Songs that should be on Rock Band - Supertramp

Next week, I promise I'll feature something that's not classic rock, it's just that my tastes are pretty old-fashioned. Though, the most recent music I like is from the 90's, so there will be little modern music or music from the 00's. I'll probably try alternating between my classic tastes and more modern tastes with future articles. Anyway, with that said, I'm going to feature an entire artist this week instead of one song, and that artist is Supertramp.

As I mentioned in my Rock Band 3 review, the lack of Supertramp was one of my 'what I didn't like' points. Supertramp is one of my favorite bands, and I've been very confused as to why they haven't been represented in Rock Band yet, especially because of the addition of keyboards, since the band is known for great keyboard melodies. Though... what songs should they use? Well... there are three albums I have in mind for them to eventually put up on the marketplace. The first being Breakfast in America, since that has the majority of hits from the band that are instantly recognizable (at least, they should be). The Logical Song in the video above is a small example of just what kind of music this album has, other notable examples are Goodbye Stranger, Take the Long Way Home, and the title track, Breakfast in America.

The other two albums, Crime of the Century, and Even in the Quietest Moments don't have quite as many hits, but they are still great albums in their own right. I'll leave you with my favorite song from the Crime of the Century album: School, and let you decide if Supertramp should be on Rock Band.

Note: Does anyone know a better way to show/link songs other than youtube? As you may have noticed, some of the youtube videos are strange... I would use Grooveshark, but unfortunately, that tends to only work for U.S. and Canada, and I wouldn't want to alienate our international readers. So if there is a solution to this, please let me know! Otherwise, I'll keep using youtube vids.

Songs that should be on Rock Band - Come Sail Away

Again, like I said in my last post, this song should have been a no-brainer for the Rock Band 3 setlist. Styx has been in Rock Band before. During the Styx/REO Speedwagon tour, they released 3 re-recorded songs by the current band members on the Rock Band music store. I have also seen Styx on tour before with those band members, though not during that tour, it was during the Boston/Styx tour. I wouldn't complain if they were to re-record "Come Sail Away" because they performed it excellently when I saw them.

Review: Rock Band 3

It's been hard being a music game fan for the past couple of years with all of the over-saturation in the market with multiple titles from Rock Band and Guitar Hero. I say it's been hard because it's very frustrating trying to defend some of the decisions that the players in the music game genre makes. Personally, I usually side with Rock Band and point out the flaws of the Guitar Hero side, but recently, Harmonix is starting to show its weaknesses. Thankfully, Harmonix has gone back to promising the idea of a 'platform' for the music game with Rock Band 3, but like the first Rock Band needed a Rock Band 2 in 2008, does Rock Band 3 need a Rock Band 4 in 2011? I hope not.

First of all, you might be wondering why I'm calling them 'music games' instead of 'rhythm games.' Well, I think music games are a sub-genre of rhythm games, where the object of the game is to play music literally, whether through a peripheral or real instrument, and that would define Rock Band and Guitar Hero. Other games in the rhythm game genre would include something like Parappa the Rapper or Rhythm Heaven. I would delve into these semantics more, but that's for another article. Anyway, on to the review.

Let's talk about the most obvious addition to the series first, the keyboard peripheral. Honestly, it feels like the first time I played Rock Band with this controller, mainly because I have never really tried to play the instrument before. Though, I'm talking about Pro mode, not the regular mode of the keys, which is very easy to me and boring, but with Pro mode, it's very challenging and I can actually transition my skill with the peripheral to an actual piano. Not only that, but I can also connect the keyboard peripheral to my laptop with a MIDI output cable and practice that way or create my own music with a program of some sort. It took me a while to get used to playing the keys, but that story is for another series of 'Diary of the Rookie.'

