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Rock Band Beatles Products
In terms of the ongoing argument of whether video games can be a form of art, The Beatles: Rock Band really has the potential to put a nail in the coffin. The Beatles: Rock Band really might be the most loving interpretation of any idea in the history of video games. The game was even created in collaboration with Paul McCartney, Ringo Starr, Yoko Ono (widow of John Lennon) and Dhani Harrison (son of George Harrison).
The collaboration is evident throughout. While the career mode won’t leave you with the “I just lived through their lives” feeling, it will give you a solid feel of how The Beatles progressed throughout their career, in both sound and songwriting. The career mode will also enable players to unlock certain tidbits of information, which will provide huge amounts of rare photos and vastly unknown information to the players. Career mode really gives an amazing feel and dwarfs any other band-centric game to this point.
The presentation of The Beatles: Rock Band is really what pushes the game over the top. Each avatar very accurately represents John, Paul, George and Ringo respectively. It’s also nice to see the members of the Beatles progress as their careers do during career mode. It really is cool to see Paul go from clean shaven to mustached to bearded as career mode progresses. Sure, it’s a little thing, but it’s the little things about this game’s presentation that shows how much Harmonix cared about how this game turned out.
Perhaps the best thing that Harmonix did while working on this game was to include dreamscapes that play in the background during songs that were recorded during the Abbey Road sessions. Basically the dreamscapes play in place of the simulated concert footage that Rock Band players are used to. The dreamscapes do an excellent job of capturing the mood of the songs. Some of the best dreamscapes include “Here Comes the Sun”, where George’s peaceful and smooth singing is converted into a sunny hillside with the Beatles playing under a tree, and “I am the Walrus”, which is definitely the most psychedelic of all the dreamscapes. The dreamscape for “Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band/With a Little Help from My Friends” is very enjoyable and well done as well.
Aside from the presentation, the core gameplay is the same as the Rock Band franchise, which is the best in the business, so you know that the gameplay aspect is stellar. There are a minor tweaks here and there, like the hammer-on chords are slightly more functional, but all in all, the gameplay remains vastly unchanged.
On the topic of song selection, single band games like Guitar Hero: Metallica and Guitar Hero: Aerosmith generally came off as monotonous since most of the songs were of the same genre. That is most definitely not the case with The Beatles: Rock Band. This is largely attributed to the fact that The Beatles had so much diversity in their catalog. Despite the fact that every single song is by The Beatles, it still feels very diverse. The only problem is a lack of replay ability, which is attributed to the fact that there are only 45 on disc songs, as opposed to the over 80 songs available on Rock Band 2. Harmonix is remedying this, however, by adding monthly downloadable content.
Overall, The Beatles: Rock Band is a very rewarding experience. For hardcore Beatles fans, the game offers the chance to play through 45 chart-topping songs, plus several albums of downloadable content, for the casual Beatles fan, you’ll be able to play along with some of your favorites and possibly discover a few more songs that you like, and for the person who knows next to nothing, this game offers to you the opportunity not only learn the history and the songs of one of the greatest bands in the history of music, but also to discover your new favorite band.
Rating: 9.0/10
The Beatles Box Set - CDs & DVD
The Beatles Stereo Box Set
The Beatles Box Set is an incredible value and it's available in Stereo & Mono formats. If you enjoy the Beatles Rock Band video game, there's no doubt that you should get CD set! The set includes all 13 studio albums remastered. It sounds amazing. It also comes with a DVD of mini-documentaries.
The the price of the Mono set is a little more, but this limited edition is a perfect reproduction of the magic The Beatles originally created decades ago.