Beatles' Rock Band Question

The Game Room
1

I hope that some of the WoW kids will see this too, cause y’all know pretty much my strenghths and weaknesses with THAT game, but I saw that Harmonix is releasing 45 Beatles’ tunes for Rock Band in September, and until now, I haven’t been much interested in the game, but hell, this is The Beatles, fer cryin’ out loud!:slight_smile:

Last year my wife and I bought an XBox 360 (the 60 GB one) for our grandson to play when he comes to visit, and I’ve been toying with the idea of getting the game for MYSELF. :wink:

Thing is, I don’t know the logistics of the game (how to actually play it, I mean).

I know one needs a guitar, and one presses buttons to get a score, but beyond that, I’m clueless. (Well more clueless than usual! :D)

So I went online to see if there’s a demo (not just screen-shots) of the game actually being played, but couldn’t find anything except a “trailer” from Game Spot, and that didn’t tell me much.

This game excites me as well, because it apparently has a “vocal trainer”. Is that what I think it is - one sings into a microphone and the game scores one’s efforts at being on-key and such?

So, can anyone link me to a site that would teach me how the game is played before I actually buy it?

Oh, and BTW, the graphics I saw totally rock, man!

If I could learn this game, I’d be happy as a pig in shit, for sure.:stuck_out_tongue:

So anyway, thanks for your help!

Q

2

Here’s a quick article about how to play the game. Just YouTube “rock band” and look at some videos (or even look at the Beatles Rock Band videos) to see how the game is played. It’s pretty simple: just hit the correct colored button on the guitar or drums at the proper time. There are various difficulties for you to get into the swing of things.

The vocal trainer will teach you how to sing the harmonies in the various Beatles songs. Many Beatles songs had two-part or three-part harmonies, and this game will give you the option to choose which part of the harmony you wish to sing…or you can even sing all of them if you have two or three people on vocals.

Beatles Trailer 1
Beatles Trailer 2

Take a look at how the guitar, bass and drum parts have colors and how the vocals have multiple parts.

3

mobo85, thanks, I checked out all your links and got a better idea of what the game’s all about.:slight_smile:

One thing: I’m a musician already: Drums primarily, and guitar secondary. Is this game going to be interesting to me?

Also, I see this as being a “speed/reaction” kind of game - hit the right button when it flashes - is that right?

Thanks again and grats on being named our resident expert on The Simpsons!

Doh!:smack::slight_smile:

Quasi

4

As a drummer, you will like it. It’s strictly for fun, but it’s a lot of fun!

As a guitar player, it may *more *difficult for you, since it is nothing like playing guitar/bass. But still fun.

Part of it is speed/reaction, but if you know the song, it’s more just playing along to the song. My husband is a drummer, and I marvel how he can look away from the drums, not space out and screw up, etc. He says it’s because he’s playing what he hears, not according to the colors. Once you learn the abbreviated drum layout, you’re golden.

By the way - start out at Expert on the drums. It can be very confusing to hear a triplet, but only see one colored “note”. The lower difficulties make it easier by cutting out playable beats.

5

Drummers do better at the game than most other musos as it’s essentially a rhythm game at heart.

On the guitar/bass, you need to co-ordinate the button press (analagous to the fingering) with a “strum” across a bar that represents the strings.

For the drums, you’ve got a set of four practice pads and a bass pedal, and Ringo’s playing is mapped out for you.

In either case, just get the right “pad” with the right timing and you’re there.

The vocal lines should be self-evident, but as noted elsewhere you can have up to three people singing harmony. I believe that only the lead singer’s “score” will contribute to the group’s score, though.

Especially if you can get a group together and alcohol is present, it’s astonishingly addictive.

6

A: Ever play Simon? The game where you repeat patterns? It’s like that, but more awesome.
B: It’s even better with other people.

It takes practice, and it takes effort, but it’s a lot of fun. There’s a load and a half of music for the existing versions, but they can not carry over to the Beatles version. The Beatles version will be only Beatles songs. But they’re going to let you download more albums. Abbey Road is supposedly the first one coming.

