The Beatles: Abbey Road Hands-on

Oct 16, 2009

This Tuesday, October 20, the first downloadable content for The Beatles: Rock Band will be made available. Fab Four fans will be able to complete the Abbey Road album, some of which is included on the actual game disc they have already. We got to play through a few of the new songs today and had the same good time we've come to expect from Rock Band.

Owners of The Beatles: Rock Band already have the Abbey Road tracks "Come Together," "Something," "Octopus's Garden," "I Want You," and "Here Comes the Sun." Here's what you'll find in the DLC pack:

"Maxwell's Silver Hammer"
"Oh! Darling"
"Because"
"You Never Give Me Your Money"
"Sun King/Mean Mr. Mustard"
"Polythene Pam/She Came In Through the Bathroom Window"
"Golden Slumbers/Carry That Weight/The End"
"Her Majesty"
"Abbey Road Medley"

On a side note, this writer had never heard "Polythene Pam" before. That song is awesome!

These songs all feature new dreamscapes that, from what we can tell, are just as cool as the ones on disc. They use some of the same assets and add in some new content that is included on the disc but wasn't tapped for the retail release. For "Polythene Pam/She Came In Through the Bathroom Window" the group starts out playing in the studio, which then warps into a stage setting complete with disco ball for the second half.

Harmonix didn't try to separate songs that flow together on the record, such as "Sun King/Mean Mr. Mustard." The "Abbey Road Medley" lets you play the entire B-side of the album in one set, lasting around 15 minutes. Harmonix says this is a great way to earn the Like a Million Suns achievement for scoring a million points on one song on the Xbox 360 version of the game. Unfortunately, this particular medley won't be available in the Wii version.

On the opposite end of the spectrum, "Her Majesty" is only around 25 seconds long. The song doesn't include a drum part, and for the first time in a Rock Band game the drummer can just wait it out rather than have to sign out of the session.

As of this writing, the pricing for the Abbey Road DLC was still being finalized. But fans will probably want to set aside some hard drive space for this new content so they can complete this famous record.