I started my solo play in "The Beatles: Rock Band", and here are some more thoughts about the game.
1. Stats:
Great job by Harmonix for adding more info in the Quickplay menu! Being able to see the star rating again is a plus (it was removed in RB2), but the real innovation is seeing the top 5 scores among friends, including everyone's rank. The game even tells you who is ahead of you after finishing a song. That makes it easier to pick which song to play to get ahead in the Leaderboards.
It's also great that Harmonix has added a way to see the Bass scores in the Quickplay menu. This feature was missing in previous games.
I am still planning to add the Beatles scores to RockBandStats.com in order for people to see all their scores on one page and see some expanded Leaderboards, but having this additional info in the game is a step in the right direction for Harmonix. Great work! :)
2. Dolby Digital:
When I started playing, I didn't realize that the sound was not set to Dolby Digital by default. after setting the lag calibration to my normal configuration and then playing a few songs on guitar, I noticed that some of the fast chord changes didn't match the music. I thought that was odd because I use the same settings for all the rhythm games released so far. But as soon as I switched the audio settings to Dolby Digital, the calibration issue disappeared...
We played two weeks in a row at Phoenix's house without realizing that it wasn't in Dolby Digital. I did feel the calibration was slightly off when I played guitar the first week. This could be one of the reasons why.
Showing posts with label Beatles. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Beatles. Show all posts
Sunday, September 20, 2009
Friday, September 18, 2009
A "triple fag" night
Oh I meant to say "triple fab", the reward for singing a phrase perfectly with all three vocalists. :)
We had a great time trying out the vocal harmonies in "The Beatles: Rock Band" tonight. We actually managed to play all the songs, including the Encore that we skipped last week.
Next week we'll go back to playing some unranked Rock Band 2 songs. Phoenix's internet was down this week, but he'll change ISPs by next week's session due to the frequent interruptions.
For most of the night, Raikan was on the blue harmony line, Bongoo on brown, and Phoenix or Sylvie on orange. Seb also joined us near the end, with Pheonix and Raikan on drums.
Overall, I found singing the harmonies to be a great experience. Hitting the "triple fabs" was awesome as it usually sounded great. But I was annoyed or frustrated with a few aspects of the vocal system:
1. I hated when the pitch lines suddenly shifted up or down. I'm used to RB2 vocals representing the whole range for a given song and not moving. This feature is most likely due to the need to see the distance between the harmony lines, but it did make it quite difficult to adapt after a shift.
2. If someone didn't sing the beginning of a specific harmony correctly, the game had a tendency to lock a player to one of the harmony lines. That made it difficult to adjust the pitch to skip to the desired harmony line. Raikan pointed out that SingStar didn't have the lock-in feature, which made it easier to make adjustments.
3. On certain songs, the harmony lines blended so much that only a very short portion of a given line appeared independently in a segment (ex: brown line near the end of one of the songs). We could adapt to the blended colors, but this made it difficult at times to know which main line to use.
Apart from these issues, I found the vocal harmonies feature to be very well implemented. Kudos to Harmonix for bringing a new dimension to the Rock Band experience.
Highlights:
- Stars breakdown for the 45 songs: Gold stars (10), 5 stars (24), 4 stars (9), 3 stars (2)
- Harmony stats (highest percentage or 100% for one of the harmony lines):
- Bongoo was the "Top Vocalist" for the most songs (25), followed by Raikan (11), Phoenix (5), and Sylvie (4)
- Bongoo was the only one who had some FCs (4)
- One song we didn't like very much which I forgot to mention last week was "Good Morning Good Morning"
- We find out that the Beatles liked to say "Woo" a lot, which we often performed as "Woof"...
- Sylvie did a song with two microphones, and oddly enough, the percentages were slightly different for each one
We had a great time trying out the vocal harmonies in "The Beatles: Rock Band" tonight. We actually managed to play all the songs, including the Encore that we skipped last week.
Next week we'll go back to playing some unranked Rock Band 2 songs. Phoenix's internet was down this week, but he'll change ISPs by next week's session due to the frequent interruptions.
For most of the night, Raikan was on the blue harmony line, Bongoo on brown, and Phoenix or Sylvie on orange. Seb also joined us near the end, with Pheonix and Raikan on drums.
Overall, I found singing the harmonies to be a great experience. Hitting the "triple fabs" was awesome as it usually sounded great. But I was annoyed or frustrated with a few aspects of the vocal system:
1. I hated when the pitch lines suddenly shifted up or down. I'm used to RB2 vocals representing the whole range for a given song and not moving. This feature is most likely due to the need to see the distance between the harmony lines, but it did make it quite difficult to adapt after a shift.
2. If someone didn't sing the beginning of a specific harmony correctly, the game had a tendency to lock a player to one of the harmony lines. That made it difficult to adjust the pitch to skip to the desired harmony line. Raikan pointed out that SingStar didn't have the lock-in feature, which made it easier to make adjustments.
3. On certain songs, the harmony lines blended so much that only a very short portion of a given line appeared independently in a segment (ex: brown line near the end of one of the songs). We could adapt to the blended colors, but this made it difficult at times to know which main line to use.
