Rock Band 3

For my first review, I decide to do it on a game that I see just about every day in my apartment, Rock Band 3.  I got Rock Band 3 this past Christmas as a gift. Now I am going to be honest with you when I first got this game I was not overjoyed. See I had once had Guitar Hero World tour and enjoyed it for a long time but I eventually got tired of music game and traded it all back, at least whatever the games store would take. Therefore, upon getting Rock Band 3 I was not too sure that I was going to enjoy it.

                Well after having the game now for over two months my opinion has greatly changed.  I have found Rock Band 3 to be a very enjoyable game. Like I said earlier I play it or see it played now just about every day.



Rock Band 3 Keyboard



            Rock Band 3 is different from past Rock Band games; in this Rock Band, the developers added new instruments, the keyboard and a 3 part vocal harmony. The 3-part harmony allows there to be up to three singers at a time. As cool as this is, the downside is not all songs have a 3-part harmony and some songs that sound like they should do not have it. However, the feature is still cool if you have the microphones to do it. The keyboard, obviously, allows a player to play keyboard parts of songs. This is cool because you can play it two different ways. You can play songs the normal way with the five colors and you kind of play it like a keytar. Or, you could play pro keyboard, lay it flat, and try to play it like a normal keyboard. The way that it works is they have color sections and a the map out the color sections on the screen and the key that is to be play shows up in the section it is suppose to be played and you press it when it reaches the bar. Just like, you would on all the other instruments. Playing the pro keys is fun but it is very difficult. Rock Band 3 also includes pro modes for the guitars and the drums. You have to buy a special guitar for the pro mode though. It looks just like a real guitar with strings and everything. Below is a video of the pro keys game play, I believe this example is of pro keys on expert.

         By adding these new instruments, this allowed the developer to add in a wider variety of songs in this rock band, song such as Queen’s “Bohemian Rhapsody”, James Brown’s “I Got You”, even songs like Huey Lewis and the News’ song “The Power of Love.” Now just because they have brought on a keyboard and harmonies to the game does not mean that all the songs are going to be “poppy” the developers also had some heavy hitting songs in Marilyn Manson’s “The Beautiful People”, Slipknot’s “Before I Forget” and Dio’s “Rainbow in the Dark”. Therefore, you still get a wide variety of songs.

            One of the downsides to Rock Band 3, I believe, is that you still cannot unlock additional songs in career mode. To me this almost eliminates a purpose for playing a career mode, but do not fear in this world of technology we live in the internet has once again played a huge part in a Rock Band game. Yes, you can still download songs from the internet. This is awesome because the Rock Band library now holds over 2,000 songs, including a new Billy Joel pack, which I was excited about.

            As I was saying earlier, the career mode is pointless when it comes to unlocking songs but there are other things that can still be unlocked. The truth is that every time you play a song you are pretty much improving your career. When you first get the game it ask you to pick out a band name and you play as that band the whole time you are playing the game. As you play more and get more fans the more popular, your band becomes. As your band gets more popular, you unlock things like a van for the band or even a bus. You also unlock larger venues as well. The game is trying to mimic what it would be like to start as a garage band and rise to greatness. In addition to the venues and modes of transportation, you can also unlock accessories for your character. These accessories include clothes, hats, sunglasses, even instruments. You can apply all these things to a character after you create one. I thought that the developers did a good job with the create a character mode. I had a good time making me in to a rock star.

            After playing the game myself for a couple of months now, I would have to say that Rock Band 3 caught me by surprise. I thought that I was done with music style games, but I can honestly say I have had a blast jamming out with my buddies in the apartment. So I would say if you enjoy music as much as I do or just got a group of friends you would like to jam with then this is a game that you need to play.  I will say that if all possible try it out in a store or if you know somebody that has it try theirs first because I will say probably the biggest downfall to the game is that you will end up spending a pretty penny to get all the parts involved. So I would not recommend you buying this just to try because if you do not like it then my might be out of luck because most games stores these days do not take trade in instruments anymore. So try it before you buy it.

Until next time, ROCK ON!


My boy DJ ROCKIN OUT



-Zane