Rock Band 3 - Xbox 360 (Game)

Things have changed, it's a fact. And I know some people are not going to like it. Back when I first played Guitar Hero 2, all the way up through playing Rock Band 3 most of tonight with my brother, what I have always loved about all of these games is shredding on a tasty solo. Something entirely self-indulgent, and an obscene amount of fun. That being said, that is not what Rock Band 3 aimed for this time. The emphasis has shifted and is now on the entire band. One could argue as Rock Band was the first to come out with the drums / bass / vocal parts to create the band performance, the emphasis has always been on the band. But for me it always seemed like for the most part the vocals, drums and bass parts were all secondary to most of the songs that really have stand-out guitar parts. The selection of songs is indicative of a change in focus, from being the "guitar" game, to being the "band game." No where is this more obvious than in Queen's 'Bohemian Rhapsody.' I was looking forward to playing the two awesome guitar solos in it, but when playing the song, a lot of it has me either sitting through vocal / drum / keyboard sections, or playing very easy note sequences. The songs are more mellowed-out, more easily accessible to those people looking to play as a group. Some people will not like that, but I don't mind so much.As far as songs go, I was disappointed to a certain extent. While we do get 'Free Bird,' 'The Beast and the Harlot,' and 'No One Knows,' as the other reviewer pointed out, those songs have been in previous Guitar Hero games. There are so many songs that would be so cool on Rock Band, but some of these are just recycled, and I'm not sure why. But since all of my downloaded songs carried over it really wasn't too big a deal. What we are really paying for in this game is the new ways in which songs play out, and the upgraded features the new software offers.You know that feeling in a sequel where you're having fun, but it's a tentative kind of fun, where you're waiting to see or experience something that they changed from the previous game that you are really not going to like? That's how I felt for the first couple of hours while I was playing tonight. But I have to give Harmonix credit once again. It seems that they left everything that worked in Rock Band 2, and then added features that were lacking from that game. For instance, when playing a set I was always disappointed that the only song you could see your note streak on was the last of them. It's been changed now. Rock Band has taken a page out of Guitar Hero's book here, and made your song stats viewable between songs. They even offer breakdowns of every section of the song, as well as a breakdown of how many points you earned in what ways (ie keeping a streak, overdrive, sustained, etc.). On top of that, when you are playing a song with more than just yourself, it shows you how many points each player got individually, minus the combined overdrive effect, which is neat. And you can rate songs right after you play them, which is a nice feature when you have ~500 songs so sift through.Solos are slightly different looking, not so much in your face anymore. Instead of the note track glowing glue, the edges of the track glow blue. Most of the time you won't even realize you're playing a solo until you notice it counting your percentage. Same thing with a new addition to overdrive. There are still the white-note sequences that earn you 25% of overdrive, but now there is also a new kind, where the edges of the note track will glow yellow, and for getting those parts perfectly you earn 50% overdrive automatically. I'm ambivalent on that point though. I didn't see as the overdrive needed changing, but it's definitely not something I'm complaining about.Setlists can now be saved to be played whenever you want, and the filters for organizing or displaying songs has been greatly expanded (Artist, Album, Genre, Decade, Instrument, Pro Mode Difficulty, Keyboard Part, Rating, Alphabetical by song, etc). Some things have been altered a bit, but it takes a learning curve or just a few minutes. As with recent Guitar Hero games, you can now drop in or out of a song or set at any time, as well as change profiles during any menu screen, which is a really nice new addition to the Rock Band repertoire. Another little thing that I noticed was pausing during a song. We've all done it, and it seems to happen unavoidably when we have a streak going, we've all been there. Rock Band 3 has solved the issue, and it's incredibly simple. Guitar Hero: World Tour made it so when you unpause it gives you a few seconds to see what notes are coming, which was cool...but it was a frozen screen, and you had no clear idea of how fast the notes might come at you. With this game, when you unpause the song rewinds a few seconds, and while it doesn't let you replay notes, it scrolls a blank note chart for a few seconds so you can get the feel of the speed, and then you pick up right back where you left off. Awesome new addition to the game.I think the only negative thing I can say about the game is that I miss the fun facts about bands that would display while the songs were loading. But again Harmonix won't even let me complain about that, because the reason they're gone is because loading times are insanely faster than they used to be. You pick your set, and within a few seconds the song is starting. I don't know how they pulled that off, but it's impressive. In fact, I think the only loading screen I've had so far was the first time I loaded the game, and the game was updating my downloadable songs. A+ for efficiency.The only REAL complaint I can make is that the Pro Mode guitar controller isn't coming out for a couple more weeks (what's up with that, Madcatz?). But I can say this, I browsed the training tutorials for both Pro Guitar and Keyboard, and they are extensive. It really is an impressive accomplishment, and I'm really looking forward to trying it out when the guitar gets here.The bottom line really is this: Even if you don't like any of the songs that come with Rock Band 3, you should still buy it to play your old songs with the news features, because it's so worth it.

