The Beatles: Rock Band Bundle Revealed

[Keane Ng]

The Beatles: Rock Band Bundle Revealed

For the discerning Beatles fan and plastic guitar collector comes the Limited Edition bundle for this fall's The Beatles: Rock Band, including a replica of Paul's bass, special edition drums and more for $250.

Fab Four fanatics will get their best shot yet at living out the lives of John, Paul, George and Ringo this September with Harmonix and EA's The Beatles: Rock Band, but if you really want to take your Beatle emulation to the next level, you might want to pony up an arm and a leg for the Limited Edition bundle of the game. It includes the following: the game (duh), a guitar modeled exactly on Paul McCartney's Höfner Bass, Ludwig-brand drums with a pearl finish and a Beatles drum head, a mic and microphone stand, and "additional special content."

That's a lot of stuff, and it'll cost a lot of bucks: $250 in the US, and 199 euros and 175 pounds in the EU and UK respectively.

Aside from the instruments and enigmatic "additional special content," the most intriguing thing here's the mic stand. Not because it's cool to have a mic stand (it is), but because it seems to suggest that playing and singing will be the thing to do in The Beatles: Rock Band. You know nobody in The Beatles just sang, they all played instruments, too.

And sometimes they sang together, at the same time, in harmony. Game Informer has it that The Beatles: Rock Band will indeed feature multi-microphone support for the very purpose of allowing singers to harmonize. A NeoGAF post [http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showpost.php?p=15412066&postcount=26864] citing someone who claims to have played the game added that when he tried it there were three mics involved and even a training mode for getting vocals in harmony.

Rumors being rumors, take that with a grain of salt, but that would be a nice addition to the gameplay that would really make the game more than just Rock Band 2 with Beatles songs.

The Beatles: Rock Band will launch on September 9, 2009 along with digitally remastered editions [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/forums/read/7.105885] of The Beatles' catalog and Sega's Dreamcast 2.

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[The Infamous Scamola]

I loooove the Beatles! Can't wait.

 

[super_smash_jesus]

Nice to see that they are starting to include harmony for these games, that should liven things up a bit. I doubt I will be getting the special edition set, because it is a crazy high price, but I will most likely be getting the game because there are so many good beatles songs.

 

[Arrers]

It's too expensive for me. That sucks, I always liked Paul McCartney's bass guitar.

EDIT: if the additional special content involed Sgt. Pepper's Lonley Heart's Club suits I could be swayed.

 

[Breaker deGodot]

Beatles in Rock Band = EPIC WIN!

 

[Cpt_Oblivious]

Will this be 360 only? If so I may cry.

 

[gjkdioepppp]

oh god, here we go...

 

[MowDownJoe]

That's some nice boxart. Like how they kept it black and white.

 

[Cpt_Oblivious]

This is why our culture is doomed.
People prefer to spend $250 on a plastic piece of shit and a DVD containing a dumb button-mashing game instead of buying a real guitar, a collection of The Beatles' records and music sheets for their songs. I know it has been said a thousand times, but this is really frightening.

I bought a guitar and I'm trying! Honest!

 

[Spyalt]

Will this be 360 only? If so I may cry.

Me to.

 

[Keane Ng]

Will this be 360 only? If so I may cry.

No, it's for the PS3 and Wii too.

 

[Cpt_Oblivious]

Will this be 360 only? If so I may cry.

No, it's for the PS3 and Wii too.

Hooray!

This is why our culture is doomed.
People prefer to spend $250 on a plastic piece of shit and a DVD containing a dumb button-mashing game instead of buying a real guitar, a collection of The Beatles' records and music sheets for their songs. I know it has been said a thousand times, but this is really frightening.

I bought a guitar and I'm trying! Honest!

Mad props.

Also another funny thing is that people refuse to learn to play guitar, becuase "it takes too much time" yet still throw away shitloads of money on games, because they are bored at home. It seems like we're living in times when everyone has ADD.

