Guitar Hero can suck my balls. Rock Band is about to blow it away.
From Game Informer Magazine:
- One disk with 4 separate campaigns. Guitar, Drum, Bass and Vocal. Each can be played on its own from start to finish, in addition, a full band game is designed to allow for one huge co-op playthrough.
- Will feature full support for four player online play on both 360 and PS3. Any combination of on/offline play will work and each player can pick their own difficulty setting.
- Guitar is on the left side of the screen, Bass on the right and drums down the middle. Vocals scroll from right to left along the top of the screen.
- Guitars and Bass now have 10 frets. 5 for the regular sections of the game and 5 for the newly designated solo sections.
- Whammy bar is back as is the tilt to activate rock band's version of star power
- there is a five way switch on the guitar that allows for 5 different self-applied effects to the sound.
- Singing is more in depth than the likes of Sing Star. There is a phoneme detector that will pick up individual vowels and consonants you say (So you can't just hum along). Build up enough highly judged phrases and you'll be able to sing free-style. If you do well enough in free-style, then you'll trigger the vocalist's version of star power.
- Microphone doubles as a tambourine on many songs to combat super long guitar solos where the singer doesn't have much to do (Tap mic on hand or shake).
- Drums are apparently insane. You use actual sticks and hit one of four colored pads in front of you, in addition to a kick pedal attached to the drumming unit. Drummers will also have the ability to do fills etc. in their own little free-form section, do well and you'll trigger the drummers version of star power.
- If one person fails, the whole band does not fail, their section simply turns gray and they have to sit out the rest of the song unless one your band mates initiates star power, which will bring you back into the fold.
- If all bandmates can reach the end of a song, you'll be greeted with one huge free-form jam session.
- There will be a character creation system, and you can create multiple avatars that play different instruments.
- Four themed clothing stores in addition to licensed guitars and pedals and other rock paraphernalia.
- A full set of mo-cap stage movements have been added for each instrument. You can decide whether your vocalist moves like Axel Rose, or stands his ground like Clapton.
- 40 performance venues planned
- All peripherals will be unique to each platform. This isn't the developer's decision. Apparently MS peripherals require special circuit boards.
- You'll be able to craft your own band logo
INSTRUMENT DESCRIPTIONS
Guitars/Bass
Guitars are an exact 3/4 replica of a Fender Strat.
Xplorer guitars will work for 360 owners, but you may not be able to pass on all the new stuff this model has (Effects and hard solos)
Five familiar buttons near the top of the neck for the majority of songs and five buttons near the body of the guitar. You will use these new buttons during specially designed solo sections using ONLY hammer ons and pull offs, no having to worry about your strum bar. When a hard solo kicks in just move down the neck of the guitar and press away.
- Signature Fender 5-way switch has been added. By shopping at the in game store you'll be able to purchase several virtual effects pedals such as Flange, Wah, Chorus and Echo. These can be applied during your song by setting the 5 way switch to the desired effect.
Microphone
There will eventually be a Rock Band branded Mic
Other USB mics will be supported, but Harmonix will probably NOT allow the use of the 360 headset due to its low fidelity. Mics will be usable as tambourines during certain songs.
DRUMS
It consists of four pads, a kick pedal and legs for the enire unit to stand on. (Not final).
Leftmost pad (red) is your snare drum, everything else doubles as toms and cymbals depending on the song.
A set of real wooden drum sticks will ship with the unit.
A piece of the stand can be taken off so that the unit can sit lower, or on a coffee table.
There is a kick pedal
If you play drums in this game on hard or expert, then you're really playing the drums (Hit for hit). Apparently you could sit down at a real set and play the same songs if you set them up the same.
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