Rock Band 3 Message Board older than one year ago

As hinted at yesterday by Harmonix's Twitter, a whole gang of tracks were confirmed to be included in Rock Band 3 during the developer's recent Comic-Con panel. These ditties include:

• "Everybody Wants to Rule the World" by Tears for Fears
• "Rock Lobster" by The B-52s
• "Foolin'" by Def Leppard
• "Beautiful People" by Marilyn Manson
• "Hey Man, Nice Shot" by Filter
• "Cold as Ice" by Foreigner

Also, one new track was confirmed for Dance Central: "Bust a Move" by Young MC. Never before has a rhythm game played host to a track giving such welcome instructions.

The Rock Band Twitter account has been a real beehive of activity as of late. No wonder, considering Harmonix has slowly been teasing new artists coming to Rock Band 3. So far, Tears for Fears, Marilyn Manson, The B-52s and Def Leppard have been confirmed for the game.

Harmonix promises to slowly trickle out more artists as Comic-Con progresses this weekend, so we'll be sure to relay the info as it's made available. In the meanwhile, we suggest you grab your hot pants and celebrate!

[Thanks, Conor]

Heavy metal band Avenged Sevenfold joins Grammy award-winning Latin superstar Juanes' debut as Rock Band DLC next week. The song pack will include the group's title track from the album Nightmare, along with "Seize the Day" from City of Evil and "Scream" from Avenged Sevenfold.

Like Juanes, Avenged Sevenfold will also be featured in Rock Band 3's on-disc track collection, releasing later this year. Head past the break if you juanes see next week's DLC details.

We're not gonna front: We have no clue who Juanes is -- but apparently he's a Latin music megastar who's sold over 12 million albums, has a "record-setting" 17 Latin Grammy awards and even a good ol' American Grammy. With that kinda résumé, Juanes seems as qualified as anyone to introduce the first Spanish-language songs into Rock Band with a 6-track pack next Tuesday.

More Juanes is coming to Rock Band 3 later this year, with the inclusion of his single "Me Enamora." Head past the break for more details on next week's Juanes track pack and stay tuned for the complete Rock Band Weekly update tomorrow.

#harmonix Rock Band introduces the first Spanish-language tunes to its line-up next week, with six hits from Latin music superstar Juanes, with an additional track shipping on disc with Rock Band 3. More »

Pre-order Rock Band 3 now and receive great promotional offers including exclusive downloadable content and credit toward future purchases.

#preorderbonus Harmonix and MTV Games have revealed retailer-specific preorder bonuses for Rock Band 3, with GameStop customers scoring three free tunes, including New Order's techno anthem "Blue Monday." It's no "True Faith," but it'll do. More »

Retailer pre-order plans detailed.

For those about to rock -- well, you should probably just cool your jets, as you've still got a little while to wait. A press release from Harmonix has announced that its upcoming, keyboard-infused rhythm title Rock Band 3 will hit North American store shelves on October 26, 2010.

Accompanying this announcement was the unveiling of the pre-order bonuses being offered by major retailers. Folks who reserve the title at Wal-Mart get a $10 e-Gift card. Those who go with Amazon will unlock an exclusive in-game guitar. Pre-orderers who go with GameStop will be able to download three songs for free at launch: "My Own Summer" by The Deftones, "Blue Monday" by New Order and "Burning Down the House" by Talking Heads.

So, yeah. We'll go ahead and let you guess which retailer we're going to settle on. Go ahead. Think really hard.

The only problem with The Stooges being added to Rock Band's DLC offerings next week is that it's going to make a real mess of our living room. We like to get into character, after all, and what good is an authentic Iggy Pop impersonation if you don't spit on everything and smear food all over your body?

See full details of next week's Rock Band update after the break.

This week marks the Rock Band debut of UK group Sweet Billy Pilgrim. The group will have one track, "Future Perfect Tense," hitting the Rock Band Store next week. As forecast, The Vines also make their debut next week, with five tracks from the group's 2006 album, Vision Valley.

See full details of the update after the break.

A new trailer for Rock Band 3, discovered on GameStop Italy's YouTube page, highlights many of the new and exciting features of Harmonix's upcoming sequel. You'll see the brand new Music Library, with more flexible sorting options. The trailer confirms the ability to import tracks from nearly every game in the franchise, including Lego Rock Band.

Most mesmerizing of all is the first direct-feed footage of the new "Pro" mode, which has you playing instruments like a real musician would. Is anyone else quivering at the sight of finger notations?

[Thanks, Anthony!]

#rockband3 Somewhere else, that's where. Rock Band 3 lead designer Dan Teasdale is leaving Rock Band developer Harmonix. In his blog, he states why. More »

Dan Teasdale to join 'Splosion Man developer Twisted Pixel.

Harmonix's Dan Teasdale, lead designer for Rock Band 3, has made the jump to Comic Jumper and 'Splosion Man developer Twisted Pixel, where he will begin work on "a ridiculously cool new project." He is flying to Austin, Texas today to join the team, though we suspect there will be time for Mexican food and Amy's ice cream somewhere in there.

While we assumed the only reason you'd leave a job like that is the sudden onset of deafness, Teasdale offered justification for the decision. In a blog post, he cited a desire to work with a smaller game in order to have more hands-on influence on the creation process. "I want to be able to help drive the vision and direction of a game," he said, "but at the same time be hands on and physically implement and iterate on the low level of making games in a more substantial way than time affords me when working as a lead on multi-hundred person titles."

juxo.tao.pose | verb [trans.] | place or deal with together for contrasting effect : Harmonix's Nickelback Rock Band DLC was juxtaposed with Creedence Clearwater Revival the following week.

Head past the break for the complete track pack details.

