No, your eyes aren’t deceiving you: Harmonix has announced Rock Band 4. For real. For Xbox One and PS4. For 2015. There’s not a ton of details yet, and no screenshots yet either, but several big promises: almost all your DLC and music from previous games will work with it, and they’re working hard to ensure all old instruments work as well: “The Sony instruments were wireless via a USB dongle; that’s pretty straightforward. Things are complicated on the Xbox side, and I’m not prepared to talk specifics yet […].” Only one instrument will be left out: the keyboard. Oh well? Harmonix promises that more details will be on the way soon, until then you can read this article at Polygon about how they’re making it happen. Read more…
Posted by Michael Pinto on Oct 31, 2009 in Videogames
LEGO Rock Band comes out next week (November 3rd) and this trailer looks like a great deal of fun. Part of me would love to see a TV show based on this opening title sequence, maybe not an entire Pixar film but a seven minute short with the right director would be amazing. Here’s a “Final Countdown” trailer from last week: Read more…
Posted by Michael Pinto on Oct 21, 2009 in Videogames
Shown above is the trailer for The Beatles: Rock Band Abbey Road download which is available on Xbox LIVE (and will be available later this week PlayStation Network). Watching this footage I realized why from a conceptual point of view that I hate this game: The Beatles started life as a “Rock Band” but when they made it they really became a pop music act. The quality of their work is second to none, but it’s unfair to call them a rock band when other acts from that era really did earn the title like the Rolling Stones: Read more…
Posted by Michael Pinto on Oct 18, 2009 in Videogames
Who knew that 90s nostalgia would be the hot things for videogames over a decade later? In this case LEGO Rock Band has done a very cute job brining Britpop icons Blur to life. Now granted this isn’t my favorite song from Blur, but I still loved every minute of it. However I’d love to see them take this concept a step further and have a battle of the bands with Oasis whilst the Spice Girls made snide comments in the audience.
Posted by Michael Pinto on Aug 29, 2009 in Videogames
Looking at this clip of Guitar Hero 5 on the surface it feels so wrong: Nirvana was really about punk at heart — a do-it-yourself ethos that rejected commercialism. But sadly I know that’s a lie because the genius of Kurt Cobain was mixing punk with pop music. And that ability to bring the Sex Pistols into the shopping malls of America in the 90s was a sort of wonderful magic moment which for a few minutes made mainstream entertainment a little bit more entertaining. Read more…
Posted by Michael Pinto on Jun 3, 2009 in Videogames
In terms of videogames at this point the Lego brand is just like zombies, you simply add it to anything and it makes the title better! So in this case Rock Band is getting the Lego treatment, and if nothing else it looks so cute (of course!). The game will come out this holiday season for the PS3, 360, Wii and DS. Featured acts include Blur and Pink, but I guess we’ll have to wait for Beatles edition for next year. Here are some screen shots: Read more…
“MTV Networks is expected to announce on Thursday a deal to use songs by The Beatles in its popular “Rock Band” video game series, marking the band’s first major plunge into the digital music world. The Beatles’ Apple Corps Ltd and Viacom Inc’s MTV Networks have been in talks for months. They issued media invitations to a teleconference on “a global music project” on Thursday, but did not give more details.”
Looking at this clip of Guitar Hero 5 on the surface it feels so wrong: Nirvana was really about punk at heart — a do-it-yourself ethos that rejected commercialism. But sadly I know that’s a lie because the genius of Kurt Cobain was mixing punk with pop music. And that ability to bring the Sex Pistols into the shopping malls of America in the 90s was a sort of wonderful magic moment which for a few minutes made mainstream entertainment a little bit more entertaining. 