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I loved the original Rock Band and I had a ton of respect for the series developer, Harmonix, not only for their work on Rock Band, but for Amplitude and Frequency as well.
I enjoyed Rock Band 2, but didn't like the fact that Rock Band seemed to be turning into a yearly series. By the time The Beatles: Rock Band rolled around I was burnt-out on the fake-rocking genre (Guitar Hero had a big hand in this, as well). And when LEGO: Rock Band and Green Day: Rock Band were revealed, my reaction resulted in a testy Twitter exchange with Harmonix PR. Needless to say, Rock Band 3 wasn't high on my list of "must-see" games at E3 2010.
OK, so I'm over Rock Band. Why is this important? It's to show you that it's no small feat that I was impressed with what I saw of Rock Band 3 at E3.
RB 3 has everything you'd expect from a sequel: improved interface, more songs, and a revamped career mode. I couldn't care less about that stuff. It's how Harmonix has finally integrated real instruments into the game that has gotten my attention. I initially worried that transition to real instruments was too much of a leap, but now that I've seen what's planned for Rock Band 3, it's obvious that Harmonix has put a lot of thought into this, and I really think it's going to work.
[embed:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mlye9HBBW9E ]
Check out the short clip above for a better look at how Rock Band 3 is poised to reinvigorate the music-game genre. Try to tune out the annoying host chick — it's actually a decent video.
For those that just want to dip their toes into the world of being a "real" musician, there's a mini-keyboard that covers two octaves. This is a very manageable amount of keys for the non-musician, and should feel like a "controller with a lot of buttons" to veteran gamers. While it may look like just another fake plastic instrument, it truly is more than that; it's a real keyboard that will teach you the basics of playing as you progress through the game's difficulty levels. If you want to take the next step, you can plug any full-sized, MIDI-compatible keyboard into a MIDI-to-Controller converter box and move on to all 88 keys and full chords.
RB3's guitar options offer a similar level of progression. The Fender Mustang Pro guitar has six string/strum bars and 100+ frets/buttons. That sounds intimidating as hell, but the game uses just five buttons at first (just like with the "fake" five-button guitars) and then gradually introduces you to new frets, strings, and eventually chords. Once you're ready to really impress the ladies, you can move on to a real, specially designed Fender Stratocaster. You can actually start off with this one on a really basic one-note level, but what really blew my mind was that, if you like, you can output the real notes you're playing into the game. The developers showed this off on stage, and it worked like a charm — I was blown away.
Hopefully you now have a better idea as to what Harmonix hopes to accomplish with Rock Band 3. It's a bold risk that might intimidate some people, but it's a risk they had to take to keep the genre going. I'm really looking forward to improving my sub-par guitar skills, and I think we can all agree that it will be nice to shut up those holier-than-thou real guitar players that have hated on the music-game genre for years.
What are your thoughts on Rock Band 3? Is this something you're interested in? Is it too late to save the genre? Is there an instrument you're looking forward to learning? Is it too intimidating or too expensive? Were you happy with the current state of music games? Share your thoughts in the comments below.