Rocksmith 2014

[Canelek]

Having heard some terrific reviews for the original, I immediately ordered my copy (plus the instrument -> PS3 cable) when I heard the new, rebooted version was released yesterday. (~$79 for game + included cable--you can use your existing cable if you already own the original).

Basically, it is Guitar Hero, etc but you use YOUR real guitar or bass, which plugs in via your console or PC USB port. It is not just for beginners or people who want to learn the 50+ included or 200+ downloadable songs. It is worth it for that, indeed. However, it has great features such as a Session mode, where you set up your band and play as the lead as well as actual lessons and exercises. Something that also looks like fun is the arcade mode where you play mini games by working on scales. Cool!

I'll give my thoughts on the game later this week, as it should arrive tomorrow. Can't wait!

http://rocksmith.ubi.com/rocksmith/en-U ... index.aspx

Anyone picked this up yet?

[Aslanna]

I have the original one but haven't really spent much time with it. I also picked up another copy (!) last week when Best Buy had them for $10 but that was mainly for another cable since they sell those for $20 on their own.

I'm sure I'll pick up the 2014 version when it hits $20 or something in a few months. Thanks Ubisoft!

[Canelek]

As an on-and-off guitar player for 25+ years, this is not intuitive at all! Luckily, the game adjusts on the fly to simplify things quote a bit. After a couple hours I feel I can work with it a bit. If you want to learn bass or guitar, this is the product for you to learn with. However, once I get the hang of the streaming Guitar Herolike thing, it may prove to be quite cool! Being able to use my Les Paul as opposed to a plastic button controller is beyond neat! At the very least I now have an effective preamp via my home theater.

Going to walk through more advanced lessons and songs for sure! Session mode looks rad since you can set up a pretty decent AI band that reacts to your playing. Neato!

[Aslanna]

BTW, the original version is back on sale at Best Buy for the 360 and PS3, and $2 cheaper than previously. $7.99! And that includes the cable. Which they sell for $30 so.. Do the math!

Probably a good purchase as you will be able to import those songs into the 2014 version although there is a $10 fee. Still.. That's 52 songs and another cable for $18 total.

If you still own the original Rocksmith, you will be able to import 52 of the original songs into the new Rocksmith 2014 Edition for a one-time music label relicensing fee of $9.99. As part of this process, all these songs will be updated with the new tunings, techniques, tones, and other enhancements new to 2014 Edition. These 52 songs include everything except Eric Clapton "Run Back To Your Side" and Cream "Sunshine of Your Love" from the main disc tracks, plus 3 of the 5 unlockable bonus songs. To do this process, you will be prompted inside the main menu the first time you launch, or you can access it from the SHOP as the "Song Import" pack.

[Canelek]

That is a great deal, thanks!

[Aslanna]

It is! Assuming you can find it anywhere now. It's sold out everywhere around here.

[kyoukan]

Yeah this is a really great game. I have not played my electric guitar in years before Rocksmith came out. I tinkered around with it but was ultimately unsatisfied in a lot of ways. This new one fixes almost everything that bugged me about the first one. I mostly play acoustic but this game has already helped me out quite a bit on picking up on some songs I had trouble with. And yeah, running this through my home theater to just jam on is way better than hooking it up to my old ass amp.

[Canelek]

Indeed. I have always had trouble justifying a Mesa Boogie stack purchase.

For me, this is also helping me to play standing up. Always had issues doing that. For whatever reason, I have adopted a wide-stance rockingthefuckout posture. I think I will download a few new songs today.

\m/

[Canelek]

Still a bit tough to decipher the flying-notes-in-your-face presentation, but coupled with traditional tablature (on a tablet, for instance) for reference, it makes a bit more sense. Also, it seems their tuner is a bit dicey? May just be me and my less-than-perfect-pitch, but switching between songs, I am often off by a half step despite said songs being of the same tuning.

Still though, this is basically rad. I've really been enjoying Machinehead by Bush for some 90s fun, along with a more basic stage of Muse's Knights of Cydonia, which is a hoot.

I just bought a handful of songs from PSN to try out when I get home. The biggest thing I have noticed is that songs/bands I had previously ignored are finding their way into my living room. Cool!

[kyoukan]

Yeah the tuning is way off. I'm hoping it is something they can patch.

[Aslanna]

Seems to be a fairly common complaint as a quick Google search showed. Odd that it's like that when it was fine in the first game.

[Canelek]

Yes I hope they patch that ASAP! Is there an option to turn off mandatory tuning? I may just have not seen a skip option Hehe. My guess is it got messed up when they introduced non-standard tunings to have more song variety.

[kyoukan]

After dicking with it some more I'm finding the tuning less aggressively annoying. It just tunes differently than regular in that it is way more sensitive about it. I tend to whale on my tuners pretty hard in one direction and it sounds alright to me but the game requires way more gentle twists. I tune it so it is just a tiny bit out of pitch to the point that I don't even notice, but the game is translating it as it's way out of pitch. If you fuck around with it you'll probably get used to it. I would still like to see a fix because I'm not a pitch perfect robot and will tune my instrument only to the point that it sounds alright to me.

[kyoukan]

After dicking with it some more I'm finding the tuning less aggressively annoying. It just tunes differently than regular in that it is way more sensitive about it. I tend to whale on my tuners pretty hard in one direction and it sounds alright to me but the game requires way more gentle twists. I tune it so it is just a tiny bit out of pitch to the point that I don't even notice, but the game is translating it as it's way out of pitch. If you fuck around with it you'll probably get used to it. I would still like to see a fix because I'm not a pitch perfect robot and will tune my instrument only to the point that it sounds alright to me.

[Canelek]

No shit! Most of us can develop really decent relative pitch, but having a tuner is fairly nice... another addition I would love is a tablature overlay of sorts.

Really though, what a fabulous "game"!

Messed with the session mode at all?

[Aslanna]

Have they fixed the tuning issues yet?

Anyway, Amazon has this today at $33 for the non-cable version. So if you already have a cable this is a decent price. I'll probably pick it up but I'm sure it will go cheaper sooner rather than later. Which doesn't bode well for future versions.

(Seems they have the Cable included version as well for $43)

[Canelek]

Not really seeing any tuning issues anymore, although it may have just been me not being used to how it likes to have things ring out a certain way.

The only issues I have are sometimes it will not pick up particularly low tones when I am playing bass in Drop-D tuning. I have a feeling that this particular issue is with my P-Bass pickup as I do not see it happening on my Music Man bass. Have no issues with any of my guitars, so yeah... Oh, and Session Mode seems wonky when playing bass as opposed to guitar....again, it may just be me.

Anyway, every week there are more songs, so that is pretty fucking bitchin. Well, only when the song packs they release aren't shitty bands (Alter Bridge, really??)

Cake song pack is this week. Not my favorite band, but they do have some pretty fun riffs.

Since Bandfuse is, at least for now, totally fucking dead, Rocksmith is the way to go. The sheer volume of non-song content would be great for beginners. The weekly song updates are fantastic (not free!) in that eventually there should be something for everyone and it can be fun to try shit out out of your normal music interest.

[Aslanna]

Currently on sale on Steam for the next 7 or so hours at $15. The cable is universal so I might pick this up since I have the PS3 version of the original. Only 'bad' thing is I wont be able to import the songs from the first Rocksmith (PS3) into the PC version. Too bad Steam doesn't have a bundle deal although they have the first one on sale for $18.

[Canelek]

http://www.theriffrepeater.com/

This is the unofficial site for weekly DLC news. Good stuff!