The Beatles: Rock Band Review (PS3)

The Beatles: Rock Band is a loving recreation of pivotal moments in the band's elusive history, covering the early days at Liverpool's famous Cavern Club right through to the Abbey Road studio sessions that saw the birth of some of The Beatles' most creative work.

The Beatles: Rock Band provides plenty of content, from the range of songs on offer (45 in total), to the comprehensive story mode and online features.

With a tracklisting as iconic as The Beatles, it's arguable that The Beatles: Rock Band offers more quality music than any other game in its genre. Everybody likes some Beatles songs right(?!), and even if examples don't, The Beatles: Rock Band can still provide a party central piece given the band's iconic discography. For The Beatles fan though, the catalogue has been lovingly treated, with interesting gameplay parts, vocal harmonies and outstanding visuals all perfectly capturing the music of the Fab Four.

From the introduction of the game, it's blissfully apparent that The Beatles: Rock Band has been treated with the highest of attention to detail. The graphics are superb, capturing the performance and likenesses of the band with a whimsical charm. The dreamscapes presented in the Sgt. Pepper years are a fitting tribute to a band clearly with an imaginative tendency. Watching the band plunge from the safety of the Abbey Road studios to the bottom of the ocean in "Octopus's Garden" is a real treat, and evidence that the game has been treated with real vigour.

Perhaps a little flawed in structure and length, but still a brilliantly fitting tribute to The Beatles career. The campaign element of The Beatles: Rock Band sees you venture from the depths of the grungy Cavern Club to the heights of Apple Corp's roof-top. Along the way you'll earn photographs and rare footage of the band, including a Christmas message sent out to the Beatles fan club. This is the real meat and bones of the experience for true Beatles fans, and will absolutely delight those who live and breathe the band.

The Beatles: Rock Band is the perfect game to play with family, friends, whoever. If you've got the full kit (which can be expensive) then there's plenty of room for enjoyment at parties and family gatherings. Given the catalogue involved, for the first time ever, a music game can transcend generations. Mum knows The Beatles songs. Dad knows The Beatles songs. Gran knows The Beatles songs. And so does Little Timmy. The sense of companionship that the game manages to provide is truly heartwarming, and while the guitar/drum gameplay may be a little tough for some to pick up; the three player vocal harmonies are a stroke of genius.

To be honest we're struggling to find something we don't like about The Beatles: Rock Band. We've come to the conclusion that the only thing we'd ask for is more of it. With DLC planned down the line, it would have been nice to see a further 20 or 30 songs in the standard catalogue and some bonus venues. You can't really grumble about what you do get for your money. But everyone likes more right? Still... We said we were struggling...