When Harmonix got its start nearly two decades ago, it didn't focus on making games where you slavishly tapped pre-set buttons on a plastic controller to the beat of a song. No, early Harmonix was focused on tools that let you actually make beautiful music, without all the difficult technical challenges that are usually needed to become a virtuoso with a real instrument (see this video for more on that early Harmonix vision).
That history shines through in what is probably Rock Band 4's most interesting new feature, one that does away with the now-familiar track of "note gems"—it allows you to really rock out your own way. More than anything else in the game, guitar solos have the potential to make Rock Band 4 relevant again to players who feel like they overloaded on the whole rhythm game concept years ago.
When guitar solos showed up in old Rock Band games, they just threw a lot of guitar notes at you at once. Rock Band 4's guitar solos actually put the player in control of the music. Strumming on the controller while holding any single fret or combination of frets during these solo sections will play a distinct note or a short, sampled guitar lick, sort of like a MIDI controller on the PC. Harmonix has worked to make sure those notes and samples are in tune and appropriate to the chords in the current section of the song, changing every bar or so to keep up with the backing track.
Read 12 remaining paragraphs | Comments
No comments:
Post a Comment