Can’t get into it cause the character John is just that unlikeable
I hope something bad happens to him
I hope something bad happens to him
You never really hear about PS3 homebrew, do you? After hacking my PS3, I found out why. It's a fucking pain in the arse.
If you know where to look, and join a private discord, you can find people modding old PS3 games. I almost found myself motivated to pursue this when I found out that fans have brought back MGS4's online mode, but that didn't feel like something I needed. Apparently, having the whole of Revolver and Magical Mystery Tour as Rock Band DLC was.
I guess it speaks to how earnestly I love The Beatles. They weren't just a bunch of guys who played good songs. When they emerged out of the early sixties, they were like a whole new kind of person. They broke the conventions of what an adult was supposed to be, and with their wit, intelligence and compassion, made all those guys look ridiculous. They made it okay not to live for the expectations of society or your family name, but your passions. Maybe you're not a fan of the band personally, and that's fine, but I think if you have any interest in pop media, fringe political thought or the embrace of foreign cultures, I think you owe some gratitude to The Beatles' influence. I can't imagine there would be a videogame industry without The Fabs. (This is beside the point, but did you know all those Atari 2600 cover artists were Yellow Submarine animators?)
Playing PS3 Rock Band in 2024 at all is a pain in the arse. If you didn't buy all the equipment 15 years ago, and held onto them for the following decade and a half, you have some very expensive eBay purchases ahead of you if you want to get in on this. I've still got a couple of the guitars, but thanks to multiple house moves, and weird, malicious flatmates who may not have appreciated my vocals on Debaser, those USB dongles were long gone. And it's not as if you can just buy any old dongle. With very few exceptions, they will only pair with their specific controller. And I have one of those fancy George Harrison Gretsch Duo Jets that you couldn't even buy in highstreet shops. I'm not willing to readily give up how much I spent on the dongle when it finally showed up for sale. Unless you're emulating (and seriously, if you're new to all this, please consider emulating), there's no new devices that are compatible with the PS3 games. Harmonix remedied this a little bit with the release of Rock Band 4, which supported full song exports for the previous games (which require DLC keys that are no longer purchasable) and are still playable on PS5 and Xbox Series consoles today, but one-off games like The Beatles Rock Band, which didn't allow you to transfer their highly-valued content to other titles, are still trapped on PS3, Wii and 360, with all their awkward "it made sense at the time" quirks.
So, hacking. I'm not confident I can recall the process well enough to provide even the most rudimentary of tutorials, but if you're going to hack your PS3, you'll need to be on a specific outdated firmware release, and it matters what kind of PS3 you have. You can utilise custom firmware on original PS3s and some slim models, but if, like me, you currently own a "superslim", you'll have more limited access to homebrew software. You can still do it though, with the Homebrew Enabler software ("PS3HEN"), but it's just a little more awkward. Each custom song needs to be transferred to the PS3 via FTP software (something that the installation guidelines only give a cursory mention of, and I hadn't used since college), you may need to make a direct Ethernet connection between your computer and PS3, and you'll need to keep every track in a special folder on your PC to use an executable to recompile the full tracklist each time you want to modify it. You also have to transfer over a special bit of software to make the game modifiable in the first place, and in the haze of everything I tried and retried, I really can't remember how I did this. This isn't a casual undertaking.
I'd argue Harmonix are one of the most under-valued development studios out there. Even in their smaller games, like Super Beat Sports, that nobody cares about, they're stuffed to the brim with extra modes and optional content. Rock Band was an insane logistical undertaking. Not only are thousands of songs accurately transcribed for multiple instruments and difficulty settings, but the on-stage bands are authentically animated, too. They made enormous bespoke electric drumkit controllers and sold them to American normies. By the peak of all their energy and ambition, on Rock Band 3, they were even including tracks for two backing vocalists, "Pro Guitar" mode (which would have you plug in either a midi-compatible electric guitar or a special, expensive plastic one with buttons on every string of every fret, to play the real guitar parts) and keytar, and barely anybody was playing the game like that. That doesn't even scratch the surface of how much of an undertaking it was to acquire the licences to an incredible range of pop and rock songs from a huge number of different publishing houses, and re-sell them. Of course, modders don't have to worry about the legal aspect, but it's just as ambitious for them to attempt reverse engineering the game to play home-made content and match the level of quality that Harmonix established.