I suppose as with any sequel there are some nice improvements but also unnecessary drawbacks. I'll go with a good, bad and ugly style format for my review.NOTE: I haven't played pro drums or pro guitar so I won't comment on those features.*********************THE GOOD*********************USER-FRIENDLINESS* A completely streamlined, straightforward and improved playing system. You can now continue to play a song after failing, adjust the difficulty mid-song and people can drop in or out while a song is going on. In all this is a much needed improvement over RB2 and helps to keep things going at parties or with friends, especially if "beverages" are involved.GRAPHICS* The graphics and artistic style are great and help make you feel as though you're an actual rock stud. Easily the best of any music/rhythm game.NEW GAME MODES* Pro modes add in an extra level of difficulty for seasoned veterans, though admittedly the cost of entry for the new instruments is pretty prohibitive and as such will only be experienced by the very hard-core music gaming enthusiasts.QUICKPLAY* You now earn fans while in quickplay making that mode feel more meaningful than in past installments and quickplay overall has more sorting features and much easier to navigate.NEW CHALLENGES* The little challenges in setlists are nice additions and give you something extra to earn. For instance, you may have to hit all the notes in certain stretches or see how many times you can activate star power. It's been done before in music games, but seems like the idea is perfected this time around.SONG EXPORTATION* If you've already exported your Rock Band 1 songs into Rock Band 2 they'll (mostly) carry over into Rock Band 3, too. In all you'll have a HUGE library of songs unrivaled by any other music game given exportation of RB and RB2 plus your DLC. The only negative is the price, but I'll touch on that in my UGLY section...UNLOCKING SONG* All the songs are unlocked right from the get-go meaning you don't have to punch in a code or spend hours unlocking songs for you and your friends to enjoy.*********************THE BAD*********************UNLOCKING OUTFITS* The outfit unlocking system is not nearly as straightforward or enjoyable as in RB2. Rather than earning money that can in turn be spent on new items you now have to complete certain in-game challenges. This is really disadvantageous if you stick to only one or two instruments or if your skill level isn't high enough to attain an item you want. It was much more user friendly and motivational to save up your cash for that one item you really wanted, whether that was a pig mask or angel wings.STAGE PROGRESSION* Rather than having to earn stars to unlock the next stages you now have to have earn more fans. This is really annoying since you'll spend time retreading the same venues (even as early as unlocking the 3rd stage). Rock Band 2's map system just made more system and the thrill discovering the new venues, songs and setlists is missed.CHARACTER CUSTOMIZATION* Though you can change your attire on the fly you cannot do so for your character's physical attributes. Once you give him that ridiculously large nose there's no going back. Instead you have to create a 100% brand new character, being sure he or she is exactly how you want before hitting that create button.*********************THE UGLY*********************POOR KEYBOARD SUPPORT* In short, do not buy this game if your only reason for doing so is the new keyboard functionality as support for the $80 keyboard peripheral is really weak. Only 63 of the songs include any keyboard tracks at all and of those many feature long stretches of keyboard silence or criminally easy keyboard parts.SETLIST* Though musical tastes differ it would've been nice to see more bands/artists that have fun and interesting tracks across all instruments. If you're a one-instrument guy (especially keyboardist) you're going to be really bored during at least a third (or more) of the game's tracks. Such bands/artists that would've been obvious choices (off the top of my head): Dream Theater, Rush, Fair To Midland, Muse, The Who, Pink Floyd, Alan Parson's Project, Blind Guardian, A-Ha, Moby, Genesis, Fun Lovin Criminals, Powerman-5000, KMFDM, Gorillaz, Coldplay, Blackfield, Depeche Mode, Linkin Park, Dragonforce, Radiohead, Michael Jackson, The Eagles, Billy Joel, Andrew WK, Stratovarius, Prince, Stabbing Westward or Europe (Final Countdown!!). At the very least they could've added in some keyboard parts to existing songs in the event you have that instrument plugged in (and absent if you're not using it). Also, do we really need FOUR Lynyrd Skynyrd songs? Yeah, they're an okay band but a bit overkill...PRICE OF ROCK BAND 2 EXPORTATION* 800 MS Points ($10) seems like a steep and unexpected price to import your old RB2 tracks into RB3. Granted the import in Rock Band is way more inclusive than in Guitar Hero, but it just feels cheap to charge us so much for songs we've previously paid for.TATTOO/BAND ART ORGANIZATION* The organization of tattoos and band art is really difficult to navigate through. You may say this is nitpicking, but bear with me...Let's say you're scrolling through the artistic styles and find a few pieces you like and want to mix together. You select your first piece of art and then the game returns you to the top of the "select a style" list, so now you have to scroll through all the artistic styles trying to remember which one contains the art you like. It does this EVERY time you set a new art layer. The worst is any attempt to spell out a word, just baffling how long it takes to do something as simple as scribe out a 4-letter word. Ug, just thinking about this horrible design makes me want to chuck my keyboard across the room.

