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Beatles Rock Band reviews, opinions, discussion
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SativaSamurai  





Joined: 20 Apr 2007
Posts: 712

PostPosted: Thu Sep 10, 2009 2:05 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

I absolutely love the game so far. Charts, artwork, gameplay, everything.

I NEVER play Vocals and I have to say that singing Here Comes The Sun is the funnest thing ever and if you have this game go play it now.

On guitar I am at the last level, the Apple Corps stage I believe.

"Super Speed" is still too fast for me, due to HMX continuing to put in extremely short fret boards, but hey, this is a minor complaint and the game more than makes up for it.
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plutoknight  





Joined: 02 Aug 2007
Posts: 879

PostPosted: Thu Sep 10, 2009 2:51 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

So........I have very few complaints. And my review has spoilers in invisotext!

One: Song length. The first half of the game there doesn'ts eem to be a song over 3 minutes.

Two: I played this game in the dead of night.......rather, I played Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds in the dead of night. Biggest. Headache. Ever.

Other than that........I love it. The charts are excellent, and a lot of the later songs/charts are some of the most fun I've had playing plastic guitar in a while. The animations, the presentation...all top notch. The rooftop venue, especially. The amount of detail put into that venue was just striking. The way Lennon's hair moves. The birds. The band speaking to all their fans. the people down below going "WTFTHEBEATLES! ON A ROOF!". The police patrolling, keeping the peace.

The Dreamscapes are just..........wow. They range from simple to incredibly......eye-popping. The amount of work put into each one is breathtaking, even in the simpler ones.

Perhaps the greatest moment though was while playing one of the final songs, "I Want You (She's So Heavy)" I intentionally picked this song last, it being the longest song in the game, I think. The screen going pitch black and going straight into the final movie was one of the best moments in the game.


Overall, I'm incredibly impressed. 9/10
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GuitarHailz  





Joined: 11 Jun 2007
Posts: 4910
Location: Austin, Texas

PostPosted: Thu Sep 10, 2009 4:12 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

I guess I can give a quick review. As a disclaimer: I love the Beatles and their music, also I'm a vocalist.

I played every song this afternoon on vocals. As an artist, I definitely appreciate how this game was put together and how it looks visually. I really like it, this afternoon was just 4 hours of interactive eye candy. Kudos to that, definitely. <3

I have a few disappointments, though. Part of me was hoping that the cutscenes or venues or something would be sort of explained. Like, I was hoping I would learn more about the Beatles from playing the game. I know its hard to compare, but something like Metallfacts would have been neat to see in this game. I know I unlocked photos and other things so I'll have to check those out later... but just playing straight down the set I didn't really experience anything that I didn't already know about.

I haven't played any guitar/drums/bass so I can't comment on the charts, but sometimes I just felt underwhelmed while I was playing a song even on vocals. It's definitely a good game to chill out and play a few songs, but NOT a game to play all of the songs at once back to back. Boring is definitely the wrong word, because the music is good and the animation/graphics are excellent, like I said before. But the whole experience didn't give me goosebumps like I thought it would. Maybe it's because I'm on a small TV with the volume down so I wouldn't disturb my roommates. Or maybe the Beatles is more enjoyable for me to listen to instead of ruining the songs with my voice.

So my final review is that its definitely great, but it could have been even better. Hopefully somebody understands what I mean.
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NavyCherub  





Joined: 28 May 2008
Posts: 3396

PostPosted: Thu Sep 10, 2009 4:17 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

GuitarHailz wrote:
I have a few disappointments, though. Part of me was hoping that the cutscenes or venues or something would be sort of explained. Like, I was hoping I would learn more about the Beatles from playing the game. I know its hard to compare, but something like Metallfacts would have been neat to see in this game. I know I unlocked photos and other things so I'll have to check those out later... but just playing straight down the set I didn't really experience anything that I didn't already know about.