There are amateurish custom Beatles Rock Band DLC tracks out there, but they're not the ones made by the core TBRB Customs devs. For the most part, you'd really struggle to tell them apart from the official Harmonix ones without prior knowledge. Sure, they have to lean on the handful of environments that were established for the original game, some of the surreal Pepperland visuals wear a little thin when applied to multiple songs, and in a post-Get Back world, Twickenham and Apple Studios seem like crucial Beatle locations, so it's a shame that they haven't been incorporated, but man, they managed to hack the Magical Mystery Tour bus into this. Would you have even the slightest idea how to make your PS3 games do that? They've been pretty clever, utilising the established assets to animate each new song, and the multiple costume changes during Glass Onion's callbacks are a particular treat.
TBRB Customs have set themselves the goal of creating custom DLC for every studio-recorded Beatles album, including the Past Masters singles collections and Giles Martin's remix album, Love. It's a lofty ambition, and the team have approached the to-do list with a completionist mindset. Frustratingly, this means that many of the most wanted tracks have been held off on for now, while we're stuck pissing around for the files for Sie Leibt Dich and Hold Me Tight. So far, there's been a huge number of tracks from With The Beatles and A Hard Day's Night, but no All I've Got To Do or You Can't Do That, and I personally find that extremely distressing. No Baby's In Black, no Hide Your Love Away, no Bad Boy, upsettingly few White Album songs - we're promised them in the future, but apparently, there were no new releases in the whole of 2023, and the team's recent focus has been on making previous tracks available for the Wii version of the game. I really want to believe they'll complete the tracklist, but I worry their energy may run dry when they see how many years they'll need to devote to the process.
There's also the fact that the modders seem to be young American Beatles fans. The kind who cried over 2023's Now & Then and think all of Paul McCartney's solo career is worth paying attention to. They don't have the same interest in the back catalogue as us slightly older fans who still think John was the big Beatle to like, despite the things he's alleged to have done after hearing of Nixon's reelection. They're insular and memey, and if you look into the more amateurish Anthology and Solo Career projects, you'll have to wade through some rake of Spongebob shit to get some comparatively rough content. It's very annoying that they've made a custom track for George's terrible White Album off-cut, Circles, while we're still waiting for Happiness is a Warm Gun, but I shouldn't upset the babies too much while they're working so diligently on my precious Rock Band DLC.
There's always a bit of a fear of custom Rock Band stuff. The most hardcore fans seem to be those who never got over Through the Fire and Flames, and not just guys who really like songs. While the focus in this DLC has been on matching Harmonix's precedent, there's still a wee bit of that Guitar Hero elite in here. We were never supposed to play the tape loop at the end of Strawberry Fields Forever, and I think you know this. Please take your job more seriously, unpaid hobbyists.
Many have approached the custom content as a thing strictly for emulators, and sensibly, it's the only way I can recommend a fan to go through this rigmarole. That strips out so much of Rock Band's appeal for me, though. For me, accessibility was such a draw to these games. I've played them at house parties with exchange students who really struggled with conversational English, but were delighted to see those falling note icons and become part of the band. If fellow Big Bad Beatleborgs are over, I can show them my special game that has twice as many songs as anybody else's copy, and we can delight in playing the whole of the Long Tall Sally EP. Nobody should go through the embarrassment of having to navigate a docked Steam Deck in front of another person. Now I've got everything set up, Beatles Rock Band is just as inviting to casuals as it was in 2009. I can grumble about minor details or the trajectory of the project, but really, it's so cool that any of this is possible.
If you know where to look, and join a private discord, you can find people modding old PS3 games. I almost found myself motivated to pursue this when I found out that fans have brought back MGS4's online mode, but that didn't feel like something I needed. Apparently, having the whole of Revolver and Magical Mystery Tour as Rock Band DLC was.
I guess it speaks to how earnestly I love The Beatles. They weren't just a bunch of guys who played good songs. When they emerged out of the early sixties, they were like a whole new kind of person. They broke the conventions of what an adult was supposed to be, and with their wit, intelligence and compassion, made all those guys look ridiculous. They made it okay not to live for the expectations of society or your family name, but your passions. Maybe you're not a fan of the band personally, and that's fine, but I think if you have any interest in pop media, fringe political thought or the embrace of foreign cultures, I think you owe some gratitude to The Beatles' influence. I can't imagine there would be a videogame industry without The Fabs. (This is beside the point, but did you know all those Atari 2600 cover artists were Yellow Submarine animators?)
