Rock Band 3 (Pre-Release)

D4RK ONION

The keyboard is going to be amazing. I'm so glad they're looking to answer that staleness factor. Because I know that's what drives so many of the good players away.

Thanks ongarite for the news

Yreval

Very impressed with how the keyboards are going to be implemented. Like a few others I was having difficulty seeing how this would be anything other than a gimmick - I was thinking that the best we could realistically hope for was something like Beatmania IIDX - but it looks like Harmonix are serious about this.

EDIT: http://rockbandaide.com/5639/activision-reacts-to-rock-band-3-announcement/

D4RK ONION

I was thinking about learning the piano this summer anyway, so this ties in brilliantly. I'm looking forward to getting lost in a Rock Band game again.

calex71

D4RK ONION wrote: »

I was thinking about learning the piano this summer anyway, so this ties in brilliantly. I'm looking forward to getting lost in a Rock Band game again.

Send me a copy of your book "How I learned piano that one summer" By Onion Mozart

ongarite

OK even more information coming out now, some really great features for you to customise:

Borrowing a page from the Rock Band Network, the game will also now let you rate tracks using a "lighters" system. One lighter? Worst song ever. Five lighters? Maybe this is the song you lost your virginity to, who knows. The point is further personalizing your collection and your experience. Songs rated low will appear in random set lists with less frequency; songs rated highly will appear more often. You can even account for ratings when using the aforementioned filter system.

The peripheral itself is a full two-octave keyboard. When playing the standard game, you'll be confined to five keys, marked on the keyboard by the standard red, yellow, blue, and green colors. When playing in the game's "Pro" mode, however, you're dealing with something else completely -- the hardest difficulty levels may find you playing up and down the keyboard's 25 notes.

Sussman pointed out that you don't need to own this standalone peripheral to play the keyboard parts in songs. If you already have a guitar controller, the standard game will support that. On the flip side, guitar and bass tracks can also be played using the keyboard controller; this is good news, since there will likely be many tracks in your library that feature zero keyboard parts.

While the ability to create customized set lists was a feature introduced in Rock Band 2, Rock Band 3 takes it to another level. Players will be able to save set lists this time, giving them names, and even logos. Setlists can also be shared online.

Set list creation and song selection has been completely revamped. It’ll be easier to find songs you want to play via advanced filters, which we knew about from the USA Today story. But did you know you’ll be able to hide songs you don’t want to play? And find songs you may not know about via a song-recommendation system that will “suggest tracks from Rock Band’s colossal music library, based on personal fan preference”? You’ll also be able to save set lists and share them with friends, both in-game and via RockBand.com.

Everything’s integrated. We knew about the new, all-encompassing career mode that tracks your progress no matter what you’re doing in the game. But did you know that career mode will have over 700 “goals and rewards”? And that online leaderboards will be integrated into the career mode? And that you’ll be able to share your progress via in-game integration with Twitter, Facebook, “and more”? Well, see? Now you do.

ongarite

First trailer of the game, Halloween launch date rumoured

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ofITzQf4zzg

ongarite

So let’s talk about drums: Are you guys doing an entirely new kit?

DS: No. Drum functionality is basically the same as it has been in Rock Band 2. We’re making some changes in the software: Obviously we’re supporting the cymbals in this robust way, through Rock Band Pro. There are some other things: We’ve looked at the way we detect rolls and some of the other, more complicated drum things you do in a game, and we’re trying to support that in the gameplay a little better than we have in the past.

And on the drum kit, we’re actually opening up the mysterious second input jack. That will be by default a second kick pedal jack…or you can switch it to be a hi-hat, which functions in the free-play drum modes or the drum fills.

That’s awesome. So, how are the cymbals being designated in the game? Are you adding colors? Or new shapes? How is that going to work?

DS: We have new shapes. We share the same lane, so toms and cymbals coexist on a single lane, but they’re differentiated by shape. So the cymbals look like little cymbals, and the toms look like standard gems.

SM: About the drums, this is actually something we want to make sure people realize: To play Rock Band 3, you don’t have to buy anything new. You can play this with your existing instruments, unless you want to do Pro guitar or keys — the Pro initiative in general — but all the rest completely works with existing hardware.

DS: That’s true. The Rock Band 2 cymbals, all that stuff is super-functional right out of the gate. And I’ll add that almost our entire legacy catalog is already authored for cymbals. With keys and Pro guitar, the legacy stuff doesn’t support Rock Band Pro, but Rock Band Pro supports legacy songs for drums.

OK, right. So, it supports three cymbals, right?

