Rock Band 3

Blog Post: Worth Every Penny!

Taylor — Wed, 15 Jun 2011 05:41:00 GMT

First off, I realize this is a late review, but I want to review this game. I think by far this is the best Rock Band to date. With pro mode and adding the keyboard, it makes everything better. Customization of characters is only slightly better, and I wish that you had the same custom settings that guitar hero has for it's games. Either way, that is a very minor complaint, and will not hinder your fun with the game.

Next visuals...the game looks very good. They did a big graphical overhaul from it's predecessors. Playing this game in full 1080p is great, with all the colors and lighting effects.

Another complaint is the fact that it is so hard to calibrate your game on a HD tv. I don't know why, I ended up going back to my standard tv to play this game because it wouldn't calibrate to my setup. Also for people who say Rock Band 2 is better cause of songs, easy, just import your songs from 2 into 3...problem solved.

Everything is improved, note pickup is more precise, a better training mode, and the drop in drop out is nice. As well as being able to change difficulties within a song. GI gave this a 9.25, they also gave Rock Band 2 a 9.25, but 3 is better, so why not a better score?

All in all, if you love music games you should pick it up. The game is only $20 now, so why not?

Blog Post: Rock band 3 for ps3. It Rocks but not enough.

redlitez76 — Tue, 01 Feb 2011 05:10:00 GMT

I bought Rock band 3 for my family because they love music games. I have rock band 2 and I can tell you that I was surprised and letdown with the third installment of the music game giant.

First the good. Hooray on the pro stuff and keyboards. That stuff is awesome. It has already helped my middle daughter on her piano lessons. She is improving by leaps and bounds. Also the character builder has improved some what. But the tattoo maker has gotten worse. Maybe harmonix did that on purpose due to pressure from some family group activists? Either way you can't place tattoo's where you want them.

The game play, I hate to say this but is a lot easier than Guitar hero series. Guitar hero moves at a much faster rate. I had one of my Guitar controllers go bad (read my post about that-shameless plug.) and as luck would have it the local Burkes outlet store had a sell on Guitar hero 3 for the PS3 controller and game both brand new for $15.00! At Wal-mart the same thing was $60.00 so that was a great deal. I played Guitar hero 3 as a warm-up for Rock band 3 and I stunk on Guitar hero at easy but I played Rock band3 on medium. I even did pretty good at hard. So that should tell you something there.

The music they added is great as always. They have some of my favorite songs on here such as Chicago "25 or 6 to 4" and B.B King "the thrill is gone" plus several more. I have no problem with the music but they could have more Journey.

The score system sucks. I liked the money scoring system to buy clothes and other stuff,well they got rid of it.

Well you are gonna buy it no matter what. So my opinion doesn't matter much on that. I like the game but not as much as 2 but it is fun. so a 7 out of 10 is fair.

Blog Post: A Disappointment

nickha0 — Wed, 27 Oct 2010 02:20:00 GMT

Note: I accidentally posted this review in the wii section.

Rock Band 3 is without a doubt the worst in the series. There is absolutely no challenge (except for the "pro" mode, which I'll get to in a bit). The song selection suffers the same fate as Guitar Hero World Tour: It's too spread out to accommodate the new instruments. No songs stand out, they all just blend into one boring setlist (with the exception of a couple of classics). Unlike Guitar Hero: Warriors of Rock, RB3 is entirely mundane. There's no epic finale, no setpieces that stand out. There just seems to be no emotion in the game. That's the best way to describe it.

The one addition to Rock Band 3 that does work well is the keyboard. It is fun to use, and songs such as Bohemian Rhapsody work much better on it than "playing" the piano with guitar in GHWOR. As a piano player myself, it was fun to jump right into pro mode and already know how to play it. However, the steep $80 entry price will discourage most players who haven't picked up a keyboard before, and I've found after playing with my friends that it's even less popular to use than the bass.

Speaking of playing with friends, I've found the guitar hero series, especially in recent years, to be much better at this. You STILL can't play with any combination of instruments, forcing the odd man out to play an instrument they don't want to instead of fun sessions in GHWOR with 4 people on guitar. You still have to go through a lot of menus, and while they have been improved, it's not good for a party scenario when you just want to turn the game on and play.

Now on to the pro mode. While it worked alright when I played it in the store (they brought out some of the other pro instruments at best buy for people to try), buying all of them will set you back more than $250, assuming you already own the drums. Want the "real" pro guitar, the Squire? Prepare to pay at least $300 for that alone. They haven't announced the price yet, but that's the most valid guess based on retailer slips and other rumors.

Wondering why this game gets a 90 metascore, not to mention a 9.25 from gameinformer? Because the reviewers didn't have to pay for the instruments. I guarantee that very few people are going to pay that much money just to get the full experience out of ONE game. And they don't even work in any other mode!

