Rocksmith (PS3/Xbox/PC)

Tadpui

Tadpui

Well-known member
Has anybody else played this game yet? It's a Guitar-Hero style of game but you use a real electric guitar and play along with actual tablature (well, Ubisoft's version of tablature anyways).

I've only put in a few hours on it so far but I'm really enjoying it. It seems to be geared towards beginner/novice/intermediate guitarists but even as a long-time guitar player, it's been a challenge all the way. Most of the challenge for me has been getting used to the upside-down and color-coded tablature system that they use. It's not necessarily difficult but I'm just not used to it so I tend to end up like the proverbial deer in the headlights a lot of the time.

There are 50 songs included, and they run a pretty nice spread of modern and classic songs. The Rolling Stones, The Black Keys, The White Stripes, Titus Andronicus, and Nirvana are some of the artists. The game comes with a 1/4" to USB cable and uses internal modelling software to emulate the guitar tones in the songs. There is also an amp mode that just lets you sit and play with the modelled guitars, amps and pedals. Other than the career mode, there are also "Guitarcade" levels where they challenge you to complete arcade-style tasks by hitting the correct notes. There is also downloadable content available so you can download new songs once you master (or simply get sick and tired of) the default songs.

The gameplay itself is the real winner. Latency on my system (PS3 connected via HDMI to a 6.1 receiver and an LCD TV) is pretty low. I haven't been able to adjust the lag so that the "note highway" is in perfect sync with the audio but I find that just listening to the song is a much better indicator of correct timing anyways. They have indicators for hammer-on/pull-off, slides, bends, sustained notes, etc. but their system takes some getting used to. It also has an automatic skill level that detects how well you are doing and adjusts the skill level accordingly on the fly.

I have to say I'm pretty impressed with Rocksmith. The menus are a little clunky and there is definite room for improvement in the overall game flow and polish, but for the first version of the first game of its kind I'd have to say that Ubisoft is definitely on the right track. The price was a little steep at $80 because the only accessory is the 1/4" to USB cable. I can't imagine that cable is worth $20 on top of the price of a new PS3 game.

So has anybody else given Rocksmith a try yet?
 
I saw some videos on youtube about it, and I have to admit that it looks cool. I just couldnt bring myself to practice along a video game. Thats just me. But who knows, is this the future of learning an instrument? Who even knows anymore......
 
Yep in the old days we just popped the song in the ol stereo and played along with it.We learned it by ear and used tab to help.What's the point of this.You can just download tab for about any song ever written nowadays.I'd rather be able to take the tab with me on a piece of paper wherever i went instead of it being confined to a playstation game.I'd much rather hear my guitar through my amp instead of hearing it played through my tv and a game console.
 
mcmetal said:
Yep in the old days we just popped the song in the ol stereo and played along with it.We learned it by ear and used tab to help.What's the point of this.You can just download tab for about any song ever written nowadays.I'd rather be able to take the tab with me on a piece of paper wherever i went instead of it being confined to a playstation game.I'd much rather hear my guitar through my amp instead of hearing it played through my tv and a game console.
Click to expand...

I think that you're missing the point though. First and foremost, this is a game. I think it's fun to use an actual guitar to interface with a game. I'm still capable of sitting with an MP3 or CD and my guitar and figuring out songs just like always.

I always enjoyed myself with Guitar Hero, but it was ultimately frustrating because there is only so closely you can follow the guitar parts with 5 buttons and a picking bar.

I've been digging the automatic skill level adjustment. Every time I play a song for the first time, I'm hitting a correct note here and there. Before long, it's only asking me to play a skeletal version of the guitar part. But as I start nailing the simplified part, it'll start adding more and more notes until eventually it's following the actual guitar part.

The song selection has been a pleasant surprise too. Just today it had me playing Spoon, some really old school Stones, Dan Auerbach's solo stuff, bopping along to a kitschy Jenny O song, and having a blast flailing away to Muse. I was surprised to see The Pixies and even Sigur Ros on there as well. Relatively deep cuts for a game.

Anyways, the point of a game is to be fun. And I've been having lots of fun with this game so far.
 
I have a friend who's played it and he said theres quite a bit of latency...dunno myself though
 
kcearl said:
I have a friend who's played it and he said theres quite a bit of latency...dunno myself though
Click to expand...

I haven't really had problems with latency. There is a tiny bit of audible latency but I haven't had it affect me in the game yet. The little A/D converter they put inline in the supplied cable seems to do a pretty good job of fast conversion.

I do hear a bit of distortion/clipping in some of the guitar/amp/pedal models, as if the modelling software is pushing the processing boundaries of what the PS3 is capable of.
 
I played it a couple times, there was some serious latency problems but I also didn't hook it up as recommended by the game. And the latency wasn't an issue when playing along with the song as opposed to trying to hit the notes when they line up on screen.