DS: Correct. Although it’s pretty modular. In Rock Band Pro, you can play if you only have one cymbal, but you’ll suffer on the leaderboards. The game behind Pro drums is that you get extra score for hitting the correct surface. And if you don’t, it makes it a little harder to survive through the end of the song. But that covers the one-, two-, or three-cymbal configurations. Depending on what you have, the game adapts to that.

Let me back up for a second. You said that the legacy content already supports cymbals. Did you mean that you’ll see the cymbal icons when playing older DLC in Rock Band 3?!

How did that happen? Have you guys basically been planning to do this all along?

DS: Well, yeah. Most of the content — some of the early Rock Band stuff doesn’t have it, but by and large, the vast majority of the entire Rock Band catalog supports cymbals in gameplay.

Wow. I, uh…wow. I don’t have a cymbal kit for my Rock Band 2 set — have I been missing something? Has this always been the case?

DS: No. Without devolving into too deep of a technical discussion, our authoring guys have basically been putting in information that has gone unrealized up until Rock Band 3. So there are a lot of cues and “hooks” in our authoring flow that have always been there; we just haven’t had the software cycles to take advantage of them. Cymbals are an example of that. [Our authors have been] authoring the distinction between a tom hit and a cymbal hit, but the software has never taken advantage of that distinction until Rock Band 3.

That is huge.

DS: Now, I want to stress that that’s only the case for drums. Everything that we’ve done with keys and guitar is a brand-new form of track and gameplay. That’s all restricted to RB3-specific content and forthcoming DLC.

The only negative out of the whole interview is basically confirming that DLC from the time RB3 is released will not be compatible with RB or RB2 anymore due to the Pro-Mode guitar & keyboard configurations.

ongarite

Rock Band 3 Squier By Fender Stratocaster Guitar Controller
price TBA :(


* Fully functional, full-sized, stringed, electric guitar
* Technology built into the neck and fingerboard tracks finger positions
* Transmits strum data for each of the six strings
* MIDI output

Rock Band 3 Wireless Fender Mustang PRO-Guitar Controller
$149.99


* 17 frets, 6 buttons per neck
* 6-string strumming area allows for discrete picking of each string
* Touch-sensitive string box allows players to mute or cut off notes
* MIDI output

Rock Band 3 Wireless Keyboard Controller
$79.99, $129.99 with Rock Band 3 included


* Two-octave keyboard (C3 to C5)
* Velocity-sensitive keys (non-weighted)
* MIDI output
* Can also be used to play the lead guitar or bass
* Playable flat or strapped over the shoulder
* Includes touch strip for as-yet-undetermined purpose

Rock Band 3 Wireless PRO-Cymbals Expansion Kit
$39.99


* Three-cymbal set
* Compatible with all wireless Rock Band drum kits and all Rock Band software
* Quieter sound with noise-dampening rubber covering the full surface area
* Enhanced responsiveness
* Cymbals now permanently rest at a 10-degree angle
* Also available in the “Rock Band 3 Wireless Drum and Cymbal Kit” — details forthcoming

Rock Band 3 MIDI PRO-Adapter
$39.99


* Use a real MIDI keyboard or MIDI drum set in Rock Band 3
* Velocity sensitive adjustment for MIDI drums designed to reduce cross-talk during play
* Ships with a removable clip, allowing it to be attached to a belt

calex71

I'll not be rushing out to buy any of those guitars right away, if we even get them over here.

Edit: what if you break a string on that 2nd guitar? I was kind of right about the 1st one being a squire with a midi port. They should give an achievement for playing it in tune

And I just realised well not be able to use the cymbals unless we have a wireless kit

ongarite

calex71 wrote: »

I'll not be rushing out to buy any of those guitars right away, if we even get them over here.

Definitely for the hardcore crowd who can FC and gold-star every song in RB.
The basic Pro-Note guitar is $150, they are not mentioning how much the Fender made Squier is at all, probably looking at $250 or $300.

OK one last bit on information, very welcome. If they add in per instrument calibration, it will be the best music game ever!

