Rocksmith discussion thread - New real guitar game.

[Funk-n-stein]

Just went through the track listing for Rocksmith and listened to the tracks I was unfamiliar with on youtube. Although I'm very interested in Rocksmith and will probably buy it if there are no serious latencey issues, I have to say I'm a bit disappointed in the track listing so far. Just doesn't seem to be that much variety. I realize that it's probably only a partial listing, but too many indie style songs where the guitar isn't the focus and it's just straight beat strumming of a handful of chords.

[tnevaker]

i think the track listing reflects the fact that this game is geared more toward teaching new guitarists than satisfying existing guitarists. most of the songs listed are fairly basic, with simple melody lines or basic chords being repeated. there's not much challenge in that song listing for existing guitarists. certainly nothing along the lines of crazy train or a7x. and considering the wonky notation system they're using, i don't know if those songs would even translate into even a vaguely readable form on this game.

maybe they are saving the more difficult songs for dlc, but you'd think there'd be at least a few challenging songs on disk. it's ironic that this is the game that can be used with ANY guitar, thus should be more appealing to experienced guitarists who would want to use their own guitars instead of buying a new one, and yet the song list has almost nothing an experienced guitarist would be very interested in playing.

[raynebc]

It would make sense for them to put the hard songs as DLC so they don't put off beginners from the game. This could put off experienced guitarists, but Ubisoft must have taken this into account.

[toymachineSH]

OXM’s latest issue contains an article on Ubisoft’s Rocksmith which dropped a few new artists on the table. Artists such as: Neil Young, Lenny Kravitz, Stone Temple Pilots, Tom Petty, Incubus, Franz Ferdinand, Kings of Leon, and Rage Against The Machine.

Metal fans should also take note that OXM is reporting that “the soundtrack.. is almost purely alternative and classic rock.”

http://theherofeed.com/3002/oxm-reve...for-rocksmith/

[RockBandand24Fanatic]

Good artists, I do love Alternative and Classic Rock, so I 'll probably like the setlist, but b/c im only a drummer/rare vocalist, I'll never buy it.

Also Happy Birthday, Toy Machine!

[ChodTheWacko]

There is another van tour thing going around:
http://videogamewriters.com/rocksmit...tionwide-14593

I think I'll swing by when it's kinda close (Uniondale for me) and give it a try.
I would be neat for people to try it and have a real person give a hopefully objective review.

- Frank

[toymachineSH]

Here's some info from NeoGAF:

Yeah, I've got the pro guitar for RB3. It's definitely better, in terms of raw gameplay. But that's solely because of the notation system, which is far more intuitive and natural than Rock Band's. Of course, that's because it takes up your whole screen.

Have there been any videos/screens of gameplay online? If not, I can describe what it's like.

One thing I definitely want to point out is that this game is not like Rock Band or Guitar Hero. It feels far less like a game, and way more like a fun, interactive training tool. I wouldn't recommend this to someone who has no interest of playing guitar, but it seems perfect for anyone who is interested.

Here's a couple aspects of the game that I'm not sure have been talked about. This came from my developer interview and in-depth playthrough (unpublished at the moment) :

Roughly 70 pedals, 10 amps, 10 cabinets.
Sound quality of your guitar (running through the effects pedals, etc) sounds fantastic. I'd perform an actual concert with these virtual effects. Obviously there's a "free play" mode for just that.
If you combine the pedals, amps, and cabs that are available, it's easily a few thousand dollars worth of virtual equipment.
The difficulty adapts in realtime instead of you choosing a difficulty. (I don't like this very much. More below.)
The analog to digital converter hardware is really small. It's insanely low-latency and accurate. Surprisingly accurate. (I could talk more about this if you want, dude explained to me how it worked)
Your skill level (per song/game) is tied to your console profile. (I hate this.)
Tutorials are disguised as indie-like minigames. (This is pretty awesome)
I don't know if pricing has been revealed, but the dev said it'd be roughly $70-$80 for the game + adapter, and there would be a model that comes with a Junior Gibson *forgets type of guitar* for around $200ish or so.

Back to the difficulty adaptation... So, every song starts off at the same difficulty - super duper easy. And after about 30 seconds or so of nailing the notes accurately, it starts picking up in difficulty. As far as I know, this "leveling up" of songs needs to be done for every song.

This sucked for me, as I'm particularly good at rhythm games (and play a very basic amount of guitar) - the game didn't level up fast enough to keep up with me. I imagine this will be a problem for people who already play guitar, or are good at Pro Mode in RB3.

The nice thing about this is that, apparently, once you level up a song, it stays leveled up. So the next time you play it, it starts off at that difficulty. To be honest, the developer was being really ambiguous with these details, which made me unsure this was exactly the case. If it is the case, it's ****ty because your skill level is tied to your console profile, meaning if you're really awesome and your friend really sucks, you'll have to sign out of your profile in order to let them play. (Otherwise, I believe you risk having your songs "level down" in difficulty)

Again, none of the difficulty curve aspects were explained super well, or at least a way that made sense to me. So there's definitely a chance I'm mistaken.

Overall, game is so totally awesome. I'll do my part in telling budding guitarists that this is, absolutely, a useful tool to learn the instrument.

[Doom878]

Did he mention his a/v setup?

This confused me: "Yeah, I've got the pro guitar for RB3. It's definitely better, in terms of raw gameplay. But that's solely because of the notation system, which is far more intuitive and natural than Rock Band's. Of course, that's because it takes up your whole screen." Is he saying RB3 has better raw gameplay and RS better notation?

[tnevaker]

Did he mention his a/v setup?

This confused me: "Yeah, I've got the pro guitar for RB3. It's definitely better, in terms of raw gameplay. But that's solely because of the notation system, which is far more intuitive and natural than Rock Band's. Of course, that's because it takes up your whole screen." Is he saying RB3 has better raw gameplay and RS better notation?

i believe what he's trying to say is that Rocksmith is better in terms of raw gameplay because of its notation system. yeah it was confusing though, sounded like he was saying RB3 was better. i had to read it a couple times to figure out what he meant.

also, the leveling up sounds really annoying, especially if you have to do it for each song (and presumably the same for any new DLC you buy). i thought i read somewhere someone said that there would be an option to play the full song though. could be mistaken about that though, mightve just been wishful thinking.

[kitlerc]

So I officially preordered Rocksmith. Picked up my RB3 Squier today. We'll see how long I actually stick with it. Managed to save $40 buying them together, so that was nice, and I had a 10% off coupon at Best Buy that I used for the Midi Pro adapter.