Rocksmith

I grew up playing a musical instrument.  I played the trumpet in middle and high school, playing in both concert and marching bands.  One of my girls has been playing viola the last 5 years.  Another of my girls has played both the saxophone and the violin (but has since stopped).

The point is while none of us three were prodigies, we're all somewhat familiar with music.  We sometimes end up having big Rockband and Guitar Hero sessions on weekends.  No, those games aren't really music-centric...they're more like a version of Simon Says, but you still have to know music patterns (such as beats), otherwise you're going to be struggling.

Well, I picked up a game that really takes it to a new level.  I wouldn't even call it a game...it's more like a tutorial that uses games to teach you.  What's the game?  Rocksmith.

Currently, there's Rocksmith, released back in 2012, I believe, and Rocksmith 2014.  I opted for Rocksmith since I'd read that Rocksmith 2014 tended to be less tutorial-oriented than the original version.  I want to learn how to play, not get thrown to the wolves, so to speak.

Rocksmith is sold in three versions:  For PC, for the Xbox360/XboxOne, and for the PS3/PS4.  And of those versions, you can opt to buy with or without a PC-to-guitar USB cable.  I opted for the PC version, since I'm more of a PC guy.  The cable is required, unless you already have such a cable.  You can opt to not that version if you already own Rocksmith and have a cable.  If you upgrade to Rocksmith 2014, you can use the cable that you used with Rocksmith, so you won't need another cable, unless you've broken your original one.  You can also buy the cable separately.

The PC game requires a decent PC.  You can't play it on junk machines without having system resource consumption issues, and the game requires a dedicated graphics card.  I've yet to try the game on my Alienware M17x R3, but I'm assuming it will not have issues since I've played it on my recently-built Core i5 system without issue.  The rule of thumb for me is, if you can play such games as COD or BF (recently current versions), your computer is not going to have issues playing Rocksmith or RS:2014.

And, of course, the game also requires that you have an electric guitar.

The game accounts for many different electric guitars and accounts for left-handed and right-handed people.

I got the game yesterday and was a bit surprised that the game is actually distributed by Steam.  It comes with a CD and I'm assuming that the game on the CD is either a demo or an installer that redirects to Steam.  There's a game code that you enter into Steam to activate and download the game.  It took me 20 minutes to download the game, but I've a large-piped FO connection.  Once downloaded and installed, the game had an issue detecting the USB cable.  It wouldn't detect at all and I was concerned since I'd read about cables being bad out of the box.  I read that if you use multiple USB connections (mouse and keyboard and other peripherals), the game becomes confused and doesn't see the guitar connection.  The fix is apparently to disconnect the PC-to-guitar cable and reconnect it and to keep trying until the game recognizes the guitar.  Another fix is to remove all other USB peripherals (before or after starting the game, I don't know).  I don't know which worked for me, but it eventually worked.

The game interface is weird.  It took me awhile to determine how to navigate the menu.  You have to use the keyboard arrow keys to move around the menu, and you can use either the Enter key to select your option or click the Enter graphic button with the mouse.  Going backward in the menu system is a PITA.

The game first makes you tune your guitar and will have you ensure your guitar is tuned before every song.  If you've old strings, you might want to replace them before playing this game.  Also, don't just throw your guitar around when not using it...it'll eventually get out of tune because it's being banged around and even when just normally playing, my guitar would sometimes slip slightly out of tune.  I'm not sure if that means there's something wrong with the guitar or if it means I need new strings (I bought my guitar back in 1990 at a pawn shop, not knowing a damned thing about guitars...still don't know all that much about them, but I'm now making an effort to learn).  That's the thing about this game:  it would be nice if it talked about such things.  Or maybe I could just use Google to search for those answers in my spare time (that's typically what most budding hobbyists might do anyways).

There are several games within the game.  They're designed to hone your skills and get you familiar with your guitar and guitar techniques.  The mini-games tutor you in techniques such as hammering and if it detects you're having issues with the technique, it will show you a video snippet of someone actually playing as an example.  It'll keep trying to help you (and not advance on the tutorial screen) until you've gotten through the exercise.

There's another tutorial mode where you follow along in playing songs.  The tutorial explains techniques before the song begins.  Once the song begins, it can't be slowed or stopped, though.  During the song, the virtual tutor will start out with basic techniques that will slowly begin to get more complicated.  You might start with one note per measure or one every 5 measures, then end up with several per measure.  It is quite stimulating.  Once done with the song, the tutor plays back your session to you (audibly and visually), where you can opt to skip it or listen and learn from your mistakes.

I had intended to only try a few minutes of the game but ended up playing for 2 hours, to the point where my fingertips were hurting (and still are -- waiting for the calluses to kick in!).

The game is FUN and it feels like I've actually absorbed some guitar knowledge, instead of actually forgetting it or giving up after 30 minutes of trying to learn.  It makes you want to keep trying.  In my opinion, this is a decent way to get people immersed into learning at least some aspects of playing guitar.

If my oldest daughter sees this game, her and I might be fighting for play time.

I can see spending more money on the 2014 version.