Techpedition’s E3 Rock Band-athon

There were a slew of Rock Band titles on the E3 floor. The biggest, of course, was The Beatles Rock Band. MTV Games and Harmonix were being extra protective of this years flagship Rock Band title. Previews and demos of the game were limited to the press by appointment only. Luckily Kary and I had an appointment. The MTV Games booth was pretty large but completely enclosed by white dividing clothes and a fuex Abbey Road Studios front. We went into the Abbey Road studios and in it was a stage. The Harmonix team came out, after a Rock Band “successes” reel played. They pointed out the new features and hardware and gave us a quick play through of 3 songs in the game. There were a few technical problems with the drum setup, but overall they did a great job showing off the new features…which are.

The Beatles Rock Band can have up to 6 players, drums, bass, guitar, vocals, and an additional two sets of vocals. These extra vocals are not scored separately and don’t have a login, but can really add to a Rock Band Party that has more people than instruments. No fail mode is back, and this time all easy players are automatically in no fail mode.

You can see the three part Harmony in the scrolling words.

This Beatles game was being billed as a standalone, non-Rock Band, built from the ground up product. I did not get that from the demo. It was very much Rock Band. I really enjoyed the demo, and the song selection so far looks great. Some of the Standouts were “Here Comes the Sun”, and “When I Saw Her Standing There.” It was also stated that the entire Abbey Road album will be available for download at launch. I have already preordered this one and it’s good to see it in action before my purchase.

Also on the show floor was Lego Rock Band, and it was treated at the true antithesis of The Beatles Rock Band. Not only was it playable by anyone, but it was available at 4 different stations. We got to play a lot of it and I can say with great confidence that Traveler’s Tales succeeded in merging the two worlds. Tiny call backs to the Lego games were present in almost every aspect of the game. The sound effects were consistent and the stud counters are present.

Lego Rock Band falls in line with Guitar Hero World Tour by creating a Super Easy option and when you die, rather than having to be saved, you stud counter loses studs. The soundtrack is super accessible and successfully panders toward the target audience of children and mothers. This title in conjunction with The Beatles may finally make Rock Band a bigger name than Guitar Hero…I hope.

The last Rock Band title on the floor was Rock Band Unplugged, and for all intents and purposes, it’s Frequency/Amplitude. You use the arrows and face buttons to hit the beats in time to the music, and use the shoulders to jump between tracks. The tracks include (Guitar, Vocal, Bass and Drums). After hitting sections of notes correctly the track that you are on begins to play itself. Your job is to keep all of the tracks running and not let anything die. If you have played Frequency, you will know exactly what I am talking about. This game is really going to be a niche game, but I enjoyed its predecessor, I should like Unplugged.

It looks like its going to be a good year for Rock Band. On the flip side both Guitar Hero Games being released no playable demos. The only one that was playable was the newly announced Van Halen and the PS3s that is was hooked to weren’t calibrated properly. So, booo Activision, you fail, you didn’t even have a playable demo of DJ Hero.

…and as a bonus here’s you Techpedition crew rockin out to Squeeze’s “Tempted” in the lobby of E3 for the Pepsi Rock Band Contest.