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Rocksmith

polycounter lvl 18
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Rhinokey polycounter lvl 18
I was pretty skeptical of this early on but reading a and watching a lot of reviews done by people with hands on experience it seems like a pretty impressive tool.
the what it tabs out the charts will take some getting used to, but awesome it works with your own guitar, and awesome it utilizes bends and such,

i have the rockband mustang for pro mode, and i'm pretty good with useing it and its a good learning tool, but if rocksmith works well it should even be better, even better than rb3 with the squire, since you actualy hear what you play, and not just trigger a audio sample of the original guitar track. the squire is expensive, i've been wanting one for a while but always other things to spend 300 bucks on. rocksmith is 80 bucks for game, and only 200 with a guitar, thats a steal.

i'll be preordering this i believe.

one thing i was concerned about is latency since you are playing your guit, then it goes to xbox, gets fx added then played back . I've had problems with rock band vocals having about a half second delay before i hear what i sing, and it makes it almost unplayable unless you turn down the volume of the mic. but after some research i found that if you dont use hdmi and run the rca audio plugs from the xbox component cables straight into your audio system and not your tv you can eliminate almost all latency for vocals, and i've read this also works for rocksmith,.

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  • greevar
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    greevar polycounter lvl 6
    I'm also looking forward to this. My b-day is coming up soon and I'm planning on getting this.

    By the way, If you want a guitar, you're going to want to spend more than $200-$300 on one. Those guitars are junk. I have a BC Rich Warlock with EMG pickups (81/85 setup) that I paid $800 for and it plays very nicely. Don't get a guitar just to play the game, get one because you want to play the guitar.
  • Rhinokey
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    Rhinokey polycounter lvl 18
    oh i got a nice gretsch pro jet like this G5235T_body-front.jpg so i wont be needing the guitar pack, but i'm sure for someone just starting the epiphone les paul will be just fine, i played a long time on 100-200 dollar guitars before moving up to better ones, hell the gretsch was only 500 an it plays great.

    tho with gettin the epiphone i would recomend getting luthier to do a set up on it if you are not comfortable with making neck and bridge adjustments, it will cost about 50-70 bucks and make your guitar play sooo much better, i still take my guitar in once a year to get a pro set up done to it.
  • greevar
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    greevar polycounter lvl 6
    Nice, but I've always be a fan of Floyd Rose floating tremolo. I like to string it backwards so if the string breaks near the bridge, I can just unwind the heads a bit and avoid changing the strings.

    I definitely want to get this game, I've been dying for a music game that lets you play a real guitar. I hope they include tools to add music of your own (use tracks you own and write up the notation yourself), but copyright and licensing BS will probably make that impossible or they will probably want to sell you DLC to add more songs, even though they're probably not what most guitar enthusiasts want to play.
  • mdeforge
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    mdeforge polycounter lvl 14
    Freddiew, the popular Youtube VFX artist, got a chance to bring Rocksmith home and do vid on it. He was Guitar Hero world champ one year, or something, apparently. Anyways, you'll like this video:

    http://youtu.be/RuFEiVGKxSA

    boo on no embed :(
  • Rhinokey
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    Rhinokey polycounter lvl 18
    After playing for 6 hours straight last nite I give it five enthusiastic thumbs up, they cut out a lot of “game” fluff, you don’t have a character, you don’t unlock clothes and hats, you do unlock venues, but they could have left that out for all I care, you really don’t have time to look at the back ground when all those lil colored blocks come flying at you.

    I was really skeptical of the sideways note highway, but it seemed pretty natural right away, especially for chords. Mini games are nice and helps you practice fundamentals like bending palm muting and sliding. And the dynamic difficulty eases you into songs
  • JasonLavoie
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    JasonLavoie polycounter lvl 18
    good to hear rhinokey, i would love to give this one a try :)
  • MrOneTwo
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    MrOneTwo polycounter lvl 12
    Yeah it looks really cool but whole internet doesnt give a duck. Probably I will have to wait till 2012 since in EU release date is somewhere around 2012... keep us posted how is it in the long run.
  • mdeforge
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    mdeforge polycounter lvl 14
    Well, not that I follow the "critics" much, but Kotaku said not to get this game. Some of the commentators were pretty flaky about it as well. I'll see if I can play it a store or a friends house before I invest first. I really like the concept though, I just hope the execution is as good as you guys say it is.
  • Mongrelman
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    Mongrelman polycounter lvl 18
    Interested in this myself

    couple of positive reviews:
    http://www.wired.com/geekdad/2011/10/rocking-out-with-rocksmith-bring-your-own-guitar/
    http://www.thegamingvault.com/2011/10/review-rocksmith-360ps3/

