Rocksmith discussion thread - New real guitar game.

[Stol-FA-Lin]

You can already get converters of various sorts. Behringer UCG102, Sonuus G2M, Vox JamVOX, Alesis GuitarLink, Griffin GuitarConnect, TC-Helicon, M-Audio Fast Track, etc. Games that support them seem to be in rather short supply though.

We'll see.

[ChodTheWacko]

A joystiq posting says that "Rocksmith" is actually a repackaged "guitar rising", which has long been delayed due to 'note interference'. Did they finally work out the kinks?

And I agree being able to see what your finger positioning is, along with what string you are plucking is a HUGE advantage for rock band 3. Also it's nice that the guitar doesn't have to be in tune to play. There are plenty of things RB3 doesn't do though, so if Guitar rising can do them it would be a good game to also have too.

I do wonder, if rocksmith just reads pitch, how much point there is of a tablature game interface.
Unless it's just 'suggested fingerings'.

- Frank

[raynebc]

If Harmonix worked with Fender some more, they could probably develop a detachable MIDI pickup that would work in RB3. If end users can do this, then there's no reason Harmonix couldn't. And it will allow them to compete by allowing "any steel string guitar".

[bjyaritz]

I see them getting Led Zeppelin since Jimmy Page uses a Gibson. If that happens, I will have to buy it. One question, does the Fender Squier work with this game?

[Magnet]

Unlike other music games, the audio won’t cut out when you miss notes, nor will you be penalized for any noodling you do between the required notes. In that way, Rocksmith encourages experimentation. There are score-based elements of course, but they can be safely ignored without disrupting your experience. There is also no way to “fail” out of a song and no difficulty settings to adjust. Instead, Rocksmith’s challenge level automatically adapts to how you’re playing, throwing more notes your way as it becomes clear you can handle them.

Personally, I really don't like any part of this. As far as no way to fail and no audio separation, the point of the game seems a little lost on me. Plus, you can't see your finger positioning on screen to help you learn. I'm just not seeing the appeal of the game. It barely sounds different from looking up a tab and playing along to an mp3.

Also, "nor will you be penalized for any noodling you do between the required notes. In that way, Rocksmith encourages experimentation." So on a song with a specific strumming pattern (say groups of 3, 4, or 5 notes), instead of doing the pattern, you can just strum straight through, ignoring the pattern entirely with no penalty?

The part about no difficulty setting and "automatic" adjustments seems like it could be problematic. Let's say there's a song constantly switching up between an easy riff section and a troublesome group of notes and the game tries doing some automatic adjustments for me. If I can hit the easy part, then I get all of the notes shown. But if I start messing up on the hard part, is it going to remove some notes from the next easy section, which I could already hit all of the notes on? Even if it is implemented better than that, I think it'd be extremely difficult to try to learn a song when you could be shown a different grouping of notes each play-through depending on where and how much you mess up.

As for 45, guitar-only playable songs, I'm probably not going to be overly excited about the setlist and gameplay. I've been enjoying Pro Guitar lately with RB3, but it's really nice to switch to Pro Bass, standard guitar/bass, drums, or keyboard whenever I feel like it - and on a larger number of songs.

I also foresee the lack of master tracks for these songs making it very difficult for them to correctly tab the songs. I'm sure some people will be very excited to play music from bands who have songs that may not have usable master tracks, but it could be at the expense of less accurate tabs. Trying to accurately tab a guitar track that may be a bit buried under other instruments at times sure sounds annoying for the developers.

But I think the whole game really boils down to how accurately the game can read and process the input. And when it comes to close-together notes ringing out and chords, I suspect it's going to be extremely lenient on what it counts as accurate. And the more lenient it is, the less impressive and reliable the technology is, and the less useful it will be to the player in terms of getting correct feedback from the game as a learning tool. Guess we'll just have to wait and see how advanced their technology really is.

[tnevaker]

http://www2.gibson.com/Products/Elec...P-Express.aspx

This may be the guitar that comes bundled

that guitar will really make people appreciate the RB3 squier.

[mec_os]

But I think the whole game really boils down to how accurately the game can read and process the input. And when it comes to close-together notes ringing out and chords, I suspect it's going to be extremely lenient on what it counts as accurate. And the more lenient it is, the less impressive and reliable the technology is, and the less useful it will be to the player in terms of getting correct feedback from the game as a learning tool. Guess we'll just have to wait and see how advanced their technology really is.

i don't think it will be accurate at all. from what's been shown and said, it doesn't even seem like you get much feedback as to what you are doing. it seems like it will be more like garageband's "how am i doing" where it analyses sections after the fact then it gives you a percentage of hits.

i think this game is fail, not because of concept but because of execution. an interactive tab reader is fine, but from what's shown so far, the tabs aren't that easy to read. again, something like garageband has something better already in place. just like a musician doesn't see themselves playing on a plastic guitar, as a graphic designer i don't see myself using such a crappy interface.

EDIT: it also seems suspect that the wii is not in the equation. i know a lot of companies snub it, but this is money whoring ubisoft. so my guess is that the adapter is nothing more than a usb sound card and the console is doing all the processing hence something like the wii is not supported.

[raynebc]

One question, does the Fender Squier work with this game?

It should, since RockSmith only plugs into a guitar's quarter inch audio output, of which the Squier has one.

The part about no difficulty setting and "automatic" adjustments seems like it could be problematic. Let's say there's a song constantly switching up between an easy riff section and a troublesome group of notes and the game tries doing some automatic adjustments for me. If I can hit the easy part, then I get all of the notes shown. But if I start messing up on the hard part, is it going to remove some notes from the next easy section, which I could already hit all of the notes on? Even if it is implemented better than that, I think it'd be extremely difficult to try to learn a song when you could be shown a different grouping of notes each play-through depending on where and how much you mess up.

I got the impression, from reading various articles so far, that the game adapts difficulty per section, so it won't necessarily lower the difficulty of an easy riff just because it had to for a hard riff.

[SheSaidSheSaid]

Nowadays, everything Ubisoft makes is a pile load of crap

What in the world makes Assassin's Creed and Beyond Good & Evil "a pile load of crap" ?

[mec_os]

What in the world makes Assassin's Creed and Beyond Good & Evil "a pile load of crap" ?

i can't speak for assassin's creed, but Beyond Good & Evil as good as it was doesn't count as "now a days".