Harmonix Co-Founder Answers Questions About Rock Band

Posted by Paul Hamilton Categories: Accessories, Downloadable Content, Features, Hardware, Microsoft, Music, PlayStation 3, Wireless, Xbox 360

The Official Xbox Magazine’s podcast has an interview this week with Harmonix co-founder and president Alex Rigopulos about their upcoming game Rock Band. In the interview he talks about the game bundles, although light on concrete details he does confirm a band-in-a-box bundle that will include a guitar, drum kit and microphone. However, he goes on to say that the PlayStation 3 version will include a wireless guitar controller while the Xbox 360 version will have to include a wired guitar because Microsoft‘s wireless technology is too expensive to make the bundle reasonably priced. Since the 360 also has only two USB ports, the 360 Rock Band bundle will also be packed with a USB hub.

Rigopulos goes on to discuss the game’s career modes a little, saying there will be both solo career mode that progresses in a linear fashion similar to what Guitar Hero players are used to, but they are also including a less linear band career mode. In this mode you traverse to various venues trying to build up your fan base and in some cases return to previously played locations to maintain your fame there. Also it’s worth noting that the solo career mode will not include a bass career track so your options are vocals, guitar and drums in solo career mode. But Rigopulos did reveal that the finale songs for each career path (and therefore likely the difficulty distinctions throughout) will be different for each instrument, and he even said that at this point the drum finale will be The Who’s “Won’t Get Fooled Again.”

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Sony Shows Off PS3 Blu-Ray Playback

Posted by Christopher Sasaki Categories: PlayStation 3

At a recent Blu-Ray demonstration in Japan, Sony showed off a little of the interface and video playback for the Blu-Ray capabilities of the Playstation 3. Famitsu managed to get a shot of the interface, and it looks largely like an expansion of the PS2 DVD playback UI, or perhaps an enhanced UMD playback UI from the PSP. Sony is apparently shooting for 75 Blu-Ray titles within the year in Japan, and average retail is targeted at 5000 Yen, or about $42 US. Sony also discussed the BD Java features of the player, as well as the Internet-based BD Live content.

Read More | Famitsu

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