This is the final Rock Band on the 360 platform; if you are invested in the 360 and the related instruments, then this is a must buy as it represents the final iteration of this franchise on the old console platform. All of my wired and wireless rock band and guitar hero instruments work with this game, as is expected. You will want to check the track listing to make sure that the songs that you want are on this disk, although the ability to import from other titles is a big help if you have already bought songs. I have been reluctant to buy new instruments and gear for the next generation of consoles, so, until I do, this is my go to Rock Band game! Rock on!

Even more improvements over Rock Band 2 and probably the best Rock Band to date. Includes vocal harmonies that were introduced in RB: Beatles, keyboard(-MIDI) support, real instrument (Pro mode) support (special instruments with integrated controllers, though, this isn't Rocksmith...) and electronic drum support with a special MIDI module with an integrated console controller. So close to actually being a real band!Not only is it awesome to sing as a trio (adding two more players to the game,) but the pro drum support is excellent. Like playing the real thing...

La verdad es que es un muy buen juego y por el precio y nuevo, creo que vale totalmente la pena, hasta le puedes descargar canciones de anteriores rock band (a un precio claro) y si solo tienes la guitarra puedes jugar ahora 3 instrumentos, guitarra, bajo y teclado(basico), lo unico malo es que en la tienda ya no hay muchas canciones para descargar/comprar, pero supongo que eso ya es por parte de sutienda y no tanto del juego base en si, 100% recomendado.

It states that it is the Electronic Arts version but is in reality the Mad Catz version and is a very important distinction if you are looking to modify your game with custom songs since the Mad Catz version does not support custom songs at all. If you want the EA version, I'd suggest going to a private seller site such as Ebay, Kijiji or Craigslist and making sure you are getting the correct version.Other than that, it shipped on time with no damage to the packaging, case or disc.

New game, wrapped so it wasn't scratched disc.The game itself is great - the best rock band made so far.Had no complaints whatsoever. It was nice to be able to buy this game, brand new, because I can't seem to find it in stores anymore.The price was a little high though, seeing as the game is an older game.