Game

Download of the Week - 21st CB Acapellas

This week for Download of the Week we have put the acapella tracks from the '21st Century Breakdown' album courtesy of GDA team member Matt (gdkid2010 on the forum). The tracks were ripped off of the Rock Band: Green Day game and they are great for playing guitar with and for listening to some things that you don't normally hear in the songs.

This download goes along with our celebration of Rock Band: Green Day where we are going to dedicate our Download of the Week page to all things Rock Band: Green Day for the rest of June. Head on over to the Download of the Week page to download the tracks by clicking here.

Video Game Review: Rock Out With ‘Green Day: Rock Band

CHICAGO – Harmonix and MTV Games took something of a surprising turn after the massive success of last year’s best music game, “The Beatles: Rock Band,” by choosing the follow-up band from a very different arena of radio rock and announcing “Green Day: Rock Band.” With dozens of bands on player’s wish lists of who they would love to get the “Beatles Treatment,” many were surprised that Green Day was chosen as the follow-up group.

The game that now bares their name has been rocking players for the last week and the results may not be quite as instantly remarkable as that of Paul, John, George, and Ringo, but there’s still so much gaming craft on display here that it’s an impossible title for music fans to ignore.

Video Game Rating: 4.0/5.0

Despite some misgivings about who should be the sophomore “Rock Band” artist, there’s no denying the success of Green Day, having sold over 60 million records worldwide, winning several Grammy Awards, and even watching their “American Idiot” turn into a Tony-nominated Broadway musical. With their eighth studio album, “21st Century Breakdown” released last year, Green Day is as hot as they’ve ever been more than twenty years into their existence.

Green Day: Rock Band
Photo credit: Harmonix/MTV Games

“Green Day: Rock Band” recognizes that the band made up of singer/guitarist Billie Joe Armstrong, bassist Mike Dirnt, and drummer Tre Cool is primarily known for three records - 1994’s “Dookie,” 2004’s “American Idiot,” and 2009’s “21st Century Breakdown”. Those albums are included in the game in their entirety (if you buy the DLC previously available for “21st Century Breakdown”…more on that later) with a few tracks from other recordings including “Insomniac,” “Nimrod,” and “Warning” sprinkled throughout.

Green Day: Rock Band Photo credit: Harmonix/MTV Games

The “Career” portion of the game is divided into three sections that highlight the three “biggest” recordings of Green Day’s existence, framing them as live shows from the different eras. So, the player works through “Dookie” in four-to-five song sets in a small club in the first section, plays “American Idiot” and hits from the albums that came between on a much bigger stage in the middle section, and closing it out at a massive arena for “21st Century Breakdown”.

Each song comes with two “Collectibles” that can be earned depending on performance. A three- or four-star performance earns one collectible picture; a five-star performance earns both. Each of the three venues also comes with challenges, which are basically just three-song sets in which the player needs a certain number of stars to win an “Award,” which is, for example, a video of the band performing “Boulevard of Broken Dreams”.

Clearly, this is a title designed for the hardcore Green Day fan who wants to play “Boulevard” once in Career, again in a Challenge, and then watch a video of it — all in one game sitting. The lack of variety in the relatively short title is likely to wear on the nerves of someone who doesn’t already own and love Green Day songs, but should a game like this be judged for how it plays to the fans or how it plays to the masses? Obviously, it would be nice to have a title that equally appeals to both but when you put a band’s name on the cover and include songs by no one but that group, then anyone not into the band seems automatically forewarned.

Green Day: Rock Band Photo credit: Harmonix/MTV Games

Judging the game based on how it appeals to fans does, however, raise one thorny issue. Before its release, there were six songs available as DLC for “Rock Band 2”. If you’ve already paid for and downloaded them, then they automatically appear in your “Green Day: Rock Band” playlist. But, if not, you’ll find the third section of the game oddly short on hits with “21 Guns,” “Last of the American Girls,” and “Know Your Enemy” missing. Naturally, anyone who loves Green Day is going to want to buy those songs and they were redesigned for the title with mo-cap of the band playing them, so making them DLC essentially adds a hidden cost that seems a bit unfair. (And it’s not alone — if you want to import the tracks in this game to be playable in “Rock Band 2” that will cost you too.)

It’s also difficult for the game not to pale a bit when compared to its British predecessor. With just three venues meant to replicate the experience of being at a Green Day show (although no live versions of the songs were used), the game never approaches the graphical beauty of the second half of “The Beatles: Rock Band,” in which the Fab Four were beautifully recreated in song-themed dreamscapes. “Green Day: Rock Band” is “fun” for sure, but “The Beatles: Rock Band” was sometimes downright transcendent.

