Temporary distractions: Rock Band 3

Game Title: Rock Band 3

Developed by: Harmonix

I decided to fire up Rock Band 3, and the 360 for the first time in a few months, before I became too involved with Enslaved. Rock Band is one of those games that will never be part of the Shelf of Shame. It's something I pick up to kill time, play maybe 30 minutes or an hour at a time, and then put back down. To me, it's not a series with a definite end game; only something to be enjoyed. I've never tried to become really good at Rock Band, just settling for being great on medium guitar/bass, playing drums when I have some extra energy because Easy is hard for me, and singing my little Jack Black wannabe head off when we have "Rock Club."

Yes, I do a pretty impressive rendition of Master Exploder. Long Live the D!

Anyways, I had my wonderful wife pick up Rock Band 3 (and Force Unleashed 2) on Day 1 so I could get the $20 gaming coupons from each game at K-Mart. If you're reading this and want good video game deals, check out K-Mart. They've started giving out $20-25 gaming coupons, that stack, with AAA game releases. Let me put it this way... I'll only be paying about $5 for Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood when it's out in two weeks thanks for K-Marts gaming coupons.

Wow, another tangent. Allow me to digress.

I fired up Rock Band 3, paid the extra 1o bones to export over the Rock Band 2 tracklist, and went to town. The first thing I noticed was that the career challenges were different. No longer are you just playing to earn as many points as possible and five stars. You are now playing for Spades too, which are awarded for completing certain tasks during each set list. Sometimes it's how long you can keep Overdrive going, or how many times you can activate Overdrive in one song, or keeping your unbroken note streak going. It's a nice change and make you work extra hard to get 100% on each song.

Other changes, which never really effected the games, are when the song in the set list changes from a male to female vocalist, the avatar also changes from a dude to a chick. And, as fun as it always was to watch the big lumberjack dude sing Paramore, it was always a tiny sore point. It has been fixed.

The largest change, for my Medium godliness that is, is the addition of the fifth (orange) note on the Medium setting. I was never able to get more coordination down enough to play these games on Hard, and since I play them for enjoyment I was always perfectly fine with just being an amazing Medium guitar guy. Alas, no longer will I only play four notes. All songs that come on the Rock Band 3 disk, and I'm going to assume any new DLC, has the fifth note in them, though not in any great abundance and it never gets too tricky. I see this as I a way for those who do want to eventually graduate to Hard setting to ease into it.

Enjoying the setlist too. I mean, Rock Lobster! Sold. Whip It! Gold Record, baby.

So, when Saturday hits, I'll be back on Enslaved and back onto the Shelf. However, until then, any downtime I have, will be dedicated to rocking and audience of one, out cat Monica.