Rock Band first screens and more details revealed

Ever since the release of Guitar Hero, many have wished for a game that allows players to get their hands on different instruments and play as a band. Harmonix heard these prayers, and came up with Rock Band.

Activision may have taken Guitar Hero away from its makers, but its spiritual successor seems to be a lot bigger. In an interview with IGN, Harmonix CEO Alex Rigopulos shed some light on the much anticipated title.

Thanks to the smash-hit guitar game, Rigopulos said that Harmonix has got more resources to pour in this time around. That means rockin’ out will be more grand, with the use of each instrument deep enough to be considered its own game.

If you can’t get your friends into picking something, single player isn’t much of a problem. Any instrument can unlock all songs and assets, so just take one and let auto-pilot do the rest.

The difficulty is being tweaked to avoid broken peripherals smashed into pieces due to frustration. Newbies and pros alike would be able to make music and get those scores rolling.

Third-party guitars will be supported so Guitar Hero ones can be used in the game. However, the Rock Band Stratocaster will be an exclusive. Rigopulos couldn’t reveal much about other instruments, but rest assured that they’ll be affordable since Harmonix is barely making any profit out of these peripherals.

Regarding downloadable content, Rigopulos could only say “the online feature set of Rock Band will be quite substantial—way beyond anything that’s been done previously in the music category. Stay tuned for more details!” Could this mean sharing of user-created music?

“The ability to import user-created music into the game isn’t a feature that will be integrated into Rock Band right out of the gate, but we are actively considering the possibility of eventually building and releasing tools to the community that will allow players to do this,” he said.

While we wait for this title to rock our socks, feast your eyes on these rad screenshots for now. We’ll keep you updated whenever new word comes up.

For the full interview, click on the Read link below.

Ever since the release of Guitar Hero, many have wished for a game that allows players to get their hands on different instruments and play as a band. Harmonix heard these prayers, and came up with Rock Band.

Activision may have taken Guitar Hero away from its makers, but its spiritual successor seems to be a lot bigger. In an interview with IGN, Harmonix CEO Alex Rigopulos shed some light on the much anticipated title.

Thanks to the smash-hit guitar game, Rigopulos said that Harmonix has got more resources to pour in this time around. That means rockin’ out will be more grand, with the use of each instrument deep enough to be considered its own game.

If you can’t get your friends into picking something, single player isn’t much of a problem. Any instrument can unlock all songs and assets, so just take one and let auto-pilot do the rest.

The difficulty is being tweaked to avoid broken peripherals smashed into pieces due to frustration. Newbies and pros alike would be able to make music and get those scores rolling.

Third-party guitars will be supported so Guitar Hero ones can be used in the game. However, the Rock Band Stratocaster will be an exclusive. Rigopulos couldn’t reveal much about other instruments, but rest assured that they’ll be affordable since Harmonix is barely making any profit out of these peripherals.

Regarding downloadable content, Rigopulos could only say “the online feature set of Rock Band will be quite substantial—way beyond anything that’s been done previously in the music category. Stay tuned for more details!” Could this mean sharing of user-created music?

“The ability to import user-created music into the game isn’t a feature that will be integrated into Rock Band right out of the gate, but we are actively considering the possibility of eventually building and releasing tools to the community that will allow players to do this,” he said.

While we wait for this title to rock our socks, feast your eyes on these rad screenshots for now. We’ll keep you updated whenever new word comes up.

For the full interview, click on the Read link below.