Finally – after a lot of speculation about whether it was a mistake that a 360 advert announced that RB2 was out in the UK in November, it’s been confirmed for 21st November (on 360 anyway). Definite purchase! The hardware apparently won’t be out until early December, but I’ll be buying the solus anyway.
Also we finally know who ‘won’ when it comes to securing the rights for the first Beatles tracks in a music game, and it’s MTV / Harmonix. I can’t imagine how much they had to pay, or what they had to promise, but it’s definitely happening. I’m personally not a huge Beatles fan, I think they made some great songs but are idolised far too much – I can think of a number of bands I think were just as important in the last 30-40 years, and I really don’t subscribe to the view that the Beatles are the best band ever without question, and will be forever – some fans seem to verge on religeous fervour in this regard, which is a little scary. In fact I find the whole suggestion that one band could be ‘the best ever’ offensive. It’s like saying one painter mattered more than any other in the history of art – total nonsense.
While I’m pleased to hear the ‘better’ team got the license here, what’s concerning is that the galloping hubris / idol worship that seems to regularly orbit the Beatles seems to have affected how they’re going to develop this game. They’ve announced that this is a brand new game, not a Rock Band pack, crafted specifically around the Beatles in a ‘unique and innovative’ way. This sounds like it might be at risk of ‘rubbing its own rhubarb’ to me – I trust Harmonix to make great music games, but will they end up being constrained / railroaded in terms of design here, to the detriment of the gamer? Only time will tell.
October 31st, 2008 at 12:29 pm
“on 360 anyway” – what a surprise! Once again, anything that isn’t a 360 gets the shaft by Harmonix and EA.
I fully expected your comments in relation to the Beatles game by Harmonix. As a Beatles fan, I feel I must state that not every fan out there worships them religiously to the extent that you are stating. There are probably a fair percentage, but then again the same could be said for ANY group, be it The Beatles or Take That (shudder). You will always get odd balls who take their love for a group a level too far.
I also think it doubtful that many fans believe that The Beatles are ‘the best ever’, by totally disregarding every other group that has gone previously and is due to come. There will be numerous fans who consider The Beatles to be their favourite group, but there is no harm in that (after all, who hasn’t got there preferred artists?) I fully acknowledge that numerous other groups have also contributed massively to the medium, hell, The Beatles themselves were heavily influenced by others (the likes of Elvis and Bob Dylan spring to mind).
I sometimes think that you are motivated to dislike The Beatles BECAUSE they are popular and considered by most to be influential, purely to be controversial and distinctive. I now that I probably lack the musical savvy, knowledge and background that you have, but still I am consistently impressed by both the music and achievements of The Beatles.
Anyway, I digress (and mentally turn down my irritation dial)… back to the game (of which we know very little).
From a fans perspective (which I know you are not), a separate game which, from my understanding, seems to be a cross between a retrospective and an interactive Rock Band type game, is much preferable to a simple song pack for Rock Band. As fun as it would be o simply play Beatles tracks as part of Rock Band, playing a separate game which tracks their progress from start to finish and mixes in their history, artistry and music is a much preferable prospective. So I guess the question becomes whether Harmonix are aiming for a general gamer, or a Beatles fan, and the answer seems to be the latter. It was probably partly a requirement off The Beatles that this simply not be a track pack and also partly a wish or Harmonix to expand their games to possibly reach new audiences. So, generally a win win situation. Of course there will be some people who would just prefer a track pack for Rock Band, and who know this might also come after the Beatles game?
Anyway, this will be a day one purchase for me (so long as there are no further stupid exclusivity arrangements applied to this).
November 1st, 2008 at 3:37 pm
I think you’ll find I said ‘some fans’, not ‘all fans’. Honestly, since the re-mastering recently I’ve lost count of the number of gushing fans I’ve seen on TV who claim the Beatles are more important than any other group in music history, and it makes me fume.
Like I say I think the Beatles did some great work. In 10 years they produced more quality work than probably any other band, and what they did was hugely varied; for that they deserve considerable respect. Obviously in commercial terms they have been the most successful too. But cultural influence isn’t just about how successful you are, or how many records you sell. It’s also not about what philosophies you start to espouse once commercial success isn’t enough for you anymore (and to be honest, I get find the Beatles ‘peace and love’ message rather hollow when Apple Corps has been so ruthlessly commercial on their behalf over the years). It’s about what new ideas you bring to the table – and no doubt the Beatles did bring a lot, but to say they overshadow everyone elses is manifestly unjust to the huge number of other artists in the last 30-40 years.
“I sometimes think that you are motivated to dislike The Beatles BECAUSE they are popular and considered by most to be influential”
I don’t dislike the Beatles (although I also wouldn’t call myself a ‘fan’), I dislike the excessive weight they are given by the media, and in many ways the way Apple Corps exploits that (the Beatles can never do anything like any other band, since they’re ‘special’). In the last 10 years, they’ve gone from being respected but a little unfashionable (Beatlemania was very subdued in the 80s and 90s) to a new wave of people going nuts over them again, since the remastering, like it’s the 60′s all over again and the last 30 years didn’t happen. IMO the best judgement of any work is in the wider context – in the 60′s Beatlemania exaggerated their importance and lots of other bands got overshadowed, and to an extent it’s happening again in a historical review. Personally I think the Beatles should be highly respected but alongside other historical greats like Bowie, The Who, The Rolling Stones, and many, many, many others. The Beatles don’t deserve to be elevated above all these others to some kind of god-like status. Sure individuals can have their favourites, but in the media Beatlemania is once again something of an institution, and I think it’s unrepresentative.
My advice to anyone looking to experience music is not to concentrate on one or two ‘headline’ bands, but to listen to as much as possible. That’s why I like Harmonix throwing in some odd indie bands in their track packs, sometimes you discover some real gems. I have no ‘favourite’ band personally, and haven’t for about 10 years now – I used to be mad for REM but although I still like their work, my tastes have broadened a lot. I don’t think I even have 5 ‘favourite’ bands. There’s just a rather large bloc of music that I like, from lots of bands, from the last 40 years.
Maybe it’s just me – I don’t have a ‘ranking’ sort of personality when it comes to content. I like different aspects of different things at different times – maybe if I had lists of things, they’d be multidimensional; the ordering would be different depending on what criteria I was ranking them at the time (Rock Band comes out on top when I’m playing music games in a group, for example). Music as a whole is just too wide a content area (and so are games, really), to pick anything as ‘best’. I guess simplifications that the media make like ‘the Beatles are the most important band in history’ just annoy me. Hey ho.
Oh, I still have one major exception to generally liking the Beatles work – Hey Jude sucks, and everyone else in the world is wrong