After bowling over just about everyone in its Monday press conference audience by bringing out the Beatles in the flesh to introduce the newest iteration of Rock Band, we almost overlooked the actual game which is, well… not as cool as the Beatles. But nothing really is. Be that as it may, we did have a chance to check it out in more detail Wednesday afternoon, and there’s little doubt that Harmonix pulled out all the stops in developing what’s likely to be the most popular edition of Rock Band ever produced.
Harmonix was well aware of the non-gaming audience The Beatles would likely suck into Rock Band as a result of the band’s near-universal draw, and developed the game accordingly. For instance, they’ve lowered the barriers to entry by making “no-fail mode” activate automatically in easy mode, and even in other modes, it’s now quicker to flip on for a care-free jam session. More importantly, all 45 Beatles songs included with the game are now accessible out of the box, rather than having to be unlocked, which Harmonix felt might frustrate newer players by barring them from their favorite songs.
For hardcore Beatles fans, the biggest attraction (besides all the new music) will likely be the three additional guitars to be released with the game, modeled after those John, Paul and George used at the time they played with the Beatles. For more in-game complexity, Harmonix also added three-part vocal harmonies.
Since the Beatles didn’t tour live for the second half of their career, Harmonix had to get creative and put a creative twist on the visuals for songs of that era. The company calls the results “dreamscapes,” which combine simulated footage of the Beatles playing in studio with spacey effects, such as an underwater studio for Octopus’ Garden.
The bottom line: People all over the world have waited for this particular set of songs to play.Prepare to break out your (newly available) Gretsch Duo Jet and rock out. At the start of June, I wrote about some of the announcements I’d like to see the video game industry make over the course of the month’s showcases. Now, we’re on the other end of reveal-filled events from Summer Game Fest, PlayStation, Xbox, Nintendo, and Ubisoft, and looking back, I had a surprisingly high hit rate. Some leaks turned out to be true, while one pipe dream prediction did come to fruition. Now that the biggest video game showcases of the summer are over, I’m practicing a bit of humility by looking back at what I predicted to see just how right or wrong I was. While I was spot on about three picks, I made two big whiffs.
The re-emergence of Metroid Prime 4: Correct I had hoped that this summer would finally be the one where we saw Metroid Prime 4 in action; thankfully, that ended up happening. To conclude the latest Nintendo Direct, Retro Studios gave us our first glimpse of Metroid Prime 4: Beyond. The short but incredibly dense reveal trailer lived up to my expectations. It not only confirmed the title and release window but gave a look at gameplay as well. This first look indicates that Metroid Prime 4: Beyond will be one of the most graphically impressive Nintendo Switch games to date. Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga director and series creator George Miller has caused a stir by negatively reflecting on 2015’s Mad Max video game from Avalanche Studios and Warner Bros. and saying that he’d like Hideo Kojima to make a Mad Max game. “We did have a video game made when we did Fury Road … it wasn’t as good as I wanted it to be,” Miller told GAMINGbible on Furiosa’s red carpet. “It wasn’t in our hands, we gave all our material to a company to do it. But you know, I’m one of those people that I would rather not do something unless you can do it at the highest level, or at least try to make it a higher level.” Nintendo’s Satoru Iwata: Lost Interview 20th Anniversary Remaster Beloved former President of Nintendo Satoru Iwata said many profound and memorable things throughout his career, but thanks to a reuploaded and remastered Kikizo interview from E3 2004, we have even more. Upgrade your lifestyleDigital Trends helps readers keep tabs on the fast-paced world of tech with all the latest news, fun product reviews, insightful editorials, and one-of-a-kind sneak peeks.