Check out the photos. Each one comes with a short paragraph of information, much like Metallifacts. Pretty sure that's exactly what you're looking for. I'm sure you'll like what you see.
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BizCasFri  





Joined: 01 Feb 2007
Posts: 1833
Location: Winnipeg, MB

PostPosted: Thu Sep 10, 2009 4:17 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

As someone who's been a top 5 vocalist in the past and has spent more hours on vocals than most of you here, I can honestly say that this is the most fun I've ever had playing vocals in any Rock Band game. Well done, HMX. Cannot wait to dig into the harmonies. It's tons of fun on voxtar as well. Oh man. I love this game.
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GuitarHailz  





Joined: 11 Jun 2007
Posts: 4910
Location: Austin, Texas

PostPosted: Thu Sep 10, 2009 4:23 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

NavyCherub wrote:
GuitarHailz wrote:
I have a few disappointments, though. Part of me was hoping that the cutscenes or venues or something would be sort of explained. Like, I was hoping I would learn more about the Beatles from playing the game. I know its hard to compare, but something like Metallfacts would have been neat to see in this game. I know I unlocked photos and other things so I'll have to check those out later... but just playing straight down the set I didn't really experience anything that I didn't already know about.


Check out the photos. Each one comes with a short paragraph of information, much like Metallifacts. Pretty sure that's exactly what you're looking for. I'm sure you'll like what you see.

Great, I'll do that then. As I was writing that I realized that the photos might have something with them... I just wished they had made that a bigger focus of the game. A whole Beatles experience as you progress... I'm a big fan of cut scenes so I suppose I should be grateful to see ANY cut scenes in my Rock Band.

I also forgot to mention my one nitpicky thing with the gameplay... when playing vocals the multiplier blocks the pie and the pie is a blue-ish color. It's to the point where I can't see if I'm going to get Fab! or not and I'm only sitting 3 feet away from my TV. My vision is terrible so that's probably 90% of the problem, but most of the time its a surprise whether I hit the phrase or not. Nothing major, just sort of annoying for me.

I have a feeling I'll be more enthusiastic about the game once I try some harmonies and band play. But the first day wasn't as awesome as I had hoped it would be. But then again I was probably over hyping it in my mind. :S
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cdylan13  





Joined: 14 Aug 2007
Posts: 5828
Location: Richmond, VA

PostPosted: Thu Sep 10, 2009 4:31 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Ok guys word of advice to make this game into an entirely new challenge. Voxtarring this game is amazing, and INSANELY hard. Trying songs like Dear Prudence Voxtar has you missing all over the place in an ordinarily easy song. So ya, for best results do the above.
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b.vicious  





Joined: 29 Jun 2007
Posts: 2075
Location: Internet

PostPosted: Thu Sep 10, 2009 4:41 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

i will admit, as a plyaer who usually leans towards difficult songs, likes metal, and had a neutral feeling towards the beatles, this game is really fun, i enjoy a lot of the tracks, i enjoy most of the songs, and it def. keeps me interested, ill be playing it more tomorow. I haven't played enough to really see any challenge, hopefully there is, but if not i may not play this game nearly as much as some others will due to my want for difficulty, but for now im satisfied
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82erkle  





Joined: 23 Oct 2007
Posts: 7727
Location: UW-Eau Claire

PostPosted: Thu Sep 10, 2009 4:52 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Honestly, this game trumps RB2 by a longshot for me. The background graphics are INCREDIBLE. Sure, the charts aren't all that difficult, but still, it's an incredible game. Like cdylan said, try voxtaring. It is NOT easy in this game. I almost failed Revolution about 10 minutes ago :P. All in all, this game is absolutely incredible. Loving The Beatles, of course, helps too :P.

EDIT: 6000th post. Wow.
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DrunkOM  





Joined: 29 Aug 2007
Posts: 164
Location: Vancouver, BC

PostPosted: Thu Sep 10, 2009 6:48 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

I've been playing the game for a week now. Having played through the story mode twice (once solo guitar, once with a group), unlocked all the photos, played every song on guitar and bass, sang most, but hardly any drums, I thought I'd post my final thoughts and observations.

The game great. it captures the Beatles really well, the dreamscapes are fantastic, the songs are all fun to play and so many of them are so iconic that most people are going to know them. Finally a RB/GH game where the general public will look at the setlist and know many of the songs (even if they don't realize it at first).

That's all been said, by myself and countless other people, so we're not going to cover that all too much.

