At midnight, certain retailers started selling copies of "The Beatles: Rock Band" to the slavering masses. So, to see just how slavering the masses could be, I went over to GameStop's flagship location in New York City's Herald Square.

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"The Beatles: Rock Band" is more than just a game. It's also perfect for adding ambience to house parties, even if you're not willing to break out the miniature plastic instruments. By combining "Rock Band"'s Performance Mode (turns off the HUD) and No-Fail Mode (pretty self-explanatory) with the Make A Setlist option in Quickplay, you can essentially build your own Beatles video playlist.

This is especially appealing because of all of the work Harmonix put into crafting virtual counterparts for the legendary quartet. The Beatles stopped performing live concerts after their 1966 United States tour, focusing instead on studio work. A large chunk of their catalog, including classics like "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band" and "The Beatles" (aka the "White" album, for its distinctive cover art), was never performed in front of a crowd. Since this was also before the age of the short-form music video, fans have never had a visual aid for the later psychedelic work and its evocative lyrics. Read more...

I have this weird thing with rhythm games. I love music and I have a blast playing them, but it's a rare day that I pick up my fake plastic instrument and play by myself. And microphones? Fuhgeddaboutit. Solo or in a group, I don't sing. It's just how things work.

A funny thing happened last week though. Frushtick sent me home with a copy of "The Beatles: Rock Band," a game I've been looking forward to tearing through as a long-time Beatles fan. I popped it in after work, fired it up and played through a couple of songs on guitar. When I got to the Ed Sullivan Theater, the game's second stage space, I quickly highlighted "A Hard Day's Night" as my next selection. That's when the funny thing happened-- I spied my "Rock Band" microphone, collecting dust in the corner, and suddenly felt inclined to use it. Read more...

The other day I asked for a response from Activision regarding all the "Rock Band Network" news that has been coming out lately. The response I got back from Brian Bright, Project Director for "Guitar Hero 5," seemed more like a laundry list of features for "GH Studio" than an actual response to Harmonix's product.

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UPDATE: Confirming earlier rumors, the final song has been revealed in "The Beatles: Rock Band." Alex Rigopulos, CEO of Harmonix, revealed the final song, "The End," at a GameStop managers convention in Las Vegas. This announcement rounds out the song list for "The Beatles: Rock Band." Check out the complete song list after the break:

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"Rock Band," "Guitar Hero" and Wii nights are already in effect at bars around the world. The folks at "Rock Band" want to give those events a little push, though, and their new "Rock Band" Bar Nights landing page comes with loads of incentives for participating venues, including access to all of the songs in the "Rock Band" DLC catalog, marketing materials, and a location finder to be available through RockBand.com.

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Lets face it: Gameplay-wise the "The Beatles: Rock Band" isn't a huge departure from, say, "Rock Band 2." Apart from 3-part harmony and some new training modes, you're going to have a similar experience in the actual playing of it. But Harmonix is definitely trying to make this feel like a unique and very "Beatles" experience, so they've redesigned the game's story mode specifically for hardcore fans.

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By Katie Byrne

I think they made "The Beatles: Rock Band" specifically for me, because the only video game I'm any good at is "Rock Band," and the Beatles are the band that made me a music fan. So when we had the chance to play the game today, I was first in line.

The "Rock Band" creators, MTV-owned Harmonix, hosted a party for MTV employees in Santa Monica, California, to show off the new game. The game's opening sequence makes for an epic introduction to the game, with sweeping animation that highlights the band's floppy early years all the way to their rainbow-colored psychedelic era.

But what you really care about is playing the game. Well, a Harmonix quintet (yes, five players ... we'll call the fifth member "Pete Best") showed off the game, playing instruments custom-made for the game, including John Lennon's Rickenbacker 325 guitar, Paul McCartney's Höfner bass, George Harrison's Gretsch Duo Jet guitar and Ringo Starr's drums with Ludwig kick-drum head. Five people were used because it's the first "Rock Band" game to include three-part harmonies, and you can actually play with up to a Fab Sextet. Read more...

FROM MTVNEWS.COM: The two surviving Beatles reunited again on Monday, this time at E3 in Los Angeles to promote the forthcoming "Beatles: Rock Band" game.

Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr took the stage at the Microsoft press conference to talk briefly about the game, made by "Rock Band" creators at MTV-owned Harmonix Music, which is slated for release on September 9 for the Xbox 360, PlayStation 3 and the Wii. It will be released alongside replica Beatles instruments that connect to the game -- and the long-awaited remastered Beatles catalog will be released on the same day.

Continue reading about "The Beatles: Rock Band" at MTVNews.com....

One of the less likely spin-offs to the "Lego" video game series is coming to major platforms this fall. Read more...