woo, tangent » the beatles rock band http://wootangent.net lsd's rants about games, music, linux, and technology Sun, 13 May 2012 07:25:07 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.2 random updateapalooza http://wootangent.net/2009/09/random-updateapalooza/ http://wootangent.net/2009/09/random-updateapalooza/#comments Thu, 10 Sep 2009 06:25:35 +0000 lsd http://wootangent.net/?p=287 Continue reading →]]>
  • The Beatles: Rock Band isn’t the only thing I’ve been playing lately; I also picked up Shadow Complex, which I mentioned a couple of weeks ago. The short review for this is: Shadow Complex = Super Metroid. The graphics are entirely 3D (and quite sophisticated at that — Unreal Engine 3 and all), but the gameplay is 2D, and a shameless ripoff of/homage to Super Metroid. For 1200 spacebucks, it’s a bargain, and an absolute must-buy (or must-download-trial at the very least) for anyone with a 360 and an interest in classic 2D action platforming.
  • I have a couple of little upgrades at my little home studio — I’ve borrowed Kat’s old keyboard to replace mine as the controller, since it has aftertouch and my old Yamaha doesn’t, and I picked up a little mixer as well. The mixer’s mainly there to give me some mic preamps, since the next thing I want to grab is a decent entry-level mic.
  • I’m writing again! It’s just a small part of a feature article, but the invitation to do that was quite a welcome sight in my inbox. It’s due on Monday, so I’ll have to get cracking on it over the weekend!
  • The work coffee machine is back! It was out of action for nearly two weeks after the guys here managed to burn out its element from sucking too much hot water out of it; the damage was damned impressive. The whole thing was especially annoying because my home machine has broken down as well, but my trusty plunger came to the rescue.
  • On the subject of coffee, it’s actually interesting to see a minor resurgence of non-espresso coffee in some of Melbourne’s best cafes. There are no plungers as such, but Seven Seeds has a Clover, which is somewhat akin to a very sophisticated plunger, St Ali serves coffee made with a vacuum brewer (usually called a vacpot or siphon), and Liar Liar has both on offer. St Ali also has a new espresso machine: it cost over $30k, it’s called the Slayer, and yes, it’s fucking metal. \m/
    • ]]>     http://wootangent.net/2009/09/random-updateapalooza/feed/ 0     it took me so long to find out, and i found out http://wootangent.net/2009/09/it-took-me-so-long-to-find-out-and-i-found-out/ http://wootangent.net/2009/09/it-took-me-so-long-to-find-out-and-i-found-out/#comments Thu, 10 Sep 2009 06:05:08 +0000 lsd http://wootangent.net/?p=284 Continue reading →]]> So, The Beatles: Rock Band is here, and I can happily report that it’s just as awesome as I hoped for. I fired it up the story mode last night, and within three hours I’d finished the whole thing, mostly on guitar/bass, but with a chunk of singing in the middle as well. At it’s core, it’s what you’d expect — Rock Band with Beatles songs — but what sets it apart from the earlier Rock Band games is the incredible amount of care and attention that’s gone in to it. It’s an amazing game to look at, from the song visuals themselves through to the photo-collage videos that bridge between the game’s different venues and eras.

    All of the modeled venues look great, but the really impressive stuff is in the “dreamscape” sequences, which are used for the songs performed at the Abbey Road studios. Most of these start with the band in the studio, but then transition in to idealised performances in surreal, and sometimes very trippy, settings, and each of the songs set in Abbey Road (nearly half the game) has its own dedicated sequence. There’s also a tonne of unlockable Beatles memorabilia to check out, such as photos and videos.

    There’s one genuinely new feature in this game over previous Rock Band games, and that’s the vocal harmony system, which lets you have up to three vocalists singing at once. Harmonix has been very clever with this — anyone can sing to any vocal line at any time, so all three vocalists can just sing the lead if they want, but if you do choose to harmonise and you pull it off, you get bonus points. It also supports the Lips mics on the 360 (and the Singstar mics on the PS3), so I already have three mics ready to go.

    So, as both a love-letter to The Beatles and a super-fun party game, The Beatles: Rock Band definitely delivers. The only thing that could improve it is a greater selection of songs, but with the amount of work that’s gone in to each of the game’s 45 songs, I think it’s good value out-of-the-box. Besides, DLC is coming — all of Abbey Road will be downloadable for a fee on October 20, with Sgt Pepper’s following in November and Rubber Soul in December.

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