Playing PS3 Rock Band in 2024 at all is a pain in the arse. If you didn't buy all the equipment 15 years ago, and held onto them for the following decade and a half, you have some very expensive eBay purchases ahead of you if you want to get in on this. I've still got a couple of the guitars, but thanks to multiple house moves, and weird, malicious flatmates who may not have appreciated my vocals on Debaser, those USB dongles were long gone. And it's not as if you can just buy any old dongle. With very few exceptions, they will only pair with their specific controller. And I have one of those fancy George Harrison Gretsch Duo Jets that you couldn't even buy in highstreet shops. I'm not willing to readily give up how much I spent on the dongle when it finally showed up for sale. Unless you're emulating (and seriously, if you're new to all this, please consider emulating), there's no new devices that are compatible with the PS3 games. Harmonix remedied this a little bit with the release of Rock Band 4, which supported full song exports for the previous games (which require DLC keys that are no longer purchasable) and are still playable on PS5 and Xbox Series consoles today, but one-off games like The Beatles Rock Band, which didn't allow you to transfer their highly-valued content to other titles, are still trapped on PS3, Wii and 360, with all their awkward "it made sense at the time" quirks.
So, hacking. I'm not confident I can recall the process well enough to provide even the most rudimentary of tutorials, but if you're going to hack your PS3, you'll need to be on a specific outdated firmware release, and it matters what kind of PS3 you have. You can utilise custom firmware on original PS3s and some slim models, but if, like me, you currently own a "superslim", you'll have more limited access to homebrew software. You can still do it though, with the Homebrew Enabler software ("PS3HEN"), but it's just a little more awkward. Each custom song needs to be transferred to the PS3 via FTP software (something that the installation guidelines only give a cursory mention of, and I hadn't used since college), you may need to make a direct Ethernet connection between your computer and PS3, and you'll need to keep every track in a special folder on your PC to use an executable to recompile the full tracklist each time you want to modify it. You also have to transfer over a special bit of software to make the game modifiable in the first place, and in the haze of everything I tried and retried, I really can't remember how I did this. This isn't a casual undertaking.
I'd argue Harmonix are one of the most under-valued development studios out there. Even in their smaller games, like Super Beat Sports, that nobody cares about, they're stuffed to the brim with extra modes and optional content. Rock Band was an insane logistical undertaking. Not only are thousands of songs accurately transcribed for multiple instruments and difficulty settings, but the on-stage bands are authentically animated, too. They made enormous bespoke electric drumkit controllers and sold them to American normies. By the peak of all their energy and ambition, on Rock Band 3, they were even including tracks for two backing vocalists, "Pro Guitar" mode (which would have you plug in either a midi-compatible electric guitar or a special, expensive plastic one with buttons on every string of every fret, to play the real guitar parts) and keytar, and barely anybody was playing the game like that. That doesn't even scratch the surface of how much of an undertaking it was to acquire the licences to an incredible range of pop and rock songs from a huge number of different publishing houses, and re-sell them. Of course, modders don't have to worry about the legal aspect, but it's just as ambitious for them to attempt reverse engineering the game to play home-made content and match the level of quality that Harmonix established.
There are amateurish custom Beatles Rock Band DLC tracks out there, but they're not the ones made by the core TBRB Customs devs. For the most part, you'd really struggle to tell them apart from the official Harmonix ones without prior knowledge. Sure, they have to lean on the handful of environments that were established for the original game, some of the surreal Pepperland visuals wear a little thin when applied to multiple songs, and in a post-Get Back world, Twickenham and Apple Studios seem like crucial Beatle locations, so it's a shame that they haven't been incorporated, but man, they managed to hack the Magical Mystery Tour bus into this. Would you have even the slightest idea how to make your PS3 games do that? They've been pretty clever, utilising the established assets to animate each new song, and the multiple costume changes during Glass Onion's callbacks are a particular treat.
TBRB Customs have set themselves the goal of creating custom DLC for every studio-recorded Beatles album, including the Past Masters singles collections and Giles Martin's remix album, Love. It's a lofty ambition, and the team have approached the to-do list with a completionist mindset. Frustratingly, this means that many of the most wanted tracks have been held off on for now, while we're stuck pissing around for the files for Sie Leibt Dich and Hold Me Tight. So far, there's been a huge number of tracks from With The Beatles and A Hard Day's Night, but no All I've Got To Do or You Can't Do That, and I personally find that extremely distressing. No Baby's In Black, no Hide Your Love Away, no Bad Boy, upsettingly few White Album songs - we're promised them in the future, but apparently, there were no new releases in the whole of 2023, and the team's recent focus has been on making previous tracks available for the Wii version of the game. I really want to believe they'll complete the tracklist, but I worry their energy may run dry when they see how many years they'll need to devote to the process.
