Tech Blog

[#1]

Over the weekend at the San Diego Comic-Con game maker Harmonix delighted fans after announcing a list of new songs for Rock Band 3 and Dance Central during their "Faux Fun to Real Rock" panel discussion. 

The new tracks revealed for Rock Band 3 are:

• Marilyn Manson – “The Beautiful People”
• Filter – “Hey Man, Nice Shot”
• Foreigner – “Cold As Ice”
• Def Leppard – “Foolin’”
• The B-52s – “Rock Lobster”
• Tears For Fears – “Everybody Wants To Rule The World”

And for Dance Central:

• Snoop Dogg – “Drop It Like Its Hot”
• Salt-N-Pepa – “Push It”
• Young MC – “Bust A Move”

Harmonix has confirmed that all tracks listed are master recordings.

Days before this year's E3, Harmonix and publisher MTV Games announced new features for Rock Band 3 that could very well revolutionize the music genre this holiday season.  The game disc will feature 83 tracks from chart-topping bands such as Queen, Ozzy Osbourne, The Cure, Stone Temple Pilots, Smash Mouth, and more.  Backwards compatibility with existing Rock Band tracks (Rock Band 1 & 2, LEGO  Rock Band, Green Day: Rock Band , and downloaded songs) will also be supported.  The Rock Band music store features nearly 2,000 songs for download, with new content being added weekly.

What's more, Harmonix has expanded the band by adding three-part vocal harmonies that were introduced with the Beatles: Rock Band.  For the first time ever a keyboard peripheral will available and will join the existing instruments consisting of the guitar, bass, drums and solo vocals.  In total, up to seven players can jam today creating the largest band ever seen in a music game.

Rock Band 3 also adds a new Pro mode which encourages players to develop actual music skills by requiring more exact playing of guitar, bass, drums, and keyboard.  For the pro drums, a three-cymbal set will be added to the regular drum kit, with gameplay differentiating between drum and cymbal hits.  The pro keyboard will require players to use all 25 notes of the new unit which spans a two-octave range.  Finally the pro guitar and bass will utilize a fully functional, full-sized, six-string electric guitar that also functions as a game controller.  The guitar has the ability to track fingering on specific frets (buttons or strings) and will require players to strum single notes and chords accurately.

Dance Central is another music game announced by Harmonix and will be one of the first titles available for Kinect for Xbox 360.  Utilizing Kinect's motion camera, the immersive dance video game tracks full-body dance moves and requires players to perform choreographed dance routines.  There are over 600 dance moves in the game, and a practice mode will introduce and help you master each move.  Artists that will have tracks in the game include Lady Gaga, No Doubt, M.I.A., Beastie Boys, and more.  The over 90 dance routines were all created by professional choreographers and includes moves from the song's music videos.

Rock Band 3 is scheduled for release for the PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, and Wii on October 26, 2010. 

Dance Central will be available for Kinect for Xbox 360 on November 4, 2010.

[#2]

Hey that sounds cool.  A real guitar?  That sounds almost too hard for most people.

DANCE CENTRAL sounds like fun too.  Too bad it is only for XBOX.  Do you know if a PS3 (Move) version will be out as well?

[#3]

Dance Central does sound cool, I agree.  It's only been announced for Xbox 360.  Since the technology behind Kinect for Xbox 360 and PlayStation Move are very different making cross-platform titles won't be as easy as we see with the PS3/Xbox 360.  I would expect to see move exclusives. 

For PS3, you might want to check out SingStar Dance.  It's SingStar with the addition of dancing using PlayStation Move controllers.  You can have multiple players playing, say two people singing and two people dancing simultaneously.  Looks to be a lot of fun.  I'll be sure to do a review of both Dance Central and SingStar Dance when they release this holiday.  Stay tuned!