Rock Band 4 players can now look forward to improvising the way they sing the songs in the game.
In Hard and Expert mode in the game, players are no longer going to be penalized for not hitting the notes on the songs played or if they want to interpret the songs differently.
"Sometimes when I'm singing, especially if I've had a couple drinks or I'm at a party, I want to be a little bit looser with it, so I'll choose a lower difficulty so I can sing a little more expressively without failing out," Harmonix audio QA lead Dave Plante said in an interview.
He mentioned this is all going to change in Rock Band 4.
"You can sing part of the phrase with the line, and maybe at the end you want to pop up high to a different note or sing a different counter melody...maybe you want to sing one of the harmony parts you seen, but you're doing solo vocals. This new improv feature allows you to do that in a way that's really, really powerful," he said.
"The thing I'm actually really excited about is for people to encounter this feature and maybe learn about 'oh, okay, well I hear the relationship between the chord of the guitar and the keyboardist is playing them in the song, and now that relates to how a vocal melody is written.' Just because that's how they sing it in the song doesn't mean that's the only melody that would fit that chord progression in the song. You could make something up that's totally different," Plante added.
Rock Band 4 will allow players to play all previously purchased Rock Band songs, including those previously downloaded tracks. This will make Rock Band feature the largest song catalog of any major music game with more than 2,000 tracks available to play at launch.
All previous instruments can also be used in the upcoming music video game.
Speaking of instruments, several improved features on Rock Band 4's guitar, drums, and microphone were introduced by Harmonix product manager Daniel Sussman in a separate interview.
"We're working with Mad Catz to design develop and manufacture the instruments. They've made a lot of guitars, bass, and drums for the Rock Band ecosystem over the years. That's where premium worksmanship comes into play. They've been around a lot. They have great technicians. This is pretty much science here," Sussman said.
He mentioned they were also looking into how to take advantage with the guitar and drums used in the Rock Band The Beatles game which he said was the best instrument they've made so far.
"We're looking to improve fit and finish... Quality is really part of the Rock Band brand. We have the responsibility to pull that forward," he added.
Rock Band 4 certainly aims to improve the overall gaming experience and is hard at work to achieve that. The game is set to be released in late 2015 for Playstation 4 and Xbox One.
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