I can't comment on the Pro drums or Pro guitar, so I'm just going to talk about the gameplay and design next. I think the best addition to this was the drop-in/out feature that can be used anywhere in the game. Doing a Road Challenge and your friend wants to help? No problem, just connect a peripheral and have him press start and he's there. Another slight change that had a big impact is the new rating and recommendation system the game has for songs. You can rate all of the songs in your library, and whatever you rated higher, the game will recommend similar songs from the Rock Band music store. Unfortunately, there is still not an option to delete/hide songs from the on-disc setlist, but you can rate them 1-star so they won't show up in random setlists quite as often.

Speaking of random setlists, you won't have to worry about them much anymore, since in the new Road Challenges that have replaced the World Tour, you have three setlist options for each city. They usually consist of a pre-made setlist, a random setlist and a custom setlist, or some combination of two of those and one other. What I really liked is that it will incorporate the downloadable content into the Road Challenge setlists. For instance, I downloaded the Billy Joel pack they had available and now a 'Random Billy Joel Setlist' will appear in Road Challenges.

Along with the Road Challenges, there are also Career Goals that you can fulfill. Mostly all of them are quantitative, like 'play all the warmup songs on guitar' or 'get a 500-note streak on bass.' Just because their quantitative doesn't mean they can't be interesting though, some of the previous DLC actually have goals that unlock in Rock Band 3. A couple of goals that my DLC unlocked was 'Dave Grohl Band' which had me play 5 songs from any band that includes Dave Grohl as a member, and 'Face Melter' which had me play 3 metal songs from the 80's. The best thing about these goals is that you're always working on them no matter what mode you're in on the game. For example, if you just happen to play all of the warmup songs while doing a couple of Road Challenges or even in quickplay, that goal will be completed.

Overall, Rock Band 3 is a godsend for fans of the series as far as added features and design goes... but there are some flaws and missing parts. The two-player Score Duel and Tug-of-War modes are completely gone, and the exports for Rock Band 1 and 2 have even more missing songs from the export than the first transition from 1 to 2. There is also the fact that many fans are angry at Harmonix for repackaging some of the pre-RB3 songs into downloadable content in the Bon Jovi pack and Queen (RB3 "Enhanced") pack. People who have bought DLC before RB3's launch feel a bit cheated because they will have to buy those songs again if they want keyboard and harmonies, and then an additional fee if they want the Pro guitar chart if it's available. In my opinion, I can understand the Pro guitar upgrade fee, but the keyboard and harmonies seems like something they would update on the original DLC rather than releasing another pack with the same songs on the marketplace. Another recent fiasco with the RB2 export is the Harmonix employees weren't included in the export, but was just released this week as a free pack. People assumed that since they didn't include them in the export, that they must have added keyboard and harmonies, right? Nope. Then why disclude them from the export? Seriously? Why, Harmonix?

Enough of my ranting about the flaws, time for...

The Verdict:

Rock Band 3 is the absolute music game. The addition of Pro modes and great design choices make it the best option for any person to have as their 'platform' for music gaming. Harmonix has stated that their next outing may include improvisation and composition, so while Rock Band 3 teaches you how to play music, Rock Band 4 may teach you how to make music... but for now I'm very happy with Rock Band 3, and wouldn't mind waiting until next generation for the next installment in the series. Just wait, Harmonix... don't saturate the market anymore.

What I liked:

-The Setlist. Some of my favorites included: "Good Vibrations (Live)" by The Beach Boys, "Don't Stand So Close to Me" by The Police, "Cold as Ice" by Foreigner, "Hey Man, Nice Shot" by Filter, "Foolin'" by Def Leppard, "Midlife Crisis" by Faith No More, "The Killing Moon" by Echo & the Bunnymen and sooooo many more. If you don't like at least half of the songs on this setlist, then you just don't like music.
-The new career goals. They add for a lot of replayability and an incentive for me to try the other instruments.
-The keyboard! I actually know how to play the riff to 'Werewolves of London' now!

