Rocksmith - the game...

[DanDoulogos]

When I owned a PlayStation 3, one of the games I purchased was called RockSmith.

If you're unfamiliar with the game, the first thing you need to know is that it is not the same as the RockBand game for the XBox. That game required you to buy special instrument shaped controllers, and mash colored buttons on your plastic controllers rhythmically to the music as the game fed you what colors to mash next, and when to mash them, etc.

Rocksmith on the other hand used a real electric guitar (you had to supply your own, or you could buy a version of the game which came with an Epiphone guitar (more $$ obviously) to play, and you had to actually play the right notes on the right string at the right time to get any points. It also progressed you through the song such that as you were able to play a simpler version of the song, you would "level up" that portion of the song that you had "mastered" to unlock increasingly more notes in the passage. Eventually you could level up the song to the place where you're playing along to the song in real time, playing the real lead/rhythm parts (you decide which), or a hybrid of the two (again you decide) - or you could also play Bass.

You could play two players at once - one on lead or rhythm, the other on bass, or one on lead, and one on rhythm. etc. It came with 50 popular guitar songs, and you could download more songs as they were released.

The game included a variety of skill building mini-games - which amounted to practicing scales, chords, and techniques like sliding and bending, etc. If you wanted to learn a particular song, you could make a portion of the song repeat - and even slow it down (while keeping it in pitch) so that you could learn to play it slow first, then speed up as you were able to play it at the next newest speed.

I bought it to share my interest in guitar playing with my kids. It was a great hit - but it also helped me a great deal to play through some songs I never would have listened to, let alone played through or mastered.

Pretty soon I was buying a lot of Downloadable content - Hendrix, the Cars, etc. Stevie Ray Vaughan, Tom Petty , Leonard Skynyrd and the like. When they came out with a revamped version of the game (Rocksmith 2014) I bought that too, but this time for myself.

It was a great game to get my kids interested in playing guitar (and in music in general), but it was also a great practice tool at a time when I wasn't very disciplined about practicing every day. Suddenly I was playing for hours each day.

I would recommend the game to anyone who plays guitar, but especially for those players who are between bands, or have maybe never played with a band. This lets you play along with a bunch of songs, going at your own pace, and making you a better player as you go along - since (if you play in game mode at least) you will be forced to play songs that you wouldn't otherwise have bothered to learn.

I've put the game away for a couple of years, but was playing it again this week, and reminded myself that this was a great game - loads of fun, and good practice.

Anyone else ever play this game?

[dalto]

I have it for the PS4. I played it once and never got back around to it.

I should break it out again.

[glvourot]

I too bought the original game when it came out. Loads of fun. I mainly used to for bass. I bought the 2014 version when it came out as well. I liked how you could import all the original songs for 10 dollars to add to the 50 new ones in 2014. I still check and see what the new DLC is every tuesday. We seem to have the same taste in music . So many great songs and packs I have bought over the years. I even bought the Spinal Tap DLC ( its awesome ) the riff repeater is the best feature by far . Some times I find playing a riff too slow messes me up. I try to practice at 90% speed till I make no mistakes then make the jump to 100%. You can't help but improve your song repertoire .

[mikemjr12]

Bought it and it seemed promising. I had an issue with the latency, which is a common issue with the game. But I ended up ignoring it because I didn't have the tools on hand to overcome it. But now that you posted this, I may pick it up again because it's actually a really good practice tool.

[glvourot]

I use it through my stereo/home theater speakers and latency has never been a problem. It shows a set-up on the load screen.

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