Playstation 3 Rock Band Special Edition | 
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| From: MTV Games
Category: Video Games
List Price: $139.99
Buy New: $125.99
You Save: $14.00 (10%)
New (10) Used (4) from $109.87
Rating:  97 reviews
Sales Rank: 536
Platform: Playstation 3
Genre: musical_instrument_games
ESRB: Teen
Media: Video Game
Edition: Special
Autographed: No
Memorabilia: No
Batteries Included: No
Age: 12 - 20 years
Operating System: XXX
Shipping Weight (lbs): 22
Dimensions (in): 15.3 x 11.5 x 25.5
MPN: 15914
Model: 15783161
UPC: 014633159141
EAN: 0014633159141
ASIN: B000TSX3TS
Release Date: November 20, 2007
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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| Features:
| • | Experience 4 music games in 1--master lead guitar, bass guitar, drums, and vocals | | • | Music spans all genres of rock and includes many master recordings from legendary artists | | • | Form your own band, create and customize your own rocker, and travel on a fast rise to fame around the world | | • | Choose single-player Career mode leading a band or multiplayer as part of the band or against each other--in person or online | | • | Supports downloadable content for never-ending challenges |
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Product Description
Time to release your inner rock star! Dive into Rock Band's challenging and addicting game modes and rock out to your favorite tunes. Put together a band, play in it, and tour for fame and fortune- all while learning to master lead/bass guitar, drums and vocals. Major record labels and leading music publishers have signed on to provide unrivaled access to master recordings and legendary rock artists - from punk, metal and alternative to classic and southern rock - including many master recordings from legendary artists, including acts like Metallica, Bon Jovi, Stone Temple Pilots and the Ramones! Learn to play songs spanning all genres of rock and with access to new downloadable content, it's a new concert experience every time! Play together in your living room or across the world - Rock Band offers deep online functionality, allowing players to rock together whether they're in Rhode Island or Reykjavik. This Special Edition box includes game, guitar, microphone and drum set -- everything you need to get in the game and rock out! Call out the crowd! Vocalists can bring the crowd to their feet during Rock Band's freestyle vocal fill windows. Ad-lib your own words or shout to the crowd to raise the rock intensity of the performance. Band mates can fail out of a song for poor performance, but the band still plays on. Rescue your failing mate by busting out signature moves and blistering solos to wow the crowd with showmanship. Boost your bonus! Earn bonus points for your band during Rock Band's Unison Phrase opportunities if everyone plays perfectly. ESRB Rated T for Teen.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 45 more reviews...
 Two Words for Fun: November 21, 2007
Jodie Muramoto (Phoenix, AZ United States)
54 out of 58 found this review helpful
Rock Band.
It all started 8 years ago when I was introduced to Guitar Freaks at Gameworks in Tempe, AZ. The idea of playing a musical instrument as part of video game was addictive. Granted, the songs were original and limited, and the game bundle (offered only for the PS1 in Japan) was expensive, but Konami had the right idea.
Enter Guitar Hero. The original PS2 version, released two years ago, took the Guitar Freaks ingenuity and turned it into a product that appealed to the American audience. Those of us who had spent hundreds of dollars at Gameworks pounding songs on Guitar Freaks knew exactly what to do with the guitar and how to read the screen. I snagged one the week it came out and played to my heart's content. With subsequent releases of GHII and Rock of the 80's, I had enough music to last me for a couple of years. Last year Guitar Hero II became the high-demand Christmas item to give, breaking out of the die-hard "gamer" audience and into the average household (a feat very rarely accomplished by developers who publish games that require a unique controller).
Harmonix, the developer for Rock Band, has their experience with successful rhythm-based games. Frequency, Amplitude, Karaoke Revolution and Guitar Hero all won the hearts of audiences and game reviewers. With the success of these games, their partnership with MTV Music to create Rock Band is ingenious and exciting. Who else would be better suited than MTV to convince musicians and music publishers to contribute to this project? And what more brilliant way could any band market themselves? They provide a single hit recording which is then mass distributed through a video game then played over and over by the fans that made the song a hit to begin with - no musician or band can go wrong.
And what about the game itself? Addictive. Energetic. Hypnotic. Entertaining. Fun.
Here are some real issues: price. The special edition bundle complete with the game, drum set, wireless guitar/bass and microphone is retailing for $169.99. It's expensive and a lot of money to spend on one video game. The nice thing is the guitar controller can be used to play Guitar Hero; however, it is still a lot of money for one game.
Another issue: system calibration. Some HD televisions and HD sound systems are causing a slight delay in game play, the source of a lot of frustration. There is a very limited and weak calibration setting in the game but it doesn't solve all the problems.
