August 25, 2009

The Beatles: Rock Band First DLC

The Beatles: Rock Band downloadable content details have arrived! There will be one full Beatles album released every month until the end of the year.

October 20, 2009: Abbey Road (1969)

  1. Come Together
  2. Something
  3. Maxwell’s Silver Hammer
  4. Oh! Darling
  5. Octopus’s Garden
  6. I Want You (She’s So Heavy)
  7. Here Comes The Sun
  8. Because
  9. You Never Give Me Your Money
  10. Sun King
  11. Mean Mr. Mustard
  12. Polythene Pam
  13. She Came In Through The Bathroom Window
  14. Golden Slumbers
  15. Carry That Weight
  16. The End
  17. Her Majesty

Being the first DLC album hot on the heels of the September 9th release of the full game, the pricing for Abbey Road was also revealed. It’s $16.98 for the whole album (not bad for 1712 tracks) or $1.99 per individual track.

Additionally, if you buy the whole album, you get a little bonus: you can play the entire 16 minute b-side medley (from “You Never Give Me Your Money” to “The End”) as a single continuous track! Wow!

November 2009: Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band (1967)

  1. Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band
  2. With A Little Help From My Friends
  3. Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds
  4. Getting Better
  5. Fixing A Hole
  6. She’s Leaving Home
  7. Being For The Benefit of Mr Kite
  8. Within You Without You
  9. When I’m Sixty Four
  10. Lovely Rita
  11. Good Morning Good Morning
  12. Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band (Reprise)
  13. A Day In The Life

December 2009: Rubber Soul (1965)

  1. Drive My Car
  2. Norwegian Wood (This Bird Has Flown)
  3. You Won’t See Me
  4. Nowhere Man
  5. Think For Yourself
  6. The Word
  7. Michelle
  8. What Goes On
  9. Girl
  10. I’m Looking Through You
  11. In My Life
  12. Wait
  13. If I Needed Someone
  14. Run For Your Life

(The crossed out tracks are already in The Beatles: Rock Band track list out of the box)

To sweeten the deal even further, the always-excellent RockBandAide notes that these tracks aren’t just your run of the mill DLC — they come with a perk unique to The Beatles: Rock Band.

As a side note, I talked with HarmonixSean this weekend at the Fest for Beatles Fans in Chicago, and he told me that all Beatles DLC will have NEW DREAMSCAPES (costumes, environments, etc.)! I think this makes the $1.99 per DLC track price a pretty darn good deal.

I can’t wait to see what comes in 2010; I have my heart set on The White Album, as it’s my favorite Beatles album.

The monthly Beatles album DLC releases are every bit as exciting as the Rock Band 2 weekly DLC track (and occasionally full album) releases! We’ve got a lot to look forward to over the next few months. Oh, and if you haven’t already, get your The Beatles: Rock Band order in — what the heck are you waiting for?

So what I want to know is if the instruments are all wireless. For the price I would hope so, but the product description doesn’t really say.

Jeff Martin
August 25, 2009 at 8:14 am

yes — everything is wireless this generation! Drums and Guitar, are all wireless.

Well, except for the bundled mics, but that’s why I recommend picking up a cheap copy of Lips for the 2 fantastic wireless mics!

http://www.fakeplasticrock.com/2008/10/14/wireless-microphones-for-rock-band-and-world-tour/

Jeff Atwood
August 25, 2009 at 8:29 am

Any word on how crippled the Wii version will be? The multiple microphones seem like a deal-breaker.

Thom Copenhaver
August 25, 2009 at 10:06 am

Hi Thom,

Rock Band 2 is surprisingly un-crippled on Wii, so I expect The Beatles to follow suit. I’m sure the multiple USB mic support will be there (not sure about wireless options), and I’m positive the DLC will work as it already does on the Wii for RB2.

The graphics, of course, will suffer some, but that’s not the focus of these games really. I’d be more worried about the lack of decent dolby digital sound, myself..

Jeff Atwood
August 25, 2009 at 10:31 am

Good to hear that the key features should be there. I’m not a graphics nut on the game console, so that’s not an issue. Agree with you that the sound quality is an issue, but my console’s not usually hooked to anything dolby capable.

Thom Copenhaver
August 25, 2009 at 11:08 am

The bass only allows for a single finger-hit… I believe the MadCatz bass controller is better (double strummer)? At least Höfner bass looks beautiful. Also the drums are just like the RB2; so, no cymbals… will the 3-cymbal expansion kit work? Or shall we wait (forever) for RB3 drums???

Roger
August 26, 2009 at 3:24 am

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