Across the bottom of the menu screen is something Harmonix calls "the overshell" -- for every member of your band, there's a little popup menu where players can set, using their own instruments, their login name, their instrument track of choice, their own difficulty setting, lefty mode, and any other options. That's right -- no more will your Rock Band parties feature one awkward person yelling out, "Guys! Don't touch anything! Just let me set it up!" Everything works seamlessly -- as one person navigates to the right play mode, everyone else sets their own tracks up and chooses their own options. Additionally, the overshell allows drop-in, drop-out anywhere, anytime during the game -- as Harmonix told us, "this isn't a separate team mode or a party play style," it's everywhere in the game.

ongarite

One last update for today!
Gamespot have a decent preview but best of all they have 2 videos.

http://e3.gamespot.com/video/6264547/?hd=1
This one shows the drop-in/out, song sorting and playlist selection.

http://e3.gamespot.com/video/6264546/?hd=1
This one is on Pro-mode

NotorietyH

I'm so damn excited for this game now. Can't Always get what you want by the Rolling Stones so needs to be in this game now that it has keyboard and harmonies and everything else!

NTMK

ongarite wrote: »

The basic Pro-Note guitar is $150, they are not mentioning how much the Fender made Squier is at all, probably looking at $250 or $300.

the strat apparently its a fully functioning guitar when u stop playing so it has more than one use so the price could be justified.i see myself owning the mustang if it works as a midi guitar

D4RK ONION

Ongarite thanks for all the info!

I'm getting seriously HYPE right now. Especially about them releasing the Midi "brain" so you can use a real electronic drum kit.

calex71

D4RK ONION wrote: »

Ongarite thanks for all the info!

I'm getting seriously HYPE right now. Especially about them releasing the Midi "brain" so you can use a real electronic drum kit.

You have been able to do it for quite a while, that madcats portable drum set had one with it did it not

/ goes to check his unopened box (got them for buttons months ago and never used them)

Banjo

*grumbles in the corner about the dismal prospect of full Wii parity or left handed guitars*

Dav

I just got this press release about Rock Band 3, so thought I'd post it for you folks - nothing that hasn't been covered in thread already I think, but this is the official word anyway:

EA Press Release wrote:

HARMONIX, MTV GAMES REINVENT MUSIC GAMES WITH
ROCK BAND™3

Rock Band 3 Features Announced, including amazing soundtrack plus access to the
most music available in any video game with more than 1,500 tracks and growing; new keyboard gameplay and three-part harmonies for up to seven players rocking together; Rock Band Pro Mode and much more!


Guilford, UK – June 11, 2010 – Harmonix, the world’s premier music video game developer and MTV Games, a part of Viacom’s MTV Networks (NYSE: VIA, VIA.B) today announced features for Rock Band™3, the next generation of the ultimate social and interactive music gaming platform.

Featuring an incredible 83-song setlist and access to far more music than any other music game, as well as innovative new gameplay modes and instruments, Rock Band 3 will change the way fans think about and play music games. This next iteration in the Rock Band platform has something new for everyone and also supports traditional Rock Band gameplay with players’ existing instruments.

The Most Music. Period.
The Rock Band 3 disc soundtrack contains 83 of the best bands from around the world, including bands that have never appeared in a music game, as well as support for existing Rock Band tracks (Rock Band and Rock Band 2 discs, downloaded songs, track packs, AC/DC Live: Rock Band™ Track Pack, LEGO® Rock Band and Green Day: Rock Band™).

Additionally, Rock Band 3 will give players immediate access to a music library approaching 2,000 songs by launch, with new content added regularly. Rock Band’s gigantic music selection dwarfs that of any other music game on the market.

Announced Tracks:

2000s:
· Metric, “Combat Baby” · Rilo Kiley, “Portions for Foxes” · Them Crooked Vultures, “Dead End Friends” · The Vines, “Get Free” · The White Stripes, “The Hardest Button to Button” · Phoenix, “Lasso” · Ida Maria, “Oh My God” · Juanes, “Me Enamora”

1990s:
· Jane’s Addiction, “Been Caught Stealing” · Smash Mouth, “Walkin’ on the Sun” · Spacehog, “In the Meantime” · Stone Temple Pilots, “Plush”

1980s:
· Dio, “Rainbow in the Dark” · Huey Lewis and the News, “The Power of Love” · Joan Jett, “I Love Rock and Roll” · Night Ranger, “Sister Christian” · Whitesnake, “Here I Go Again” · The Cure, “Just Like Heaven” · Ozzy Osbourne, “Crazy Train”

1970s:
· Queen, “Bohemian Rhapsody”

1960s:
· Jimi Hendrix, “Crosstown Traffic” · The Doors, “Break On Through”


Redesigned Library for Better Music Management
Rock Band 3 allows players to create and save setlists and share them with friends, both in-game and through RockBand.com. New song filters make it easier to find the types of songs fans want to play and hide the songs they don’t, while a built-in song recommendation system will suggest tracks from Rock Band’s colossal music library, based on personal fan preference.