Another issue: the controllers themselves. Last night I spent many hours acquainting myself with the drum kit and got frustrated when cymbal crashes did not land correct. A successful hit has to be nearly dead center of the pad itself and that is not realistic when landing a cymbal crash. It is also frustrating that the pads do not react very well to snare rolls, a necessity in a drummer's repertoire. Anybody with actual drumming experience will find this process frustrating and will probably run back to their real drums for solace and comfort ("I can play drums, I can!").
However, all games face issues and luckily with time they can be fixed. Eventually, the price in the game will fall, great for those on budgets. System calibration will improve as game updates are pushed through online (a wonderful yet tedious aspect of the PS3/XBOX 360). The controllers themselves will improve with further technology and once third party developers get the thumbs up from Sony/Microsoft, they will come out with all sorts of accessories and equipment that will enhance and improve game play.
I can't wait.
Complaints aside (come on - we all have them), this game is everything fun. It is innovative and creative and never-ending. Tired of guitar? Try vocals. Beat the drums? Try bass. And the best part - find a band online or invite friends and have a ball. You will, you will spend hours and hours escaping into the great fantasy of being in a rock band. Guitar Hero put an air guitar in our hands, Rock Band gives you the rest. Expensive, yes. System bugs, yes. Controller delay, yes.
Worth it all, absolutely. And if you're still unsure, check out any big-box electronics store or video game retailer and play the demo. Better yet, check out the local video game retailer for Rock Band competitions (they do have them) and try it for yourself. You will love it.
Rock Band March 25, 2008
Nicholas D. Taylor (Baghbad Iraq)
7 out of 7 found this review helpful
I am a deployed soldier, and when I finaly got the game in the mail. pretty much my whole company got excited... even the people who really don't like Rock music came to watch those of us who knew the songs play and sing. We all had a blast for the few short hours that he have for some down time. There where some things that I noticed that could have been improved on... but when I looked over as saw just how much fun everyone was having pretending to be their fav. rock star, all that didn't matter... I would like to give a special thanks to the makers of that game, it really brigntened up our lives a little bit.
Rock out with Rock Band January 24, 2008
Dennis Hsu (CA United States)
6 out of 6 found this review helpful
I bought a PS3 because of Rock Band. That's how much I wanted to play the game. But before you rush to buy, take note of a few things.
1. If you own a 40 gig PS3, there are not enough USB ports to plug in all Rock Band peripherals unless you have a USB hub. Without that hub, only two people can play at a time.
2. The guitar hardware strummer is known to have problems. Mine broke within days, as did those of two others I know. You can't exchange it at a retail store, but EA has a support site that lets you send any faulty peripheral back in exchange for a new one. I waited about 2 weeks for mine.
3. Don't forget to calibrate the audio/visual syncing. Having tried Rock Band on a few televisions, I had to calibrate the audio/visual delay each time, otherwise it just doesn't feel like you're rockin' out.
Those points aside, Rock Band is awesome. The guitar parts are, on average, easier than they are in the Guitar Hero games, but they're still fun. If you can master the drums, then you WILL be able to play a drum set in real life - which totally rocks. The only thing I dislike about the drums is that the tapping is painfully obnoxious, so unless you blast the game's volume, you'll hear a constant "tap tap tap tap tap tap tap tap tap tap tap tap..." As for the singing, I found that you don't actually have to sing the words. As long as you can hum the pitch, you can do well.
Rock Band will bring hours and hours of fun, and it's one of those games that has infinite replay value.
What a cool experience!!!!! GREAT FUN!!! December 2, 2007
D. Mackinson (Illinois U.S.A.)
5 out of 5 found this review helpful
First, I have never played any type of other singing or guitar game for any of the video game platforms, other than making a fool of myself for a few minutes at the local Wal-Mart's Guitar Hero demo. I have friends and co-workers who have been telling me for months, how cool the Guitar Hero franchise is and that I should check it out. Having a PS3, the first available game was Guitar Hero III (Legends of Rock) that came out in late October. I was doing lots of research and getting ready to buy GH III, when I started hearing about rock band. It sounded very interesting, the whole concept of being able to do 4 different things (Rhythm, Bass, Drums and Rock the mic) in one game. So I decided that Rock Band was going to be my choice and my way to break the ice into this genre of game.
All that being said, I was able to get this game last night at about 7:30 Central time. I got it home, opened the box and glanced at the instruction book. Put together all the peripherals (Guitar and Drums) and stated playing.
Now, keep in mind that I have zero musical experience with guitars or drums or vocals for that matter. I started out with the vocal tutorial, spent about a half hour messing with that. Correction, WE spent about a half hour with the vocal tutorial. My wife was along for the ride as well. I'm 30 years old and she's 28, and we were like to kids in a candy store. We Had so much fun trying to out score eachother on the easier songs as we got our bearings with ths vocal portion of the game. Our Yellow Lab Toby, was looking at us like we had lost out minds. A lot of the songs we didn't recognize by title, but as soon as they starting playing, we knew them and were ROCKING!