There's also the fact that the modders seem to be young American Beatles fans. The kind who cried over 2023's Now & Then and think all of Paul McCartney's solo career is worth paying attention to. They don't have the same interest in the back catalogue as us slightly older fans who still think John was the big Beatle to like, despite the things he's alleged to have done after hearing of Nixon's reelection. They're insular and memey, and if you look into the more amateurish Anthology and Solo Career projects, you'll have to wade through some rake of Spongebob shit to get some comparatively rough content. It's very annoying that they've made a custom track for George's terrible White Album off-cut, Circles, while we're still waiting for Happiness is a Warm Gun, but I shouldn't upset the babies too much while they're working so diligently on my precious Rock Band DLC.
There's always a bit of a fear of custom Rock Band stuff. The most hardcore fans seem to be those who never got over Through the Fire and Flames, and not just guys who really like songs. While the focus in this DLC has been on matching Harmonix's precedent, there's still a wee bit of that Guitar Hero elite in here. We were never supposed to play the tape loop at the end of Strawberry Fields Forever, and I think you know this. Please take your job more seriously, unpaid hobbyists.
Many have approached the custom content as a thing strictly for emulators, and sensibly, it's the only way I can recommend a fan to go through this rigmarole. That strips out so much of Rock Band's appeal for me, though. For me, accessibility was such a draw to these games. I've played them at house parties with exchange students who really struggled with conversational English, but were delighted to see those falling note icons and become part of the band. If fellow Big Bad Beatleborgs are over, I can show them my special game that has twice as many songs as anybody else's copy, and we can delight in playing the whole of the Long Tall Sally EP. Nobody should go through the embarrassment of having to navigate a docked Steam Deck in front of another person. Now I've got everything set up, Beatles Rock Band is just as inviting to casuals as it was in 2009. I can grumble about minor details or the trajectory of the project, but really, it's so cool that any of this is possible.
A love letter to The Beatles and an incredibly cool experience for any Beatles fan. My friend and I sat down and played through the entire campaign in one sitting which basically follows The Beatles' actual career. Not only do the stages and songs themselves reflect their journey, but you get a bunch of behind-the-scenes videos of the actual Beatles sprinkled in throughout the campaign. It rules.
The closest I’ll ever get to touching Paul McCartney, so thank you for that.
I want to go back in time and kiss meditate with George Harrison
Hey Jude, here's my review. It's pretty good, a very fun gaaaaame. Remember, that Rock Band was pretty cool. Play it every so often, and you'll start feeling better.
It's the fucking Beatles.
It's the fucking Beatles.
I used to drop acid on the daily.
I credit this game, and my high school friend who showed it to me, for introducing me to my love of music.
I would say your like ability of this games depends on how much of a Beatles fan you are. I love the Beatles and have ever since I was a kid. Had all their cds and even got made fun of in school for liking them haha. If your looking for a challenging rock band experience with metal your not gonna find it here. If your looking to enjoy the Beatles music with your buds and enjoy some amazing visuals then this is for you.
The Beatles are my favorite band of all time so goes without saying that I was extremely excited to see an official videogame from them coming out (especially since they are very protective of their image and licensing like Disney).
My perfect score doesn't just support the fact that they are my favorite band but rather the detailed amount of work the developers put into the game to provide a true 'Beatlemania' experience with background videos that match the particular era and events of the song being played, interesting names and tiles for achievements that correspond to Beatles lyrics, etc. The attention to detail is fantastic and you can tell the devs are either big fans or consulted with fans and/or Beatles historians to try to get the best vibe and atmosphere for the game.
The complete edition of the game comes with replica instruments (such as Paul's violin-shaped Hofner bass guitar) which was another great touch and added to the immersion of the game.
Goes without saying that this is my favorite rhythm/music game of all time and went ahead and bough all of the DLC which was also great (although no dedicated video backgrounds were provided). Glad I was able to enjoy this game when it came out.