As for gameplay, Harmonix proves once again that they’re leaders in this category with some spectacularly designed songs that fans of the game will play repeatedly. I will say that something seems a bit off about the Expert Guitar level in that it seems to include chord changes meant to increase difficulty that aren’t really there. As someone who has played through every single music game on Expert Guitar, I found the level on “Green Day” oddly inorganic and frustrating, although the Hard level was thoroughly entertaining. As for the other instruments, vocals are pretty straightforward but you better have a quality drummer on hand if you want to compete as Tre Cool is remarkably good at his craft.

Ultimately, “Green Day: Rock Band” is precisely what you would expect it to be. Like the band it chronicles, it’s a bit hit and miss, but the number of hits far outweigh the misses and it can be incredibly fun. Until “Rock Band 3” comes out, the world of music games belongs to Green Day.

‘Green Day: Rock Band’ was released by MTV Games & Electronic Arts and developed by Harmonix. It is rated T (Teen). The version reviewed was for the PS3, but the title is also available for the XBox 360 and Wii. It was released on June 8th, 201

A look at Green Day’s “Rock Band” video game

Hollywoodnews.com: Green Day is becoming a punk rock brand.

On the heels of their Broadway show and Tony performance on June 13, the Grammy-winning multiplatinum trio are releasing their own “Rock Band” videogame – similar to the Beatles edition last September.

“I just like being diverse and trying new things as far as Green Day is concerned,” front man Billie Joe Armstrong tells Pollstar.com.

“It’s like a glorified karaoke machine,” Armstrong said. “Or ‘Mortal Kombat’ with guitars.”

In the game, players perform in three different venues: a punk rock club, the Fox Theater in their hometown in Oakland, California; and the arena of their first concert.

“The Milton Keynes (stadium) show was quite momentous for us. It actually was the concert that was filmed for ‘Bullet in a Bible,’” Dirnt said, referring to the live DVD that was shot in 2005 on the band’s “American Idiot” tour.

As players excel, they unlock rare collectible images and videos of the band.

“You see old footage of us from the Bookmobile, and weird old performances and stuff no one’s looked at in almost twenty years,” Armstrong adds.

Overall, the trio loved how they look in the videogame, however, like Paul McCartney with “Beatles Rock Band” – Armstrong stinks at playing.

“Oh man, we’re hot on computers,” said drummer Tre Cool, while Dirnt joked: “I don’t know if they got enough pimples on me.”

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Video Game Friday: Green Day Rock Band

I’ve been a fan of Green Day and its punk rock style since listening to their 1994 smash “Dookie”, but it was their 2005 blockbuster “American Idiot” that really brought them to the mainstream. Last year’s release of “21st Century Breakdown” continued their rock opera sensibilities that they started with American Idiot. In fact, Green Day is having a pretty good 2010 as well, with a Broadway show up for a Tony Award and this week’s release of “Green Day Rock Band” video game.

Music games based on a band’s songs aren’t new – we’ve seen Aerosmith, Van Halen and Metallica treated to games in the Guitar Hero series, and last year saw The Beatles get their own Rock Band game. For Green Day, the game provides fans with a chance to play 47 of the group’s songs, including the three complete albums mentioned above. There are a few other hit songs from other albums, including “Minority”, “Warning” and “Good Riddance (Time of Your Life)”.

The game is pretty straight-forward if you've played either Rock Band or Guitar Hero – in career mode, you get to choose from three different venues and years – 1994, 2005 and 2009. Depending on the venue, you’ll play songs from those eras/albums. Completing the songs with three or more stars unlocks collectibles, basically photos of the band from those time periods. In quickplay mode you can select the entire library of songs available, including the ability to play each album in its entirety and order.

If you played The Beatles Rock Band, you probably noticed that the guitar parts were rather slow – that game seemed more about the group experience and some of the harmonies of the singers. While you can still sing harmonies in Green Day Rock Band (with additional microphones), the guitar and drumming parts are a bit quicker and more challenging here. After scoring 100% on my first two songs on guitar, I thought, “Uh oh”, but other songs quickly ramped up some difficult guitar sequences (even on medium difficulty). This is important for solo play, because you'll most likely be playing guitar or drums on this game if you're playing it alone. Switching to the microphone to see if I could replicate Billie Joe Armstrong’s voice, I could score well on slower songs like “Good Riddance”, but found it a bit challenging on faster songs like “St. Jimmy.”

Like other Rock Band games, you can go online with friends and play songs with them online, both in quickplay and career modes. On the Xbox 360 version, you can also export the songs (for a small fee) and play them in Rock Band 2 (and the upcoming Rock Band 3). There are also six songs available from Green Day that you can download (from the 21st Century Breakdown album), so those songs aren’t included on the regular game.

There are no other extras like different costumes, and the three venues are all you get – but the core part of the game – playing the songs of Green Day – are what make the game cool. If you’re a fan of Green Day and Rock Band, this is a must-have game.