Game Review: Rock Band

1. Game Review: Rock Band David Lawrenchuk CIS 487 September 22, 2008

2. Basic Information Game Title: Rock Band Developers: Harmonix Music Systems and Q Entertainment Publisher: MTV Games Distributor: EA Distribution Type of game: Music; Rhythm Price: $60 (game only); $170 (special edition) Minimum requirements: Xbox 360 Playstation 3 Playstation 2 (version is limited) Nintendo Wii (version is limited) Guitar, drum, and microphone peripherals Actual requirements: Same as above

3. Overview • Playing Rock Band is supposed to simulate being in an actual band. • You “perform” songs recorded by actual popular artists. • Players can play lead guitar, bass guitar, drums, or sing with included peripherals. • It’s possible to play by yourself, or play together as a band, with one person on each instrument (up to four people total).

4. Peripherals Lead guitar/ Drums Microphone Bass guitar

5. Game Play • Only actual game play occurs when you’re playing a song. • During a song, notes scroll across the screen that the players hit in time to. • For guitar and drums, these notes represent buttons on their peripheral. • For the singer, he or she should match the pitch of the singing in the actual song.

6. Sample Screenshot From left to right: Bass, drums, and guitar, with singing along the top.

7. Scoring • As the song progresses, Rock Band scores the players on how well they match the song. • Each correct note nets the player points. • At the end of the song, Rock Band shows the percentage of correct notes struck and the longest consecutive note streak for each player, and the total number of points the band received. • Perform too badly and you will “fail” the song, and have to start over.

8. Oasis – “Don’t Look Back in Anger” as performed by some people on YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_2zCa2GzI0w Game Demo

9. Artwork • Artwork is nice; but far from the focal point of the game. • Game interface is very crisp, easy to understand. • A video runs in the background during the song, but is often ignored due to the player’s attention being on what they have to be playing.

10. Music! • Music is a very important aspect of Rock Band. • Actual recording of song plays in background to aide the players in terms of rhythm, etc. • Rock Band has a very outstanding soundtrack, both in terms of quality and quantity. • As of this presentation, there are 360 different songs available between Rock Band, Rock Band 2, and all downloadable songs through Xbox Live and Playstation’s equivalent.

11. The All-American Rejects – “Dirty Little Secret”, “Move Along” Blue Öyster Cult – “Don’t Fear the Reaper” Bon Jovi – “Wanted Dead or Alive”, “Livin’ On a Prayer” (Rock Band 2) Boston – “Foreplay/Long Time”, “More than a Feeling”, “Peace of Mind” The Cars – The entire self-titled album David Bowie – “Heroes”, “Moonage Dream” Foo Fighters – “Everlong” (Rock Band 2) Jet – “Are You Gonna be my Girl?” Joan Jett – “Bad Reputation” (Rock Band 2) The Killers – “When You Were Young” Modest Mouse – “Float On” (Rock Band 2) Muse – “Hysteria” The New Pornographers – “Electric Version” Nirvana – “In Bloom” Oasis – “Wonderwall”, “Don’t Look Back in Anger”, “Live Forever”, “Rock ‘n’ Roll Star” OK Go – “Here It Goes Again” Pixies – The entire “Doolittle” album Radiohead – “Creep”, “My Iron Lung” The Ramones – “Blitzkrieg Pop” The Rolling Stones – “Gimme Shelter” Silversun Pickups – “Lazy Eye” (Rock Band 2) Sonic Youth – “Teen Age Riot” (Rock Band 2) Smashing Pumpkins – “Cherub Rock”, “Zero” The Strokes – “Reptilia” Weezer – “Buddy Holly”, “El Scorcho”, “Say it Ain’t So” The Who – “Baby O’Riley”, “My Generation” Yeah Yeah Yeahs – “Maps”, “Date with the Night” Example Songs

12. Special Features • The ability to download new songs (released weekly) through Xbox Live. • New songs cost $1.99, $0.99, or free, depending on the song. • Only available on the Xbox 360 and Playstation 3. • Ability to play online with people within the Xbox Live community.

13. What is fun about it? • Allows people to pretend they’re in a real rock band. • Allows you to play songs you like. • Multiplayer (social aspect). • Wide (and excellent) selection of songs adds to replay value. • New songs added weekly. • Four different instruments to play, in case you get tired of one.

14. Rock Band Song selection has less emphasis on guitar, due to there being three other instruments as well. Quantity of playable songs is enormous. (360 songs) Quality of songs is better (although this is an opinion). Allows for up to four people to play simultaneously. New songs can be downloaded through Xbox Live. Guitar Hero All songs are “Guitar heavy”, with many difficult guitar solos, etc. Quantity of playable songs is not quite as enormous. (73 songs in GH 3) Multiplayer capabilities is limited to two guitars dueling against one another. No new songs can be added to the game; all the songs you get when you purchase the game is what you get. Rock Band vs Guitar Hero

15. Summary • Rock Band is a high quality video game. • Quite fun, especially with multiple people playing simultaneously. • Well worth purchasing if you have a console that supports downloadable content. • Could be improved by making it more realistic; especially with the drums.