My perfect score doesn't just support the fact that they are my favorite band but rather the detailed amount of work the developers put into the game to provide a true 'Beatlemania' experience with background videos that match the particular era and events of the song being played, interesting names and tiles for achievements that correspond to Beatles lyrics, etc. The attention to detail is fantastic and you can tell the devs are either big fans or consulted with fans and/or Beatles historians to try to get the best vibe and atmosphere for the game.
The complete edition of the game comes with replica instruments (such as Paul's violin-shaped Hofner bass guitar) which was another great touch and added to the immersion of the game.
Goes without saying that this is my favorite rhythm/music game of all time and went ahead and bough all of the DLC which was also great (although no dedicated video backgrounds were provided). Glad I was able to enjoy this game when it came out.
british
I only wish they had added keyboard and more songs
Completely nails what a music games that focuses on one group should feel like, songs are less replayable since it's the same band the whole time, the dream sequence style recording studio stuff is such a joy.
Such a faithful game to the band it's based on
I actually like The Beatles a lot as a band, but this game is just very boring for the most part since the music is so simplistic and easy due to the nature of the band and if you're like me and super sweaty at GH/RB you have to play on expert and play challenging songs lmao.
this is a serious message to everyone watching my update right now peace and love peace and love I want to tell you please after the 20th of October do not send fan mail to any address that you have nothing will be signed after the 20th of October if that has a date on the envelope it's gonna be tossed I'm warning you with peace and love I have too much to do so no more fan mail thank you thank you and no objects to be signed nothing ah anyway peace and love peace and love
Don't make 'em like they used to
I FUCKING HATE THE BEATLES
Excellent Visuals and presentation.
So much care and respect for the bands legacy.
Easily one of the most enjoyable rhythm games i’ve ever played.
My only issue is I wish they had more songs or better yet just every beatles song (or at least all you can play with this games instruments, I can’t really imagine revolution 9 on guitar) But even if there’s some odd misses in the setlist, this game is a must play for beatles fans.
So much care and respect for the bands legacy.
Easily one of the most enjoyable rhythm games i’ve ever played.
My only issue is I wish they had more songs or better yet just every beatles song (or at least all you can play with this games instruments, I can’t really imagine revolution 9 on guitar) But even if there’s some odd misses in the setlist, this game is a must play for beatles fans.
Best game ever.
The main story dealy is cool but I think the concept of making a whole game based on the career of an influential artist/band would be pretty cool nowadays if done correctly and less plain vanillay as it is here (OutKast/Talking Heads video game please)
a great tribute to the indie hit British virtual band "The Beatles"
Some crimes cannot be forgiven and liking the beatles is one of them :(
This game literally changed my entire life and I wouldn't be a drummer without it so I kinda have to give it this score
Also they played one of the dreamscapes when I saw Paul live recently so that was fucking awesome
Also they played one of the dreamscapes when I saw Paul live recently so that was fucking awesome
if it had the rb3 engine and the full discography this would be one of the greatest games ever made
The greatest music game of all time for its presentation and authenticity of the Beatles’ career. Every. Song. Slaps. Short setlist compared to other rock band /
Music games, but Single-handedly got me seriously interested in music history and rock music in general. One for the ages.
(Also check out modding scene on 360 as almost every single Beatles’ song ever is featured in addition to many songs being multi-tracked with custom animations and dreamscapes for each individual song).
Music games, but Single-handedly got me seriously interested in music history and rock music in general. One for the ages.
(Also check out modding scene on 360 as almost every single Beatles’ song ever is featured in addition to many songs being multi-tracked with custom animations and dreamscapes for each individual song).
This is the level of care and attention to detail that themed music games such as Guitar Hero Aerosmith SHOULD have strived to achieve. Unique backdrops for the hit songs, all the big hits covered in the base game and DLCs. Just all around a fantastic music game, right up there with Rock Band 2.
i mained ringo
Probably the only band-specific Rockband/Guitar Hero rhythm game that should exist considering it's The Beatles.
Missing a fair few noteworthy songs, and Expert mode adds notes and cord that don't really exist in the songs.
Great presentation, background videos are visually colourful and fun. It's Rockband with the Greatest Band in the world.
Missing a fair few noteworthy songs, and Expert mode adds notes and cord that don't really exist in the songs.
Great presentation, background videos are visually colourful and fun. It's Rockband with the Greatest Band in the world.
ringo this ringo that why dont you ringo a bingo baby