Rock Band 3

Well everyone’s favorite music party game is back with a brand new installment, Rock Band 3. It has been two years since EA and MTV Games released Rock Band 2 and with the release of Rock Band 3, Harmonix adds a lot of new features which makes the game feel fresh and not milked for money.

The gameplay itself hasn’t changed and is still the typical guitar, drum and vocal controls. But in Rock Band 3, Harmonix has included a new instrument, the keyboard. The keyboard that is included in the set is about half the keys of a full piano. There is an easy mode that plays similar to the guitar controls of pressing 5 buttons right next to each other on the keyboard. The real challenge is pro mode which is an experience really close to playing the real songs on piano. It is extremely difficult though and many people will be turned off by the challenge but just like playing the guitar or drums for the first time, it just takes a little getting use to.

There is also an added “Pro mode” for the guitar to go with the Mad Catz Pro Mustang Guitar which has 100 different buttons on it and is similar to playing an actual guitar. This mode adds a whole new feel to playing the guitar. The price point that Mad Catz has set the guitar at though is a downfall, but if you’re a huge rock band guitar junkie I highly recommend at least checking it out.

Because of the addition of the keyboard this has allowed Harmonix to include a lot of new songs that before they wouldn’t have been able to add such as Warren Zavon’s “Werewolves of London”. And Elton John’s “Saturday Night is Alright for Fighting”. Of the 83 songs included on the disk, 63 have keyboard support. The track list for this installment has a good variety of music from all the different eras such as Avenged Sevenfold, Paramore, Beach Boys, Smash Mouth, The Police, Dio, Def Leopard, Slipknot and even some Rammstein.

The main thing that sets Rock Band apart from other music games is the music store.  Every single week there are new songs available to download (Tuesday on Xbox 360 and Thursday on PS3). The music store gives the game so much added replay value. Another awesome feature is that Rock band 3 is fully backward compatible with all the track packs previously released as well as allowing exporting of the songs from the previous Rock Bands. Also the addition of the Rock Band Network gives more underground and up and coming bands the opportunity to be heard on Rock Band and will also be adding new songs every week.

The multiplayer is the best feature on Rock Band 3.  The ability to get a bunch of friends over, hangout and create your own rock band is what makes this game really shine. There is a mode that allows players to take on all the world challenges as a whole band. But if you are all alone some nights, have no fear, you’re still able to jump in and keep playing right where you left off as a band. The online has a lot of the same features and is capable of letting gamers rock out with people from all over the world. The only downside I have to that is that everyone in the online band has to all have the downloaded song  in order to be able to select the song which is understandable just can get frustrating when you run into people online with very few songs downloaded. If you can get a good group of people online that has about the same musical taste there is fun to be had.

Overall I have to say Rock Band 3 adds a couple of awesome new features such as the keyboard and “Pro modes”. The song list of 83 songs is diverse and has some great tracks and the ability to download more from the ever growing Rock Band store will have players jamming into the wee hours of the morning. It’s hard not to recommend such a great and fun game.