Hasta La Gadget!

If you ever played Rock Band, you might recognize the name Harmonix. Harmonix is the company behind that game, and word is that the company is working on a new music game. But time the game is said to also be a first-person shooter.

Harmonix is working with developers at Hidden Path, the company behind Counter-Strike: Global Offensive. The musical FPS game is called Chroma, and it’s expected to be a free-to-play title built using the Unreal engine. Though chances are “free to play” includes some sort of paid upgrades.

The game promises to shape and evolve itself based on the music it plays. The landscape will change with the music and players able to move with the rhythm will get bonuses. That means players in tune with the music will be able to jump higher and run faster. It sounds very strange, but it also sounds kind of cool.

If they can pull this off it will certainly be different from any other FPS games out there. There is no word on when the game will be complete, you can sign up to participate in the Chroma closed alpha here.

[via Games on Net]

Are you in the mood for a very different kind of multiplayer first-person shooter? How about one in which the arena you’re in morphs to the music that’s playing, where your machine gun makes music, where your grenades only blow up on the downbeats and the missiles you fire will keep stalking your enemy as long as you keep tapping the shooting button to the beat of the music?

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The tattoo-laden, musically-inclined game developers behind Frequency, Amplitude, Guitar Hero, Rock Band and Dance Central are taking on Disney’s Fantasia, this morning announcing next-gen Kinect game Fantasia: Music Evolved. Like its last game franchise, Harmonix is keeping exclusive to Microsoft game consoles with Kinect — the game is planned for launch some time in 2014 on both Xbox One and Xbox 360.

Fantasia: Music Evolved — which we’re assuming must feature Master Chief somewhere given the naming convention and Microsoft exclusivity — aims to turn gamers into aspiring orchestra conductors. Er … sort of. The game is played by using both your arms to synchronously gesture in a variety of directions, with two on-screen icons indicating how to place your arms and which direction you’ll be gesturing toward. Ostensibly, the game asks players to conduct various pop songs (Bruno Mars’ “Locked Out of Heaven” and Queens’ “Bohemian Rhapsody,” among others), occasionally punctuated with a push, depth-wise, for various auditory flairs (among other things). You are the sorcerer’s apprentice, conducting the heavens (as it were). Moreover, the songs get remixed as you go along, with players choosing one of four musical styles to introduce dynamically as the track continues to play in the background. If it sounds overwhelming, that’s because it is.

Filed under: Gaming, Software, HD, Microsoft

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Developer Harmonix announced last month that continued DLC content for Rock Band would be ending in April, and that time is slowly approaching, sadly. The developer has announced the last song to come off the Rock Band DLC assembly line, which will be Don McLean’s 1971 classic “American Pie”. The song will be available for download on April 2.

Of course, “American Pie” is one of the greatest songs out there that you can use to signify an ending to something, although my love for 90s rock says that Semisonic’s “Closing Time” is also up there on the list. Either way, Rock Band gamers will be able to sing off the weekly DLC of the game come early next month.

This marks the end to an over 275 consecutive week run consisting of more than 4,000 songs that have been released on Rock Band for gamers to play along with. The song was announced at PAX East during a party hosted by Harmonix. The developer also said that the song they’ll be releasing will be the full 8-minute version.

Harmonix says they have several new titles in development, and they want to start putting more focus on those in the future, which means that they have to give up some of their time and resources from other games, and Rock Band just so happened to get the ax this time around. No further plans for Rock Band have been discussed, but we’re guessing the series will be no more after the ending of the DLC.

[via Polygon]

Rock Band’s last downloadable song will be Don McLean’s “American Pie” is written by Craig Lloyd & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

It’s a sad day for Rock Band junkies as developer Harmonix has announced that weekly DLC — consisting of a few new songs that get released every week — will end towards the beginning of April, with April 2 being the last week for Rock Band weekly DLC. The developer announced the news this morning and said that they’re wanting to focus on other projects for the future.

Harmonix has managed to release weekly content for Rock Band for 275 consecutive weeks containing over 4,000 songs in total. However, the developer has been scaling back production of Rock Band DLC as they are beginning to make the transition to other projects. Harmonix says they have several new titles in development, and they want to start putting more focus on those in the future. However, no future Rock Band releases are planned.

From now until April 2, Harmonix will release the rest of the Rock Band Blitz songs, as well as various “Pro Guitar” upgrades, as well as songs by artists that have not previously appeared in a Rock Band title. From here on out, Harmonix will not be licensing anymore songs, and will take the rest of the time to roll out the songs that they already have licenses for.

Claiming the largest music library of any game available, Harmonix will be continuing its ongoing DLC sale of 50% off over 1,100 songs as a personal thank you to all the fans who helped make the DLC possible, and to help players continue to build their personal libraries from the back catalog.

Rock Band weekly DLC ending in April is written by Craig Lloyd & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.