I knew it'd take a long time but then again I usually find myself with quite a bit of time on my hands. Great solution.

 

[calciphus]

This is why our culture is doomed.
People prefer to spend $250 on a plastic piece of shit and a DVD containing a dumb button-mashing game instead of buying a real guitar, a collection of The Beatles' records and music sheets for their songs. I know it has been said a thousand times, but this is really frightening.

Maybe you can explain to me why this is a sign of the downfall of culture, because what you described as an alternative seems far worse. Let's see: buy a "real" guitar (probably some $200 acoustic), spend countless hours alone guitar-sterbating until you can crank out 50-year-old Pop music. Then show up at a party with your one guitar, insist that everyone stop talking and listen to you, and crank out a poorly delivered, acoustic version of "Penny Lane". Explain to me why THAT has intrinsically more value to society and "culture" than group of friends getting together and engaging in a shared experience, enjoying old music and discovering new artists, and gaining an appreciation for songs that goes beyond passively listening to them.

Games like Rock Band aren't a substitute for the generation and performance of music, no one thinks they are. There's more music now (and more people making a living off it) than any time in history. Games like this are a step UP from putting on a pair of headphones, getting stoned and doing /nothing/.

By that logic, the fact that racing games exists means no one would want to drive cars (or even become racecar drivers), and that instead they should just go out, take a few professional driving courses, buy a half-million-dollar F1 car, and drive in circles in their neighborhood.

The urge to create something is not supplanted by the ability to easily reproduce the works of others. If it is for you, you live a sad life.

 

[Geoffrey42]

This is why our culture is doomed.
People prefer to spend $250 on a plastic piece of shit and a DVD containing a dumb button-mashing game instead of buying a real guitar, a collection of The Beatles' records and music sheets for their songs. I know it has been said a thousand times, but this is really frightening.

agreed. If you want to sit around tiring your wrist out with nothing to show for it i can think of a few other things that might be more fun and cheaper too...that said sadly the remaining beatles dont own the rights to most of their catalog (thank you micheal jackson for being a prick and not selling them to Paul) so their material can be used in this manner.

Please, for the children, please stop beating this horse. What did it ever do to you? Think of the children!

 

[AceDefective]

OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG I NEED TO GET A JOB TO SAVE UP THE MONEY NOW!!!!!!!!!!!
Only thing to make this better is if it was IN SPACE

 

[Avatar Roku]

This is why our culture is doomed.
People prefer to spend $250 on a plastic piece of shit and a DVD containing a dumb button-mashing game instead of buying a real guitar, a collection of The Beatles' records and music sheets for their songs. I know it has been said a thousand times, but this is really frightening.

Maybe you can explain to me why this is a sign of the downfall of culture, because what you described as an alternative seems far worse. Let's see: buy a "real" guitar (probably some $200 acoustic), spend countless hours alone guitar-sterbating until you can crank out 50-year-old Pop music. Then show up at a party with your one guitar, insist that everyone stop talking and listen to you, and crank out a poorly delivered, acoustic version of "Penny Lane". Explain to me why THAT has intrinsically more value to society and "culture" than group of friends getting together and engaging in a shared experience, enjoying old music and discovering new artists, and gaining an appreciation for songs that goes beyond passively listening to them.

Games like Rock Band aren't a substitute for the generation and performance of music, no one thinks they are. There's more music now (and more people making a living off it) than any time in history. Games like this are a step UP from putting on a pair of headphones, getting stoned and doing /nothing/.

By that logic, the fact that racing games exists means no one would want to drive cars (or even become racecar drivers), and that instead they should just go out, take a few professional driving courses, buy a half-million-dollar F1 car, and drive in circles in their neighborhood.

The urge to create something is not supplanted by the ability to easily reproduce the works of others. If it is for you, you live a sad life.

Well said.

 

[dekkarax]

Sega's Dreamcast 2.

Wha?
Did I miss something?