For easy reference, here are some of the videos released about The Beatles: Rock Band. It comes out two weeks from today!
Opening Cinematic
Here's the opening cinematic; a traditional cell animation summarizing the Beatles career in a very entertaining form, this sets the mood for the game.
Gameplay Trailer 1
This was our first look at how gameplay works. Includes bits of "I Saw Her Standing There" in the Cavern Club, "I Want To Hold Your Hand" at the Ed Sullivan Show, "I Feel Fine" at Shea Stadium, "Day Tripper" and "Taxman" at Budokan, dreamscapes of "I Am the Walrus," "Back in the U.S.S.R," "Octopus's Garden" and "Here Comes the Sun," and "Get Back" from the Apple rooftop concert.
Gameplay Trailer 2
Again we start in the Cavern Club, with "Twist and Shout." Check out the Beatles logo on Ringo's drums, this early logo was designed by Paul McCartney and discarded as soon as Ringo bought new Ludwig drums, although the French used it on some album covers and picture sleeves. Also note John's Rickenbacker, in its original un-painted form. Lennon later decided to paint it black. From the Sullivan set, we get "Can't Buy Me Love," "Eight Days a Week" at Shea, "Paperback Writer" at Budokan. Then a dreamscape of "Yellow Submarine," in which the Beatles are wearing the costumes that their cartoon counterparts wore in the animated film of the same name. "Sgt. Pepper," "Within You Without You" and "Revolution" round off this clip.
Gameplay Trailer 3
Here we start off with the Ed Sullivan Show and "A Hard Day's Night." "Drive My Car" from Budokan follows, then dreamscapes of "Lucy In the Sky With Diamonds," "Dear Prudence," "While My Guitar Gently Weeps," "Helter Skelter" and "Come Together," concluding with "Don't Let Me Down" from the roof of Apple.
Birthday
Here we get a look at how "Birthday" is presented: we begin in Abbey Road and transition to a dreamscape. That's how most post-1966 music is represented, except for things near the very end of their career that would be appropriate for the Apple rooftop concert.
Ticket To Ride
Here's a similar video for "Ticket To Ride." It's done at Shea Stadium, and the amount of detail is startling. The Beatles logo on the drum head is accurate for the concert; a bolder version than was used in most earlier concerts. And I love one particular shot of two girls screaming, with a man reacting to the noise.
Recently in Playstation 3 Category
"Who would have thought we'd end up as androids." quipped Paul McCartney, alongside former bandmate Ringo Starr yesterday at the E3 gaming expo in Los Angeles.
Aside from a brief glimpse of game footage behind Macca at a recent concert, this was our first look at the design of the game. We'll be able to play as the Beatles in such varied venues as real locations like the Cavern Club, the stage of the Ed Sullivan show, and the rooftop of Apple headquarters, but also in fantasy locations, like the underwater performance of Octopus's Garden.
45 songs will be included with the game. Ten were announced:
- I Saw Her Standing There
- I Want To Hold Your Hand
- I Feel Fine
- Day Tripper
- Taxman
- I Am the Walrus
- Back in the USSR
- Octopus's Garden
- Here Comes the Sun
- Get Back
The presentation was given at a Microsoft demo. Xbox Live users will be able to download "All You Need As Love," with all proceeds going to the charitable organization Doctors Without Borders. Users of all platforms should be able to purchase other individual songs on line, and even albums, starting with Abbey Road.
Also new: a graphic showing all four The Beatles Rock Band instruments.
This gives us our first look at the Rock Band drum kit with its black pearl finish and Beatles and Ludwig logos. It and the Höfner Bass come in the $250 deluxe package. The Gretsch Duo Jet and Rickenbacker 325 will each be available separately for $99.
An article on the web site for The Escapist, a video game web site, has an interesting tidbit from Dhani Harrison. But the author of the article seems to me to be harboring unnecessary negativity.
It was a week ago today that the preorder club opened for "The Beatles Rock Band" game from Harmonix. Now its Tuesday again, and we get to see the Paul McCartney Höfner Bass controller.
I'm a bit relieved to see that in a bow to the dominance of the right handers, this is a right-handed Höfner, not a lefty like Paul's. At first glance, it looks like a nice reproduction. And I should know, I have a real one! McCartney's lost the pick guard some time prior to the filming of Let It Be. A bit of the history of Paul's two Höfners can be read here.
If Harmonix keeps to this apparent pattern of adding stuff on Tuesdays, I expect that next week we'll get a look at the Ludwig-branded Rock Band 2 drums, with the famed drop-T logo of The Beatles.
This just in: Breaking box art, courtesy MTV Networks.
Playstation 3:
This art is incorrectly missing George Harrison's signature:
Wii:
XBox 360:
It could cost you about $450.
It was already announced that The Beatles Rock Band game would be released on September 9, 2009; both in a $60 standalone version and a $250 bundle. That bundle includes the game, a microphone, a microphone stand, and two controllers: One modeled after Paul McCartney's Höfner Bass, and a Rock Band 2 drum kit, fitted out with a classic pearl finish and a Ludwig-branded bass drum skin with The Beatles drop-T logo.
Today, two more things happened: Harmonix opened its preorder club. If you have preordered the game, you get access to an area that currently has a press release, and will soon have extra materials and behind-the-scene videos.
And that press release announced two new controllers! Most attractive, and most like the original, is a Gretsch Duo Jet, just like the one George played during the earlies years of the Beatles' success. Except that its not a real guitar. Think $99.99 is expensive? A new real Duo Jet will set you back around $2500. It is a classy, twangy, great guitar.
Also announced, a Rickenbacker 325. This is not the 12-string George is famous for. It's based on a guitar Lennon bought in Hamburg. The original had gold pickguards, the game controller has white. That's another hundred bucks, thank you.
Sadly, I'll probably have to buy it all.
Well, I got in to Playstation Home without a problem on Friday. Wish I hadn't. Its dull and hopelessly juvenile. About 10% of the people have names that include misspelled genitals, and much of the talk among Home's inhabitants seems to be based around misspelling other foul language, so as to fool Sony's language filter.
The technical achievement is pretty impressive. Inside the theater, after a download, you can see movie trailers and music videos, all while walking around, changing your perspective, and interacting with other Home inhabitants. Its just, why would you want to?
For the first day of the open beta nightmare, see my previous post.
When I bought my PlayStation 3
But when I learned about Playstation Home, I was intrigued. It seemed like a neat idea, and it seemed to be coming soon.
Well, today Sony made Playstation Home available as a public beta. It had been available previously only to a closed group. I was unable to find it when I got home around 1pm today, so I started checking the comments of the masses on Sony's Playstation blog page. No one could find it.
After about an hour, it turned up. You only have to restart the Playstation 3 to download it. Yippee! It downloaded fast, and loaded smoothly.
Wish I had more to say about it. I can't log in, and the aforementioned masses commenting on the aforementioned Sony blog tell me I'm not alone.
I've seen "Request timed out," "Network Error," "Read error," you name it. I've been presented with the EULA several times. But I've not been able to log on.
They say there's no place like home. More like Home is noplace.
Update 5:52pm: There's a great forum at Sony where everybody's keeping track of their inability to log in.