    I read them and the kotaku ones. I get the impression kotaku viewed it as a game, and didn't rate it too high, the others viewed it as a teaching tool, and viewed it positively.
  • Rhinokey
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    Rhinokey polycounter lvl 18
    i would not rate this as a game at all, if i was some joe gamer who didnt care about really playing guitar i would give this low reviews also.

    http://www.metacritic.com/game/xbox-360/rocksmith/critic-reviews

    meta critic is giving it good reviews, except joystick who seems to have also reviewed it as a "game"

    especialy user reviewss 15 possitive and one neg.

    i recomend it and a subscription to guitartricks.com which is the best guitar teaching site i've ever seen, guitar tricks will teach you foundation and form, and rocksmith will give you a lot of fun practice.
  • mdeforge
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    mdeforge polycounter lvl 14
    That's a great point actually. I'll be sure to go into with that in the back of my mind.
  • Rhinokey
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    Rhinokey polycounter lvl 18
    Further update for those interested. my second day with this has provided some flaws

    mostly the UI, they seem to love loading screens and you find yourself having to sit at a lot of loading and menu screens and game saves. like for mini

    i took my first real stab at the mini games last nite, so far i've
    unlocked dawn of the chorded, a game where you play chords to shoot zombies, and i was pleased at its large variety of chords especialy chords i've never bothered to master because they were dificult. "open f.. fuck that chord" but i found myself after a while playing them pretty clean.

    also did the baseball game where you hit the right note as the pitch is coming in, a lot of them have bends, and you have to bend to the right pitch in the right time or strike out, i've always been weak at bends and can only do this a short time before my fingers are screaming. cant wait to see how far i can progress in this one.

    theres one for fret memory where you just play on the right fret to shoot ducks it starts of real easy but soon is flying all over and you have no time to look at the guitar, you just have to learn to know where your hand is at all times, this is one that i noticed making a good improvement in.

    last is harmonicaly challenged kind like simon says for harmonics disguised as difusing a bomb, the bomb plays several harmonics then you repeat, after a while it gets hard. i did not like this one nearly as much cause it turns to be way more of a memory game than a guitar game. and harmonics while used in music are not nearly as usefull as some of the other things taught.

    i was skeptical of the mini games at first, but after last nite i'm hooked, its great seeing your score go up as you practice, a visible sign of "i'm getting this!" also as you score in the mini games goes up you can see names of people on the leader boards so you can try and pass them.. i've not come remotely close yet :)

    as i'm typing this my fingers are aching from all the rocking i've done.

    so my final review

    Graphics C . all the stuff you need is here but if you are judging it as a "game" you may find it to be a bit off, the crowds are greenscreend people and a crowd of 100 may be five different greenscreen people repeated over and over playing some jerky animation, also weirdly there scale is off, i had a lady in the back of a crowd last nite whos head was nearly the size of the torso of the guy in front of her. but in the end the only thing that mattters is the guitar neck, the note highway, and that all is fine.

    Fun: as a guitar player A+ i cant imagine a better way to practice
    as a gamer D theres not much in the way of traditional game here, not character creation, story progression cutscreens, you can unlock guitar models, but i dont even know where you see them in game, i feel as a gamer with no prior or current interest in learning to play guitar you would quickly be frustrated.

    Sound: B while there may be a small amount of lag its so small that i cant notice. but the weird thing is, after you play the song they do a replay of you playing during the menu. and the sound is off sync in this replay so everything sounds terribly out of time, i usualy just skip right thru this.
  • DeeKei
    hmm interesting. i havent played my guitar in ages, this might be a good reason for me to dust it off again.
  • Mongrelman
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    Mongrelman polycounter lvl 18
    Out of curiosity, as you've had more time with the game, do you still recommend it?
  • Jeremy Lindstrom
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    Jeremy Lindstrom polycounter lvl 18
    What about a noob guitar player with no experience or little?
  • greevar
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    greevar polycounter lvl 6
    I have Rocksmith now and I spent 3 hours really enjoying it. I tried Ducks and Dawn of the Chorded. They are as Rhino describes them. There are also technique exercises, which I found helpful for leaning the songs.
    I like that it gets around buying expensive plastic peripherals.

