Rock Band - interview

Features
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We rock out with Harmonix's VP of product development

How in-depth are players able to customize their rocker?

LoPiccolo: There are no official characters in Rock Band; instead we give you the ability to create your own personalized rocker with our Character Creator. You can mold your character into your own unique rock avatar. We've chosen to put a lot of depth into clothing style, hairstyles and tattoos, with emphasis on specific rock genres such as punk, metal and vintage rock clothing. You also have the ability to customize your instrument in-game.

You've mentioned there'll be downloadable content. Could you be more specific about what you have planned?

LoPiccolo: Based on our work with the Guitar Hero games, it has become obvious that what people care about most are the songs. We're fully committed to providing our audience more songs of all genres after we ship. We really see Rock Band as a song-delivery platform in addition to being a videogame. It's the songs that really matter, and we've got some amazing stuff already licensed and ready to go.

LoPiccolo: The Rock Band guitar controller is modeled after the iconic Fender Stratocaster and will have some features never before seen on an existing guitar controller. To start, it features a five-way toggle switch similar to the "real" Fender Strat that will let you select guitar effects like flange, chorus and delay when playing solo. The Rock Band Fender Strat also showcases two sets of fret buttons, one at the top and one at the bottom of the neck, for use on solos. And this time we didn't leave the lefties out of the mix! The strap pegs unscrew so you can flip the strap direction for left-handers!

Can you describe the drumkit controller in terms of its look and special features?

LoPiccolo: The Rock Band drum set has all the features of a real kit with four pads and a kick pedal. We've mapped all the drum parts of real songs into these pads. Using real wooden sticks you sit at the drum set and are transformed into a real drummer! The experience is so close to the real act of drumming you have to feel it to believe it. And unlike using a guitar controller, which doesn't teach you any major skills of real guitar playing, these drums teach you the basics needed to play on a real drumkit. So it'll get you started as a drummer!

Luke Albiges

Luke Albiges is a veteran video game journalist, having worked in the industry for over 20 years. In that time, Luke has been the Editor of Play magazine, Associate Editor of Retro Gamer, and Games Editor of games™. He contributed to countless gaming books and bookazines in that time as well, but he decided to leave the glamorous print journalism life behind to take on the role of Editor for TrueAchievements.