NEW YORK -- The Beatles: Rock Band set list expands Tuesday with the addition of the rest of the tracks from the band's incredible Abbey Road album. Here's why you need them.
If you bought September's best-selling music game but thought the track list could stand to be a bit longer, $17 will get you the rest of Abbey Road's highly singable selections, including the 16-minute B-side medley.
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At MTV Games' Times Square headquarters Monday, Wired.com jammed on new tunes like "Maxwell's Silver Hammer" and "You Never Give Me Your Money." Harmonix publicist Alex Navarro also served up a few fresh facts about the newly downloadable songs:
1. Abbey Road includes new "dreamscapes." The trippy background settings you see during the gameplay for the Abbey Road downloads are custom-built, like those on the Beatles: Rock Band disc. "They use existing artwork that's already on the disc, so you're not downloading like 300-MB files for each song," Navarro said. "But they're all customized with new camera cuts, new art design and all that sort of stuff."
2. There's new behind-the-scenes studio chatter for the additional songs. Like the other tracks included on the game disc, players will get to hear in-studio banter and warm-ups before the downloaded tracks begin. "You'll hear John warming up or you'll hear Paul playing a little riff or whatever from a song, and it's for those specific tracks," Navarro said. (There are no new photos or factoids to unlock, however.)
__3. The drummer has to sit out on "Because." __Beatles fans already know that "Because" has no drum track, and it's the first song for the game that doesn't have one. But this time around, there's less hassle for the full band. "In Rock Band 2, when you have to play a specific song (with a missing instrument part), you have to sign out that instrument to play it. For this, you don't," Navarro explained. "So if you're playing as a full band, and you do the full Abbey Road DLC [downloadable content] album, the drummer just hangs out for a song, and he's just out for that one and in on the next one. It's a lot easier."
4. All the Beatles: Rock Band songs are still created manually. Despite the new capabilities of Rock Band Network, the company's new DIY development tool to create Rock Band tracks, the songs are still crafted by the hands of Harmonix developers. "The* Beatles* stuff is a different animal because it does involve (producer) Giles Martin doing a lot of the mixing," Navarro said. "And we still have to go to England and get the mixes and do all of that stuff. It's all very under lock and key."
__5. If you want that 1-million-points Xbox Achievement, play the 16-minute medley. __On the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3, you'll have the option of playing Abbey Road's B-side as one long medley, from "You Never Give Me Your Money" all the way through "Her Majesty." (The Wii version won't be able to.)
Much of the Abbey Road album already appeared on the Beatles: Rock Band disc: "Come Together," "Something," "Octopus's Garden," "I Want You (She's So Heavy)," "Here Comes the Sun" and "The End."
Here's how the downloadable content, which will complete the album, can be purchased on Xbox 360, PlayStation 3 and Wii.
Available for Xbox 360 (Oct. 20) and PlayStation 3 (Oct. 22):
Individual Abbey Road singles: "Maxwell's Silver Hammer," "Oh! Darling" and "Because," $2 (160 Microsoft Points for Xbox 360) each.
The "Complete the Album Pack," at $17 (1,360 points), contains:
- Abbey Road singles: "Maxwell's Silver Hammer," "Oh! Darling" and "Because."
- The entire 16-minute *Abbey Road *B-side medley that includes: "You Never Give Me Your Money," "Sun King," "Mean Mr. Mustard," "Polythene Pam," "She Came in Through the Bathroom Window," "Golden Slumbers," "Carry That Weight," "The End" and "Her Majesty."
Additionally, the following songs from the "Compete the Album" set can be played as smaller sets:
- "You Never Give Me Your Money"
- "Sun King"/ "Mean Mr. Mustard"
- "Polythene Pam"/ "She Came in Through the Bathroom Window"
- "Golden Slumbers"/ "Carry That Weight"/ “The End"*
- "Her Majesty"
Available for Wii (Oct. 20):
Individual Abbey Road singles: "Maxwell's Silver Hammer, " "Oh! Darling," "Because," "You Never Give Me Your Money" and "Her Majesty."
Price: $2 (200 Wii Points) per track, $1 for "Her Majesty."
Multitrack sets:
- "Sun King"/ "Mean Mr. Mustard"
- "Polythene Pam"/ "She Came in Through the Bathroom Window"
- "Golden Slumbers"/ "Carry That Weight"/ "The End"*
Price: $3.50 (350 points) each
Image courtesy Harmonix
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