    Some might argue that you are now required to buy an even more expensive instrument instead. But if you already have a guitar, this will definitely get you to dust it off and start learning to play it better.
  • venain
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    venain polycounter lvl 12
    The kotaku review is dumb, the guy had audio lag problems which makes the game completely unplayable, and that's the state he reviewed the game in. I have absolutely no lag problems, and the game is extremely enjoyable and a great learning tool. Highly recommend it for anyone looking to learn guitar.
  • Nizza_waaarg
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    Nizza_waaarg polycounter lvl 15
    guess ill be looking to pick this up when its released in australia... in 5 years/never >_>

    does sound pretty fun tho. Does it have any harder mini games/drills if you want to work on your speed, or does it keep everything really simple for begginers?
  • greevar
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    greevar polycounter lvl 6
    guess ill be looking to pick this up when its released in australia... in 5 years/never >_>

    does sound pretty fun tho. Does it have any harder mini games/drills if you want to work on your speed, or does it keep everything really simple for begginers?

    It's beginner oriented, but after it figures out how good you are, it starts throwing more complex stuff at you. As you progress, it unlocks more minigames to help you develop those skills. It's definitely worth getting.
  • jmt
    I bought this game yesterday and played it for several hours. I wasn't sure whether or not it would appeal to experienced players (I've played guitar almost every day for like 7 years), but I had a lot of fun with it. I've never been into rhythm games because I'd rather just play guitar.

    The tech in the game is impressive. It works surprisingly well I like the chord zombie game - it tests how quickly you can play random chords. I didn't like the scale race game and couldn't figure out how to do the bending baseball game.

    My biggest problem with the game is that the way it illustrates the strings is the opposite of tabs. Tabs are as if you rotated your guitar towards your face with the lowest string on the bottom. In Rocksmith, its like an x-ray view of the guitar neck. I can tolerate this because I just memorized the colors they give for each string, but the chord diagrams make no sense to me because they're backwards and use the icons.

    It teaches you how to play with the abstract rhythm game interface, which partially applies to real guitar. The mechanics are real, but anyone who learned to play using this would have no idea how to use tabs (it doesn't explain the difference).

    The song list didn't excite me when I first read through it, but I enjoyed almost all of them in the game. The menus are kind of confusing. I've worked as a tester for a long time and yet I can't figure out how to navigate the menus.

    Don't use a guitar with a floyd rose with this game. You have to switch to drop D at some points and the tuner probably wouldn't work.
  • greevar
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    greevar polycounter lvl 6
    jmt wrote: »
    I bought this game yesterday and played it for several hours. I wasn't sure whether or not it would appeal to experienced players (I've played guitar almost every day for like 7 years), but I had a lot of fun with it. I've never been into rhythm games because I'd rather just play guitar.

    The tech in the game is impressive. It works surprisingly well I like the chord zombie game - it tests how quickly you can play random chords. I didn't like the scale race game and couldn't figure out how to do the bending baseball game.

    My biggest problem with the game is that the way it illustrates the strings is the opposite of tabs. Tabs are as if you rotated your guitar towards your face with the lowest string on the bottom. In Rocksmith, its like an x-ray view of the guitar neck. I can tolerate this because I just memorized the colors they give for each string, but the chord diagrams make no sense to me because they're backwards and use the icons.

    It teaches you how to play with the abstract rhythm game interface, which partially applies to real guitar. The mechanics are real, but anyone who learned to play using this would have no idea how to use tabs (it doesn't explain the difference).

    The song list didn't excite me when I first read through it, but I enjoyed almost all of them in the game. The menus are kind of confusing. I've worked as a tester for a long time and yet I can't figure out how to navigate the menus.

    Don't use a guitar with a floyd rose with this game. You have to switch to drop D at some points and the tuner probably wouldn't work.

