DiscountDDRPads.com Presents
We at DiscountDDRPads want to let you now about the upcoming release of Rock Band. It is scheduled for a 11/1/2007 release and it will change the virtual music world.
Guitar Hero and Guitar Hero 2 were big hits for Harmonix, and now the company is going even further with its newest game. Today, Harmonix announced Rock Band, a music game for the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 that combines guitars, drums, and singing into a mutant offspring of Guitar Hero, Karaoke Revolution, and Taiko Drum Master.
Like the name implies, Rock Band will focus on cooperating with friends as players take lead/bass/rhythm guitars, drums, and vocals and work together to rock out. Guitar, drum, and microphone peripherals will all be available, but you won't need them all at once to play the game. Online play will let players take their favorite instruments and play with friends across the country, a first in the Guitar Hero genre.
Harmonix is working with EMI Music, Hollywood Records, Sony BMG Music, Universal Music Enterprises, and Rhino Entertainment to secure the rights to the ton of hit songs spanning the different rock genres. The music labels also are providing the original master recordings for several songs for use in the game itself. This is a big change from Guitar Hero and Guitar Hero 2, where Harmonix produced new tracks for most of the games' songs.
Rock Band is scheduled to ship for the 2007 holiday season, so you still have several months to wait. Of course, you could use that time to learn how to sing or play guitar or drums and start your own actual rock band. Either way, please don't cover any Fallout Boy.
Information on the gameplay first revealed by the July 2007 issue of Game Informer. The game will feature independent single-player campaigns for three of the instruments (lead guitar, drums, and voice) called "Solo Tour Mode" , as well as a band campaign for multiple players called "Band World Tour" . It was revealed in the issue that the bass/rhythm lines for the game are too simple to constitute an entire campaign. However, players can use any combination of the 4 instruments on or off-line. The game will also include a "Tutorial Mode", as well as a "Practice Mode" that will allow players to practice songs for each instrument.
The Fender Stratocaster replica guitar controller, which features 10 frets and an effects switch.
The game will feature special Rock Band-branded guitar controllers modeled after the Fender Stratocaster; these will be similar to the Guitar Hero controllers. The Stratocaster controller will have 5 additional fret buttons located further down the neck to be used in special solo sections. Additionally, the controller will feature an effects pickup switch. Harmonix has confirmed Guitar Hero guitar controllers will be compatible with the game.[8] The company has also said that Rock Band will also support the use of additional third-party controllers, and, should Activision (the current publishers of Guitar Hero) request it, they can make the Rock Band guitar controller work with Guitar Hero III. Rock Band's microphone instrument will be similar to the Singstar and Karaoke Revolution games, but also will have phoneme recognition to distinguish between vowels and consonants. The microphone can also be used as a tambourine and cowbell when there are no vocals. The drum controller is similar to the DrumMania arcade game, and will be based on striking one of 4 pads, along with a kick pedal for bass drum. Harmonix has stated that if players can master the drum peripheral on hard difficulty, they will be able to play the instrument in reality.
On-screen, Game Informer describes the game as a combination of the Guitar Hero and Karaoke Revolution gameplay elements. Instead of a single guitar neck (as there is in Guitar Hero), there will be three vertically scrolling sections along the bottom of the screen, one each for lead guitar, drums, and bass/rhythm. Along the top of the screen will be the vocals display, which will scroll horizontally, similar to Karaoke Revolution. The remainder of the screen is used to display the band's characters as they perform. Within the main co-op mode, all players earn points towards a common score, though multipliers and the equivalent of Guitar Hero's "Star Power" are tracked separately for each player. If a player fails to play well enough, their section will become grayed out, but any other player can activate their "Star Power" to bring back failed players back into the song. If all players are still active upon the song's completion, the band will be rewarded with a special "jam session".
When creating their band, players will be able to create and customize their game avatars (complete with adjustable hair, body type, clothing, tattoos, and onstage movements), as well as their band logos.