Apart from these issues, I found the vocal harmonies feature to be very well implemented. Kudos to Harmonix for bringing a new dimension to the Rock Band experience.
Highlights:
- Stars breakdown for the 45 songs: Gold stars (10), 5 stars (24), 4 stars (9), 3 stars (2)
- Harmony stats (highest percentage or 100% for one of the harmony lines):
- Bongoo was the "Top Vocalist" for the most songs (25), followed by Raikan (11), Phoenix (5), and Sylvie (4)
- Bongoo was the only one who had some FCs (4)
- One song we didn't like very much which I forgot to mention last week was "Good Morning Good Morning"
- We find out that the Beatles liked to say "Woo" a lot, which we often performed as "Woof"...
- Sylvie did a song with two microphones, and oddly enough, the percentages were slightly different for each one
Thursday, September 17, 2009
Beatle Harmonies + RB2 Unranked
Tonight we'll start by playing "The Beatles: Rock Band" with 3 microphones. It will be neat to see how many "Triple Fabs" we can get.
We'll also go back to playing Rock Band 2, playing some unranked songs to move up in the "All Songs" Leaderboards.
We'll also go back to playing Rock Band 2, playing some unranked songs to move up in the "All Songs" Leaderboards.
Friday, September 11, 2009
The Beatles have some funky colors
We beat "The Beatles: Rock Band"! :) It wasn't too hard to do, but it was quite a lot of fun in parts. We unlocked the bonus song "The End", but didn't have a chance to play it yet.
The first thing we noticed when we started playing is how colorful everything was. It gives the game a great visual style, but it was hard at first to get our eyes adjusted to the notes. Just as we got used to it, the game turned ultra-psychedelic in the middle section, the backgrounds occasionally overpowering everything.
I also found the hammer-on notes a bit difficult to notice, as they are closer in size to the normal notes compared to the ones in Rock Band 2.
The setlist was pretty good, with the middle "trippy" part the worst section of the game. Some of the songs were just odd and boring (ex: "Getting Better"), but the beginning and end of the game had some great songs (ex: "Here Comes the Sun").
We started the night with our optimal line-up, but when Seb showed up, we took the opportunity to try the vocal harmonies as a 5-member band. Raikan and Phoenix had some interesting vocal exchanges, especially when the game makes the singers alternate talky parts. We only had 2 mics, but we'll definitely try the game with 3 mics next week.
Highlights:
- Stars breakdown for the 44 songs: Gold stars (3), 5 stars (24), 4 stars (16), 3 stars (1)
- Bongoo was the "Top Performer" for the most songs (29), followed by Sylvie and Pheonix (12 each), and Seb (2, on Medium)
- Bongoo had the most FCs (5), followed by Phoenix and Sylvie (1 each)
- We only fail on one song, "Birthday", which had some tough vocal sections
- Phoenix swaps the lyrics from one song to another pretty nicely (was it a pony, a bird, a bulldog, a walrus, or an octopus?)
- He also raps along "Helter Skelter" Beastie Boys style, coming up with some memorables lines like "I like Ewoks!" :)
The first thing we noticed when we started playing is how colorful everything was. It gives the game a great visual style, but it was hard at first to get our eyes adjusted to the notes. Just as we got used to it, the game turned ultra-psychedelic in the middle section, the backgrounds occasionally overpowering everything.
I also found the hammer-on notes a bit difficult to notice, as they are closer in size to the normal notes compared to the ones in Rock Band 2.
The setlist was pretty good, with the middle "trippy" part the worst section of the game. Some of the songs were just odd and boring (ex: "Getting Better"), but the beginning and end of the game had some great songs (ex: "Here Comes the Sun").
We started the night with our optimal line-up, but when Seb showed up, we took the opportunity to try the vocal harmonies as a 5-member band. Raikan and Phoenix had some interesting vocal exchanges, especially when the game makes the singers alternate talky parts. We only had 2 mics, but we'll definitely try the game with 3 mics next week.
Highlights:
- Stars breakdown for the 44 songs: Gold stars (3), 5 stars (24), 4 stars (16), 3 stars (1)
- Bongoo was the "Top Performer" for the most songs (29), followed by Sylvie and Pheonix (12 each), and Seb (2, on Medium)
- Bongoo had the most FCs (5), followed by Phoenix and Sylvie (1 each)
- We only fail on one song, "Birthday", which had some tough vocal sections
- Phoenix swaps the lyrics from one song to another pretty nicely (was it a pony, a bird, a bulldog, a walrus, or an octopus?)
- He also raps along "Helter Skelter" Beastie Boys style, coming up with some memorables lines like "I like Ewoks!" :)
Thursday, September 10, 2009
Goal for tonight: "The Beatles: Rock Band"
Tonight we're going to give the next Rock Band game a spin, "The Beatles: Rock Band"! :)
If we finish it, or if we want to keep some of it for another time, we'll continue our climb of the "All Songs" Leaderboards by playing some unranked Rock Band 2 songs.
If we finish it, or if we want to keep some of it for another time, we'll continue our climb of the "All Songs" Leaderboards by playing some unranked Rock Band 2 songs.
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