    I have a FR on my guitar, but I haven't played any songs with a drop D. I do have a fixed bridge on a guitar of mine, so all should be good. Best scenario: Use a drop D on one guitar and use E standard for the other.
  • toddiej
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    toddiej polycounter lvl 18
    @jmt

    The 'opposite of tab' thing was bothering me too but you can change it. There is an option to switch it to be the same as tabs. It still shows it like you're looking through the back of the neck so it looks kind of dumb but it'll be tab view.
  • jmt
    toddiej wrote: »
    @jmt

    The 'opposite of tab' thing was bothering me too but you can change it. There is an option to switch it to be the same as tabs. It still shows it like you're looking through the back of the neck so it looks kind of dumb but it'll be tab view.

    Yeah, I discovered that yesterday. I think they should have found a way to make that the default setting and somehow oriented the art towards that configuration, because otherwise it could cause confusion.
  • Rhinokey
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    Rhinokey polycounter lvl 18
    i dont see where someone would have trouble going from this to tab. may take a few minutes to figure out whats going on.

    with the base ball mini game.. took me a bit to figure out, at the top it shows you a fret number, at the bottom a string glows,, play that fret on that string when it counts down, theres a count when he pitches CLICK CLICK CLICK hit your note where the next click would be, sometimes you will see when looking at the string below it shows it bent, you have to bend the string to match the bend bellow

    and my only regret witht he game is i've been working long hours and not able to play enough,, or i would play it forever.. as long as my fingers hold.
  • Daelus
    Just got a hold of this game this morning. Definitely a good purchase. Only stopped now because my arms are leaden, and my fingers are all torn up.

    Haven't encountered anything hugely difficult so far, but I have to say, I really like the dynamic difficulty thing. Makes it really easy to learn from, even on a sight read. Maybe I haven't hit the hard songs yet, but I gotta think a lot of testing went into it when you can pick it up and get 80-90% on sight reads. Although... one downside to that is that if you do really well, it'll throw things at you that it hasn't taught you yet. I suck at chords, so I'll be hitting all the fast single notes, then it'll throw a bunch of 4 string chords at me at full speed. Yah, time to wait until it realizes I haven't hit anything for 10 seconds.

    One thing to point out, this isn't really a game in the same sense that other rhythm games are. It's incredibly easy to cheat if you want to. The game can't tell the difference between muted notes and not (and tends not to pick up muted notes some the time it seems). It's timing window is huge so over-strumming and being off beat isn't that big of a problem either. But good fun, good learning, and the mini-games are really good for getting you to stop looking down when playing.
  • Jeremy Lindstrom
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    Jeremy Lindstrom polycounter lvl 18
    So after playing Rocksmith, would you only know how to play the songs in Rocksmith, or would you be able to switch out and easily learn some more songs? 3 chord, etc.. Is it just picking or is it strumming as well, does it teach different strum methods, etc.?
  • jmt
    There are 3 styles: chords, single notes or combo. Not every song has all 3 options. The chords and techniques you use in Rocksmith would apply other songs as well. Eventually, you will be doing open/power/bar chords, tremolo picking, slides, palm mutes, bends, sustain etc. The thing this game is probably best for is hand coordination and forcing the user not to look at the frets.
  • Ged
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    Ged interpolator
    this game is epic! I got it today and have been playing for like 4 hours straight! I love how good it makes your guitar sound and the song choices are great fun. I have the same issues as you daelus, I have been playing guitar for years now so occasionally it just doesnt know how to rate my skills and just throws insane chords at me in the middle of a fast note picking part!

    One problem I can see already is that once the game is turned off I cant really play any of the songs from start to finish yet even though according to the game I got 90% and more, its just not actually making me play the songs properly with all the notes and chords yet... so people might think they are awesome at guitar and then try playing without the game and be like "what the hell! I suck at guitar! I cant play this song properly at all!?" Prime reason for this problem is that often real bands have a rhythm guitarist and a lead guitarist and one does chords and the other does melodys and single note picking stuff, but this game tries to combine those 2 roles into one and that doesnt sound too good when you turn the game off and play it.

    gotta go get a component cable tomorrow so that I can get rid of the lag :/
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