They're the Taxmen, ooo ooooo

They’re the Taxmen, ooo ooooo

Submitted by Joe Fourhman on September 14, 2009 – 9:09 am24 Comments

beatles-com One of the revelations on our latest podcast is that Haygood and I are in agreement that The Beatles: Rock Band is simply not a 9-out-of-10 game. This stands us at opposition with nearly every review out there, from GayGamer to IGN. Although we disagreed on a few specifics, our thought is that, matched feature for feature to a release like Rock Band 2, the Beatles edition just doesn’t offer enough play for that $60. There is quite a lot of stuff missing and the Beatles-specific add-ons do not make up the lack.

Gaming critic Ian Bogost holds a similar view, although his cynicism is largely borne of irritation with a ridiculously hyperbolic New York Times review. The Times suggests that BRB “may be the most important video game yet made.” Really. Bogost also asks why we should all fall down for this game when the group “spent decades not only failing to understand [gaming], but also [deriding it] as useless and insolent?”

It’s not unusual for non-gaming publications to appear out of touch with our little world; the media gets us wrong all the time. But this time, we have a confluence of agreement between just about everybody, inside and out. It seems like only a handful of us disagree with the statement that Beatles: Rock Band is “transformative entertainment experience.”

Not that BRB is a bad game. Far from it. It’s packed with songs you know, it has a great look, and parts of it are absolutely brilliant. There’s just not enough of it when stacked against other music games.

What’s your take? Do you think it’s worth full price? Are we paying a Beatles Tax on this one?

Tags: beatles, rock band

http://www.aeropause.com ShaneW

We're most definitely paying $20 for the name!
http://www.facebook.com/people/Tony-Sadowski/506807615 Tony Sadowski

Beatles Tax. No doubt. And you'll like it.

You want the best band ever, you're going to pay.
http://silenthillheaven.com Vixx

^ Exactly, Tony. Rightly or wrongly, that's the case here.

Objectively, the game was agonisingly short and a complete piece of crap for someone who isn't a Beatles fan. But personally, I love it; love the animation, the movies, the music – everything. Lots of replay value for me, too. Just a shame it's so goddamn short where then are so many more tracks (Hey Jude, Let It Be – SURELY kept back for DLC?!) that could've beefed up the setlist. So I feel ripped off in terms of length, but not in content.

It's not evangelical, though – and certainly not, ahem, a “transformative entertainment experience”. It's just a fun game with great music but put it next to GH5 and I'd struggle to pick a preference in terms of playability.
Jordan_Snyder

Are you kidding me? Compared to the other Rock Band games, this is like Jesus on a stick! Is there anyone that doesn't like The Beatles? You don't have to be in love with them to enjoy the game. In the other Rock Band titles, they have like 80 songs with maybe 10 great ones. With The Beatles, all 45 songs are great.
Nat_K

(I've tried posting 3-4 times here throughout the day. Here's hoping this works…)

This game has gotten my wife to play with me three days straight until almost midnight.That alone is worth the $60.

Plus, it's great, you know, to actually know what the artists are singing. Just sayin'.
http://www.fourhman.com Joe Fourhman

I just wish the best band ever had received the best game ever, instead of a somewhat light and limp offering.

I keep thinking back to the initial announcement that Harmonix was making a Beatles game, and how we were led to believe it would be totally different and amazing… and then we just ended up with Guitar Hero Aerosmith except with music people actually like.
http://www.facebook.com/people/Tony-Sadowski/506807615 Tony Sadowski

This is where Rock Band-style games are opened up for old/casual/Baby Boomer gaming types. Right?

I've screamed before about how no music games are capable of having a song list that makes me HAVE to have it, anymore. All the really good guitar songs are taken. I don't care much about karaoke. Drums are a novelty.

I'm a Guitar Hero guy in a Rock Band world, and this Beatles thing is the only game that might pull me back into the genre.

I imagine your enjoyment will vary, depending on how true and deep your love is for all things Beatles. That, and how deeply you're involved in your relationship to existing, main-series-entry music games.

Maybe it's just a B- for a connoisseur, but to the unwashed masses or the uninitiated/lapsed music gamer…it might be a REVOLUTION.

(BEATLES'd!)
Nat_K

I got my start with World Tour and then received the RB2 kit for Christmas. I like them both, but prefer RB2 more.