I think you’ll like it.

7

By the way, if you go in to any Best Buy store you should be able to physically play the game. My local Best Buy is quite small but they’ve had Rock Band or Guitar Hero demos up forever!

8

Zip!!!:slight_smile:

Thanks!

Q

E-Sabbath,

Thank you as well, but I am not sure I understand the second paragraph and the sentence which begins with the word There’s. I’m sorry, but could you be a bit more specific (keeping in mind that you’re talking to a dweeb?:wink:

BigNik and Sateryn76: Weellllll, I left the drums a long time ago, because they were so hard to set up and carry around, packing and unpacking, and getting old (I’m 59), and we kept having to bail our lead guitatist (a “Savant”, BTW) out of jail. :slight_smile:

So I started playing guitar and got to liking it.

I see there are “versions” of The Beatles’ guitars for sale, but I guess Ringo’s drums will be just pads, huh? :smiley:

Anyway, thanks for all the answers!

Can’t wait to do a “test drive” to see how it works!

Thanks

Q

9

I wouldn’t recommend this. It is counterintuitive at first not to play all the notes, but expert drums is essentially drumming for real - it’s way too overwhelming for someone who has no experience with it. Too big a jump.

10

There is an existing Rock Band game. (Rock Band 2 is the current game.) You can download more songs for it over the internet. There’s a lot of them.

Those songs will not be able to be played in Rock Band: Beatles.

Rock Band: Beatles will have a lot of downloadable songs for it. The game itself only comes with 30-40 songs.

The first bit of downloadable content will be the Abbey Road album, coming out about a month after the game.

You will not be able to play it on Rock Band 2, if you choose to get that.

Yes, Ringo’s drums will just be pads. If you really get into the game, you can get better drums that are more like real ones.
http://www.gamestooge.com/2008/09/24/review-ion-rock-band-drum-kit-xbox-360/

But don’t worry about that now. Just relax, have fun. I suggest starting out on lead guitar on easy just to get used to the feel of the game. Switch to drums later once you figure the game part of it out.

11

Quasimodem - One word: Beatmania.

All the other titles…Dance Dance Revolution, Pop 'n Music/Beat 'n Groovy, Taiko Drum Master, Donkey Conga, Percussion Master, Guitar Hero, all of them, every single one…owe their existence to the awesome game that spawned the concept. (It continues to be awesome; IIDX is already well into its 16th incarnation with no end in sight.)

www.bemanistyle.com is a good place to start; just read up on any of the beginner threads.

Oh, if you’re actually thinking of getting this game (or any music game, for that matter), do your homework about the kind of peripherals you’re going to need. Sometimes you need this one $80 drum kit and absolutely nothing else will work; sometimes you can make do with something you use for some other game. The whole Bemani series is actually pretty cool in this regard; I wouldn’t have had a tenth of the enthusiam for IIDX or Drummania if I had to shell out another 200 bucks for dedicated controllers.

12

DKW, while I appreciate Beatmania… it’s not the Beatles. It’s a good game, but… this is special.

And I’m pretty sure that Quasi doesn’t have a game drum kit already, so he’d have to get it, maybe a mike, maybe a guitar, from somewhere anyhow.

13

That’s true.

I have real drum sets (my beloved Ludwigs and Pearls) and I have real guitars (including my McCartney bass copy), but the only things I have that’s needed is the XBox 360, Kids.:slight_smile:

I went to Game Spot a few months ago and they showed me some used guitars, but if the game is within financial reach, and the guitars run below 100 bucks, I would like to have the “real thing”.

Just wanna make sure I can play the game before I buy it - given the fargin’ AD.

Thank you both for the links and advice!

Quasi

14

Paul’s Hofner bass is only available with the bundle, which also comes with Ringo’s drums and a microphone along with the game and a microphone and retails for $250. George’s Gretsch and John’s Rickenbacker are sold seperately and retail for $100 each.

15

The game alone is $60, one notes.