denotes when you have to boot the kick). And the whole ensemble is topped off by a SingStar-style mic (although it’s less plasticky and more authentic in look and feel than what you get with SingStar).
In Rock Band, at last, you get to play actual versions of the old classics - I played David Bowie’s Suffragette City) rather than sound-alike, which helps enormously with intuitively nailing your musical part. And, as you would imagine, there’s a strong group, collective feel to the whole affair. Trying the drums for the first time in my life, I was initially so inept that the game, similarly to Guitar Hero, “Failed” me. But redemption was at hand: any band-mate activating Star Power will bring back another who has been failed, so I had another chance to get in the zone and bring back the drums. Play Rock Band with a bunch of strangers and I guarantee you’ll all be mates after just one track. And, of course, you can play it over the Internet.
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