Rock Band 3

Only three and a half days to E3 now so still lots of announcements and trailers being released. The most interesting for me so far has been Rock Band 3. I think it was Guitar Hero 3 that was the first music/rhythm game I played but Rock Band 2 has always been my favorite. The addition of Bass, Drums & Vocals to the basic guitar format was a brilliant move on the part of the developers. It made things much more of a group experience rather than about taking turns and it had a much better track list along with more downloadable content. Obviously the Guitar Hero franchise has tried to catch up with World Tour and Band Hero but I don't think they ever will. The Rock Band guys seem to have a much better feel for how to do these things, making the new versions backward compatible with the old instruments and letting you transfer your downloads etc. While at the same time they manage to expand the whole concept.

Now they've added a keyboard so along with that and vocal harmonies the game will now support seven players at once. I'm not sure we've got enough space for that where we usually play! The keyboard controller looks fairly basic, although the pictures are apparently just a prototype. Possibly due to having played the piano many years ago the basic five key approach sounded like it would be a bit boring. However after seeing the video of the more advanced modes it does look more interesting. Apparently with the Pro mode and the new (full size) guitar controllers it's supposed to be getting almost close to a proper music lesson. The keyboard is also fully MIDI compatible so can be used elsewhere. Of course the biggest benefit to the addition of the keyboard is the new songs they can add to the playlist such as The Power of Love and Bohemian Rhapsody.