What I really like is how Harmonix has really got their engine nailed now... almost. The Quickplay list is pretty great and can't wait to get Star Ratings and Leaderboards into RB2's. Not having No Fail buried in a menu, Easy always being No Fail, Difficulty meters on the difficulty select screen, leaderboard updates after playing a song, the achievement tracker etc. There are lost of little things that really start to add up.

And the actual gameplay engine remains so tight and clean. It's almost hard for me to play GH games again after playing a Rock Band game. There are still a few things I'd like to see.

I'd like to be able to access the full leaderboards from the quickplay list (press Orange to see the leaderboard for the currently selected song for example), and should also have star/scores/mini leaderboard when you're browsing the Leaderboards. Saved Playlists, the ability to choose favorite songs, and sorting to show recently added songs in their own group.

But there are a few failings that I wish to point out.

I really really wish that this game was part of the "Rock Band Platform". We've all known forever that it wouldn't be, so it's not that I'm surprised... it's just that I've already been in the situation where I'm playing the game with some people and it was suggested that we play some other songs, and just the thought of having to switch back and forth was starting to annoy me. I wish some kind of compromise could have been made, but I will live with this.

I also wish there were more songs. Now, I know that there's going to be DLC, and MTV/Harmonix probably skimped a bit because they needed to pay a LOT for the rights, and that getting these songs ready takes a LOT more effort than plugging the latest AFI song into your game engine... but it's just over too quick, and it's so good that you're just left wanting MORE and NOW. Plus they have sooo many good songs that you can think of 10 easy that you'd think would be in a game like this that aren't. I can't wait for October.

The biggest issue I have with the game is the Story Mode. Yes, it lets you play through various stages of the Beatles Career, and play the songs in a somewhat chronological order. The presentation is fine, and it doesn't try and get too fancy with weird challenges, and you'll never get stopped dead in your tracks since difficulty doesn't matter.

But it doesn't actually do what it sets out to do, and that's tell a story. I wish there was more that actually told us about the Beatles, why they are such a significant and influential group, why (and how) the world went nuts for them, and what is so significant about the different periods that we get to play. Why is the Cavern Club significant? What was the big deal about the Budokan and the Rooftop concert?

The photos try and make up for this, but they don't actually tell any sort of story. They are more anecdotal than anything and there's really no thread that ties them together. If I was new to the Beatles, I really wouldn't know anything more than when I started. This seems to be done for the Beatles fan that knows a bit, but not everything.

The videos in between each era, while they look cool, are nothing more than collages of images set to music. I could have done without those, instead I wish there had been some slickly produced video that was telling us the story of the Beatles, with some interviews, voice over and footage. Nothing too extreme, but enough to tell us a bit about the band.

There are probably quite a few people that will be playing this game that may be familiar with the music but not really familiar with the importance of this band and this game should be a primer. Something telling them that with Beatlemania in full swing, the band touring non stop, they play at Shea Stadium, which was one of the first huge stadium concerts of it's kind, paving the way for today's huge concerts... and then, there they are, playing Shea and you've got a front row seat (and playing along).

It pains me to say it, but in the regard, Gh: Aerosmith actually did a bit better job.
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Venim619  





Joined: 07 Jan 2008
Posts: 1546
Location: Serdio, Endiness

PostPosted: Thu Sep 10, 2009 8:01 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

You guys have plenty of software reviews, allow me to put my two cents in on the Deluxe Edition hardware.

The Ringo Drums: Okay, I fell in love in the first 10 seconds with these drums. To be fair, I'm coming off of standard RB1 drums. But these were a great deal of improvement and were definitely worth the money. I remember there being a problem with the RB2 kit (which this essentially is) where the batteries would fall out of the bottom. After a while playing, I didn't see this happening and I gave it a few good whacks just to test it. It's a stable kit with great rebound and is a lot of fun. I also like the bad ass factor of it. Seriously, Ringo is one of my heroes and I have to say it feels pretty cool playing on drums with the design on it and everything. The bass pedal is nice and (thank God it's) metal. The only downside I found is that for select/start and the xBox button, I had to press pretty hard and long for it to register. Normally, I'd take it as faulty but... Well, if you read on you'll get it. Also, it seems like it suddenly got less and less quite as I used it. I don't know if I got used to hearing the sound and it got louder in my head, or if it's just stiffening for some reason (lol, hooray for no logic behind what I think is wrong. I never said I was a fake plastic drum technician) but it is a bit of a let down. But that's all that's really wrong with the drums, otherwise a great peripheral.

