While in Boston for PAX East, I was lucky enough to be invited to Harmonix to get an intimate look at the full game for Green Day Rock Band.  I’m now free to talk a little bit about my impressions, and for someone who’s not a big Green Day fan, this game was an absolute blast to play!  Check out the brand new trailer and gallery of new images released TODAY at the end of the post!

The opening cinematic was pretty amazing, and has a very unique, Green Day-esque aesthetic to it. It was created by MK12, who if you remember completed the interstitial videos for The Beatles: Rock Band. The entire design and user interface fits perfectly with the Green Day motif that’s been established over the last several albums. I’m not sure as to the extent the band had direct input, but based on the look and feel, I would say that it was a significant amount. The loading screens for each song are animated, and some include Green Day’s Drunk Bunny, who graces the stage before many live performances. (I’m surprised this made the final version, considering the game is rated T for Teen… which unfortunately means the foul language has been censored out.)

Based on my limited musical knowledge and forum chatter of Green Day tablature , I expected the guitar and bass charting for the game to be nothing but a small handful of chords, but I can now say that this is not always the case. Make sure you get your alt-strumming techniques down for a number of these songs, because as previous games have focused more on note accuracy, this game’s guitar (and all other instrument) charting focuses more on endurance.  (“Jesus of Suburbia” clocks in at 9:08 and “Homecoming” is 9:18.)

I was very pleasantly surprised at the bass charting while playing. When playing, I usually default to playing guitar, but while going back and listening to the bass in Green Day songs, I think all you bass players out there will really love these tracks.

As for drumming, I don’t think it should come as a surprise that quite a bit of songs are pretty intense.  The glowing note highway in The Beatles is gone and replaced with the more traditional overdrive activation for drummers.

And as much as I make fun of Billy Joe’s faux-English accent vocals, it was fun as hell to sing alone or with others on harmonies.  I have to admit that I was pretty unaware of any vocal harmonies that Green Day used in their catalog, but while playing the game, I realized just how important they are to their music.

While watching the in-game band members perform, I was told that Green Day Rock Band features complete motion capture LINEAR motion capture, the capture of a complete performance of every song. Previous songs have used mocap, but sliced up into loops, or short clips.  This enabled the on-screen band to interact with each other and with the venues differently than in previous games. (Thanks for the clarification, Chris!) Another cool thing to note was that the venues’ video-walls include imagery taken directly from their latest tour.  More than 100 collectible images can be unlocked throughout the course of the game, as well as over 40 minutes of rare and unreleased video from interviews, outtakes, and performances.

As we saw on Friday, there are no tracks in the game from Kerplunk, but I got the feeling while at Harmonix that the rights to secure tracks from the album from indie label Lookout! were next to impossible. Green Day themselves have had significant issues with Lookout! as well when re-releasing Kerplunk on current label Reprise. I don’t have any details on DLC, but I wouldn’t expect any pre-Dookie DLC. (In case you missed the setlist announced on Friday by Entertainment Weekly, feel free to check it out in its entirety.)

I can now officially confirm that all 47 tracks from the game can be exported and played in Rock Band, Rock Band 2, and the forthcoming Rock Band 3, which really shouldn’t come as a surprise. Also, the six Green Day DLC tracks currently available can be seemlessly incorporated into the game with added vocal harmonies, unique performance visuals, and exclusive archival material!

The game features three different venues:

• The Warehouse – A fictional venue that captures the feel of early Green Day shows and performances.  Tracks from “Dookie” are performed here.
• Milton Keynes – The concert and tour made famous in Green Day’s 2005 video for “Bullet in a Bible”. Tracks from the albums “American Idiot,” “Insomnia,” “Nimrod,” and “Warning” are performed here.
• The Fox Theater in Oakland – The place where Green Day performed an intimate show for the band’s most recent album, “21st Century Breakdown.”  Tracks from this album are performed here.

And if you missed the pricing details announced earlier, the game retails for $59.99 for the Xbox 360 and PS3, and $49.99 for the Wii.  The export feature is an additional $9.99, and available only for the Xbox 360 and PS3.  You can take advantage of a pre-order promotion through Gamestop.com and get a free export token.  There is also a “Plus” edition available for the Xbox 360 and PS3 (US/Canada only) for $69.99 that includes special packaging, export token, and all six currently available Green Day DLC tracks.

The game will be released worldwide (North America, Europe, Australia, and New Zealand) on June 8th for the Xbox 360, Sony PS3, and Nintendo Wii.

Final impressions:  If you are a fan of Green Day, this is a no-brainer must buy!  It’s an amazing game featuring 47 tracks from one of the most iconic bands of the last two decades.  If you don’t like Green Day, then admittedly this game will probably not be the best game for you, as it’s featuring only songs by Green Day.  But I will say that as a fan of Rock Band, at least check out the game in some way.  Harmonix has been hard at work on this game for some time, and like previous games, no attention to detail is spared.  All you Green Day haters out there, give it a shot, you might be surprised… I sure was!

I’m sure there are many things that I inadvertently passed over or accidentally left out, so if you have any Green Day questions, drop ‘em in the comments section below and I’ll be sure to answer them!

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