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Jan 14th, 2008 at 03:10:34 - Rock Band (360) |
GAMEPLAY:
I brought Rock Band to my house in Santa Cruz and played the game with my house mates. The two house mates that I played with have had less experience with making music and music instruments so I thought it would be a good idea to write about them for this entry. One of them Brad is a gamer and the other nicknamed Ninja, has had little experience with video games. At first they were skeptical to try the microphone, I was always the one who had to sing for the band which I didn't mind because I was pretty comfortable with my voice. But over time I kept urging them to sing and eventually, with the help of certain beverages, they started to hold the microphone and sing with confidence. They weren't the best singers in the world, but good thing is that they were having fun and the next day they continued to battle for the singer position sober.
I've also noticed that with my other three roommates who were watching us play started singing along with the lead singer and it shows that even if you're not playing the game you can have fun listening and singing along to the music. If you had little game or music experience, Rock Band is still a fun game to play. Even Ninja who had never heard of any of these songs started to like the music he was hearing. Video games is one way to get music to reach more audiences and I think that was likely MTV Games goal which is probably also why they decided to publish the game.
Design:
The game makes the players feel as if they were in an actually rock band playing for thousands of fans. They start off with zero fans and one gig to play at and over time successful gigs earn more fans and this helps buy roadies, audio guys, jets and other important staff/items needed to travel the world and play at large venues. To help set the atmosphere of a rock band on screen, behind all the commands to strum the guitar, sing, or drum are the virtual characters and avatars the players have created. They are all dressed in rugged yet stylish clothes and later on with more money from gigs, the players can buy expensive armor (for metal rockers), leather clothes (for goth musicians) and other women's clothing as all rock stars tend to do. This process of dressing and creating the player's virtual character creates an emotional link. If the avatar runs off stage to go crowd surfing, the player will say "That's me going crazy!" if he made the character to mirror his real-life self. Even if he made an exaggerated version of himself he will still feel a connection to that character because he created him.
While playing at the gig, the camera moves in such a way that imitates a live stage concert of real bands. These positions resemble the music videos that we've all seen on MTV at some point. The video will fade to grainy black and white, or the camera will attach itself to the base of the character's guitar and show the intricate finger movements fretting the string. All help serve to make it feel like the player is there filming and playing in a virtual rock concert.
There is one con about the game is that it is truly meant to be a multi-player game. Even though there are modes that allow solo play, the game can get pretty boring playing by yourself. I haven't played the game without someone playing beside me with the only exception being to practice a difficult song. And another point is a small problem with the drums. I've actually played drums before and the thing about being a drum player is that you can make a few mistakes and people really wouldn't notice it. This is because as long as you are holding a constant beat, you can free style at any point in time. This is specially evident in the kick pedal. Usually when I drum I use the kick pedal to hit the bass drum and hold the beat by constantly stepping on the pedal, but at lower difficulties the signal to use the kick pedal because irregular and doesn't do a good job of imitating the drum beat of the song. This is probably personal preference but I decided to include it as my three friends who are drummers complained about it.
But in all fairness, it is still a video game and if the kick pedal must be pressed on only at certain times, then I must follow that rule as defined within the game.
This entry has been edited 3 times. It was last edited on Jan 14th, 2008 at 22:43:52.
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Jan 13th, 2008 at 17:21:39 - Rock Band (360) |
SUMMARY:
Rock Band is a revolutionary game that puts the player and three other friends in the role of, well, a rock band. Each of the players can be designated a microphone or three of the instruments that were included with the game: guitar, drums, or bass guitar. The goal of the game is to go on a world tour and gather as much fans and 5 star ratings for each gig they do by playing extremely well during the gigs and if you have internet access you can compare your band's progress with others who play the same game all over the world.
GAMEPLAY:
When my cousins and I first opened the giant box of Rock Band special bundle, I was excited because I've been following this game during it's creation and I knew there was a drum set that came with the game. The idea of having a drum set in a game just piqued my interest and I just had to play it. Setting up the drum set wasn't difficult and I was soon holding the guitarist position with my cousin Stan on microphone and my brother Justin on drums. Mind you we are amateur musicians ourselves and have knowledge pertaining to the songs that are featured in this game as well as some instrumental expertise but remember that you don't need any previous music skill to play this game and still have fun.
The way the guitar controller works is similar to the Guitar Hero series. There are 5 colored buttons on the fret bar and a strum switch on the base of the guitar. The idea is to match the colored button on the screen by pressing down the same color button on the guitar and flicking the strum switch when the colored button on screen reaches the "strum point". This is the same concept for the bass guitar and the drums except for the drums you just strike the matching colored drum circle with your drumstick. Also there's another difference with the drum. Instead of a fifth circle, it is replaced with a kick pedal for a bass drum, which does require skillful coordination as most drummers would need. For the singer, he doesn't need to be a good singer to score a lot of points in the game. All he or she needs to do is match the pitch the screen as the song indicates.
The first song was played by one of my favorite bands Weezer, and needless to say I was ecstatic playing it. My previous experience with Guitar Hero helped me adjust to the guitar controller easily even on "hard" difficulty and my cousin Stan had no problems singing the song. My brother Justin however had some problems using the drums the first time but after adjusting the game settings to fix the timing of hitting the drums correctly, we were touring our home town of San Francisco in no time. The songs have a wide range featuring classics like Black Hole Sun by Sound Garden and Suffragette City by David Bowie and contemporary artists such as Weezer and The Strokes so there's a lot to like for any music style.
While playing the game my band and I were constantly spitting out rock star references like "I gotta have more cowbell!" from the Saturday Night Live sketch with Christopher Walken imitating a famous music producer. Whenever we fail a gig we would make joking remarks at each other saying "I'm quitting the band!" or "Mess up again and I'm gonna have to find a new drummer!" And this is where the game is most fun: interacting with your peers and pretending like you're a real rock band, hence the game name. This is the end of my first game log entry, I will make my second entry detailing my experience with my college house mates soon.
This entry has been edited 4 times. It was last edited on Jan 14th, 2008 at 03:23:09.
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kenister has been with GameLog for 16 years, 10 months, and 10 days |
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