ION has refreshed its "premium" (read: 'spensive) Drum Rocker peripheral for the upcoming Rock Band 3. The new Drum Rocker Pro includes four drums, three cymbals and the new "Pro Pedal," a kick drum pedal with "all-metal construction," plus a "dual-chain drive, adjustable beater and rubber trigger," all of which sound like they're probably very impressive.

The new kit will be available for PS3, Xbox 360 and Wii this holiday season, timed with the release of Rock Band 3. The fancy new pedal will also be sold separately, for anyone with a previous ION set or regular Rock Band drums who is humiliated about the state of their kick drum pedal. No price for either item was announced, but expect to pay a premium.

You won't need to swallow a little computer to sound robotically awesome in Rock Band 3. Audio signal processing company iZotope, Inc. has announced that it's providing pitch correction technology to the music game, as initially revealed to Joystiq in an interview with Harmonix. The game will use iZotope's real-time pitch detection and correction to make you sound less like yourself and more like someone who can hit a damn note occasionally. And for those of you who are already vocally gifted, the use of vocal processing is optional.

This is the beginning of a new initiative for iZotope, who hopes to offer audio effect and processing middleware to more game developers, targeting the Xbox 360 and PS3 platforms.

#harmonix Rock Band's singing section might be very forgiving, but the ear doesn't lie. Now Harmonix teams with audio signal processing company iZotope to add real-time pitch correction to Rock Band 3, saving ears everywhere from your harpy-like screeching. More »

Today's announcement of next week's Rock Band DLC from Harmonix is headlined: "Nickelback. 6 Pack. 'Nuff Said." And it's true -- a Harmonix staffer has already said 'nuff on the subject of this particular Canadian outfit.

Head past the break for the complete track pack details.

Just playing a guitar isn't hard: you buy a guitar, look at a book to learn a few chords, practice putting your fingers in the right places, and strum away at a song. But playing a guitar professionally is very hard; it takes time and practice and dedication. Likewise, Rock Band is a good time: figure out when to strum, and wail away on some pop tunes with your friends. But Rock Band 3's Pro mode isn't kidding around. It's got a difficulty curve almost as steep as the real thing, and while you still probably won't be able to play stadiums after beating a song on Pro Expert, you'll have a very good idea of what it takes to do so.

We got to play a couple of songs with the Mustang Pro Guitar controller shown off by Harmonix and MadCatz at E3 this week, and it's a beast -- each string of 17 frets on the guitar is an individual button, and there are six strings where the strum bar sits. Harmonix really wanted to make a real guitar as a controller (and it eventually did with the Fender Rock Band 3 Squier), but that "comes with a little bit of baggage of its own" in the form of tuning and calluses. We asked if the developer tried a touch-based system, but reps passed on confirming any prototypes, instead saying that the 102-button setup was the best solution it found.

As the official peripheral manufacturer for Rock Band 3 instruments, Mad Catz was at E3 showing off its new Rock Band products (sans game). On the outside, the MIDI PRO-Adapter (pictured above in all three flavors) looks like a chunky, 16-bit era controller -- in fact, in can be used as a gamepad, confirms Mad Catz global PR manager Alex Verrey. Inside, the device contains the technology to convert a real MIDI instrument into a Rock Band 3 controller. (The adapter is not compatible with other music games.)

The PRO-Adapter connects to an Xbox 360, PS3 or Wii via USB, and the MIDI instrument plugs into the port on the side of the device. A three-way switch in the center (above the system button) toggles between drum, keyboard and guitar inputs. Just above the switch, is the velocity adjustment wheel used to "tune" MIDI drums and reduce cross-talk during gameplay. The triangular wedge button on the bottom right of the PRO-Adapter activates "Overdrive" mode in Rock Band 3, and a belt clip on the back of the peripheral keeps the adapter secured to your person (just mind the length of the USB cable as you leap about). There's also a headset jack on the adapter.

"We can't possibly guarantee compatibility with all MIDI instruments," warns Verrey, but the MIDI PRO-Adapter "should work with the vast, vast majority." Verrey guarantees compatibility with the real Fender Squier Stratocaster guitar that works with Rock Band 3, and a full MIDI instrument compatibility list will be published prior to the MIDI PRO-Adapter retail release ($40) this holiday.

Take a closer look at Mad Catz's Wireless Keyboard Controller in the gallery below and head past the break for full details.

EA confirms that Harmonix's next band game will actually see a release down under.

This s*** just got real.

Can rocking out without peripherals still be fun?

Is there anything cooler than a keytar? Yes.

#rockband3 The next version of Rock Band is going "Pro," adding a new keyboard controller, a 102-button, six-string guitar controller and a new cymbal add-on for the game's drum controller. How much will Pros have to pay to play? More »

A press release from Mad Catz has revealed pricing on several of the new Rock Band 3 peripherals -- and also revealed an interesting gameplay quirk about the highest-profile new instrument, the keyboard. The keyboard ($79.99 by itself, $129.99 with a copy of the game) can be used not just to play piano or keyboard tracks, but can also be used to play lead guitar or bass. That adds even more variation to Rock Band 3!

The Fender Mustang Pro-Guitar Controller (the one with all the buttons, not the real electric guitar) will retail for $149.99, which means that the Squier Stratocaster is likely to be ... pretty expensive. The Pro Cymbals Expansion Kit, which adds three newly-designed cymbals to the existing drum kit, will be $39.99, as will the MIDI Pro-Adapter for connecting any MIDI keyboard or drum set to your game console. In addition, Mad Catz will announce revised versions of the existing Rock Band instruments soon. Essentially, not only will Rock Band 3 have more options than ever, it'll also have more ways for you to spend a lot of money.