The Höfner Bass: Once again, love at first sight. I was a little weary on getting a guitar peripheral that was not made by RO, but after the WTar it was certainly time for a change. This guitar didn't disappoint. It feels smooth and plays great. The shape is surprisingly comfortable and the button placement is suitable. I say suitable because while the buttons aren't right at the tips of your fingers, they aren't off in BFE. The xBox button is on the bottom which I thought was going to hinder playing, but has yet to do so. The whammy seems stable enough (not that it has much effect on the game) and the strummer is my favorite so far. However, once again, the buttons need time and effort to actually function. This is why I think it isn't just faulty, but for some reason meant to be this way. I don't know. It isn't so bad that I'm flinging the guitar across the room in agony, but it certainly isn't a pro to this guitar which is otherwise a pleasure to use.

Drums: 9/10

Bass: 9.5/10
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GuitarHailz  





Joined: 11 Jun 2007
Posts: 4910
Location: Austin, Texas

PostPosted: Thu Sep 10, 2009 3:01 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

DrunkOM wrote:
The biggest issue I have with the game is the Story Mode. Yes, it lets you play through various stages of the Beatles Career, and play the songs in a somewhat chronological order. The presentation is fine, and it doesn't try and get too fancy with weird challenges, and you'll never get stopped dead in your tracks since difficulty doesn't matter.

But it doesn't actually do what it sets out to do, and that's tell a story. I wish there was more that actually told us about the Beatles, why they are such a significant and influential group, why (and how) the world went nuts for them, and what is so significant about the different periods that we get to play. Why is the Cavern Club significant? What was the big deal about the Budokan and the Rooftop concert?

The photos try and make up for this, but they don't actually tell any sort of story. They are more anecdotal than anything and there's really no thread that ties them together. If I was new to the Beatles, I really wouldn't know anything more than when I started. This seems to be done for the Beatles fan that knows a bit, but not everything.

The videos in between each era, while they look cool, are nothing more than collages of images set to music. I could have done without those, instead I wish there had been some slickly produced video that was telling us the story of the Beatles, with some interviews, voice over and footage. Nothing too extreme, but enough to tell us a bit about the band.

There are probably quite a few people that will be playing this game that may be familiar with the music but not really familiar with the importance of this band and this game should be a primer. Something telling them that with Beatlemania in full swing, the band touring non stop, they play at Shea Stadium, which was one of the first huge stadium concerts of it's kind, paving the way for today's huge concerts... and then, there they are, playing Shea and you've got a front row seat (and playing along).

It pains me to say it, but in the regard, Gh: Aerosmith actually did a bit better job.

You said what I wanted to say so much better. Thank you.

It's easy to get hung up on how pretty it looks and forget that we ARE playing a story mode. Is it too much to ask to want a story? All I can remember is a nice song and album covers and photos mixed together in a cool way. My eyes are happy but my mind is turned off - those are the makings of poor storytelling.

It may seem dumb to some of you who are big Beatles fans and already know everything, but this is definitely a legitimate complaint with the game. It doesn't ruin it, but it would be enough for me to give it 8 or 8.5 out of 10. Story telling is what separates a good game from a great game in most cases. I don't care if it's a music game, it's also THE BEATLES. There had to be thousands of different things they could do to Story Mode, so you can't say they didn't have enough material.
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Mallrat  





Joined: 14 May 2008
Posts: 629

PostPosted: Thu Sep 10, 2009 3:21 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

I would like to own this game, but right now I just can't afford it. I'm having a really, really hard time justifying 70 dollars (Canadian) for....what, 3 hours of music? As soon as a price drops, or I can find it cheap I'm all over it.
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beingmused  





Joined: 13 Dec 2007
Posts: 2475
Location: Boston, MA

PostPosted: Thu Sep 10, 2009 3:29 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

DrunkOM wrote:

The biggest issue I have with the game is the Story Mode. Yes, it lets you play through various stages of the Beatles Career, and play the songs in a somewhat chronological order. The presentation is fine, and it doesn't try and get too fancy with weird challenges, and you'll never get stopped dead in your tracks since difficulty doesn't matter.

