It was a somewhat rocky launch for Rock Band 3. The official website and forums were down most of the day, as was the in-game Rock Central hub, which, shockingly, now appears necessary to check your own scores. Score Duel and Tug of War were removed from the game, and if you were hoping to import your LEGO Rock Band tracks into RB3, you’ll have to wait until Harmonix replaces the export page they deleted in their website upgrade. Not the smoothest rollout you’ll ever see.
I started by playing a half dozen songs with the new keyboard peripheral. I jumped straight to Expert (I decided not to start with Pro mode), and found it fairly easy. Without the need to strum, just playing 5 keys is pretty simple — it’s just a matter of not shifting your hand out of position. It wasn’t long before I’d skipped ahead to “Impossible” songs like “Cold as Ice,” which is a lot of fun. I’m still trying to find a comfortable way to hold the controller, as it’s awkward to play on your lap or using it like a keytar. I might actually drop the $30 on the official stand, which is custom-made for the keyboard.
Eventually, I found I was running into some calibration issues and switched to the more familiar territory of Expert guitar where I could troubleshoot better. I ended up going through the entire “Road Challenges” feature, which is the main campaign mode in RB3. It’s a lot shorter than the previous World Tour features, but I don’t think I really mind — the real meat of RB3 is in the mountain of career goals that allow you to unlock instruments, outfits and achievements, and that’s what I’ll be plowing through next.
I’ve found myself a bit frustrated with some of the changes Harmonix has made. In addition to the weird shift to tracking stars everywhere instead of scores, all competetive modes, including Score Duel and Tug of War, were removed from the game. As someone who “retired” from Rock Band 2 ranked #8 on both, I’m bummed to see these go away. Competitive play has never been a major concern of Harmonix, however, so it’s not shocking to see these modes get cut as they shift emphasis to new stuff like keyboards and the let-us-teach-you Pro modes.
In addition to the giant-sized Doors DLC pack released on Tuesday, there’s also a smaller 3-pack available for free through Nov 1, which includes “Light My Fire,” “Riders on the Storm,” and “Touch Me.” It’ll be interesting to see if Harmonix has been stockpiling keyboard-friendly DLC for the Rock Band 3 launch, and what we might be seeing in the next few weeks. We’ve already seen mega-pack announcements for Billy Joel (Dec 14), Bon Jovi (Nov 9) and John Lennon’s “Imagine,” so I suspect the keyboard players are going to get a lot of love between now and the end of the year. For me, however, I’ll be working on my initial scores for Expert guitar and vocals, and then decide whether normal of Pro keys is next on my list.
Plenty more to come over the next few days — I’ll have some small updates as I run through each instrument, along with some videos of the new stuff. It should be a fun week.
Rock Band 3: Launch Day Impressions
It was a somewhat rocky launch for Rock Band 3. The official website and forums were down most of the day, as was the in-game Rock Central hub, which, shockingly, now appears necessary to check your own scores. Score Duel and Tug of War were removed from the game, and if you were hoping to import your LEGO Rock Band tracks into RB3, you’ll have to wait until Harmonix replaces the export page they deleted in their website upgrade. Not the smoothest rollout you’ll ever see.
I started by playing a half dozen songs with the new keyboard peripheral. I jumped straight to Expert (I decided not to start with Pro mode), and found it fairly easy. Without the need to strum, just playing 5 keys is pretty simple — it’s just a matter of not shifting your hand out of position. It wasn’t long before I’d skipped ahead to “Impossible” songs like “Cold as Ice,” which is a lot of fun. I’m still trying to find a comfortable way to hold the controller, as it’s awkward to play on your lap or using it like a keytar. I might actually drop the $30 on the official stand, which is custom-made for the keyboard.
Eventually, I found I was running into some calibration issues and switched to the more familiar territory of Expert guitar where I could troubleshoot better. I ended up going through the entire “Road Challenges” feature, which is the main campaign mode in RB3. It’s a lot shorter than the previous World Tour features, but I don’t think I really mind — the real meat of RB3 is in the mountain of career goals that allow you to unlock instruments, outfits and achievements, and that’s what I’ll be plowing through next.
I’ve found myself a bit frustrated with some of the changes Harmonix has made. In addition to the weird shift to tracking stars everywhere instead of scores, all competetive modes, including Score Duel and Tug of War, were removed from the game. As someone who “retired” from Rock Band 2 ranked #8 on both, I’m bummed to see these go away. Competitive play has never been a major concern of Harmonix, however, so it’s not shocking to see these modes get cut as they shift emphasis to new stuff like keyboards and the let-us-teach-you Pro modes.
In addition to the giant-sized Doors DLC pack released on Tuesday, there’s also a smaller 3-pack available for free through Nov 1, which includes “Light My Fire,” “Riders on the Storm,” and “Touch Me.” It’ll be interesting to see if Harmonix has been stockpiling keyboard-friendly DLC for the Rock Band 3 launch, and what we might be seeing in the next few weeks. We’ve already seen mega-pack announcements for Billy Joel (Dec 14), Bon Jovi (Nov 9) and John Lennon’s “Imagine,” so I suspect the keyboard players are going to get a lot of love between now and the end of the year. For me, however, I’ll be working on my initial scores for Expert guitar and vocals, and then decide whether normal of Pro keys is next on my list.
Plenty more to come over the next few days — I’ll have some small updates as I run through each instrument, along with some videos of the new stuff. It should be a fun week.