Menus/UI
In terms of the actual gameplay HUD, very little has changed other than the fretboard becoming slightly shorter and more transparent, and everything having a sleeker appearance to it. In contrast, the menus and sorting system have been overhauled quite a bit.
The Overshell
This is the largest addition to the game in terms of menus, and really makes things much more convenient overall. The overshell is found along the bottom of the screen and is accessible from all screens up until the time when you begin a song. From the overshell you are able to join and drop out of the session, change gamertags, choose characters, invite players to play online, and change various options and modifiers which are listed below. Although the full overshell is not available during a song, you can change any of the options and modifiers in the middle of the song as well.
Options
- All Instruments Mode - As discussed on the Multiplayer page, AIM allows you to use all 4 instruments in band play a long with vocals (with vocal scoring disabled).
- No-Fail Mode - As the name implies, it is impossible to fail out of a song with no-fail activated. Interestingly enough, this no longer prevents you from completing goals or achievements, or from your scores being saved to the leaderboards.
- Vocal Options - From here you can choose between static and scrolling vocals, turn pitch correction on or off, and adjust the levels of the recorded vocal track along with all 3 microphone inputs.
- System Settings - Access to various audio and video options is located here, along with calibration settings.
- Extras - The ability to watch the credits as well as find your account linking code to link your game to http://www.rockband.com∞ can be found here.
- Modifiers - Various modifiers to gameplay are located here and will be discussed below.
Modifiers
- Drum Navigation - Toggles the ability to navigate through menus by hitting pads on your drum set. This feature does not work properly on Guitar Hero drumsets, and can not be turned off for Rock Band 1 drumsets.
- Drum Fills - Allows you to disable freestyle drum fills for overdrive activation. Even with fills turned off, you can not break combo or gain points in sections where fills would exist.
- Breakneck Speed - Increases the speed of the track scrolling, causing less notes to be on screen at one time.
- Individual Track Speeds - Allows everyone's track to scroll at the normal speed for their difficulty level, rather than being set by the player on the lowest difficulty. Breakneck speed will work on all tracks regardless of this being turned on or off.
- Beginner Tutorials - Toggles in game tips on and off.
- Chord Numbering - Allows you to have the game display all fret numbers for chords in pro guitar mode in place of the chord waves.
- Miss Sounds - Disables the plinking sounds normally created when you miss a note.
Song Sorting/Filtering
Instead of only being able to sort by one option like in past games, Rock Band 3 includes a number of sorting options along with various filters that can be applied to narrow down the range of songs displayed.
Sorting Options
- Artist
- Song Name
- Song Difficulty
- Stars
- Leaderboard Rank
- Date Acquired
- Play Count
- Review
Filter Options
- Genres
- Decades
- Keys Support
- Pro Guitar/Bass Support
- Number of Vocal Parts
- Song Source
- Song Difficulties
- Song Lengths
- Song Ratings