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Walking into the Harmonix presentation for Rock Band 3, I was wondering what kind of surprises they had in store for us.  I say this, because we already heard about the new guitar that would play like a real guitar, and the keyboard, so what would they have that would wow us in their presentation.  We we did actually get to see the new Squier guitar in action and a little surprise at the end with the guitar that was very cool.  If you want to see more, hit the jump to hear everything that was presented in our 22 minute show.  Yeah, it was suppose to be 30 minutes, but they were behind schedule, and we were the last group for the day, so we were a bit rushed.

First off, we now know that we have an 83 track set list that will be on the disc.  Some of the tracks featured on the disc include Crazy Train by Ozzy Osborne, I Love Rock and Roll by Joan Jett and the Blackhearts, a Whitesnake track, and a Doors track to name a few.  The songs are all picked with the full band in mind, so most will have some form of keyboard usage in them.

Also new to the series is the overlay menu.  The overlay menu is riding at the bottom of every section of Rock Band 3, and it will allow for things like on-the-fly drop-in/drop-out, lefty flip, difficulty switching and more.  Also of note is the fact that when you come out of pause, it looked as if the game scrolls back a few notes so you can pick up where you left off in the song.  All of these are much needed features for Rock Band, as it has always been annoying that you have to exit out of Band mode if you have someone that wants to drop out of the game.

The presentation also went to great pains to mention how many songs are now available for the current Rock Band games, and that by the time Rock Band 3 hits store shelves, we will see a total of over 1400 tracks available for gamers to purchase and play in any Rock Band franchise.  We did not get word on whether there will be a Rock Band 2 track import function, although that seems likely, considering what Harmonix has done in the past.  Also, we did not get an idea of whether old tracks will have keyboard sections added.  This would seem less likely, as they would have to go back and re-track so many songs.  I am a bit sad about this, but I still hold out hope that there might be new charts for all the tracks to add keyboard and pro modes.

With so many tracks, it can be a pain in the ass to find a series of songs, so Harmonix has added new filters for gamers to use to narrow down track selection, including by band, genre, year and many more.  This should allow you to finally build that ultimate 80′s hair band set lists.  Hell, there should be a filter called Hair Bands.  Harmonix, make this happen.  You can also rate your library, with a 1-5 star system.  This seemed a bit weird, but when Harmonix told us that these rankings affect what songs will show up in random song choices, I was all for it.  Too many times, I have had Green Grass and High Tides show up in my random picks, and no offense to The Outlaws, but I hate that song.  Being able to rate it with a one star rating and see it disappear from the possibility of coming up in random lists is a huge plus for me.

Set lists also get a mini-overhaul, as you can now create custom set lists and save them for later pull up.  You can also, take set lists you create and upload them to share with other people.  Nothing was said as to where this stuff uploads, but most likely, a server that Harmonix will be hosting.  You can also link into some form of social networking.  While not specified as to what kind of social networking, Facebook and Twitter would seem most likely.  I would love the idea of announcing that you are looking for Ultimate Set List players on Facebook and Twitter.

At the end of the presentation, we were given the opportunity to see the new Squier guitar in action.  It is a near full size guitar, with steel strings.  However the steel strings only go over the strum area.  On the fret board, we do not have strings, but instead, there are hundreds of finger sensors.  These sensors will detect finger placement on the fret board and mimic that position for the strumming.  It worked really well when in action in Pro Guitar mode.  Pro Guitar mode will have several levels of difficulty, so you can start simple and work your way up to actually playing real guitar.  The guitar can also be hooked up to a real amplifier and played like a real guitar.  They played through a song with the guitar hooked up to both an amp and a Rock Band 3 game and we saw the frets being played, while hearing actual guitar sounds coming out of the amp.  It was really cool.  We also got to see pro-keyboard mode, where you will use all 25 keys.  On the note highway, the game shifts left and right to show you that you have to move up and down the keyboard.  Also, keyboard parts in normal mode, can be played with a normal guitar if you do not want to spend the do-rei-mi on the keyboard peripheral.

Right now, Rock Band 3 is shaping up to be a big step up in the franchise for those that want to see a culmination of going from fake guitar to real guitar playing.  The keyboard addition is a nice plus, although, it did look a bit complex.  But knowing that I can get the possibility of learning how to play a guitar is quite nice.  I have always said that I was against this, but when I saw how easy the presenters made it look, I am ready to at least give it a shot.  We still need answers on the Rock Band 2 song import, but I have to think that is coming.  Overall, Harmonix looks to have another great hit that will make it worth spending money on a new disc for the series.

CORRECTION: After checking with Harmonix to verify the Mustang vs. the Squier, it does seem that the Squier will have strings going the whole way up, while the Mustang will use sensors.  Also, the Squier is the one that can go on the road, not the Mustang.  I blame the excessive amount of sweat in the air at the show for the error.