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Sometime in the future, EA and Harmonix announce that every goddamned rock song ever will be playable in Rock Band. Seriously, guys. With all the stuff they keep announcing for Rock Band, this is where we're headed.
Let's face it, most of us will never know what it feels like to stand in front of a huge crowd, slick with perspiration and sick with exultant glee. But we all dream, we all hope, and we all carry with us the rock star fantasy. Thus games like Guitar Hero and Rockband are born. Mediums in which to live out those dreams of stardom all without leaving the comfort of our living rooms (until that jerk friend of yours insists you all play Rockband at his place). We all got a little thrill at beating a particularly hard song, especially in front of our friends. We all got that little piece of stardom.
The people at MTV and Harmonix know all this about us. Our not-so-secret dreams of sitting backstage at a sold out show in a drugged haze, surrounded by nubile groupies while the screams of fans echo all around us. Sadly, video games have yet to provide us with this kind of experience, but MTV wants to bring you one step closer and so they're kicking off a 24 city Rockband tour starting September 9th in Las Vegas, arguably the best place in the world to kick off an event that promoting empty celebrity.
The Rockband tour will be traveling around the states not only offering folks the opportunity to get their greedy paws on the game before release, but also to participate in a "Rock Off" audition for a chance to compete with another band on MTV's Total Request Live. The winner of the competition gets to open the Rockband launch concert thus living out those dreams of fame, and while those nubile groupies may never appear, you'll have earned the envy and resentment of many of your peers.
Hit the jump for a full list of tour dates.
Today Harmonix announced the addition of 18 Grateful Dead master recordings to the already expansive list of songs they've got on the list for Rock Band. Thankfully the tracks will be available for digital download as I can only imagine the furor kicked up over 18 of 40 tracks being Grateful Dead. I'm pinning my hopes on there being a "Took the Brown Acid" achievement for beating all the Grateful Dead songs.
So far confirmed tracks consist of Truckin', Uncle John's Band, Touch of Grey, Sugar Magnolia and Casey Jones. Personally I can't wait to publicly embarrass myself while I relive the fond memories of prancing around my room, arms flailing on my imaginary guitar to the squealing of Casey Jones. Why someone gave a song about a train engineer high on cocaine to an 8 year old is beyond me but anything that helps me live out my childhood fantasies of being a drug addled rock star is ok in my book.
Overview: Guitar Hero has become the rockin'-est game franchise in pretty much all of video game history. (Though most likely about to be dethroned by Rock Band.) Its simple concept and good times are easily appreciated by all gamers. And now they have a special extra edition that focuses on a specific decade. Rocks the 80s brings a lot of cool hair band and new wave songs to the table, but does it do much else? And does it need to?
continue reading "Review - Guitar Hero Encore: Rocks the 80s for Playstation 2"
... but not at E3? Sure you could play Harmonix's Guitar Hero-and-every-other-game-ever-killer behind closed doors at this year's E3, if you set up a meeting or were invited to the super exclusive Rock Band event. But it wasn't on the show floor. This just furthers my frustration with companies at this year's E3. They saved some of the best games for their other non-media events, while we are left in the dust. Gabe from Penny Arcade outlined more PAX events today:
A bunch of other awesome shit- Sponsored parties from Vivendi, Gametrailers, ArenaNet, and Sega
- Public-playable premiers of dozens of games
- Hundreds of freeplay computers provided by Intel
- All of Wizards of the Coast's "Gencon" RPGA games and content--everything they're introducing there, they're also introducing here
- Rock Band, playable on a stage in Harmonix's 20x30 booth
I had a great time at E3 but it certainly wasn't because of the ESA or the majority of the game companies. I look forward to wading through the crowds of unwashed horrible people to try your game, Harmonix. Thanks.
EA, MTV and Harmonix took a moment from their insipid love fest to announce something incredibly cool and exciting. Rock Band! It is apparently going to be using guitar, bass, drum and microphone peripherals and will span all genres with master recordings of most of the songs. An official website has been launched which you can see here.
This seems to go hand in hand with EA's announcement of more music partnerships, and is the big secret project we have all been waiting for from the creators of Guitar Hero. Hopefully EA doesn't crap it up. More details as they come to us. Maybe we will see a playable version at E3?
Unfortunately for the Wii, it's only for PLAYSTATION 3 and Xbox 360. Another nail in the coffin. Full release after the jump.
System: PS2
Title: Amplitude
Publisher: Sony
Writer: Frodo
Overview: Based on the hit ps2 rhythm game Frequency, Amplitude is more than a pure sequel. Amplitude features a very unique style of gameplay, as you fly through songs, playing different instruments depending on what buttons you press in time to the music. As a rhythm game it is very innovative, and just happens to be fun too. Featuring tons of songs from actual artists like David Bowie, Freezepop, Blink 182, Weezer and more, Amplitude is a fun and exciting game you might have missed the first time around.
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