Metacritic Score: 78 (PS4) It would be unfair to call Rock Band 4 a bad game: it certainly meets its fairly unambitious goal of bringing the rhythm game genre back into prominence after it spectacularly dive-bombed five years ago, but it ultimately doesn't feel like much more than an overpriced DLC update. The game is largely unchanged from Rock Band 3 aside from ditching the "learn guitar for real" gimmickry and introducing "freestyle solos" (which allow you to mash the strum bar willy nilly when a difficult solo abounds), and so charging slightly above the usual retail price for the 65-on disc songs (it sold for £50 in the UK, £10 more than usual) does feel like a bit of a cash-grab. Why not just make the Rock Band 4 client a downloadable file and save us all the trouble? It's just a very "been there, done that" game that, while certainly enjoyable in its element, isn't anywhere near as convincing as its main rival, the innovative Guitar Hero Live, that the genre is again here to stay. To Harmonix's credit, though, they've promised there won't be anymore Rock Band titles released this generation, with new music being added only as paid DLC downloads. A small victory, then.
Stay at home dad who spends as much time teaching his kids the merits of Martin Scorsese as possible (against the missus' wishes).
General video game, TV and film nut. Occasional sports fan. Full time loon.