After about 3 hours, I plugged in the guitar and left the mic in my wifes hands. I didn't do the guitar tutorial, so I was kinda flying blind with it. I picked it up pretty quick, and we were soon rocking tandem to this game. We had so much fun playing, singing and laughing. We decided to call it a night and it was well past 3 am. I haven't even plugged in the drums yet or really even scratched the surface with the guitar yet. This game is such a neat concept and going to be so much fun! We both had smiles on our faces the entire 7 or so hours we played.
My initial impressions are this game is going to be HUGE! With a vast song library included and the ability to download new songs, it will be a neverending experience. The peripherals seem to be solid and well built. I will post more as learn more and get more hands on time with the game. As for now, I have to get back to our husband/wife Rock Band.
great games, great peripherals March 18, 2008
Giftcard Customer
5 out of 5 found this review helpful
Ive been playing rockband for the ps3 for almost a month now and feel I should write a review. Ill break it down into two categories:
the game: Very good, and very fun. Unlike guitar hero 3 the game doesn't throw in extra notes, which makes things too easy sometimes, but less frustrating (failing keyboard parts in guitar hero would bug me). Singing is great (the mic gives good feedback) and drumming works very well. In fact, the new peripherals seem like they belong in this game more than the guitar - They actually improve your skill at their respective instruments. I play guitar and drums (and sing in the same sense that everyone does) and have always discouraged friends from believing guitar hero could seriously improve your playing. The mic, however, gives you very precise feedback on pitch and how well you maintain it, which is most of singing. Ive always been a guitarist that dabbles in drums, but after less than a month of playing my timings become so much better I might consider calling myself a drummer in a few months. It's important to note that you still need proper technique well singing or drumming, but the game play for these is much closer (but not perfectly the same) to the real experience.
The songs are mostly good. I don't know enough people to know if the songs I don't like are generally bad choices, but theres a lot of songs I like a lot in there. Theres also a LOT of downloadable songs, and harmonix seem to be very good about keeping up on that. this game, right now, lack heavy songs (hardcore and metal), which makes sense because you usually need a double bass pedal and pitch become less important when screaming, but still I hope they make some sort of 'bonus' game that has an extra bass pedal and a disc full of metal songs (from cryptopsy to dragonforce, ect). The team play is very fun and involved, and practice mode is a hundred times better on this than rockband - you can select the speed in 10% intervals and you don't need to constantly tell the game to replay the sections. I haven't played multiplayer so I cant comment, but it is available on the special edition thank god. The one complaint I have (other than lack of metal songs) is the customizability. Its extremely customizable (me and my girlfriend made band mates that actually look a great deal like us) but it actually makes me wish is were more so. I wish you could select specific facial features (cheeks/lips/eyes/chin) instead of set faces, and the same for hair. Id like that to be in Rockband 2 so my character can REALLY look like me, for added enjoyment. I suppose another complaint I could bring up is when you play the stage is very dark and you don't really gt shots of the crowd - I thought guitar hero did a better job of making you feel like your playing for people - although I don't know if Id actually want to trade the camera system they have for one thats way brighter than clubs actually are just to see the same audience member duplicated 100 times.
The fun only got 4 stars for me because of the intrinsic problems of getting sick with a limited setlist, and having to go into practice to go over difficult parts, which can be frustrating but necessary for career more. All in all I still look forward to playing this game, and think it really gives my ps3 collection well roundedness.
Peripherals: These seem VERY well built considering. I heard awful things, but when I got them I was impressed - my conclusion is they worked on them and got them better for the special edition version. I haven't had a problem with them yet. The guitar is better than the guitar hero version - its shaped closer to a read guitar, has extra features to the guitar hero one (including the option of selecting effects for solos with is sweet). The cons are picking on the guitar has become harder - the picking mechanism doesn't 'click' when you push it up or down, resulting in accidental hitting/not hitting of notes. Ive seen enough videos on youtube to know this is something to just get used to, and the frets 'click' a whole lot better than the guitar hero guitar, but getting used to it can be tough. Less troublesome is that the drums will miss a hit or double a hit every now and then depending on how hard you hit them. This requires you to be very stern and steady when playing, which can be a little unsettling for me since I live in an apartment and dont want to slap th bass pedal and annoy the people downstairs.
As a super duper added bonus tho, you can use the drums on the computer as a super cheap electric drumset. It lacks a lot of functionality (fewer pads, no volume sensativity, ect) but for practice/fun/simple demoing of stuff its a sweeet added bonus. And, the mic works EXCELLENTLY as a home recording device. Since its USB there is no lag if you don't have an audio card, and it works better than radioshack mics that Ive used. These are really just bonuses, but if your going to use them for that your buying more than just a game. Note that you do get hiss on the mic, this isnt professional equipment, but if your just recording something to remember it or to demo I feel it works well.
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