I recommended it to my buddy cause he is a gamer and was thinking about getting guitar lessons. He has zero experience but has an old guitar. Anyway - I think it could be a good intro to guitar as far as getting your coordination going and building muscle memory.

I had fun playing it a couple times.
 
I found the "career" aspect of the game kind of silly.

But I love this as a teaching tool and a way to build chops and repetoire. I've learned tons of new songs many of which I would not have been exposed to but for this software and the skill builder mini games are a great way to tap into the competitive aspect. Leaderboards in scale runner and the other mini games are a great way to encourage one to get better and better and try and match other peoples scores

I too had "challenges" with the notation system to start with and would love to see an option for real music notation or TAB for those that are used to it to remove the learning curve and get you playing right away in future incarnatons

I find the way it teaches you songs is very similar to the way I used to listen to tapes and try and pick out the key notes and then gradually build up to a more complete arrangement as I became comfortable so it feels quite intuitive

I think anything that puts a real musical instrument into someones hands and a practical way to learn and get better has to be a good thing.

I still have my daily practice routine but this adds another dimension and some variety to some things as well as a lot of new material and fun challenges to make the boring technique stuff more engaging and challenging

I hope they come up with some more DLC soon though because I'm running out of songs to work on

There is latency compensation build into the settings so that can be adjusted if it is a problem but as with a lot of things that would involve RTFM which no one seems to want to do LOL
 
i sense this may be a christmas present :)

so I take it theres a two player mode too? does it come with the cable?

could you co-op with another player online?
 
kcearl said:
can someone RTFM for me? :D
Click to expand...

It's what I live for

Game comes with one converter cable
There is split screen multiplayer and you can buy additional cable for around $30

no online multiplayer yet. I'd imagine there are a lot of challenges around bandwidth and latency that they have to figure out before they could make this work seamlessly and not have online collaborators horribly out of sync on each others systems. I'd imagine eventually it will come though in future versions
 
As I progress through the more difficult songs (and even through the more difficult arrangements of the easier the songs) I'm finding that I'm not a very good guitar player. Or at least a terrible sight-reader! Sheesh I'm getting left behind on some of these songs.

I did read that they're going to patch the game to include bass guitar parts, which will be awesome. Especially for jamming with a friend. No immediate plans for drums though :)
 
Bristol Posse said:
It's what I live for

Game comes with one converter cable
There is split screen multiplayer and you can buy additional cable for around $30

no online multiplayer yet. I'd imagine there are a lot of challenges around bandwidth and latency that they have to figure out before they could make this work seamlessly and not have online collaborators horribly out of sync on each others systems. I'd imagine eventually it will come though in future versions
Click to expand...

thanks Bristol


I think Im going to stick a PC copy in my xmas stocking and give it a shot

the concepts a brilliant idea and at least the songs arent all the same genre even if they are a bit crappy
 
Yeah, I think that they had some trouble distinguishing themselves from guitar hero when securing licensing for the songs. They said that one band asked for $4 million to license one song. Fat chance! But they said that a few bands that initially declined changed their minds after release, so there may be some good downloads on the horizon.
 
Tadpui said:
Yeah, I think that they had some trouble distinguishing themselves from guitar hero when securing licensing for the songs. They said that one band asked for $4 million to license one song. Fat chance! But they said that a few bands that initially declined changed their minds after release, so there may be some good downloads on the horizon.
Click to expand...

Next DLC (3 songs) is coming 11/15
 
I think this is an outstand learning tool for a beginner. This is how I finally went from "I'd like to learn guitar." to "I can play some guitar." Some of the things in this game (like barre chords) made me start thinking about the theory behind the music and guitar playing, and led me to the internet to do some reasearch. That's where I really started learning, but Rocksmith started it all. As I just posted in another thread, I went from knowing no guitar to recording original songs in about three months, with a mixture of Rocksmith (which got me started) and some good old fashioned hard work (which put me over the top).

I definitely recommend it as a game, and as a learning tool for someone like me, who can't seem to focus for five feaking minutes to practice guitar unless there are pretty flashing lights in front of him!
 
I was going to ask if anybody was planning on getting Rocksmith 2014 here in a week or two. I forgot that I'd posted this a couple of years ago.

Anybody still playing the original? Planning on buying the updated 2014 version? They're adding a jam mode, updating the note tracking, revamping the awful menu system, and giving it an overall polishing. I'm really looking forward to it. You can even use the same cable from the original game with the 2014 version, and they'll sell a version of the game sans cable for those that already have one.

Ubisoft did a great job of keeping the downloadable content rolling for the original game. Everything from Queen to Megadeth, released a few songs at a time for over a year after release. I put in a lot of hours on that game and really enjoyed it.

Some of the tabs were a little off, and the main problem I had was when songs weren't in tune with standard pitch (the Queen songs, and Mississippi Queen, for example). You'd have to make a choice between playing the song in tune and throwing off the note tracking, or having acceptable note tracking and sounding out of tune with the song. Hopefully they address this issue in the new version.
 
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