Rock Band 3

A superbly engineered game that is both the most ambitious and the best the genre has to offer.

The game's tutorial is excellent, and it slowly introduces you to some otherwise difficult concepts, but unless you have a lot of chords under your fingers beforehand, it takes actual practice to play on Pro Guitar.

It all adds up to what is easily the best and most progressive rhythm-action game ever made, if that label even applies anymore. [Christmas 2010, p.76]

If your bank account can withstand the investment for those pro instruments, or even if you want to keep playing the old way, Rock Band 3 is now the new benchmark of music games for groups. The Keyboard is a true bonus, especially in pro mode, and the Pro Guitar a real challenge for die hard gamers. Still blessed with its spot-on gameplay, as a videogame, it is beyond reproach and will entertain you for hours. But in terms of music teaching tool, we're not quite there yet. Only time will tell if the public will follow, and if the pro mode will indeed lead to new vocations, like the drums addition in the original Rock Band did. But Harmonix made progress and invested in innovation, while its competitors laze, and one may only applaud for that.

Still nobody does this better than Harmonix, and with Rock Band 3 they are at the top of their game.

Rock Band 3 is a complete package and quite possibly the definitive music game. Once again, Harmonix defines and sets the bar for what the music genre can achieve. It will be hard pressed for anyone, Harmonix included, to top this game.

Breathtaking in ambition and crafted with the skill of a studio that's been making music games for 15 years, Rock Band 3 is Harmonix's masterpiece – a towering achievement not just for the genre, but for the medium itself.

Rock Band 3 is a knockout in just about every way it can be. If you enjoyed anything from Harmonix in the past, you owe it to yourself to rush out and buy this.

Rock Band 3 is simply perfect. It's the final evolution of the music games, the perfect harmony between game and study, the perfect party experience and an awesome game. Everything is packed with love and attention, from the smaller thing to major features. If you love music and videogames, buy it and love it.

Truthfully, the entire game feels like a defiantly kickass celebration of music. Combined with the complete success and undeniable innovation of Pro Mode, how could anyone resist Rock Band 3?

The bar for music games has been irrefutably raised. Like magic, gamers can now be transformed into musicians... provided they don't run screaming for the hills at the first sight of a barre chord.

I'm not sure where else there is to go, but I don't really care. I'm having too much fun right now.

The best music game ever. Harmonix have outdone themselves with new instruments and an insane Pro Mode that will keep us playing for months, perhaps even years to come.

Video games -- not just rhythm games, but all video games -- rarely show this much ambition. Even more rare are occasions where developers manage to fulfill the impossibly lofty goals they set before themselves. Rock Band 3 manages both with ease, backing up brilliant ideas with flawless execution.

Overall, Rock Band 3 does a great job of refining the music game experience while at the same time pushing it forward by blurring the line between playing a music game and actually playing music.

I don't know how this game will do in the sales charts, but personally it's turned me from a music-game-weary cynic into a fresh-faced jammer once again. I'm not sure how long that will last, but for now I'm loving it.

Overall, Rock Band 3 is a huge success that, in all honesty, should put Guitar Hero to rest.

Rock Band 3 is the perfect music game for those hoping to increase their music appreciation and maybe pick up some real musical skill along the way.

Everything you ever wanted from a music title, and so much more besides. It doesn't matter how you want to play Rock Band 3, just know that you really do need to play it.

About as close to perfect as you're going to get.

It's not only an achievement within it's own genre, but a landmark for the entire medium as well. [Nov 2010, p.64]

Rock Band 3 have an amazing track list, an exciting new support for instruments and many challenges and rewards that will keep us busy for months. This is the best iteration in any musical saga to date. A must-have.

Rock Band 3 is simply the best there is in the music genre.

RockBand 3 is a revolution on its own when it comes to all of the new elements Harmonix Introduced. It's a posh revolution, due to the high price of admittance. Do your maths and decide for your own!

More than just a game - it's a genre-shifting music revolution. [Issue#232, p.78]

They've brought in most of the standard instruments found in rock bands, they've blurred the lines between gaming and learning with Pro mode and they've created a fantastic party game, which is even better with a new instrument and vocal harmonies.

