Sep 24
From my Google Reader shares
Sep 23
From my Google Reader shares
Sep 22
From my Google Reader shares
Sep 21
From my Google Reader shares
Sep 19
From my Google Reader shares
Sep 18
From my Google Reader shares
Sep 17
From my Google Reader shares
Sep 17
Presentation
There’s constant confusion when my friend’s ask me if Rock Band stuff will work with The Beatles or if it can be ported into Rock Band. When I say no, they feel immediately jilted, but after playing The Beatles I can understand why. It would feel really stupid to see John Lennon singing some random emo Rock Band song and likewise seem really stupid to see some emo avatar singing a John Lennon song. It’s probably the same reason Courtney Love is pissed about Guitar Hero right now. It just loses some authenticity to see that kind of stuff happening.
The presentation for the game is truly superb. It’s a nice chronicle of the life of The Beatles but perhaps a bit too abbreviated. You get some very nice animations between each chapter of their career but not much info on what’s going on. Well I take that back I guess, you get that info through the unlockable photos and videos but I’m not one for having a game unlockable that has me sit there and read or see a still. That’s just me though. The ending cinematic is truly incredible (also short) and finishes the game quite nicely.
The one weird thing about the game though is that the facial animation doesn’t seem as good as Rock Band 1 and 2. Their eyes and mouths move but their faces don’t really change which gives kind of a weirdness to their expressions and transitional expressions.
Difficulty
The guitar/bass/drum parts that I’ve played have either gone from easy to tricky with a lot in between. If you’ve been playing since Gutar Hero 1 days and drumming since Rock Band 1 you shouldn’t find anything unplayable at expert level.
This idea of songs being easily passable might turn people off to the game, however since the songs themselves are so great I think it’s easy to look past. Also consider that if you want a genuine level of realism, you’ll have to sing and play at the same time which, to me, is quite a difficult and tricky thing to do not even factoring in the idea of harmonizing.
The achievement list is also nothing to blaze through with specific songs being pointed out that require you to hammer on and pull off every note without strumming or hitting specific note streaks on instrument specific songs can make for a real challenge.
If you’re the type to just play through the game and not look too deeply into the meta game stuff and/or you don’t have that much of a vested appeal in The Beatles, then this game probably isn’t for you.
Tweaks
There have been some nice updates to the Rock Band engine (which I presume is what powers this game however you never know and it might be an all new thing). I love the pause/unpause which doesn’t throw you instantly back into the game. Instead it gives a 3 second countdown to ease you back in.
Additionally, the game now shows you the difficulty of your part on the easy/medium/hard/expert selection screen so you can remind yourself of just how hard that particular song can be.
The game now shows you leaderboard scoring on song selection so you know which of your friends is really dominating you.
The game menus feel really fast moving from the title screen into the various modes. Maybe that’s just me but it feels really swift now.
Concessions
Some things however seem slightly out of place. The whammy bar does nothing asides from gaining extra Beatlemania on extended notes and there’s no more drum fill sections. When a song ends, if you pluck notes or try drumming no sound comes out (which I would actually put on the tweak section but some people might think otherwise) as opposed to RB1/2. I suspect that these are concessions Harmonix had to make such that the songs not be distorted out of their original version in any way.
Something also slightly unusual about The Beatles is you are occasionally not playing the instrument you think you are. A few songs you’re close (sitar on Within You Without You) but others like I Am The Walrus you’re playing the strings part. I mean I guess that’s close. Anyway, it’s deviant from usual Rock Band games where if a part doesn’t exist they don’t substitute it (like with YYZ) with something else. Well maybe they do, but it seems to happen more frequently here.
Annoyances
They did some really cool stuff with how the songs are presented and the level design, however some songs like Get Back have a lengthy “intro” part that you can’t skip past. It was cool the first time hearing the pre-song chatter, but when you’re practicing or replaying a song to maximize your score, having to go through that part over and over feels like wasted time.
Also one of my favorite songs Within You Without You is some abbreviated version and not the version I remember from the CD. Other songs may also be slightly off than what I remember, but that one especially stands out.
Challenge mode seems like a wasted mode to me. Basically you clump up all the songs from that story chapter and do them back to back with a complete score for the whole session. To me, it felt like I was just being forced into playing the songs in duplicate. Not only that but I think there’s a separate scoreboard for it which slightly irks me in the sense that I will have to play these setlists over and over to maximize scoring status in addition to the regular song scoreboards.
Appreciation
As I commented in the difficulty section, what’s amazing to me about The Beatles is that their parts many times weren’t overly complex, but the combination of all the parts and the vocals (especially harmonies) gives a new sense of appreciation for how talented the band truly was. And as usual songs that you may not have liked before turn into totally great songs to play (for me Helter Skelter and Hey Bulldog).
This 45 song set also gives you really great insight into the growth of the band from their sort of 60’s version boy band songs to the psychedelic and rock songs etc.. How many modern bands can say they stretch across genres like that as successfully as The Beatles have?
The End
In the end, the game is truly phenomenal. I feel bad for the games that have already come out like Guitar Hero Metallica or Rock Band AC/DC which didn’t give them nearly the same treatment as this product. I also feel bad for any upcoming singular band title coming out which now has this game as a reference to how these types of games should be treated. Fans will definitely love this game and I’ve read a few reviews where people went from neutral feelings about The Beatles to true fans.
Sep 16
From my Google Reader shares
My only alternative? To buy a $100 kit for 60GB or $150 for a 120GB drive, both of which are COMPLETELY ludicrously priced for their sizes compared to desktops where I saw a Newegg sale not but a few days ago for 2TB for those prices or cheaper.
Sep 15
From my Google Reader shares