TL:DR version: Rock Band 3 is the most disappointing in the series. Other than the one shining addition of the keyboard, it's a bland and uninspired sequel that requires a huge investment to get any more enjoyment out of. My advice? Stick with Rock Band 2. The DLC is backwards compatible, and you're better off saving your money for the dozens of other better games coming out soon.

File: Rock Band 3 Pro Guitar Trailer

Jeff Cork — Thu, 21 Oct 2010 14:38:00 GMT

Here's a look at the game's pro guitar mode, which allows players to strum along on an actual instrument.

Blog Post: Rock Band 3 Review: A Whole New Challenge

Matt Miller — Fri, 15 Oct 2010 18:14:00 GMT

Harmonix was founded on the principle that everyone should have access to the joy of creating music, even if they never had the benefit of learning a real instrument. The premier music game developer fulfilled its goal in developing Guitar Hero and Rock Band, but Rock Band 3 is a whole new ball game. While continuing to polish the experiences that established the Rock Band brand, this new installment also offers players the opportunity to take the next step and learn to play the instruments we’ve been pretending to rock out with for the last five years. [Excerpt]

The core of any music game is the song list. Rock Band 3 features the most unusual and varied in the franchise, but it also has fewer widely recognizable tunes. While Queen’s “Bohemian Rhapsody” and Huey Lewis and the News’ “The Power of Love” vie with several other historical chart toppers, the meat of the setlist lies in artists like The Smiths, Metric, and the Flaming Lips. The more I dug into this eclectic selection of tunes, the more it reaffirmed my confidence in Harmonix’s song selection team. With each part I played, I fell more in love with the interplay of instruments. As a result, the only people I envision being disappointed could be folks who choose to play only one instrument. With guitar, bass, keyboard, drums, vocals, and harmony vocals all vying for attention, not every song will shine for everybody in the band.

With the new songs come new instruments. The keyboard in particular has several songs that highlight its flexibility and fun. I really like this newest peripheral; it’s small and light, and can be played from a number of positions (lap, table, or strapped up like a keytar). I also admire the onscreen notation system that shows off the many keys that need to be played in pro mode. By the time you’re rocking the highest difficulty on pro mode, you’re playing the full right-hand parts to the songs in question. It’s a thrilling sensation, whether you’ve ever played piano or not.

The new pro-guitar system is remarkable, even if the high cost of entry and steep challenge make it prohibitive for some players. A phenomenal tutorial system introduces the basics of fretting, barre chords, and finger placement, along with all the other skills you’ll need to play the world’s most familiar rock instrument. Nothing replaces a real teacher, but Rock Band 3 does a good job of approximating the real thing.

The notation system for this new guitar is based on traditional guitar tablature, with some notable differences in the visual representation of chords. It takes a awhile to pick up, as the game demands you learn the unique shapes that correspond with each chord on the guitar’s neck. The only way to dive into this new experience at launch is with the Mustang guitar – a reasonable approximation of a real guitar with buttons instead of frets on the neck. I liked the Mustang, but it’s a far cry from the challenge of real strings, and it’s not a true guitar that can be plugged into an amp. The Squier peripheral, which releases in a few months, solves these problems. It will likely cost the equivalent of a true guitar, but this is fair since it is one.

Even with a focus on these new toys, Rock Band 3 is still excellent with existing instruments. I loved soaring through the guitar and bass parts with the old instruments; several of the songs have great solo lines, and there’s a nice mix of rhythm and lead play throughout the setlist. Normal drums continue to be a blast, and the transition to pro mode with three additional cymbals is the easiest “pro shift” to make, thanks to clear visual cues that distinguish cymbals and pads. Singers have a bunch of fun melodies to explore, and harmony vocals return from the Beatles game for all those wanna-be backup vocalists.

It may be far less glamorous than new setlists and instruments, but the revamped user interface that underlies the whole experience is the game’s most unqualified success. Fixing nearly every problem from previous installments, and layering in a whole new career structure, the new format is brilliant. Each player has their own pop up menu to drop in and out of play and adjust their options. Setlists are sortable, saveable, and shareable. Players can rate songs to determine their likelihood to show up during random selections. New road challenges offer bite-sized tours that can be conquered in a night of play. Hundreds of goals span across all modes of play, delivering progression no matter the way you spend your in-game time. Innumerable tiny changes also make the game more fun and easy to play, from the ability to disable drum pad navigation to the option of continuing to play a song after failing out.

In many ways, Rock Band 3 is a culmination of Harmonix’s efforts to bring music to the masses. But it’s also a new chapter in the franchise that starts the gradual merging of real and game-based music. Plenty of naysayers have already declared music games dead. Harmonix certainly hasn’t gotten the message; this band is primed for a new tour.

Blog Post: Rock Band 3 Review: A Whole New Challenge

Matt Miller — Fri, 15 Oct 2010 17:50:00 GMT

File: Rock Band 3 Review Screens