The music genre has brought quite a bit to the gaming industry, ever since Guitar Hero launched on the Playstation 2 back in 2005. Guitar Hero made the already existent music genre appealing to the casual market. The game made by Harmonix was the first to make the music genre acceptable in everyday life and soon enough Harmonix released the more successful sequel. Due to the over night boom of Guitar Hero 2 the franchise was instantly bought up by Activision, while the developers Harmonix went off to develop their next music game Rock Band.
The Rock Band franchise became an instant success as a party game for everyone. Rock Band 3 is the third Rock Band title in the main franchise of games. It was no surprise that after Rock Band 2 that a third one would be announced sooner or later, and Harmonix officially announced it to the world in late 2009. Personally the Rock Band series of games have great appeal to me and I have been playing them since launch, I see it more as a competitive game than a party game, trying to beat my old scores time after time.
Rock Band 3 takes the already proven formula of the previous games and improves on the many features, the introduction of Pro mode was a welcome feature to some as it helps take the basics of the game and translates it into actually learning an instrument. The vocal harmonies return from Rock Band: The Beatles and Rock Band: Green Day and feature even more ways to get your friends involved in the whole experience. That i the thing about Rock Band it has always been a game best enjoyed with a couple of friends over, the problem I and a lot more have faced is that it is mostly a battle getting an eager vocalist out of your group of friends, the vocal harmonies help people to have the courage to stand up and sing. What better way to build confidence than to have two friends at your side backing you up?
There are many great party features implemented perfectly in the game, the ability to have seven players at the one time is a great way to get even more involved at one time, you can drop in and out of songs at the drop of a hat with minimum fuss navigating menus and quiting songs. You can also change your difficulty at any point in the song which is a welcome addition to those who over-estimate their rocking abilities. The improvements on user interface and song selection are revolutionary, it's as easy as pressing a few quick buttons to get to your favorite song with filters implemented to sift through the vast library.
The track listing in the game is , in my opinion, the best and most diverse of any music game. There are songs to appeal to a wide variety of people, songs such from bands such as Paramore get the young teens interested, Slipnot for the metal crowd, Them Crooked Vultures for rock fans and even some classics such as Imagine by John Lennon for the nostalgic. There is guaranteed to be one song in the game that you will like and a few that you have heard before but never knew the name. There is a total of 84 tracks on the disk which is enough to keep you entertained for a long period of time, but if that's not enough there is over 2000 songs readily available for the platform with previous game's being importable and the constant stream of DLC released weekly on XBL , PSN and the Wii marketplace.
The newest instrument to be implemented is a revolutionary two-octave keyboard. The keyboard itself is a welcome addition to the series with many fans asking for it for the last year or two. It works well with the songs on the disk, but understandably it is not available to use for all songs. Songs like Queen's Bohemian Rhapsody and Huey Lewis and The News' Power of Love are a treat to play on this nifty new instrument. It is hard to find fault with the design of the new peripheral other than its cost. The keyboard itself set me back €70 and that's without the game.
The main draw back to the game is the price, with peripherals costing upwards of €70 and pro-guitars costing from $150 - $279.99 depending on how in depth you want your pro-mode experience to be. I can see the Squier guitar controller being worthwhile to people looking to learn the guitar as it doubles up as a real electric guitar.
Overall the game sets the bar for music games, with a bunch of new features, a new instrument and a stellar setlist. I cannot recommend this game enough for people even remotely interested in music games or even throwing a party. There is no game that offers as much fun as having seven people trying to recreate Queen's epic Bohemian Rhapsody complete with harmonies, laughter is a guarantee.
Dave writes: "Hopefully time will be kind to Rock Band 3. It’s the equivalent of a Blade Runner or Van Gogh, unappreciated and undersold in its own time, but something that has undeniable quality. We may never see another Rock Band, no encore to this great series, but in Rock Band 3 and Rock Band 4, we got some pretty awesome final tracks."
This week Omari (@OmariAkil) from @bgbrothas makers of #RapGodz joins Mike (@AssaultSuit) and Aaron (@Ind1fference) to talk about: Rap Godz and the Sonic the Hedgehog movie in addition to a plethora of board games and video games.
Joe Y writes: With server closures, glitches, and broken patches, many games have unobtainable achievements and trophies. Here are the top 10 you can't 100% anymore.
"It sounds simple enough, but due to the expiration of licenses, one of the four songs, Promised Land by Vesuvius, is no longer available to download. If you previously had it downloaded, it will *not* be taken away, so you'll still be able to grab this one."
Well damn it. I really dig that song from The Rocker and I did not know it was in RB3. I stopped playing after RB2.
Online achievement/trophies are dumb. I’m not sure why they still include them. I recall the modern warfare games were applauded for not including them.
Unless the game is an online only game because what choice is there at that point.
Uhm trophies are fantastic, they give you real reason to keep playing a game after you beat it
If you need trophies to keep playing a game after you beat it, then is the game worth playing any further? It's imaginary points, not better gaming. Good games will be replayed regardless of imaginary points.
@Christopher
That logic makes zero sense. It's most definitely 'worth playing further' as you go and do things you clearly didn't do the first time....hence why do didn't get the TROPHY. It's not about better/worse gaming, it's about a replay of a game feeling fresh and not redundant.
***It's most definitely 'worth playing further' as you go and do things you clearly didn't do the first time....hence why do didn't get the TROPHY.***
If you need a trophy to do something and not the fact that you enjoy it, is the game actually worth playing? Seriously, how is that a foreign concept? How is that nonsensical? I guess it's nonsense to someone who plays for trophies, but that's about all you're playing for when you promote the reason for doing more to just get trophies and not because you enjoy it.
Chris
In fairness sony did have that gold trophy auction for all those commercial props.
Would have loved to have enough trophies for that.
Pretty ignorant statement to have... there are lots of fun achievements/trophies to be had playing online... I've never played through the single-player campaign in any COD... but had lots of fun playing online... Companies have to be sure to cater to all gamers when it comes to achievements/trophies... a good mix is never a bad thing...
...except if you want to play a game online a couple of years later and not being able to, hence from getting all the trophies.
I’m not obsessed with getting every achievement/trophy but if I like the game I may try to. I’m simply being punished for not discovering the game earlier.
Most games... minus complete failures last much...much longer online than I believe you are giving credit for...
Half of these are false .. The Evolve one can still unlocked... Ghostbusters is only unachievable on PS3 its still online on 360.. Destiny 2 one is only unobtainable for a while as said by bungie... GTAV one can still be unlocked too in a private game. And the Black Ops 3 one can still be unlocked using a few different methods. Guy who wrote this is clueless.
When a games server goes offline then they should allow users to create their own p2p servers to keep these games active. They should also unlock or delete the trophies from any list to those who havent got them.
I can think of a few honorable mentions. there is one for smartglass seeing as smartglass is now defunct. there is also ones for 1v100 and dorito crash course 2 since both of those games are also defunct.
You can tell by playing Rock Band 3 that Harmonix put alot of effort into making this game. The pro mode is a huge addition to the series. Learning the keyboard gives me the same joy as when I first learned to play Guitar Hero. I love the setlist.
I don't get tired of the standard gameplay either I only get tired of playing the same songs over and over which Is why I buy a new Rock Band every so often and alot of DLC. I have like 5 different instruments to play in RB3 so theres plenty for me to do in Rock Band 3.