Just slightly different from you, but I'm a drum man. I find the drums in Beatles to be very easy, so I've gone up a notch. They definitely have dumbed it down a bit. However, the songs back in the 60s were not as complex. heck, I think it's the same bets over and over with different lyrics. Then you get to play the studio albums and you realize that the songs are brilliant.

…and I'm not generally a Beatles fan.
http://www.aeropause.com mclazyj

Okay, if you try to tell me that the song “Boys” is great, I am going to get on a plane, take some valium to cope with the flight, rent a car in Charlotte and drive to Chapel Hill to beat you with the ugly stick.

In all seriousness, it is not the fact that songs are great or not, it is the monumental step backwards. Let me know how you enjoy playing your DLC in career mod….oh that's right, you can't. That would have gone a long way to making the game better. Programming the hooks in up front to add that stuff to the career path, but they did not.

I also seem to be the only one here, but I felt the models were a bit stiff for the early part of the game. It could just be that The Beatles were not a very energetic band on stage, but I just felt like they were from the Hall of Presidents animatronic display here at Disneyland, because they were so stilted.
http://www.facebook.com/people/Tony-Sadowski/506807615 Tony Sadowski

“Boys” is a cover. It's a holdover from the kind of stuff they used to do back in the Germany days, when they were literally a cover band hanging out in bars. They didn't write that. Great? No. Variety, yes.

Making Ringo part of the group is something they followed through on as long as he was part of the band.

All human animation looks fake to me. In any game. It's always glorified action figures.

And, to me, Career Mode only existed to unlock songs I could play in Free Play. So…yeah, I'm not as worried about it.
http://www.fourhman.com Joe Fourhman

My big drag with DLC not appearing in career mode is that there are specific high score goals (trophies) that come out of career mode. And as it stands, I'll have to play the same 45 songs over and over again to pump those scores. If they allowed DLC songs into career mode, I'd have more options to choose from. They could totally patch that in, I would think.

I guess that's the main complaint about BRB… not enough options. The slavish devotion to making sure that players can't select Sgt Pepper in the Cavern Club venue makes the game feel less fresh every time you play it.
http://www.facebook.com/people/Tony-Sadowski/506807615 Tony Sadowski

I'm a Wii owner. Only.

I don't care about trophies at all.
RingoNose

OK, my two cent's worth as a RB drummer (and a non-drummer in RL).
I can Hard or Expert almost every one of these off the bat, while I am lucky to be able to Med or Hard most of the tracks in RB2. Not sure if it is familiarity with the source material, or just the fact that there are fewer tricks to learn. In any event, this makes it feel easier.
No one mentioned the HARMONY. Harmony singing is freaking HARD. Try playing the guitar and bass while singing harmony, then tell me the game is “too easy”.
We blew through the game in 5 hours with a guitar, drummer and vocalist. We then played another night with 8 or 10 folks at a party, and everyone took turns singing and harmonizing. That was amazingly fun.
Oh, and “Boys” is freaking weak. But playing Helter Skelter almost makes up for it, even if I keep hearing Bono.
Well worth the $60 beans, and they can have more of my dough for Sgt. Pepper, and still more for Revolver.
P.S. I may be the only drummer with a toon whose nose shrank when switching to Ringo.
P.P.S. I love the TV spot where the Abbey Road crossing changes into the scrolling RB notes.
Jordan_Snyder

High five, Tony. I mean, I love the occasional achievement and will try to get more if it's a game I really like, but I don't go nuts over them.
Jordan_Snyder

A) Boys wasn't even one of their actual songs. There might be a few that aren't spectacular, but compared to Rock Band and Guitar Hero, there's a ton of great hits.

B) Who cares about the career mode? Once I've completed it, I just hang out in the Quickplay menu. I mean, you can make a set list in Quickplay, so that's basically the same thing.

C) I know what you mean, but if you watch videos of them, they actually are pretty stiff on stage. Ringo always looks kind of goofy playing the drums. What really bugged me were the models and animations of the screaming girls. Those were just way too creepy.

P.S. I don't live in Chapel Hill, so good luck with your ugly stick!
http://www.fourhman.com Joe Fourhman

I hope the drum trainer stuff is easier than RB2, so I could maybe actually get a Trophy for slogging through all of that.

Yeah, harmonies are difficult in general for laypersons. But I'm not sure that the Beatles implementation makes the process all that rewarding. I'd rather just have duets enabled in Rock Band proper. I do like how BRB lets multiple people sing the main part (IE, the game doesn't care about harmonies) and then takes the best score from the one best singer.

