Viacom To Sell Rock Band Creator Harmonix 112
UgLyPuNk tips news that Harmonix, the game developer behind Rock Band and the early Guitar Hero games, will be sold by parent company Viacom, signaling the media conglomerate's exit from the console game market. Quoting Wired:
"The news is yet another ominous sign for the music-game business, which exploded seemingly overnight in 2005 with the release of Guitar Hero. ...sales have been in free fall since the dizzying heights of 2008, with Guitar Hero: Warriors of Rock moving only 86,000 copies in its first week... Thus far in calendar year 2010, the balance sheet seems to show that Harmonix has been a $300 million liability for Viacom. And it doesn’t look like Viacom believes in the long-term future of music games. With any luck, the company will find a buyer that can help Harmonix grow, but it’s hard to imagine a better partner in the music biz than MTV."
Re:required peripherals (Score:5, Informative)
In other words, if you go for the Fender Squier, Rock Band 3 will function as a learning tool. That games career mode is more about challenges rather than just plauying at venues. Different difficulty levels (where the hardest setting equals the way the guitarist is actually playing the current song), tutorials and the ability to slow down sections at will makes it possible to get down to business learning how a guitar produces sound. If you take the time, you will be able to learn to play. The only thing the game doesn't teach specifically is technique, but with the songs including (and the game supporting) hammerons/pulloffs, left hand muting, open chords, arpeggios, sustained notes and slides, the techniques will come eventually as long as one is eager and willing to learn.
Re:required peripherals (Score:2, Informative)
Re:required peripherals (Score:4, Informative)
Guess it's no longer just hitting colored pads on a drums (or buttons on the neck) to a beat that doesn't even come close to matching the actual song.
If you play the drums in "expert" difficulty then the beat is usually 100% the same as the actual song. In one song in Rock Band it seemed like you had to play the hi-hat in double time compared to what the actual song was playing but that's about the only difference I noticed.
Even expert guitar is usually very close to the same rhythm as the actual song. It's only on the easier difficulties that they take out notes. I actually find some of the songs more difficult to play on expert guitar in these games than I do on a real guitar, because the fingering is more awkward in the game compared to just holding a barre or power chord and sliding your hand up and down the neck.
Re:required peripherals (Score:4, Informative)
How much does steering wheel cost you? $40?
And how much does a guitar controller for these games cost you?
You don't HAVE to buy all the peripherals. Just like you don't have to buy the pedal and shifter controller to go with your car game. Shocking that the more you try to accurately emulate real life, the more expensive it gets.
Re:Note to your ass. (Score:1, Informative)
There was no real need for a Rock Band 2 or 3 IMO.
Yes there was. Changing some of the gameplay fundamentals required breaking compatability with previous scoring methods. That would invalidate all of the existing high scores, and gamers wouldn't be too happy if suddenly the company came along and said "sorry, but your high scores are gone".
Let me give you one example of what I'm talking about. RB3 has this nice new way of tracking scores during a song. At the end of the song, not only are they able to score you as a band and record a new band high score, but each player is able to be scored on their individual performance. The are given the score that they would have received had they given that exact same performance in a solo game, and even though they just played as a band, that solo score can actually count as their own personal solo high score for that instrument. This could not have been done in rock band 1 or 2 because of the unison bonus, which earns you more overdrive than you could possibly have earned in a solo game. So in order to make this new scoring system work, they had to remove the unison bonus. That would instantly break every existing high score had it been done in the same game.
Re:required peripherals (Score:5, Informative)
I started with RB1, knowing NOTHING about drums or pretty much any instruments really.
By the time RB2 came along, I bought an electronic drumset (Alesis) that I hooked up via a custom wireless controller and started playing that pretty much exclusively (3 symbals, 4 pads, etc...). I got my first real drumset a month ago, and I can tell you that both beats and hand/feet independence carry perfectly well over. Perfectly. In fact, the acoustic drumset is in many ways easier than the electronic one: the "pads" are bigger, and the sound much fuller so you don't need to be as precise.
People saying that RB doesn't teach drumming are full of shit. In fact, not only does it teach you drumming, it teaches you different styles of drumming as well. From Keith Moon's footwork-as-symbals to Mitch Mitchell's technique, you can learn it all if you take the time. Yeah you're copying, but over time it becomes second nature and you pick up a number of different rolls, fills and other techniques from many drummers.
Calibration? (Score:2, Informative)
Did the parent try calibrating the system? There is a known problem of lag varying from setup to setup, as all tv's, sound systems, and cables are not the same....
It helps a lot, really