Comic-Con International was held this past weekend in San Diego and I had the privilege of checking out some sweet new things for Rock Band 3. I had the chance to hold the new red Fender Mustang guitar as well as attend the panel where they held a demonstration and a Q&A.
The guitar was surprisingly light-weight, approximately the same weight as the current Rock Band 2 guitar. The strings were nylon, and can easily be replaced if a string snaps. The pegs down the frets were unexpectedly easy to maneuver around and compress to play a note.
At the panel, they demonstrated the gameplay by playing one of the new songs they revealed, Everyone Wants To Rule The World, by Tears for Fears. The Harmonix Rock Band panel members were John Drake, the manager of communications, and senior designer Sylvain Dubrofsky. During the panel they took questions about the game, as well as revealed 6 new songs that will be on the game:
- Foolin (Def Leppard)
- Everybody Wants To Rule The World (Tears for Fears)
- Rock Lobster (The B-52′s)
- Beautiful People (Marilyn Manson)
- Hey Man, Nice Shot (Filter)
- Cold As Ice (Foreigner)
With the new realistic guitars and Pro mode, the panel members continually repeated that they are hoping this game fools people into learning some real-life talents while having fun. When asked how difficult Pro Mode would be, Dubrofsky answered that on Expert level, every note would be in play and “good luck with Crazy Train (Ozzy Osbourne). A lot of people will be stopping at hard.”
Asked what direction they could go in the future, Dubrofsky admitted that they had put all their grandiose ideas into this new game, but that they would continue to innovate going forward. Drake concurred and added in jest, “The future is soon, and after that there will be more future.”