For Rock Band 3, Harmonix revisits its roots to create a risky and adventurous music game that re-blurs the lines between fantasy and reality--but not at the expense of a fundamentally terrific experience that's accessible to most anyone who plays it.

It may be far less glamorous than new setlists and instruments, but the revamped user interface that underlies the whole experience is the game's most unqualified success. Fixing nearly every problem from previous installments, and layering in a whole new career structure, the new format is brilliant.

The fundamental multiplayer features and huge single-player challenges will keep you busy whether you're with friends or alone, the presentation is greatly improved, and the set list amazes us, with songs scattered between the 60's and today.

The only thing I'm left wondering is where Harmonix can go from here with the series having pretty much crammed everything you'd want out of the series.

Anyone looking for a traditional Rock Band experience has the definitive one before them, packaged here with an optional and extensive set of educational devices that offer further reading for anyone who feels their virtual musicianship is ready to blossom and evolve into the real deal. [Christmas 2010, p.88]

Without the pro instruments Rock Band 3 is a strong rhythm game but nothing extraordinary. With Pro Mode, and the new Pro instruments this game is a shining light in a genre that had become happy with mediocrity.

Despite our concerns, Rock Band 3 amazes through its sheer potential. [Issue#66, p.74]

None can deny that it's a huge step forward.

The fact that Rock Band 3 is both easy to pick up and play while offering an intricate learning tool is a remarkable thing.

The unavoidable reality is that, for all Rock Band 3's considerable refinements and intuitive advancements, your current games and equipment will probably suffice if you're just after banging a few plastic keys to the odd tune every now and then.

If there is one thing that really stands out to me about Rock Band 3 is that in a time where music games are starting to feel dated, Rock Band 3 manages to still be fresh.

This one is easy, Rock Band 3 simply rocks!

All in all, Rock Band 3 represents the pinnacle of the music game genre to this point.

Overall, Rock Band 3 is a fantastic game.

Ask not what Rock Band 3 can do for you, but whether you have the commitment (and a large enough wallet) to make the most out of it.

Rock Band 3 is the ultimate music experience. New instruments are solid, the keyboard is fun to play, and the tracklist is splendid and varied.

New instruments, new ways of understading the musical scene of videogames industry. Rock Band 3's so far the best on its genre, with tons of new features, improved graphics and the possibility of learning how to play an instrument for real. It's expensive, but it's worth what it costs.

When it comes to living-room rock, nobody does it better than Rock Band 3.

What I can say about Rock Band 3, though, is that it's excellent, and a ton of fun in both single and multiplayer.

It's aspirational, inspirational, educational, and eminently valuable. It's not only an achievement within its own genre, but a landmark for the entire medium as well.

It's Rock Band as usual, but its newly implemented Pro Mode shows that people who have been unchallenged so far can have their share of fun. Bundled with a whopping 2000 songs waiting for you optionally, this game could be worth a sin.

Pro mode is something new in a genre in a desperate need of innovation. Maybe it won't be able to teach you how to play music, but it's the nearest thing in videogame industry. Unfortunately, if you already are a musician, you will find yourself a bit frustrated by the rigidity of the system. Also, the keyboard hasn't been fully supported with a lacking tracklist and a limited peripheral.

Rock Band 3 is the best music game option around. The more you put into it, the more you'll get out of it. But my bet is that most people will just buy the game and nothing more. And while that experience is still solid, it's not all that different from Rock Band 2.

"Quotation Forthcoming"

Rock Band 3 is a good, solid musical game and those with the past two along with some good amount of DLC will really enjoy it.

No doubt, Rock Band 3 is the new reference in the musical game gender. With its simple gameplay and accurate in all instruments, its flexible interface and well thought career mode, it dusts off the old Rock Band 2.

If Rock Band is an every-Friday-night thing for you, then grabbing Rock Band 3 would be a good call as the evolution the fanchise has made will be much appreciated by fans. If not, then you might want to pass.

Rock Band 3 is a piece hard to judge. If you can really invest lots of you time and fortune than there is rally no better musical game. But If you cannot – well, you go around to the previous one. [Dec 2010]

Rock Band manages to be the definitive music game experience and if you enjoyed the previous ones chances are you will fall in love all over again.