Paul and Ringo Unveil The Beatles: Rock Band at E3

If you've been holding off on picking up one of the popular rhythm-based video games like Rock Band or Guitar Hero because songs like Metallica's "Enter Sandman" or Hole's "Celebrity Skin" don't catch your fancy, then take note that an upcoming edition of Rock Band will feature 45 popular Beatles tunes.

The game, titled "The Beatles: Rock Band," is set to ship September 9. In a special ceremony at the video game industry's annual E3 extravaganza in Los Angeles, Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr, along with Yoko Ono Lennon and Olivia Harrison, helped reveal the first ten of the title's songs.

Most fans of the Beatles will already be pleased with the first batch of tunes announced, including:

• "I Saw Her Standing There"
   
• "I Want To Hold Your Hand"
   
• "I Feel Fine"
   
• "Taxman"
   
• "Day Tripper"
   
• "Back in the USSR"
   
• "I Am the Walrus"
   
• "Octopus's Garden"
   
• "Here Comes The Sun"
   
• "Get Back"

Although there are still 35 other songs still to be revealed, participants at the E3 event did announce that the "Abbey Road" album will be available in entirety, probably for special purchase and download. Xbox 360 users will be the only console owners able to get their hands on "All You Need is Love," which is an exclusive to Microsoft's gaming system. (Source: telegraph.co.uk)

The game's developers are trying hard to recreate the atmosphere surrounding The Beatles' meteoric rise to celebrity by adding real-life venues to the game, including the Cavern Club in Liverpool, The Ed Sullivan Show stage, and Japan's Budokan. (Source: reuters.com)

Technically, The Beatles: Rock Band's primary innovation will be the addition of new vocal streams, meaning that more than one player can sing at a time. Beatles songs often included the voices of several band members, something Rock Band's developers will add special to this game.

Of course, the primary draw of the game will be its musical content, which reverses time all the way to the British Invasion era of the 1960s, much further back than most rock-inspired titles have ventured before.