Transcript (55557)Lawrenchuk_David_game

Game Review: Rock Band
David Lawrenchuk
CIS 487
September 22, 2008
Basic Information
Game Title:
Rock Band
Developers:
Harmonix Music Systems and Q Entertainment
Publisher:
MTV Games
Distributor:
EA Distribution
Type of game:
Music; Rhythm
Price:
$60 (game only); $170 (special edition)
Minimum requirements:Xbox 360
Playstation 3
Playstation 2 (version is limited)
Nintendo Wii (version is limited)
Guitar, drum, and microphone peripherals
Actual requirements:
Same as above
Overview
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Playing Rock Band is supposed to simulate being
in an actual band.
You “perform” songs recorded by actual popular
artists.
Players can play lead guitar, bass guitar, drums,
or sing with included peripherals.
It’s possible to play by yourself, or play together
as a band, with one person on each instrument
(up to four people total).
Peripherals
Lead guitar/
Bass guitar
Drums
Microphone
Game Play
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Only actual game play occurs when you’re
playing a song.
During a song, notes scroll across the
screen that the players hit in time to.
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For guitar and drums, these notes represent
buttons on their peripheral.
For the singer, he or she should match the
pitch of the singing in the actual song.
Sample Screenshot
From left to right: Bass, drums, and guitar, with singing along the top.
Scoring
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As the song progresses, Rock Band scores the
players on how well they match the song.
Each correct note nets the player points.
At the end of the song, Rock Band shows the
percentage of correct notes struck and the
longest consecutive note streak for each player,
and the total number of points the band
received.
Perform too badly and you will “fail” the song,
and have to start over.
Game Demo
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Oasis – “Don’t Look Back in Anger” as
performed by some people on YouTube:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_2zCa2GzI0w
Artwork
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Artwork is nice; but far from the focal
point of the game.
Game interface is very crisp, easy to
understand.
A video runs in the background during the
song, but is often ignored due to the
player’s attention being on what they have
to be playing.
Music!
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Music is a very important aspect of Rock Band.
Actual recording of song plays in background to
aide the players in terms of rhythm, etc.
Rock Band has a very outstanding soundtrack,
both in terms of quality and quantity.
As of this presentation, there are 360 different
songs available between Rock Band, Rock Band
2, and all downloadable songs through Xbox
Live and Playstation’s equivalent.
Example Songs
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The All-American Rejects – “Dirty Little
Secret”, “Move Along”
Blue Öyster Cult – “Don’t Fear the Reaper”
Bon Jovi – “Wanted Dead or Alive”, “Livin’
On a Prayer” (Rock Band 2)
Boston – “Foreplay/Long Time”, “More than
a Feeling”, “Peace of Mind”
The Cars – The entire self-titled album
David Bowie – “Heroes”, “Moonage Dream”
Foo Fighters – “Everlong” (Rock Band 2)
Jet – “Are You Gonna be my Girl?”
Joan Jett – “Bad Reputation” (Rock Band
2)
The Killers – “When You Were Young”
Modest Mouse – “Float On” (Rock Band 2)
Muse – “Hysteria”
The New Pornographers – “Electric
Version”
Nirvana – “In Bloom”
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Oasis – “Wonderwall”, “Don’t Look Back in
Anger”, “Live Forever”, “Rock ‘n’ Roll Star”
OK Go – “Here It Goes Again”
Pixies – The entire “Doolittle” album
Radiohead – “Creep”, “My Iron Lung”
The Ramones – “Blitzkrieg Pop”
The Rolling Stones – “Gimme Shelter”
Silversun Pickups – “Lazy Eye” (Rock Band
2)
Sonic Youth – “Teen Age Riot” (Rock Band
2)
Smashing Pumpkins – “Cherub Rock”,
“Zero”
The Strokes – “Reptilia”
Weezer – “Buddy Holly”, “El Scorcho”, “Say
it Ain’t So”
The Who – “Baby O’Riley”, “My Generation”
Yeah Yeah Yeahs – “Maps”, “Date with the
Night”
Special Features
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The ability to download new songs
(released weekly) through Xbox Live.
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New songs cost $1.99, $0.99, or free,
depending on the song.
Only available on the Xbox 360 and
Playstation 3.
Ability to play online with people within
the Xbox Live community.
What is fun about it?
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Allows people to pretend they’re in a real rock
band.
Allows you to play songs you like.
Multiplayer (social aspect).
Wide (and excellent) selection of songs adds to
replay value.
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New songs added weekly.
Four different instruments to play, in case you
get tired of one.
Rock Band vs Guitar Hero
Rock Band
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Song selection has less emphasis
on guitar, due to there being three
other instruments as well.
Quantity of playable songs is
enormous. (360 songs)
Quality of songs is better
(although this is an opinion).
Allows for up to four people to
play simultaneously.
New songs can be downloaded
through Xbox Live.
Guitar Hero
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All songs are “Guitar heavy”, with
many difficult guitar solos, etc.
Quantity of playable songs is not quite
as enormous. (73 songs in GH 3)
Multiplayer capabilities is limited to
two guitars dueling against one
another.
No new songs can be added to the
game; all the songs you get when you
purchase the game is what you get.
Summary
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Rock Band is a high quality video game.
Quite fun, especially with multiple people
playing simultaneously.
Well worth purchasing if you have a
console that supports downloadable
content.
Could be improved by making it more
realistic; especially with the drums.