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Rock Band 4 Song List News: Van Halen's "Panama" Confirmed & More Van Halen DLC Coming!

395 views · Published 17 August 2015 · 1:02 · Indexed 6 November 2026

Channel: Rock N' Roll True Stories · 2015 · Gaming

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Entertainment Weekly Article http://www.ew.com/article/2015/08/17/rock-band-4-van-halen-panama

Jump back, what’s that sound? It’s Van Halen shredding its way to Rock Band 4.

EW can exclusively reveal that Van Halen’s classic hit “Panama” will be featured on the Rock Band 4 setlist. For a taste of what to expect from the song, check out the video above.

But Van Halen’s presence in the game won’t end there — more tracks will be available later on from Van Halen as downloadable tracks from the Rock Band Music Store. While Van Halen has appeared in music games before, perhaps most notably in their own edition of Guitar Hero, this is the first time Van Halen has come to the Rock Band franchise.

Van Halen, who is currently touring, joins a growing on-disc tracklist that includes other classic rock acts like Fleetwood Mac, Aerosmith, and The Who, as well as modern acts like St. Vincent, Fall Out Boy, and Bruno Mars. And Rock Band 4 will be compatible with previously purchased DLC and instruments from previous entries in the series. For more on what the latest entry is adding, read EW’s preview of the freestyle guitar solo mode.

Rock Band 4 hits the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One on Oct. 6.

One of the mantras Harmonix is holding for Rock Band 4 is giving the player more of a customized experience that allows them to feel more in tune with the music. The freestyle guitar solo mechanic is, in the short time I had with it at a recent demo, an incredible example of that idea put into practice.

When a guitar solo comes along in a song, Rock Band 4 no longer requires you to simply beat match it the way you would any other section of the song. Instead, there’s a bit of improvisation thrown in. You’ll hold notes, strum along in time, and finger tap up and down the fret in the combination you desire. You’ll have some on screen prompts, but it’s up to you to choose the notes.

The music has been recorded in such a way that nothing you play will sound bad. You can mess up the timing, sure, but you can’t turn your favorite Paramore, Elvis Presley, or Judas Priest track into an unlistenable mess.

The result is something that not only sounds great but also makes you feel like you have a hand in creating the music. Tapping along to the gems on screen song after song can eventually lose its luster, but you never have to play a guitar solo the same way.

I also played a feature that members of the Harmonix team said isn’t an official mode right now, but that they are considering for the full game. I played through the freestyle mode for an entire song. It took a bit of adjustment, but I quickly found myself trying to create an impressive solo, not simply mash all the buttons as I went along. It brought me back to the early days of Rock Band, playing and discovering the music while feeling like a part of the experience.

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