Some people like first-person shooters. Others prefer sports titles. And then there are the pseudo rock stars who love noting more than to pick up plastic instruments and pretend that they’re part of a real band. I’d know. I’m one of them. And E3 did not disappoint in this genre.
Go Pro with Rock Band 3
One of the bigger announcements at this year’s E3 is the unveiling of Rock Band 3 from MTV Games and Harmonix, to be published under the Electronic Arts banner. It takes everything that we love about the Rock Band franchise and throws it into the next level.
Just as The Beatles: Rock Band introduced us to three-point harmony for the vocals, Rock Band 3 also allows for up to three singers. It also adds in the keyboard (keytar) with two full octaves of keys; the “easy” level consists of just five keys.
For each of the instruments, you have the ability to try pro mode. The Fender Mustang PRO guitar controller, for instance, features 17 frets and six strings. This results in 102 fret buttons, making for one mad experience. Similarly, there is a “pro” version of the drums with the four standard pads and three cymbal attachments, as well as the bass pedal, of course.
Filter Through the 2000 Song Set List
The boys and girls are quick to point out that they have the largest available set list of any rhythm game on the market. To date, the Guitar Hero music store contains about 350 songs. The Rock Band store, on the other hand, has over 1300 and counting.
By the time Rock Band 3 hits retailers this fall, MTV/Harmonix says that they’ll have close to 2,000 songs available for your rocking pleasure. Naturally, scrolling through a list that large (if you had the budget to buy that much DLC) would be frustrating.
To help overcome this, they implemented a filtering system. You can sort by difficulty and filter out songs based on various criteria, like length, location, ratings, decades, genres, pro guitar support, keys support, and more.
Adjust Individual Settings with Overshell
You’ll also notice in the image above that each player has a small section at the bottom of the screen. This is known as the “overshell” and it allows individual players to adjust the difficulty and other settings without interrupting the other players.
This is similar, in some ways, to the Party Play features in Guitar Hero 5, but it persists across all game modes. That includes quick play, career, and so on.
It’s great that you can adjust your difficulty on the fly, including in the middle of a song. They’ve also included mini set list challenges that are good for those three or four hour Rock Band gatherings you have with your friends.
Shake Your Tailfeather with Dance Central
Most of us expected to see Rock Band 3 at this year’s E3, but we didn’t expect MTV/Harmonix to have this trick up its sleeve too. Dance Central is a new dance rhythm game that takes advantage of the new Microsoft Kinect peripheral for the Xbox 360.
It’s not like Dance Dance Revolution, since it doesn’t use a mat. Instead, you are doing actual dance moves, as captured by the Kinect camera device. You mirror the model on the screen, performing a series of different dance moves. It seems that most of these moves are on 4/4 time.
You are graded based on how accurately you recreate the various moves and how well you are able to maintain the right timing and pacing. Naturally, the professional dancers at Harmonix’s demo area did quite well.
Break Down the 600 Different Moves
Since some of us are born with two left feet, it would far too daunting to jump right into the hardest song right away. That’s why there is a “break it down” mode that slows down the individual dance moves, showing you exactly what you need to do.
Be prepared for the learning curve, however, since there are said to be over 600 unique moves in this game. Each of these is identified by the scrolling tile on the right (your silhouette is shown to the right of that), so you’ll need to remember what is what.
The scoring system is a familiar one, earning points for doing the moves well and earning up five stars for each individual track. Underneath the on-screen avatar, you’ll see a glowing circle representative of how well you do each move, similar to “phrases” in the vocal portion of Rock Band.
Check Out the Tentative Song List
Harmonix hasn’t announced the full set list for Dance Central just yet, but they have revealed at least six songs that have made the cut. They are Poker Face by Lady Gaga, Body Movin by Beastie Boys, Poison by Bel Biv Devoe, Funky Town by Lipps Inc, Galang ’05 by MIA, and Hella Good by No Doubt.
They promise that the song list will appeal to a large audience, spanning pop, R&B, and hip hop. This is similar, in some ways, to a DJ Hero or Rock Band. Since it uses Kinect, Dance Central is an Xbox 360 exclusive and it’s scheduled for release on November 4 of this year.
Play Air Drums and Real Guitars with Power Gig
Harmonix isn’t the only one doing the rhythm game thing, of course. A smaller operation called Seven45 Studios has produced a new game called Power Gig: Rise of the Sixstring. The core gameplay will be familiar — hitting colored notes in time with the music — but there are two notable differences.
First, it makes use of an “AirStrike” drum kit. This is placed on the ground and looks like the regular Rock Band set, except it creates virtual cylinders extending upward above each pad.
You don’t actually hit the pads themselves with the drum sticks; you just strike downward within the cylinder. I found this to be a little unintuitive, since you’re not looking at the LED feedback on the pad while playing the game.
The other difference is that this game uses a real electric guitar known as the SixString guitar controller. You don’t push plastic fret buttons; you hold down actual strings. You don’t hammer on a plastic strum bar; you use a real pick on a real guitar string.
Expect Power Gig: Rise of the SixString to launch on both the Xbox 360 and Sony PlayStation 3 this fall. Since it comes with a real guitar, it is decidedly more expensive than its plastic counterparts. The game+guitar kit for the Xbox 360, for instance, is currently listed at $179.99.
Leonard Nimoy is YooStar’s Terminator
I was definitely a little confused when this press release and invitation came through to my email inbox. YooStar2 by YooStar Entertainment is marketed as the world’s first movie karaoke game.
Based on that description, I thought you’d sing movie theme songs in a Sing It or Karaoke Revolution kind of manner. Then, I saw that Leonard Nimoy would be giving live demonstrations in an E3 meeting room. Intrigued, I lined up for an hour to meet Mr. Spock.
As it turns out, YooStar2 lets you recreate <em>scenes</em> from different movies, reciting lines from the script as the Xbox 360 Kinect records a video of your acting prowess. On the PS3, the PS Move records your gestures.
You are then inserted into the real movie scene, seeing how you’d be able to take the place of an Arnold Schwarzenegger, for instance. Movies featured in YooStar2 include 300, Matrix, Sherlock Holmes, Book of Eli, Fast and Furious, Kick-Ass, The Hangover, The Godfather, Casablanca, and Blade Runner.
Rhythm Is Here to Stay
The revolution may have started with a single plastic guitar, but it’s clear that the rhythm game genre has quickly grown into quite the behemoth. You can use an electric guitar with 102 fret buttons. You can try your hand at becoming a part of America’s Best Dance Crew. You can even tell your guy that you need two bottles of NOS and you need them by tonight. There’s rhythm to acting too, you know.
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E3 2010 – Harmonix Unleahes Rockband 3 and Dance Central and Leonard Nimoy is a Gamer? – Photo Gallery