I definitely don't buy that it's the harmonies that are keeping Beatles songs from being exported out to Rock Band. What's keeping the Beatles songs out of Rock Band is Apple Corps, period.
http://www.fourhman.com Joe Fourhman

It's in all versions. It's part of the in-game challenges that unlock different user icons. Not necessarily related to trophies/achievements.

The point stands: the game expects you to want to achieve these challenges by playing the same 45 songs over and over, no DLC allowed.
http://www.aeropause.com mclazyj

How dare you make such a statement. Achievements mean nothing. I mean, I get insulting trophies, as I barely understand the forumla for giving gold, silver and bronze, but attacking achievements is like messing with my emotions and stuff. Don't make me get Big Worm on you.
http://www.aeropause.com mclazyj

I think Koss mentioned it best on the podcast, but look at the drum set that Ringo uses. It is very minimal, as were most drum kits back in the day. No one had drum sets like they do now. I look at Lars when he is drumming and I think they have to drop him from a crane into that drum nest that surrounds him.
http://www.facebook.com/people/Tony-Sadowski/506807615 Tony Sadowski

If it's any consolation, Revolver, Abbey Road and Sgt. Pepper's are really, really great albums.

There ARE songs missing from the game. That was obvious by the time the final set list was released. “Boys” is in NO WAY the star of the set list, either. I'm sure there are songs on there anyone would ditch in favor of others in the Beatles catalog.

Don't think it's a huge problem, though, in the end.

Some of my much-older coworkers were talking about playing BRB when I walked by them, this afternoon. EXCITEDLY. Their sheer joy over this experience – and the fact that I'm far less critical about the games buy than others – make me think this is a great place to jump in, if you haven't yet.

If you already have RB2, this is dependent on your Beatles fandom.

You guys may have a point that more could've and maybe should've been included in the full BRB package, but this raises two issues that keep coming up:

1) Reviewing a NON-BROKEN game based on what it isn't/could've been there might not be entirely fair. What knocks points off of your score might not even show up on the radar as an issue for other players.

2) Companies releasing games and offering DLC soon afterward that easily could've been included. DLC is the thing, now. We're enabling them. They're definitely milking us. This is not a secret. It DOES seem like kind of a scam.

Don't know that I have a good answer for either item.
http://www.fourhman.com Joe Fourhman

It's in all versions. It's part of the in-game challenges that unlock different user icons. Not necessarily related to trophies/achievements.

The point stands: the game expects you to want to achieve these challenges by playing the same 45 songs over and over, no DLC allowed.
http://www.aeropause.com mclazyj

How dare you make such a statement. Achievements mean nothing. I mean, I get insulting trophies, as I barely understand the forumla for giving gold, silver and bronze, but attacking achievements is like messing with my emotions and stuff. Don't make me get Big Worm on you.
http://www.aeropause.com mclazyj

I think Koss mentioned it best on the podcast, but look at the drum set that Ringo uses. It is very minimal, as were most drum kits back in the day. No one had drum sets like they do now. I look at Lars when he is drumming and I think they have to drop him from a crane into that drum nest that surrounds him.
http://www.facebook.com/people/Tony-Sadowski/506807615 Tony Sadowski

If it's any consolation, Revolver, Abbey Road and Sgt. Pepper's are really, really great albums.

There ARE songs missing from the game. That was obvious by the time the final set list was released. “Boys” is in NO WAY the star of the set list, either. I'm sure there are songs on there anyone would ditch in favor of others in the Beatles catalog.

Don't think it's a huge problem, though, in the end.

Some of my much-older coworkers were talking about playing BRB when I walked by them, this afternoon. EXCITEDLY. Their sheer joy over this experience – and the fact that I'm far less critical about the games buy than others – make me think this is a great place to jump in, if you haven't yet.

If you already have RB2, this is dependent on your Beatles fandom.

You guys may have a point that more could've and maybe should've been included in the full BRB package, but this raises two issues that keep coming up:

1) Reviewing a NON-BROKEN game based on what it isn't/could've been there might not be entirely fair. What knocks points off of your score might not even show up on the radar as an issue for other players.

2) Companies releasing games and offering DLC soon afterward that easily could've been included. DLC is the thing, now. We're enabling them. They're definitely milking us. This is not a secret. It DOES seem like kind of a scam.

Don't know that I have a good answer for either item.