Customer Reviews

Xbox 360 The Beatles: Rock Band Special Value Edition

5 star:		(15)
4 star:		(10)
3 star:		(5)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

The game itself is a lot of fun, great graphics and easy to grow into. There are some obscure Beatles tunes included, but frankly all are fun to play and there are still quite a few of the Beatles' biggest hits on the software as well. Overall I'm very happy with the game itself.

But the drums are not good at all. Without buying covers for them to dampen the noise, they're extremely loud and 'clacky' to play. The guitar feels very cheap too, and overall based on the price of this bundle I guess I got what I paid for. I intend to replace the drums with a better kit that will be more fun to play, but in the meantime I'm stuck with the cheaper drums (according to other reviewers the RB1 drums...which I never had but assume to be true based on pics of the RB2 drum kit - this is no RB2 drum kit).

Do yourself a favor and buy a drum kit and guitar that you like, then pick up this software individually. This kit gets you in the game, but you'll quickly find yourself wanting to upgrade the equipment if you play it for any length of time.

The game is great, but there's no USB hub, as advertised in the product description and on the box itself. It's only a $5-10 item, but then, where's my discount?

As a previous reviewer before me has stated, the box advertises a 4:1 Powered USB Hub as being included but no USB hub to be found in the box. I called EA support after going to the Rock Band support website and was informed that, yes, a USB hub was to be included. Glad to see that I'm not the only one not receiving the USB hub in the box. Will call EA back and ask for the USB hub to be sent (since it is advertised as part of the price).

The game itself is fun. This is my first music-type game and I am finding this to be pretty addicting. Will have to order the Gretsche guitar (with auto-calibration) just so I can pretend I'm a real Beatle. :-D

As other reviewers noted, the instruments which ship with this are from the original RockBand. Under no circumstances should anyone buy this package. RockBand instruments had a very high failure rate, the guitar neck snapping and the drum pedal breaking are the two most common problems. The drum heads are also very noisy and will annoy anyone around you. I've seen several retailers trying to push the RockBand Special Edition for $99. This seems like an underhanded way to try and clear out their warehouses since the average consumer does not realize the faults inherent to the first edition instruments.

I have the same exact comments as the other reviews. I love the game, however the instruments are a major disappointment. We had already purchased RB 2 for our Wii and decided to switch over to the XBOX 360 when we went for Beatles RB because we thought the graphics would be better. We purchased the Special Value Bundle not realizing that it comes with old RB1 equipment. The whole reason why there's a different guitar included with RB2 is that it was upgraded after people complained about the RB1 guitar. I also just found out today that you can't use the cymbal expansion package with the RB1 drum kit. If I had known, like someone else mentioned, I would have bought a new version of RB2 for the XBOX 360 and then just bought the Beatles RB software. I also did not receive the USB hub in the box. I also downgraded this from 5 stars to 3 for the above reasons.

Like others I had not recieved a usb hub with my copy of rockband and while it wasn't an issue since i had wireless controls and no wifi adaptor its odd to be missing something that can potientally be very important on a game featuring 2 guitars, 1 wired drum and 3 mics on a system with slots for up to 3 of the items. The drums were wired as mentioned before as well, not very satisfying but understandable none the less seeing where you're only paying on amazon [...] bucks for the drums, mic and wireless guitar. Specially with the local gamestop selling used wired guitar hero guitars for $[...] and new mics for over $[...].

Ok to the game, I can see where some complaints on other sites about 45 songs not seeming like enough have merit but the truth is every song on this game is great and covers their career very nicely while leaving future DLC the ability to be very sellable without taking away from the game. The expert mode while not as hard as other games is made to be true to the music where expert mode is where you play the music as performed. I personally couldn't think of a better way to do a Beatles game then this and any attempt to outdo it wouldn't be able to meet as much of a public appeal as this has. so 5/5 for the game but the hardware bumped it to a 4/5

Personal opinion if you can afford it get the limited edition bundle with the latest instuments made as replicas of some of the beatles' gear

First off, let's state the obvious. If you have no interest in The Beatles, you have no business buying this game (other than as a gift). That's just a matter of taste. If you're a Beatles fan, you won't be disappointed.

I'm giving this product a low rating though because, as many other reviewers have pointed out, the hardware that ships with this game is the Rock Band 1 hardware. This hardware is out of date, and practically worthless. The Rock Band 2 hardware, both the guitars and the drums, are vastly improved. For example, the RB2 drums are quieter and velocity-sensitive, while the RB2 guitar has improved fret buttons and a more durable and responsive strum bar. This is nothing more than an attempt by EA to get rid of their overstock of RB1 hardware by packaging it with the newest Rock Band game and calling it "Special Value".

To put this in perspective, I have Rock Band 1 hardware that I can't even give away for free. Believe me, I've tried. I've seen Rock Band 1 drum sets on sale at Wal-Mart for less than $8 (and they still weren't selling). Skip the Special Value, and just get the game by itself, or pick up the Rock Band 2 hardware.

I bought this game because my kids wanted Rock Band 2, but I did not like all of the songs that are included with Rock Band 2 for their ages (8 and 10). I also did not want to spend a lot of money to see if they really liked it or not. Those of you with kids can understand how that goes.

Pros:
1. Sound. I have my XBOX connected to a 5.1 surround sound stero system using a digital optical cable and the sound is incredible. We could not hear the vocalist in the band at first, but that is easily solved by changing the options or even by using the controller during play (Hold the A button and use the direction pad left/right to raise and lower the vocalists volume). The drums can be a bit loud (the kit noise), but we just turned up the stero :) (Look out neighbors)

2. Fun. The kids love it and so do I. I wasn't sure that they would like the Beatles since they have never heard of them, but they want to play all hours of the day. I feel good knowing that the songs are family-friendly with few exceptions.

3. Difficuly. The different levels of difficulty make the experience enjoyable for everyone. I'm a horrible singer (think William Hung) but I can still keep the band from failing while singing on easy level and keep the family laughing as well. Also, my 8 year old can play both the guitar and drums on easy level and still have a great time. On hard and expert level, it is quite the challenge and makes it fun for me.

Cons:
1. The drum kit. The kit is wired and requires a USB port. This is a Rock Band 1 drum kit and not the wireless drum kit that comes with Rock Band 2. Overall though it seems to work fine. We will see how much abuse it takes. For the price though, does not seem that bad.

2. Did not have the advertised USB hub in the box. A simple call to EA solved the problem. They sent one out the very same day I contacted them. All I had to do was email them the Amazon receipt. You do not need the hub to play. The XBOX has 3 USB ports on it and we use the 2 on the front, one for the mic and one for the drums.

3. Can't play without the mic plugged in. For some reason the game won't play unless the mic is connected. Not a big deal, but we don't sing that much.

Overall:
We have a great time with the family playing the Beatles rock band. The kids like it so much that we are getting the Lego Rock Band as well.

I didn't realize at first that this was the old RB1 junk hardware. There's so many problems with the RB1 drums and guitar, it's not worth it at any price. I returned it without opening it. What a deceptive trick putting the old instruments with the new game. I guess I'll be buying the game separate - but wow, they must have a lot of broken old junk laying around the Rock Band factory!

I was happy with the product as a whole, but the blue drum did not work and I have had to work on replacing it myself instead of with the seller. Not exactly thrilled about that, but the game itself is quite entertaining.