What I didn't like:

-Export fees. I don't even think I'm going to export the songs from Rock Band 1 and 2 if they're going to continue to re-release them as DLC and have us pay for it again, because there are a lot of songs from the games I'd want to play on keys that have them.
-No Supertramp. They added a keyboard and they still don't have any Supertramp? How is that possible?! Oh well, hopefully they will have DLC for them in the near future.

Impressions of Rock Band 3 and the Future of Music Games

This past weekend I had a couple of friends over. One brought over her Xbox 360 and Rock Band 3. I was really anxious to try it out since I had been hyped about it for quite a while. I'm a fairly recent convert to music games and rhythm games in general. I've only been into them for the past 3-4 years. Though... I suppose that may make me more knowledgeable about them than most people. Anyway, onto the impressions.

The interface and organization of the menus is perfect, and I love the new filtering system. (Though we didn't need it, since she hadn't transfered her other songs over yet.) There is a small complaint though. Suppose you want to play keyboard, guitar, and bass in your band... well, you can't do that unless you activate 'All Instruments Mode', which places the game in a sort of 'karaoke mode.' It isn't really too troublesome, but activating the mics just because you want to play guitar, bass, and keyboard with your friends is a bit irksome.

I love the new road challenges, they're not quite like the career, but... I can do without a world map to show where I'm playing. One thing about these challenges that I love is that they'll never constantly pick the same song over and over again like in Rock Band 2. You actually have a choice for what you want to do for your challenge, either pre-made, random, or custom setlist of a set number of songs.

To my surprise... I was able to get used to the keyboard enough to where I was playing hard pro mode. I'm not sure if this was because I'm already used to music games or the fact that I was only playing hard pro mode on songs that had low difficulty ratings, but it was probably due to the latter. I have to say though, I loved the keyboard, it felt like a very solid peripheral, and some musicians are saying it does great as a MIDI instrument if you want to compose something using a program when you hook it up to a computer.

I can't comment on the guitar, because my friend didn't have it, and we're all waiting for the actual Fender guitar to come out... which is the next thing I'm going discuss. It was just announced today when the Fender Squier guitar for Rock Band 3 will come out, and how much it will be. Available to pre-order January 1st, 2011, and available on March 1st, 2011, and will retail at $279.99. Expensive as a peripheral? Yes... to us gamers. Expensive as an actual friggin' guitar? Not so much, it looks like a quality product, UNLIKE POWER GIG'S CHEAP-O UKULELE WITH THE GAME WITH THE TERRIBLE INTERFACE  THAT DOESN'T EVEN REALLY TEACH YOU HOW TO PLAY.... ahem... sorry, that was my Rock Band fanboy side coming out.

Here is a look at guitar with a video teaser:



I can't wait to get my hands on the guitar next year. As for the future of Rock Band and music games in general? Well... here's an excerpt from a Wall Street Journal interview with Greg LoPiccolo, the Senior VP of Product Development at Harmonix:

WSJ: Unlike traditional ways of learning to play, in Rock Band the music and audience come first and your input comes second. This is a kind of reversal of music making. Do you think Rock Band can encourage players to compose music and find a personal style?

LoPiccolo: The biggest musical benefit of Rock Band Pro is that it motivates beginning musicians to stick with the basics, and evaluates their progress, so they can develop the dexterity and muscle memory to express themselves outside the game. Most beginning musicians never get past this stage, so this is the area in which we hope to really help new players. Once they have some skills, other avenues of self-expression can open up for them. In the future, we’d love to try to tackle composition and improvisation as gameplay experiences, but those are very difficult problems to solve.

WSJ: How close is Rock Band 3 to meeting the company’s ambition of what a music game can accomplish? Where can you go from here?

LoPiccolo: Rock Band 3 is a significant step for us, but we ultimately hope to erase the boundary between “gamer” and “musician.” We have a long way to go in pursuit of that goal.

via RockBandAide

Composition and improvisation, eh? Sounds pretty promising if Rock Band 3 is a precursor to that type of game eventually coming to be.