Background
For those who don't know, RockSmith is the latest in the long line of guitar based music games. However, the difference in this game is that you use a real electric guitar and not a plastic toy.
You also may (or may not) know that Rocksmith has been delayed in Europe due to legal action by the band of the same name. This is not expected to be resolved until Feb 2012 at the earliest. So for now, the only (none piracy option) is to import the game.
If you are a PS3 owner... good news! This game is region Free on the PS3, so yopu can import the American version (released 18th Oct). However, if you are a Xbox owner, you are out of luck... it is region locked!
Buying
If you decide to import the game, the best place seems to be at..
http://www.videogamesplus.ca/advance...sort=2a&page=1
It will cost £55 + postage ($8 - I seem to remember). But remember you also get the cable to connect your console to the guitar.
I took about a week to get delivered and the box was miss labelled as a "Toy $18", so no import duty charged (no I didn't ask for this)
Obviously if you buy this game you will need your own real electric guitar!
Package
The box is really quite heavy... I was impressed with the postage price (from canada) considering the weight.
In the box, you get...
The game (obviously),
The cable... which I must say is a very sturdy, well built quality item (and of a good length too)
A free guitar strap (nothing to shout about... normal, black strap with "Rocksmith" on it)
Some number stickers!
These stickers are to stick on the edge of the guitar neck to mark / number the fret positions. They mark positions 3,5,7,9,12 and 15
Yeah ok, if you are a seasoned guitar player you will ignore them and even point out that there are marks already on the guitar.
However, as a beginner it is a real aid.
My wicked guitar setup
I personally am using a very expensive Korean fender copy, which must of cost a whopping £60 new (with Amp). Obviously if you are learning to play the guitar in the tradition way, these are probably not a good investment as they will go out of tune every 2 mins. However, for the purpose of this game, it seems fine. The main reasons for this are two fold. A) When you play in the game you are always playing with music so it does always so good. B) When ever you play something in the game it always does a quick "tune" check of your 6 strings before you start... and if any string is out of tune it will take you to the quick tune facility.
Now would also be a good point to mention that there are known sound lag issues in this game. The main issue seems to be caused by sound through HDMI. Therefore the game recommends you don't use hdmi sound. In the case of the ps3 this means it is best to have picture only through the hdmi lead and have your sound going straight to a sound amp (via that phono lead you got with the PS3 but you never even took out the box and have actually forgotten it existed!). From the start, I used this recommended setup and hence I haven't noticed any lag.
How the game works
Imagine you are standing at the beginning of a running track. An you are looking at the lanes going off into the distance in front of you. In Rocksmith this are your frets... as marked by the number labels mentioned above. The far left lane is fret 1, followed by 2, 3, 4 etc... all the way up to 19 (i think). When you playing music, the game trys to keep about 8 big fret lanes in focus and tends to pan slowly left and right (obviously depending of how the music is going) to keep the frets you need in view. However, sometimes it zooms out to show more frets if music denotes it.
The six strings are colour coded. The top string is red, the next yellow, then blue and so on. Here is the basis of the game... you see a "guitar" hero type note coming down lane 2... and it is red. This means you hold down the top string on fret 2 and when it gets to the bottom you twang the string. This is a basis of Rocksmith. I have to say the system works very well. I always knew where I was supposed to be when playing (not that I could.. but that's another matter).
I had doubts that the game would/could be good enough to know merely by tone if you had fret 1 held down and not fret 2 (as instructed) but I have to say "yes it does"... It seems very accurate!
The Music
One of you 1st thoughts maybe to browse through the list of included Music and turn your nose up at most of the tracks. I did and I must say that most of the tracks are not my cuppa tea.. the ones I really like I can count on one hand. However, 1st of all there seem to be a good amount of tracks. 2ndly, its not like guitar hero... unless you already are a great guitar player, you won't be taking in the songs and having fun... you will be working you little fingers off! Lastly, the songs seem to be selected somewhat by the ability to teach you stuff and not for their party popularity.
Me
Before I start on my main opinion, I should say that I think this game will have different rating depending on how good you are on the guitar. From the beginning it is all setup for a total newbie and indeed I am a total newbie (I thought I was semi-newbie cause I could strum 4 or 5 chords, but this game has quickly shown me I have a lot to learn). Anyway, my point is that I can only give you an opinion as a beginner. Hard core guitar players may obviously get a total different aspect to it.
I think I will have to review this game in stages as it is going to take me a while to get deep into the game (as I am Crap)....
Day 1
As mentioned above, I have got nothing but praise to how the game reacts to the guitar and the clear 3D fret board system. The general graphics are much in the style of the traditional rock band / guitar hero type game, including various venues, crowds and of course your practice room. You seen it all before and nothing is improved in this respect. Navigating the menus is a bit of a pain the arse, purely because you obviously need to use a game pad to navigate... this means that in between guitar sessions, you have to reach for the controller... a bit of a pain in the ass, but how else could they do it?
At the start, you are taken through a nifty guitar tuning session (which I found better than a proper digital guitar tuner)... then you are straight into a song! Don't worry you initially play only a few notes... and they are only single notes (no chords yet). Its all very simple stuff, but all it takes is 2 or 3 changes of frets and you can quickly get in a mess... but hey you are really playing a well known song (I won't spoil it by saying which one) and ok, yeah you make a bit of a hash of it but the game is very forgiving. You can get bronze, silver and gold stars for each song but a pass is quite easy to attain... its not like Guitar Hero where they expect you to be almost perfect before moving on.
Anyway, thats how you carry on... you get more things added to your plate via a little technique session, followed by a song... which if you a noob like me get quite flustered about and make cock ups all over the place. however, no problem... thats a pass, lets try the next stage says Rocksmith. Its all very forgiving. Great if you like to progess. For me, I found it little to forgiving and wanted to go back and try again... but i just make a mess of it again! LOL
On top of this you get the arcade games. At the beginning there is only one unlocked (Duck Shoot). In this arcade game, ducks randomly shoot up the fret lanes, you have to hold down the string on the corresponding fret and pluck it to shoot it. In a way it is brilliant... within 5 mins I was improving my fret finger awareness and with a score of 42,000 I was impressed. Until it showed me the world leader board.. 4,435,622 - cocks!
However, although it was good, it did get a little boring. And all the other games are locked. Kinda of annoying, I want to try the other games but fuck knows what I will have to do to unlock the other stuff?
The only other thing I should add, is that the game is narrated by this American guy, which I personally found him a bit annoying, especially after my shit guitar playing. If it was real life I can see him quickly have my cheap fender copy straight up his ass!
Anyway, I after day one it looks a great learning tool... but it is obvious that unless you are a decent guitar player you are really going to have to put time and effort into it... after all you are learning to play the guitar. Can it teach you to play? At this point I would defo a big yes. But there is no shortcuts, not even with this game... you need to put in the time! However, I have already quickly realised that I am not going to get far unless I can learn to stretch my four fingers across 4 frets... which I can't at the moment. Major Bummer!
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