But it doesn't actually do what it sets out to do, and that's tell a story. I wish there was more that actually told us about the Beatles, why they are such a significant and influential group, why (and how) the world went nuts for them, and what is so significant about the different periods that we get to play. Why is the Cavern Club significant? What was the big deal about the Budokan and the Rooftop concert?

The photos try and make up for this, but they don't actually tell any sort of story. They are more anecdotal than anything and there's really no thread that ties them together. If I was new to the Beatles, I really wouldn't know anything more than when I started. This seems to be done for the Beatles fan that knows a bit, but not everything.

The videos in between each era, while they look cool, are nothing more than collages of images set to music. I could have done without those, instead I wish there had been some slickly produced video that was telling us the story of the Beatles, with some interviews, voice over and footage. Nothing too extreme, but enough to tell us a bit about the band.

There are probably quite a few people that will be playing this game that may be familiar with the music but not really familiar with the importance of this band and this game should be a primer. Something telling them that with Beatlemania in full swing, the band touring non stop, they play at Shea Stadium, which was one of the first huge stadium concerts of it's kind, paving the way for today's huge concerts... and then, there they are, playing Shea and you've got a front row seat (and playing along).

It pains me to say it, but in the regard, Gh: Aerosmith actually did a bit better job.


I think you are making a false assumption when you think "story mode" means the game intends to tell you all of the historical facts and trivia about the Beatles. So to say the game "sets out" to do that is probably incorrect.

I'm curious how you think all this information should be transmitted to the player. Should they have to read an on-screen novel in-between each venue? Soundbytes are neat, but there is so much one could know about this band, I think any attempt to recap certain aspects of their history in a video game would either be woefully incomplete or would take hundreds of hours to read. Giving a tidbit about the Shea Stadium show is neat, but why that and not detailed break downs of their feuds? Their drug use? Epstein's death? I mean, where do you draw the line??

As the Pitchfork review and many others put it, the game's intention is NOT to inform the player about Beatles trivia. And frankly, who would want the game to do this? That information is readily available all over the internet. What the internet CAN'T do, and what the game seeks to, is to try and give you some access into the experience of what it would be to play the music. That's why the game is so reverent: who cares about how much LSD was used or which members hated which other member's songs, the transcendent quality of the music overcomes all of that, and that is the focus. The story being told is the progression of their music through their career, and there's no better way to experience that than to play and sing it for yourself. The game is based on faith that the Beatles's music is uniquely timeless, and I think splashing the game with digital ink would only get in the way of that. It is a much more interesting "story" being told, methinks.
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GuitarHailz  





Joined: 11 Jun 2007
Posts: 4910
Location: Austin, Texas

PostPosted: Thu Sep 10, 2009 3:37 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

I know you were addressing DrunkOM, but speaking personally: Of course I don't want to be bombarded with obscure Beatles Trivia, but if you're going to call it a Story Mode, at least present the viewer with something that resembles a story to latch onto. As it stands we just appear at random venues with pretty transitions in between. It would take 30 seconds to have a little voice over or cut scene or SOMETHING that explains what happened in between these periods. "This album sold this much" or "this venue sold to x amount of people" or "this single had reached the top of the charts" or whatever. You can't call it a Beatles Story when nothing of the sort actually appears in the Story Mode.

You seem to be equating the need for a small story to "I WANNA KNOW EVERYTHING ABOUT THE BEATLES!" You're missing his point entirely.

The Aerosmith videos are short and sweet. We find out what happened, why this venue is important, and so on in less than a minute. I promise it wouldn't have been hard to make the Beatles cut scenes have a little more depth to them. Agreed that what makes the game reverent is experiencing the music. But without any sort of thread that ties everything together, I feel an awful disconnect from the entire thing. Why should I care about these characters? Hell, if I had lived under a rock for 50 years I wouldn't even know their NAMES after playing the game!!!

Like I said in my post, this doesn't ruin the game, but I would like to have known just a little bit more about the Beatles once I was done with it. Rather than "yay, they got popular in America and made cool music."
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