E3: The Beatles: Rock Band Hands On

The Beatles: Rock Band was out in full force at E3 today (and tomorrow, and the next day...). We got to see several things: first, the opening cinematic at the Microsoft press event. Oh yeah, and the remaining living Beatles, which was just damn weird (and bloody awesome at the same time. I was only 30m away from Paul McCartney!).

Today, the Harmonix guys were up on a stage made to look like Abbey Road, and played through three Beatles songs while explaining the ins and outs of the game. And then Lucy and I had a quick jam on I Want to Hold Your Hand.

Some changes to Rock Band 2 were discussed. The game is reskinned (duh), and all songs are unlocked from the start in Quickplay mode (yay!). There's an interesting change to Easy mode: you can't fail anymore. This is fine by me - we've had a lot of people come through our door who keep failing on Easy.

The Story mode follows the band in chronological order, going from their early days at the Cavern, right through to their final rooftop gig. Sets are based on actual locations the Beatles played at - and for songs that were never performed live, trippy visuals have been made. In the case of I Am the Walrus, it's real trippy.

The Harmonix rep we talked to said he thinks Beatles: Rock Band is coming out in NZ at the same time as everywhere else. And then he just laughed apologetically when we said Rock Band 2 was yet to be released there. Another factoid: the songs in the game can't be imported into RB2, or vice versa - like Guitar Hero: Metallica, it's all being kept seperate. Bit of a shame - I can see their point I guess, but not everyone who comes along to our house and plays Rock Band is a Beatles fan.

Then we got to play! Lucy hopped onto guitar and had a blast. I stepped up to lead vocals, and another guy came in on backing vocals. Man, as someone who likes SingStar and Rock Band waaay too much, I found the vocal harmony thing awesome. Harmonix has found a very simple yet clever way of representing multiple vocal tracks on the screen without adding any more clutter, which is quite the achievement. So now you can technically have up to six players, if you have three mics sitting around (we do at home!) - or you could get away with only three players if everyone sings and plays instruments at the same time.

All in all, it looks good - if you like The Beatles. As with every other one-band game, if you don't give a toss about this band, then this game will not interest you at all. However, if you are a fan, then this looks fitting for one of the biggest bands in pop music history. Can't wait to get it here in September.

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