Expand the Band
In addition to guitar, bass, drums and solo vocals, Rock Band 3 adds three-part vocal harmonies that were introduced with The Beatles™: Rock Band™ and, for the first time ever, a keyboard peripheral to the band. Up to seven players can rock together for the ultimate social gaming experience.

Go Pro: Play Just for Fun or Rock for Real with Rock Band Pro
Rock Band 3 empowers players to develop actual musical skills through the fun of fully scalable Rock Band Pro gameplay. Fans can dive in on Easy to try out basic skills and work their way up to Expert for real mastery.
· Pro Drums supports three expansion cymbals, with gameplay differentiation between toms and cymbals.
· Pro Keys features pitch-accurate keyboard performance across a two-octave range, displayed on an easy-to-read keyboard track.
· Pro Guitar features notated guitar and bass performances, available for play with either the new Fender™ Mustang™ PRO-Guitar™ simulated guitar controller from Mad Catz or the Rock Band 3 Squier® by Fender Stratocaster® Guitar Controller that is a real guitar/controller hybrid. The Rock Band 3 Squier Stratocaster is a fully functional, full-sized, six-string electric guitar that also functions as a game controller.

Something for Everyone (New Gameplay Modes!)
For the casual player, Rock Band 3 has great new party modes that allow fans to get rocking with friends quicker than ever, including party shuffle and persistent drop-in/drop-out and difficulty selection from any gameplay screen. For the serious player, the revamped Career Mode features 700+ goals and rewards and seamless leaderboard integration for an endlessly deep campaign experience. Rock Band 3 also adds a suite of social networking tools to the game so fans can engage friends and fellow rockers over Facebook, Twitter and more. Whether players want to jump in for a quick song or take their band to the top, Rock Band 3 has a mode for everyone.

calex71

Banjo wrote: »

*grumbles in the corner about the dismal prospect of full Wii parity or left handed guitars*

This is my dream , well not the wii bit but lefty guitars
Still makes us more authentic Hendrix style playing flipped ones

calex71

Dav wrote: »

I just got this press release about Rock Band 3, so thought I'd post it for you folks - nothing that hasn't been covered in thread already I think, but this is the official word anyway:

Reply back and tell them Calex and Banjo want lefty guitars and those guitars that are like 'double' guitars please

D4RK ONION

Thanks for that Dav, I feel all important now

AgBaintTriail

I hope the piano works with my PS2!

D4RK ONION

This wont be coming out on the PS2, sorry poet man!

Banjo

Jimmy Page double neck guitars or Michael Angelo double neck (where you play one neck with each hand at the same time, looks like you're "fluffing" a pair of racehorses)
Either is good...

By the way, is it just me or is there a shoulder strap stud on the near side and a bit sticking out of the back of the keyboard that makes it look like you can play it Keytar stylee?

calex71

yup you can rock the keys standing up 80's hair band style.

Christ why did they waste the final count down on Lego RB that would have been epic with RB3 and the keyboard !!!!!!!!!!!!!

da da da do do do do

Banjo Fella

I hope some third-party (or even Harmonix themselves) comes up with a device you can strap near the bridge of a guitar, so that any guitar can be used in Pro Mode. It should be possible, if you've got a pick-up under each string and you calibrate against the open-fret frequency, you can tell where the guitarist's fingers are when they strum a particular string. Somebody, please make it happen!

Banjo Fella

Banjo Fella wrote: »

I hope some third-party (or even Harmonix themselves) comes up with a device you can strap near the bridge of a guitar, so that any guitar can be used in Pro Mode. It should be possible, if you've got a pick-up under each string and you calibrate against the open-fret frequency, you can tell where the guitarist's fingers are when they strum a particular string. Somebody, please make it happen!

Well you could use a MIDI pickup but it wouldn't really work like the Rock Band controller. You could play the same note in different places like on a real guitar and it would only work well if the guitar were exactly like in real life, and it would let people effectively choose their own chart, getting around some of the challenge.

It would only work anyway if the guitar they supply is a full midi instrument. Midi guitars are expensive compared with normal guitars so I doubt it.

calex71

Did it mention anywhere that RB2 will be importable?

Not sure how they will do that if they are allowing it as there was no export code with RB2 just one for the 20 free songs.

Aye, it says you can import all previous rock band tracks.

D4RK ONION

I imagine it will be an online website type thing.

Twilightning

^ My face when I read the news that I'll be able to buy a MIDI adapter so I can use my actual fully sized keyboard in RB3.